In not sure if they deliver to Belgium but i had great experiences with ordering my prints from treatstock.com
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Sometimes I ask myself if aliexpress is still the only place to source my gadgets (especially after the latest change in customs regulations in the eu) just ordered the espressif esp32-HMI devkit form mouser. Tax, customs, fedex shipping ... all included and even 5ā¬ less then directly from of china (in that case without customs). Let's see what I can do with it (no battery included - but it has an iPhone battery connector 
) and a ton of sensors and connectors even USB OTG. Would have preferred the S3, but I believe in most applications the second core is simple idle.
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That is probably the best ESP dev board launched so far. Since it is based on the ESP32-S2 it has native USB which is wonderful to run Micropython. I am wondering if it is possible to connect a camera somehow. I will investigate. Thanks for the insight on the "alternative" way to purchase. I may have a project that can benefit from this board.
Will report as soon as it arrives itās on backorder (there is a YouTube Video from espressif available)
Perhaps this one interest you:
Smaller and low res but with a camera connector.
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Wow. Seems to be a very good fit for our project. I will dive into the specs and will most likely order one to test. What a great finding. Thank you very much @Christian-Me .
I only have one, but a RaspberryPi 3 with the "official touch screen easily runs node-red and I display the key information from three other node-red systems on its dashboard with Chromium in kiosk mode. I found a nice ~$25 case on Amazon that can either be wall mounted or sit on a desk or counter-top.
I believe these are competitive in cost with cheap Android tablets and IMHO far easier to deal with.
To perhaps clarify a bit, instead of having multiple dashboards displayed in multiple places, I make a custom dashboard that integrates the needed info from the multiple systems to what is appropriate for this location and run it locally. Doing it for well over a year and the local dashboard displayed in Chromium kiosk mode has had almost perfect reliability whereas dashboards displayed remotely in either Chrome or Chromium regularly display "aw snap! something went wrong" and need to be manually refreshed to display again.
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Hi @wb666greene,
Indeed with such a setup you can run Node-RED locally on the device, and show the dashboard of that particular room. But somewhere above in this long discussion, you will see that I also have already such a setup to experiment. However I cannot use it in my rooms because:
- It becomes rather expensive (RPI3 + SD card + touch screen + wall mount case)
- The case requires a quite big hole in the wall to hide the RPI. However I don't want to create holes in my walls, so I was looking for a thin on-wall mounted solution.
So therefore my 'personal' setup will become most probably Fire 7 tablets. I only need to find a solution to have an affordable case, with a temperature/humidity sensor inside (which is readable somehow via wifi).
Think you can solder 4 wires between a wemos without pin headers and a HDC2080 and get it flat inside a case. Or dip your toes into the zigbee world (itās worth it). But with an esp8266 you have control over your sensor (i.e. update rate mqtt ā¦. )
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Have you used any Android devices connected to their power supplies 24/7? I ask because I've tried several cheap Android phones and our old Nook Tablet for such things, ignoring the fact that their browsers couldn't stay connected to the dashboard, I've found that the batteries seem to overcharge in about 6 months and swell up -- sometimes popping the back off the phone! And the ones that I tried wouldn't boot without a battery installed.
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I have had a nice cheap android 10 tablet on charge for 10 months. No problems so far.
I tried rpi3 with touch screen but as mentioned its bulky low powered and low res screen.
The tablet I got worked out cheaper and is much better -
Tablet 10 inch TECLAST P20HD 4GB RAM 64GB ROM(TF 512GB), Android 10, 5G WiFi, Dual 4G SIM/SD Bluetooth 5.0, FHD 1920x1200 IPS, 1.6 GHz, Octa-Core Processor, GPS/2MP + 5MP Camera
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I suspect the "cheap" part also affects the integral battery management. I have been running a Samsung 10.1 tablet velcroed to a wall and used as a 24/7/365/ON display for about 3-4 different applications over the last 4+ years. Unfortunately it can't run NR dashboard, but it still works with Blue Iris's ui3.htm The battery still acts as a functional "UPS".
You have to wire in the USB power to the internal battery connectors as well (battery being removed of course), even though it is 5v it didn't seem to matter on an old Nexus 4 phone that I used as an IP camera.
EDIT It should work with just 5v to the battery connectors, but the one phone I tried seemed to need power to both USB port and battery connector... at least as far as I recall.... but then I might not have tested it properly. Worked for over a year before being packed up into storage.
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Bart here is a nice wall mount for a Samsung Tablet to give you some ideas
https://www.vidabox.com/kiosks/vidamount-on-wall-tablet-mount-samsung-galaxy-tab-a7-10-4-white.html
Craig
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Can you explain that a bit in more detail please? Does this also mean it is better to run without batteries?
Yes those vidaboxes are very nice. And a very good solution if you want to wall mount a single tablet to automate your house. But I need a series of those, and then they are just too expensive for me. If I search in Google, I always add -vidabox. Otherwise you almost get nothing else...
If a device has proper battery management, then it should be able to run all the time on USB, with the battery serving to supply power when the USB power is offline.
Poor battery management could result in batteries not surviving... potentially dangerous if the battery starts swelling up.
As for running older phones and tablets that have had the batteries removed (due being worn out or swollen) most/all? will not run on USB alone, as they need to "see" a good voltage on the battery connection. This is done by wiring 5v to the internal battery connectors, in place of the battery. The phone should have internal regulation, so the 5v will not hurt it (worked for me for over a year).... just NO higher, even if the device supports "fast charging" as that is only through the USB.
Best done with a device that has a user removable battery, but some careful effort removing the battery and very fine soldering work will convert any phone/tablet to full time wired.
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Removing the battery gives perhaps two nice options. Insert a wireless charger module under the cover. Or place two flat contacts at the back connecting with spring loaded contacts inside the holder.
In some tablets there might be a little space for these flat coils you get from china to retrofit a wireless charger option without loosing the battery.
Iām not a fan of building a case around an already perfect fitting one. My ideal wall panel should be able to be ripped of the wall and used as a remote control on batteries any time. So in my ideal scenario spring loaded contacts or a wireless charging option would be the goal. Perhaps Amazon adds this in the future.
Even with a DIY esp32 solution a battery is mandatory for me.
And for @BartButenaers with the battery you get space for a esp8266/32 with some sensors
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I've had a cheap (Lynx) Windows 10 tablet on permanent power for years now without any issues.
Eeek! That is a really bad design. And, as I've mentioned elsewhere, there is no call for it since standard chipsets have had smart power management for years now.
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Hi Bart,
I found something which perhaps ticks off many of you needs:
Or this one
Think the CM4 is a good option to develop a tablet style Raspberry
Hi @Christian-Me,
Thanks for not giving up hope on me
Yes that Cm4 device looks nice. But remember that I am married, so I will never get enough pocket money from the lady to buy such a device in every room... Moreover all connectors are positioned at the side, so all cables would be visible...
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I totally understand - same absolutely correct reasoning here. I promised to use all the stuff I already have on my bench and to finish at least some of my ever lasting projects is a condition before starting new things.
Connectors all over the place is one thing I hate on the Raspberry Pi
The Compute Module could bring some options for HMIs - and fix some of the design flaws.
But the price tag will never beat the mass market products like a fire 7 tablet handed out with low or no profit.
Yes indeed. Athough I really like raspberry, my finger is hoovering above the fire 7 "add to shopping basket" button for more than a week already 
But not clicked yet, because I also have a large pile of unfinished hardware projects ...
