House Assistant is open supply software program that has achieved one thing we don’t usually see: it has far surpassed the proprietary closed-source competitors in functionality. Even when worth weren’t a priority, you’d seemingly select to make use of House Assistant as a result of this can be very highly effective and versatile. It’ll work with virtually any {hardware} you need, so the probabilities are limitless. Markus Haack took benefit of that to construct his personal sensible E Ink dashboard for House Assistant.
A House Assistant server will probably be observe and log a ridiculous quantity of knowledge behind the scenes, however you gained’t ever see most of it. Automation is the secret and House Assistant can use all of that knowledge to set off any motion you possibly can think about. However typically you do need to see a little bit of the info with your personal eyes and this dashboard makes it accessible. Haack selected to show data just like the day’s climate and statistics about his automobile, however it will work with any knowledge that the House Assistant server can entry.
That is painless because of ESPHome, which is microcontroller firmware designed to assist folks create IoT (Web of Issues) units that play good with residence automation methods, corresponding to House Assistant. When configured accurately, an ESPHome system will seem to House Assistant like some other suitable client IoT system.
On this case, Haack put in ESPHome on Waveshare’s handy ESP32-based Common ePaper Uncooked Panel Driver Board. That connects simply to a Waveshare 2.9″ ePaper display screen with none soldering or particular adapter. ESPHome has a configuration obtainable for this {hardware}, so it couldn’t be any simpler.
From there, the remainder of the method ought to look acquainted to anybody skilled with House Assistant templating and YAML. Gathering knowledge is easy (assuming there’s a House Assistant “sensor” to question), although displaying that may be a bit extra complicated. Haack supplies his show logic, however anybody recreating this undertaking will seemingly have to tweak that for their very own use.
Haack used some plywood (painted a beautiful shade of inexperienced) to assemble a body for the E Ink display screen and the management board. It sits there unobtrusively offering Haack with data at a look.