Lynky: Touchscreen Smart Hub with Google Assistant

anybody see this yet? Looks promising. at the very least it could be a very cool way to hardwire a display to be wall-mounted and control devices.

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It does not support z-wave. :frowning:

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heck, if I could pull up a browser and run actiontiles, I’d be happy. It wouldn’t need Zwave for that.

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Pretty stupid not to support Z-Wave

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I’m not sure I understand why it needs Zwave. If I’ve already got my devices managed through Smartthings, why do I need this thing to also connect to them? I just need this ting to connect to Smartthings, and that could be done without Z-wave.

Sure, it would have been nice if this thing was a Zwave extender, but that would have just been icing on the cake.

Plenty of cheap tablets available to run SmartTiles on…

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Zipatile from Zipato has been out for about a year and has both Z wave and zigbee antennas. It can be made to interface with SmartThings through MQTT. Or you can try adding it as a secondary Z wave controller. It costs about twice as much as the Indiegogo price for lynky but, you know, it’s real. :wink: It’s basically an android tablet with the IOT radios added.

There’s a discussion thread in the community about it, but I don’t know too many people who would have this and SmartThings, but you never know.

And of course the newly announced ADT/SmartThings security panel

will be a touchscreen device that has both Z wave and zigbee radios in it, although we have yet to see any screenshots of the SmartThings UI.

https://www.smartthings.com/adt#/

So obviously it is possible to put a Z wave and a zigbee radio in a tablet.

If the lynky ever does go into full production, obviously a big if, my guess is that they are intending to position it against Amazon’s echo plus offering. The problem with that is by the time the Lynky is actually available, Amazon will probably have a competing video tablet option that costs even less. :wink:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075RWFCHB

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yeah. agreed. and I have a couple just sitting around…however I haven’t found a nice clean way to mount them and hide the wiring. This looks really clean.

If you don’t mind spending the money ($100+) there are some really nice wall mounts for iPad and Samsung devices and you’d wire power through the backs. If you do mind spending the money you can find ways to mount them that at least looks decent (Example 1, Example 2)

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There’s a whole thread on different hardware mounting options, have you had a chance to look at that? Some pretty cool ideas there as well.

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Thanks. I haven’t stayed on top of it over time, so there are definitely some new ideas out there.

Maybe this has been covered, and Ill see it in the thread eventually…but the biggest gap has been the wiring. I want a solution (similar to Lynky or the Wink relay) that can wire directly into the house wiring, with a 5v transformer all built in. It could be a recessed box, with a plug and tablet charger behind the screen, or it could all be built into the mount itself. I haven’t seen any silver bullet ideas though.

I currently have an existing 4 gang box, with a blank cover over it, that just hides a bunch of three way switch junctions. I want to tie into that existing wiring and mount the tablet in front of it, without any exposed plugs or wires. The simplest solution would be a “wiring harness” that could convert the 120v to 5v and be enclosed in the existing 4 gang box. I just haven’t seen anything like that anywhere…and I’m afraid to mcgyver something together myself, for fear of burning down my house :slight_smile:

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In a 4-gang box, this becomes a practical possibility. The problem is that most folks only have a 1-gang switch in most or all rooms.

That’s why the “Brilliant Control” (brilliant.tech) is gaining traction, since it has 1-gang and 2-gang models and a lot of features… But at quite a high per unit price. Oh… And it’s pre-order.

I’m sure ActionTiles sales could double if we could provide a swap out single gang mountable solution (with an integral smart switch to replace the physical one removed). But such a tremendous hardware project is outside our scope, and has tremendous market risks.

I really like the idea of it will run ActionTiles. It looks to have a better speaker and microphone than most tablets and I would expect actually like a Google Home device. I would be happy with a plain old Android version with this hardware.

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4 gang box with nothing but 3 way wires? There has got to be a way to get a recessed standard outlet in there which can fit a 110v -> usb charger and still be flush mount. The issue, and it depends on where you are or if you care, is you can’t mix voltages (high and low) within the box. Fire hazard, possibility of shock, etc. But if you can fit in a recessed outlet and then plug in a charger you should be fine.

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You’d be surprised how jam-packed it is with wires. I am thinking about calling an electrician to delete some of the three-ways to clean it out, but I’m afraid of how much that is going to cost me.

The other nice thing about it being a 4 gang box is that I came up with a very easy mounting strategy, and just drilled holes through my existing tablet case, and then got longer screws to attach the plate to the box. Hard to explain, so here’s a picture.

Just need to figure out how to get it power.

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I just noticed your link…It’s funny, I actually have that recessed 4 gang box in my amazon wishlist, debating whether or not it would solve my problem…and whether or not it would look funny next to my existing four gang light switches, if it ends up being a different size.

Exactly…I would be happy if someone just made the most basic version of this form factor, with plain old android on it. Why hasn’t that happened yet? Seems like there would be quite a few applicable use cases (Kitchen tablet for recipes, home automation control, easily accessible controls for music streaming)

According to the person “manning” the ADT-SmartThings integration booth at Samsung Developer’s Conference last week, there is no SmartThings UI provided in the ADT Control Panel screens.

I have no idea if he was fully or properly informed, but I also have no reason to not believe him. It’s perfectly reasonable for ADT to keep ST from messing up their UI.

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Because:

  • One size doesn’t fit all. Some folks want bigger, smaller, portrait, landscape, faster, cheaper, different voltage, mountable, non-mountable, etc…

  • The big players can knock you out in an instant (reference Nucleus vs. Amazon Show; reference Brightswitch vs Brilliant, etc., etc.).

Yup… Easily mountable and UL listed powered tablets seem like a no brainer. If someone tosses ActionTiles a few $ million in funding, then we’ll go for it. I’m not sure than much money can be sent by PayPal, so drop me a line.


P.S.: Brilliant just announced $24 million in funding today.

So then what’s this?

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