My permanent front door monitoring tablet

[bp2008]

This evening I installed a 7 inch Windows tablet next to the front door to stream one of my front porch cameras 24 hours a day. If I hear something outside, I can just glance up and look at it from most places in the house.



(lower right is one of my DIY home automation control panels)

Here is the hardware I used.

Hardware

Winbook TW700 Tablet
Any Windows tablet would work -- big plus for having a full-size USB port for ethernet
$60-80

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QDJ2FUK

Dockem 20003-BL Damage-Free Wall Mount
$12
Amazon.com: Dockem 20003-BL Damage-Free Wall Mount & Dock for Smartphone and Tablet, Black: Computers & Accessories

USB to Ethernet Adapter
because I do not use WiFi to stream video continuously
$10
Amazon.com: Cable Matters 202023 USB 2.0 to 10/100 Fast Ethernet Network Adapter (Black): Computers & Accessories

Software

The software is something I made myself. Standalone Java app for dedicated live view with Instant Replay

Part of what makes this unique is that my software lets me scroll the video back in time to replay any moment from the past 10 minutes. The 10 minutes part is fully configurable. I could make it save the last hour or longer if I had enough free space on the disk, but that makes it harder to pinpoint a specific time on the scroll bar. So it is 10 minutes for now.

Limitations

The tablet's specs are well suited for streaming one camera. You could probably stream more but a 7 inch display does not have a lot of space to go around anyway.

It only has 1 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage and most of that storage is used by the operating system. For these reasons it is inadvisable to attempt installing Windows 10 on the tablet. I have read horror stories of people who tried, only to have it get stuck in a failure-reboot-failure loop. Those who were successful reported it didn't run as well as it did on Windows 8.1 so I don't plan on trying it myself.

My Blue Iris Viewer software linked above will quickly overwhelm the tablet until it is limited to displaying just a few cameras. It would be best to configure the app on a different computer, then copy the configuration file to the tablet.

 

[Mike]

Another great addition to your system, thanks for sharing. I always enjoy checking out your recent projects! Keep up the good work.

 

[SyconsciousAu]

At the moment my main monitor is visible from the front door so I don't really need a setup like this but as a project it is very tempting if the minister for finance will sign off.

A couple of questions. With the 8.1 Tablet can you access the live view on the camera directly over the network? I have a couple of android tablets that wont live view as they can't / wont download the live view browser plugin. I've tried both the Samsung browser and Google Chrome for Android without success in that department. The blue iris mobile app works ok but it seems to me that just logging into the single camera you want to view would be simplest.

Will your software run on an android tablet? Or is it strictly windows only?

Do you have any plans to tidy it up with cable management/hiding etc. The minister for finance likes professional looking installations and little hands like cables. I would probably have to hide the cables in the walls for both reasons. Just thinking about it now I thought a timber frame routed out so the tablet/cables fit inside it would be the way I would go.

Thanks for the inspiration and the software.

 

[bp2008]

I'm responding in bold red inside your quote.

At the moment my main monitor is visible from the front door so I don't really need a setup like this but as a project it is very tempting if the minister for finance will sign off.

A couple of questions. With the 8.1 Tablet can you access the live view on the camera directly over the network? Yes. It is a full Windows PC. I have a couple of android tablets that wont live view as they can't / wont download the live view browser plugin. I've tried both the Samsung browser and Google Chrome for Android without success in that department. The blue iris mobile app works ok but it seems to me that just logging into the single camera you want to view would be simplest. try the app "IP Cam Viewer" by Robert Chou

Will your software run on an android tablet? Or is it strictly windows only? That particular software is windows only.

Do you have any plans to tidy it up with cable management/hiding etc. Nope. If you saw my house you would immediately know no ladies live here. The minister for finance likes professional looking installations and little hands like cables. I would probably have to hide the cables in the walls for both reasons. Just thinking about it now I thought a timber frame routed out so the tablet/cables fit inside it would be the way I would go.

Thanks for the inspiration and the software.

I like messing with these toys way too much

 

[bp2008]

I upgraded my software this evening to include a Night Mode to be easier on the eyes when it is dark all around.

 

[bp2008]

I have identified 3 promising candidates for a 10 inch tablet that could be used for the same purpose. I have specifically identified those which will be on sale for the 11.11 aliexpress holiday and have full-sized USB ports so they can be used with a USB ethernet adapter. The USB port is only necessary if you don't want to use wifi. There are a lot of other options, even some with higher resolution displays, which lack a USB port.

$140 Win10, 2x USB

$145 Win8+Android, 2x USB

$135 Win8+Android, 1x USB

 

[bp2008]

After the success with the 7 inch door tablet, I ended up ordering the Windows 10 tablet above on 11/11. When it arrives ages from now, it will join an old 10 inch netbook in my hot tub shed so I can split off some of the camera/clock/weather information onto a second screen. The trick will be laying out the information in the most efficient way possible. I'm thinking the tablet will be in portrait mode with the clock and weather information on top, and one of my 4:3 aspect ratio cameras rendered below that. The netbook will get to dedicate its entire display to one 16:9 camera.

This is what I want to display, except I will have two screens to do it with and my near-sighted eyes will thank me.

 

[bp2008]

After the success with the 7 inch door tablet, I ended up ordering the Windows 10 tablet above on 11/11. When it arrives ages from now, it will join an old 10 inch netbook in my hot tub shed so I can split off some of the camera/clock/weather information onto a second screen. The trick will be laying out the information in the most efficient way possible. I'm thinking the tablet will be in portrait mode with the clock and weather information on top, and one of my 4:3 aspect ratio cameras rendered below that. The netbook will get to dedicate its entire display to one 16:9 camera.

This is what I want to display, except I will have two screens to do it with and my near-sighted eyes will thank me.

So, it turns out the 10 inch tablet I got from aliexpress is slightly defective. Every couple of days it freezes, goes to sleep without reason, or just simply reboots. You could say I lost this time with the Chinese import gamble. I don't use it out in my hot tub shed anymore because it got to be a pain in the butt to deal with it out in the cold. I made the questionable decision of bringing it inside to run in my bedroom, where the maintenance is easier. So now when it freaks out or firefox wants to update, the image changes from a night-friendly red to a piercing white and I have to get up and fix it (if I'm awake to see it).

So seriously, screw buying tablets from aliexpress. Not going to do that again.

 

[bp2008]

The original Winbook 7 inch tablet started failing. It was crashing occasionally and often half the screen would glitch out when the screen was at reduced brightness.

So I bought an upgrade last month for about $140. I decided on a "Jumper EZpad 4S Pro" which is a 10.6" Windows 10 tablet. It has an Atom x5-Z8350 (quad core) CPU with a generous 4 GB of RAM.

I decided this one is big enough to mount in portrait mode and have 3 cameras on it. I mounted it with 3M Command Picture Hanging strips this time.



One caveat about this tablet: It doesn't come with a charger (only a Micro USB cable) and most standard 2 amp USB ports can barely keep up with the energy demands of this tablet. The first night I had it plugged in to the same 2 amp charger that the Winbook came with, and the battery slowly drained until the tablet turned off in the middle of the night.

So I disabled a bunch of unnecessary hardware components in Task Manager (like the Bluetooth and wifi and front/rear cameras), rebooted, reduced the screen brightness, and in the power options there was a thermal/power limit thingy that I set to its lowest setting. All this allowed the tablet to stay on continuously while plugged in.

This tablet has a DC charging port (barrel connector) but the product listing didn't specify the voltage or amps required or the barrel connector size. The seller told me it was 5v 3a, which I guessed already from having searched google for chargers specifically for this device. The seller also told me it was a 3.5 x 2.1mm plug size, which is patently false -- the DC jack on this tablet is immediately adjacent to the 3.5mm headphone jack and the hole is a lot smaller. Turns out the actual required plug size is 2.5 x 0.7mm. I now have the tablet running on a 5v 3a 2.5x0.7mm DC adapter (center positive) and it works fine, although the charge level bounces slowly between about 90% and 100% throughout the day. I'm not entirely sure what this means but the thing is working reliably so far and not overheating which is all I really care about.

 

[bp2008]

Rest In Peace the 10 inch tablet pictured in my previous post from 2017.

It was my best one so far, which isn't saying much.

I had to fiddle with it every week or two when the java app would freeze or the entire tablet would mysteriously turn off, or sometimes the USB network adapter would disappear off the system and I'd have to unplug and plug it back in.

Besides that, one of this tablet's two battery cells became swollen a long time ago, causing the screen to pop out from the case on one side. I left it alone until one day the command strips fastening the tablet to the wall failed and the tablet fell to the floor, further opening the case but actually causing no other damage. At that point I carefully removed the bad battery cell and the machine still worked for several months. But today I found the tablet turned off again, but this time it won't boot back up. It gets partway into booting windows, then it simply turns off.

 

[biggen]

Very cool that you wrote the software yourself. Started playing around with an unused RPi I have and rpisurv. The possibilities are endless!

 

[bp2008]

So I'm replacing my front door monitoring display again, but this time I'm taking a more expensive approach because I'm tired of shitty Chinese hardware. It still has to be a touchscreen because I want to retain the ability to very quickly review past video.

I'm not buying a 4th tablet with a full-sized USB port for a network adapter. I'm DONE with those. Instead I've ordered a used Dell Optiplex 3040 MTT (very small PC with an i5-6500T) from ebay. This will be located on top of the nearby bookshelf, and HDMI + USB cables will run over to an ASUS ZenScreen MB16AMT (15.6" portable touchscreen) which I'll mount to the wall where the tablet was.

This new setup has some pros:

+ Bigger display
+ A lot more reliable, in theory
+ About 4x faster than the tablets I've used previously.

and cons:

- About 4x higher price than the tablets I've used previously.
- More parts and complexity
- Display brightness not controllable by my own software (yet)

Most of the cost and hassle is the touchscreen and directly-related supporting parts. ASUS ZenScreen MB16AMT is a $330 device when purchased new. Unfortunately it has an incredibly annoying quirk that I found when I installed one on my fridge last year: The screen runs off an internal battery, and its charge controller stops charging the battery after it reaches full. It won't resume charging until you unplug and re-plug the USB connection. Therefore if left on its own, the battery will eventually be drained and the screen will turn off.

To work around this issue, I also need an externally-powered USB hub and a TP-Link Kasa plug. I connect the screen's power and touch data (same USB cable) to the PC through the USB hub, and I configure the smart plug to turn off for one minute every night. Because this specific USB hub model shuts down completely when its external power is lost, the Asus screen thinks it has been unplugged and therefore will start charging again when power is restored.

Portable touchscreens from random Chinese brands are cheaper, but risky. The one I got two years ago has extremely unreliable touch support, which is what led me to the Asus model and the willingness to suffer its battery charging quirk. I noticed a ViewSonic model is available this time around, but I opted to avoid it because it doesn't have a flat backside so it wouldn't be as stable when mounted to the wall with command strips.

I'll update this thread again when I get the new setup going. Right now it is just parts on order.

 

[bp2008]

Well the tablet is back on again... the thing happened to be connected to a z-wave outlet that had been accidentally toggled a day or two ago. So the battery was dead and the tablet wasn't showing a battery icon or anything during bootup.

I'm still going to replace the piece of junk though because I don't want to have to fiddle with it every week.

 

[Mike A.]

...I've ordered a used Dell Optiplex 3040 MTT (very small PC with an i5-6500T) from ebay.

Got one of the same not long ago. They're good little utility boxes. Swapped in an SSD and bumped the memory from 4 to 8 and it's quite a bit faster than I expected. Will very easily do what you need for your purposes with plenty left over for other uses.

I've run UI2/UI3 on a tablet on my desk for a long time. It's been great. Many thanks for that!

 

[concord]

Not sure if there is a way to turn off the screen and only turn it on when cam motion is detected, to reduce power load.

Another way would be to use the tablet cam to sense motion near it, but that means you have to be near it to activate the screen. There is an android/ios Fully Kiosk browser that has that option, maybe there's a similar browser for windows. See links in youtube video for more info. Prime dqy had 10" Fire HD tablet for 99.00.