I’m looking for advice on setting up kiosks for a smart home.
I’d like to have 2-3 touch screens setup to control devices from.
I’ve decided on the following:
- preferably plug in devices/screens (with no battery)
- e-ink screens would be preferable but not a must
- cost is a factor
Anyone had success in setting up something similar?
fonix232@fedia.io 1 minute ago
I have tablets in my home, with batteries (as fallback in case of power loss - my HA instance and router/APs are on UPS).
I'm using older (thus cheaper) Samsung tablets. Fully Kiosk works well, but recently I've started adding kiosk features to the HA Android app (no public PRs yet so it's a few months away) to add some features (mostly sleep/wake via audio/camera motion, sleep screens, default pages for the specific instances etc.), so I can ditch FK.
Battery bloat is an issue - my Tab S6 is on its third battery (though admittedly it is nearly 7 years old now, got it January 2020), and my Tab S5e lasted 3.5 years until its battery started getting spicy. I've switched both to LineageOS to reduce heating + have more control over charging/discharging, and that so far seems to have helped. Unfortunately Samsung tablets don't support running off of USB without a battery (they bootloop if no cell is detected), so pulling the battery and running them off a wall outlet isn't really an option.
To me, a Pi or similar SBC with a touchscreen just seemed like a very hacky solution. I rent so I can't add a box in the wall for the board and PSU, and tablets are just more elegant. Throw in a 3D printed enclosure/mount, and you're golden.
I use mine regularly, especially since they wake whenever I walk past them.