Hi everyone, after perusing the different solutions given on how to use an old ipad (4th gen) as a dedicated dashboard, i managed to get a couple of things working.
I’m running a headless Firefox docker container through Portainer, which runs in full screen mode and auto-loads the correct url (HA dashboard + kioskmode). On the ipad i use VNC Viewer to connect to this and thus getting a working dashboard on the ipad.
So far so good, everything works as intended and i can operate the dashboard from the ipad, it runs nicely in full screen in combination with kiosk mode, so no sidebars etc.
However, i noticed after some testing that while connected with VNC Viewer, the screen never seems to go off. I have given it several attempts, waiting up to 30 minutes but the screen never goes off, nor does it ever go dim.
I would like the ipad’s screen to go off after some time, so that i can wake it back up using a motion sensor (a trick shown in some other topics using a motion sensor + a notification send through homekit) - does anyone have any pointers in how i can achieve this? I have checked all the settings and options in the vnc viewer, but no mention of this.
Perhaps i need to try some other vnc clients?
many thanks in advance for any tips / pointers you guys might have.
I think you might as well go search for the holy grail.
You need to find a VNC client to your old iPad, which has settings to allow screen blanking.
Your iPad is not supported by Apple anymore, so developers have abandoned most programs on that platform.
On top of that you want a feature that is generally ignored in VNC clients, because these clients are mainly used to connect to some remote machine to do some maintenance and then disconnect again.
The iPad will have to somehow read the VNC signal and determine when it should blank.
Now the next part of your problem is that your iPad is essentially only a monitor, keyboard and mouse, so there are probably no way of sending the state of the screen blanking back to the VNC server and the VNC server should probably also be able to send a command to the VNC client to unblank again.
This is not a standard feature at all, so the client and server probably needs to be made by the same developer, which limits the selection again.
Lastly having the states in the VNC server do no good for you, if HA can not read the state and send commands too, so you VNC should also be able to integrate with HA without loosing the other abilities, which again limits the selection.
I can’t say for sure your options are nil, but I think so still.
Not sure if I’m missing something (maybe your ipad is too old), but wouldn’t it be much simpler to install the companion app on it and have that running your dashboard?
You could technically then be able to make use of the ipad’s own screen timeout settings instead of having to try out different vnc clients, plus it’ll get you a bunch more device sensors which you can use for your automations.
Alternatively, this post discusses how you can achieve all on an ipad this via a couple of HACS integrations to call blackout and no_blackout.
There are a couple of kiosk programs that work well on iOS too, I used to use them for just this purpose - although I can’t recall which one. I switched my wall tablets to inexpensive Amazon Fire HD’s and FullyKiosk.
You are best to just load up the HA dashboard you want to use with it via the web browser if the app is not able to be installed and just lock it as a kiosk mode instance for it:
Hmm, yeah it does say that indeed. Unfortunately it doesn’t. I did manage to get an older version of the app installed but as soon as you try to connect it gives an ‘Object mapper’ error and starts over. Quick search says that it’s due to OS/device not being compatible anymore.
Ah well, the search continues. Got this ipad for 15 euro’s, so i don’t mind fiddling a little and if it doesn’t work the way i need, then it’s back to ebay looking for a slightly newer tablet.
I’d flag it with the devs just in case it’s a tiny issue.
Otherwise, I’d just go with @CO_4X4’s suggestion for a cheap android tablet with Fully kiosk. Only pity about it is they didn’t yet get it running on ios, otherwise all your issues would have been resolved.
PS - the below might still work out for you. Have you given it a shot?
I did have a look at it yes, but doesn’t that ‘solution’ imply that it’s working through the app or browser? Or am i missing something obvious? Ive ready through that browser-mod github a few times but i’m still not sure how it’s gonna aid me.
One thing i’m gonna test, is to have the VNC VIEWER solution open, and just keep that open for some time, i tested it up to 30 mins and the screen never went off, perhaps it will eventually? Worth a try i guess since the VNC option is the best working solution so far (minus the screen never going off)
The browser mod addon works as a browser with extra “perks” Based on what I read (haven’t actually installed it) it has a service call which allows you to dim the screen using a home assistant service. I don’t think the Node-Red part is actually required or necessary based on a quick skim of the browser mod addon docs.
ah yes, now that i took a bit more time to read up on this addon it might just do the trick. From what i read it’s not actually turning off the screen, but blacks it out. Which honestly is fine with me. Gonna give it a try tonight and see how it works. I already have a tiny zigbee motion sensor, so that could be the trigger to turn it back on hopefully.
Honestly if this works, i’m just gonna roll with it. I’ll just put a simple automation to power the usb-cable every few hours so not to keep it powered full-time. Surely it’s not good for the tablet to be on 24/7 but it’s sitll better than eating dust in a cabinet. Once it dies i’ll look into upgrading to something newer.
Many thanks for taking the time to answer and i’ll definitely report back once i’ve tried the browser_mod.
This is so far the best solution, thanks @ShadowFist - Installed browser mod through HACS and it added a browser entity/device which has a neat litlte option indeed to blackout and no_blackout - works nicely through the UI as well. It also offers a binary sensor that CLEARS/DETECT whenever there’s interaction through that browser. Very neat.
Did a Proof of Concept with some quick-and-dirty automations last night to test if this route will work:
If motion_sensor_x = clear AND the binary sensor both are clear for 10 minutes → Blackout screen
If motion_sensor_x = occupied → Screen goes back to ‘normal’.
Touching the screen in any way (and thus triggering the binary sensor) automatically turns the screen back to normal as well. No automation was needed for this, works fine out of the box.
I also managed to get the old ipad’s battery percentage in HA through the iCloud integration, which allows me to toggle the power on the charger whenever it gets below a certain percentage with the help of a smart socket.
Gonna have this running through the day today to see how it all performs but i’m pretty happy so far! Thanks @ShadowFist for pointing me in the right direction!