Robo-Tank Web App - Development

[Rob F]

Still hard at it, I think I have a decent interface for the custom rules finished. Spent quite a bit of time trying to get it as easy to use as possible, hopefully I some what succeeded. It looks ok on all screen sizes, I test by changing the browser size. Visually there's things to improve but I must go on for now. None of this actually works on the backend yet but the database tables are working and the test rules seen are being read from it.

This is the main screen for the custom rules. You can see there are 3 of them. I will be adding buttons on the right side to delete, edit and disable so I guess it's not finished yet, a few more hours to go.




When you click on a row it expands and shows the details, you can expand more than one.




Now let's go through the steps to add a custom rule. This is what you see when the "Add Custom Rule" button is pressed.

We'll select the "Sensor" button.




Now it'll ask for a sensor.




This is the list. The types of sensors are separated, later flow meters, EC etc will be available, anything that outputs a value.

In the temperature sensor section you can see 2 rows for "Room", that's a DHT22 which has humidity as well. These are the custom names, I named the sensors like that so I can track them easier.




As you can see "Sensor 4" was selected, the system knows what each sensor is so the screen text and images fit accordingly. If sensor 4 was defined as a non-contact sensor the image would be one of those in the same format. There's also an image for optical and a generic for other sensors. A little off topic but these images will be the ones on the dashboard in info boxes so you can always see the state of each sensor.

The entire blue boxes are buttons so they are large for mobile. 




After selecting a trigger level it draws the delay setting and asks if you want to use a 2nd sensor. I need to update the text to say "How long should the float switch continually hold". This means the float must not touch water for 15 consecutive seconds. I recommend at least 1 second as things will switch real time so waves can make something turn on/off really quick.




The first sensor is configured, now we can setup the 2nd sensor if selected.

First it will spell out the first sensor and we'll select OR in this example.




Now we go through the same steps as the first sensor. You can see the drop down removed sensor 4 as it's already being used.




This time will select a temperature sensor, other sensors that have a value such as pH will be like this. I don't particularly like the <= and >= buttons but nothing was coming to me. The default value that appears is the live value of that sensor as it's assumed the setting a person is after will be in that range. The longer you hold the up/down buttons the quicker the number rolls. Personally I like buttons to change values over typing them in for the visual effect but later through out the program I'll have a feature that you double click the value and it will change to a text box so you can type in instead of fumbling with buttons.




Again it draws the delay option and now we can select the equipment to control.




Now it prints all the equipment available, later lights will be there for custom modes. If I disable Outlet 2 it wouldn't appear here. This is the point of being able to disable ports on the controller so they don't clog up other screens.

I did forgot to put a legend for available options so that will be there. You click each icon to cycle through the options.

Grey          = No Action
Green        = On
Red           = Off
Red/Green = On/Off
Green/Red = Off/On

The backend won't care about on/off or off/on order, that gets shorted in next step, it's only for visual effects.




Now it shows everything selected and a delay before each action can be added. You can see it added extra line for on/off off/on, these the delays must be different, an error will appear explaining if a user doesn't understand. You can see "Power Head" will turn off 10 seconds after rule starts and turn back on 110 seconds later or 120 seconds after custom rule starts. Down the road I'll probably change the language for option on duplicate outputs so a person can say 110 seconds later or something. I'll also add a small button so user can use seconds, minutes or hours for the delay.

You can see for the dosing pump a 2nd option is available "Ignore". Sadly I need more than one word to describe it which messes up the layout on small screen. That will be sorted. The point of this option is so the dosing pump won't run again for that period no matter what other rules or schedules have planned. Basically a safety feature so you don't overdose. This also isn't reflected in the main menu or review new rule screen yet but will be.




Finally it asks for a custom name, I left it empty so you can see it won't move forward without. 




Now you can review the rule and save it. I have the data ready to go to backend so for now the UI is basically finished. You can see the width is fixed so dosing pump name is pushing icon down, lots of polishing required so things like that will be part of beta. :) Plus none of these layouts are set in stone yet.



I hope this all makes sense, let me know your thoughts. There will be one more system for custom modes, these will cover things like feeding mode, maintenance, etc so this is only half. Between the two I don't think there will be much it can't do. The custom modes will come after beta release.

Later there will be a few more options, things like enable/disable ATO, heater etc. For the beta release there will be no ATO or heater systems but you can use two custom rules to set things like that up. Sub systems like those will be at top of list after initial release.

I've also been tying up lose ends here and there only a few minor ones remaining. This is real list I need to worry about, more than I like but hey. If you can think of anything important I'm forgetting let me know.

• Add custom rules to backend (hard to estimate, around a week)
  
• Email system UI and backend (looking like this will be a lot more trouble than expected with c++, maybe a week)
  
• pH calibration, want something nice (2 days)
  
• Add a logging system starting with basic logs (1-2 days)
  
• Add "manual" mode for AC outlets and DC ports (1 day)
  
• Figure out a system to manage chart options (1 day)
  
• Add auto/manual program update and backup feature (1 day)
  
• Option to auto submit any errors to an specified email, could be me (1 day)
  
• Add DC ports, dosing pumps and custom rules to existing scheduling system in backed (few hours - 1 day)
  
• Add dashboard auto update for dosing vessels and light modes (couple hours)
  
• Add upcoming schedule list in front end (1-2 days) Not really necessary though
  

So yeah the two big hurdles are custom rules and email. Custom rules I know I'll get through, it's mainly a lot of testing, but it's a learning curve for the emails, at least how I want to do it. I think I'll do emails first as that's the unknown and has me  .