What ESPanel does
ESPanel turns the 4 inch Guition ESP32-S3-4848S040 touch display into a wall panel for your Homey Pro. Put your lights, sockets, curtains, thermostats, sensors and electricity price on it as tiles, tap to switch them, and hold a tile to see all its values. Your Flows can use the display too: show messages, ask yes/no questions, count down or highlight a tile.
It also controls Spotify from its own Music page, shows a clock when nobody uses it, and works as an alarm keypad for Heimdall.
What you need
- A Homey Pro with Homey 12 or later. ESPanel runs locally, so Homey Cloud is not supported.
- The Guition ESP32-S3-4848S040 (4 inch, 480 × 480). This is the only display ESPanel supports; other ESP32 displays will not work.
- A USB-C cable that carries data, not only power, for installing the firmware once.
- A computer with Chrome or Edge, for the openHASP web installer.
No separate MQTT broker is needed: ESPanel has its own.
Getting started
Setting up a display takes about ten minutes. The Guide tab in ESPanel’s settings walks you through the same steps, with your own MQTT details filled in.
- Install ESPanel from the Homey App Store.
- Install openHASP on the display. Connect it with the USB-C cable, open the openHASP web installer in Chrome or Edge, choose Guition ESP32-S3-4848S040 and tick Erase device.
- Connect it to your wifi. The display starts its own network (plate_xxxxxx). Join it with your phone, open 192.168.4.1 and enter your wifi details.
- Connect it to ESPanel. Open the display’s IP address in a browser, go to Configuration → MQTT and enter the server, port, username and password shown in ESPanel’s Guide tab. Give each display its own Hostname.
- Add it in Homey: Devices → + → ESPanel. The display shows up once it has connected.
- Choose your tiles in ESPanel’s settings (Apps → ESPanel → Configure) and press Save & show on display.
Features
- Tiles for your devices: lights, sockets, curtains, sensors, “All lights” for a room, and Flow buttons and text tiles. Tap to switch, swipe between pages.
- A grid per page: from 1 × 1 up to 4 × 4 tiles, with small, wide, tall and big tiles. Bigger tiles get bigger text, icons and buttons.
- Three tile styles: Crisp, Colourful and Homey, in a dark, light or automatic theme with your own accent colour.
- Details on a long press: all of a device’s values, a brightness slider, and four white tones (Daylight, Neutral, Warm, Cozy), also for WLED strips.
- Thermostats: heat pumps and floor heating show the room temperature and target; set the target on a long press.
- Electricity price: Tibber and other price devices show the price now, coloured green to red by today’s level.
- Music: a Spotify page with playlists, speakers, cover art and volume.
- Screensaver: a clock (analog, digital or stacked), the screen off, or always on, and off at night between set times.
- Heimdall alarm keypad: arm and disarm with your code. When the alarm is on, every display shows only the keypad until someone disarms; they wake up for the entry delay. Arm later with a timer from 10 minutes to 4 hours.
- Memory meter: the settings show how much room the display has left, so a layout never overloads it.
Flow cards
Every display is a device with its own cards. The app also has cards to change the theme and accent colour.
When
Page changed · A Flow button was pressed · Someone touched the display · The screen dimmed or turned off · The display went offline / came back online · A countdown finished · Someone answered yes / no · A code was accepted / a wrong code was entered on the alarm keypad · The alarm keypads were blocked
And
The screen is awake, dimmed or off · Is showing a page · A message is showing · The display is online · The display is locked by the alarm
Then
Show a message (with an icon, an image, until tapped) · Show a countdown · Ask a yes/no question (with an image, and wait for the answer) · Close the message · Set the text of a Flow tile · Highlight a tile · Show / hide an indicator dot · Show page · Turn the screen timeout on or off · Lock / unlock the display · Show / close the alarm keypad · Redraw / restart the display
Good to know
- Display memory is limited. The display has 64 KB for everything on all pages. The memory bar in the Tiles tab shows what is left, and ESPanel won’t save a layout that doesn’t fit. The Colourful style uses the least memory, Homey the most.
- Up to 12 pages, the Music page included.
- A redraw takes about 10 seconds. After you save, the display shows “Waiting for Homey…” while it builds the pages.
- Spotify needs Spotify Premium and your own free app at Spotify for Developers (the Music tab explains how). Spotify allows up to 5 users per app.
- Heimdall needs the Heimdall app with its Mode device (Devices → + → Heimdall → Mode). Heimdall checks the codes; ESPanel stores none.
- Text is shown in Latin-1: letters like å, ä, ö and é work, emoji in device names or Flow messages are left out.
Getting help
Post your question or problem in this topic. It helps if you include:
- What happened, and what you expected instead. A photo of the display helps a lot.
- Your versions: Homey, ESPanel, and openHASP (on the display’s own web page, under Information).
- Your tile style and grid, and whether it happens on one page or all of them.
- A diagnostic report: send one for ESPanel from its page in the Homey app, and post the code it gives you here.
If the display freezes or restarts, note what you did just before, and how much memory the Tiles tab shows as free.
Changelog
Version
What’s new
1.3.2
A new look for the alarm keypad; more reliable updates to the display
1.3.1
The screensaver clock also shows over the alarm keypad
1.3.0
Heimdall integration
1.2.2
Electricity price tiles tinted in the price level’s colour in the Crisp style
1.2.1
Swiping between pages no longer switches a tile; bigger icons, text and buttons on bigger tiles; Donate button
1.2.0
Music page for Spotify, white tones, thermostats, electricity price tiles, screensaver and night mode, a grid per page, memory meter, loading screen
1.0.0
First release
Links
- ESPanel in the Homey App Store
- openHASP web installer and openHASP documentation
- Heimdall, for the alarm keypad
Support the project
ESPanel is free. If you like it and want to buy me a coffee, you can do so through PayPal. Thank you!
