Greetings all! I feel as if I have exhausted my known resources searching for a mentored approach in purchasing a touchscreen display for exclusively displaying a HA Dashboard. Please contribute any ideas, experience, or recommendations for this project.
My current vision is to use a Raspberry Pi 5 to provide the hardware interface. I still have not decided on the best OS for the Pi, or the Application/Web Browser/Companion to interface with Home Assistant.
As for the display, I was thinking of a touchscreen enabled display/monitor. The desired features would be thin, HDMI input, and the ability to be wall mounted or in-wall mounting.
All of the hardware will be purchased new for this exclusive project. I am eagerly waiting for ideas! Thanks to all for reading into by Brainstorming request for collaboration.
I use an iPad, just because we have serveral of them. A Android based tablet would provide more features. The tablets are super simple to mount, as there is multiple providers to choose from and power is super simple as any USB will provide power enough.
Main drawback for an iPad vs Android versions, are lack of possibility to control “screen on/screen off”, so I just have it on all the time.
USB is simple and easy. Some use Amazon Kindles, but they are locked down to use their ecosystem. Sure, you can use some tricks to get around it, but you have to be on the alert for pushed updates that will mess things up.
A lot of people recommend the Lenovo Tab M series. The M10 seems popular. Reasonably priced. Using Fully Kiosk Browser (rather than the device’s browser or the HA Companion app) makes setup a snap and turns it into a full kiosk solution.
Thank you for the reply, I have an available iPad. I think I tried it before, but could not keep the display or app running. I would need to find out how to wipe everything on it, as I believe that may have caused it’s corruption. And another reason I desired a monitor/display is size. Eye sight is not near what it used to be, so I would be able to display more buttons, etc. Example, my iPhone dashboard can only display a grid of 2x4 buttons without scrolling, anything beyond that and I am not able to see the details provided without a magnifier
Agree on the screen size, bigger is better. Think my iPad Pro 12.9 inch is OK, a rather old model, maybe 5-6 years.
I have wiped it and setup a new iCloud account to ensure it will not give access to anything, removed all the app it will allow me to remove and made sure the first home page only have one app, the HA app. In setting, set the “automatic lock” to never.
To lock it further down the accessible options allow this, there are multible posts on how to do this. I decided it was to much work, just use it in standard mode.
Fortunately for me, is cost is not a limitation. But the size is, I am hoping for a 24" display. The project will be dedicated for the dashboard display, so that at a glance I can see status of HA.
So I just looked into my iPad… I think I am definitely showing my age now
I have a iPad Air 128GB, (A1475 1st Generation). That probably explains why it operates so poorly. Still, I am very curious of how you went about wiping it. Perhaps I could resurrect it as a portable display. (I just don’t want to get too far off topic, as it would not fulfill my need of the larger display.)
The “wipe” was super easy. First I created a new iCloud account on a new e-mail, to make sure there were no link to accounts used daily. Then I choose “setting”, “general”, “reset or wipe” (all the way to the buttom). Choose “reset as new” (or something similar). After reboot, chose “setup as new” and you got a new clean iPad.
LOL… Told ya, my iPad hardly functioned as a brick (Not big enough to stop the boat from drifting). HA Interface requires IOS 15.0 or later. Updated, it rests peacefully at 12.5.7 Go figure.
While the HA app doesn’t work, I was able to get Safari to load up on 12.5.7 on my iPad Mini. It’s not the greatest experience, but it does work for basic control of things (lights, switches, scenes, etc). Some custom cards won’t load (due to Safari being ancient), but I created a specific dashboard with just minimal elements to use. That seems to help.
@code-in-progress Thanks. I was able to use Safari to load my HA. You are right on the money with your comment that it was not a great experience. I thought it was funny how much was not visible because of the age of the device. I do appreciate the support of the community offering alternative quests.
But I still seek information for HA on a 24" to 36" touchscreen display on or in wall mounted HA Dashboard. Am I really the first to have such a vision?
Does anyone have advice for a fellow HA community member that wants to bring the Home Assistant Smart Home to the next level?
There are 24" and 27" Android tablets on Amazon. An android tablet with the Fully Kiosk Mode app is a proven, reliable, and well documented solution. All you need is a tablet large enough to meet your requirements, which is the only novel aspect of your project.
That said, I don’t see any reason why a PI driving a large touch-screen monitor wouldn’t work, there just aren’t a lot of people doing it. Most folks don’t have that kind of available wall space or enough spouse-approval-factor-credits for a project that big.
Any touch enabled monitor would work, from professional brands like Dell or Asus, to cheap external monitors off your favourite Chinese site.
You’d obviously need to have separate hardware to run the OS (and no, this can’t be the same server that you’re using to run HA). Depending on your mounting space and whether you intend to use it for other apps, anything from a small intel stick to a Raspberry pi 5 hidden behind the monitor will do.
Hell, you could even go all out and get a micro pc (something in this form factor) if space and cooling requirements aren’t an issue.
There’s a few threads on this forum about this, but if you want specific model recommendations, there’s plenty of posts on the Home Assistant Facebook group. Good luck!
I would personally recommend “Wallpanel”.
I run a tablet with Wallpanel and it exposes the tablets sensors to mqtt. I then use an external motion sensor to send “screen on” command to the tablet.
Fully can also do this but i found it was easier with Wallpanel.
It works perfect on all mine. I will bet I know the issue which took me sometime to solve for various flavors of Android. You must enable “Display over other apps” and many devices block this ability … like period … like it’s offensive because it says “You cannot set that on because it causes too much battery use”.
I mean, it’s my tablet … who disables it without a chance for the consumer to make the decision?
BUT … you can override the manufacturer’s locked settings.
I had to go all the way to step 4 here and use the Android SDK to do it.
@ShadowFist,
I like your idea of the MiniPc. In fact, I think it will be easier than the Pi5.
With the many advisory reports of tablet problems from being constantly powered, I think it is the way to go… Would have any recommendations for a touchscreen thin enough to wall mount? I am hoping for 24". Thanks for collaborating
No personal recommendations for a touchscreen from my end, but do have a search in the HA Facebook group I linked to earlier. Plenty of recommendations there already
@ShadowFist Thanks for you assistance. (I don’t do FaceBook )
Today I completed the purchase. Thanks to everyone that took the time to contribute…
Here is the chosen configuration…
Dell OptiPlex 7040 MFF with Intel Quad Core i5 6500T 2.5Ghz and 16GB DDR4 Ram.
ASUS VT229H 21.5" 1080P Monitor with 10-Point Touch Eye Care.
And of course it would be incomplete without a VESA Quick Release Monitor Wall Mount.
Not bad for $360, I was expecting double that.
But the size is, I am hoping for a 24" display. The project will be dedicated for the dashboard display, so that at a glance I can see status of HA.
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