Hello all, first post here but I’m a longtime Home Assistant user.
I just wanted to put this device on everyone’s radar. It’s a 10.1" smart calendar/picture frame that is open to ADB over wifi OOTB, has no battery, a sleek case, and can be found for $110 or less. It comes with a kickstand or can easily be mounted on a wall with the same hardware you’d use to mount a picture frame.
2GB RAM, 32GB storage, Allwinner A133 SoC, there’s a USB C port inside that can be used for power or data, or you can use the included 5v2a DC adapter. The processor is decent enough to decode video from my doorbell without freaking out and can navigate dashboards and other webpages smoothly. There’s even UART pins on the board if you really mess things up like I did by locking myself out with Fully Kiosk Browser.
Onto Fully Kiosk Browser. I can’t get it to function reliably without locking myself out of ADB. I think it’s due to the custom android build and how it presents a work profile. Thankfully the Home Assistant Companion app works just fine and can be made to start on launch by adding:
exec u:r:shell:s0 – /system/bin/sh -c “sleep 15 && am start -n io.homeassistant.companion.android/.launch.LaunchActivity”
to
/vendor/etc/init/hw/init.device.rc
via ADB.
I got mine at B&H in NYC on sale recently for $110. It retails for $130 but I think it can be found for less as the product ages and the holidays roll around. It’s way easier to set up than a fire tab or the lenovos I see everyone using.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1908819-REG/aluratek_awfc10f_10_wifi_digital_calendar.html
Happy to answer any questions anyone has about it. The device is surprisingly open. Anyone with mild android experience should be able to make their way around it. Since it runs Android 10 it goes without saying you’ll want to take the appropriate security precautions by at least doing basic network segmentation if you intend to use it long-term.
