HADashboard Tablet Hardware Options

I would look for a decent resolution, and something beyond android 4. There seem to be plenty of android 6 and 7 tablets about.

I plan on building a mount out of picture framing, paint it black. That’s a personal thing, I think it looks better than 3d printed plastic :slight_smile:

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I was looking at something like https://www.ebay.com.au/i/192566195950?chn=ps

Personally I would buy at that price, if it is no good it’s not much of a loss at $45 :slight_smile:

Try AU $125.00 if you include the tablet.
Having said that, I have a couple of no name tablets that boot with the name “Mediatech” on the screen.
They work ok. One is running HAdashboard in fully kiosk.

I made one from an old Acer Switch computer. Has a detachable keyboard, good battery life, touchscreen, etc. Bought several from eBay for around $60-80USD each. Made an Instructable to show how to get Lubuntu (17) on it (requires some steps and a 32-bit bootloader).

I put mine on a little tablet stand from Amazon, but would be fairly easy to mount to the wall with a custom 3d printed bezel. I can ssh into it for updates.

https://www.instructables.com/id/Linux-Kiosk-Tablet-From-Acer-Aspire-Switch-10-Bayt/
image

:poop: just got real the 2018 Fire HD 8.

Maybe not for the beginner but I followed a few guides over on xda was able to install Lineage OS.
Yep, those fine folks have figured out how to unlock the bootloader and a custom rom is now available!

This is a game changer, I mean seriously, we can finally disable the lock screen! I’m using WallPanel to display my dashboards and finally I can allow the screen to completely shut off, wake on motion, and go straight back to my dashboard
 on a fire tablet!

If your comfortable using the terminal in Linux and/or have ever flashed a custom android rom this is really worth a look. I took my time reading through the guides several times and downloaded required files while waiting for my HD 8 to arrive in the mail.

I’m by no means an expert in this category but I do use (Arch) Linux on my computer and have some limited experience with the Android adb. The entire process from opening a new HD 8 till I had Lineage OS installed, running WallPanel and controlling my dashboards was about 35 minutes.

The guides are here if you feel comfortable to try the same:

Unlock the bootloader and installs custom recovery (TWRP).
Required before you can install Lineage OS.
ROOT HD8(2018) via Magisk + [TWRP]

The thread and files for Lineage OS
LineageOS 14.1 Fire HD8 2018

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i have fire 7 and 10 overhere.
lockscreen never a problem with fully kiosk correct configured and HADashboard on its full use.
so i think that the same is also possible for people who are afraid to completely reinstall a different OS on a tablet.

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I’ll have to take a look fully kiosk for my Fire 7s. I’ve known about it for a while but never actually tried it out. I know flashing roms is not for everybody (and it’s not even possible on the 7) but man this thing is screaming fast now and completely stripped of all adware bloatware bs. I know this thing is only being used as a wall mount control but I still smile when I look and see a proper android os with only 18 installed apps :grin:

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its actually possible with any kind of browser.
only the wake up on movement is a bit more difficult.

but its easy possible with HADashboard to send a blank black screen to a tablet on a certain time or on demand.
it wouldnt shut down the tablet, but it would reduce the light to zero, and the power use to a minimum.

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This is good to know. You may have just saved my Fire 7s. I never thought about

This is really what I wanted. Wallpanel does have a nice feature to dim the screen by as much as 90% which looks off in the daytime but when it’s the only light in a room (bedroom) I can really notice at night.

I could live without the motion if the screen (my dashboard) would come back with a tap on the screen.

create a dashboard with a black background
set the widget size to full screensize
add 1 navigate widget to the dashboard off you liking
hide the icon.
now you have a black dashboard that loads another dashboard as soon as you hit it.

you can navigate at night manually to that dashboard, or load it with an app or automation.
1 downside, at this point automations and apps send the dashboard to all active panels at the same time.
or add a javascript to the head from your skin, so that the black screen loads on a certain moment.

1 upside: the dashboard and tablet are fully active. so you can send alarm warning dashboards (a cam from the front door after movement for example) to the tablet without the need to wake it up.

Nexus 7 Wall Mount Lovelace Dashboard

  • Remove dead battery and power directly using a 5v USB charger wires soldered to the charging board. This also allowed the wires to come out of the back.
  • Cut opening through the rear cover for USB connector.
  • Cut opening in the wall for the USB cable. I have a USB charger sitting on the other side of the wall.
  • Mount rear cover to the wall using two screws. I kept the screw heads where the battery was and the N7 snaps on the cover without interference.
  • Snap N7 on the cover.
  • Run Lovelace UI through fully kiosk browser.

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I’ve been installing Fire HD 8 tablets and running Fully kiosk browser on them. They work pretty well and cost is nice.

Only a few minor gripes with the native FireOS and all would be resolved by rooting it.

First is getting Fully kiosk installed. It’s no problem to side load the Google Play Store, it would just be nice if Fully was available through the Amazon App Store. The others are with display control. FireOS doesn’t support double tap to wake, meaning you always have to press the button to wake the sleeping display (or use Fully’s motion sensor). It also doesn’t let you bypass the lock screen, meaning you always have to unlock it when waking it. The workaround for both of these is to use the Fully screensaver with the darkness set to 0, but this also results in a dim glow in a dark room.

Again, these are super minor gripes, I just have some interest in changing the behavior. I don’t mind attempting a root, but my understanding is that it’s not wildly simple on the Fire tablets. Anyone have a good reference point? The other option I can pursue is just replacing the fire tablets in the bedrooms with native Android tablets. If I go that route, does anyone have recommendations on low cost, well-functioning alternatives?

just go to the fully website, download the right file and install. no store needed at all.

or load a black dashboard

Currently using four wall mounted panels. each panel is an iPad Mini 4 with vidabox holder and slim mount (https://www.vidabox.com/kiosks/vidamount-secure-fixed-wall-ipad-mini-4-tablet-enclosure-mount-light-grey.html) 
 panels are located above an existing wall switch to simplify adding a power outlet (using usb enabled ac outlet). Safari easily allows short cuts to run in kiosk mode with guided access preventing HADashboard from exiting.

feature also supporting UHD TV with custom dashboards.

Finally got tired of the constant crashing of wallpanel (old android OS) so I decided to spend a bit of money and convert to a pi and touchscreen. I did lose some of the features like auto off and on etc but as its running Raspbian with Chromium as the display, I can probably eventually find a solution to most of that. By far NOT the cheapest route, but it has been fairly stable the last few days.
Touchscreen: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MXHH7DJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I can say that any type of animation on the screen (radar, camera, animated background) causes CPU to spike and RAM usage to get out of control. Hoping my new pi4 that shows up today helps with all of that.

Update 03/26/2021 - Noticed this URL is getting quite a few hits. I would recommend AGAINST buying this specific monitor. Within 1 week the burn in on the screen made it unusable and it would no longer update visuals properly. I ended up spending a little more and replacing it with this touchscreen instead: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01E06JSI4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
This thing has been rock solid and chugging along without any issue since September 2019.

I have been considering trying out lovelace dashboards but my existing HADasboard/AppDaemon does the trick. I am using a pi 3b+ and POE with the 7" touchscreen. I used this 3d printed design for mounting the 7" touchscreen/pi and ran a single CAT6 for POE.

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So its been a long time since 2017 but i thought we have the same tablet samsung galaxy tab 3 i am not able to download the hassio app but i have read that other guys with old samsung tablets wasnt able to connect to hassio via the browser because it was an older version or something is that true? How ypu controll hassio throu your tablet?

Has anyone tried something like this cheap android tablet? I currently have a Fire 7 tablet running Fully Kiosk and it’s just plain slow. I was wondering if the tablet above might display the UI a little smoother.

I’ve got a Vankyo 10" which is possibly nearly a year old now. I con’t compare with the Fire 7 (or any other tablet except a MS Surface and that wouldn’t be a fair comparison!) but I can tell you that it is just about ok speed wise although I use it as mostly static (information providing) wall panel.

I got it because it was very cheap.

I will tell you that the screen is not very bright and given that after responsiveness with Lovelace that is the most important thing that could be a reason not to get it. I use it with fully Kiosk and whilst I don’t plan to change it for a while on balance, I probably wish I hadn’t got it.

As I said it is just about ok, that’s all.