Yup, it is a bit cheaper, but it's missing the touch/case(with magnet)/battery/RTC with wakeup and it's overall bulkier if you go with 18650 cell.
But a nice to have alternative
I know I have the device on my desk. For 30ā¬+ itās a bargain. Rely prefer that the connectors face inwards to make it possible to design a compact case instead the m5 design.
I have not ordered the phone touch screen but the new set seems ok
16 gray scale are a plus to render antialiased graphics like LVGL is capable to do. But a color (red) would be nice to indicate a value of importance. The high resolution make antialiasing less necessary. Will add a rgb led under the case. White filament is white translucent.
By the way Iām very happy with other Lilygo boards too. Well designed.
The only āthingā I need now is spare time and other projects finished.
Donāt get me wrong. I like the m5 designs. And you are right if you add everything in you will end at a comparable price.
But the connectors on the edge are simply a no go for my project. I use a PH 2.0 battery.
And I like the row of buttons on the top edge.
As I wrote before at the beginning of this nice thread I see this more like a info screen not as a TFT alternative. Even partial refresh of an eInk take time and make a less snappy interface.
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I cant find specs either - so here is an sample while moving it from warm to cold places...
data...
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It seems to be dynamic. Typically, I see it send values most often 10s / 20s / 30s, sometimes 1 or more minutes.
But, you can poll the value using the right topic or the zigbe2mqtt "read" node.
I chose this one ā as it is pre-flashed (with coordinator firmware) and worked out of the box (and came with aerial)
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224578308536
But there are many - here is a list of compatible devices.
PS, sorry for being slightly off-topic
As we are looking into human machine i interfaces here is another project I wold like to test in the future: LCD / TFT switches from NKK
Taktile switches & displays ā¦ something from the apollo era meets the 21 century
2 Likes
The easiest and fastest way is to use low power wireless sensors. No need to drill holes or run wires.
A Zigbee device or BLE device will do the wonder. The sensor can send out data via MQTT or via a gateway that has Node-RED installed. The battery for temperature & humidity measurement can easily last 5-10 years. The industrial-grade temperature sensor SVT100-T has a theoretical battery life of 18 years by sending out reading every 10s. There are lots of cost-effective consumer-grade wireless devices available too.
You may just need one central display panel in this case.
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I like the Xiaomi Mi Aqara Temperature Smart Air Pressure Humidity Environment Sensor (SWDCGQ11LM)
Temperature detection range: -20 - 60 Deg.C ( + / - 0.3 Deg.C )
Humidity detection range: 0 - 100pct RH ( + / - 0.3pct )
Atmospheric pressure detection range: 30 - 110KPa ( + / - 120Pa )
Most sensors send a message whenever a change occurs and cannot be queried.
I use a CC2531 Zigbee2MQTT Firmware with Antenna (Ā£15 from Amazon) which has the advantage of being pre-flashed with the relevant firmware. - Note you can get cheaper CC2531 dongles but the one I bought has a proper antenna. The CC2531 is OK for up to 20 devices reporting direct. A more upmarket option is the ElectroLama ZZH, but this is more expensive and requires programming.
A good writeup on this is Pete Scargill's blog Zigbee Development - The Really Big Update inc ZZH - Scargill's Tech Blog
Suppose I go for the Fire 7 tablet solution ...
Here they sell the STL files for 3D printing this frame (for 5,38 EUR):
Is that useful to buy such files if you need multiple frames, and if you don't have your own 3D printer? Or is the printed resolution perhaps not good (i.e. that you see the individual lines...), or will that perhaps be more expensive, or ...?
BTW. Found this evening that a wall-mounted Fire tablet is also called a "Fire-wall"... Geeky joke
Doing something like that from scratch would take hours or days, depending on the skill level of CAD designer. So the price seems reasonable. Just check before if you can find a similar design for free on thingiverse.com. There are 3D printing houses that allows you to submit an online quotation in which case you provide the STL file, the amount of pieces (there is always discount for bulky orders), the color, the kind of material, etc.
Eventually you may want to download a similar frame from thingisverse and request an online quotation just to have an idea how much it will cost. If you find the quotation acceptable you may then buy the other design (as the price should not differ too much).
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Guys I have designed various 3D printed gizmos, detailed mounts with decorative bits, clever mechanisms - it's really only a couple of hours work once you get the idea right (and more if you are thinking as you are drawing it up)...
I still don't know if I want touchscreens around the house (I prefer tactile buttons) BUT I have installed one in the meantime using wooden surrounds etc, and would be happy / interested to draw-up a design and test print for someone!
I got the Electrolama one. It is a little more expensive but it recommended by the Zigbee2MQTT project and I didn't want to faff around.
Just take the back off if you are mounting it. Everything is accessible from inside as well.
I have the latest one and it was very simple to get going.
Only problem is that it is out of stock at the moment. I have registered to be informed when available. You are right, if I had known about this unit when I was buying a dongle I would have gone for this one (Ā£22 for anyone interested [+P&P presumably])
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Yes, I did have to wait a month or so back earlier in the year. You have to keep tabs on your email and jump in as soon as the email comes in 
They seem to do batches pretty regularly though.
Hi Mat,
I you have skills that I don't have, all help is welcome... E.g. share things you have to take into account when you select a manufacturer, or anything else relevant for people that are not familiar with 3D printing stuff like me ...
As mentioned above, it would be great if I had a temperature/humidity sensor somewhere in bottom of the case. Because:
- I will have already a power cable available in the case, so it would be a pity if I also would have to install a separate battery powered sensor in every room...
- And since the Fire 7 tablet already communicates via WIFI with my Node-RED system, it would also be a pity if I had to install a complete separate Zigbee network to send the sensor data to Node-RED.
For me personally it would be great if the tablet could read somehow the sensor data (temperature and humidity), and send it via WIFI to my Node-RED flow. But not sure if that is possible 
. I found here a setup with an arduino connected to a Fire 7 (2019 edition) tablet via an OTG cable: so it seems that the Fire 7 tablet at least has OTG support. I have never used Arduino myself, so it would be nice to get some feedback about this: is it possible via a cheap arduino (or whatever else board) to read temperature/humidity values from a sensor via OTG. Does anybody has experience with this kind of stuff?
P.S. The Zigbee discussion is very interesting, but it might perhaps be better to keep it separate. Just to make sure that this discussion stays focussed on wall mount touch screens ...
Ok but I still have all the openings surrounding the otherwise nice case. Understand that design for the education purpose of many m5 designs. I like and have a m5 grey but it lacks the touch screen and i never got the 3 buttons input working with LVGL (but did not tried too hard). The charging desk stand is cool too)
Great that there are so many options available these days without fiddling around with 15 or more patch wires to connect a decent screen with decent refresh rates.
Curious of what software you are using. Loved fusion 360. First the makers / private licensing model promised free use for non commercial users. But then they suddenly changed the license scheme (as they drained all input and testing out of the community). I personally lost the free model as the licensing tool detected my valid processional architecture package I pay 4.5k per year. So you pay a bag of money and this disqualify you for some private fun on the same machine 
So I tried freeCAD - nice and promising but not comparable with Fusion 360
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Yep I'm still using Fusion360. Current status is that it works really well without being too crippled. They have recently introduced a strange function that restricts you to being able to mark up to 10 projects as "active" and therefore be able to open them, but only those 10 projects. But you can unmark one as active, and mark another, so it's not really an issue. I have no understanding as to why they released this bizarre restriction. Maybe it's just to serve as a reminder that "you are getting this free dammit"!
I do really love Fusion 360 - wouldn't want to use anything else. Really hope it stays free.
It may be so that they can archive inactive projects off onto storage that does not have to be instantly accessible online.
I couldn't get on with freeCAD, it kept crashing for me. Another option is OnShape which is pretty good. It is a fully online app that you use in the browser.
