Post Ideas for best Touch Screen Hardware for control page

[jay (support)]

A/V integration is definitely something we think is important. Not that that helps with anyone's current pain, but...

Ha Thanks Jay, no worries we know you guys have your plates full currently. I think a few new elements on the presentation layer would go a long way to helping some of us. Actually just a URL control to embed & interact with a webpage in a CP would blow some minds with added functionality for media and tons of other stuff.

Terry

My colleague bought one of these today: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0099NPR7U

I had a quick play on it - seems snappy enough for what I'd need it for - I don't use/need HD or videos, and I'm not a media buff.

Once I see what happens with indigo touch 2.0 and/or the HousePad plugin, might need to get one.

Great posts from everyone. I changed title to see if we can cast a wider net on the topic.

Just bought one of these to replace the "Main" wall-mounted iPad. Adam, HousePad will be front-and center!

http://www.groupon.com/deals/gg-hp-slat ... ac057897f9

Terry

Admit it Terry, you bought it for the "DTS sound for more nuanced laugh tracks"

Just bought one of these to replace the "Main" wall-mounted iPad. Adam, HousePad will be front-and center!

I. Am. Jealous. I have a 22" ViewSonic that I have mounted on an arm by my desk, but that looks nicer and with much better specs (mine is about 2.5 years old).

Pressure is on, I can tell! I am working on a few options for just your use case -- in particular dimming the screen on inactivity and waking up on touch. Would like to get it waking up on proximity at some point as well as some options on the dimming feature. Let me know how it would "ideally" work (or if you just will leave it on full-brightness the whole time, is a moot point).

From my perspective, I think ideally would be that after inactivity HousePad dims the screen and/or shows a screensaver... upon a click or however we can wake it up it will power brightness back up and refresh the control page. I thought about having it continue to update behind the dimming screen, but the updates are quick and that would seem to use a bit of processing/network for nothing. Still, I am open to discussion if others think it should.

Adam

Congrats Terry on the new device!
Bigger can be fun at times

The XDA crew has a root for the device
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2709467

I'm going to get one and it is going to be sweet when Adam finishes his router app that will work along side HousePad. It will display router info while the screen is in dim/sleep mode.
Hint hint...
Right Adam

I. Am. Jealous. I have a 22" ViewSonic that I have mounted on an arm by my desk, but that looks nicer and with much better specs (mine is about 2.5 years old).

I'm excited for it to come in, the iPad it replaces is surface-mounted to the wall with a custom wooden frame surround. I think I'll try to flush-mount the Slate for a clean look. I'll post pics of the swap process when it comes in.

Pressure is on, I can tell! I am working on a few options for just your use case -- in particular dimming the screen on inactivity and waking up on touch. Would like to get it waking up on proximity at some point as well as some options on the dimming feature. Let me know how it would "ideally" work (or if you just will leave it on full-brightness the whole time, is a moot point).

Dimming would be a nice feature, but in this particular location, I leave the iPad on full brightness, I may do the same with the Slate, but since it's so much larger we'll see once it's in. The wake-on-proximity would kick ass though.

From my perspective, I think ideally would be that after inactivity HousePad dims the screen and/or shows a screensaver... upon a click or however we can wake it up it will power brightness back up and refresh the control page. I thought about having it continue to update behind the dimming screen, but the updates are quick and that would seem to use a bit of processing/network for nothing. Still, I am open to discussion if others think it should.

Sounds good, and yeh on a local LAN or WiFi with fast response I would thing the background updates would be a bit of a waste, use that coding time & effort to make HousePad launch auto-start with a specific CP.

Terry

Congrats Terry on the new device!
Bigger can be fun at times

Thanks, yeah no doubt, bigger is better in some instances!

The XDA crew has a root for the device
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2709467

I was just reading though all of that. I'll definitely want to root it, primarily to make it auto-launch HousePad on startup and a few other things specific to having a permanently-mounted device.

I'm going to get one and it is going to be sweet when Adam finishes his router app that will work along side HousePad. It will display router info while the screen

Awesome! During inactivity on mine I plan on displaying weather radar & info (dimmed somewhat) or camera feeds. I may look at a separate app for displaying that though and have some mechanism to switch (should be easy on a rooted device)

Terry

Sounds good, and yeh on a local LAN or WiFi with fast response I would thing the background updates would be a bit of a waste, use that coding time & effort to make HousePad launch auto-start with a specific CP.

Hmm, if you are rooting then you should be able to launch any intent and thus instead of auto-starting HousePad, I can give you the intent to use to auto-launch to a control page. I should be able to give you an intent to auto-launch straight to a CP. I might even be able to give you an intent to launch without the surrounding GUI (no left nav bar or action bar ever av) if that is desirable (I mean, not even on the screen, not just "not shown").

Awesome! During inactivity on mine I plan on displaying weather radar & info (dimmed somewhat) or camera feeds. I may look at a separate app for displaying that though and have some mechanism to switch (should be easy on a rooted device)

May not want to wait, but I do want to look into a screen-saver style deal at some point for permanently mounted displays... I can't say that is high on my list at the moment, though, as I may need to update a few things to match Indigo Touch 2 once that is released (assuming there are some new features to take advantage of in HousePad, which I think is a safe assumption).

I'm going to get one and it is going to be sweet when Adam finishes his router app that will work along side HousePad. It will display router info while the screen is in dim/sleep mode.

Will be a plugin when I do get around to it, but still hope to do so... I've started using a different set of Access Points for my wireless, but still use DD-WRT for my router so still want to do this project.

Adam

So, against Adam's warnings - I've ordered a cheepo $55 Android tablet to test as a dedicated control point for the house. The specs seem decent enough and it should be delivered tomorrow so we'll see: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00O0PHLK8

The use case for this is that it will be mounted outside in an enclosure under the patio by the pool for control when lounging in the back yard. It'll be mounted out of the elements and not in direct sunlight so it should be ok - but even if it dies it wasn't a huge investment. Assuming it works well enough, I'll post the build & install procedure in a post here.

Terry

So, against Adam's warnings - I've ordered a cheepo $55 Android tablet to test as a dedicated control point for the house.

Well, remember that my warnings are merely that they are not all that great and I would avoid them as real control consoles - not that they don't work / don't have a place. Perhaps they will be okay in an outdoor environment where really color reproduction won't matter as much. My el cheapo tablet is fine performance-wise, so I don't think you'll have an issue in that respect.

One area where it falls short (but so does one other non-cheap device, tbh) is that the control page time out / dimming doesn't work too well. Even if set to dim to 15% it only seems to make it maybe 75% of the normal brightness.

Please do let us know the results, though, as they very well may have their places as long as the limitations are understood.

Adam

Hey, I know this is an in depth conversation about mostly tablets. I however just wanted to touch base in regards to some of the earlier posts, where some users mentioned "clunky" or not so slick looking control pages...

I'm a bit of a web designer, I guess a beginner would properly describe my skill set. That said I've been able to make very clean looking control pages for iPhone and iPad. Mimicking the Control4 structure for those of you who are familiar.

Keep in mind, if you aren't selling or advertising your control pages and designs there is no reason to pay for images. Use google, use free photo libraries, or trace images you like. It shouldn't matter if you aren't profiting from your design. For this reason I won't post images of my control pages

Lastly a plug. My wife is a graphic designer, if you have a control page setup you like. She can brand it for you in any way you like, with original vector graphics and fast loading pages, rich with detail. jus lemme know.

You can also extract some images from apps downloaded from the webstore, eg the Control 4 ones. Of course always make sure you have the permission of the copyright holder before using their images!