Mastodawn

brownmustardminion Jul 20, 2025

What Kiosk Tablet?

What Kiosk Tablet? - Lemmy

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.

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SayCyberOnceMore Jul 21, 2025

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.

Is this the perfect standalone tablet for HA?

I may have created the perfect home assistant tablet, for anywhere but a wall. Actually, Lenovo created it, I just fixed their software, haha! This post details a Home Assistant themed custom ROM for the ThinkSmart View 8" CD-18781Y. Installation info is below! The device was intended for enterprise video conferencing; the Qualcomm SoC is much more powerful than chips usually found in smart displays. It’s perfect for HA dashboards! (Or as an octoprint server, etc, etc) The form factor is ...

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brownmustardminion Jul 21, 2025

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.

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SayCyberOnceMore

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.

Sinilink WIFI USB Controller XY-WFUSB (turns USB port power on/off) - ESPHome YAML

This device allows you to turn the USB device connected to it on and off. It supports data pass through however my main uses are just to turn USB devices, such as a USB Microscope, on and off. I found some very basic YAML online so I figured I’d create my own. Sharing in case others would like to use it. I split the YAML into two so that you don’t need to edit many files if you make changes to the core functionality in the template file. While you can use the restore_mode to define the USB ...

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