UI3 Tablet Recommendations

[DLONG2]

I'm considering adding some tablets, either wall-mounted or free, around the home to show the cameras through the UI3 browser, and would be interested in learning what solutions others are using and any product recommendations. There was a thread discussion about removing the battery from a tablet and always running it on house power, as otherwise there was a fire danger in always charging a tablet?

Currently I have the UI3 showing on the TV itself, on a Fire stick, and on the Xbox, but those solutions require some effort to get started.

 

[Ssayer]

My three Fire8 tablets run non-stop and have been doing so for a LONG time now without issues running UI3 in their Silk browser. YMMV...

 

[sebastiantombs]

I use a couple of old Samsung tablets with Chrome and UI3. Basically, any halfway decent tablet will handle the job, maybe not at 4K, but well enough to see what's happening.

 

[Edcfish]

I don't run it 24/7 any more but for about 3 weeks i used a Samsung Galaxy A tablet and it worked great.

 

[Serodgers]

I have three IPads using UI3 hosted in HomeSeer HSTouch home automation clients. UI3 runs 24/7 as part of the default display.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[silencery]

Here's something I'm running. UI3 is part of it, but it's not strictly for monitoring BI. I have several of these around the house.

The hardware is all based on cheap fireHDs rooted, but running the stock OS. Here's a quick summary of what they do:

• The tablets wake hands-free when someone is in the room. Wake is triggered by tasker via motion sensors sent from openHAB (OH is my home automation system)
• When motion is detected in certain zones (front porch, etc), live video overlay of that zone pops up over the dashboard. Also triggered by OH events pushed via MQTT
• Powered by POE to USB adapters
• For longevity, batteries are limited to never charge above 80% using ACC
• Sound for each tablet is output through bluetooth speakers paired in respective rooms, so they can do things like send audible alerts on various triggers (zone tripped in BI, or doorbell pushed)
• Front end software is HomeHabit. HomeHabit widgets support standard URLs, so UI3 is fed into it.
• Wall mounts are 3D printed from Makes by Mike

Sample video of zone overlay pop-up (pardon the shakiness, I was shooting one-handed while manually triggering the video demo)
View attachment UbGjPli.mp4

 

[petersw]

Here's something I'm running. UI3 is part of it, but it's not strictly for monitoring BI. I have several of these around the house.

I love what you did with these tablets! Can you provide any more details on the hardware/software? I don't think I'd be up to doing the wiring myself...

 

[silencery]

Thanks.

Sure, I'd be happy to share and help out. What else would you like to know?

 

[camviewer43]

Here's something I'm running. UI3 is part of it, but it's not strictly for monitoring BI. I have several of these around the house.

Nice. I've been looking to a good way of controlling what gets shown on tablets based on events. I've investigated tasker, but couldn't figure out how to bring up specific cameras as an overlay over something like home assistant dashboards. I'm confused about which front end component is actually doing the overlay and tablet control on your setup. Is it openhab or home habbit that is subscribing to mqtt messages and pulling the overlays up? And does it require a rooted tablet to perform this functionality?

In addition to pulling up camera overlays, I'd also like to control screen going to sleep and screen brightness. Is that doable with your setup?

 

[petersw]

Thanks.

Sure, I'd be happy to share and help out. What else would you like to know?

Thanks...Let's see, lots of questions:

1) Which Fire tablets are these (older models?), and it's unclear why they are both rooted and running stock OS.
2) Which POE to USB adaptors did you use? Did you run this wiring in existing walls? If you happen to have any photos during installation, that would be great!\\

Also, I saw in another thread that you were having problems with BI. Did that get resolved?

 

[silencery]

The base, always on, dashboard for me is home habit (linked above).

The overlay animation and contents are handled by the awesome Overlays app: Overlays - Floating Apps Launcher - Apps on Google Play.

Overlays is great in that it can render whatever you want over another app. You can choose widgets, web pages, whatever. In my case, I just pull http feeds from BI.

The on/off animation is triggered by mqtt and tasker, with the mqtt plugin. Overlays has built in support for tasker.

Root is not required for any of the above

You need root to control screen and sleep reliably, but yes, totally doable. In my case, I wake the tablets based on PIRs in the room and they sleep on inactivity

 

[silencery]

Thanks...Let's see, lots of questions:

1) Which Fire tablets are these (older models?), and it's unclear why they are both rooted and running stock OS.

I'm using 2017 HD 10s and HD8s. I preferred rootable models from the start because I knew I wanted the flexibility to root just in case. I deliberately chose old models because they are easier to root, cheap (costs add up when you have 5-10 of these installed), and they are easy to source.

At the end of the day, I'm using root to debloat the tablets, control charging limits, and remote wake functions. Root is not necessary though.

I tried some 3rd party roms, but I never got them to run quite as fast as the stock amazon OS (after debloating). Could be I just got a bad flash though. Many others have reported good results on custom ROMs like lineage.

2) Which POE to USB adaptors did you use? Did you run this wiring in existing walls? If you happen to have any photos during installation, that would be great!\\

I'm using the POE adapters included with the makes by mike mounts linked above. They're not true POE, they just convert POE voltage down to 5v. You could do the same with a buck booster or similar.

The really nice thing about the makes by mike power adapters is they come with right angle USB plugs, so the mount is clean with minimal cord stress. I'll see if I have any wiring photos somewhere

Also, I saw in another thread that you were having problems with BI. Did that get resolved?

Yes, I was having trouble with the BI webserver crashing. Ultimately I did get it solved, and ken tried to help, but unfortunately it required a full wipe of my BI OS

 

[silencery]

Couldn't find any of my install photos, but basically I just used the POE power adapter included with the mount.
I had the CAT6 pre-fished into the wall locations where I knew I wanted wall mounted tablets when we renovated the house.

If you don't have pre-existing CAT5/CAT6 in the walls, they offer a ton of other power options with their right angle USB plug, including 5VDC, 12VDC, 120VAC, or even alarm powered. The cleanest way would probably be to run 120VAC to a nearby light switch. You can see all the options on their site:

Tablet Charging System | Makes by Mike (mbmounts.com)

 

[DLONG2]

Wondering if HomeSeer can likewise be used to wake up a Fire tablet. Correction: I see that Tasker is being used. Darn, looked at that once but couldn't figure it out.

 

[silencery]

Yes, can totally be done on Homeseer or even BlueIris. Regrettably, I don't have time to do a full writeup (and I don't have homeseer), but if it helps, here's the mile high overview:

Quick rundown of how you get Tasker to trigger overlays from MQTT events (off the top of my head)

1. Install MQTT client, tasker, and overlays apps (i'm using paid versions for all 3)
2. Open overlays app to create a custom overlay. For your source material, you can pull feeds from UI3 or whatever URL/widget you want
3. Configure MQTT client to connect to your MQTT broker (from homeseer or BI in this case). What you want is your tablet to receive messages from your automation system (i.e. zone 1 is tripped, zone 3 not tripped, etc)
4. Once finished, open Tasker, create a new profile triggered by "event." Set up the event to be MQTT message received, based on your specific zone definitions and variables (from step 3).
5. Once the event trigger is setup, link it to a new task to tell the overlay (which you created in step 2) to appear.
6. Repeat the above to tell the overlay to disappear (i.e. your profile will be zone is not tripped)

It should be noted tasker is very flexible, so this is just ONE method to "pull the trigger." You can trigger the wake or overlay in lots of different methods. I think I even saw an app that uses the onboard camera of a phone or tablet to wake. However, that didn't work for me since low light conditions can exist which will cause the onboard tablet camera not to pick up any motion.

 

[petersw]

Couldn't find any of my install photos, but basically I just used the POE power adapter included with the mount.
I had the CAT6 pre-fished into the wall locations where I knew I wanted wall mounted tablets when we renovated the house.

If you don't have pre-existing CAT5/CAT6 in the walls, they offer a ton of other power options with their right angle USB plug, including 5VDC, 12VDC, 120VAC, or even alarm powered. The cleanest way would probably be to run 120VAC to a nearby light switch. You can see all the options on their site:

Tablet Charging System | Makes by Mike (mbmounts.com)

One other (perhaps simple) question. Are the tablets connecting to BI (and the internet) via WiFi or via the USB/PoE wire? I ask because I'm looking to be somewhat resistant to the whims of WiFi dropouts.

If these are connecting via WiFi, any problems with apps stopping or WiFi interruptions? I can easily deal with these, but my concern is being away from home and wife (or children) need to reset a device...

 

[silencery]

Very good question. High WAF/reliability is very important to me too, and I ALWAYS prefer wire.

Unfortunately, the adapters included in the mounts are not true POE. They only convert power. I have not found a suitable micro USB poe adapter which fits right angle yet. Not sure if it exists.

Having said that, I have to admit the wifi network has been 100% rock solid since I installed the tablets over the summer, but I made sure in advance to have a strong wifi mesh in place. I know that's not always viable for every environment

 

[samplenhold]

There is a big difference in having a tablet connected via WIFI and having cams connected via WIFI. More than two or three cams streaming back to BI or an NVR will overload the WIFI radio causing dropped packets and retransmissions. But having the tablet connected via WIFI is exactly what WIFI is designed for and is very doable.