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Touch Displays for Home Assistant

A dedicated touch display acts as a centralized command center for a smart home, offering a quick and intuitive way to view statuses and control devices without needing a phone. The goal is to find a touch display solution that can be permanently mounted, is highly customizable, and seamlessly displays a Home Assistant dashboard. It should ideally connect directly with a Home Assistant instance, potentially with hardware like the Home Assistant Yellow.

Phase 1: Researching the Field

Keywords, Terms and Concepts

  1. Display Hardware & Technology
    • LCD vs. OLED: LCD screens are more common and affordable, while OLED screens offer perfect blacks and better contrast, making them look more premium, especially with dark-themed dashboards.
    • Power over Ethernet (PoE): A highly desirable feature for wall-mounted displays. It allows a single Ethernet cable to provide both a stable, wired data connection and power to the device, eliminating the need for a separate power adapter near the display.
    • Single-Board Computer (SBC): A small computer like a Raspberry Pi, which can be connected to a touch display to run a web browser or a specific application. The Home Assistant Yellow is a specialized SBC.
  2. Software & Dashboard
    • Home Assistant Dashboard: The standard, customizable user interface within Home Assistant. It's built with "Lovelace" cards that can be arranged to show entities and controls.
    • Kiosk Mode: A feature of many web browsers or dedicated apps that displays a webpage full-screen without any address bars, toolbars, or other interface elements. This is essential for a clean, dedicated dashboard look.
    • Fully Kiosk Browser: A popular Android app that provides fine-grained control for turning a tablet into a dedicated dashboard, including features like motion-activated screen wake-up and remote administration.
  3. Mounting & Form Factor
    • Wall Mounting: Solutions range from simple on-wall brackets to more integrated in-wall flush mounts that provide a professional, built-in look.
    • Desk Stand: A simpler option for placing a display on a countertop or desk.

Guiding Questions

  1. What's the easiest way to get started? Repurposing an old Android tablet (like a Fire Tablet) is by far the most common and easiest entry point. It's affordable and requires minimal hardware knowledge.
  2. What are the benefits of a dedicated, open-hardware display? Dedicated displays, especially those with PoE, offer a much cleaner and more professional installation. They are designed for permanent, always-on use and provide a more reliable wired connection compared to Wi-Fi.
  3. How does the Home Assistant Yellow fit in? The Home Assistant Yellow has a GPIO header, which allows it to directly connect to certain types of Raspberry Pi-compatible touch displays. This creates a compact, all-in-one unit where the server and the display are the same device, though this is only practical if you want your main server to be physically located at the display.

Phase 2: Defining My Needs & Priorities

  1. Primary Use Case(s):
    • Create a permanent, wall-mounted control panel for viewing and interacting with a primary Home Assistant dashboard.
  2. Key Features Needed:
    1. Display:
      • Clear, responsive touchscreen.
      • Sufficient brightness and good viewing angles.
    2. Connectivity & Power:
      • A reliable connection to the Home Assistant server. A wired connection (Ethernet/PoE) is highly preferred over Wi-Fi.
      • A clean power solution suitable for wall mounting (PoE is ideal).
    3. Software:
      • Must be able to display a Home Assistant dashboard in a full-screen kiosk mode.
      • High degree of customizability for the displayed dashboard.
  3. Nice to Have:
    • Motion or proximity sensor to wake the screen on approach.
    • High-contrast OLED screen.
  4. Deal-breakers:
    • Inability to display a standard Home Assistant dashboard.
    • Reliance on a proprietary, non-local cloud service.
    • Cluttered installation with visible wires that aren't easily concealable.

Phase 3: Comparing & Choosing the Item Type

There are three primary approaches to creating a Home Assistant touch display.

Available Types

1. Repurposed Consumer Tablet (e.g., Fire Tablet, Android Tablet)

  1. Pros:
    • Low Cost: Very affordable, especially if using an old or refurbished device. Fire Tablets are a popular budget choice.
    • Easy Software Setup: Using the Home Assistant Companion app or Fully Kiosk Browser is straightforward.
    • Built-in Features: Comes with a battery, speakers, and often a camera/microphone that can be used to wake the screen.
  2. Cons:
    • Clunky Power/Mounting: Wall mounting requires a separate bracket, and powering it requires running a visible USB cable or complex custom wiring.
    • Wi-Fi Reliant: Relies on Wi-Fi, which can be less stable than a wired connection.
    • Battery Management: The battery is a point of failure and can degrade or swell over time with constant charging.

2. Dedicated Open Hardware Display (e.g., Raspberry Pi Display, Waveshare)

  1. Pros:
    • Professional Installation: Many models are designed for clean wall mounting, often with PoE for single-cable installation.
    • Wired Reliability: A direct Ethernet connection is the most stable option.
    • No Battery: Designed for 24/7 operation without battery concerns.
  2. Cons:
    • Higher Cost: More expensive than a consumer tablet.
    • More Complex Setup: Requires connecting the display to an SBC (like a Raspberry Pi), installing an operating system, and configuring it to launch a browser in kiosk mode.

3. All-in-One Commercial Panel (e.g., Crestron, Control4 - adapted for HA)

  1. Pros:
    • Premium Hardware: High-quality, professional-grade hardware designed for home automation.
  2. Cons:
    • Extremely Expensive: Orders of magnitude more expensive than other options.
    • Proprietary Ecosystem: Designed to work within their own closed ecosystems. While they can sometimes be made to display a webpage, it's often not their intended use and can be complex to configure.
    • Overkill: Not a practical or cost-effective solution for a standard Home Assistant setup.

Comparison Table of Types

Type Ease of Setup Installation Cleanliness Cost Reliability Overall Match
Repurposed Tablet ✅ ❌ ✅ 2 / 4
Dedicated Open Hardware ❌ ✅ ❌ ✅ 2 / 4
Commercial Panel ❌ ✅ ❌ ✅ 2 / 4

Conclusion on Item Type

This is a choice with two strong, but very different, paths. The best option depends heavily on the trade-off between cost/simplicity and installation quality.

  • Path A (Recommended for Simplicity & Low Cost): Repurposed Tablet.
  • Path B (Recommended for Best Integration & Reliability): Dedicated Open Hardware.

Given the desire for a clean, permanent installation that can potentially connect directly to the Home Assistant Yellow, we will proceed with researching Path B: Dedicated Open Hardware.

Phase 4: Choosing the Specific Product

This path involves choosing two main components: the display itself and a Single-Board Computer (SBC) to run it.

Product Options: The Display

1. Official Raspberry Pi Touch Display (7-inch)

  1. Pros:
    • Official Support: Well-supported by the Raspberry Pi ecosystem and its software.
    • Good Quality: A high-quality IPS display with good viewing angles.
  2. Cons:
    • No Native PoE: Does not support PoE out of the box. Achieving a clean, single-cable installation requires complex workarounds like separate PoE splitters, which adds bulk and complexity behind the screen.
  3. Conclusion: While a good display, the lack of integrated PoE makes it a poor choice for our goal of a clean, professional wall-mounted installation.

2. Waveshare PoE Touch Displays (5-inch to 10-inch)

  1. Pros:
    • Integrated PoE: This is the killer feature. A single Ethernet cable provides both power and data, making for an extremely clean installation.
    • Variety of Sizes: Available in multiple sizes to fit different wall spaces and use cases.
    • Raspberry Pi Focused: Designed to have a Raspberry Pi (especially the Compute Module 4, which is in the HA Yellow) mount directly to the back of the display.
  2. Cons:
    • Higher Cost: More expensive than the official display, but the cost includes the PoE hardware.
  3. Conclusion: This is the ideal choice. The integrated PoE and direct mounting for a Raspberry Pi solve the two biggest challenges of a dedicated hardware panel.

The Hardware Strategy

My choice is the Waveshare 7-inch PoE Touch Display driven by a dedicated Raspberry Pi 4.

Reasoning: * The Display: The 7-inch Waveshare display is the perfect size for a control panel—large enough to be easily readable and interactive, but small enough to be unobtrusive on a wall. The integrated PoE is the most critical feature for a clean, professional install. * The Driver: While you could connect the display directly to a Home Assistant Yellow, it's highly recommended to use a separate, dedicated Raspberry Pi 4 to drive the display. This decouples your main Home Assistant server from the display, meaning you can restart or work on your server without taking the panel offline, which is a major benefit for reliability.

Phase 5: Post-Purchase Guide

This guide details setting up a dedicated Raspberry Pi 4 to act as a kiosk for your Home Assistant dashboard.

1. Hardware Assembly

  • Mount the Raspberry Pi 4 to the back of the Waveshare display using the included standoffs.
  • Connect the display to the Pi's DSI port (for video) and connect the power pins (for touch and power passthrough from the PoE board).

2. OS Installation & Configuration

  • Install Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bit): Flash this lightweight, command-line-only OS to a high-quality SD card. A full desktop environment is unnecessary overhead.
  • Basic Setup: After booting, run sudo raspi-config to set your locale, keyboard layout, and enable the SSH server for remote access.
  • Install Required Software: Install a minimal window manager and a browser. 
    sudo apt update && sudo apt install --no-install-recommends xserver-xorg x11-xserver-utils xinit openbox chromium-browser

3. Configure Auto-start Kiosk Mode

  • Create the Kiosk Script: Create a file at /home/pi/kiosk.sh with the following content. This script disables the screen saver and launches Chromium in kiosk mode, pointing to your Home Assistant instance. 
    #!/bin/bash
xset s noblank
xset s off
xset -dpms

unclutter & # Hides the mouse cursor
sed -i 's/"exited_cleanly":false/"exited_cleanly":true/' /home/pi/.config/chromium/Default/Preferences

/usr/bin/chromium-browser --noerrdialogs --disable-infobars --kiosk http://homeassistant.local:8123/
  • Make it Executable: chmod +x /home/pi/kiosk.sh
  • Auto-start on Boot: Edit the ~/.profile file and add this line to the end: [[ -z $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 1 ]] && startx /home/pi/kiosk.sh
  • Reboot the Raspberry Pi. It should now boot directly into your Home Assistant dashboard.

Phase 6: Essential Accessories & Add-Ons

1. PoE Power Source

  • Requirement: The display requires power from a PoE-capable device conforming to the 802.3af standard.
  • Option A: PoE Switch: If you have multiple PoE devices, a network switch with built-in PoE ports is the cleanest solution.
  • Option B: PoE Injector: If this is your only PoE device, a simple PoE injector is a more cost-effective choice. It sits between your regular switch and the display, adding power to the Ethernet cable.
  • Recommendation: A single-port PoE+ injector from a brand like TP-Link or Ubiquiti.

2. Wall Mount

  • Recommendation: The Waveshare display is often designed to be mounted to a standard single-gang or double-gang electrical box. A simple "low-voltage cutout bracket" is the easiest way to install this in drywall.

3. Ethernet Cable

  • Requirement: A standard Cat5e or Cat6 Ethernet cable of the appropriate length to run from your switch/injector to the wall-mounted display.

Sources & Further Reading

Community Guides & Tutorials

  1. Home Assistant Kiosk Controller - The Right Way
    • Note: A popular and detailed guide that covers the principles of setting up a Raspberry Pi-based kiosk.
  2. Waveshare Product Wiki
    • Note: The official documentation from Waveshare, providing specific details on hardware connections and dimensions for their displays.

https://youtu.be/gpyYCTgJO88?si=rcAogH451g5HjTA4 https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/17rahys/what_is_everyone_using_for_a_mounted_display/