Updating this.
I used @clydebarrow’s work on GitHub, with some modifications to the config file (mainly things like my network ID and password info). I’m used to using the Arduino framework and had to use the Esp-idf framework. I ran into an error/warning message and problems, so I had to comment out platform_version and version for it to work. Once I did that, compiling took 20 minutes, since it downloaded a lot of libraries and had to compile their object code.
Also, I did not make the wiring change for the display light (using GPIO13). That’s for later. Right now I just wanted to see if I could make things work.
It started right up and I got the LVGL startup page, which is a Hello World page with some sample widgets to test out both the display and the touch screen.
So I have a simple display that’s working now.
Next steps:
- Print text to screen (and position it, use fonts and variations like bold or italic)
- Communicate with this ESP32 from Home Assistant and display messages from HA on the screen.
- Use fonts and effects from HA messages for display
- Use images in the display.
- Turn the display on and off.
- Not necessary, but it’d be nice if I could create something like a screensaver, so when warning messages are not displayed on the screen, it might have some kind of moving image or text floating around on it, so it’s not just a dark screen. If I do this, I might want it to do this only for a few hours after it has been in use. (Or it could cycle through images stored on the LAN for it to load and display.)
- Another thought for a feature might be to add a doorbell feature, so if someone is outside the door and sees the warning about goggles, can push a button that chimes in the workshop to let me know someone wants to get in and is waiting for me to turn off the laser.
I don’t know yet if I have to use full screen images or if I can put up some text on the screen and an image as well (and maybe format the text so it goes around the image). I’d like to make it easy to specify, from Home Assistant, all the text and images to use on the screen. One example might be text saying, “Laser in use. Do not enter without safety googles,” then include an image of the goggles or maybe something showing a laser being blocked by safety goggles.
At this point I know almost nothing about what I can do with LVGL or what I can do from Home Assistant to send formatted text. So, if anyone out there is looking for a guide for a newbie on how to set up something like this, by the time I’m done, I should have all the details here.
One thought about images: I do know that they aren’t stored on this device - that it has to read them from a server somewhere. I’m hoping I can store images on my Samba share on the Raspberry Pi I use for Home Assistant. That would keep the images on the HA system (and available if I use it for other HA uses), and not require an extra server somewhere on my LAN.