A Home Assistant dashboard can be a useful way to see key information about your smart home or even to control your smart home devices. You can spend a small fortune setting up a large, high-end wall-mounted dashboard, but you don’t have to break the bank. There are plenty of ways to build your own Home Assistant dashboard for under $20.
Look in your junk drawer
Your dashboard may cost you nothing at all
While you can build a dashboard for under $20, you may not have to spend any money at all. If you’re a tech hoarder like me, you may find that you already have exactly what you need lying in a drawer somewhere.
An old tablet or even a phone may be all you need to do the job. You can install a dedicated kiosk browser such as Fully Kiosk Browser or install the minimal F-Droid build of the Home Assistant Companion app. You should then be able to display Home Assistant dashboards on the device.
I managed to turn an old Amazon Fire tablet into a Home Assistant dashboard, and I even ran one on an old second-generation iPad, although I had to use a workaround. One word of caution: leaving a tablet plugged in 24/7 isn’t good for the battery and could cause battery swelling or other hazards. An automation with a smart plug that turns off power when the battery reaches 80% and turns it back on when it hits 20% can help.
- Brand
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Amazon
- Storage
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16 GB
The Amazon Fire 7 is an affordable tablet designed for enjoying your favorite content from apps like Netflix, Disney+, Kindle, and more
A second-hand tablet or digital photo frame
You can find some bargains online
If you don’t already have the hardware lying around in your home, you can often find it online. While buying a new tablet will set you back more than $20, you should be able to find older tablets on second-hand marketplaces such as eBay or Facebook Marketplace for around that price. As long as the tablet isn’t ancient, you should be able to use it to display your Home Assistant dashboard.
Another option is to look for used digital photo frames. Some Android-based photo frames can be repurposed if they allow you to install a browser or a kiosk app. The beauty of a digital photo frame is that it looks much nicer mounted on your wall than a standard tablet does.
A cheap ESP32 touchscreen
Everything you need on a single board
If buying an entire tablet just to display a single screen feels like overkill, you can go much more minimal and buy an ESP32 touchscreen display instead. Options such as the popular ESP32-2432S028R, better known as the Cheap Yellow Display (CYD), combine an ESP32 board with a 2.8-inch resistive touchscreen.
You can find models for under $20 and install the ESPHome firmware that can communicate with Home Assistant over your local network. ESPHome’s LVGL component lets you design your own dashboard interface, choosing which buttons and sliders to display. You can then use the touchscreen to control your smart home.
Unlike a tablet, a CYD uses very little power, and you can run it directly from a USB cable, so you don’t have to worry about a battery catching fire. The CYD has only a 2.8-inch display, but it can be perfect for a desktop dashboard, and larger displays are available.
An E-Ink display module
An ideal always-on dashboard
If your dashboard doesn’t need to display information that’s constantly updating, then an E-Ink display module is another good option. ESPHome supports options such as Waveshare E-Ink displays that you can use to create a clean, minimal information display using data from Home Assistant.
These displays are often easier on the eyes than tablets or touchscreens such as the CYD, and while you lose touchscreen functionality, they can be a great option for displaying weather, calendar events, room temperatures, and more.
If you want a larger E-Ink display, you can often find older Kindles or other E-Ink readers for $20 or less on second-hand sites. A jailbroken Kindle can work as an E-Ink smart home dashboard, and the best part is that you can still use it to read eBooks when it’s not displaying your smart home information.
A used smart display
Not every display is suitable
Smart displays such as Amazon Echo Show devices should be a great way to display smart home dashboards. Sadly, these are usually heavily locked down, so you’re stuck with using the clunky stock smart controls, which offer very little customization.
However, it’s possible to jailbreak some of these devices, allowing you to install software such as the Home Assistant Companion app or Fully Kiosk Browser. You can then display your own custom Home Assistant dashboards, full of whatever cards and charts that you want.
For example, I managed to jailbreak my first-generation Echo Show 5, and I can now use it to display Home Assistant dashboards. You may already own a smart display, but you may also be able to find some used models for around $20 with a bit of hunting.
A Home Assistant dashboard doesn’t have to cost a lot
You may already have the perfect hardware to build a custom Home Assistant dashboard lying around your home. If not, there are plenty of workable options that you can find for $20 or less. It’s worth checking out second-hand sites to see what you can find.
