Hi G3tiD0n3 (btw, love the username), does the backlight actually go off, or does the screen just dim with your configuration? I’m on the 8.1 ROM, and as I said, I’m see all kinds of wackiness with regard to screen brightness (no honoring adb settings) and the backlight going off most of the time using the “Back Light Off” from XDA, and Automagic, but not 100% of the time, and I can’t figure out why.
Thanks!
Thanks. Sounds positive. I’ll explore a bit this weekend. I don’t currently have MQTT although used to run it.
getting back to you here. So I went with the A11 Rom presented in post #440, it works quite good so far.
- fully kiosk mode running
- squeeze player starting in the background from the kiosk
Available in LMS as a player, and home assistant in the background. Very happy with that (for now)
Out on a limb here, but would we be able to use the USB as a DAC / audio output? I have a USB DAC here that I’ve used with phones before (audioquest dragonly red), that would make the lenovo even more versatile as a ‘media player’ of sorts.
Anyone experience with using the USB as an output instead of an input?
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I’m going to give the A11 ROM a go today.
So when you say fully kiosk - do you mean web or single app version? So far I’ve been using the single app version.
Does it play audio ok?
fully kiosk web, opening home assistant from there (and squeeze player in the background)
Thanks. Does squeeze player work ok?
So is A11 the new recommended installation or should i stick with the firmware in the first post? Just trying to determine what firmware is getting the most attention/fixes/improvements. TIA.
It should work, I’ve used these as USB hosts for octoprint.
Linux
Thanks. How stable is the linux stuff and is there a how to anywhere on the installation? I had A8 working well and tried A11 but wasnt able to connect to wifi for some reason so i couldnt get much of the setup going. Flashing A8 back onto it for the time being but would love to get the latest and greatest going on this.
Edit: after flashing A8 back onto the devices, i am stuck at the blue HA splashscreen and nothing loads. adb doesnt detect the device, it just sits. Any ideas?
I’m currently having a love/hate relationship with A11. I’ve got it mostly working but have had some really weird issues with apps crashing for no reason and worse getting in a state where it crashed to Lenovo logo and only a factory reset would bring it back. I’m not saying don’t try it but I will say I spent several frustrating days with it.
All said, I’ve got it running Wallpanel and IP Webcam with control via Browser Mod. Browser Mod does provide it as a media player entity with HA. Also, you may want to install an updated version of web view as the one included does not have some of the newer CSS stuff.
I have some notes written on my View Assist wiki that may give some insight.
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Your WiFi issues on A11 may have been caused by WPA3 encryption, for some reason that is a bug. Switching the wifi to use WPA2 would probably fix it but it’s understandably not ideal.
The failure to boot is likely because the partitioning is different between the A11 and A8 ROMs, you’ll want to use one of the factory firmwares to repartition it back to stock. (They can be found here: CD-18781Y (Lenovo ThinkSmart View) Bootloader, Firmware, Zoom/Teams Conversion, Normal Android | XDA Forums)
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Turning off auto connect in WiFi settings seems to solve the reboot to Lenovo logo issue. If you or anyone else does find themselves stuck on the Lenovo logo boot screen, you can get around having to do a factory reset by just leaving the device unplugged for a few minutes and then trying again. Leaving it unplugged seems to give more time in the lock screen dance described at then end of your linked wiki.
Thanks for sharing. Seems odd. Don’t I need to keep auto connect on though or am I misunderstanding what that function is used for?
The login info for your WiFi network is still saved, it just doesn’t connect automatically. You’ll have to manually go into WiFi settings and select your network on each reboot. I don’t power down my device often, so this hasn’t bothered me.
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Understood and good to know. I’ll add your tip to the wiki.
While we don’t get a whole lot of power outages here, we do get the occasional flicker due to thunderstorms or glitches. I’d really like to have things where fixes like this aren’t necessary but I guess you take the good with the bad.
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I’m trying to understand the limitations of turning screen off/on on 8.1 ROM.
I have fully kiosk single app running the HA companion app. I’ve installed the Fully Kiosk integration and it works. I can see the various settings and controllers.
The switch labelled ‘screen’ does turn the screen off but not on. After a few seconds the switch turns back on but the screen doesn’t come on. I’ve seen various posts here about turning the screen on but not sure if they are related. The screen brightness control works ok it seems but dims down, not fully turning off.
Sorry if this has already been answered but couldn’t see that.
Any thoughts or is this still a limitation of this ROM version?
Thanks 
I found screen on toggle doesn’t work either. I was able to work around that by turning off display with screen off, and to get display back on I just change brightness to any value (usually 254 then 255). I also toggle screen back on just so I can easily turn off again.
Good tip thanks!
I’m just setting up an nspanel pro which does work, so a bit frustrating this one doesn’t work (yet). Hopefully it will improve over time with all the good work going on here - it’s much appreciated as these devices are amazing.
@dinki curious if your github repo instructions would work with android 8? I currently have 2 thinksmarts, 1 is running PMOS which seems a bit buggy at the moment. The other has A8 installed and im curious if i could get the whole ViewAssist stuff running on A8 instead of having to try and reflash the stock firmware and then flash A11 again (something about partitions being different). Im also seeing a number of different android apps for AutoStart Manager and Webview DevTools. Could you provide links to the specific ones you’re using?