Choosing a tablet for your kiosk
The kiosk runs happily on hardware you may already own; don't overbuy.
The tablet
Any iPad or Android tablet from the last several years runs the kiosk comfortably: it's a lightweight screen, not a game. A larger screen (10 inches and up) helps at a busy door, and a mid-range Android tablet is a perfectly good budget pick. Second-hand is fine; the kiosk doesn't care.
Placement beats specs
- By the door, at hand height: people should walk past it naturally, not hunt for it
- A stand with a cable channel: tablets wander; stands with a locked mount and routed charging cable stay put
- Always on power: a kiosk that dies at 7pm trains members to skip check-in
- Screen always awake: disable auto-lock in the tablet's settings so the welcome screen is always showing
Wi-Fi
The kiosk needs your gym's Wi-Fi and nothing else. If your router is far from the door, a cheap extender saves you from the connectivity gremlins.
Then lock it down
Once it's mounted and paired, spend two minutes on locking down the tablet so the kiosk is the only thing the tablet does.