Weekend project done: cheap ESP32 touchscreen now running my dashboards

I did the same thing with a bedside panel about six months back, mostly for the alarm clock and the door sensors so I can check everything without getting up. Mine came with the ESP32-2432S028R chip setup, the cheap 2.8 inch one people call the cheap yellow display, and after a couple of evenings it was doing everything I wanted.

The thing that made YAML bearable for me was keeping a dummy page with one of every widget type in it, all styled how I like, then deleting what I don't need each time. Far less copying mistakes than duplicating a finished page and hoping.

For the updates, I found letting HA push to the display beats polling. Anything I care about I expose as a button or sensor in ESPHome and then automate on the HA side to send text over when it changes. The train departures idea should work the same way, restful sensor in HA, template to tidy the string, then push it across. I did that with the local bus stop and the display never nags the API itself, which keeps things calm.

One small thing that improved mine a lot was a time based dimming automation, screen brightness down to near nothing after 10pm. Kitchen screen probably doesn't need it but if you ever do a bedroom one, it's the difference between loving it and covering it with tape.

I went down this road last winter with a 7 inch panel in the hallway and the hand-built YAML pages wore me down after a while. I got two screens working, then realised every little layout tweak meant a full reflash and another squint at indentation at 11pm. Found the LVGL support in ESPHome eventually and it clicked for me. You design the screens, preview them on the laptop, and only flash when something actually needs to change on the device itself. Much less cursing involved.

On the mounting side I gave up on the DIY bezel idea after ruining a piece of scrap oak trying to route the recess freehand. Ended up with a cheap plastic back box the panel clips into and painted the surround to match the wall. Took ten minutes and looks better than anything I would have cut myself.

One difference in my setup, I put a short update interval on the display side rather than pushing every change instantly. Mine was flickering the backlight every time a motion sensor twitched somewhere in the house, which drove me mad at night. A small delay sorted it and I honestly can't tell the difference in day to day use. Mine is wired in so I never had to think about battery draw, but if you ever go that route the screen refresh is the first thing to look at.

I found that the WiFi chips on those cheaper modules are surprisingly solid once you get them set up. If you've got a bunch of sensors tied to the same hub, I'd recommed running a dedicated power source to the display panel. It's really helpful for keeping the network connection rock solid without getting any random drop outs. I noticed that thing when I was testing it with other hardware.

It sounds like this setup is pretty reliable once you get it running. I am a bit worried about what happens if my whole internet connection drops. If my router goes out for a while, does the screen just lose everything and stay blank, or does it keep showing the last information it had before the outage? I wonder if the display itself still works even if there is no network access at all?

The mounting itself was a bit of a headache for me when I put my panel up in the hallway. The included metal bracket felt a bit too small and made the unit wiggle slightly. I ended up using some soft silicone adhesive along the back corners to shim it perfectly against the wall. That small bit of silicone made the unit feel rock solid and eliminated any rattling when the house settles. It's really the fine finishing touches that make it look like a permanent piece of equipment.