TUI

The "Touch Screen User Interface" (in shorthand, the "TUI") is an alternative User Interface for HCA. Don't let the words "Touch Screen" cause you to look away if you don't have an actual touch screen as this interface is very useful on non-touch screen monitors as well.

The intent of the TUI is to provide a very simplified "action only" interface to control a selected set of devices, programs, and groups in your home. You can't add or modify the design from the Touch Screen Interface. But you can control devices to on, off, or dim, start and stop programs, and suspend and resume elements of your design.

The TUI has a concept of "rooms". Each icon on the home page represents a "room". What is a room? Is it an actual room in your home? That depends upon how you set up your design. Each object in HCA resides in a folder. The design pane in the HCA UI - the left pane - shows those folders. Each one of those folders represents a room in the TUI. Also, using the HCA UI you can create displays which show one or more icons from any folder all on one display. These displays too can become rooms in the TUI.

You can easily configure the TUI so that not all of your folders and displays become rooms in the TUI. Associated with the properties of each folder and display is an option that says "Don't show an icon for this display when showing the TUI".

Unlike the HCA UI, where you single-click a device to select it, double-click to act upon it, and right-click to open a context menu, the TUI is all single click - or "tap" in touch screen terminology. This "tap" is further divided into short taps and long taps.

A short tap - like a mouse click - acts upon what you tapped on. If it is a room icon, the room is opened. If you tap on a device it is turned on if it is off, and off if it is on - it toggles the state. A long tap - press and hold until the popup appears - displays a control panel for the device.

For example, short tap on the bedroom icon and the bedroom appears:

Like folders, not every device needs to appear in the TUI and it is easy to configure for that.

If you long tap on the Lamp icon the control panel for the lamp appears:

The controls for on, off, and dim for the load are on this popup. Long tap on the keypad icon and this appears:

This shows one of the next concepts in the TUI we will explore. We call these types of popups "glass keypads". Here is the idea:

You probably have a number of keypads in your home that do various things. In this example a keypad in the bedroom has multiple functions. When you are actually in the bedroom you can walk up and poke one of the buttons. What that button does is really up to your design. It could control one or more devices directly using Insteon scenes or UPB links. Or it could trigger an HCA program.

Using the TUI you can cause whatever that keypad does when you poke the button on the real keypad to happen by pushing the button on the glass keypad. In this example, the "go to bed" button controls many devices in the home. Without the glass keypad you would have to control each one of those devices manually.

But "glass keypads" aren't just for keypads! Anything that has a transmit function that can be invoked from a physical tap on it can have a glass keypad.

Think of the TUI as a programmable user interface. It is worth spending some time to select which of your folders and displays become rooms In the TUI, which devices, programs, and groups are shown in the rooms, and what the popup control panel shows. Like designing your automation solution, it makes sense to spend time crafting the user interface to work with it.