Hello everyone, I’ve been a HA user since 2018. And I only have good things to say. Today I come here to ask for your help in choosing the best tablet to put on the wall to work with the FK.
I’ve had 2 tablets (Nexus 7 2013 and Samsung Tab A7 T500), but they all suffered from the same thing, the battery! The battery swells and the screen comes off… this Tab A7, as it is newer, could be buying a new battery but the same thing would happen again, so I tried removing the battery and just using direct power, but it won’t turn on like that. What do you suggest to me?
Do you know of any tablet that could turn on without having the battery connected, for example?
To get around the battery swelling issue, you could see if you can find a Point of Entry tablet. Youtuber @tomasmcguinness did a couple of videos on this, although if I’m not mistaken, those tend to be larger than most.
I have a couple of tablets on the wall and they’re all plugged into a smart plug with a motion sensor next to them. I use Tasker and when battery reaches 85%, it turns off the smart plug. When the battery reaches 30% it turns on the smart plug on. Tablets are set to a 5-minute time out but if the motion sensor goes active, it sends a wake up command to the tablet.
In my case, I don’t use home assistant for any of that but you should be able to do the same with HA. One of the sensors if you have home assistant on the tablet is the battery so you don’t need to use Tasker like I do. Also search this site for Fully Kiosk
I have an old Chromebook tablet that has been running on the wall for couple of years. I control the charging with a Shelly relay controlled by HA. When battery reaches 20%, charging turns on and goes off at 80%. No issues with a battery swelling.
Iam also using Fully Kiosk browser. Only issue is that ChromeOS has monthly updates, which requires reboot.
A used Lenovo K10 doesn’t have a battery, so no swelling issue. You could also look for a retail Android tablet if you something a bit bigger. Ali express has those might have to build your own mount.
Recent Lenovo and Samsung tablets have a battery saver option, which stops charging at a certain level.
You could also put a smart plug on tongue tablet then have HA turn the charger on at 20% and off at 80%. Fully Kiosk can report the battery level to HA.
I have done all three options other than a retail tablet and they all work well.
Hi. I’m the @tomasmcguinness mentioned - I had read loads about batteries swelling and even experienced it on two laptops that were plugged in permanently. When it came to choosing a tablet for my Kitchen wall, I went for one without a battery.
More expensive than buying an A7, but it’s 15", with Power Over Ethernet, so I don’t have a power brick to worry about. My only complaint is that it’s running a very old version of Android.
Have had it installed about two months now and no issues so far. It’s working really, really well!
This may be besides the point, but why not go the raspberry + decent touch screen display route? Allows for PoE, has wifi, BT and all a tinkerer’s heart might desire. If you’re considering or have the means of a custom enclosure/case or have wall access it’s a very efficient and cost effective route imo.
Been there, tried it. It is nowhere near as good as the Android Tablet/Fully Kiosk solution.
The control of RPI and screen takes a lot of hacks involving various protocols and commands. The touchscreen requires drivers and calibration.
As for cost effective - certainly not. Once you have bought the PI, the power supply, the case or mount, the screen, its mount etc, it quickly becomes more expensive than a basic tablet. Cheaper than a new iPAD for sure, but I haven’t paid more than £120 for any of my tablets, plus the £10 Fully Kiosk licence and I was working in less than an hour. When I did the RPi, it was hours and it still wasn’t as fully featured.
I have been very successful in removing the batteries from tablets. You need to carefully measure the voltage the battery provides, then duplicate that with your power supply. Plus there’s a “battery status resistor” usually between the middle connector and ground, so measure that on your battery and duplicate that resistance - you’ll trick the tablet in to thinking it has a battery. You also have to be willing to cut a hole in the case for the hardwired power cable
HOWEVER… that said, my new Lenovo and Samsung tablets have a “battery saver” option which sets max charge to 60 to 80%, which will allow it to run basically forever without exploding the battery. So any tablet with a similar battery-saver option will be a good choice.
The ethernet cable was waiting over two years to fulfil its destiny!!
And pricey too! 