Unboxing the Almond+

[eldaria]

Did a small video when I got my Almond+ today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jmcpi46sUeA

My first unboxing video, so bare with me. ;-)

[LGNilsson]

You reminded me about something I forgot to add to the known issues list.
In R054, the Status - Basic Status screen has some static options, this will be fixed in an upcoming firmware, hopefully the next one, but not quite sure.

Thanks for the video though 

[Patrick Wilson]

Did a small video when I got my Almond+ today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jmcpi46sUeA

My first unboxing video, so bare with me. ;-)

Nice effort!  I enjoyed your video.  I must confess that I too setup my Sensors before I bothered to read the documentation for either the Router or the Sensors.  (I have read the documentation since then  )

[eldaria]

Hehe, documentation, what is that? ;-)

[Vito]

"Working software over comprehensive documentation"

Straight from the Agile Manifesto...   

[Patrick Wilson]

Hehe, documentation, what is that? ;-)

Unfortunately for me,  I can't adopt this attitude,  as part of my job description includes actually writing documentation.  Right now I'm focusing on writing articles for the Wiki.  I've had my Almond+ for less than a week,  and I still need to support the original Almond as well,  so I hope to provide further Wiki articles as time permits. . 

Our Wiki will open to everyone soon and people are welcome to request "Editor" status on the Wiki if they want to add articles themselves,  or add information to pre-existing articles..  (I'm not an OS X/iOS user,  so I'm hoping Mac/iPad/iPhone owners will help me in this regard).

I have already added articles for Shell access,  and for grabbing Screenshots from the TouchUI (for those that want to be able to provide screenshots for purposes of discussion within this Forum).  I will continue to answer questions within the Forum for anyone that asks,  but for some of the more complicated tasks it makes more sense for me to simply write a Wiki article,  and then refer Forum members to the Wiki article. 

Shell access is a classic example of this decision. I would guess that the majority of our customers will never actually want Shell access to their Routers,  but Linux enthusiasts like myself will want shell access almost immediately after "unboxing" their Routers,  so that they can "look around" and see what it implemented in the Firmware. (All of our Router products permit "shell access").

I have never used a Router that uses OpenWRT previously,  so the learning curve is a little challenging,  but I'm enjoying the experience. (I have being using another 3rd-Party Firmware for years,  so adapting to OpenWRT is coming fairly easily). I have 5 Routers/AP's on my home network,  including both an Almond and an Almond+,  so my Home network isn't your typical Home network. 

We have lots of wireless devices in my family,  so operating multiple Routers/APs allows everyone in my family to have their own dedicated Wireless AP to connect to.  (My kids are "Gamers",  so they don't like "sharing" Wi-Fi bandwidth).   

[eldaria]

Hi Patrick,

I'm one of those who picks up the manual when i'm stuck, not before.
But I agree that good documentation should exist, I actually think the best documentation is the kind that is in the product, so when you are at a function, there will be information right there about what you are doing. And in-depth information just a click away.

I have already done some editing on the Wiki, mostly the sensor page. And I plan to add information when I start actually testing and building stuff, I have some plans for integrating my Alarm system, and also see if I can get it to talk to Arduino, and some other stuff.

[Vito]

I will certainly be contributing to the Wiki as well.  My first task is to associate as many of my devices as possible with the Almond+ (I have 40 devices connected so far).  Next, I'm going to do a review of the SDK to have a better understanding of my capabilities and limitations.  Once I've completed those two tasks, I plan on hitting that Wiki with updates.