I successfully use a 24/7 plugged in tablet with WallPanel for Android as a control panel for my HA.
Now I have another Android tablet roaming around the house, which often leads to it left completely discharged.
Ideally, I want to get the battery charge level from that tablet and to be able to control it from a HA automation (when the level drops below 50%, for example) by displaying an alert on its screen or switching it off completely (that’s what I came up to so far to avoid deep discharges).
WallPanel is a nice app that among other things (with MQTT enabled) can send battery level as a MQTT message, but there are 2 problems:
- It needs to start on startup, but on that tablet there is no need for it to be in foreground as I only use its MQTT features here (it’s not a HA fronted device)
- It does not allow me to shutdown the device
So it looks like WallPanel is not the best tool for the job, but I am not familiar with anything that can send battery charge level to HA somehow (MQTT?) and has HA-supported remote control (MQTT/REST?) to perform shutdown/display an alert on the screen.
Any suggestions on app/approach?