I'm looking for a lot of cheap Android tablets to turn into DIY kiosks (see: Google Nest Hubs) to run with Home Assistant.
I recently missed a deal on Facebook Marketplace for 4x Lenovo M10 for $200 and I'm kicking myself, as they would have been perfect and at the perfect price point for me.
Does anybody have any tips? No luck on eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Gumtree.
Seems like overkill right for a Google home hub? Would've imagined something wiyh 4GB ram would be enough.
I've got a Xiaoxin on the way as a main use tablet. It would be wayyyy overkill.
All it needs to do is show a static screen most of the time and run Google Assistant/Gemini/Home Assistant. They'd be permanently docked in bedrooms/living room etc.
I have been thinking of doing this for a while and even have an old Lenovo M10 on hand. Just stuck on how to power the thing - the place I want to put it doesn't have a power plug nearby.
Super long USB cable? Big 25000mah battery and a solar panel?
I'm thinking the same thing, but it's more about how to limit the charge to 80% so the thing doesn't catch fire a few years down the track.
Powering it is easy, just a thin cord coming down from the ceiling. It only needs a trickle of current at a low voltage, so you could even just run 2 bare ethernet wires, and chase them into the wall (I have rendered brick walls)
Doubt you'll find anything. When I was looking, even the old tablets were more than $100, which is why I got some when Aldi had them.
I figured the time I would have to spend dicking around with custom roms to get them to work was worth more than a cheap, basic, new tablet.
Maybe try an auction site, like Greys. You might be able to buy a dozen tablets in one lot, and then sell off the rest
Contact some of the regular refurbed PC sellers here, for a lead, or a supply line. Or try some auction houses who deal with govt (especially school / education dept) and commercial clearance / upgrade auctions.
dont buy cheap ones, buy some decent ones around the 200 to 300 mark with a decent cpu and 6-12 gb of memory.
The lenovo ones with the chinese X name are really good - Lenovo Xiaoxin Pad Pro 2025