zHome Plus for iOS

[lakehawk]

We have just released our own iOS app that works with HomeSeer. It is now available on the App Store at https://apps.apple.com/us/app/zhome-...412526717?ls=1


This app uses the Ascii control and JSON interfaces to HomeSeer in order to view and control your zWave devices on HomeSeer. If you have an IPsec VPN available you can configure zHome Plus to use the VPN when it connects to your HomeSeer system remotely. You can create custom rooms, change the order of the rooms as they are presented on your iPhone or iPad, and control what type of UI control is used to represent multi level device types. For dimmer switches you can chose from a stepper control, slider control, or a segmented control in your user interface. Room icons ca Abe selected from your Photo Library or utilizing the iOS camera and take a photo to create a custom room icon.

zHome Plus provides a 7 day free trial during which all functionality is available. After 7 Days you can purchase the app and continue using it with all features. This is not a subscription based app. So once you buy it you can use it on all your iOS devices that use your Apple ID. Our app does no tracking or information collections and nothing is shared with us or anyone else. We plan on adding other features as it matures such as Hue lighting controls as well.

Once you have created the system to your liking you can share your configuration with other iOS devices. So you can create and define the controls and rooms as you like and then share them with others without having to do setups on each iOS device you own.

I hope you will give it a look and let us know any ideas that you may have that would improve our app. Our goal was to create something for ourselves that we could secure via VPN if needed and also to allow for customization of rooms and controls for zWave devices.

You can find more information and links to setup guides and manual at our website at: https://lakehawk.net/home-automation/

[jbfoster]

App does not work well on my iPhone 11 pro max. I have to hit the icon several times for it to wok. Sometimes it never works. Back arrow does not work. I have to close the app. I could only get the app to work local.

Jim

[lakehawk]

That is surprising. The iPhone 11 though does not have the 3D Touch... so I'm wondering if you go to Settings and and scroll down to Touch Settings and change the timing for Touch Timing. The app can set how long you want the touch to take before it fires. On what screen is the back arrow not working? We will run in in the simulator for iPhone 11 Pro Max and see if we can find anything... but its hard to find issues with touches in the simulator. Thank you for letting us know about this.

If the back arrow isn't working you might try and swipe gesture from left to right on the title at the top of a screen.
We noticed when running in the simulator that the iPhone 11 Pro Max was setting 3D Touch on.. this may be the source of your problem. When you go to the settings for Touch Timing if the 3D Touch switch at the top is On then set it to Off and set the timing you want for a long press to activate the action.

On the issue of local access only. If you have used a local IP address then it can only connect locally. If you configured it with a internet IP address or DNS name then you also need to make sure that the port numbers you are using have been port forwarded on your router to the local address of your HomeSeer system. Some internet providers will not let you access port 80 and the solution is to configure the app for something like port 8001 and forward that in your port forwarding on your router to port 80 on the local machine.

[lakehawk]

On the back arrow issue... We found the problem. You can return by doing a left to right swipe action. We will fix this in the next release. We never caught it as we always swipe to exit. Our bad. Please let us know if turning off 3D Touch and setting the timing has resolved the issues.

If we can help with the remote access issues please let us know. Thank you for trying our app. We appreciate all feedback.

[jbfoster]

In the touch settings I did not see a 3d on/off. I changed the touch to the smallest number. When I tap the button nothing happens but if I hold my finger on the button it works fine. I only need to hold my finger for a split second which i am fine with. Having the vibration feedback is nice. Swiping on the screen does work. I actually like that better. As for remote access I am using port 85. I cant remember if I port forwared 85. I will have to check my router the next time I turn on my computer. Now I can check the app out.

Thanks
Jim

[lakehawk]

I am seeing some strange things with your model iPhone in the simulator. We have an iPhone 11 coming on Friday and hopefully that will let me figure out some more things. You should be able to set the time you have to hold your finger. We used the long press gesture so that someone would't accidentally trigger something when scrolling though devices. I wish Apple had kept the 3D Touch as I prefer the pressure approach versus the length of time. Let us know of any suggestions or issues you have. We worked with a HomeSeer user who had more devices than I could imagine of all different types during our beta testing. I'm sure there are always more out there... but its been fun. We found a user interface problem with the Remove Room Icons setting screen as well in testing with the iPhone 11 Max simulator and have a fix in for that now as well. Just wish we could understand why that one screen was broken and the others were not.

That's good that you don't see the 3D Touch switch. That means that in real life the code is detecting that your phone doesn't support 3D Touch. In the simulator it doesn't report that correctly.

For remote access you will need to forward both the HomeSeer server port and the control port ( default is 11000 ). We went to a VPN on ours to avoid things being transmitted in the clear on the internet. I actually installed the VPN on a Raspberry Pi that is also running HomeSeer. The newer model Pi's have plenty of horsepower to handle the load.

[jbfoster]

At this point I like Impeihome better. I dont like the scrolling in this app. I like having pages like in Imperihome. Also Imperihome doesnt have the touch issue.

Jim

[lakehawk]

I have never used Imperihome, but my beta tester has and prefers zHome.. its always a personal preference. I didn't imagine using a long press would be a detriment but then I'm using 3D Touch right now and I like the pressure sensitive approach. Nothing gets "tapped" on accidentally and that was the rationalization for allowing custom time for those that don't have 3D Touch.

I'll have to look at Imperihome to see what you mean about having pages... I would think you would have to scroll through pages if a room has enough devices then. Will be interesting to look into that. Thanks for your input. I really appreciate any feedback.

[lakehawk]

We have just released this week a refresh of our app. We now have two different style of user interfaces that you can chose from. We also have added support for multiple configurations which comes in handy if you have two homes and want to monitor and control each one. We are in testing now also with a Mac version of our app as well and when it is completed it will be available on the Mac App Store. We are structuring it so that if you have purchased the iOS version of our app then you will also be able to get the Mac version for no additional charge. We are looking forward to adding more features including Hue lighting and others as we move forward.

[jbfoster]

I purchased the app.
I like the new way of displaying the rooms. Is there a way to move the devices around in a room and can the icons of the devices be resized?

Thanks
Jim

[lakehawk]

You can create a custom room and then change the order of devices shown in the room. In the custom rooms you can also add blank devices so space out the devices as well. We may add the ability to control the order of regular room and its devices devices later but for now only by making a custom room can you do that. We hadn't even considered sizing the device icons... so that's an interesting question. Do you want them bigger or smaller than currently shown? We will definitely add this to our list of things to look into. We appreciate any and all feedback and are open to any ideas.

[Baxe]

Hi,
Is it not possible to dim Zigbee products? and why can't you see temperatures on Zigbee sensors?

//Jens

[lakehawk]

Right now our app only talks to HomeSeer. We have not worked with any Zigbee devices. Our roadmap includes adding support for Hue devices. I am guessing you have Zigbee devices configured with HomeSeer via a plug in of some type? Send us the details about what you have and how its setup with your HomeSeer system and we will look into how we can add support for that. If HomeSeer is not reporting the information via their JSON interface for those devices then we will not see the temperature settings on a Zigbee sensor. Our email address is support@lakehawk.net and you can email us the information if you would like. Thank you.

[Baxe]

Right now our app only talks to HomeSeer. We have not worked with any Zigbee devices. Our roadmap includes adding support for Hue devices. I am guessing you have Zigbee devices configured with HomeSeer via a plug in of some type? Send us the details about what you have and how its setup with your HomeSeer system and we will look into how we can add support for that. If HomeSeer is not reporting the information via their JSON interface for those devices then we will not see the temperature settings on a Zigbee sensor. Our email address is support@lakehawk.net and you can email us the information if you would like. Thank you.

Its contoling through jowihue and is integrated into Homeseer, would have been great if you could make this work, you can turn on / off via your app now but not dimmer

[lakehawk]

Baxe .. we sent you a private message and if you can send us the info then I'm sure we can make this work for these devices as well. It's impossible for us to test with everything but if people find issues and can get us the JSON text that HomeSeer is returning for their devices we can make the changes to work with these as well.