$29 screen -- Perfect for cam feeds and whatnot

gmaster1

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Those Amazon 7" tablets are on sale for a few more days I'd assume. $29 for a screen that works with Google Play Store and runs reliably 24/7 -- not a bad deal at all.

(Not to sound like an advertisement for them, but I see a lot of people on here going back to the whole Raspberry Pi monitor type installs and on the other end I see PCs powering desktop monitors and TVs etc for something this does at 1/16th the power consumption.)

10" version is $99 which, if you ask me, is still way too steep seeing how you can get 10" Win10 2GB RAM/32GB SSD tablets for $60 pretty frequently. Personally, I use 10" screens for wall mounts way more as the video feeds, when full screen, pop a lot more. 7" is still insanely useful for desks, side tables, and smaller rooms.

Here's one of the 7" Fire units in my basement as an example:
 

looney2ns

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Are you simply sideloading Play Store or???

What interface is that?

Those Amazon 7" tablets are on sale for a few more days I'd assume. $29 for a screen that works with Google Play Store and runs reliably 24/7 -- not a bad deal at all.

(Not to sound like an advertisement for them, but I see a lot of people on here going back to the whole Raspberry Pi monitor type installs and on the other end I see PCs powering desktop monitors and TVs etc for something this does at 1/16th the power consumption.)

10" version is $99 which, if you ask me, is still way too steep seeing how you can get 10" Win10 2GB RAM/32GB SSD tablets for $60 pretty frequently. Personally, I use 10" screens for wall mounts way more as the video feeds, when full screen, pop a lot more. 7" is still insanely useful for desks, side tables, and smaller rooms.

Here's one of the 7" Fire units in my basement as an example:
 

gmaster1

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Are you simply sideloading Play Store or???
Yep. Takes about five minutes and no rooting/jailbreaking/etc otherwise I would never do it (I'm lazy). Works flawlessly and consistently. Technically you don't need it, but I like a Kiosk style browser in Play store so Silk browser takes a side bench.
 
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gmaster1

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Is that Habpanel for openhab displaying on there?
I used to write my own and whip up in PHP but lately it's easier (and cheaper for time) to use ActionTiles. $22 for one time license and done. I've reversed a lot of my custom automation stuff around the house, throwing away all of the RPi junk I thought was the bees knees years ago haha. That said, it doesn't matter what you're running in back end so long as you can get a reliable full screen app or web page to the tablets. :-D

Here's another view of the interface in another room. I typically just leave the quad cam view on full screen and tap anywhere to bring up the controls:
 

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rsg

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I read another thread regarding the Fire 7 tablet and someone said they could only get 3fps because of the hardware limitations. It seems as though you haven’t had this experience?
 

gmaster1

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I read another thread regarding the Fire 7 tablet and someone said they could only get 3fps because of the hardware limitations. It seems as though you haven’t had this experience?
Yeah not sure what they would be doing wrong to get those results. I'm assuming they didn't have wifi set up properly in their house etc. Or my biggest assumption there would be if they are using an MJPG stream, they aren't compressing it properly in which case most wifi devices would see a limitation to some extent. I'm using BI and early on and noticed that group views were incredibly inefficient (loading each individual cam's image and grouping that). To get me back up to 15fps and low bandwidth I created a new cam off of the source of that group and that's what I use for the tablets here and there because I too use MJPG over RTSP etc.

Long rant there but basically I've never noticed an issue with any iot or tablet device after making that simple adjustment in BI. :)
 
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SLC

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Yeah not sure what they would be doing wrong to get those results. I'm assuming they didn't have wifi set up properly in their house etc. Or my biggest assumption there would be if they are using an MJPG stream, they aren't compressing it properly in which case most wifi devices would see a limitation to some extent. I'm using BI and early on and noticed that group views were incredibly inefficient (loading each individual cam's image and grouping that). To get me back up to 15fps and low bandwidth I created a new cam off of the source of that group and that's what I use for the tablets here and there because I too use MJPG over RTSP etc.

Long rant there but basically I've never noticed an issue with any iot or tablet device after making that simple adjustment in BI. :)

I know this may seem fairly easy on your end since you have it up and running smoothly but is there any way you could give us newer guys a using Amazon tablet for dummies how to guide. I was thinking of doing this since the tablets are so cheap now. If an event is triggered can that camera go to full screen mode? If so, how do you set that up. Appreciate any info you can provide. Feel free to dumb it down for the newly challenged. I currently use my phone or bi computer connected to my main tv.
 

rsg

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gmaster1, I second this request.
Also, how did you mount the tablet to the wall?
 

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3m Command picture hanging strips are what I use. They are great for this, since they don't damage most surfaces when you remove them, and you can unmount and re-mount the item without destroying the mounting strips.

The main thing I don't like about using cheap Kindle tablets for camera monitors is the fact you have no choice but to connect them with wifi. I've been sticking to the rare breed of tablet that has a full-size USB port so I can connect an Ethernet adapter. I just recently upgraded my failing 7" Winbook to a 10 inch windows tablet, and it was tricky to shop for because almost no tablets have a full size USB port.
 

tangent

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The main thing I don't like about using cheap Kindle tablets for camera monitors is the fact you have no choice but to connect them with wifi. I've been sticking to the rare breed of tablet that has a full-size USB port so I can connect an Ethernet adapter. I just recently upgraded my failing 7" Winbook to a 10 inch windows tablet, and it was tricky to shop for because almost no tablets have a full size USB port.
You realize that you can use a USB OTG adapter + USB Ethernet adapter, no full size USB A ports needed, right?

Anybody ever try the Chromecast Ethernet Adapter with a Fire Tablet?

You can make your own tablet frame with some wood and a router table if you're motivated.
 

bp2008

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http://a.co/0SWbaHd this also works as a wall mount, though it isn't as clean as just using picture hanging strips by themselves.

You realize that you can use a USB OTG adapter + USB Ethernet adapter, no full size USB A ports needed, right?
Of course, but I haven't found a way to do this that still allows the device to charge. Several adapters claim to do it for Samsung devices, but I've found no universal solution and nothing specific to Fire tablets.

Anybody ever try the Chromecast Ethernet Adapter with a Fire Tablet?
This looks like it probably wouldn't work either. Worth a try though, especially if someone already had both devices.
 
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actran

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@gmaster1 I'm thinking of getting a Fire tablet 10 to view @bp2008 UI3. Questions:

#1: Have you tried @bp2008 UI2 or UI3 on Fire browser. Does it run ok?

#2: How do you mount your Fire tablet? I don't see any bracket in your screenshot. Also, how do you feed the power to it? Through the wall?

#3: Does your Fire tablet have special offers? If so, is there anything that can be done to prevent it from getting in the way of viewing UI2/UI3 in Fire browser?

#4: Any way to turn off the screen after a timeout period? But turn it on when BI detects motion. Perhaps via Tasker? (I have this working with a SurfacePro 2 but want to get a Fire tablet as a cheaper alternative.)

#5: Is TTS (text-to-speech) possible via Tasker on a Fire tablet?

Sorry for all the questions but I appreciate you sharing your knowledge.
 

gmaster1

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The main thing I don't like about using cheap Kindle tablets for camera monitors is the fact you have no choice but to connect them with wifi. I've been sticking to the rare breed of tablet that has a full-size USB port so I can connect an Ethernet adapter. I just recently upgraded my failing 7" Winbook to a 10 inch windows tablet, and it was tricky to shop for because almost no tablets have a full size USB port.
Sorry to hear about the Winbook -- I deployed over a hundred of them in a commercial environment that puts them through stress every week day and I have them running 24/7 -- no issues yet. I'm less happy with the decision to use USB to Ethernet somewhat ironically because that seems to be the component I replaced the most in the two or three years that they have all been running. I haven't had to replace a tablet yet, but some of the cheap dongles I bought have fried due to abuse.

Per the wifi bit, I can see that being an issue if your wireless setup isn't that strong. I have a handful of Ubiquiti radios around the house that have a mesh fail-over type thing going on so I haven't had any issues throwing heavy hitting devices on the network over wireless.

gmaster1, I second this request.
Also, how did you mount the tablet to the wall?
I'll whip something up in a thread post soon for ya'll :)
I use 3M Click tape. It's extremely industrial and when I started deploying tablets in commercial/industrial settings I thought I needed two square inches of it to fasten devices to the walls and learned the hard way when trying to take them off haha. The reason I use this material over the picture hanging stuff is that it leaves no residue/material when taking it off, but the tablets literally "click" onto the wall if you ever have to do maintenance or something.

@gmaster1 I'm thinking of getting a Fire tablet 10 to view @bp2008 UI3. Questions:

#1: Have you tried @bp2008 UI2 or UI3 on Fire browser. Does it run ok?
I haven't. I played around with those only once but I personally skip it because every pixel of screen real estate is essential so most of these dock/tile/etc designs you see try to incorporate a raw feed to maximize visibility. However if it's HTML5, it should work fine I'm guessing. You can install Chrome on the fire tablets after some clicking around (installing Play store) and about 30 other browsers out there so I'd assume one of them would play that web page. You can also install the BI app on these.

#2: How do you mount your Fire tablet? I don't see any bracket in your screenshot. Also, how do you feed the power to it? Through the wall? 3M Click tape (to "click" onto the wall and make adjustments if need be) and power is fed via modded USB angled cable. Just goes right into the wall. Low voltage from there to your power source. About 3 different solid ways of doing this which I can write up later :)

#3: Does your Fire tablet have special offers? If so, is there anything that can be done to prevent it from getting in the way of viewing UI2/UI3 in Fire browser?
I was able to disable the special offers somehow on a few of them--not sure what I did. But I don't really care how I did it as the offers only appear on the lock screen and you should never see the lock screen on these installs. Screen stays on 24/7 and nothing interferes or pops up during that time.

#4: Any way to turn off the screen after a timeout period? But turn it on when BI detects motion. Perhaps via Tasker? (I have this working with a SurfacePro 2 but want to get a Fire tablet as a cheaper alternative.)
That's a good question. So I do have Windows10 based tablets on the walls because initially I thought I was going to need full browser and X86 support yada yada, but honestly I never did anything with it. I wanted to enable the front facing cameras to do sort of a "when motion detected, turn screen on" type thing, but never really explored it much. I'd imagine you can do it though if it's something you can find on the Play store. I saw a really fancy app to schedule and control screen brightness beyond the LED lights which was pretty cool, so I'd imagine there's something to do that.

#5: Is TTS (text-to-speech) possible via Tasker on a Fire tablet?
I haven't explored this yet, but you inspire me to take this to the next level to find out these answers and play with a solution :)

Sorry for all the questions but I appreciate you sharing your knowledge.
 

looney2ns

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I know this may seem fairly easy on your end since you have it up and running smoothly but is there any way you could give us newer guys a using Amazon tablet for dummies how to guide. I was thinking of doing this since the tablets are so cheap now. If an event is triggered can that camera go to full screen mode? If so, how do you set that up. Appreciate any info you can provide. Feel free to dumb it down for the newly challenged. I currently use my phone or bi computer connected to my main tv.
One option is to use TinyCamPro on the Fire Tab. Works fine.
 
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