I’m looking for the best wall mount dashboard for manual control of lights, hvac, and any other controls I might need. Right now I have a Lilygo T5-4.7" E-Paper ESP display that supports a touch screen. I like the look of the screen but it seems a little small for all the displays I want.
Alternatively, it looks like a wall mounted Fire HD10 tablet might be a good solution as well and can be powered via POE.
What’s your thoughts on a good, reliable interface? And possibly recommendations for larger E-Paper displays that can work with HA? I’m going to use the Lilygo on my desk with a 3d printed stand.
Look at the link I provided.
First, it’s a completely open project and the designer is active on the forums here. The project, as designed, is made to fit into a standard U.S. wall box and uses the smallest Nextion display. Some people have modified the Nextion code to fit larger displays. I think someone did a U.K. version.
You could add a physical switch, but why?
Out of the box, HASP has 52 buttons and five sliders spread over eleven pages. Any button can display data from a sensor. If you want something else, all you have to do is modify the provided Nextion code.
I initially thought that having to switch through pages to get to other buttons or sensors was inconvenient, but as I said, the simplicity of four buttons on Page 1 made the device wife-accepted.
If I need access to more Home Assistant devices, I can just put them on other pages of HASP.
On the HASP in my Family Room, there are four buttons on page 1. Kitchen Light, Garage Light, Family Room Light and the outside temperature. I can also tell if the garage door is open by changing the background color to yellow when either door is open.
I have another HASP on my desktop where I can see many of my Home Assistant buttons and sensors just by going to the appropriate page.
I have also modified the code I use from the original to add some diagnostic information over MQTT. It compiles in the Arduino IDE.
The project page on Github also includes a lot of stl files for 3D printing your own plates.
Regarding the larger E-paper displays.
Once you go over 5" you often start to lose partial update and a full update takes 5 seconds for 2 color displays and multi color alot more. That is alot of time with a blinking screen.
5" is also where the touch feature starts to become rare and once you pass the 7.5" mark then prices go up an insane amount.
I think this is pretty cool, but for my use case I’m developing a dashboard mainly for heating control over many zones. Don’t need it to fit in a switch box, also that looks like a TFT screen.
Thats a good point, 4.7" should be large enough for a handful of controls. I’m going to test out a dashboard on a spare 7" fire tablet and see if we like it.