I’ve been looking over info on using ESPHome on an ESP32 with an LCD display. It looks like all the displays it handles are smaller ones. Can it drive any larger screens? Maybe a 7" or 9" LCD screen?
Yes
I’m obviously missing something. The screens I see listed all seem to be tiny ones. I realize I could be misreading or missing something. Any suggestions on what to look for? If not a model number, a type or something along that line?
Listed where?
Also these 7" displays will work.
What I’m about to say shows just how little experience I have working with this kind of project. I never even thought about the idea of using another board as a display driver. I’ve done work with Pis before and never needed a display driver, since everything I found was all in a box and easily connectable to a Pi.
I’ve been looking at doing this with ESPHome, since I know I can make ESPHome work on its own and easily integrate it with Home Assistant. I’ve considered using a Pi, but I can’t get clear answers on running something on a Pi that connects with ESPHome devices (other than through REST APIs) and with Home Assistant. (I know you can run Home Assistant as a hub on a Pi, but I’m having trouble getting answers about running a “device” that would be controlled by Home Assistant and, as you can tell how easy it was for people here to find things I didn’t find, my Google-fu doesn’t always do well.)
So I’ve been looking at this from two angles: Use ESPHome and get the connectivity I need easily, but then have to work out what to do for a display, or use a Pi with a display and work out what to do for connectivity to my ESPHome devices and Home Assistant system. It looks like, if I go with ESPHome, I need a special board (like the Waveshare) or some kind of display adaptor, but if I do that, it opens up some good possibilities.
Why are you didn’t talking about Pi’s? No one suggested that.
I’m saying that this is one route I’m looking at to do what I want (using an ESP32), but that I’m also considering another route, using a Pi. I wasn’t going to mention the Pi possibility, but since so many displays are designed for the Pi, I figured it might be relevant. Also, I’ve found that sometimes when I bring up something like that (another possible solution), people with more experience sometimes tell me, “Oh, that’d be much easier.”
Ok I thought you might be confused by suggestions of pi compatible screens.
It really depends what you want to do. Esphome is tightly linked to HA.
Yes, and this is one of those things that, if I had a lot more experience working with ESPHome, HA, and displays, I’m sure I could have made a decision by now. I have a lot of data to sort through. Basically I want to make a sign. In my case, for a limited use, but I hate design or programming something for one use, when, with more info, I could make it work for other things, too.
I think a lot of the config will be easier with ESPHome, and I know ESPHome devices can communicate without HA. (That’s critical, since 1-2 times a year I updated HA and the update breaks something that can take 2-5 days to fix. That’s not acceptable for what I’m working on now: It has to work if HA is down. But if I could also communicate with HA, that would open up a lot of options for other uses.
So it boils down to using ESPHome and solving the display issue or using a Pi and solving the communications issue - and solving it in a way that does not require massive config work on each new display I make.
I’d give esphome a try if I were you. What are you hoping to show on the sign?
Mainly simple text messages, like, “CNC in use, do not enter without safety goggles,” or, “Laser in use. Wear orange safety goggles.” But if it would be possible to include some graphic screens to throw up on the display, that would be cool. It’s not dynamic text, like a crawl or a news ticker or anything like that.
Okay, after looking things over more, I think the thread linked to above (Esphome Stream Deck Replacement) looks like a good option. It’s an all-in-one device, except for a case, and I was figuring on having to print a case anyway. The link to it on Ali Express is also provided. (Interesting that Ali Express can apparently get it to me, from overseas) 1-2 weeks faster than Amazon - if their shipping estimate is correct. (I’ve ordered from them before and, after the order, the shipping date was suddenly 2-3 weeks later than in the item listing.)
I’m trying to absorb a lot of information on this project. I am getting a bit confused - mainly in trying to keep straight what display or project had what features or problems.
So he’s running ESPHome on this setup, which is good. That means there’s a display I can use with an ESP32 and ESPHome, so that solves the display problem.
It’s hard for me to get a feel for something like running a display on an ESP32 without actually doing it - so a few questions, if it’s not to tiresome, before I place my order, so I can be sure I’m getting something that’ll work. (And if it works, I can see getting a few more of these for various uses.)
1 - This is used as a touch screen control system. Is it easy to either disable a touch screen or just not respond to input? (I’m thinking I don’t really need it, but then again, it also might work as a “doorbell,” where, if someone touches it, would activate something to work like a doorbell.)
2 - Just how hard is it to setup and use a display like this? It looks like it’s self-contained in terms of hardware, so it would be an issue of coding and configuration. Is there more involved?
3 - This is working with a specific setup for a control panel. How hard is it to pick the background color and text color and just write some text to the screen?
4 - Is it possible to store images that can be displayed on the screen?
5 - (Close to #4) More of an ESPHome ability than a screen issue, but would it be possible to set a URL to, say, a web server on my LAN, so it could display whatever image is at that URL?
How are you intending to tell it what message to display?
As for the numbered questions
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Yes you don’t have to configure the touch component at all.
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The coding will take a bit of patience. Esphome has recently gained the LVGL component which introduces some nice graphics.
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Easy.
4 and 5. Both possible.
I’m not 100% sure, yet. I’m thinking I’d like to use 2 ways for this to communicate: Through Home Assistant, and using the REST API with other ESPHome devices. I still have to check on what I can do with Home Assistant. I don’t know just how open device configuration is on that.
For the direct ESPHome to ESPHome setup, I was thinking of using a web interface to specify the text message (or an image) to be used when another device is in a specified state. (For instance, if a switch on another ESPHome device is turned on, the message would be, “WEAR SAFETY GOGGLES. (Laser is on.)” If the laser is off, but the system is on, it might ready, “CNC and laser are active.”
For Home Assistant, I don’t know yet if I can do what I want, or how I’d have to modify things, but I’d like to set up an automation so when a specified device is in a specified state, a message is sent to this device and it would display that message on the screen. Again, since I haven’t studied just what I can do with that yet, I don’t know just what I can do with that.
All of this is do-able. If I were you, I would work on one element of this at a time.
I am probably being a bit vague, but when you get down to it, I can point out some components etc.
Exactly!
As I mentioned, often I miss something in Google. (Odd - I spent years having to find really obscure things that could a couple days to track down, but I’m not that good at finding what is obvious to most people.) I realized, from the start, that I’d have to handle a number of elements, and each one would take time to research. I didn’t want to get through, say, 4 out of 7 steps, only to find a dead end and that I’d have to use something else to do the job (like, say, using a Pi instead of ESPHome).
So this is part of my, “Can I do this all on ESPHome and can I do it both without HA, and incorporated with HA?” research. At my speed, checking out all the elements might have taken me the better part of a week before I was sure I could do it that way. So your help has saved me a lot of time.
Now I can focus on ESPHome and do my research there. I already have one ESPHome device on my HA system, to control a vent fan (needed to vent smoke from the laser). But that was a simple PWM system and didn’t need a lot of research to do. Since I know this can be done, I have no problem now diving into ESPHome and finding out just what it can do. I have a sense it’s a pretty powerful little system and I’m looking forward to the next few days of research, starting with configurations and automations.
I’ve also ordered the 7" TFT touch screen I mentioned. It’s on AliExpress, but I found it on Amazon. It’s about $8 more on Amazon, but that includes shipping, so the prices are pretty close, and I get it in 2 days instead of 2 weeks.
So, first, configuration on the control box, then getting that to work with HA (that should be easy). After that, I can work on the sign. I’ll probably work on the display first, then work on the communication with both HA and the control box using ESPHome.
All stuff I’m sure I can do - just didn’t want to spend a long time researching it, only to find one part of it was not doable.