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Web-app screens — user guide

Beyond the built-in tools, Scottina fronts bigger packages that serve their own browser UI: Kismet, Node-RED, AIS-catcher, and Signal K. Opening one of these screens launches the app (or adopts it if it autostarted at boot) and fronts it with one compact status card at the top:

  • The card's border colour is the app state — green only once the port actually answers (a real "✓ web UI confirmed", not just "spawned"), accent while launching, muted when stopped, red on a problem.
  • The card body is the URL:port to open the full interface from a phone or laptop — so you never guess which port a service landed on.
  • The card is the start/stop control: tap it while running to stop the app (a confirm dialog asks first — the web UI goes down), tap it while stopped to launch again. The tap: stop / tap: launch hint top-right reminds you which you'll get.

Everything below the card is the app's native panel — the controls and live feedback you actually watch.

A web-app tile appears on Home only once its backend is installed. Install them all with setup/install-phase4.sh (idempotent: Node-RED, AIS-catcher, Signal K + their systemd units).

Kismet

Launches the Kismet server, confirms its web UI on :2501, and gives a Sniff on/off toggle plus a live peer list colour-coded by device type.

Control What it does
Enable / Disable sniffing Adds/removes the ALFA (the non-uplink Wi-Fi adapter) as a Kismet monitor datasource. Passive listening only.
Peers list Recent devices Kismet has heard — AP (accent), client (green), Bluetooth (amber) — strongest signal first.

Like WiFi Sniff, a watchdog keeps the Pi's uplink (wlan0) connected the whole time the ALFA is sniffing — the two radios run at once.

The peer list is read from Kismet's REST API using the credentials Kismet writes to ~/.kismet/kismet_httpd.conf on first run. Until you complete Kismet's one-time web login the panel shows a hint instead of peers — open the web UI at the shown URL, set the admin login once, and the on-screen list populates. For the full survey UI (maps, logging, filters) always use the web UI; the tile shows the top peers as a glance.

Node-RED

Confirms the Node-RED editor on :1880 and gives 6 assignable feedback fields + 6 trigger buttons wired to your own flow — a manual CAN/IoT troubleshooting bench where you press the couple of buttons you're testing and watch the couple of numbers that matter.

Control What it does
6 feedback fields (3×2) Show live values your flow publishes (e.g. throttle %, RPM, a door state). Show — until the flow provides them.
6 trigger buttons (3×2) POST to your flow; a toast reports "sent" or "no handler".

The contract Scottina speaks (all on localhost):

Feedback  GET  http://127.0.0.1:1880/kilodash/state
          → {"fields":  [{"label":"Temp","value":"21.4"}, ...],   # up to 6
             "buttons": [{"label":"Fan"}, ...]}                   # up to 6
Triggers  POST http://127.0.0.1:1880/kilodash/btn/1 .. /btn/6

Field and button labels come from that same /state payload, so your flow names them. Import the ready-made flow at setup/nodered-kilodash-flow.json and follow setup/NODE-RED.md for the wire-up (feedback comes from flow context f1..f6; a flow imported before the 6-slot panel still works — the extra rows just show defaults). Until the flow exists, fields show — and buttons post harmlessly (404) — the panel still launches and confirms.

AIS

Two radios, two jobs — receive live vessel AIS, and (with TX hardware) transmit test AIS frames to bench-check your own receiver.

Listen (works today): AIS-catcher on the RTL-SDR, confirmed on :8100.

Tile Shows
VESSELS How many ships are currently seen.
MESSAGES Live AIS message rate (per second).

Transmit (needs TX hardware): generates AIS frames for your own MMSI so a robot/receiver under test can prove it decodes them.

Control What it does
MMSI field Tap to set your own 9-digit station MMSI (used for the test frames).
Transmit test Disabled until a TX-capable SDR (HackRF / Pluto / Lime) and ais-simulator are both present. Every transmit is armed with a confirm tap — tap once to arm, again within 4 s to fire.

⚠️ The RTL-SDR cannot transmit — receive is inherently listen-only. Transmit is intended strictly for contained bench testing of your own receiver: minimal power into a small/dummy antenna, indoors, so nothing reaches real AIS traffic. A transmitter is never left running when you leave the screen.

Signal K

The boat's data hub as a helm glance. Adopts Signal K if it autostarted at boot, confirms its web UI on :3000, and never stops it on leave (it's the vessel data hub).

Control What it does
Vitals grid A page of six live values (3×2). Tap anywhere to cycle the group: Nav → Engine → Environment → Power (page dots top-right).
Heartbeat line Pinned to the bottom edge: a freshness dot + distinct feed count, e.g. ● 3 feeds · 1.2s ago — one glance tells you the NMEA2000 → Signal K bridge is actually flowing. no data flowing in red means it isn't.

The pages:

Group Values
NAV SOG (kn), COG (°), HDG (°), STW (kn), rate of turn (°/s), GPS fix
ENGINE RPM, temp (°C), oil pressure (bar), coolant temp (°C), fuel rate (L/h), run hours
ENVIRON depth (m), apparent wind speed (kn) & angle (°), water temp (°C), air temp (°C), barometer (mbar)
POWER battery volts, state-of-charge (%), current (A), battery temp (°C), time remaining (h), solar power (W)

Signal K stores SI base units (m/s, radians, Kelvin, Pascals, Hz); Scottina converts on display to the units above. If Signal K security is on, set an access token in config.signalk_token (blank = open, the default).

Adding another web app

The framework lives in kilodash/webapp.py (a process/port supervisor + stdlib HTTP helpers) and screens/webapp_base.py (WebAppScreen). To add one, subclass WebAppScreen, set app_name/port/service (or start_cmd), and override the draw_app / handle_app_tap / poll_app hooks. See the main README.

Troubleshooting

Symptom Fix
No tile for an app Its backend isn't installed — run setup/install-phase4.sh.
Status card never turns green The service didn't come up on its port — check its systemd unit / logs; the card shows the port being probed.
Stopped an app by accident Tap the status card again — while stopped it relaunches immediately (no confirm on launch).
Kismet peer list won't populate Finish Kismet's one-time web login at the shown URL to set credentials.
Node-RED fields show — The /kilodash/state endpoint isn't in your flow yet — import the sample flow and see setup/NODE-RED.md.
AIS Transmit stays disabled Needs both a TX-capable SDR and ais-simulator; the RTL-SDR alone is receive-only.
Signal K shows "no data flowing" The NMEA2000 → SK bridge isn't feeding — check the source at the SK web UI.