Max Gramser
6fb60b34d2
README_EXTENDED rendered everything from "Direct control" to "Override YAML" as raw text on GitHub since 0.2.74: the full-page pictures ended without a blank line. It also gains the media card, Page buttons, the ··· menu's Identify/Copy/Export/Import, Try it, and where SCREEN_FIRMWARE_VERSION lives now. EASY_SETUP's settings table drops Show clock and gets Back to page 1; SETTINGS.md points at web/src/store.ts and packages/core.yaml; GUITION.md had the GT911 mirrored and cache settings that left the profile on 2026-09-12; TROUBLESHOOTING still named TILE_COUNT and files deleted in 0.2.50; CALIBRATING put Calibrate touch in ESP Screens instead of Home Assistant. RELEASING gets the compatibility notes of 0.2.73 to 0.2.85 and the GitHub release step. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
3.8 KiB
Installation and everyday use
See the full installation guide.
Open New screen in the sidebar to install a screen: connect it via USB to the
Home Assistant machine, choose the board, name and USB port, then click Install.
The profile with unique keys goes into the ESPHome folder of the HA configuration,
any missing Wi-Fi goes into secrets.yaml (existing secrets are left untouched), and the
build and flash run in the same window; it then shows the API key
for pairing. Is the Home Assistant machine out of reach of the screen, such as a server or a
virtual machine? Choose Download under Install via: ESP Screens builds the firmware and
you put it on the screen from your own computer with ESPHome Web in
Chrome or Edge. Pairing itself happens in Home Assistant under Settings → Devices & services (a button in the window and on the not yet in Home Assistant card under Screens in the sidebar). Each screen has its own profile. Firmware & USB in the sidebar is
for existing profiles: check, build or reinstall via USB, the IP address (OTA) or
Download. Existing ESPHome profiles in the HA config folder are
found automatically.
Alerts in the sidebar is the cheatsheet, with a form to try an alert
(an alert on one screen, or on every screen with the esp_screens_show_alert event).
Settings in the sidebar has the nightly firmware updates (the Update badge of a screen lists what's new, a
running update shows its progress) and Claude: install the ESP Screens skill for Claude Code in Home Assistant, or
download it for claude.ai, and ask Claude for the alert automation.
Tap the bar at the top of any page in the mockup to set the Top bar of a screen: the name on the left, up to six items on the right (time, analog clock, date, or an entity with an icon, such as temperature, a door, the alarm, or "last changed"). Drag to reorder, tap to configure; firmware 0.2.32 or newer renders them.
After pairing via the HA ESPHome integration, choose the tiles in ESP Screens.
Tap a tile and its settings open in a drawer on the right, with the mockup still in view: click behavior, larger values, mini-sliders, a wider tile or one over the whole page, backgrounds.
The mockup shows what Home Assistant reports right now: values, On or Off, positions, the song that plays. Identify in the ··· menu blinks a screen so you know which one it is; the same menu copies the layout of another screen, or exports and imports one as JSON. ⌘K searches screens, entities and actions.
Screen settings, the tab next to Layout, has brightness, Dark mode and standby, the night hours, and the
clock, back to page 1, swiping, the page buttons and the rotation. Read current data in the ··· menu of a screen helps with
missing attributes or an offline screen. A new card needs new firmware on the screen: press Update on it.
The ··· menu of a screen also has Override YAML for a persistent, hardware-specific
<screen>.local.yaml file. It is loaded after the shared package and does not
replace the managed name, credentials, Wi-Fi, OTA or package connection.
The screen carries the same settings itself (firmware 0.2.44 or newer): hold the top bar for about a second and a half, or put the built-in Settings card on a page. What is changed there appears here within a second, and the other way around.
In Home Assistant every screen also has a Wake and a Sleep button (firmware 0.2.45 or
newer). Press them from an automation with button.press: Wake lights the screen up and restarts the
standby time, Sleep puts the screen in standby right away, also with Auto standby off. Wake is not a
touch, so an open card or a later page still goes back to page 1 on time (firmware 0.2.56 or newer).