So if you really want to go maker crazy.. RPi + touch screen.
7" screens would be cheaper and you could also use your PI for other fun stuff.
You can also use something called FullPageOS - it's boots to a fullscreen chrome browser and thats it - no desktop.
I've used FPOS and it works really well for kiosks etc.
$125 just for the screen?!? Might as well just get a 10" tablet at that point. You're not saving anything.
Absolutely - it's just that with the RPi you can run a bunch of other stuff behind the scenes which is nice. The 7" screens are a lot cheaper of course. With FPOS you could livestream cameras in a browser tab etc.
Otherwise I too want a good cheap tablet that has some way to run in "Kiosk" mode. Note: if you go into developer mode on an android (and kindle fire) you can set an option for screen on when connected to power.
Amazon has 7" fires on sale for $35 today.
and 8" for $50
And you could get an PoE injector to power it.
Presuming that anyone playing with HE would be comfortable enough flashing firmware, you can put a naked android version on a Kindle and get rid of all the Amazon bloat.
There are plenty of cheap ($35-$45) wall mounts for them on Amazon. Can't say that they look as slick as some of the more expensive ones ($200 for an iWall iPad dock?!?!? https://www.iwalldock.com/collections/iwalldock-products/products/iwalldock-simplidock-for-ipad), but you can be all in with a new tablet for less than the cost of a dock.
Just checked on XDA Flashing firmware for the 2018 8" model involves shorting a test pin in the back. No big deal but maybe a little trickier than some would like.. still good price and I just ordered one (8" HD with special offers) to play around with..
Thank you for the heads up!!
I think this may be a newer method for the 8" 8th Gen. Don't think it involves opening the case. But I definitely need to do a more careful read. (Just bought one also.)
https://forum.xda-developers.com/hd8-hd10/general/tut-root-hd82018-via-magisk-t3906554
For the 7" 7th Gen, I'm not sure what they mean by "you MAY need to".
https://forum.xda-developers.com/amazon-fire/development/unlock-fire-t3899860
Don't know if the Fires will run Wall Panel or KioskBrowser without being rooted / hacked / whatever, but if they do, then none of this would matter at all!
Yeah I was looking at this one:
So depending on what you really want to do, the whole rooting thing isn't really a big deal at all.
I followed these directions, and did the PC script. Took less than 15 minutes to get the Google Play store installed. For my needs, I didn't need to do any more than that (yet).
I installed the the Fully Kiosk Browser & App Lock (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.ozerov.fully) and its exactly what I was hoping for. Full screen HE Dashboard on a dirt cheap tablet.
Glad I got the 8" for myself, but if those 7" dropped down to $35 again (or less) I'd buy a couple and create more specific dashboards for each location and just let them run.
Now I need to find a mount that looks nice enough for the WAF and doesn't cost 3x the price of the tablet.
I just got mine and will try and root, will let you know. What ROM did you use? If it works I may buy a few more for giggles. Ah never mind you said "root" - got it. I wanted to replace the ROM.
That looks great btw!
I may tackle the rom and root next because I like to do those things, especially to Locked down devices like an Amazon tablet or Samsung phone. But for what I wanted to do with the dashboards, I didn't need to hack it last night.
But for anywho who was following the thread, i figured I'd share the outcome even without rooting.
Now I'm torn on whether a 7" would be too small. May need to order one to find out.
Can you prevent automatic firmware updates? You could potentially lose root I think.
In the script, there was an option to turn off the OTA updates from Amazon.
Wanted to report back was successfully able to root the device and install TWRP with these instructions:
Did not need to "short" the test pins or anything. Don't have a ROM yet but imagine one will crop up on XDA at some point.
Double confirmed. Took me a few tries. Missed a direction here, typo there, but went smoothly.
Time to go ROM shopping. And maybe order another one of these just for fun. Still not sure I need more than the Fully Kiosk app out of the Play Store, though. Hmmmmm... Maybe save the money and put it towards a nice wall mount.
I bought 2 more just to have before they shut down the vulnerability. It was cheap enough. That Fully Kiosk worked well except this morning had a bit of a refresh issue after I turned the screen off last night. Not sure if it was FK or the locked down dashboard. It was not responsive until I swiped right and tapped on "go to startup page..". Also the tablet still has ads on the lock screen so now need to get rid of those too..
Here's what you do to remove the ads.. worked for me.
(it did ask for root privileges)
Here is my "test" setup in our bedroom - didn't get too fancy with the DB may eventually switch to HousePanel.. Another thought would be to take the back off and fasten it to a wall then pop the unit in again. Should act as a good holder. Also if really serious you could get those right angle micro usb plugs and fish it inside your wall with minimal side cord exposure.
The "Velcro" command strips work great for mounting the tablets on the wall, we have a Fire HD 10 mounted with two pairs:
I have two tablets and one of them has ads but should be a non issue if you set up fully kiosk settings correctly. If you get the plus license, you can set up a screensaver and turn the brightness to zero. I have the kiosk screensaver set to 120 seconds. I have motion turned on for front camera. After 120 seconds, it goes to a blank screen saver and comes back on Showing the dashboard screen when motion in front of it detected. No ads pop up. Now I also have been having the refresh issue which I would love to know the cause. Sometimes I have to refresh the dashboard as it will still show some of my lights on that I turned off from another tablet or at the switch.
If you go to the Konnected website and look under products, there is a member selling through then that makes 3D printed wall mounts for the fire tablet for about $30. They are pretty good but some don’t like the finish from the 3D printing process but I think they look and work great. I did have to Dremel the inside edge a little to get my 90 degree cable to fit so the tablet was perfectly centered.
Download the Hubitat app
