# A Hisense Canvas TV rewired as a plane-spotting wall display

Home Assistant and ADB turn a wall-mounted Google TV into a doorbell monitor, chicken cam and live plane tracker that goes back to art mode when the sky clears.

- Category: Interface (mod)
- Device: [Hisense Canvas TV](https://afterware.xyz/d/hisense-canvas-tv)
- Made by: [Alex Miller](https://blog.alexmiller.net/posts/on-modding-tvs) on personal blog
- Original: https://github.com/alexlmiller/overhead
- On Afterware: https://afterware.xyz/p/a-hisense-canvas-tv-rewired-as-a-plane-spotting-wall-display

## Can I build this?

- Difficulty: Beginner
- AI-buildability: 5/5 (It's software on a TV you already own, with ADB and a coding agent doing nearly all the work.)
- Time: A weekend
- Cost: $0
- Parts: Hisense Canvas TV, Home Assistant, Stream Deck
- Tools: ADB (Android Debug Bridge), Home Assistant

Estimates based on the original write-up. How the AI-buildability score works: https://afterware.xyz/ai-buildability

## Build sheet

- Device: Hisense Canvas TV (Google TV)
- Control: Home Assistant over ADB
- Browser: TV Bro
- Launcher: Projectivy Launcher

## Starter prompt

```
Based on "A Hisense Canvas TV rewired as a plane-spotting wall display" on Afterware: https://afterware.xyz/p/a-hisense-canvas-tv-rewired-as-a-plane-spotting-wall-display

Enable ADB on my Google TV and write a Home Assistant automation that uses adb shell am start to open a URL in TV Bro whenever a trigger fires. Then build a small web page that shows a live aircraft feed from an ADS-B source and returns the TV to Art Mode when no planes are within a set radius. Keep the page full-screen and lightweight so it renders locally on the TV.
```

## Story

Hisense's Canvas TV runs Google TV, which is just Android with a TV skin. Turn on ADB, point a coding agent at it, and the bloatware goes, a custom launcher goes in, and the TV starts working for you. The art mode stays on as the default, so the set looks like a picture on the wall until something needs your attention.

Home Assistant makes the decisions. When the doorbell rings, the camera feed pops up. A Stream Deck pulls up dashboards on demand, including a live feed of the chickens. The handoff is simple: Home Assistant tells the TV over ADB to open a page in TV Bro, and the TV renders everything locally, so no phone or computer is casting to it.

The part worth stealing is Overhead, the author's own app. When a plane passes over the house, it takes over the screen with the live view, then hands control back to Hisense's native Art Mode once the aircraft is gone. Any TV with ADB access and a web view can do the same trick.

## Resources

- [Overhead repo](https://github.com/alexlmiller/overhead)
- [TV Bro](https://github.com/truefedex/tv-bro)
- [Projectivy Launcher](https://github.com/spocky/miproja1)
- [Home Assistant](https://www.home-assistant.io/)
- [Stream Deck](https://www.elgato.com/us/en/p/stream-deck)

Tags: google tv, home assistant, adb, wall display, plane tracking, art mode, vibe-coded

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