American Standard App - Spouse Proofing

I have Sharp Tools running on a wall-mounted iPad. I created a dashboard that, among other things, reports the status of my AC using my Hubitat, which connects to my American Standard Air App. It is just informational but when you tap the tile, it opens the app. The issue is that once the AS Air app opens and the adjustment is made, how do I get it to return to my dashboard short of closing the app an re-launching the sharp tools and selecting the particular dashboard? My wife says she can’t remember ‘all that”, meaning the steps to get back to the dashboard. Since I travel a lot, I am trying to make it bulletproof (spouse proof), any insight here?

Can you control the AC from the Hubitat device? If so, it seems like creating a dashboard with controls for the thermostat could be a good approach.

If not, maybe look for a new thermostat… you know the old saying “happy wife, happy life!” :wink:

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How are you running Sharptools?
If you’re using Fully Kiosk, it has a setting to return to Fully after a set amount of time.
It also detects to not return as long as you’re actively using another app.

I cannot speak to iPad behavior but on Android you can achieve this with fully kiosk browser. You can lock down the tablet and allow only specific apps to open from your sharptools dashboard:

With fully kiosk in kiosk mode, the tablet will automatically return to your start url when you close the other app or hit the tablets back button. Very simple.

I can, the only adjustment is on Hubitat under devices. It has a lot going on.

see image.

Are you able to add it to your SharpTools dashboard as a Thermostat Tile?

If it doesn’t automatically show up as a Thermostat Tile, you might try changing the layout to the Thermostat layout if it’s available.

Running on Ipad on safari but it is not on full kiosk mode.

I can try and see, I guess I was hoping to use the program because the interface is so simple. However the interface doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that the thermostat is capable of like holding a temp until a certain time of day. I am including a pic of the thermostat app screen. I like the idea of a tile but it is not easy to design something complex.

I also put in a pic of my dashboard. The iPad is in the master. I would love to here any comments on my design.

House lights tile opens up home kit

I did not realize that was a thing. I will give that a try.

Josh, I was able to use the hero tile and it seems to function correctly but I can’t seem to match the background of the tile with the rest of them.

I would take a look at the Style settings on one of the other tiles and compare it to the new Thermostat Tile.

Otherwise you’re going to have to share more details on how you have things configured as there’s a variety of things that could be configured here (eg. Themes, Styles, Inline Styles, Thermostat Tile specific settings). For example, you’ll want to have the Thermostat Tile settings for heat/cool coloring and transparency disabled as you won’t have control over the ‘transparent’ color in that case.

image

I would also note that you can use the Double Height Thermostat layout if you tend to use the ‘auto’ mode of your thermostat. The double height layout displays separate controls for the heat and cool settings so you can still adjust the thermostat even when it’s in auto mode. Otherwise, on the single height thermostat, the controls are disabled when you are in Auto mode since it can’t determine if you are trying to adjust the heating or cooling side of things.

I have a similar setup… iPad using Kiosker Pro (not to be confused with the Android favorite Fully Kiosk)…

If you can’t find a way to perform the actions you want using a tile, you have two options.
Both involve a custom URL that you add to the Hyperlink tile.

The preferred option is to use the URL Schema of the app.
If you can’t find the URL Schema, if you want to do some digging, here is a guide to help you find that specilized URL.
Finding the custom URL scheme of an iOS app · Amer Hukić (amerhukic.com)

Using the custom URL Schema you would insert a URL like this:
myChevrolet:// in the hyperlink tile.
Now when clicking the tile, it will launch the app in a windowed mode so all you have to do is click in the top left to close the window.

Otherwise, you could create a shortcut on iOS which launches the app.
And just like the above, you would use a custom URL to execute the shortcut:
Run a shortcut using a URL scheme on iPhone or iPad - Apple Support (CA)

Those are the two mechanisms if forced to use the actual app - that I have found.

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I looked at the Kiosker Pro, I am not opposed to using it. I guess I just don’t know enough about using kiosk mode. I will dig into that but I did have a question for you… if I was using Kiosker, and I used a URL tab, would it open the app and then close it leaving the dashboard screen up? That is the main thing I am trying to accomplish. Also I have been successful with creating a functional hero tile that controls the temp (See pic) so I may leave it as is.

The only thing I wish I could figure out is how to create a tile for the “hold” (how long it will stay at a particular temp before it goes back to the programmed temp). It has that setting on the thermost and it is also on the device page in Hubitat.

That is exactly right…

Below I am launching the app “Pi-Hole Remote” - I can click in the top left to return.

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Oh wow, that is great. Did you buy the app for $50.00? I don’t want to appear cheap, given how much I have into all this but even for me, that is steep. Just curious… It does appear to be what I need. Thank you for the screen shots!

I hate subscriptions. So whatever the price is today, I would of paid it

I’d you do go this route. Be sure to check the section on the screensaver and wake by detecting motion/face

Also, be sure to read the support site on all the options.

For example, you can hide all the onscreen menus but then tap five times in the lower right to resurface the menus.