Been testing out HADashboard on a Fire Tab 7 found it almost perfect for a per room control panel!
I paid Amazon to turn off the Ads i know hacks exist but for ease this time decided just to pay.
My optimum functionality is to have the screen dim and then brighten when motion is detected. I kind of achieved this using @quadportnick s Wall Panel app. I checked “prevent screen from sleeping” but the lock screen still activates!
Has anybody got the Fire7 operating like this?
I just bought a Fire HD 8, and went through almost the same process. Current version of wall panel app does not work for me either with the lock screen appearing. I have now tried Fully Kiosk Browser and that seems to work fine with dimming the screen and waking up. You can try this app with all features before you buy.
Thanks @exxamalte ill check it out. I really wanted the MQTT and Camera functionality of Wall Panel maybe ill just wait to find something stable before rolling it out whole house…
How are you finding the Fire8 used in these circumstances? Any other problems?
Sorry, I am still waiting for mounting brackets to be delivered, so the tablet is not yet hanging on the wall. Dry-runs of the app look promising though.
I use Fire tablets in my setup and added in auto bright/dim functionality into Wall Panel. It’s been merged into the main repo, but @quadportnick hasn’t cut a new release yet. In the mean time if you’d like to test it out i’ve posted a compiled build on my fork here: https://github.com/mezz64/wallpanel-android/releases/tag/0.7
Nope, no lock screen. I keep the tablets awake and just let them dim to the lowest level when not used/triggered.
So, i’m not using a fire tab, but i’m using IP Webcam paid for version, along with tasker to dim/light up the screen as and when someone walks past the tablet as IP Webcam detects the motion. Therefore I’ve set the screen to always on in the settings to avoid it being powered off.
I enabled the developer options and selected the ‘stay awake’ option. (Settings/general/about and tap the build number 5-10 times to enable developer settings depending on device)
I had gone the tasker route also and it worked fine during the day. (I was going from screen off to on with motion). At night it was difficult to get it to trigger.
With this I gave up and now have it on 24/7. Screen dims based on time of day/sun position now and it has been much easier/less gimmicky. No more bouncing around in front of the screen to get it to brighten, it just works.
@exxamalte Do you have any media players in your dashboards? I really liked Fully Kiosk Browser until I noticed that it wasn’t refreshing my Sonos players. It would stay on the first song that was selected. Too bad, seemed like it would have been a great solution. Do you see the same behavior on your side?
you’re correct - at night the cams are no good and therefore the whole screen off wouldn’t work. For me it ends up at night being dim all the time as it can’t detect motion, but this isn’t an issue at night, as even at its most dim, its easily seen and still lights up the surrounding area!
No, I don’t have a media player widget integrated at the moment.
Since mezz64’s post on a custom version of Wallpanel I have tried that again, and it works fine on the Fire HD 8 with dimming the screen. The tablet reports motion, light, battery status via MQTT. The tablet is not yet mounted on the wall, so it remains to be seen, how well any dimming/waking up approach works in real life.
I use fully on a cheap insignia flex (bestbuy) tablet and my itunes media player dash widget refreshes fine.
Thanks guys for your reply, I will have to dive deeper into WallPanel, I am not sure that I understand how to install it and what MQTT can do for it.
@mezz64 I’ve downloaded the apk from your repository, but how do I set the screen dim/bright?
The only option I can see is the Bright on motion option.
There are two settings, one to enable screen dim/bright on motion and the second to specify the screen on time before it dims by itself. So as long as it’s enabled, when the camera detects motion the screen will go to full brightness and then assuming no other motion is detected it will wait the specified delay value and then dim the screen to the lowest setting.
You can also manually change the screen brightness using the “brightness” api endpoint. I’ve actually only tested the endpoint through mqtt, but with the app structure it should work as a rest command also.
MQTT example:
topic: wallpanel/YOURDEVICE/command payload: {‘brightness’:255}