Could the Hubitat brand create a Smart Home control panel? Designed to be permanently powered like a nest hub, but designed with wall-mounting in mind. No need for fancy sound output, or any at all except maybe the occasional beep.
Could they or would they?
I am sure they are capable of this, but I don't think that is their core focus. They don't sell sensors or switches, for example, and I would put a "tablet" in that same category.
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@Inge_Jones I think that would take a whole nother hardware developement which would be twice the thing to maintain. It's also more hardware to fail. I mean it's just as easy to use an old tablet for a control panel and have it customized to the users heart's content.
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I have some older 8" fire tablets that I converted to Android and have been playing around with setting up such a dashboard. Kiosk Browser is a cool app to check out for this purpose.
I'm thinking about removing the back cover of the tablet (With the fire it's fairly easy to do) and mounting it directly to a wall then re-attaching the tablet body. With some right angle usb connectors I can snake the low voltage wiring behind the wall if necessary.
edit: You could also go the Raspberry PI (Zero?) route with a touch screen and run something like FullPageOS.
I sounds like you are asking for a keypad device based on your first post. There are allot of options out there and some are very obtainable. The Ring Keypad G2 comes to mind that i have and it is $50. If you need something with a display i don't seem them doing that since that starts to delve into the hole dashboard area as well which is completely customizable.
I have heard so many great things about the kiosk app though that is certainly the way to go as erktrek has pointed to.
You could do like I do, if you have Apple products. Run homebridge so all your devices show up in the "Home" app. Then find an old iPad and mount it on the wall with the "Home" app running.
I have thought about using a tablet but really I'd prefer to use something designed to be permanently powered.
The request is certainly valid, as it points to an unmet need for one or more users. However, I wouldn't want Hubitat to go down this avenue for three reasons:
- Hardware and accessories require both scale and frequent updating for new tech;
- HMI devices do not seem to be squarely in Hubitat's wheelhouse; and
- Ask 10 people what it should be and you will get 12 different answers.
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I guess I don't understand that. Why couldn't you just permanently power the tablet? That's what I did.
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It's a potential fire risk with a battery device.
Are their tablets with access to the battery? I don't know, but it would certainly eliminate that risk.
Maybe technically... Lots of people leave battery devices like phones and tablets plugged in 24/7/365.
But anyway, that's fine if that's not how you want to do it of course.
I'll just leave this here:
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Could you do something with a Raspberry pi and a touch enabled screen. Mount the Pi behind the wall with the display on front of it. and if it is touch enabled you could then use that to control from the device.
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Let's put it this way, it's a nice-to-have but not so nice that I'd want to take risks.
You can remove the battery and then do a battery bypass easily enough then have it powered by usb only without risk of either overheat or batter expansion. Put it in a made for that tablet mounting frame to make it look good and you're golden.
Yeah there are workarounds, maybe I'll get around to using them one day. I just saw the new smartthings panel being discussed and thought that would be nice for hubitat.
If you have an Android device, it's very easy to use Tasker app on the phone and a smart plug to turn off plug when battery is fully charged and turn back on when phone needs charging. I do it with two phones and a tablet.
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If you went the PI Zero route you would not have to worry about batteries...costs would probably be similar to a tablet.
Tinkering with components is way outside my skillset... I guess one can learn skills, but it's not something that attracts me 
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Argghhh!!! HERESY!!!!!! 
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