Hi there just looking for some advice and feedback for setting up a wall mounted touch screen monitor. I’ve opted for touch screen monitor over tablet as I would like a bigger size at lower cost.
I have a nice spot for it on a brick wall with a pantry on the otherside. I’ll be able to run power on the inside of the pantry and cut out some wall to fit in a recessed power outlet and a device for the hass client.
I’ve found the following on Amazon (AU):
16" touch screen monitor. Looks like it can be mounted using VESA75 and it has 2 USB-C ports.
Slim VESA wall mount.
USB-C 3.2 right angle cable.
My plan is to use an old Samsung galaxy phone as the hass client running the app and then connect to the touch screen monitor using DEX.
Has anyone else done a set up similar to this and it worked well? Anything I should change or consider?
I originally thought about using a CCwGTV and running it in a browser, but from testing it doesn’t seem to work well and apparently there’s no touch screen support? When testing with Samsung DEX on both a monitor and a touch screen laptop it seems to work pretty well.
Looks nice- how would you connect the phone to the screen? How would you interface the touch screen coordinates? How would you handle the phone timeout?
I would just use a Raspberry Pi3 and run a browser.
Thanks for the reply. I was thinking I would power it by power outlet to the monitor through USB C and then from the monitor to the phone by the other USB C port.
There’s apps and stuff to keep the phone awake, it will require a bit of playing around. Not sure what you mean by touch screen coordinates sorry, is this something I need to look into further for Samsung DEX?
I have a couple of Pis lying around. If I use one which OS would be best? Just standard Raspian? And would I need to install something to make it work with the touch screen
Once this is set up I’ll be able to change the hass client without changing anything else so I don’t mind trying a few other options. It’s more the initial set up I need to get sorted. I might start off with DEX since I only need to plug it in.
One last thing I forgot to ask, should I be concerned about battery bloat? I was thinking I would enable battery protection on the phone and maybe even have a smart plug to shut off the monitor during the middle of the night, so the phone battery could drain a bit.
Sure, Raspian. Anything that would run a browser. I haven’t used it but there is a Kiosk app available that turns the Pi into a Kiosk server. Here are three that AI came up with:
Raspbian with Chromium Kiosk Mode: This is a straightforward method where you set up Raspbian OS and configure Chromium to run in kiosk mode. You can use the matchbox-window-manager and xinit to manage the display.
Wayland with Labwc: For newer Raspberry Pi models, you can use Wayland with the labwc compositor. This setup provides a smooth experience with hardware-accelerated graphics1.
Pareto Anywhere: This open-source IoT middleware can be installed on a Raspberry Pi to manage kiosk displays.
What’s a “hass client”?
Simply remove the battery. Power the phone with a charger.
I think, but I don’t know, that the Kiosk programs convert touchscreen coordinates to mouse movements.
Great thanks. If DEX doesn’t pan out I’ll look into kiosk mode with the raspi more.
I mean HASS client as the device accessing the Home Assistaht dashboard. So phone/raspi/etc. happy to use a better term for it if there is one.
Good idea about removing the battery! I’ll look into that more.
From testing the touch screen with DEX everything seemed to register including scrolling etc. but I think I’ll have to wait until I buy the monitor to see how well it works.
The client is — any browser. The Home Assistant front-end is a web server.
I did some research into DeX (never heard of it). Your original plan may be best after all. If you can run a browser on your local network to get to the Home Assistant front-end without a SIM card, then it’s worth a try. Do keep us posted on your progress.
Ah right I see thanks for clarifying. Even better I can actually launch the Home Assistant app in DEX since it’s just Android. If course it will require a bit of experimenting to see which works best.
It may be a few months before I do this but I’ll report back with results. Thanks for the help!
Hi, im also experimentint with Dex and a touchscreen. It works so far.
1 usb C powersupply and one usb C for connection.
Problem is that the dex going in sleep mode and when you open the screen u begin in the homescreen of the dex.
Haven’t fix that yet.
