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Web interface

This chapter describes all pages available in the web interface and all settings that can be made. The web interface also links to specific sections in this chapter for help information.

First page​

First page
Figure 2: First page

The first page is used to get an overview of each registered NSPanel as well as perform actions on each panel individually or all at once. These actions are available in the menu accessed by pressing the cog.

The available actions are:

  • Reboot - Reboot the NSPanel.
  • Settings - Navigate to the NSPanel settings page where individual settings for the panel can be made. This page can also be accessed by pressing the name of the panel.
  • Visit - Visit the web page that is on the panel itself. This is the same page that was used to enter initial WiFi and MQTT information.
  • Firmware update - Send a command to the NSPanel to update the firmware. The firmware will be downloaded from the manager.
  • GUI update - Send a command to the NSPanel to update the screen. The screen firmware will be downloaded from the manager.
  • Delete - Delete the nspanel from the manager.

There is also the "Actions"-button on the top right where you can perform some of the actions from the list above to all panels which are online. There is also an option to Restart MQTTManager which will restart the core component that handles all communication between different components of the NSPanel Manager software.

NSPanel page​

NSPanel page
Figure 3: NSPanel page

The NSPanel settings page is used to configure specific settings for each individual NSPanel. This includes things like NSPanel type (EU/US), the room it is installed in, name and so on. See below for a complete list of options.

The page can also be used to look at the live stream of logs from the NSPanel and send commands to the panel. What is displayed in the log view is dependent on what log level is configured on the settings page on the panel itself.

Available options​

Available options for each individual NSPanel are:

  • Friendly name - The name of the NSPanel.
  • NSPanel type - The type of NSPanel, either EU or US.
  • Default room - Select the default room for the NSPanel. This is the room that will be selected in the GUI after the NSPanel has booted and after the screensaver has been active. It is also possible to lock the NSPanel to the default room so that it can’t control entities in other rooms.
  • Default page - Select a different default page. Available options are:
    • Main page - The default page with sliders and buttons for light control.
    • Scenes page - The page where scenes can be activated and saved.
    • Room page - The page that is used to control individual entities.
  • Reverse relays - Reverse the relays. This is the same as switching places of the cables on the back of the NSPanel. All actions meant for relay 1 will be applied to relay 2 and vice versa.
  • Left/Right Button mode - Change the mode of a button. Available options are:
    • Direct mode - The buttons controls the relay directly. No WiFi is needed.
    • Detached mode - Detached mode controls a button via you selected home automation platform. This also exposes the option "Left/Right button controls light" where you select which entity it controls.
    • Custom MQTT - This mode can be used to send a custom message on a custom MQTT topic.
  • Follow mode - When the button is pressed the relay is engaged, when the button is release the relay is disconnected.
  • Relay 1/2 default mode - Select the default mode of the relay when the NSPanel starts.
  • Register relay 1/2 as:
    • Switch - The relay will be registered to Home Assistant as a switch entity.
    • Light - The relay will be registered to Home Assistant as a light entity.
  • Screen brightness - The brightness of the screen when on (1-100%).
  • Screensaver brightness - The brightness of the screen when the screensaver is active (0-100%). A value of 0 means that the screen is off.
  • Screensaver mode - Select what to display on the screensaver. Available options are:
    • Global (use global setting) - Use whatever is set in the "settings" section of the NSPanel Manager.
    • Show with background (clock, date and weather) - Show the screensaver with background image with current and forecast weather, time and date.
    • Show without background (clock, date and weather) - Show the screensaver with a black background with current and forecast weather, time and date.
    • Show with background (no weather) - Show the screensaver with background image but only time and date.
    • Show without background (no weather) - Show the screensaver with a black background but only time and date.
    • No screensaver (turn off screen) - Make the screen completely black when not in use.
  • Temperature calibration - Calibrate the internal temperature sensor. Enter a negative value to bring the reported temperature down and vice versa.

Room page​

This section will describe how to manage rooms. Most of the configuration done with NSPanel Manager will be done in rooms, please read this chapter for a full understanding on how to work with rooms.

Room page
Figure 4: Room page

Scenes​

You can choose to use scenes from Home Assistant or OpenHAB though these scenes will not be able to be saved on the fly. This is something that the NSPanel Manager scenes can perform internally.

The NSPanel Manager scenes are easy enough to use. Simply create a scene in the room page and they will be available in the "Scenes"-list for the room on all NSPanels.

To save a scene, on the NSPanel hold the save button for the scenes for 3 seconds to save all the states of lights currently added to the room.

To recall/activate a scene, on the NSPanel press the name of the scene and all the saved light states will be restored for that scene.

tip

If a light was added after a scene was saved, that light is not affected by that scenes until the scene is saved again.

Lights​

To add a new light, simply press the "Add new light"-button. When doing so, a list of all lights and switches gathered from Home Assistant and OpenHAB will be shown. Simply search or scroll to find the desired light and press it.

Adding a new light to a room
Figure 5: Adding a new light to a room

When done, a new screen will show up and depending on if the selected entity was from Home Assistant or OpenHAB difference options will be shown.

Add/Edit light Home Assistant
Figure 6a: Add/Edit light Home Assistant
Add/Edit light OpenHAB
Figure 6b: Add/Edit light OpenHAB

When adding a Home Assistant entity, simply set a friendly name for it, select the type (Ceiling or Table light), select if it’s a switch or dimmable light and what other capabilities it has.

If you are adding an OpenHAB light or switch, things aren’t as simple, unfortunately. There is really no way around this and as such the user has to chose all the same settings as for Home Assistant but also has to select the appropriate OpenHAB items that corresponds to each capability of the light.

Individual light control​

There is place for up to 12 lights (per room) to be controlled individually from the NSPanel. The image on the bottom shows a preview on how this might look. When a new light is added to the room it will automatically be assigned to the next free slot on the page. By pressing a slot with an assigned entity you can chose to assign a new entity (if any entity is unassigned) or "clear" the slot which will remove the light from the page but it will still be attached to the room.

tip

Each entity may only be assigned to one slot. If the list of entities is empty then all entities has been assigned a slot.

Relay groups​

Relay groups are used to bind multiple NSPanels and relays together so that when one relay in the group changes state, all the relays in the group transmission to the new state.

Weather and Time​

Weather and Time settings
Figure 7: Weather and Time settings

On the Weather & Time page settings related to time, date and weather can be changed. Date format is configured according to the strftime function and a link to available formatting options is available in the information box.

It is also possible to select between 24 and 12-hour clock format.

To configure weather, simply press the "Search" button attached to either the "Latitude" or "Longitude" input fields and search for your city. If it does not show, you can enter your location manually. You can also change between Celsius and Fahrenheit, difference wind speed units and also difference precipitation units. You can also set the update interval for how often to pull down the current weather and the forecast from Open Meteo.

If you wish to show temperature from a local temperature sensor available in OpenHAB, this can be selected in the Outside temperature sensor but it is not required.

Global settings​

These settings will apply to all NSPanels (if they do not have specific configurations), and the NSPanel Manager container. There are two things that need to be set in order to get up and running.

Those are:

  1. Connection details to the same MQTT server that were set in the NSPanel configuration.
  2. Connection details to Home Assistant and/or OpenHAB.
danger

Failing to meet both requirements listed above will result in a non-working setup!

info

If running the NSPanel Manager container as a Home Assistant add-on then the Home Assistant connection details will already be configured.

There are also other settings that might be worth taking a look at while here, such as global scenes that apply to all entities, showing a clock on the screensaver, how bright the NSPanels should be, the Min & Max of color temperature and so on.

Go ahead and explore by yourself.

Global settings
Figure 8: Global settings

The "Global settings" section of the web interface is where you can settings that apply to all NSPanels or settings that simply are not directly related the panels themselves.

The following options are available:

Connection settings​

  • Manager address - The is the IP address that will be sent to each NSPanel when it boots. This address is used in the NSPanel to communicate with the manager and has to be reachable from each and every NSPanel.
  • Manager port - Port to use when connecting to the above mentioned IP address

Logging options​

  • MQTTManager log level - Log level for the MQTTManager background component. For more information about MQTTManager see Software components. There is also a "Download"-button available in this section to download the MQTTManager log file as a .txt-file.
  • Number of messages to display on live log - The number of log messages to display in the live log for each NSPanel in the NSPanel settings page.
  • Number of messages in buffer - The number of log messages to keep in buffer in the MQTTManager.

Global NSPanel settings​

  • Minimum color temperature - The minimum kelvin to send to Home Assistant/OpenHAB.
  • Maximum color temperature - The maximum kelvin to send to Home Assistant/OpenHAB.
  • Reverse color temperature slider - Reverse the color temperature sliders on the NSPanel used to control color temperature on lights.
  • Turn on behavior - Wether to send color temperature when turning on the light or to simply send the "turn on" command.
  • Raise lights to 100% threshold - The slider on the NSPanel can be finiky to get to reach the maximum value of 100%. To solve this problem this option can be used to force the value to be 100% above the given value.
  • Minimum button push time (ms) - The minimum amout of time (in milliseconds) for the physical buttons to be pressed for it to register as a button press.
  • Minimum long press time (ms) - The minimum amout of time (in milliseconds) for the physical buttons to be pressed for it to register as a long button press.
  • Special mode activation time (ms) - The minimum amout of time (in milliseconds) to press the "table" or "ceiling" light button on the main page before it locks to control only table or ceiling lights.
  • Special mode timeout (ms) - How long to wait (in milliseconds) after the special mode has been used before releasing and returning the operate on all lights.
  • Screen brightness (%) - The default screen brightness when the NSPanel is used, 1-100%.
  • Screensaver brightness (%) - The default screensaver brightness when the NSPanel is not used, 0-100%.
  • Screensaver activation timeout (ms) - Amount of time (in milliseconds) to wait before turning on the screensaver.
  • Screensaver mode - Default screensaver mode. Available options are:
    • Show with background (clock, date and weather) - Show the screensaver with background image with current and forecast weather, time and date.
    • Show without background (clock, date and weather) - Show the screensaver with a black background with current and forecast weather, time and date.
    • Show with background (no weather) - Show the screensaver with background image but only time and date.
    • Show without background (no weather) - Show the screensaver with a black background but only time and date.
    • No screensaver (turn off screen) - Make the screen completely black when not in use.
  • MQTT ignore time (ms) - Time to wait (in milliseconds) after sending a command over MQTT before allowing new values to update the screen. This can be raised or lowered to minimize flickering of sliders on the NSPanel.

MQTT​

  • MQTT address - The address used to connect to the MQTT server.
  • MQTT port - The port used to connect to the MQTT server.
  • MQTT username - Username used to authenticate to the MQTT server. Leave empty if not used.
  • MQTT password - Password used to authenticate to the MQTT server. Leave empty if not used.

Home Assistant API​

  • Home Assistant address - The address used to connect to Home Assistant. This should include "http://" or "https://" in the beginning and port are the end.
  • Access token - The long lived access token used to authenticate to Home Assistant.

OpenHAB API​

  • OpenHAB address - The address used to connect to OpenHAB. This should include "http://" or "https://" in the beginning and port are the end.
  • Access token - The access token used to authenticate to OpenHAB.

Upload​

You may have noticed that there is an "Upload" menu in the top menu bar. Below which there exists items for uploading new firmware, data file and also .tft files.

This menu is not something you will need to use unless instructed to. The items are used to upload new firmware, data files or .tft-files for testing. It is mainly used for development and debugging.