Device manual
- Install the smpl app on your Homey Pro
- Insert two new CR2450 batteries in the smpl mini display
- Connect a smpl mini display device to your Homey Pro
- Create one or more display layouts
- Create flows to show display layouts on your smpl mini display
- How-To Connect a smpl mini display:
Watch video here - How-To Make a flow to push data to a smpl mini display:
Watch video here - How-To Create display layouts for your smpl mini display:
Watch video here - How-To Use the button on the back of the smpl mini display:
Watch video here
Installation
- Open the Homey app on your mobile device and select the ‘app’ section under ‘more’ (…)
- Click on the ‘+’ sign in the upper right corner to install a new app
- Type ‘smpl’ in the search field and select install to download the smpl app on your Homey Pro
- Make sure you have installed the smpl app on your Homey Pro and that you have inserted new batteries in the smpl mini display
- Select the ‘device’ section in the bottom and click on the ‘+’ sign in the upper right corner to connect a new device to Homey
- Find and click the smpl app in your list
- Click on ‘mini display’ and follow the instructions on your mobile device as well as on the smpl mini display screen
- If you have trouble connecting, please read the guide under “Troubleshooting“.
The magnetic wall-mount consists of a front plate and a back frame. The back frame is either taped to the wall using adhesive tape (included) or fixed to the wall with screws (not included) using the designated screw holes. The back frame can be placed either landscape or portrait. Use the up-arrow symbols on the frame to guide mounting. After the back frame is securely mounted, the front plate with magnets on the back can be clicked on back frame. Now you can place the display in the wall-mount.
Set-up
- The button on the back of the display has multiple functions: A long press (more than 3 seconds) will put the display in pairing mode, which is needed the first time you want to connect the smpl mini display to your Homey Pro. Or when you want to reconnect it again.
- One click toggles orientation between portrait and landscape. The on-screen graphics adapts automatically.
- Two clicks toggle theme between black/white (positive) and white/black (negative).
- If you press the button three times you will get the service screen.
Three clicks on the button will toggle the service screen between device data and a short description of the button functions. The device data will show you an estimate of remaining battery, the unique device ID as well as the hardware and firmware versions. The last three values are fixed and cannot be changed.
The Service Screen is only available after you have successfully paired your display.
- You can choose to place the display standing alone on a surface in landscape orientation. The device is slightly thicker in one end to make it more stable. We have also tilted the screen a little to help avoid reflections in the front glass and to get a better upper viewing angle. Remember to click the button once until the graphics is in landscape orientation
- You can also install the magnetic wall-mount either in portrait or landscape orientation to place your display vertically. Just place the display in the wall-mount and the magnets will hold it safely. We have created the wall-mount, so the screen is not tilted, when placed here. Remember to click the button once until the graphics fits the wall-mount orientation
To make sure the smpl mini display is updated as intended, it is important that it is initially installed and placed close to a router zigbee device. Most fixed powered (not battery-powered) zigbee devices attached to Homey acts as zigbee network connecters
If you want to update your display, please download our PC update tool here and follow the on-screen guide.
Be aware! Access to a Windows PC and a micro-USB data cable is required. You will need to disassemble (open) the display.
You start the tool by double-clicking the downloaded file. You will first see a command prompt for a few seconds before the start screen appears.
The update process has 6 individual steps during which you will need to press and hold a ‘boot’ button on the display two times. The on-screen guide will tell you when you have successfully updated your display.
- To know if your display has the most recent firmware and Zigbee stack, please refer to the section ‘Firmware history’.
- To know the current firmware version on your display, please refer to the section ‘The service screen’.
- To know the current Zigbee stack version on your display, please check the advanced device capabilities of your display in Homey Pro 2023. Firmware version relates to the current Zigbee stack (and not firmware). It is currently not possible to see the Zigbee stack version on older Homey Pro’s.
Usage
- You can show 1 to 4 different values from your Homey Pro installation at a time on a smpl mini display
A set of values (1 to 4) is referred to as a display layout - You can create as many different display layouts as you want
- Each value is defined as a sensor template and can show either data capabilities from any of your installed devices or data from the logic variables you have created
- You can mix sensor templates using both device data and logic variables in your display layouts
- Go to the smpl app in the ‘app’ section under ‘more’ (…)
- Click on ‘configure app’ to open the app settings
- Click on the ‘+’ sign in the top to create a new display layout
- Give the display layout a short name which describes the specific data, the overall use-case etc.
- Click each sensor template to select the data you wish to show on your display
- Remember to click the red ‘save’ button
- If you only chose 1 or 2 sensor templates, the text and graphics on the display will be bigger. If you chose 3 or 4 sensor templates, the text and graphics will be smaller
- If you chose 3 sensor templates, the 4th slot will be ‘empty’. A tip is to use an ‘empty’ slot for time or date or a fixed text indicating the zone or room if you have multiple displays
- Sensor templates are where you select which data to show, but also how it should be displayed
- When you click on an empty sensor template you are prompted to select either devices or logic variables. The smpl app will automatically collect all your installed devices and their relevant capabilities as well as all the logic variables you have created
- You can use the search bar in the top to find a specific device or variable. Devices are also sorted by zone
- The potential values of both device capabilities and logic variables are either enum (characters), numeric (numbers) or Boolean (yes/no)
- When you have selected a specific value – either device capability or logic variable – you will be able to change the description, the unit (short text/abbreviation after the value) and a visual icon
- The unit is pre-defined in the device capabilities, but you can change it with a limitation of maximum 5 characters
- The description will use the zone name as default, but it is possible to retrieve the corresponding device name automatically by clicking ‘use device name’. Either way it is also possible to write your own description. The description is limited to maximum 14 characters
The Recent Update Indicator is a small dot displayed after the unit, which will automatically indicate if the value has changed since the last update. Let us say that the update frequency for a room temperature is set to 5 minutes, but that the actual temperature has not changed during that time. Then the small dot (the recent update indicator) will not show
The Trend Indicator is a small upward or downward triangle displayed after the unit that will automatically indicate if numeric values are showing an increasing or decreasing trend
- When you have created a display layout in the smpl app you need to create a Flow to push data to your display
- To create a new Flow, choose the ‘+’ sign in the upper right corner under the ‘Flows’ menu. In the ‘when’ card choose ‘Flow’ and select ‘Flow is started’. Go to the ‘then’ card and choose ‘smpl’ and select a specific mini display. Then click ‘Set a display layout to’ and select a specific layout. Remember to save the Flow. Now data will start to show on your display
- Using flows, it is easy to show different data on the same display. You can show a certain display layout in the morning and another in the afternoon, one in the summer and another in wintertime, a specific trigger-event can show a defined layout, or any other relevant conditions you have available in your Homey installation.
- It could also be the other way around. You can show the same display layout (the same set of data) on multiple smpl mini displays in your home.
- Keeping a battery powered screen device alive is a tough task. Our engineers have optimized both hardware and software to deliver as long battery lifetime as possible. You should expect several months of battery lifetime depending on your individual usage, the quality of your batteries and your Zigbee network. These will have a significant impact on the realized lifetime.
- But we have also included some tricks to get as much battery life as possible:
- You can change the update frequency of an entire display in the advanced section of device settings. The most frequent update and the default setting is once every minute. The least frequent update is once every 1440 minutes (24 hours). Consider changing the update frequency if values update less frequently or if you just want to prolong battery life. Remember to push the device button to force an update if you change back to a more frequent update (e.g., from 15 minutes to 1 minute) to avoid waiting a long time for the change.
- You can also use the ‘Pause/Resume’ action cards in a flow to control updating your display, to save battery power. If you have enabled sleep and/or away mode in your Homey installation, it would make sense to avoid using battery power to update the display while everyone is asleep or away. You might also choose to avoid updating your display when a zone has been in-active for a certain period. Try to avoid heavy activity on your Zigbee network as well as memory intensive tasks on your Homey while your displays are in pause mode.
The following list of characters are supported on the display. Using other characters from Homey Pro will most likely cause the display to stop updating (freeze):
- Space, !, “, #, $, %, &, ‘, (, ), *, +, ,, -, ., /, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, :, ;, <, =, >, ?, @, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, [, \, ], ^, _, `, a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z, {, |, }, ~, ¡, ¢, £, ¥, §, ©, ¬, ®, ¯, °, ±, ², ³, µ, ¶, ·, ¹, º, », ¿, À, Á, Â, Ã, Ä, Å, Æ, Ç, È, É, Ê, Ë, Ì, Í, Î, Ï, Ð, Ñ, Ò, Ó, Ô, Õ, Ö, ×, Ø, Ù, Ú, Û, Ü, Ý, Þ, ß, à, á, â, ã, ä, å, æ, ç, è, é, ê, ë, ì, í, î, ï, ð, ñ, ò, ó, ô, õ, ö, ÷, ø, ù, ú, û, ü, ý, þ, ÿ, €
Troubleshooting
An easy and flawless pairing process is primarily based on three things:
- Making sure your installation is up to date
- Make sure you have updated your Homey Pro with the latest firmware: https://firmware.athom.com/
- Make sure you have installed the latest smpl app on your Homey Pro.
- Make sure you have the most recent smpl firmware and Zigbee stack on your smpl mini display. Please refer to the section ‘Firmware version’.
- Having a good and stable Zigbee network
- If you have an unstable and/or very limited Zigbee network to begin with, you will probably have trouble pairing the display
- Make sure you are not maxed out on connected Zigbee devices. Learn more here.
- Following the described process to the letter and be patient
- If you don’t follow the right order or in some way break the process, you will most likely experience some trouble
- We recommend that you read the entire online device manual first.
- You can also, as a supplement, watch the How-To guide on our Youtube Channel here.
Don’t despair if a pairing requires many attempts.
There may be rooms/areas where the Zigbee coverage is very poor and/or very noisy. Here devices can be difficult to connect. Try moving around different places in the room or simply hold the device in your hand in different directions when trying to connect. Do not attempt more than 2 times the same place/location.
You can advantageously restart the smpl app once in between attempts. E.g., every 3 or 4 times.
Here’s a step-by-step guide when the first couple of attempts were unsuccessful:
- reboot your Homey Pro
- wait until Homey is fully up and running again – check e.g., Zigbee on the developer page here.
- take the batteries out of the smpl mini display and insert them only after 1-2 minutes. Reset your display by holding the button on the back while reinserting the batteries (only available from firmware version 1.19).
- the screen should show ‘Please connect the device…’
- you should NOT press the button yet
- choose a different location (different part of the room/another room) than previously tried, but preferably with a Zigbee router device nearby
- open the Homey app, go to ‘devices’ and press the ‘plus sign’ in the right corner (connect device)
- select the smpl app in your list and then select ‘mini display’
- press the green button ‘establish connection’ in the smpl dialog
- you will then be asked to hold down the button on the display for a minimum of 3 seconds
- you should see the screen change to ‘The device is being connected…’
- then the dialogue in the Homey app should show ‘add device’
- and the screen on the display changes to ‘The device is connected…’
- if the dialog times out on Homey and shows ‘Add Zigbee device. Adding device took too long’ and the screen on the display still shows ‘The device is connected…’
- press the back button once: the screen will go blank and show an exclamation mark in the right corner
- press once more and the screen again shows ‘The device is connected…’
- start over from point 8
- if the dialogue in the Homey app ends positively and a new display device has been added, but the screen on the display still shows ‘The device is being connected…’
- press the back button once: nothing happens
- after a while the screen on the display again shows ‘Please connect…’
- delete the new device in Homey (remove device)
- start over from point 8
- if the screen on the display still shows ‘The device is connected…’ and nothing happens by pressing the back button (neither 1, 2, 3 or long-press)
- then you must take the batteries out and put them in again. The screen now shows: ‘Please connect the device…’
- start over from point 8
If several attempts (more than 10) in different positions are unsuccessful, your network is most likely corrupt, and the best way forward is a full reset of the Zigbee network.
- If your smpl mini display loses connection to your Homey, after a while an exclamation mark (!) icon will appear in the upper right corner of the screen. Lost connection is defined as five repeated unsuccessful attempts.
- This is most often caused by your Zigbee network and will repair itself shortly after which the display will start updating again and the icon will disappear. The repair cycle is defined as three attempts to connect at 10-minute intervals, after which an attempt is made once an hour.
- You can also try and force a reconnection by either pressing the back button once or removing the batteries and inserting them again.
- If your smpl mini display loses connection and is unable to reconnect itself after countless attempts over a period, the lost connection icon (!) will be replaced by the standard connection screen (‘Please connect the device to your hub’).
- Sometimes reconnection is smoother if you re-start the smpl app on your Homey. On rare occasions a re-start of your Homey is required.
- Try to avoid very heavy activity on your Zigbee network as well as very memory intensive tasks on your Homey while your displays are in pause mode to maintain connection.
- You can reset your display by holding the button on the back while reinserting the batteries.
- The screen will now show the standard pairing message ‘Please connect the device to your hub’.
- You then need to delete the device in Homey Pro and install the display again.
- The reset function is only available from firmware version 1.19 (order number > 2119)
- Pre-production: Version 1.15
- Order# < 2129:: Version 1.18
Graphic adjustments and power optimization - Order# 2129-2922:: Version 1.19
Reset function - Order# > 2922:: Zigbee stack 1.17.2
Better connectivity/less impact from interference
If the smpl mini display stops updating and shows the same values on the screen (a ‘frozen’ screen) instead of the ‘lost connection’ icon (an exclamation mark ‘!’) in the upper right corner, the batteries have most likely run out. The display should just re-connect and start updating again when you replace with new fresh batteries.
- Although battery level indication will always be an estimate our current on-board algorithm has proven too inaccurate. The batteries can be empty despite the battery level showing 75 or even 100%. If the display is ‘frozen’ and not showing the lost connection icon (an exclamation mark in the upper right corner, as described in the online manual), the batteries are most likely empty. Please also consider the default battery lifetime, which is 3-4 months, depending on your settings (default=1-minute updates). We will evaluate the battery level algorithm in a future firmware release.
- The on/off device capability including related action cards in Homey Pro 2023 has no functionality and should be disregarded. We are in contact with Athom about this.
- For Homey Pro 2023 it is possible to see the firmware version under device capabilities. This information is currently not correct for the smpl mini display. We expect this information to be the Zigbee stack version. To get the correct smpl firmware version, please triple click on the device to show the information screen as described in the online manual. Also be aware that the Zigbee stack version is not available on the device information screen. Please refer to the section ‘firmware history’ to understand if your device has the recently updated Zigbee stack.
- The smpl mini display can stop updating when routing via an Aqara 230V plug (EU). Removing the Aqara plug as Zigbee router for smpl mini display will solve the problem.
- Using unsupported characters will cause the smpl mini display to stop updating. Please refer to the section ‘supported characters’.
Need further assistance?
Smpl products is all about visualizing and interacting with data from smart homes via physical displays and other devices.
We are at your service to answer any questions you might have – feel free to reach out via the contact form.
Most support inquiries are answered within 5 working days.
Company information
Martins Tech Garage ApS
VAT: 40172823
Copenhagen, Denmark
info@smplproducts.com
