Flick
Flick the switch on wifi controllers
This app allows the user to control Wifi enabled
controllers, e.g. smart plugs,
smart switches,
smart power strips,
and sauna heaters.
(Currenty the app only controls
TpLink devices, Shelly devices, and Humm sauna heaters.
Tuya devices are under development.
Wemo support is discontinued
(before it was truly started)
since Belkin,
in their infinte wisdom,
has decided to drop all cloud support
for Wemo devices -
this means I will never be
buying a Belkin product in the
future and I
encourage anyone reading this
guide to do the same.)
When the app is invoked for the first
time it shows a screen with the message
Tap to scan.
Tapping this screen starts an enumeration
process to identify all devices that
are available.
This enumeration takes a few seconds
before the app then identifies the
current on/off state of all those devices.
The app flashes the device
name as its state is determined to
let you know that progress
is being made.
When the enumeration is done then
a menu is displayed showing the
state of every device found.
Subsequent invocations of the app
bypasses this enumeration process
and immediately shows a device menu
with the devices
from the last enumeration and
the last known state of each
device.
The icons for each device will have
a grey background to indicate that
the on/off status of the device is
out of date.
(Although out of date the status
will probably be correct,
only a timer or a manual
operation could have changed the device.)
After all of the devices have been
found the app will then show a
device menu list
of all those devices.
Each row of the device menu list shows a
device name and an icon to indicate
the state
(on, off, offline)
of the device.
The states are:
|
| On |
Off |
Offline |
| Outlet |
 |
 |
 |
| Switch |
 |
 |
 |
| Strip |
 |
 |
 |
| Sauna |
 |
 |
 |
Tapping on a device
(or using the select button
on watches without a touch
screen)
causes the app to explicitly
get the current, correct
on/off state of the device and
brings up one of these two displays:
showing
the state
(one of the 9 icons above)
of that device,
the left image shows an on device
while the right image shows an
off device.
Tapping on that screen will
change the state of the device,
from off to on,
or from on to off.
The name of the device is shown
above the icon while
the type of device is shown
below the icons, e.g
TpLink,
Shelly,
or
Huum.
Tapping the Back button will
return back to the device menu list display.
Tapping the Back button on
the device menu list display will return
the app to the start where it
will show the message Tap to find devices.
If you tap the screen
(or hit the select button)
at this time the app
will find devices again and bring up
a device menu list of those devices.
If you hit the back button from
this screen the app will terminate.
Sauna Heaters
Sauna heaters are a little different
from outlet switches but the main concept
is the same, you can get the state of the
heater (is it on or off) and you can turn
the heater on or off.
The problem for sauna heaters is the temperature
setting.
We need to know the current temperature of the
sauna and,
to turn the heater on,
what temperature to set it to.
There are a couple of subtle changes
to a sauna heater device that deal
with this issue:
- The settings have been enhanced with 2 new options:
- Temperature units. This can be
set to either Fahrenheit or Celsius.
- Huum Target Temperature. This is the
target temperature for the heater when it is
on. Note that this number is in Fahrenheit or
Celsius based upon the value of Temperature Units.
- The on/off displays for the sauna heater have been enhanced
to also show the current temperature and, when the heater is
on, the target temperature.
The off dispay:
will show the current temperature in the sauna as a number following the top line
Sauna label. The example above shows the the current temperature in the
sauna is 55 degrees.
The on display:
will still show the current temperature on the top line but will also
show the target temperature as a number following the bottom line Huum label.
The example above shows the current temperature in the sauna is 55 degrees
and the target temperature is 165 degrees.
Source
Flick is licensed under the GPL V3.0.
The latest source tree is available
for browsing
here
and tarballs for the latest and older versions are located at the following links:
Configuration
The app is configured from the phone.
The important configurable items are:
- Show offline devices.
By default any device that is offline is not displayed
(you can't control it anyway so why bother and it clutters
up the device menu list).
Checking this box will cause the app to display
all devices, offline or not.
- TpLink Server URL.
The URL for the TpLink server.
The default value of wap.tplinkcloud.com
should just work but,
if not,
the user has the option of changing it.
- TpLink User name.
User name for the TpLink user.
This field must be set or the app
will not work.
- TpLink Password.
Password for the TpLink user.
This field must also be set.
- Shelly Server URL.
The URL for the Shelly cloud server.
No default for this value,
the user must load the Shelly
app on their phone,
go to
Settings ->
Authorization cloud key,
tap the Get key button.
That will show a field that displays
the Server url,
copy/paste that url into
this setting.
- Shelly Key.
The authorization key required
for all accesses to the Shelley cloud.
To get this key the user must load the Shelly
app on their phone,
go to
Settings ->
Authorization cloud key,
tap the Get key button.
That will show a string below the
Server URL that is the key,
copy/paste that string into
this setting.
- AtHome settings.
If you have a Linux server running
24/7 in your house I can provide you
with an CGI program that will allow
you to control Wemo and X10 devices.
Contact the developer of Flick
if you're interested.