Best tablet for kiosk

I’m looking at possibly having one or multiple wall mounted tablets for controlling home assistant. It seems there are lots of android tablets and it seems like rooting them is the cleanest way to go about it. I googled “rooting android/fire tablets” and there are lots of resources and some appear to be more difficult to do than others. The instructions seem for the most part to be within my skill set. Anyone have any recommendations on favorite devices or models to avoid?

Hi, landed here when I was searching info about kiosk mode to be able to hide the header from lovelace.

Just a suggestion…
I’m using a Raspberry Pi with touch screen as a kiosk, it has - in my opinion - a few advantages over a tablet:

  • total freedom of OS and apps
  • no apps I don’t need (and cannot remove)
  • great price/performance value
  • better ability to upgrade

The way I’m using it is to run the browser in kiosk mode with html tabs and iframes to control HA, my music server and a weather site

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@Nick4 that’s pretty close to what I ended up doing. I bought an elecrow touchscreen monitor designed for a rpi and I use it with a Mac mini that acts as my security camera server. I keep the camera server, home assistant and Apple Music in full screen mode and swipe between them. So far so good.

Which touchscreen did you get?
That’s nice that you can swipe between apps!
Because I love the flexibility of RPi’s it was obvious to choose that route.

Note to self: research possibility to swipe between apps on RPi.

Since you mentioned having multiple tablets, have you seen this (it has a high DIY factor but I think that it’s a very interesting option): HA SwitchPlate - DIY LCD Touchscreen wall switch replacement

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That’s pretty neat, but question how usable it would be. I got the elecrow monitor on amazon. It’s 10.1”. I think it’s 2k resolution, but I’m running it closer to 720p just to keep the buttons large. It was about $150 and the touchscreen software was another $100 or so. This is the main station at the center of the house. Not sure if I need more just yet, but if I do, I’ll likely go the rpi route.

Regarding usability of these little touchscreens: I have read and thought a lot about ways to interact with HA and what to use to replace existing controls.
I have still not figured out how, and if, it’s possible to not have to push ‘any’ lightswitch anymore, start/stop devices when entering/leaving the house or another room.
There is a medium size dog in the house so I think motion sensors are not an option either.
I’m considering to try such a touchscreen since it’s DIY, cheap, has a bigger usability compared to all the wireless buttons and the flexibility to place it ‘anywhere’

What touchscreen software did you have to buy?

https://www.touch-base.com/

HDMI, not I2S/SPI, but only 7 inches diagonal.

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Hi,
I would like to builds kiosk with Raspberry Pi and I would like to add few hardware buttons under the display. Is it possible use Raspberry IO pins? Is there a solution for this?