Gladys and Android Auto đźš™

Development
1

Hi everyone,

I need to share my current great satisfaction with you… But for that, some context is needed.

I often use Gladys to open my sliding gate at home. Because the gate remote has a range of only a few meters, and I find it annoying to have to wait in front of my gate as it opens (and potentially block other cars in the street).

Until now, from a few hundred meters from the house, I would unlock my phone, launch Gladys (with a refresh or dashboard change in the process), and open my gate.

But those days are over!! :grinning_face:

Thanks to Claude, I was able to create an Android app, compatible with Android Auto, that allows me to communicate with a fake MQTT device and launch the scene of my choice :+1:

Now, when I’m not far from home, I no longer need my phone; I have the app directly on the car screen!!

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I click on the button configured for my gate and Zou! It opens!

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On the phone, it looks like this:

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I’m very happy and a bit proud of myself, as it required creating a Google developer account, publishing the app, etc…

If anyone is interested, I can try to make this app public on the Play Store, but I’m not committing to any timeline, I don’t know how to do it yet :man_facepalming:

That’s it for my little victory of the day! :grinning_face: Thanks for reading

2

Well done! I love it!

3

Nice! I really like it :wink:

In the same vein, I ride a bike (and therefore without Android Auto :winking_face_with_tongue:). But when it rains, I really need the garage door to open when I arrive in the housing estate, without any action on my part. And the house is ready to shelter me just in time.

I did this:

  • a shortcut on iOS that sends an MQTT message when I enter the housing estate zone
  • a Gladys scene opens the garage when this MQTT topic changes
  • and to prevent the garage from opening when I just pass by my house without intending to stop, the scene is conditioned on the state of another MQTT topic
  • And this second MQTT topic, I activate it when I leave work or the store and am going home. Activation from another iOS shortcut displayed as a widget on the home screen.

And it’s my daily home automation pleasure: I leave work, I click on the button on my iPhone screen and a Telegram message confirms "ok, the garage will open upon your arrival ". And when I arrive home, the garage door just finishes opening. :+1:

4

Wow, I love this kind of automation!

I can’t do this kind of thing on my end, because I live in a small village and work 800m from home: I often make unexpected round trips, so I can’t predict whether the next automatic opening is expected or not :wink: