amazon fire tablet as smart home control

Amazon fire tablet as smart home control how to#
Amazon fire tablet as smart home control free#
Amazon fire tablet as smart home control windows#

The way around this: don’t register your Kindle with Amazon. This means while they were just $50 each, they would be subject to ads and special offers… something I didn’t want on my kiosk. I picked up two brand new Kindle Fire HD 8' tablets at the lowest price. With the power issue addressed, let me turn to get the Kindle Fire setup: Configuring Kindle Fire HD as a Kiosk Here’s what my webCoRE piston ( what routines are called in webCoRE) looks like.

Amazon fire tablet as smart home control free#

This is controlled using the free SmartThings SmartApp This way, the tablets charge for 3 hours, then run off battery discharging themselves for 3 hours which is more what they were designed to do. Driving constant power for an extended period of time to a tablet isn’t safe as the batteries aren’t designed for that. One thing I want to call out though was that I added a SmartThings plug that cycles power on/off every few hours to the tablets. To step down the power from 12V to 5V, I picked up a converter with a right-angle microUSB connector for each tablet that’s mounted behind the tablet in the wall. In my other post, DIY Home Security System with Konnected.io & SmartThings, I explained how I hooked up the wires from the panels to receive power… go check that post for details. Because the Kindle tablets are using my existing wireless network to show the ActionTiles panel, I only needed to supply power, but just 5V of power. This wire provided 12V power & data to the keypad. The existing security system had a wire that ran to the main security system. The bulk of this post is about the second two items in this list, but first, let me address powering the Kindle. To use the Kindle as a kiosk, I had to solve a few things: The one in the picture above is in a 3D printed mount, but these are pricey ($30) and can be mounted on the wall with plenty of permanent and temporary mounting options. It’s also great for displaying recipes via the Plan to Eat app we use for meal planning. That one’s ActionTiles panel will use a larger tile theme to see it from across the room. We like it so much, we’re considering getting the larger 10' Kindle Fire for the kitchen. I’ve since replaced my two existing keypads with Kindle Fire HD 8' tablets that look great on the wall: Kindle Fire tablet wall mount

Amazon fire tablet as smart home control how to#

Now, how to show these ActionTiles panels where the keypads were, without breaking the bank… the solution: cheap tablets! Amazon Kindle Fire Tablets as KiosksĪmazon Kindle Fire tablets make for a great inexpensive kiosk for your home.

Amazon fire tablet as smart home control windows#

For instance, the sensors from the old security system aren’t interactive such as doors, windows & motion detectors.ĪctionTiles rocks as I can configure panels as much as I like in a browser experience from my desk and wherever they are being consumed, they automatically get updated. Some of the tiles are interactive while others aren’t. This panel is actually much bigger… I can stroll down to control our smart thermostats, view the cameras we have on our house and a lot more. This is what the master panel looks like for my house ( some tiles are blurred out for privacy reasons): Smart Home Monitor with Action Tiles ActionTiles can talk to SmartThings and create an interactive browser-based experience into your SmartThings setup. The solution: smart touchscreens! ActionTiles for the Panel Controller Interface These won’t work for the new setup… I wanted something much more modern. To interact with the old security system, you typically use bulky keypads with the back-lit LCD screen. You can learn more about this in my blog post DIY Home Security System with Konnected.io & SmartThings. This results in improved visibility, control and customization abilities of your home monitoring solution. The new setup takes all these existing sensors and exposes them as things in SmartThings where you can use the SmartThings

The old system was your typical box with multiple wired sensors hooked up to doors, windows, motion detectors & smoke/carbon monoxide detectors. I recently replaced my traditional home security system with a more modern setup. While I’m leaving this post up, I don’t have much experience troubleshooting this setup, so while I’d like to help, you’re probably best to ask someone else questions about this setup. Since I originally published this article, I’ve switched from using SmartThings to using HomeAssistant & stopped using ActionTiles.