I’ve been using an Amazon tablet with Fully Kiosk for a few months but it frankly sucks ass. Keeps resetting itself or kicking back to the Amazon home screen to name a few issues.
If money isn’t a factor, what tablet do you think would be the dream choice for integrating as a wall mountable Hass tablet?
Fully Kiosk is a great app but still very hacky, so I’d like a tablet that doesn’t require workarounds to keep it in kiosk mode.
I hate telemetry and spyware as well so I guest that puts anything Amazon or Google based out of the equation.
For the money the Samsung A9+ is tough to beat IMHO.
11 inch touch screen in a slim package. Get a cheap jelly case run a couple screws into the wall, slip the tablet in place, route a charging cable.
No matter what you buy or build it will eventually be obsolete and need to be replaced. A decent tablet will last around 8 to 10 years as a wall mounted dashboard. The A9+ can be found for around 170 right now and the next prime sale will likely see it around 150. So that’s around 15 to 20 per year of use and all you need to do is either install the HomeAssistant app or setup Fully Kiosk.
If you just want to put it on the wall: No tablet at all. A proper Touchscreen with DDC/CI for control of the display by the host (e.g. regulate it’s brightness). And then use a raspi or similar as the actual player with a digital signage solution.
Why? It gives you far better and far more consistent support for basically everything. Want to include hardware keys? Go for it. Want to include an NFC reader? Go for it. Want to pair it with a presence detector? Go for it. (I do all of the above).
The good thing is: You don’t have to. There are “ready made” distributions for digital signage available for the pi (just install them on usb instead of SDcard). I read an article a while ago that around 30% of all digital signage solutions these days are SBC based. You plug in the display. You are set. That’s all you need to do at first. Everything else is “when you find time for it”.
I have 3 Lenovo ThinkSmart View falshed with LineageOS. I’ve had them for about a year now and haven’t had any issues.
Guide for flashing -> https://github.com/pgale/lineage_15.1_Installation_TSV
I use to have the same thing but moved away from the tablet solution and I got myself a pi, and then setup a script to auto start (after boot and auto login) the browser in full screen “kiosk” mode on my home assistant site. I then bought this to attach to it:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0153R2A9I
I also bought a case for the screen and pi to fit in for a nice visual display (although these days the thing is embedded in my wall), but it looks like the case is now unavailable so might require looking around for one.
This is what I would do if I had the time to spare. I’m surprised there isn’t a market for custom Homeassistant tablet devices.
If money’s not a factor? Maybe a Linux Panel PC.
I’ve tried a few Lenovos and they seem ok - inc. the Lenovo Thinksmart discussed on the HA forum
All tablets have a quirk somewhere, but FullyKiosk does a good job - if the tablet is any good - so I recommend it. A colleague used something else… I’ll try to find out what it was.
Whatever you do get, if it has a battery, ensure you monitor it’s battery and keep it somewhere between ~20% & ~80% with a smart power socket / USB relay
Based on your statement that you’ve only had this for a few months, my suggestion is to assume you’ll want to change it in 1~2 years, so try cheap, named brand, 2nd hand ones from ebay until you get size and rotation right for how you use it.
My dashboard on the kitchen tablet is landscape, but portrait in the lounge (on the ThinkSmart on a coffee table) - both seemed too big initially, now they feel too small.
I’m leaning towards a Samsung A7 flashed with LineageOS and I may try to use FullyKiosk again. I just really hate the idea of using an Amazon or Google OS. I would build a raspberry pi / touchscreen system if I had the time.
How important is the battery concern? I’ve read it’s an overblown worry for modern tablets.
Well…
TBH, I’ve not seen a battery bulge (in a tablet… seen plenty others…), but I do have a tablet which doesn’t seem to hold it’s charge as well as it used to.
So, have I done in-depth long-term testing… no.
Personally, I just got some of these USB switches and was more interested in whether I could control it easily (I could)
Re: LineageOS - yeah, I agree, if you can find the right tablet AND it’s supported, then definitely flash it.
You might still need to download the latest webview component though.
I picked up on one of these and it’s been pretty solid for the most part https://a.co/d/gaLPokJ I tried fully kiosk but had similar issues to yours so now I just run the home assistant app with a dashboard I created using the wallpanel addon https://github.com/j-a-n/lovelace-wallpanel and am very pleased! If you sprung for a slightly nicer android tablet, your experience would likely be even better
Never tried it myself, but doesn’t android come with a built-in kiosk mode? I seem to recall seeing something about that a while back
From what I could find, similar to iOS, you need some type of external management device to set this up.
Never had an mamazon tablet but I guess it has a modified android version like their tv dongle so mostly any “real” android tablet will do, cheapest one would be less reactive but still will works. I had mine on an old Huawei tablet but today I would go for something like Xiaomi pad 6 (don’t think it is worth to get a high end tablet for that purpose), whatever you get disable battery saving functionality for kiosk app and you should be good. As for telemetry/spyware, block it at router level so it will be limited to your local network.
