Every Home needs this Upgrade! (Control EVERYTHING)

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Previous Home Assistant videos:
AliExpress video with Screen Kit:


Smart Home Devices are awesome! But problems arise when you have too many that all use their own app. So in this video I am reactivating my home assistant server on my Raspberry and more importantly create an awesome dashboard screen. And No! I will not use a tablet. I will build something custom with another Raspberry Pi ;-) Let's get started!

Thanks to JLCPCB for sponsoring this video.

0:00 My Smart Home Problem
1:25 Intro
2:20 Home Assistant Installation
4:15 Kiosk Raspberry Pi Setup
5:39 Finding a Fitting Screen
7:53 Where to Position the Control Screen?
8:40 Building the Control Screen
10:10 Final Assembly & Verdict

[uDidWatt]

For those looking to try this, PoE would be a great option. His whole setup was sub 15W, so could run off the low power 802.3af standard.

[lanzer]

Kiosk is a great addition to any smarthome. Personally I would attempt to do two things:
1) eat up even more wall space for the Pi3, then the LCD enclosure can be much slimmer.
2) make the enclosure look like a picture frame instead, then when it's not being used, it can display photos. :)

[petersage]

The older I get, the more I appreciate the simplicity and robustness of dumb mechanical wall switches.

[beermanuk]

Looks great, one improvement I would make is a LD 2410 mmwave sensor to turn the screen on and off when you approach it.

[ofiros]

I get it that using a tablet may be overkill.
But, when taking into account how much it cost, wouldn't it be much cheaper to use a tablet??

[AviatorXD]

I really dont get the point of going through all of this instead of using a 150 euro tablet and also be able to take with you in the house. Its probably cheaper too if you dont already have a spare RPi.

[LawpickingLocksmith]

Probably the most patient and pedantic perfectionist youtuber. I am blown away. I would just install a sensitive microphone and when my home assistant no longer understands me then I use the good old mechanical switch. Also a microphone switch at the entrance that acts as an alarm when away and has a privacy shut off that has a positive indicator.

[atteru]

Nice project, but if you were doing a big hole in wall for power supply anyway, why not bigger one to put RPI and screen controller and mount screen basically flush with wall and frame angled to make it look even more slim? It looks quite bulky tbh

[ClausMadsenDK]

There's a big part of me that enjoys the journey you've been on. I remember one of your early videos—I believe it was about the tools needed to get into electronics—featuring a borrowed power drill since you didn't have one of your own. A lot of things have changed since then (I don't love the new format, but I understand the need for it), and the developments of your private life have been almost like a hidden subplot.

Really liked this video, since I've been wanting to do something similar myself but haven't been able to find a suitable screen.
Awesome to see the distribution box setup and an idea to really consider!. I'm unsure if you've already done it, but I would love to see if/how you've done for USB-storage in your Home Assistant setup.

[jameswilliamson]

"Why would I use a tablet?" Then proceeds to build his own tablet.

[MladenMijatov]

You need to increase your Z offset to get rid of wavy pattern which can be seen at 9:18 of your 3d printed back plate. The fact it's leaning towards one corner means that corner is probably tiny bit closer. About 0.06mm-ish.

[GalgoczkiAdam]

The DIN rail config is pretty awsome. Thank You for sharing it.

[pjosephlthewonder]

So after a few years of watching you and others use Home Assistant, I finally made a simple system using AH to control the yard watering system. Still have a wee issue, but I will figure it out. (I think I have a failing relay card.) Now once the Chief Financial Officer is convinced I will go forth and build.
Peace

[Reewen]

If you want a wood look, instead using wood filament I can highly recommend buying some veneer wood sheets to stick onto the plastic. It requires a bit of work to get right but if you want wood optic, it is the superior option in my opinion.
Alternatively you could also try wood style laminate sheets

[Enigma]

I really like this build. This was something that I dreamed of building in the 80's but Ali Express and the internet were not around back then. Just a commodore 128 and some floppy drives back then. Thank you for doing this work. I look forward to more of your videos and thank you for keeping the art of ingenuity alive.

[nuno.picado]

I used an old Samsung tablet to create a dashboard like this for my HA instance. The tablet is great screenwise, but obsolete software, and was in a drawer somewhere for some 4 or 5 years.
I waited for my wife and son to go out to set it up (I thought, after it's in place, it'll be too late for them to complain). Turns out they loved it and was only after that that they started caring for my smart home additions. I got a frame which has some room in the back in which I added a charger, then I control that charger with HA itself, stopping the charge when battery is 100%, and starting it when it's down.
It works fairly well. Not bad for an old obsolete tablet.

[JedIsTheOne]

I admire your intelligence. I recommend your channel to all the E.E. I work with. Keep up the great work.

[AroPix]

My homeserver is just a Dell Latitude 5290 (Convertible tablet), that uses Sway to run a headless Chrome Browser loading a customized Homeassistant dashboard. After a few seconds the screen goes off and just tapping again turns it on, works excellent. :)
Also pressing the volume up key runs a script to switch to the Klipper WebUI so i can monitor and control my 3D printer. :)

[BeardedTinker]

Great video - don't you find RPi 3 a bit sluggish on the screen refresh rate or when scrolling?

[JanasV]

Scott, but is this really more aesthetically pleasing and cheaper, than just buying a used slim tablet, gluing it on the wall or attaching it on some sort of thin bracket, and hiding the charger behind it in a smaller hole than what you put your PSU in?

If we have to modify something in our home, or we want to add something, don't we also want it to look as clean as possible?