Trying to start with "pistons + tiles = switches"

#1

Hi. Complete newbie here, requesting basic concept help.

I don’t have a house full of sensors; I’m trying to start with an organized dashboard of switches for my wife and I to control the place. I have multiple Alexa/Echo devices already, so maybe ST is redundant?

Anyway… can someone help me understand the relationship between tiles and pistons? My brain says it should be possible for a tile to be pressed and it triggers an event, like turning on a light. I know I can do this already with the “new” ST app, but it’s kind of generic and ugly. From what I’ve seen, the WC dashboard has a lot more customize-ability and I can make something attractive and responsive.

In the mean time, I’m going to back to trying to get ST to “see” my TP-Link switches and outlets. But please don’t answer that here. :smiley:

#2

Instead of recreating the wheel… give ActionTiles a try, I believe they still have a trial period for test drive.

There’s also HousePanel that is free I believe.

#3

I agree with @eibyer. I think ActionTiles is better for button presses, displaying devices current status in real time, and embedding large images…

… but the webCoRE dashboard far surpassed AT when it comes to customization and multiple data displays. (you can find a lot of inspiration in this thread.)

#4

Ahh, okay. Those are more along the lines of what I had in mind. I’ll check them out.

Thank you.

#5

For interaction, I would recommend those in my previous post but as @WCmore stated, if you want more information (I see that you’re a developer) then the webcore dashboard will be your playground. :smiley:

#6

For starters, here is a wonderful set of weather tiles that I highly recommend.

The first one shows the weather forecast for the next 4 days:

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The second one shows the hourly forecast for the next 16 hours:

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The background colors adjust to represent the temperature, and they each run once per hour to get the latest update.

https://wiki.webcore.co/Samples#Weather_Tiles

You can import these by going to your Dashboard, clicking on “+ New Piston”, and then “Restore a piston using a backup code”.

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The import codes are gkws & s66j respectively.

To see the data displayed as tiles, you will have to put them in a 'Piston Category" that is set to display tiles.
Dashboard > Settings > Categories > Choose something that has “Tiles” in the drop down box.

I almost forgot, welcome aboard!! I think you will fit right in here.