Profile concepts & behaviour?

Discussion in 'C-Bus Wiser 2 Controller' started by pgordon, Jun 5, 2019.

  1. pgordon

    pgordon

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    Me again... - continuing my learning path from my MK1 to MK2 Wiser upgrade.

    Obviously the MK1 didn't have the concept of 'profiles' so this is something new I need to learn for the MK2. I thought I had a pretty good grasp of it, but after a couple of experiments I wonder if I've got it entirely right...

    My desire was to use the profiles feature to be able to give individual users in the family, and room specific controllers a very restricted view of the CBUS network... - I.e to create profiles for the kids that only allow them to control their own rooms and a curated selection of other devices. I also figured I could deploy wall-mounted tablets in various rooms which again are only able to see/control the groups in that room...
    At the same time, I as the homeowner should be able to see & control everything...
    So I created a bunch of profiles - one for each member of the family, plus a few room-specific ones, and a bunch of profile groups that combine them in various common combinations. Then in the widget manager, I've edited all the locations and the individual widgets themselves to set either one of the aforementioned profile groups, or in some cases a custom combination...

    Now, the way I *thought* it would work, is that if a profile - either explicitly or by virtue of membership of a profile group was enabled for a location or a widget, then they would see that location or widget in their UI when logged in under that user... and that is how it seems to be for individual widgets... logging in as one of my profiles which is enabled on only a handful of widgets, I can only see the correct subset of widgets... but it doesn't seem to work for locations... - having set each location to a suitable profile group, I notice that I can still see the entire set of locations in the UI, even when I don't think I should be able to..
    To be sure, - those locations are empty in the UI, so I - correctly - can't see the widgets in those locations, but I can still see the (empty) locations themselves...

    Is this right?- is that by design? - for a clean & uncluttered UI, I was hoping that I could entirely remove visibility of all locations not relevant for a particular profile.. - for example, I have a profile setup for a wall-mounted tablet in the master bathroom, which I only want to be able to see the location 'Master Bathroom' - as far as I can tell I've set that up how I think should have resulted in that behaviour, but like I said above, when I logon to that profile, I can still see the full list of locations... (all empty except the Master Bathroom)

    I do get that I can add the desired widgets to the favourites page in the app, and that would be a perfect solution if it were possible to then lock the app to that page... - is that possible? - I haven't found a way to do it yet...

    There is always the possibility of "tinkerers" poking around any & every visible control element on the UI to "see what this does" - I'm trying to get to a point where this isn't possible since there are no visible control elements on the screen beyond what I want them to have.. (including the logout option - I don't want the kids to be able to logout the wall controllers).

    Anyone got any thoughts or suggestions?

    TIA

    Paul G.
     
    pgordon, Jun 5, 2019
    #1
  2. pgordon

    Wonkey

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    From my memory I think that's how the software finished up.
    As you tinker more you may notice its not quite finished (IMHO).
    For example Multi room audio does not work on a PC.
    Dimmer sliders jump to the final level when you let go, unlike the wiser one which dimmed as you moved your finger.
    Its a case of 'Close enough is good enough' probably forced on the engineering team to finish the project and move on to the next one. Very sad.
    Having said all that once you accept its limitations and move on from the grumblings the Wiser 2 is a rock solid product and runs in my home faultlessly possibly doing things via logic that it was never originally designed to.
    I control audio on a headless PC via eDLTs and update labels on the eDLTs, for example.
    Accept it quirks, including the first time you transfer the project hiccups and enjoy what I believe is a great product. Which unfortunately seems to have been put on the back burner for the NAC/SHAC
     
    Wonkey, Jun 6, 2019
    #2
  3. pgordon

    pgordon

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    Thanks Wonkey. I definitely agree with the suggestion that it's not quite finished, which is a shame, since it looks like it probably never will be now that the NAC/SHAC is out. (there hasn't been a new PICED version or wiser firmware for over 3 years now). It is certainly an improvement on the Wiser 1, which without meaning to be too uncharitable to the engineering team I look back on & think that was a frankenstein hardware mash-up bodged together out bits rummaged out of the spare parts bin... an off-the-shelf broadband router reflashed with a custom firmware, joined to a reboxed CNI by that crazy RJ45 busbar thing! I think I went for it at the time because it was actually cheaper than buying the standard CNI (Actually it looks like the 5500SHAC is still marginally cheaper than the 5500CN2 at my supplier) I only had a PAC at the time so I was a bit constrained by only having the USB interface for Toolkit. (I have recollections of crouching down on my knees in the basement with my laptop every time I needed to commission a new unit). I really wanted a CNI, and buying Wiser1 was the cheapest way to get that. As well as 'un-designed' hardware I certainly felt there was much missed opportunity with the implementation of the wiser1, which I very much hoped had been corrected & improved upon with the Mk2, and to a great extent it is.. the Mk2 does seem like a proper "product" - i.e. actually went through some product design process where sensible people actually discussed things.. - I get the impression that the mk1 was one of the engineers pet DIY projects, assembled & developed over a series of lunchbreaks, which was spotted on his desk one day by a passing marketing guy...

    It's early days yet, but I'm hopeful that I will come to know & love the Wiser 2. these things are so expensive that I really can't justify upgrading very often, so I'm probably "stuck" with wiser 2 for at least a few years before I'll maybe move on to a NAC/SHAC - or whatever else has replaced it by then... I must admit I was mightily disappointed to immediately start having CBUS timekeeping problems pretty much straight away after swapping the units. I'd had so much grief with timekeeping with the Wiser1 over the years that I really was hoping had been fixed.

    I've probably become a little bit spoiled over the years of Apple device ownership where their products (no offence to Apple haters) are unquestionably beautifully designed from both a hardware and software perspective, generally speaking "just work" and usually are a joy to use... Wiser(s) cost about the same as a high-end iPhone, so I kinda don't think it's too unreasonable to hope for (even expect) the same level of user experience...

    Cheers

    Paul G.
     
    pgordon, Jun 13, 2019
    #3
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