I’m current running Home Assistant 116.2 as an UnRAID container. Over the last year, I’ve set up several home automations and played around with the Lovelace UI: Ive got the following thing in my homse:
TCC thermostat
Nexia thermostat
Abode security
Eufy security cameras
3 Echo/Alexas
2 wifi plugs
several z-wave switches
myQ garage door
life360
Rachio sprinkler
2 rokus
2 firetv sticks
chromcast
eero mesh
other media streamers
etc.
Anyway, given all this stuff, and the lack of an integrated place to control everything, I’ve decided to get more into HA and set up a dashboard. I have a Samsung Galaxy Pro 12.2 tablet and I’ve loaded the fully kiosk browser (free version for now), and I can point that to my default Lovelace UI and I can see the potential. I think this older tablet will work for this and it does have pretty good resolution. Agreed?
When I see the slick dashboards people have, I can tell that this is not done with the cards in the default Lovelace UI. I cannot figure out how to make these cards behave beyond doing basic things. I assume custom cards are needed to create these nicer displays? If so, what are the recommended custom cards? How are people making such impressive dashboards? Or is it driven by custom themes?
Even though I’ve had HA running for a year or more, with some simple yet fun automation using Life360 location, Abode, etc., I had not gone very deep into customizing the look. Now that I spent some time researching this, I realized that my HA docker installation was very basic and limiting.
I added HACS so now I can get to all the good stuff more easily. I was downloading stuff manually to play. And since I now have a GitHub account, I am checking in my config files for safe keeping.
I also figured out how to add and toggle themes, which I had not seen previously. (under my profile).
So now, I just need to figure out which way to go on the dashboard. I would like to keep it simple, so some of these frameworks look pretty complex, so I am hesitant. What I want is a more professional layout where every card is not a different size, leading to a jumbled look.
Can anyone suggest the best path to go? Are there some custom cards that I could start with to create a more stylish look? Can this be done without switching Lovelace to yaml mode? I like having the GUI to play with the cards. Can custom cards even be used without going to Lovelace yaml mode?
It looks like the TileBoard from resoai is more simple install/config than the others posted in this thread, like Dwains or HomeKit Infused. True?