Just an FYI: you don't need putty anymore as windows now has built in ssh. Just open a terminal and enter the command "ssh user@host" and connect directly
I noticed alot of sites/people still say to use putty and me being the least knowledgeable person in the space said to myself, "I'll just use powershell. I don't want to add more than I need"
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.
@@vitorgoncalves7527I've got some some z3 tablets for next to nothing and imstalled linerage os on them. It depends on what you have laying around and want to do with it or just want to try new things.
Even if I have time & skill, I’d still prefer to use a second hand tablet. The reason is that these tablets will go to ewaste anyway, so why not saving them? Just my opinion thought. Great content as always. Thanks!
I am an eletrician. First of that installation will be no go in Denmark. Second... I go a expensive smart installation from 2007. It called ihc. It has been around since 1987. This year the stop making It. So i follow you.... a simple switch. By the way I have a copple of switches with batterys.. its so .... when you come home and there is no juice in the battery
Depends on a lot of factors. What tablet size? What screen quality? How to power it? Lots more. I think my solution is not cheaper, but around the same price as a decent tablet.
@greatscottlab u could get a really powerfull amoled tab s6 used for around 200 dollars.. also since u can unlock samsung bootloader with a single click in dev options u can custom rom it and make it even faster and more tailored for the task u want
@@AliYassinToma Tablets are not made for being always connected to power, I know someone that tried to do this with an iPad and a Samsung Tablet and the batteries swole up on both and the screens are turning yellow from being on so much, it's not good.
@@greatscottlab "Screen quality"? Do you use it for photo editing, graphics, design? Maybe you look at it 10h a day? Or is it just kiosk? Be serious please.
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. :)
If you want to use HA on a Pi on the long run olease keep in mind that the SD will fail eventually. Please consider using a USB SSD to boot from it instead of the SD Card.
This is perfect, I've a 7 inch touchscreen and a pi 4 as a spare. This is something that's still on my list. No battery, and completely depending on the mains. Full control of the hardware and in the end less expensive than a tablet.
I am happy to finally see an electrical DIYer that I respect tackle this task since I have been installing wall-mounted kiosks for Home Assistant since 2017 in all sixteen apartments plus four boiler rooms of my apartment complex. Happy because I have yet to find a solution that is aesthetically pleasing and still robust enough to withstand life at the mercy of tenant fingers. I like GreatScott's robustness, but I am still looking for someone who takes advantage of the official Raspberry Pi 9" touchscreen's vast screen gap that so obviously lends itself to near-perfect wall flushness.
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.
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
I don't trust my skill that much to make a perfect indentation in the wall for all of that. But feel free to try it out and share the results please :-)
@@greatscottlab dude... you're an electrician you're not supposed to be skilled in the hole making department. You're supposed to be efficient in hiding mistakes with electrician plaster...
@@greatscottlab You could just drill holes for double electrical box, that should have fit everything just right (I recently bought apartment so will try my own when I'll be ready to pay thousands of € to do full renovation as electrical instalation in my apartment kinda sucks mostly location of socets, also I need to renew my electrical license as my knowladge at this point is probably quite outdated regarding standars in Poland)
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.
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. :)
@@konzo5942 I thought about that before, it's cool to have that all in a neat and clean package, but sadly there are no drivers for the cam other than the infrared cam :(
@@konzo5942 Oh you mean for it to turn on, that could work with the working infrared camera, but i dont really need it so i just activate the screen with the press of a touch. :) (if i switch to klipper for example it doesnt turn off the screen forever so i can watch the cam of my 3D printer :D)
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
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.
Finally, someone with a good eye and a solution! I didn't even notice it here, but I experienced the same and never thought how to get rid of it. Thanks man!
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.
One item with HA, using it on a Rasspberry pi, be sure to use a Pi 5 with a NVMe hat. the ammount of data read/write that HA does is absolutely insane and will eat your SD card in just a few months! Setup a network share and connect it to HA to do backups to so if the SD card does fry, you can restore very easily.
@@AMacProOwner I had a colleague whose Pi also destroyed SD cards in a matter of weeks. After trying different AC adapters and various SD cards he tried with a different Pi and had no problems there. So there might be some Pis that do something weird with the SD cards.
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
@@kartoffelwaffel yeah, that's not always practical especially if you go for the wood esthetic. Sure it's not that hard to whip something up using mdf but that's not going to look good. If you want it to look good you will have to put a lot more time into it and you will also need to work with full wood to get the desired look. Additionally wood also comes with a lot of constraints which you don't have with a 3d printed enclosure
I recommend making a floorplan style dashboard in Home Assistant, it's a lot more clear to visitors if it realistically maps to your house. Nice project, that screen looks great. I'm using an old Android tablet for the same thing
@@fredthebulldog529 unfortunately that's something that still needs a lot of work in Home Assistant, the way to do it at the moment is to upload a picture of your floorplan in the picture elements view and then manually add all your devices in x-y offset in CSS :( it's time consuming but achievable for a techy audience
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.
I’m a bit surprised by the number of people saying ‘just use a tablet’. The DIY solution means you can swap parts indefinitely. Nicer display in five years, raspberry pi 6 swapped in when the 4 dies or can’t handle HA anymore, upgrade the enclosure, etc. If you want to keep using this thing for a long time, this approach is far better in my opinion.
For about 50 euro you can just buy a used tablet, rip out the battery and power it directly. It's way cheaper, thinner and nicer looking imho. Also, a pi feels very slow, especially when used with a 2560x1440p screen. Any tablet younger than 10 years will feel much faster.
I really liked the idea!!! Cheapest alternative is an android auto display panel. It works with 12V it has even audio amplifiers etc. and comes up to 10"
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?
I am watching someone who explains to me how to drink a glass of water while jumping on one leg and holding my left ear and scratching my ass at the same time.
Nice project, but I would add in surge protection for that power supply to protect it from being slowly damaged by transient voltages spikes internal to your home. Every time a motor shuts off it's going to dump EMF voltage right into every circuit in parallel with it, same goes for your microwave. So, your heat pump/air conditioner, refrigerator compressor, washer, dryer (yes, even if it's gas because it's the motor that spins it and the blower motor to push air through all the wet cloths), and the microwave are all internal sources of transients that will damage the power supply and start to cause it to start to leak AC voltage or even the transient voltages through it. Replacing the Raspberry Pi is easy. Replacing the screen because the driver board is fried isn't. The Pi might have power input protections, but the screen driver board probably doesn't. How do I know? I was an industrial electrician and this is exactly the sort of problem a new piece of equipment could have after install if it didn't have internal surge suppression since industrial plants have motors turning on and off all the time and the controls that an operator use are pretty much a touch screen like what you just built. After 6 months, they suddenly stop working and the warranty tech comes in and can't figure out why this is the 3rd controls board they replaced. You have to protect internal to the breaker panel from power surges too. That doesn't just include freak accidents, but also every day operations. Design it right so you install it once and know it will run for decades.
Good work with the drill there. I'm a big fan of getting stuck in and making things work the way you want them to, without having to have a plan B or an escape route: work it out, and commit! Good job, looks fine, and we all got to learn something.
Great Video as always! I would suggest using square buttons/switches in a grid like layout, they are quite a lot easier to press than those small switches
@@firelion98 In what way? It requires like 4 klicks to configure a new connection and all... for ssh its just ssh iot-tab or whatever the hostname is. It's also good to use the built in openSSH because it's actually being updated; Putty is in dormant legacy mode and no one is actively updating it anymore. Let alone it being weird with passing keyboard inputs at time and other weird quirks.
If you're not a licensed electrician, get one to drill throught the wall and mount an outlet sunken into the wall, and mount the powersupply inside the box. :)
I like the project, however, I did the same thing building a dashboard with Home Assistant using a 10 inch fire tablet for $80 and a lot less hassle. Just feels like this was a lot more work and more expensive when it didn’t have to be… :/
the 10 inch tablet (is it the plus model or something) which has wireless charging is perfect, good price point and has wireless charging so can easily put a wireless charger in the wall to keep the thing charged but still removable to take with you. Im working on something a bit more advanced like the docking plate on the wall will be its own homeassistant device, and will control the wireless charger to only charge the tablet when it reaches 20% and also shine a light downwards to act like a night light or to help you locate the tablet in the night, maybe gives you some ideas to make yours better
You could just use a much cheaper touch screen, he went for a large and high resolution one. If you already have a pi then buying a cheap but still good enough touchscreen would be significantly cheaper than buying an $80 tablet and it is likely easier to do it with the pi anyway.
Generally i agree, a fire hd 10 is a perfect fit for this use in my opinion, not to mention that you could just add a smart switch to the power supply and add an automation in home assistant to just turn on charging at 20% and turn off charging at 80%, which would save the battery easily. Not to mention it wouldnt be this bulky. While the display used in the video seems much nicer, i just feel like using a raspberry pi with a 140 dollar screen for this is just a waste, so many things that can be self hosted on the pi instead, and a fire hd tablet costs on sale like 80 dollars which is much cheaper than just the display used in the video but is perfect for a home assistant ui, you dont need an overkill display for this. Just my opinion, everyone is allowed to use whatever they feel like using..
With so much space available inside the diy tablet ,you could've added a battery so that in a power cut , you could control your devices. And a snap on design like apple ipad and ipad keyboard, so that the diy tablet can be potable (when going to sleep , take it to your bedroom) there is so much flexibility in this design
I'm wondering what other devices are still going to be controllable if you don't have power? Not trying to be a smartass, I just can't think of any. And what would you need to control if you don't have power? I can think of some edge cases like if you had a solar powered gate or something.. but that's about it. Just seems like what we in the Software Engineering world would call YAGNI (you aren't going to need it).
In my opinion, this solution requires too much work and does not look good, a cheaper and better solution is to use a cheap tablet, which is much more aesthetically pleasing which is important if the device is to hang in a prominent place, for example, in the living room.... I, at my home, hung several samsung galaxy tab A 10 inches, which I bought for 50 euros each. All I had to do was open them up and solder the power cord directly into the usb socket so that the cord comes out through the back case so that the usb socket is free and no cord is visible. The tablet is very thin, only 7.5mm has an irradiance sensor that can be used for light control automation and a microphone for voice assistant.
I did kind of the same project but ran into an issue: namely the screen overheated and ended up burning itself in. I would strongly suggest to add ventilation holes to top and bottom to have at least some airflow. The rpi3b wont add too much heat but the screen can heat up considerably. Also: instead of a button I would use a presence sensor or heck even a pir, as you want to control the screen automatically.
I think that's just the German standard way of doing electrical panels. Don't know if you're in North America, but we're pretty behind Europe in that regard.
@@evanbarnes9984 Yeah I am in Europe and most of our stuff isn't that complicated. This is either very German or an electrician's approach to his own stuff. Either way looks very pro.
Great beginning to a new series. Look forward to seeing what DYI additions and mods are made to the GreatScott Home Control Center. Guessing did not consider PoE as not prewired, and using home wifi. A suggestion I'd make is to include a limited amount of battery backup should the power fail. It would allow looking at data log history, or checking on a security camera. (could integrate backup power with PoE, so key security device and weather monitoring remains active)
Dude, u probably won't even see this, but I just want you to Thank You. I lost my job a couple months back and I don't want to go back to the industry. I always liked computers and electronics, but mainly if it had something to do with videoganes. I found an old Pi 3b I had cleaning out room that I bought to build someone a retro gaming station when pi's were still cheap and a niche market. I knew NOTHING about power, circuits, or anything like that. 3 months and 1000's of dollars later I have 5 raspberry's 3b, 4b, 5 x3(4gb & 8gb) and my pride and joy orange 5 plus 32gb. I found your channel and ali express became my favorite site. You protected me from buying a bunch of crap(got a LOT of rgb strip lighting only to figure out I had crap), but now I've become a DIY who's working with Ai, home automation, programming, 3d printing, arduinos, esp32s, and other things. I still don't know how to do everything without help, but I'm happy for the 1st time since I was a kid. I used to think if the plug fit, then I was good to go power wise. Knew nothing about amps, voltage, wattage, nothing. Ive been intimidated by soldering my whole life and i still suck, but im getting there. I'm just trying to say that you got a friend across the pond that probably will forever be in your debt. Like I'm having a Renaissance right now at almost 40 and got a job working remotely without a degree working with things I love. Thanks man, I'm serious
Ich habe sowas ähnliches gemacht, aber stattdessen einfach in einem Bilderrahmen genommen. Der Alurahmen lässt sich sehr einfach auseinandernehmen und zuschneiden. Sieht sehr gut aus (kein typisches 3D Druckgehäuse mit den Rillen) und vor allem sehr günstig. Außerdem kann man die anderen Wände mit dem gleichen Bilderrahmen dekorieren und es passt sich prima ins Gesamtbild ein 😉
Is it not easier to use a USB-C charger, like the USB-C-3A from Digital Power Systems? This way, you avoid the hassle of crimping cables, and everyone nowadays has a USB-C to USB-C cable lying around at home. Or am I just lazy? 😅
I’d recommend looking into Ignition (inductive automation) for something like this. There’s a free maker edition. It’s used for industrial HMIs and SCADA but if you can programme in the interfaces (perhaps use node-red to make an OPC server). With ignition you can make an absolutely beautiful dashboard that works on any device, have a database of all your devices and then add controls to send outputs back. It’s not the quickest solution but if you really want a professional outcome I’d really recommend it.
Way too expensive. Also, if going to all that effort and going down the route of printing a custom housing why not flush mount it and finish it in white to blend in better with the white walls, it would look way less intrusive and would be way more sleeker.
I like the idea. But then again, I don't trust my skill on that one. I think I would simply ruin the wall when making the big "indentation". But after all I still like my end result.
Honestly, not making too much sense to spend a combined ~200€ for the Pi, Screen and PSU to create a Kiosk. A used, 6 year old Android tablet would have done everything and would probably at best cost you 50€ max., and essentially free if you found one by chance on a dumpster. On top you have a camera and microphones on it which you could integrate into HAss, and also less power draw than the Pi and screen combined. All in all not a bad project tho.
The reason is precisely the one for which you watch these films - the try and learn new things. Here the price doesn't matter as much as the knowledge you gain while fighting with interesting tasks and problems, and finaly the DIY result and satisfaction.
I am going to do the same, but one thing; I highly advise to use an SSD for home assistant. I have noticed myself that running HA on an RPi results in the SD breaking every year or so due to the high amount of read/write operations. A SSD is more stable and should fit in an dinrail case.
Hmm, couldn't you find a smaller powersupply?, that you could integrate in the LCD housing? It pained me seeing cut that big of a hole in the limestone block in your new house.
I tried. But when it comes to good quality power supply that I can run 24/7 then I pretty much only trust Meanwell (not sponsored). And this one was basically the smallest that could do 5V and 3A.
My issue with tablets is battery management (and Device management in general) and sometimes awkward mounting options. No way I would hang a cheap tablet with sketchy batteries on my wall.
I would have double side taped a amazon fire tablet to the wall lol. Cheaper, involves zero skill, no mains voltage wiring, usable for other stuff, easy to replace and saves valuable time.
If you printed the enclosure in PLA, you have to remember that it will get brittle after some time. Especially near sunlight. Generally it will be more than a year before it happens. If you need a permanent print, I would suggest ABS, just get an 3d printer enclosure and exhaust, ABS fumes are toxic.
Seems like an awesome solution if you want something more bespoke, too. For example, I was just thinking that with this, you could probably modify it with a motion sensor to turn on/off the screen in case someone is walking nearby (help reduce glare/light as well as burn in). 🤔
Thank you for the video! I had some trouble following the explanation. Could you please clarify or provide more details on that part? Or maybe you can make another video with step by step explanation. Thank you
I have 4 home automation systems, and Alexa deals with all of them and can handle different systems from routines too, triggered by voice, time, time to sunset etc, with onscreen buttons too.
I would suggest creating a pane in HA using Fully Kiosk, so you get a full kiosk mode view without the HA side-bars. I am not sure if you want to use it as your general HA interface though, then what you have is better of course.
I believe you can also use specific distributions such as "FullPageOS" or "dietpi" to make the raspberry configuration easier, as both allow you to pre configure the network options and the url on the SD card before first boot
This is excellent. I have two old intercom units in my house that I need to figure out what to fill them with. This just gave me an idea with my HA install. I already got the spouse approval since she was in the room while I was watching this... 😂
For those who commented "just get a tablet": don't. Normal tablets aren't designed for running 24/7 connected to power, and if you're unlucky you can get a "spicy pillow" after a few months. Someone i work with had 3 (Samsung) tablets installed as wall displays, and all of them either already turned into a "pillow" or started showing signs of a swelling battery. They now got replaced with battery-less tablets that are meant for wall mounting and non-stop usage.
I've built something similar wit a pi 4 and the official touchscreen. It's a small dashboard that sits on my desk to control all audio applications of my PC and even functions partly similar to a stream deck (In the sense of having some shortcuts to applications and functions). I also have a small suggestion for this project, since I've used RPi's mostly for such "embedded" applications like in a kiosk mode: turn on the "Overlay Filesystem" in raspi-config under "Performance" if you haven't already to make the SD-card last much longer (It makes the SD-Card read-only, which would be ideal for such a kiosk system since you don't save anything on it. Technically speaking the option "overlays" the RAM of the pi over the read-only SD-Card, so all changes made to it are kept in RAM. If you want changes to saved to the SD-Card again, just disable the "Overlay Filesystem" and reboot. ).
For 139 euro, especially from AliExpress, im impressed with the screen you received. Im definitely going to be getting one of these for playing around with.
I am doing similar project in my house. But I am using openhab instead of home assistant (i want free google assistant Integration), and i am using old tablet with broken battery (i soldered 5v supply directly to battery terminal), then mount it to the fridge by using neodymium magnets. The openhab installation is running on raspberry pi 3 using docker. I am using docker because its easy to backup to another device later
in terms of practicability i am wondering whether the powerswitch "just" powers the screen or whether you boot the entire pi, 5:36 where you add the "holy trinity of kiosk mode" (xset -dpms && xset s noblank&& xset s off) suggests that the power button is only wired to the screen? i also do get that because i at least wouldn't want to wait for a raspi3 boot time to "just" watch the CCTV of the garage. Are you aware of any e-ink-display based solutions and their power consumption or ideally hybrid solutions? (fast refresh stuff on seperate lcd and buttons and low refresh rate stuff on e-ink)
I've been rocking HA for years now. However, as nice as this end result could be, I have to agree that purchasing a US$110-120 (on sale) Samsung Tab A7 Lite and printing a wall mount case for it is far less hassle and cheaper. With Samsung's battery protect mode on to cap charge at 85%, you don't have to worry about the battery runaway/fire issues that might crop up with other wall mounted tablets and phones. Besides, a full-on Pi just to display a browser page is pretty serious waste of a Pi. Did you consider modifying the HA install on the Pi and running the display off the same unit?
Man I love how Germany's distribution panels are simple DIN rail mounted components and the enclosures are smooth plastic. Way better than the jagged metal crap we deal with over here in the states.
You could also use a nice powersupply that would fit into a normal wallbox behind the walloutlet. If you have deep enough wall boxes. This way you did not need to destroy the entire wall. Just make a hole for the wire to pass through
Most excellent and entertaining way to recycle older RPi's (if you happen to have such). It's not the cheapest, not the fastest, not the simple solution but it has its charm. Also sense of DIY satisfaction is through the roof 😃 warning: long rant ahead. Not having access to a 3D printer of any size, near zero experience with wood work; the enclosure would be a challenge for me. An injection molded cabinet of this size would be prohibitively expensive. Probably I'd repurpose something into a panel cover; like a nice looking storage box, clear polycarbonate (fridge) drawers (paint the inside for a sweet glossy look!) or assortment drawers. Only headache is a screwless look, can be sorted with magnets and strips of iron. If you are worried it would fall off the wall, pick apart and toy around with magnets from any old used hard disk drive If I'd been empty handed, started from scratch I'd opt for tablets tho.
@greatscottlab Very nice inspiraton. I'm working on the same. With the same components. What I suggest next time you do someting like this: Because the wall thickness allows it, lower it to down to the wall level. Arround the LCD the front part should have a collar, with that you can hide the wall-cut.
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.
Great advice, thank you!
Agree. Adafruit has a power splitter.. so you dont need the poe hat. you might have to get a min usb to usb-c adapter thou for the pi 4's
Just an FYI: you don't need putty anymore as windows now has built in ssh. Just open a terminal and enter the command "ssh user@host" and connect directly
I noticed alot of sites/people still say to use putty and me being the least knowledgeable person in the space said to myself, "I'll just use powershell. I don't want to add more than I need"
Yeah that's been in Windows since 2018
you rock
you can pry putty from my cold dead hands 😂
MobaXTerm ftw
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.
Lots of pros and cons here that are so very subjective that I will not write them all down here because tons will disagree/agree.
Control. This way you have total control over hardware and software.
@@vitorgoncalves7527I've got some some z3 tablets for next to nothing and imstalled linerage os on them. It depends on what you have laying around and want to do with it or just want to try new things.
Never forget waf, wife acceptance factor.
Having a central control panel everyone in the house can access and always know where it is.
Even if I have time & skill, I’d still prefer to use a second hand tablet. The reason is that these tablets will go to ewaste anyway, so why not saving them?
Just my opinion thought. Great content as always. Thanks!
The older I get, the more I appreciate the simplicity and robustness of dumb mechanical wall switches.
Haha I can also understand that
„I'm afraid I can't do this Dave.”... to qoute HAL ;-)
I am an eletrician. First of that installation will be no go in Denmark. Second... I go a expensive smart installation from 2007. It called ihc. It has been around since 1987. This year the stop making It. So i follow you.... a simple switch. By the way I have a copple of switches with batterys.. its so .... when you come home and there is no juice in the battery
I thought he would just use the RPI to receive input of a lot of switches.
I like screens and manual switches, touch screen always feels laggy.
@@MrJumper68 the whole amateurish installation is a no go in Germany as well.
Looks great, one improvement I would make is a LD 2410 mmwave sensor to turn the screen on and off when you approach it.
Hmmmm that's a usefull suggestion, thanks!
I legit thought the same :DDD If I made it myself I would definitely use it to save some electricity.
Or just have the screen only switch on when it is touched, that could probably be done just in software without needing to add any extra sensors.
great idea. And also hooked it up to a server with AI controls too.
I was thinking passive infrared sensor for the same reason, but I like millimeter wave better.
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??
Depends on a lot of factors. What tablet size? What screen quality? How to power it? Lots more. I think my solution is not cheaper, but around the same price as a decent tablet.
@greatscottlab u could get a really powerfull amoled tab s6 used for around 200 dollars.. also since u can unlock samsung bootloader with a single click in dev options u can custom rom it and make it even faster and more tailored for the task u want
@@AliYassinToma Tablets are not made for being always connected to power, I know someone that tried to do this with an iPad and a Samsung Tablet and the batteries swole up on both and the screens are turning yellow from being on so much, it's not good.
@@TheFPSPower u can add an automation to turn off charging at 80%
@@greatscottlab "Screen quality"? Do you use it for photo editing, graphics, design? Maybe you look at it 10h a day? Or is it just kiosk? Be serious please.
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. :)
The DIN rail config is pretty awsome. Thank You for sharing it.
You're welcome!
DIN setup looked amazing *cries in American wiring scheme*
@@Obtuse94 Yeah I don't envy those weird electrical stuff you guys got going over there.
@@Tomazack Hey, at least it's cheap! As long as it doesn't burn your house down...
If you want to use HA on a Pi on the long run olease keep in mind that the SD will fail eventually. Please consider using a USB SSD to boot from it instead of the SD Card.
THIS. no wear leveling on SD. SSD do. or have the data on a NAS, or a HDD.
Mine would last about 2yrs before going into read-only. Moved it all over to a microPC w/ ProxMox and haven't looked back.
This, and that the screen will burn-in from the static image in couple of years
@@AI-dz2zd the switch on the side controls the screen power. Won't happen
... Or make backups, which is pretty much SOP.
This is perfect, I've a 7 inch touchscreen and a pi 4 as a spare. This is something that's still on my list. No battery, and completely depending on the mains. Full control of the hardware and in the end less expensive than a tablet.
I am happy to finally see an electrical DIYer that I respect tackle this task since I have been installing wall-mounted kiosks for Home Assistant since 2017 in all sixteen apartments plus four boiler rooms of my apartment complex. Happy because I have yet to find a solution that is aesthetically pleasing and still robust enough to withstand life at the mercy of tenant fingers. I like GreatScott's robustness, but I am still looking for someone who takes advantage of the official Raspberry Pi 9" touchscreen's vast screen gap that so obviously lends itself to near-perfect wall flushness.
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.
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
I don't trust my skill that much to make a perfect indentation in the wall for all of that. But feel free to try it out and share the results please :-)
@@greatscottlab dude... you're an electrician you're not supposed to be skilled in the hole making department.
You're supposed to be efficient in hiding mistakes with electrician plaster...
@@greatscottlab You could just drill holes for double electrical box, that should have fit everything just right (I recently bought apartment so will try my own when I'll be ready to pay thousands of € to do full renovation as electrical instalation in my apartment kinda sucks mostly location of socets, also I need to renew my electrical license as my knowladge at this point is probably quite outdated regarding standars in Poland)
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.
@LawpickingLocksmith voice activation and control is ideal but the end result (never getting out of bed) dictates the location.
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. :)
i think you could find some way to use the camera for motion sensing to bring the display on, could be nice
@@konzo5942 I thought about that before, it's cool to have that all in a neat and clean package, but sadly there are no drivers for the cam other than the infrared cam :(
@@konzo5942 Oh you mean for it to turn on, that could work with the working infrared camera, but i dont really need it so i just activate the screen with the press of a touch. :)
(if i switch to klipper for example it doesnt turn off the screen forever so i can watch the cam of my 3D printer :D)
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
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.
Finally, someone with a good eye and a solution! I didn't even notice it here, but I experienced the same and never thought how to get rid of it. Thanks man!
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.
One item with HA, using it on a Rasspberry pi, be sure to use a Pi 5 with a NVMe hat. the ammount of data read/write that HA does is absolutely insane and will eat your SD card in just a few months! Setup a network share and connect it to HA to do backups to so if the SD card does fry, you can restore very easily.
I'm running HA on an old Pi 3 for about 3-4 years now. I'm still on the same SD. 🤷♂
Yeah, I ran my SD Card with HA in my old apartment for 2 years without any problems.
@@mbirth Amazing! Mine has never lasted more than a year.
@@AMacProOwner I had a colleague whose Pi also destroyed SD cards in a matter of weeks. After trying different AC adapters and various SD cards he tried with a different Pi and had no problems there. So there might be some Pis that do something weird with the SD cards.
I'm running two big installations since years ... not a single problem ever. But anyways, Pi5+NVMe hat sound great! 🤩
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
Or (God forbid) you could make a simple box ENTIRELY out of wood!
@@kartoffelwaffel yeah, that's not always practical especially if you go for the wood esthetic.
Sure it's not that hard to whip something up using mdf but that's not going to look good. If you want it to look good you will have to put a lot more time into it and you will also need to work with full wood to get the desired look.
Additionally wood also comes with a lot of constraints which you don't have with a 3d printed enclosure
I recommend making a floorplan style dashboard in Home Assistant, it's a lot more clear to visitors if it realistically maps to your house. Nice project, that screen looks great. I'm using an old Android tablet for the same thing
I've been wanting to do that too. Any resource you recommend to help create and setup a visual floorplan?
@@fredthebulldog529 unfortunately that's something that still needs a lot of work in Home Assistant, the way to do it at the moment is to upload a picture of your floorplan in the picture elements view and then manually add all your devices in x-y offset in CSS :( it's time consuming but achievable for a techy audience
@@fredthebulldog529Doing five projects before I want to make a floorplan in HA.
But when I finally get around to it, I will search UA-cam.🙄
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.
I’m a bit surprised by the number of people saying ‘just use a tablet’. The DIY solution means you can swap parts indefinitely. Nicer display in five years, raspberry pi 6 swapped in when the 4 dies or can’t handle HA anymore, upgrade the enclosure, etc. If you want to keep using this thing for a long time, this approach is far better in my opinion.
Thanks for the feedback. Definitely a good reason :-)
Plus; Diy-ing is fun.
Buy something and you end up with what someone else wanted.
For about 50 euro you can just buy a used tablet, rip out the battery and power it directly. It's way cheaper, thinner and nicer looking imho.
Also, a pi feels very slow, especially when used with a 2560x1440p screen. Any tablet younger than 10 years will feel much faster.
@@Michael-zl7gi wont the battery come in handy in the event of Armageddon or slumber parties?
I really liked the idea!!!
Cheapest alternative is an android auto display panel. It works with 12V it has even audio amplifiers etc. and comes up to 10"
That wood PLA looks actually very nice if you apply wood varnish on it. Thanks for another great video. 👍😉
I admire your intelligence. I recommend your channel to all the E.E. I work with. Keep up the great work.
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?
I am watching someone who explains to me how to drink a glass of water while jumping on one leg and holding my left ear and scratching my ass at the same time.
Nice project, but I would add in surge protection for that power supply to protect it from being slowly damaged by transient voltages spikes internal to your home. Every time a motor shuts off it's going to dump EMF voltage right into every circuit in parallel with it, same goes for your microwave. So, your heat pump/air conditioner, refrigerator compressor, washer, dryer (yes, even if it's gas because it's the motor that spins it and the blower motor to push air through all the wet cloths), and the microwave are all internal sources of transients that will damage the power supply and start to cause it to start to leak AC voltage or even the transient voltages through it.
Replacing the Raspberry Pi is easy. Replacing the screen because the driver board is fried isn't. The Pi might have power input protections, but the screen driver board probably doesn't. How do I know? I was an industrial electrician and this is exactly the sort of problem a new piece of equipment could have after install if it didn't have internal surge suppression since industrial plants have motors turning on and off all the time and the controls that an operator use are pretty much a touch screen like what you just built. After 6 months, they suddenly stop working and the warranty tech comes in and can't figure out why this is the 3rd controls board they replaced. You have to protect internal to the breaker panel from power surges too. That doesn't just include freak accidents, but also every day operations.
Design it right so you install it once and know it will run for decades.
Good work with the drill there. I'm a big fan of getting stuck in and making things work the way you want them to, without having to have a plan B or an escape route: work it out, and commit! Good job, looks fine, and we all got to learn something.
Thanks 👍
Ah yes, finish things and not give up... like that stairway lighting... ;)
@@unhandled12345 He will come back to it.
Beautiful! But, since it has an AC mains circuit, I would put the power supply in a box, not the wall.
Those types of walls (cellular concrete) are fire resistant and totally insulated! Of course it isn't a state of art but it's safe enough!
Great Video as always!
I would suggest using square buttons/switches in a grid like layout, they are quite a lot easier to press than those small switches
Little tip, Windows has had SSH built-in for years now, no need for putty.
I still prefer putty, more convenient
@@firelion98 In what way?
It requires like 4 klicks to configure a new connection and all...
for ssh its just
ssh iot-tab
or whatever the hostname is.
It's also good to use the built in openSSH because it's actually being updated; Putty is in dormant legacy mode and no one is actively updating it anymore.
Let alone it being weird with passing keyboard inputs at time and other weird quirks.
If you're not a licensed electrician, get one to drill throught the wall and mount an outlet sunken into the wall, and mount the powersupply inside the box. :)
I like the project, however, I did the same thing building a dashboard with Home Assistant using a 10 inch fire tablet for $80 and a lot less hassle. Just feels like this was a lot more work and more expensive when it didn’t have to be… :/
the 10 inch tablet (is it the plus model or something) which has wireless charging is perfect, good price point and has wireless charging so can easily put a wireless charger in the wall to keep the thing charged but still removable to take with you. Im working on something a bit more advanced like the docking plate on the wall will be its own homeassistant device, and will control the wireless charger to only charge the tablet when it reaches 20% and also shine a light downwards to act like a night light or to help you locate the tablet in the night, maybe gives you some ideas to make yours better
You could just use a much cheaper touch screen, he went for a large and high resolution one. If you already have a pi then buying a cheap but still good enough touchscreen would be significantly cheaper than buying an $80 tablet and it is likely easier to do it with the pi anyway.
Generally i agree, a fire hd 10 is a perfect fit for this use in my opinion, not to mention that you could just add a smart switch to the power supply and add an automation in home assistant to just turn on charging at 20% and turn off charging at 80%, which would save the battery easily. Not to mention it wouldnt be this bulky. While the display used in the video seems much nicer, i just feel like using a raspberry pi with a 140 dollar screen for this is just a waste, so many things that can be self hosted on the pi instead, and a fire hd tablet costs on sale like 80 dollars which is much cheaper than just the display used in the video but is perfect for a home assistant ui, you dont need an overkill display for this. Just my opinion, everyone is allowed to use whatever they feel like using..
@@TheCreeperProBro it’s just for video clicks - most of the stuff tested on UA-cam is just over complicated faff for our enjoyment
how long has it been running? how many times a week do you have to do something to keep the tablet working as orginally setup.
I bought a used Dell touchscreen monitor on eBay for less than $150. Great image quality and build quality.
I went for the cheaper route, bought one of those cheap $50 10" tablet from Aliexpress (BMAX i9 Plus or Teclast P30T) and it's going perfectly
With so much space available inside the diy tablet ,you could've added a battery so that in a power cut , you could control your devices. And a snap on design like apple ipad and ipad keyboard, so that the diy tablet can be potable (when going to sleep , take it to your bedroom) there is so much flexibility in this design
I'm wondering what other devices are still going to be controllable if you don't have power?
Not trying to be a smartass, I just can't think of any. And what would you need to control if you don't have power?
I can think of some edge cases like if you had a solar powered gate or something.. but that's about it.
Just seems like what we in the Software Engineering world would call YAGNI (you aren't going to need it).
In my opinion, this solution requires too much work and does not look good, a cheaper and better solution is to use a cheap tablet, which is much more aesthetically pleasing which is important if the device is to hang in a prominent place, for example, in the living room.... I, at my home, hung several samsung galaxy tab A 10 inches, which I bought for 50 euros each. All I had to do was open them up and solder the power cord directly into the usb socket so that the cord comes out through the back case so that the usb socket is free and no cord is visible. The tablet is very thin, only 7.5mm has an irradiance sensor that can be used for light control automation and a microphone for voice assistant.
yeah good last gen tablets are easy to find and cheap
This is exactly what I would have done to :)
Probably wouldn’t have made such a good video though :)
I did kind of the same project but ran into an issue: namely the screen overheated and ended up burning itself in. I would strongly suggest to add ventilation holes to top and bottom to have at least some airflow. The rpi3b wont add too much heat but the screen can heat up considerably. Also: instead of a button I would use a presence sensor or heck even a pir, as you want to control the screen automatically.
Never mind that Home assistant setup, I need to see more of your overkill electrical panel! :D
I think that's just the German standard way of doing electrical panels. Don't know if you're in North America, but we're pretty behind Europe in that regard.
@@evanbarnes9984 Yeah we also have 230V which is another reason to require more security.
@@evanbarnes9984 Yeah I am in Europe and most of our stuff isn't that complicated. This is either very German or an electrician's approach to his own stuff. Either way looks very pro.
its pretty standard in mid europe
Thanks for jumping into more Home Assistant stuff! I'm excited to see what else you get up to here.
8:56 Mamma mia! 🤩
I hope Red Jeff does not find it...ooops, wrong channel. 😂
Let's hope so ;-)
Great beginning to a new series. Look forward to seeing what DYI additions and mods are made to the GreatScott Home Control Center.
Guessing did not consider PoE as not prewired, and using home wifi. A suggestion I'd make is to include a limited amount of battery backup should the power fail. It would allow looking at data log history, or checking on a security camera. (could integrate backup power with PoE, so key security device and weather monitoring remains active)
10:33 ~ "and after finding a better visual theme for homeassisant" *turns dark mode on. xD
Dude, u probably won't even see this, but I just want you to Thank You. I lost my job a couple months back and I don't want to go back to the industry. I always liked computers and electronics, but mainly if it had something to do with videoganes. I found an old Pi 3b I had cleaning out room that I bought to build someone a retro gaming station when pi's were still cheap and a niche market. I knew NOTHING about power, circuits, or anything like that. 3 months and 1000's of dollars later I have 5 raspberry's 3b, 4b, 5 x3(4gb & 8gb) and my pride and joy orange 5 plus 32gb. I found your channel and ali express became my favorite site. You protected me from buying a bunch of crap(got a LOT of rgb strip lighting only to figure out I had crap), but now I've become a DIY who's working with Ai, home automation, programming, 3d printing, arduinos, esp32s, and other things. I still don't know how to do everything without help, but I'm happy for the 1st time since I was a kid. I used to think if the plug fit, then I was good to go power wise. Knew nothing about amps, voltage, wattage, nothing. Ive been intimidated by soldering my whole life and i still suck, but im getting there. I'm just trying to say that you got a friend across the pond that probably will forever be in your debt. Like I'm having a Renaissance right now at almost 40 and got a job working remotely without a degree working with things I love. Thanks man, I'm serious
I thought the screws showing on the frame were ugly. You could recess the screw holes and print some caps to cover them.
Screws on the sides or top and bottom of the enclosure would be much less visible.
Ich habe sowas ähnliches gemacht, aber stattdessen einfach in einem Bilderrahmen genommen. Der Alurahmen lässt sich sehr einfach auseinandernehmen und zuschneiden.
Sieht sehr gut aus (kein typisches 3D Druckgehäuse mit den Rillen) und vor allem sehr günstig. Außerdem kann man die anderen Wände mit dem gleichen Bilderrahmen dekorieren und es passt sich prima ins Gesamtbild ein 😉
Schon irgendwie witzig, sich als Deutscher ein Video über Elektronik von einem Deutschen auf Englisch anzuschauen 😅
I LOVE your videos
Thanks for watching :-)
Mad respect for your home automation build!
Is it not easier to use a USB-C charger, like the USB-C-3A from Digital Power Systems? This way, you avoid the hassle of crimping cables, and everyone nowadays has a USB-C to USB-C cable lying around at home. Or am I just lazy? 😅
Good point!
I’d recommend looking into Ignition (inductive automation) for something like this. There’s a free maker edition.
It’s used for industrial HMIs and SCADA but if you can programme in the interfaces (perhaps use node-red to make an OPC server).
With ignition you can make an absolutely beautiful dashboard that works on any device, have a database of all your devices and then add controls to send outputs back.
It’s not the quickest solution but if you really want a professional outcome I’d really recommend it.
Way too expensive. Also, if going to all that effort and going down the route of printing a custom housing why not flush mount it and finish it in white to blend in better with the white walls, it would look way less intrusive and would be way more sleeker.
I like the idea. But then again, I don't trust my skill on that one. I think I would simply ruin the wall when making the big "indentation". But after all I still like my end result.
Hey, it’s a very good video. I upgraded the system adding a smart mirror for a better look in home!
Planning to build one got this video at right time thank you Great Scott!!!😊
Go for it!
Personally, only thing I'd change in the design is the locking screws placement, to keep the front cleaner.
Totes would've went with a screwless design there. Screw the bottom plate to the wall and make the cover plate snap-on to the bottom plate. 👌
Honestly, not making too much sense to spend a combined ~200€ for the Pi, Screen and PSU to create a Kiosk. A used, 6 year old Android tablet would have done everything and would probably at best cost you 50€ max., and essentially free if you found one by chance on a dumpster. On top you have a camera and microphones on it which you could integrate into HAss, and also less power draw than the Pi and screen combined.
All in all not a bad project tho.
The reason is precisely the one for which you watch these films - the try and learn new things. Here the price doesn't matter as much as the knowledge you gain while fighting with interesting tasks and problems, and finaly the DIY result and satisfaction.
Exactly this. I tried using a 1080p touchscreen on a pi 3 once, and it felt very slow. I ended up just buying a old tablet and that was wáy smoother.
This one was absolutely perfect! I hope you can print another enclosure for me, I want to replicate your project!! You’re amazing GreatScott!
dont use the spinning mode on your drill with drywall 0:01
I like to live dangerously
I am going to do the same, but one thing; I highly advise to use an SSD for home assistant. I have noticed myself that running HA on an RPi results in the SD breaking every year or so due to the high amount of read/write operations. A SSD is more stable and should fit in an dinrail case.
Hmm, couldn't you find a smaller powersupply?, that you could integrate in the LCD housing? It pained me seeing cut that big of a hole in the limestone block in your new house.
Looked like concrete
I tried. But when it comes to good quality power supply that I can run 24/7 then I pretty much only trust Meanwell (not sponsored). And this one was basically the smallest that could do 5V and 3A.
The hole doesn't really matter, it's easy to just fill it in if you ever plan to remodel.
@@Comrade_YG CONCRETE????
You are close to 2M subs!!!
We are waiting for the celebration 🎉
Be honest! It's not you who didn't want to see the wires on the wall but your wife! 😂
Amazing video! I just got started with home assistant yesterday. Love the HA content!
Awesome :-) Thanks for watching
This is a very good diy project, but if you consider the final price, cheap tablets are far more practical solution.
Maybe
My issue with tablets is battery management (and Device management in general) and sometimes awkward mounting options. No way I would hang a cheap tablet with sketchy batteries on my wall.
@@johnwilson2250 usually amazon fire tablets or lenovo or used samsung tablets have reliable batteries
I think this one of your project is very good❤
I would have double side taped a amazon fire tablet to the wall lol. Cheaper, involves zero skill, no mains voltage wiring, usable for other stuff, easy to replace and saves valuable time.
Definitely possible.....but not my cup of tea.
If you printed the enclosure in PLA, you have to remember that it will get brittle after some time. Especially near sunlight. Generally it will be more than a year before it happens. If you need a permanent print, I would suggest ABS, just get an 3d printer enclosure and exhaust, ABS fumes are toxic.
Weird. Europe doesn't require electrical boxes?? That would be illegal in North America.
It is illegal in Europe too, as now this installation is not double insulated as it would be in a box.
Seems like an awesome solution if you want something more bespoke, too. For example, I was just thinking that with this, you could probably modify it with a motion sensor to turn on/off the screen in case someone is walking nearby (help reduce glare/light as well as burn in). 🤔
I gave up on smart devices 5 years ago and I just move my ass
The only way to truly be free from the planned obsolescence racket.
Sehr geil, finde solche Projekte zu sehen immer sehr inspirierend!
Thank you for the video! I had some trouble following the explanation. Could you please clarify or provide more details on that part? Or maybe you can make another video with step by step explanation. Thank you
I have 4 home automation systems, and Alexa deals with all of them and can handle different systems from routines too, triggered by voice, time, time to sunset etc, with onscreen buttons too.
I would suggest creating a pane in HA using Fully Kiosk, so you get a full kiosk mode view without the HA side-bars. I am not sure if you want to use it as your general HA interface though, then what you have is better of course.
I believe you can also use specific distributions such as "FullPageOS" or "dietpi" to make the raspberry configuration easier, as both allow you to pre configure the network options and the url on the SD card before first boot
This is excellent. I have two old intercom units in my house that I need to figure out what to fill them with. This just gave me an idea with my HA install. I already got the spouse approval since she was in the room while I was watching this... 😂
Good to see! - Finally someone with a real stone wall ;-)
Thanks for the cool project demo.
Your videos continue to inspire me to keep working on my own fun electronics projects!
For those who commented "just get a tablet": don't. Normal tablets aren't designed for running 24/7 connected to power, and if you're unlucky you can get a "spicy pillow" after a few months. Someone i work with had 3 (Samsung) tablets installed as wall displays, and all of them either already turned into a "pillow" or started showing signs of a swelling battery. They now got replaced with battery-less tablets that are meant for wall mounting and non-stop usage.
I've built something similar wit a pi 4 and the official touchscreen. It's a small dashboard that sits on my desk to control all audio applications of my PC and even functions partly similar to a stream deck (In the sense of having some shortcuts to applications and functions).
I also have a small suggestion for this project, since I've used RPi's mostly for such "embedded" applications like in a kiosk mode: turn on the "Overlay Filesystem" in raspi-config under "Performance" if you haven't already to make the SD-card last much longer (It makes the SD-Card read-only, which would be ideal for such a kiosk system since you don't save anything on it. Technically speaking the option "overlays" the RAM of the pi over the read-only SD-Card, so all changes made to it are kept in RAM. If you want changes to saved to the SD-Card again, just disable the "Overlay Filesystem" and reboot. ).
For 139 euro, especially from AliExpress, im impressed with the screen you received. Im definitely going to be getting one of these for playing around with.
I love that you have to breakout the masonry tools just to add something on the wall
I am doing similar project in my house. But I am using openhab instead of home assistant (i want free google assistant Integration), and i am using old tablet with broken battery (i soldered 5v supply directly to battery terminal), then mount it to the fridge by using neodymium magnets.
The openhab installation is running on raspberry pi 3 using docker. I am using docker because its easy to backup to another device later
Very nice. I want something like that for the boat we live on, and remotely accessible would be perfect 👌
For your own smart home addition I offer to use embedded nano mesh library for rust language. I have been writing it for such cases
What an big project nice executed!
in terms of practicability i am wondering whether the powerswitch "just" powers the screen or whether you boot the entire pi, 5:36 where you add the "holy trinity of kiosk mode" (xset -dpms && xset s noblank&& xset s off) suggests that the power button is only wired to the screen? i also do get that because i at least wouldn't want to wait for a raspi3 boot time to "just" watch the CCTV of the garage. Are you aware of any e-ink-display based solutions and their power consumption or ideally hybrid solutions? (fast refresh stuff on seperate lcd and buttons and low refresh rate stuff on e-ink)
Veryy proud. Great Jobb ❤
I've been rocking HA for years now. However, as nice as this end result could be, I have to agree that purchasing a US$110-120 (on sale) Samsung Tab A7 Lite and printing a wall mount case for it is far less hassle and cheaper. With Samsung's battery protect mode on to cap charge at 85%, you don't have to worry about the battery runaway/fire issues that might crop up with other wall mounted tablets and phones.
Besides, a full-on Pi just to display a browser page is pretty serious waste of a Pi. Did you consider modifying the HA install on the Pi and running the display off the same unit?
Man I love how Germany's distribution panels are simple DIN rail mounted components and the enclosures are smooth plastic. Way better than the jagged metal crap we deal with over here in the states.
Europe standards! Same components here in Italy!
Loved the project, mirrors what i always wanted to do :)
Thanks!!!
Pooty gave me a laugh. Love your videos, been looking at making one of these for a while and you are tempting me!!
You could also use a nice powersupply that would fit into a normal wallbox behind the walloutlet. If you have deep enough wall boxes. This way you did not need to destroy the entire wall. Just make a hole for the wire to pass through
Most excellent and entertaining way to recycle older RPi's (if you happen to have such). It's not the cheapest, not the fastest, not the simple solution but it has its charm. Also sense of DIY satisfaction is through the roof 😃 warning: long rant ahead.
Not having access to a 3D printer of any size, near zero experience with wood work; the enclosure would be a challenge for me.
An injection molded cabinet of this size would be prohibitively expensive. Probably I'd repurpose something into a panel cover; like a nice looking storage box, clear polycarbonate (fridge) drawers (paint the inside for a sweet glossy look!) or assortment drawers. Only headache is a screwless look, can be sorted with magnets and strips of iron. If you are worried it would fall off the wall, pick apart and toy around with magnets from any old used hard disk drive
If I'd been empty handed, started from scratch I'd opt for tablets tho.
why are you using the kiosk version when raspberry pi imager already have a home Assistant OS?
@greatscottlab
Very nice inspiraton. I'm working on the same. With the same components. What I suggest next time you do someting like this:
Because the wall thickness allows it, lower it to down to the wall level. Arround the LCD the front part should have a collar, with that you can hide the wall-cut.
I have ordered the screens and getting your case printed.. Is it possible to update the description as to what screws i need to go get? Thank You!
Excellent job, I love your XL 3D printer
hey scott. you are so power diy like nobody in earth :) ! super gemacht . danke