Question

Help/advice needed!  I plan to build a kind of controller in order to make it easier for guest to interact with my smart home.Help/advice needed! I plan to build a kind of controller in order to make it easier for guest to interact with my smart home. This controller should allow my guests to control my Philips Hue lights, Sonos system and Netatmo weather station. Do you have any recommendation regarding both the hardware and software aspects? I though about getting a very cheap tablet with a docking station, so tips would be highly appreciated. I also need to find out which apps have the most intuitive widgets that allow the control of my Philips Hue/Sonos. Links to similar projects or products are welcome.  

Answer 1

Smartthings + action tiles

Answer 2

^+ Fire tablet

Answer 3

Wow, thanks @jawbreaker and @paddie371! It seems that i found some good hardware and software candidates: a Fire HD 8 tablet coupled with a Show Mode Charging Dock and ActionTiles! Does anyone know if one can customize the Show Mode home screen in order to show widgets/buttons coupled to my smart devices? Can ActionTiles be installed on FireOS? All the videos and pictures that i can see online show just the clock on the Show Mode home screen. I'm grateful for the feedback that i got, it put me on the right track and now i know what to look for. I would also like to restrict access to anything else on the tablet except for the apps used to control my smart devices. Does anyone know if it is possible to do it through the Fire OS? There could also be an app/launcher that offer this possibility of restricting access to other apps, settings, etc, but i have no idea. Last but not least, if i understand it right, once you lift the tablet out of the dock it reverts back to its standard Fire OS. Therefore i wonder if one can tweak the tablet to always display the Show Mode home screen. I will definitely find the answer to this questions after some research, but if you have some of the answers do not hesitate to share as it will save me some research time  Really thankful for any help!  

Answer 4

Actiontiles is a web app. I use fully kiosk browser and did not register the tablets to amazon so I don’t have Alexa on them. I have alexas in every room of the house that isn’t an issue for me. You have to side load a few things for the google play store to get fully kiosk but there are plenty of guides out there that make it super simple. I use wall mounted frames that a friend 3D printed for me to mount on the wall.  

Answer 5

Take a look at SharpTools. io (with SmartThings or Hubitat). The Album Art tile is really neat with Sonos devices:  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5b...NxNuA