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Introduction to Smart Home Dashboards
Envisage an interface, a master console that enables you to take a peek into and interact with the minutiae of your digitally enabled dwelling—this is the charm of the Smart Home Dashboard. Meld this with the practicality of a wall-mounted tablet, and you’ve morphed your humble home into a domestic nerve center, commanding from the palm of your hand.
Understanding Smart Home Dashboard Options
The vast ocean of dashboard options unfolds before you—Home Assistant, Node-Red, or Sharp Tools are but the tip of the iceberg. Yet, the focus of this discourse is not to differentiate between these, but rather to highlight the usage of a tablet to operate the Smart Home Dashboard and affix it upon the wall. So begins the first chapter of our guide. The ensuing ones unravel the mysteries of installing Home Assistant and MQTT Broker on a Raspberry Pi, designing an attractive smart home dashboard, and uncovering the optimal Smart Home Tablet.
Choosing the Perfect Smart Home Tablet
Commence with the first stride, selecting the tablet for our smart home dashboard. The universe of tablets is vast and varied, offering you a wide berth of choices. Nonetheless, to reap the richest rewards, a sleek, minimal-bezel, wirelessly charging tablet would be the belle of the ball.
Setting up Power Supply
The tablet needs to remain juiced at all times. Plugging in a charger may seem like the path of least resistance, but for a crisp, seamless setup, a Qi-compatible tablet is unparalleled. Envisage a scenario where the wall houses a Qi charger, and the tablet sits snugly in front, perpetually charged. Such a smart home tablet doesn’t require Herculean power—it simply needs to run an app or website.
Optimizing the Amazon Fire HD Plus Tablet
Consider the Amazon Fire HD Plus tablets. Available in 8 or 10 inches, supporting wireless charging, equipped with a relatively small, evenly-sized bezel, and astoundingly affordable, these are the prized stallions for your smart home tablet carousel. However, purchase the version sans Lockscreens ads—removal can void your warranty. An anti-glare screen protector is recommended, less for protection and more to mitigate the harsh reflection of sunlight or lamps.
Customizing Fire Tablets for Smart Home Dashboards
Our journey now detours towards an Amazonian landscape: the Amazon Fire HD tablets. Technically speaking, they’re the crème de la crème. However, the Amazon software leaves much to be desired. The solution is to strip the Fire HD of most Amazon apps and infuse it with Google Play Store. The Fire Toolbox is your trusted companion for this adventure.
Mounting the Smart Home Tablet
Once the tablet is prepared, the quest moves to its wall mounting. The goal is to have the tablet hug the wall closely without the encumbrance of brackets or visible clamps. My tablet found its perch over an unused wall socket, a perfect nest for the Qi charger.
Preparing the Space for Wall Mounting
A petite Qi Charger, unearthed on the German Amazon site, snugly fit into my socket box. Its petite frame and wafer-thin design were ideal. To affix the tablet to the wall, I employed petite N35 neodymium magnets—three on each side, expertly glued, held the tablet securely.
Installing Full Kiosk Browser on Android
The Full Kiosk Browser application enables a browser to dominate the Android device’s screen and provides an array of controls for sleep modes, lock screens, scheduled wake-ups, etc. Its installation is accomplished via Fire Toolbox, and the result is a sleek, streamlined smart home dashboard. Licensed versions offer even more perks like motion detection, an automatic sleep timer, MQTT integration, and Kiosk mode.
Final Thoughts on Smart Home Tablets
To encapsulate, smart home tablets dramatically enhance the smart home experience, providing an accessible interface for guests and other family members to engage with your smart home devices. However, caution is warranted during the mounting process—sufficient magnets are required to secure the tablet, and to remove the tablet, slide it off the wall. A direct pull might damage the magnets. With that said, you’re ready to embark on your smart home journey!
