I’m in a similar position, so I’ve read this with interest.
Just a couple of silly questions;
Is the Dell the server or accessing the server on other hardware?
Is the Asus monitor just a monitor (connected to the Dell) or is it more like a tablet driven by android acting independently like a tablet would?
Thanks for any clarification in advance!
Greetings!
I am happy to provide the details…
The Dell OptiPlex 7040 MFF, is a standalone PC, But it has access to the Server that is hosting Home Assistant. Additionally, it is set to automatically display my Dashboard(s).
The Asus Monitor is a TouchScreen connected to the Dell OptiPlex. I chose this option because it is much larger and easy to see. I needed touchscreen because the only thing visible is the screen, it would be awkward to have keyboard or mouse on such a display interface. Many have commented that it could be done cheaply using a tablet; I chose not to go the cheap route, instead, it is Super Reliable and large enough to see from across the room.
Additionally, if you like the build but have not decided where to hide the PC, check this out on Amazon, you cam mount it directly behind the monitor. MFF Mount Bracket
@tvns, If you need any additional information feel free to contact me.
Thank you, that makes perfect sense now!
I am just deciding how to go about remotely viewing dedicated dashboards. My mini PC is the server which I can locate anywhere, so it may end up with the solar install once that’s done.
I’ve been more focused on whether I want a tablet, android display, or some other display to use for the remote dashboard.
Really appreciate the details and clarification you provided! Thanks agajn.
What OS do you install? Windows?
Yes, I am using Windows. The Dell OptiPlex MFF (Micro Form Factor) PC came with the OS installed. I was so impressed with how this project turned out that I built another for in my work shop.
Another option for anyone who is looking to do this would be using a raspberry pi 5. Install nvme storage and flash the pi with base android 14 (many tutorials), then get Google play store. Running the base install of android would give you the functionality of using a tablet such as play store apps and fully kiosk, and would remove the inconvenience of a battery in a tablet. Hook this up to a wall mounted touchscreen monitor and your set. Most android software for raspberry pi supports USB camera/webcam that you could hide in the monitor frame and use for auto-waking the screen. This method may use less power and be more responsive than Windows. Just a suggestion!
I have the same project and I read all the posts with great interest.
Thanks @007DJ for kick starting and driving this topic.
I’m curious, when you say it cost you $360, what currency are you using? US$?
I’m in Australia, AU$360 seems very affordable.
Thanks
US
Touch Screen what the highest. Mini PCs are low priced.
Hey, so my first thought was the same as yours, a Raspberry Pi connected to a screen, but I quickly discovered that touch screens are expensive, bulky, and not all that attractive for wall mounting. You know what is cheap, slim, and good looking? Surface devices. I initially was thinking something like a Surface Go with a low end Intel Processor, but that still didn’t seem super cost effective to me. I then remembered the Surface Book (the laptop with detachable “Clipboard” tablet). The Surface Book tablets can be bought for super cheap on eBay, and you can just plug the Surface power cable into the bottom of it to keep it powered. It is super slim (7.7mm), more powerful than a Raspberry Pi, can be purchased in good condition used for $100-$200, and has a 13.5 inch screen that I think is just perfect for a touch panel. It’s high res and 3:2 aspect ratio, so you get a lot of tiles on the screen and they all look good.
I’m working on a 3d printable wall mount for it at the moment, but even just some VHB tape to the wall would honestly look pretty good with this device.
My plan for the OS is just Windows in Kiosk mode opening to a Home Assistant Dashboard I have set up. Additionally, I’m investigating a way to make the device wake up when motion is detected, but worst case scenario I’ll just have it always stay on.
Hello 007DJ,
Was searching for an alternative of the 11" tablet I was using. Based on your experience I bought the ASUS VT229H Full HD Touch Monitor and started testing, it works great with my laptop as system for it. With raspberry PI (3B) the response was unacceptable slow. Ended up with a Dell optiplex 7040MFF which gives a perfect response experience. But only one downside I’m trying to solve. I prefer to not have the screen always on. Currently it wakes-up when touching the screen, but that takes about 5 / 6 seconds. Sounds acceptable, but in practice this kills a smooth user experience. As the next step I want to make wake-up done by some motion detection functionality, but that delay in the wake-up will stay in issue then.
As you have exactly the same setup, what is your experience with this? And did you found a solution for the slow wakeup? Thinking about leaving it always on, but I hope there is a better solution.
Thanks! Much appreciated your shared experiences! KR, John
Could you share pictures of your setup? I’d really like to do something like this!
I’m courious, how much do electricity costs there? Here in the EU a full featured PC, with an i7, and an fairly sized LCD on 24/7/365 would create a little dent on my hobby budget just for showing a “simple” dashboard on a wall.
Dynamic tariff, so hard to say exactly. But let’s say around 0,25 euro on average.
With those things I find bit hard to really compare the power use, because of the following. I have an electric car, so charging sucks about 50kwh out of the wall. Also if it’s parked there is some drain, let’s say 2kwh a day or so. Nothing to do about that… but it feels like more waste than having my i5 system for the wall tablet running non stop on let’s say 30w/h, so about 0,7kwh a day. It gives me a lot of “value” for that less than 1kwh a day.
Yes; i’m trying to automate / optimize my power consumption for devices where it’s not needed, or savings can be automated. But you got the idea for this one :).
Btw, still looking for a solution to have this screen turning on quick. It’s now configured with 1 hour “screen off” time, to have the inconvenience as few times as possible, while still having it off when not needed. It’s more about unnecessary of the device being always on than on the power waste of the screen itself. (shining some light in the room which I want to have dark during the night).
If you are going to use a RPI (or some similar linux machine) you may want to have a look into my TouchKio project, which provides Home Assistant sensors of the touchscreen device to turn the display on/off with some external presence/motion sensor:
I just got this same setup. how did you set it up?
Sorry seen only now your reply…
1kW/day it seems cheap compared with an electric car, I’ll admit that we’re talking peanuts, but around 100€/Y, at the same time if you need just a dashboard I’ll prefer a simple tablet with a stand and a motion activated screen, it consumes a fraction of a full featured PC with almost the same result.
The 60 euros/Y saved could be spent elsewhere…just my view…
I am excited to hear about your success here. I’ve been building a wall-hung digital art using some Android tablets (Samsung S8 Ultra for its gorgeous OLED screen, and a cheap generic one) running native apps (Debug APKs I built using Construct), considering switching to Home Assistant so I can make them do more than art. Plus Android is proving to be a bit of a pain - they sometimes turn off their screens for mysterious reasons, bloatware hassles, cost, power button location, etc.
Can you post a little postmortem about how it’s worked out for your setup with Windows PC? Does screen turn on quickly? Have you had to reboot much? where did you put the power buttons? any noise, other problems or minor annoyances? cheers
Can you describe how do you expose the iPad sensors through Mqtt?
Installing any Mqtt client on iPad do not solve anything.
An old thread but I thought this may be of use to others in search of a Home Assistant touchscreen dashboard.
I had a spare but older second-user ex-thin client Dell OptiPlex 3040. I had already installed Proxmox Backup Server on it, this worked fine, but I decided it was a waste of a machine and could be better used to also provide a remote HA dashboard.
My criteria: no Android, so no tablet, but instead a decent size touch screen monitor with OSD and rear connections and VESA. The installation would also need to display a slideshow of my artwork and photos. Most of the cheap portable displays had side connectors and reading the small print probably did not support Linux. So I went a little further upmarket and purchased a ViewSonic TD2423 24-inch 1080p HD IPS 10-Point Touch Monitor for £196.00. ViewSonic stated it supported Linux and a 3rd party review revealed that it was working with a recent version of Ubuntu. So I took a gamble and ordered one. Judging by its very good quality it’s probably aimed at POS for small businesses etc. I thought if I struggled to get it working on the Optiplex, I could purchase a Raspberrypi and try again.
So began a little research for software and as luck would have it I came across ‘Touchkio’ and HACS ‘WallPanel’. I am so in awe of the guys that develop such software. My thanks to ‘leukip’ and j-a-n for their excellent and well documented software (links below).
The Dell Optiplex needed to run Proxmox Backup Server and extra backup storage for my bare metal Home Assistance installation as well as displaying my Home Assistance dashboard. Since the latest version of PBS requires Debian 13 Trixie, I did a fresh install of Debian and PBS. The display arrived and a quick check showed it would work with Debian 13. I installed ‘Touchkio’ .deb file and once I went back and read the instructions on how to access the onscreen configuration and the fact I could tweak it all through MQTT, the touch screen worked perfectly. I then installed ‘WallPanel’ and configured it to kick in after 5 mins and display my artwork. Very easy.
I then needed to hide the cursor. I tried a few recommendations but only Clutter worked first time. So now after 10 seconds the cursor disappears. On the OptiPlex I installed NFS server and created shares for extra Home Assistant networked storage and PBS. Everything worked fine until I decided to swap from Debian 13 Mate (felt sluggish) to Debian 13 XFCE. I then spent way too much time trying to prevent the screen from blanking, a problem in Mate that I had already solved. What a pain trying to ascertain exactly what was causing the issue in XFCE. Eventually I tweaked some settings and the screen blanking stopped, though I am still in the dark as to what actually worked!
At this point I will add that I have no requirement for a popup keyboard since I have RustDesk Server running on Proxmox and RustDesk client installed on my desktop and using Lightdm was easily able to configure auto login. This all works fine.
I am not a developer, so after a little trial and error I am so pleased with the result. Many, many thanks to the guys below:
leukipp ‘Touchkio’: GitHub - leukipp/touchkio: Home Assistant Touch Panel Kiosk application for a Linux device (e.g. Raspberry Pi) with Touch Display.
j-a-n HACS ‘WallPanel’: WallPanel Documentation
I have almost the same requirements.
But I am struggling a bit in finding good monitor for the purpose. As you have also noticed, most of them have their ports from the side, which will make cables visible - a big no no. So cables from the back it is. However, I am a bit size limited, so at most I can take up to 17 inches. Have you seen some brands that offer something similar in your research? I checked viewsonic and they have smaller screen, but the ports are on the side/bottom and it is double the price…