Use $30 Android Tablet For Weather Info

[westrock2000]

We had an Accurite weather station to tell us current weather and wind and stuff. But it wasn't very user friendly and wasn't backlit, so it was hard to see early in the morning when getting ready for work/school. It got damaged after a particularly rough storm, so started looking at replacements.

Then I thought a cheap Android tablet would probably work. Microcenter has a basic 7" tablet for $30. All it has to do is display the weather, so it doesn't need much hardware wise.

Used 3/8" aluminum C channel from Home Depot for the bracket. Held in place with 3M Scotch "Red" double sided tape.

So far it has been fine. Set the display to never turn off, and turned down the brightness. Set the 1weather app to refresh every 15 minutes.

Can see Imgur gallery here with more details.

https://imgur.com/a/u5qIq

This is what we had

 

[John721]

Looks good to me.

 

[Decibel]

Have you thought about getting a two way mirror and turning it into a smart mirror?

 

[MN Scout]

Nice thanks for sharing. A similar cheap tablet option would work well for devices like the Philips Hue lights.

 

[westrock2000]

We lost power to the neighborhood today....and even though it can't update at least it acts as a nice night light.

 

[jlbenedict]

would this work: https://www.monoprice.com/Product?p_id=14893

 

[Shadohh]

would this work: https://www.monoprice.com/Product?p_id=14893

I dont see why it wouldnt. anything should work as displaying weather is not exactly tasking on a cpu.

These days I think a more elegant solution is to get an amazon echo and just ask it for weather updates.

I would like to do a smart mirror just to be one of the cool kids.