SmartVan_Dashboard

🏠 The Smart Van Dashboard

Overview

The Smart Van dashboard is your real-time command centre for the van. It brings together the current mode, live sensor readings, CCTV feeds, HomeKit scenes, and every room’s devices into a single scrollable view. Anything you can control or monitor through Apple HomeKit is accessible here — organised the way your van is actually laid out, updated live.

Opening the Dashboard

Tap the Smart Van summary card on the Van tab home screen to open the full dashboard as a navigation push. You can also access it by tapping the mode icon button on the left side of that summary card.

The Van Tab Summary Card

Before you open the full dashboard, the summary card on the Van tab gives you a quick read:

Mode icon (coloured square on the left) — shows the current mode with its icon and abbreviated name. Tapping it quick-toggles the mode: if you’re in a stationary mode, it switches to Driving; if you’re in Driving, it switches to Camped. The Safety Interlock fires here too if any sensors are open.
Status text — a live summary line generated from your HomeKit state. Examples: “3 Lights On • 18.5°C”, “⚠️ Sliding Door Open”, ”💧 Leak Detected!”, “All Secure”. Updates automatically whenever HomeKit reports a change.
Chevron — taps through to the full dashboard

If Smart Van is enabled but setup hasn’t been completed, the card shows “Setup Smart Van — Tap to connect HomeKit & sensors” instead.

The Status Card

At the top of the dashboard, the Status Card is a large contextual card showing four pieces of live information:

Current Mode — the mode name in large bold text with its icon. The ℹ️ button beside “CURRENT MODE” opens the Mode Info sheet.

Location — the resolved place name for your current position (e.g. “Windermere”, “Glencoe”). Updates when you enter a new stationary mode and the context refresh runs. Shows “Unknown Location” if GPS isn’t available.

Security Status — shows either “System Secure” (green shield) or an active alert in red/orange with the specific issue (e.g. “Back Door Open”, “Leak Detected”, “Motion Detected”). When Spot Mode is active and no alerts exist, it shows “Perimeter Active”.

Outside Weather — current temperature and a weather condition icon sourced from your live location. Shows “Weather Unavailable” if location or weather data can’t be fetched.

Inside Temp — the average temperature reading across all HomeKit temperature sensors in the van. If no temperature sensors are configured, this shows ”—”.

The Freshness Indicator

The top-right toolbar pill shows the connection status and data freshness:

Live (green dot) — HomeKit has updated within the last 15 seconds
Xs (green) — last update was X seconds ago (15–60s)
Xm (yellow) — last update was X minutes ago (1–5 min)
Xm (orange) / Offline — update is stale or connection is lost

Tapping the pill opens the display menu, which includes:

The full timestamp of the last update (e.g. “Updated 2 minutes ago”)
The connected HomeKit Home name
Van Brain Rules — opens the full Van Brain automation list
Homes — a list of all your configured HomeKit Homes; tap one to switch to it
Show Hidden Items — toggle to reveal accessories you’ve hidden from the dashboard
Reorder Scenes — opens the scene ordering sheet
Reorder Rooms — opens the room ordering sheet
Restart Setup Wizard — resets setup and re-runs the wizard
Force Refresh — manually triggers a HomeKit poll and context refresh

The Mode Selector Carousel

Below the status card, a horizontal scrolling carousel shows every configured mode as a pill button — system modes first (Driving, Camped, Sentry, Sleep, Stealth), then any custom modes, then a + New Mode button.

The active mode’s pill is filled with its colour. Inactive modes show a tinted outline. Tap any pill to switch modes. Long-press any pill to open its Mode Configuration sheet.

CCTV Live Feeds

If any of your HomeKit accessories have camera profiles, a CCTV Live Feeds section appears above the scenes. It shows horizontally scrolling preview cards — one per camera — each showing a live thumbnail feed, a camera name, and a green live indicator dot.

Tap any preview to open the full-screen camera view
Tap the “CCTV Live Feeds” header button to open the CCTV Grid — all cameras simultaneously in a 2-column grid view

See Cameras for full camera controls.

Scenes Carousel

HomeKit Scenes (called Action Sets in HomeKit terminology) appear as a horizontally scrolling row of capsule buttons. Tapping a scene button executes it immediately against your HomeKit Home — all the actions defined in that scene run at once. A brief icon bounce animation confirms execution.

Scene buttons are sorted by your saved scene order. To reorder them, use Reorder Scenes from the display menu.

Each scene button shows an icon based on the scene type: Sleep scenes get a moon icon, wake-up scenes get a sun, arrival scenes get a walking figure arriving, departure scenes get a walking figure leaving, and user-defined scenes get a star.

See Scenes for how to assign scenes to modes.

Room Cards

The bulk of the dashboard is a vertical stack of Room Cards — one for each HomeKit Room that contains at least one accessory.

Rooms are sorted by your saved room order (drag to reorder via the display menu). Each room card shows:

Room name in its assigned colour (rooms cycle through: blue, purple, orange, teal, indigo, pink, green, yellow)
Accessory count badge
Accessories grouped by type within the card: Lights first, then Power/Switches, Climate, Security/Sensors, Entertainment, Water, Other
Each device type group has a small sub-header showing the type name and icon

Within each group, accessories are displayed as Service Tiles in a two-column grid. See Rooms and Devices for full detail on tiles and controls.

Connection Issues

If Smart Van is set up but no accessories can be found, a connection error view appears in place of the room cards. Check the Apple Home app to verify your accessories are online, then tap Retry Connection or use Force Refresh from the display menu.