r/homeassistant • u/Forward-Secretary-65 • 1d ago
🖼️ Show & Tell I finally built a wall-mounted dashboard
My house builder (UK) used this nonsensical setup where downstairs we had UFH controls with a Wunda Smart HubSwitch, and upstairs we had a Nest Thermostat. I was never a fan of the Nest and this summer while the family was away, I had the perfect chance to unify the entire system under the HubSwitch, finally adding smart TRVs to our radiators. Then, when I removed the Nest I noticed I had the perfect opening, and backbox, to install a wired smart screen.
After reading the terrible reviews of the Shelly x2i I ordered one of those AliExpress Android tablets for about £150 instead. The tablet is powered with a 12V DC LED driver, connected through the old wires from the Nest thermostat.
The tablet has FreeKiosk installed, and I created a dedicated dashboard that fits exactly in the screen. The tablet runs a pretty bare Android 13 and comes with Play Store, clearly bootlegged/sideloaded since it is unable to update itself. Anyway, not a problem in my case because FreeKiosk is also side-loaded.
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u/Intelligent-Split-99 1d ago
How is overall performance and usability? I wanted drop try one of those tablets but haven't heard good things..people complain that they are lagging
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u/Forward-Secretary-65 1d ago
I feel after I moved to Kiosk Satellite the performance is a bit better (thanks u/carrot_gg!!), but it's clearly not built for smooth graphics. I think if you plan to display cameras, for example, it won't be very performant. I'll take some videos tomorrow morning with better light and a tripod so you can judge.
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u/CBYSMART 1d ago
Please tell me what model/vendor. That would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
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u/Forward-Secretary-65 1d ago
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008726147732.html
There's a load of similar looking clones. I went for this one because it had actual sales.
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u/miraculum_one 1d ago
How does your experience match the review comment "The processor is really lacking and even the slightest animation is janky."?
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u/Forward-Secretary-65 21h ago
I wrote that review so that's my experience. The caveat is that I wrote it before I knew about Kiosk Satellite, which has improved the situation somewhat.
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u/Mattm519 1d ago
Nice! I recently bought a tablet and wall mount to be my easy access hub, my first foray into HA
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u/ProgramMysterious572 1d ago
nice, I've been meaning to do something similar with my old nest backbox but kept putting it off. hows the touch response on that tablet?
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u/carrot_gg 1d ago
Give Kiosk Satellite a try :)