HP Touchpad Android touchscreen w/ inductive charging in-wall dock

Community Playground General Discussions
1

I wasn’t sure where the best place to post this was, but I have been meaning to post it on the forum for about a year now so here it goes.

Maybe in the Remote Control section of the Forum we could have a section dedicated to Wall Touchscreens or Wall Docks if there ends up being enough interest or posts.

Anyway here is a link to my Imgur tutorial detailing my in-Wall charging Android touchscreen project, I hope you enjoy.

http://www.controlmypad.com/projects.html

2

This is very well done.

Thanks for sharing.

3

@shady, wow, you’ve put a lot of work into this! I have a feeling that if I show my wife your LCARS display, I’ll get an instant approval for the in-wall tablet project (we’re both Trekkies) :slight_smile:

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I don’t want to take credit for the LCARS skin Square Connect created for their SQ Remote HD (because I didn’t lift a finger to make it), but when they asked me for skin ideas LCARS was the first thing out of my mouth.

I have been inspired by this guys project from way back in 2008:

http://www.springwald.de/web/Beitrag/LCARS-Haussteuerung-im-Star-Trek-Look/

Thank you for the feedback @Z-Waver and @WhiteBeard

5

Wow I’m impressed, I just installed Android on my HP Touchpad… maybe I should get a Touchstone and try it. Thanks for the guide.

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Shady, what Android apps are you using for HA control? Or are you using your own custom app? Either way, looks great, would like to tackle that as a project…

7

@tdharts

Thanks, I really use multiple Android apps right now. While I started using HomeBuddy and really liked it, @garrettwp’s AutHomation HD app is the current app of choice since the voice widget is the most fun I have had using my voice (and finger). I still use HomeBuddy for some things because it supports the Wake-On-LAN plug-in (when I am mobile) and also limited control of my Denon receiver. To get access to all of the features, I use the Denon app to control the receiver. I’ve been poking around iRule and Total Control looking to get the same functionality (A/V + Home control) I have in SQ Remote onto Android, but I’m not sure I want to use the HP Touchpads like that (although for continuity I might want everything to control everything).

I have a couple of 2nd Gen iPod touches and an iPad2 running SQ Remote HD and I use them for TV, DVR, and Home control while leaving them near each TV (they can be carried from room to room since both rooms are separate on the carousel).

Something to note about the AutHomation voice widget is that the HP Touchpad Android port doesn’t support microphone or camera yet, at least not the Android ICS Tenderloin build I have on them now. edit: after some checking I think they have the microphone working now, I need to upgrade my TP’s. Also I am having trouble getting my Foscam to display on Android, it usually displays once or twice and then won’t again (trying several different apps), where in iOS it works only requiring a reconnect occasionally. No luck getting it to play nice in Vera either, but this might be due to using WiFi to connect to it.

For remote desktop access, I have been somewhat happy using Splashtop Remote ever since I only bought it because they had support for the HP Touchpad’s WebOS (before the Android port was available). Of course, since then I had to purchase the app for Android and for iOS but it works well and I am used to using it. You can also use a PC to log-in to Splashtop clients, but that still needs some work.

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I read you are using multiple apps on your device. The one thing which is annoying for me is changing apps, it is too much hassle. For example I run Blue iris ( video monitoring, everytime you start the app it is at least 3 things you have to do to get the cameras on the screen) , authomation, and sonos.

The sonos plugin I can forget since the vera plugin works good enough , but that still leaves me changing from blue iris to authomation and back.

The best way would be to have some physicall buttons you can programm to open an app , or like windows 7 , the “alt+tab” funktion.
Is there a quick way to change apps (in android) where the app goes to it’s previous state?

Thanks,
Cor

9

Good question, I would also prefer keep app switching to a minimum.

My iPad has (or had, not working now that I test it again) 4 finger swipe left/right to the next adjacent app in the tray which is very handy, making multiple apps seem like one. Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean don’t offer this natively, but there are a couple of apps that do it pretty well on the Play store. So on Android you just hit a soft button on screen to bring up a list of apps, task switcher, on the Touchpad, or I hold the Home button on my phone.

I prefer using the Denon app when surfing through music so having multiple yet minimal apps seems to be my plan. 3 being… vera control, receiver control, ip cameras.

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@ Shady: thanks for the info … I will download and try denon app :slight_smile:

Cor

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Since he’s too humble to mention it otherwise, @shady had his project promoted on Hack A Day:
Perfect Wall-mounted Tablet Integration | Hackaday

Congrats!!!