Admittedly, this is my first foray into true home automation, meaning I have dabbled into setting up google home and connected switches, Nest etc. but then separate systems like ring and reolink. Now I have the opportunity to do a house from the ground up as a new build. I have been doing a lot of research and HA seems like a solid place to start (green or yellow still up for a decision) One of the other “systems” I am looking at is Brilliant as I do like their wall panel displays. The reviews are not great and do not seem to be able to do automation as much as I am planning to do. I searched here but I could not find what people are using for wall touchpanels. I am not a fan of an iPad or tablet since they seem to have their battery blow after a few years and I am just imaging the house burning down. I am planning on having around 5 displays around the house so price is a consideration as I see some nice displays at $1200/piece. I do have programming experience so that part I am not concerned about, what I am concerned about is system stability, I do not want to have to constantly be rebooting screens to keep them to work (I have google mesh network and it is horrible as example of constant rebooting).
Hi, welcome to the forum!
You could use a tablet anyway and control the charging with an automation, that’s how I’m doing it.
With a tablet you have much more freedom and there is a lot available here for these systems.
If you decide on dedicated devices, you are bound to what the manufacturer has in mind for you.
Thank you for that insight. If you did have to pick a manufacturer what would you pick?
First you have to decide which platform (OS) you want but this is very much a case of preferences.
If you go with the fruit company, the choices are easy.
Going for the other one, it all depends on the size you have in mind and what is available in your area.
I have a Lenovo 8" because of the price/quality and not much bloatware.
LOL, I am not a fan of the walled garden and I use an Android phone. Just checked the Lenovo and they are affordable, so thank you for that recommendation. Do you have a mounting panel you use? What does the interface look like on the table?
No, I use the tablet all over the house.
The interface is what you make of it: in HA you can have multiple interfaces (dashboards as we call them now) suited for the display/situation.
I also have a RPi with the 7" touchscreen on my desk which has a different dashboard then the one on my tablet.
On my Pc (desktop) it’s also different and on my mobile phone it’s very basic because I don’t use it much.
I’m not that much into creating beautiful dashboards to have as a showcase or to control basic things.
HA for me is a way to automate as much as possible, without interaction of a screen.
Thank you! I see your point, but I have a family that will need to use these so it has to be user friendly displays :). I have an “old” laptop (about 5 years old) that I am considering using for HA but I am reading many people use an NCU. Any thoughts?
That’s the point: do you want these touch panels as a way to replace physical buttons or what.
Of course this is possible, HA has many faces and can be used in many ways.
I have a few wireless buttons all over the house to start scripts/automations for those things that are not automated without user interaction.
I guess you mean a NUC?
Well HA can run on almost anything and that too is about preference and $$$.
Something else to consider is what you want to do with it: if it’s just to automate stuff or have 1 central system as a means to control things, a RPi4 can be do the job.
If, on the other hand you want to integrate camera’s, use a voice assistant, … you need something beefier.
I would recommend to start off slow, get to know HA, maybe with that laptop if possible and see how far you want to take it.
In all the many years I have owned iPads I have never had this happen and have never heard of it being an issue. Either way there are much cheaper options for wall panels.
You are correct, I want it to replace some of the physical buttons are at minimum to interact with them like kasa switches which are physical but also wifi connected.
Yes, I meant NUC. I do want to automate and I could use the yellow box, I was wondering if there is a benefit of one over the other. I do want to have voice assistant and cameras so are you saying that would run better using a NUC?
Makes sense to start with the laptop. would you recommend to run VM or to do a full linux install?
Thank you again for your help.