I’m using an old Amazon Fire 7 tablet (with the warranty seriously voided) mounted to the wall as my WF home console for quick reference. With an app to keep the screen powered on and the Android WF app’s forecast card shuffled to the bottom of the stack to hide that it doesn’t refresh, I leave it run 24/7 without sweating screen burn on the sub-$50 tablet. There are several other cheap tablets that would make good station consoles for $50 or less.
@dsj mentioned to me at one point that someone was using an Android tablet with a proximity sensor built in that turned on the screen only when someone was looking at it. Sounds like a feature worth paying a little bit more for in a tablet, as long as it doesn’t raise the price into hundreds of dollars for a name-brand unit like Samsung.
Anyway, I’m hoping that this thread will be the place to share tablet and supporting app recommendations (like keeping the screen awake) that others have found…
I’m using a Nexus 7 tablet that I seldom used to display my Davis station using a modified Saratoga script template. The screen is on 24/7 and I have been using it about 2 years with no screen burn-in. It refreshes (using ajax) every 6 seconds. Burn in with modern LCD displays are not a big problem. Now if it’s an OLED screen, that’s a different story. I use the app Wakey to keep the screen on.
What I want to do when I get around to it is to change one of the tabs at the top to display my WeatherFlow system using the Meteotemplate scripts so I can switch between the two. That would look something like the second pic.
I’m no expert on Android tablets, but I do own an LG 7" tablet (Model LG-V496) that has a display persistence setting “Keep screen turned on”. I built a bracket for it and have it displaying the Smart Weather app in my “cave” as I write. I did a quick browse on eBay and found a few for sale under $50. SInce not all tablets obviously have this feature, I would inquire with the seller directly
Great Idea for a forum topic.
I think we need to compile a list of attributes that are minimums in a used Tablet to consider. My thoughts are:
-O/S specific versions to consider. For an Android Tablet, is that KitKat? JellyBean? Earlier still?
-Screen resolution to be able to display all pertinent info.
-Screen size. Kind of user dependent. But if it’s wall mounted, you may need a big enough screen so you can see it from 6 feet away say.
Display type. I think LCD would be better to avoid screen Burn-in. And that may make the cost less?
-Key Features: WiFi (a must), abilities to keep the screen on. Possibly a proximity sensor. Auto dimming for day vs night use?
Are their other things I’m missing here?
I have a BlackBerry Playbook tablet that I would love to be able to re-purpose for this use. However the browser is circa 2012 and when I go to the web site all I see is the name of my station at the top and the map of the location at the bottom. None of the cards are displayed. I get a message that the server certificate is not trusted, but no way to get it to accept the certificate.
Anyone have any ideas for me? I realize it may not be possible with such an antique, but it has a neat charging stand that would make display so easy if I could get it to work.
In the past i have used an old android tablet and an old iPad - they work well either hanging the wall or with a stand - i built a webpage aimed at viewing the data at a glance (just waiting for the Sky to link it in) - the background colour changes according to the the outside temp:
I then adapted it to take individual readings and put them on pi’s with small screens. I’ll admit it does cost a bit more (£70 each) so its a bit of a luxury i could not really afford but there is something about weather data that makes its justifiable…
I have several compatible android tablets
I currently have a ipad mini and iphone 5c compatible really bad that is only on small screens
the purchase of ios tablet or recent android is required
j’ai plusieurs tablettes android aucunes de compatible
je n’ai actuellement un ipad mini et un iphone 5c compatible vraiment dommage cela est que sur du petits ecrans
l’achat de tablette ios ou android recente soit obligatoire
I have a Nook that is no longer in use and I tried to install the app and got a message that my device is not compatible with this version. Are there other versions to choose from?
I’m interested in the code you used to drive the display. Is this from a public library or something you developed? Are you willing to discuss and share how you developed this?
