Skip to main content

Nomad 1.0.0-beta.15 Release

Richard Brown
Richard Brown
CTO & Founder

Applies to: Nomad
Release Track: Beta
Version: 1.0.0-beta.15
Requires action: No

Nomad 1.0.0-beta.15 is about getting back to where you were. Your system now backs itself up properly, encrypts what it writes, and will put any of those backups back for you from the Backup tab. Alongside that, managed network switches get a proper port view, LED controllers work out what they are driving, and you decide what sits on your Home screens and in what order.

Summary​

This beta turns backup from something you were told about into something your system does: encrypted, nightly, pruned, named for what caused it, and restorable in a couple of taps. It also adds the Ethernet port faceplate and power switching for managed switches, automatic Light Type detection for multi-mode LED controllers, and ordering for the devices you put on Home.

Highlights​

  • Backups that look after themselves. Every night, before every update, and whenever you ask. All encrypted, including the copy on the unit.
  • Restore. Pick a backup from the list, press Restore, and your system puts everything back and restarts.
  • An update backs up first. The snapshot completes before anything is installed, so the rollback point is always whole.
  • Ethernet ports you can see and switch. One tile per socket, with the link speed on it, and a tap to cut or restore power over Ethernet.
  • Lights that know what they are driving. Your controller's mode decides which controls you get, and you can correct it if it is wrong.

What has changed​

Backups​

Your system now backs itself up without being asked, and there is nothing to set up.

  • Every night at 03:00. The three most recent overnight copies are kept, and the oldest goes as a new one arrives, so the storage does not silently fill.
  • Before every update. Kept separately, and not counted against the three.
  • Whenever you ask, with Back up now on the Backup tab.

Each one is named for what caused it, so the list reads plainly: Overnight backup, Manual backup, or Before update to 1.0.0. The card above the list reads the schedule from the engine that actually runs it, so if nothing is scheduled it says so rather than promising a run that will not happen.

Everything is encrypted, including the copy that stays on the unit. A backup is only useful once it is somewhere else, and every way of getting one off the vehicle turns it into a copy that has left your control. Your system holds the key, and the only copy of it outside the vehicle is your emergency kit.

Sensa's own record of your setup now travels inside the backup as well: every device you have added, the names you gave them and how they are configured. That was the part worth losing sleep over, because Home Assistant coming back without it leaves a system that no longer knows what is in your van.

See Backups.

Download your emergency kit

Press Download emergency kit on the Backup tab and keep the file somewhere outside your vehicle. Without it, a backup cannot be opened on any other machine.

Putting a backup back​

Every row in the backup list now has a Restore button.

Restoring puts your devices, dashboards, settings and history back to how they were when that backup was taken, and anything changed since is lost. Your system restarts to do it, which takes several minutes, and the page reconnects on its own.

Because it cannot be undone, Restore asks you to confirm in a dialog naming the backup and when it was taken, rather than being a button you might press twice by reflex. Before it starts, your system checks the things that would otherwise fail halfway: a backup or restore already running, and whether the backup was made under a key this system holds. If a restore does go wrong after the point of no return, the Backup tab tells you what happened when the system comes back up.

Restoring writes a line into your Log, deliberately as a warning rather than a note, because it is the entry you will look for later when working out what changed.

Restore is for the admin login. Everyday tablet logins can see the tab and the list, and cannot run, restore or delete anything.

Updates back up first​

Pressing Update now no longer goes straight to installing. Your system takes a full snapshot, waits for it to finish, and only then applies the update. On the hardware we ship that takes several minutes, and the panel says Backing up before updating while it runs, so the wait is visible rather than looking like a button that did nothing.

If a backup is already being written, the overnight one for example, the update waits rather than starting alongside it and tells you to try again once it has finished.

Press it once and let it work. See Updates.

Managed network switches​

If your van has a managed switch, you can now see what is plugged into it and cut power to a socket without going near the cupboard.

  • A faceplate on the Habitation Network tab, one tile per Ethernet socket laid out as they are on the unit, showing whether the port is up, at what speed, and whether it is supplying power over Ethernet.
  • RJ45 tiles on the Switches tab. Tap one to switch power over Ethernet on or off for that socket, which is how you power-cycle a camera or an access point that has stopped answering. The link light and speed tell you whether anything is plugged in, and the gold pins along the top light up when the port is delivering power.
  • Name your ports on Settings, Switches. Type what the socket actually goes to, for example "Roof camera", and the name follows the port everywhere it appears. If the port feeds a device Sensa already knows about, say so with Device Type.

Disabling a port itself is deliberately not offered, because it could cut your system off its own network. A switch also no longer appears on the Cab dashboard's Internet tab: that tab answers "is the signal any good here", and a switch has no mobile connection to answer with.

See Network switches.

Lighting​

A multi-mode LED controller can drive plain white, tunable white or full colour, and which one it is set to is chosen on the controller itself with a match button. Sensa now reads that mode and shows the right controls: a brightness slider for a white strip, a warm to cool slider for tunable white, and a full colour picker for a colour strip. The device row carries a small coloured dot matching the mode, so you can check it at a glance.

If it does not match the strip on your wall, set Light Type yourself on Settings, Devices. It sits on Auto, which is the answer the controller gave.

These controllers are re-manufactured in batches, and a new batch sometimes identifies itself in a way we have not seen. When that happens you get one line in your Log naming the controller and what it reported, not an alarm, because there is nothing on the van to fix. Set the Light Type yourself and your lights work normally, then send us the message and we will map the new batch in a future update.

See Lighting.

What sits on your Home screens​

Choosing what appears on Home has grown a second control. Home Layout is still which column a device's compact card sits in, and Home Order now says where it sits among the others in that column. Lower numbers come first, and anything you leave alone falls into alphabetical order, so two devices you have never touched do not swap places on you.

Both are set separately for the Habitation Home screen and the Cab Home screen, so a heater can lead one and stay off the other.

See Home layouts.

The van level is now a choice

The van level's bubble gauge used to appear on the Home screens on its own. It is picked the same way as everything else now, so you can put it where you want it or leave it off. If your van had it before, it will not be there until you choose a column for it. The full park-up view on the Cab dashboard's Parking tab is unaffected.

Smaller things​

  • Install your system as an app. On a phone, tablet or desktop, use your browser's Install or Add to Home Screen option and it installs as Sensa, with the Sensa icon, opening straight onto the Habitation dashboard in its own window with no address bar. A wall-mounted tablet looks like a fitted control panel rather than a web page.
  • Zigbee devices sit under their coordinator again in the device list, indented beneath it rather than loose among everything else.
  • The Backup tab will not let you delete a backup while it is being written. A half-written file looks finished from the outside, and deleting it would take the backup you had just asked for.

Breaking changes​

None.

Upgrade notes​

Beta builds update in place and there is nothing you need to do.

Two things are worth five minutes of your time once it has landed. Download your emergency kit from the Backup tab and store it outside the vehicle, because backups are encrypted now and the kit is the only copy of the key that leaves the van. And if you had the van level on a Home screen, choose a column for it on Settings, Devices to put it back.

Known issues​

  • Restore has not yet been used on real hardware. It is complete and tested in our own environment, and it has yet to be run on a customer unit.
  • A backup that only exists on the unit does not survive the unit. Copies to a USB stick and to the cloud are designed and not yet built, so keeping a copy off the vehicle is still something you do yourself. If the storage fails outright, replacing it is still a job we do with you, see Recovery.
  • Tracking has still not been used on real hardware.
  • The People tab manages people and nothing yet uses the result. Linking a phone to a person is recorded correctly, and the presence and journey behaviours that will read it are still to come.
  • The maintenance window does not yet hold back an automatic Sensa update. It governs your operating system updates as described. If you need certainty about when a Sensa update lands, turn automatic updates off and use Update now when it suits you.
  • An acknowledged alarm can return after a restart. If the condition that raised it is still true when the system restarts, the alarm is raised again.

This release is recommended for:

  • beta-channel testers already running 1.0.0-beta.11,
  • anyone who wants their system backing itself up, and a way back from a change they regret.
  • See the installation documentation for first-time setup.
  • See the maintenance documentation for update, backup and support-plan guidance.
  • See the reference section for compatibility and release history.

What's next​

Getting a copy of your backups off the vehicle is the next piece: a USB stick for a van with no internet, and a cloud copy for one that has it, so a failed card stops being a job that needs us. Putting the People tab to work follows, and Routines remains the larger piece of work still ahead.