Roussell's HP Slate 21 Pro Install

A few weeks back I found a great deal on a 21" HP Slate Pro. It's basically a 21" touchscreen monitor that also runs Android at 1920x1080 resolution. For this project I'm going to mount it in the wall in the kitchen, replacing a old iPad 1st gen that will be moved elsewhere in the house. I plan on running either Adam's excellent Housepad indigo client or creating a custom HTML5 interface.

I wanted a clean, in-wall mount with very little protrusion, the monitor is about 2 1/2 inches deep so I knew I was in for a day of drywall and wood work. Below are the major steps I took and the outcome.

I placed the monitor on the wall (face toward the wall) and traced around the perimeter with a pencil. I used a 2x4 to help hold the monitor in place while I traced since it's kinda heavy and I didn't want it to slip. The 4 wall anchors and wire is where the old iPad was mounted.

Preparing to trace around the monitor

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I used a razor knife to slowly cut out the opening, mostly because I wanted a very clean edge, there is no flange on the monitor so I wanted the drywall to butt right against the monitor without having to do a lot of patching and caulking afterwards. I also wanted to save the middle piece and not destroy it so I'd have a patch for when I sell the house and return this wall to normal. I guess because I was too close to the corner I did end up breaking some of the drywall (left side) so I'll need to patch that later... :-/

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I used a reciprocating saw to notch out the middle(ish) stud and to cut an angle not he side studs to allow the monitor to fit in-place. The back of the monitor is angled (curved actually) so the assumption was that the angled cut on the studs would allow the monitor to be recessed without allowing it to go too far into the wall cavity.

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Using instructions I found online I disassembled the monitor (BE CAREFUL - I ENDED UP BREAKING THE CAMERA CONNECTOR AND THE POWER SWITCH CONNECTOR - THE CABLES ARE VERY SHORT) and mounted the back of the monitor in the wall. I got lucky and it fit perfectly the first time! It's held in place with 6 short drywall screws going through the sides of the rear housing and into the studs on each side. Also in this photo you can see the ethernet cable and a 15 foot power cable (I already had that, not included with the monitor) that I ran from the basement (in large conduit) and through the opening before mounting the back housing.

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This shows the monitor/tablet mounted back into the rear housing and ready for the faceplate to be snapped back on. Near the top-middle of the screen you can see the extremely short ribbon cable that should connect to the camera... I doubt I'll get it back on even if I can find a replacement camera board....

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Here's a shot of the face bezel back on and the unit powered on. Time for drywall patching!!

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And here are some shots of it mostly finished, I still need to pick up some black caulk to trim up the edge and get a clean finished look but overall I'm happy with the results.

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Terry

Here's the finished product. Now it's time to start rebuilding all of my Control Pages - the ones done for the the iPad look ridiculous at 1920x1080!!

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Whoa! Beautiful job good sir! Have you considered giving it a wooden frame to stand out less?

Thanks! The old iPad had a wooden frame and I wanted to get away from that for this one. The main goal here was to mount it nearly-flush with the wall, and as finished it protrudes about 3/16 inch so I'm pretty happy with it. It would be easy to wrap though so I may end up painting the bezel or wrapping it in metal later - I plan on a kitchen redo later this year and it will probably be an industrial theme so I'll figure it out then.

My biggest priority now is to get some decent control pages to show on this massive screen. I'm also gonna have to upgrade my cameras - 640x480 has been fine for years with the iPad, now they only fill about 1/6 of the screen and are silly looking !

BTW, I scored this table/monitor in a Groupon deal and with shipping it was less than $200USD. It has a lot of power, is extremely smooth and should be able to handle whatever I decide to throw on it. Highly recommended if you can find them on sale. I see the non-pro versions a good bit online, but this was the first time I saw the Slate 21 Pro, which comes with Ethernet, faster processors and more memory than the non-pro Slate.

Terry

(duplicate)

Yeah, control pages make or break a setup i think! I'll be very interested in seeing your results!

(and yeah i just had a look at them.. very cheap.. here £280 inc vat which is pretty reasonable... unfortunately £280 more than i have )

I hear ya. I didn't really NEED to spend the money, but I saw the deal posted and couldn't let it go, I told myself to make up the difference in monthly spend I'd slow down on eating out at restaurants this month but that hasn't happened yet either..

Terry

Nicely done, Terry! I like the flush look, personally. And yeah, you'll have fun designing the control pages with all that real estate to play with!

Thanks Adam! Yeah my mind is swimming with ideas!!

Terry

I told myself to make up the difference in monthly spend I'd slow down on eating out at restaurants this month but that hasn't happened yet either..

I told myself that exact same thing when i bought my new electric car... i think i've actually started going out more now to restaurants as an excuse to try out the local charging points

Thanks for sharing Terry, that came out great.

I told myself that exact same thing when i bought my new electric car... i think i've actually started going out more now to restaurants as an excuse to try out the local charging points

I noticed the local power company put in a charging station across the parking lot from my office about 2 months ago. I got terribly excited and thought that maybe it was time for an electric vehicle of my own. The station was in service a week and then then it was pulled -no idea why- but all remnants of it's existence have been wiped. Takes Alabama a while to come around I suppose...

Terry

Thanks for sharing Terry, that came out great.

Thanks Dave!

How are you finding the resolution of the Touch Interface?? I noticed the purple hue around the inner edge of the screen and thought it might be an infra-red touch interface, however looking at the specs it states a 3-Camera (2 point) system...

Vangelis

When I first opened the box I noticed that too and was worried, but I've had no problems with the resolution of the touch interface. It's very responsive, works well with multiple touch (pinch zoom) and has the added benefit of being east to use while wearing gloves. If you approach the surface VERY slowly you'll notice that the touch is registered ~1mm before you actually make contact with the surface but in normal use you'll never notice that. I'll try touching with some small-diameter objects tonight to get an idea of the resolution, but for touching even small buttons with your fingers it seems flawless at this point.