Re Hacking them - that’s where my understanding of them falls short - but sounds like it might be worth getting one to play with.
Yeah I just ordered one, thanks for the pointer.
I’ll let you know in … god knows how long, it’ll take!
Ah yes, exactly, that’s the one. Good to know you can reflash them. Have you tried one of those first hand, and if yes, what are your impressions of it ?
Yeah I’ve read his review from the thread you linked. But he really focuses on the technical aspects. I was more after subjective impressions about its aesthetics. I thought you might have bought one. The manufacturers images are all photoshop-pimped, so it’s hard to see how it would look in a real home. And it doesn’t look that good in some of the actual in-home photos you can find around the net. Especially the screen quality.
Maybe I should just buy one and see for myself.
Oh nice, thanks for the heads up. Might ask him a few questions.
I ordered one and they came back and said that they only had gold and white left. I am not sure if it that means they are being discontinued, or what.
PS spotted these screens too
With something like a raspberry pi behind it’d make a suitable console.
Careful with those, they’re using resistive touch instead of capacitive. Typically that means low spatial touch resolution and slow reactions to touch.
It says capacitive, but yeah I don’t hold high hopes for it, I just like to play sometimes.
You and I are looking for the same thing.
Did you ever find something suitable? I have found many promising form factors on Aliexpress, but I’m reluctant to buy anything because I dont know much about Android or if some company’s device based on “Android” or “Linux” would be open enough for me to say delete all their software and UI and get the thing to run Firefox in kiosk mode or run one of those kiosk apps people use with Home Assistant. Or if it would be possible to wipe the device and install a fresh install of Android or a Linux OS.
I believe we are looking for the same thing. We want something that will replace thermostats and switches and can display our web based Lovelace dashboards. The device must look great and be of high quality, and we want various sizes depending on the room it’s being installed in.
Here are my must haves:
- High quality display
- Tight radius corners / modern rectilinear design
- Must have squared off edges so device can be mounted flush with drywall via custom designed / 3D printed mounts
- Glass capacitive touchscreen with uniform bezel and bezel should not be excessively large
- Must run kiosk app or Kiosk mode web browser, this rules out HASP, Sonoff NS Panel/Nextion, etc.
- Must NOT have a camera, many people, including myself want their homes to remain private
- Must have a way for backlight control of screen for use in bedrooms. Ideally it would have built in Time of Flight sensor in bezel to accomplish this, but I’ll settle on other non-camera methods
- Speaker, Mono is fine, just want for occasional security camera streams
Here’s my list of nice-to-haves:
- PoE
- Physical buttons/knobs, these can be integrated into the screen physically, but they can be a separate system, if incompatible with Home Assistant, that’s fine, Can solder something into the buttons like ESPHome or something else as a hack
- Other sensors, Lux, PIR, Temp, Humidity if they can be integrated into Home Assistant
- Would be great if speaker built into unit could be TTS endpoint in Home Assistant
Things I don’t care about:
- It doesn’t need to have a built in dimmer or relay switch, There are plenty of options for those, from traditional smart switches hidden away in room closets, Always powered on smart bulbs, and shelly-like devices that fit in light junction boxes
- I don’t care about the state of the house’s wiring or whether or not its code to have Ethernet in a box with 120V wires. I’m planning to build a new house and in my existing houses, I am willing to relocate wires, install new boxes, install custom mounts, and I am willing to tear walls open and do drywall work.
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Here are the most promising devices I have found. I guess my ask is if anyone has any pointers or firsthand experience or any other info that would help us in getting the desired result listed in the previous post, out of any devices listed below?
Android 5
Android 5
US Switchbox formfactor, Linux
https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/LifeSmart-Nature-Mini-L-US-standard_1600163034114.html
Android 5
https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Wall-Switch-home-86-86-mm_1600116601878.html
Linux
Here’s some similar items from other companies:
This one has a knob and a screen inside the knob. Unknown if it’ll be possible to integrate screen knob or the knob into Home Assistant.
The most promising ones are the most expensive ones (no surprises I guess)
The rv linux device interests me, but 4x4 is a bit small.
I ordered this one: Smart Home Switch, 5.7" Tuya and apk Touch Panel, Android,Changeover switch|Switches| - AliExpress
I figure if I can’t get that to do what I want, the LifeSmart ones probably won’t either. I think I’d prefer the life smart lineup for the variety in sizes and having some physical buttons I could use as scene or shade controls
Most of the Lifesmart ones are available for order as samples on Alibaba for hundreds less, but they’re still expensive.
I’m also looking for something, but this is screaming for someone to do a Kickstarter
Well, the one I ordered is great build quality and looks great, however it runs Android 6 and fully kiosk doesn’t like the web engine. I did install Firefox and just opened Home Assistant that way and while it worked, the device is just too underpowered to be usable. Things are laggy even scrolling or toggling a switch on and off. Forget trying to view a video stream. Every time Home Assistant is restarted, the tablet is back at the log on screen for Home Assistant. I think Home Assistant should offer some workarounds for these use cases, whether it be a kiosk app of their own that can be provisioned to always be logged in or some web view that can auto log in after being added as a trusted device.
Been looking at these lately on Ali, the majority of them now seem to state Tuya but kinda only works one way. Wouldn’t be able to add anything into Tuya that runs a HA script or anything would you! I like 2 but I just can’t justify buying them when I am still very very new to HA and coding for them to just sit there! Hopefully more people get them and something starts! They also have zigbee but not sure what use that would fully be! I know the NSPanel can run Tasmota now but unsure if that means you can add HA scenes, devices and automations as I am new to tasmota too.
These were the ones that I was getting tempted by! Shame really, feel they have potential with the right clever people!
Most of them run android and outdated versions at that with hardware specs just good enough to run the Tuya app. They’re designed to be the hub, so it having Zigbee means you pair Zigbee devices to the screen. I would stay far away from these screens until they’re fast enough to run other apps they weren’t designed for. Currently I’m probably going to settle on a NS Panel running custom ESPHome firmware.