Amazon Fire Tablets dedicated to HR

#1

This thread was originally started as a PSA for the Prime Day sale for the Fire tablets. Feel free to discuss anything regarding the fire tablets or comparable devices. Please share anything from photos to configurations. :smiley:

Iā€™m using the following:
Fire HD8
Fire HD10

Iā€™ve been using these with great success as dedicated HR tablets! I have the HD10 wall mounted in my kitchen and have two HD8s that sit on stands in other rooms. Battery life is tremendous even though I modded them to always keep the screen on (no signs of image retention either).

I used table stands like these- Link

These arenā€™t the exact cables I used, but these cables have magnetic tips that make it much better for picking up and returning to the stand (bonus is the led helps you find the plug in the dark) - Link

For my wall mount tablet I used this plug LINK soldered to a 22awg wire fished down the wall to a plug in the basement. (you need to be good with a soldering iron!) I used double faced tape to hold the tablet up.

Other Notes: These are ad supported tablets. What this means is there are adds at the lock-screen. It could be annoying and I hate amazon as a company for this BS. Since I used adbLink to disable the screen from shutting off, I do not see the lock screen. I see nothing other than HR goodness. The added benefit is these can replace an Alexa device.

Thought Iā€™d share. Feel free to discuss anything (tips/tricks/hacks) about the fire tablets hereā€¦

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Home Remote on Amazon Echo Show 10 (3rd Gen)
#2

Just a caveat that the cheapest option of these tablets is ā€œad sponsoredā€. Meaning it shows advertising on their lock screen. Some people complain ads also play sound and make unlocking slower.

#3

Is there a way to turn off just the backlight so they go totally black without turning off the actual screenā€¦then just a minor touch to bring the backlight back to on?

#4

Out of the box, no. You would have to hack it somehow. I would be really interested in a function like that for a wall hung device in my bedroom/hallway. For everywhere else, I like the display on 24/7.

If the tablet is plugged in all the time you can do something similar but, it doesnā€™t go completely black. If you enable the ā€œdeveloper optionsā€ there is an option to ā€œstay awakeā€ (if it is plugged into power). Now, when the tablet goes to sleep, the screen gets very dim. Tapping the screen will bring it back. If you unplug power, it will go completely asleep and youā€™ll have to hit the power button then defeat the dreaded lock screen.

Like I said, I keep it on 24/7 and its been on since February w/no issues. I completely disabled sleep by using adbLink (directions here). I keep the brightness just below the halfway mark. The brightness does automatically adjust to the light levels in the room so, I never really need to tweak it. As far as battery on the HD8, itā€™ll go easily 7-8 hours w/the screen on before its dead.

#5

The Fire tablets are working well for me. I utilize 2 as permanently mounted control panels and one as my main remote ā€œhandsetā€. For the permanent mounted devices, they are on 24/7 and in order to exercise the battery/charging circuit, I plug the Fire power adapter into a programable power plug. Then just configure the plug to be on for so long and off for so long each day (ie. 3 hours on, 5 off, 3 on, 5 off, 3 on, 5 off). Mileage may vary depending on your battery.

With regards to the Ads, if you have had the tablet for a year or so, I have had pretty good luck getting Amazon to ā€œremoveā€ them. Go to Amazon support and ā€œCHATā€ with one of their customer support reps. While their terms of service say they will charge you $15, I have yet to be charged.

#6

Why alternate a programmable plug? Device batteries have a limited number of drain / charge cycles. You will get more out of the battery if you leave it fully charged.

#7

Another way to keep the screen on without adblink is to put it into Developer Mode Though you need to tap another item on that page, not the build number (sorry forgot which one, I think there are only 3 though). Once in developer mode you can set the screen never to turn off when plugged in, so for the cases it is always plugged in, it works great without any any other changes.

#8

Hi really like your setup, I am thinking of buying a couple of fire hd 8 tablets could you tell me if the google cast in the home remote app work with these tablets thanks

#9

I canā€™t help you with your question on google cast, but if you do go with the fire hd tablets, you should look into Fire Toolbox which greatly simplifies the addition of google play store to your fire as well as many other tweaks that will make your amazon device look more like a typical android tablet.

Fire Toolbox v11 makes Amazon tablet hacking easier (and a little safer) - Liliputing

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#10

This was my biggest problem with the Amazon Fire OS, you cannot totally remove the lock screen, which is extremely annoying. Even if you have no Pin code setup you still have to swipe up to unlock the screen and I couldnā€™t find any working hacks to disable it either.

This makes it not suitable for a Home Automation dashboard, unless you are willing to just have the screen turned on all the time which I donā€™t want.

You can use this Amazon Fire Toolbox Windows desktop app to remove most of the Amazon bloatware apps however.

In the end I just rooted my five Amazon Fire 7 tablets and installed a full Android OS custom rom. Now I have no lock screen / swipe up at all.

I am also using Tasker with this TNES app / plugin. This acts as a little web server API for Tasker and allows me to send custom HTTP commands from my Vera controller to the tablets to perform some Tasker task.

Some of the Tasker tasks I have setup on each Amazon Fire tablet.

Wake or Sleep the tablet
Reboot the tablet
Open particular cameras in TinyCam Pro app
Make Home Remote automatically launch after a reboot
To make Home Remote open a particular dashboard page

So by sending simple HTTP commands from my Vera controller in my scenes and automations, I can make the Amazon Fire tablets do any of these tasks and much more if you wanted to create other tasks in Tasker.

When motion is detected outside on my Hikvision IP cameras. Vera sends a command to the tablets to display that cameras video feed in TinyCam Pro for 60 seconds, it will then switch back to the Home Remote app and the tablets will then fall back to sleep mode.

Or I can ask Google Home speakers around the house, to ā€œshow meā€ a particular cameras video feed on the Amazon Fire tablets.

Also when the doorbell is pressed the video feed for the doorbell is automatically displayed on all the Amazon Fire tablets.

On a few of my tablets like the one in the kitchen I am also using the Motion Detector app with Tasker as an intent, so when I walk in to the kitchen in front of the tablet it will automatically wake up and Home Remote is then on screen.

I am also mainly using tablet stands like the one pictured above. I like the idea of the magnetic USB cables with a light also, will have to look in to getting some of those !

I have one tablet wall mounted in the porch also as an alarm panel.

If you donā€™t want to root and use a custom Android OS rom then, Iā€™d recommend using the Nova Launcher with Launcher HiJack to make it look more like a regular Android tablet and use the Fire Toolbox to remove all the Amazon apps you donā€™t use or want. And find a hack or pay Amazon to remove the Adverts.

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#11

Not with Home Remote no.

You could do this in Imperihome app however.

I did request this feature I think with Home Remote.

In Imperihome you could set a timeout and then the screen would go all black.

The screen was not really turned off it was like a black screen saver.

You could then just tap the screen to bring the Imperihome app back.

#12

Iā€™ve had one Amazon Fire tablet wall mounted and turned on 24/7 for about 4 years maybe longer. Its not blown up yet touch wood. I donā€™t have it connected to a smart plug either to let it run on battery for a while.

Although the tablet does go to sleep so the screen is not turned on all the time.

#13

I have been using my Fire HD 10 tablet with an app called Fully Kiosk it has built in camera based motion detection, also can lock you into a single app and much more. To disable if the lock screen if you download the ā€œActivity Launcherā€ app from the google play store you can scroll down to settings and change the lock screen to none. Now my tablet falls asleep when thereā€™s no motion and the second there is motion is pops into THR app and keeps you locked in.

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#14

Very useful information wish Iā€™d known that before. Too late now, all my Fire tablets are now running full Android OS.

#15

Ron thanks, I installed fire toolbox and itā€™s worked great managed to get rid of all the rubbish install google play store removed the adverts I also took cw-kid advice and installed nova launcher again with fire toolbox itā€™s a total different tablet now thanks

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#16

Hi I tried you tip of Activity Launcher on a 2020 tablet but I could not see lock screen option, which year tablet are you using thanks

#17

Read post #2

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#18

Thanks that worked great