homeassistant_espscreen/docs/EASY_SETUP.md

Installing and managing from ESP Screens

A new screen, from USB to everyday use

With ESP Screen Manager, you choose your tiles in Home Assistant. You search by name, device, room, or entity ID, arrange them in the order you want, and click Save & send. After that, the status stays automatically up to date. You don't need to reflash for different tiles.

This works with Home Assistant OS on a 64-bit Raspberry Pi or an amd64 machine, and one of these exact screen variants. The ESPHome CLI is included in ESP Screen Manager; ESPHome Device Builder is optional:

Choice	Hardware
CYD	ESP32-2432S028, 320×240, ILI9341 and XPT2046
Guition	ESP32-S3-4848S040, 480×480, ST7701S and GT911
Elecrow CrowPanel 7.0"	DIS08070H, ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N4R8, 800×480 RGB and GT911 (ELECROW.md)

Other screens with roughly the same name can have different pins. Use the board profile that matches the hardware. Use a USB cable that supports data. The wallbox relays are not used.

1. Install ESP Screen Manager

1. Open Settings → Apps → Install app (on older HA versions: Settings → Add-ons → Add-on Store).
2. Open the menu in the top right → Repositories and add: https://github.com/MaxGramser/homeassistant_espscreen.
3. Install and start ESP Screen Manager. Turn on Start on boot and Show in sidebar. Open the ESP Screens web interface.

This app includes the tested ESPHome 2026.9.0 CLI and runs within your HA login. A second ESPHome management page, MQTT, blueprint, or long-lived token is not needed. Use the GitHub version for updates; a local test add-on is a separate app.

2. New screen: connecting and installing

1. Connect the screen with a USB data cable to the machine running Home Assistant. With multiple boards: connect them one at a time for the first installation, or check which port belongs to this screen.
2. Click New screen in the sidebar of ESP Screens, under your screens. Choose CYD, Guition or Elecrow CrowPanel and give the screen a name, for example Kitchen. The device name (kitchen) follows from that; use customize to choose a different one.
3. Wi-Fi: if wifi_ssid and wifi_password are already in the ESPHome secrets.yaml, the screen uses them automatically. If they're missing, or the file doesn't exist yet, the window asks for them once and ESP Screens only adds the missing lines to secrets.yaml; comments and other secrets are left alone. If secrets.yaml isn't valid YAML, fix that yourself first.
4. Under Install via, choose this screen's USB port and click Install. ESP Screens stores the profile (kitchen.yaml, with unique API and OTA keys) in the ESPHome folder, builds the firmware, and writes it over USB. The ESPHome log and the current phase (building, writing) are in the same window; a first build takes a few minutes on a Raspberry Pi. You can close the window: the installation keeps running and picks back up when you reopen it.
5. After Done, the window shows the API key with a copy button and the pairing steps from chapter 3. If the build fails, the log stays open and you can Retry.

Every screen gets its own profile: four screens means going through New screen four times, with four different names. The shared board package is the same for every screen; the profile only holds the name, keys, and the Wi-Fi reference. Keep that profile and reuse it for updates. Going through New screen again for an existing screen generates new keys and is not the update route.

No USB port in the list? A cable plugged into your laptop isn't visible to the machine running Home Assistant, and a server or virtual machine may have no USB port within reach at all. Then put the firmware on the screen from your own computer:

1. Under Install via, choose Download · flash from your own computer and click Build & download. ESP Screens builds the firmware the same way; when it's ready, the window offers the file, for example kitchen.factory.bin.
2. Plug the screen into your own computer with a USB data cable.
3. Open ESPHome Web in Chrome or Edge on that computer (other browsers can't reach USB), click Connect and choose the screen's port.
4. Click Install and select the downloaded file. The screen restarts and joins your Wi-Fi.

The file holds your Wi-Fi password and the screen's keys: keep it to yourself. Pairing works as in chapter 3, and every later update goes over Wi-Fi, so the cable is only needed once. For an existing profile, the same file is under Firmware & USB (in the sidebar): choose the profile and Download · flash from your own computer, then Build & download.

CYD: calibration appears on first boot. Calmly tap the visible crosshair three times, hold each tap briefly, and follow each next crosshair in turn. There are five positions. The center checks accuracy. On a failed measurement, the screen asks you to start over. The correction is stored locally and survives OTA updates. Use the HA device button Calibrate touch to measure again later. For a panel that stays off, or for a measurement report over USB, see CALIBRATING.md.

Guition and Elecrow: the GT911 touch mapping is baked into the board profile; there's no ADC calibration.

3. Pair the screen with Home Assistant

This happens in Home Assistant itself, outside ESP Screens. As long as a profile hasn't been added to Home Assistant yet, it appears in the sidebar under Screens as a not yet in Home Assistant card, with an Open Devices & services button and Copy API key; the done screen of New screen has the same button. The card disappears once the screen is in the list.

1. Open Settings → Devices & services. Add the discovered ESPHome device. Not discovered? Manually add the ESPHome integration with the screen's IP address, port 6053.
2. Does HA ask for an encryption key? Paste the API key the window shows after installation (also found as api → encryption → key in the profile). Don't use the OTA password.
3. On the ESPHome integration, open Configure and enable Allow the device to perform Home Assistant actions. Without this permission, values still show up, but the screen can't control lights and devices.
4. Open ESP Screens. The screen appears within about 30 seconds.

4. Choose and edit your tiles

A screen keeps its Wi-Fi awake (power_save_mode: none): it is mains-powered, and this way Home Assistant's messages reach it without waiting for the router. Firmware 0.2.74 and later do this by themselves; an older screen gets it with its next Update. A power_save_mode under wifi: in the screen's own ESPHome YAML still wins.

Select your screen, tap the bar at the top of a page to give the screen its name, and search for entities in the Library on the right. It has domain filters with colored icons, a room filter, and Hide placed. You can add up to 48 tiles, one for every slot (firmware 0.2.62+; see below for older firmware). The screen preview shows their placement: two columns, six slots per page, up to eight pages. Every tile has a fixed slot that only changes if you drag it; empty slots stay empty, wherever you leave them. Drag a tile onto an empty slot and it stays there; drag it onto another tile and the two swap (the other tile takes the freed-up slot, or otherwise the nearest free slot); everything else stays put. While dragging, the preview already shows where everything will land; drop a tile on the page after the last one to start a new page. The pages stand side by side; + Add page after the last one creates an empty page that's kept, and an empty page gets Remove page. Click an empty slot to place the next tile from the library there. Use the arrow keys to move a focused tile. Click a tile and its settings open in a drawer on the right, with the preview still in view: a custom name, click behavior, a mini-slider, a large value, a graph (sensors), a weather forecast (weather), the size: Double-width or Full page (firmware 0.2.62+), and on a screen with more pages the Page it is on, to move it without dragging. A double-width tile for a climate, switch, light, fan, vacuum, cover, media player, number, select, timer, scene, script, or button gets direct control on the right, like the rows in Home Assistant (for example temperature − / +, open/stop/close, volume with mute, a toggle); under Direct control on the tile, choose which set, or None (firmware 0.2.19+). Open control on a weather tile shows the weather card with the coming hours and days (rain included); on a climate tile, the card with an on/off button and the mode, fan, and swing settings. The built-in Clock sits at the top of the library; find sun, timers, and people via the filters. Under Pastel background, choose a custom color with dark text; Default restores the normal look, and None drops the card, so the content sits the same size directly on the screen background (firmware 0.2.16+). This requires firmware 0.2.10+. Adding without a chosen slot fills the first free slot. Fixed slots and empty slots work on the screen from firmware 0.2.26 on; older firmware shifts the tiles up to the first free slot, and the editor notes that below the preview. The preview shows the values Home Assistant reports right now (app 0.2.73+). Click Save & send to send your changes.

• Light, switch, input_boolean, and fan: tap to turn on/off.
• Long press a light: brightness, rainbow color, and white temperature, as far as the light supports those features.
• Climate, vacuum, and cover: tap to open the control card. Under On tap, choose On / off to open, close, or stop a cover with a tap instead (firmware 0.2.58+); holding it still opens the card. ESP Screens offers On / off, a small slider, and direct controls only when Home Assistant has the action for that entity. Perform action runs any action Home Assistant offers for the entity, such as Set cover position with a position, under Home Assistant's own names (firmware 0.2.58+).
• Long press a fan: speed, if the device supports percentages.
• Scene/script: tap to run; button/input_button: tap to press.
• Media player: tap for the media card with the cover (Guition), the keys, and the volume.
• Camera or image (Guition): tap for the picture full screen, refreshed every four seconds.
• A Go to page tile: tap to open its page.
• Sensor, number, binary sensor, and person: tap for the history card, for 1 hour, 24 hours, or 1 week. Long press a switch for its history. A sensor's graph on the tile shows 1, 6, or 24 hours.
• Select/input_select: open the picker menu.

From firmware 0.2.62, 48 tiles fit across up to eight pages. Firmware 0.2.7 to 0.2.61 keeps the limit of twenty (four pages) and older firmware ten, until you update. In the Screen settings tab, Swipe between pages turns on swiping. On the Guition (firmware 0.2.24+), you then swipe inward from the left or right edge, like the back-swipe gesture on a phone; slow or fast, and a swipe starting in the middle of the screen does nothing, so tapping and dragging tiles never accidentally changes pages. On the CYD, it stays a quick swipe across the screen. Sliders only control their value; detail menus and standby don't change pages.

Six tiles sit on a page. Under the tiles, the page buttons: a chevron in each half of the bar and a dot per page between them; tap anywhere in the left or right half. With six or fewer tiles they disappear and the tiles grow into their room (firmware 0.2.69+). Page buttons in the Screen settings tab takes them away on a screen with more pages too: then only swiping and Go to page tiles change the page, and the editor says which pages that leaves out of reach. The default standby time is ten minutes. For offline devices, the screen blocks actions. If the connection to Home Assistant drops, the screen immediately shows "HA not connected"; if the app sends nothing for two rounds (about five minutes), it shows "ESP Screens not active". In both cases, control is blocked until data is received again.

You can save layouts while a screen is offline. The app sends them as soon as the screen comes back. The app must keep running for current tile data.

5. Updates without losing your settings

What changes?	What do you do?	What's kept?
Different entities, names, or order	Save in ESP Screens	Wi-Fi, keys, calibration
New management page/app version	App store → ESP Screen Manager → Update	All layouts in /data/screens.json
New screen feature/card	The Update button on the screen, or Update automatically every night under Settings (manually: Firmware & USB → Wi-Fi / OTA)	Own YAML, keys, and CYD calibration; the app resends tiles

The device's own YAML references the firmware packages on main. On a new build, ESPHome fetches the latest published package and component code. So you don't replace your own YAML with a new downloaded file. Wi-Fi, name, and keys live outside the shared package and stay the same.

Hardware-specific YAML overrides

Each screen also has a small local file beside its profile, for example kitchen.local.yaml. Open the screen and click Override YAML. The editor is intended for hardware-specific changes such as a different display controller:

display:
  - id: !extend my_display
    model: ST7789V

ESPHome appends package lists instead of merging them, so !extend is what changes the display the shared package already defines; a bare id: would add a second, incomplete display and the build fails.

This file is loaded after the shared board package and is kept when the app or firmware package updates. The editor protects the screen's name, Wi-Fi, API, OTA and package connection. Use Save & check before building a custom configuration. If the complete ESPHome profile is invalid, the firmware build does not start.

The override is advanced configuration: the display model, dimensions, pins, touchscreen and initialization sequence must still match the physical board. For a similar-looking CYD, check the exact USB/controller variant first.

Make a Home Assistant backup before updates, including ESP Screen Manager and the device's own ESPHome configurations. Removing/reinstalling an app is not the same as updating; that can wipe the data folder. Keep the device name and the entity ID of Tile settings the same, so the existing layout stays linked.

For a newly supported card, update the app first, then the firmware. The maintainer keeps protocol and data migrations backward compatible; see RELEASING.md. To roll back, you can temporarily replace ref: main in your own YAML with an earlier release tag, without changing the keys.

If something doesn't work

• No screen in the list: check that the new Easy Setup firmware is running, the ESPHome integration is connected, and the Tile settings text entity isn't disabled. The old manual firmware doesn't publish that by default.
• Tiles show but no actions: grant the device permission for HA actions.
• Unavailable: check that the selected entity exists in HA and is available. A renamed entity ID needs to be chosen again.
• No OTA: check Wi-Fi/IP and the original OTA password. If needed, use the same own YAML over USB. Don't generate a new identity.
• Build fails: read the first error, check the ESPHome version and internet for GitHub/font downloads. If the Raspberry Pi is low on memory, temporarily use a more powerful computer to compile; the YAML stays the same.
• Migrating an existing manual screen: keep the old YAML and carry over the existing device name, API key, and OTA password into the new installation profile. Then choose the tiles in the app. The old fixed tile substitutions aren't automatically imported into the new management page.

HA Container without Supervisor has no App store. This installation guide targets Home Assistant OS; for Home Assistant Container, run the app next to it as in ESP Screens with Docker. The development server is not a production route for a standalone public portal.

HA mechanisms used: Ingress, the internal HA API, and ESPHome packages.

Adjusting screen settings

Open the screen in ESP Screens and its Screen settings tab. A change there applies at once; there is nothing to save, and no firmware flash is needed. The same settings are on the screen itself (hold the top bar, firmware 0.2.44+) and, with firmware 0.2.49+, on the screen's device in Home Assistant (SETTINGS.md).

Setting	Options	Default
Normal brightness	5–100%	100%
Dark mode	On/off: black page, graphite cards, firmware 0.2.54+	Off
Auto standby	On/off	On
Standby after	1–1440 minutes after the last touch	10 minutes
Standby brightness	0–100%, capped at normal brightness	20%
Night mode	On/off; applies during standby	On
Night start/end	Hour and minute, can span midnight	22:00–07:00
Night brightness	0–100%, capped at normal brightness	10%
Clock	24 or 12 hour, the same on every screen: Settings → Language & region in ESP Screens (firmware 0.2.76+); the clock shows no AM/PM	Follows the language
Back to page 1	Closes an open card and goes back to page 1 after 30 seconds to 60 minutes without a touch, firmware 0.2.44+	On, 2 minutes
Also on standby	Standby goes back to page 1 too (it always closes an open card)	Off
Swipe between pages	Native horizontal swipe, firmware 0.2.7+	Off
Page buttons	Off: no buttons under the tiles, the tiles take their room, firmware 0.2.69+	On
Guition rotation	0°, 90°, 180°, 270°, firmware 0.2.9+	0°

Home Assistant shows these settings on each screen's ESPHome device, under Configuration: with firmware 0.2.49+ every one of them, older firmware the switch Auto standby (firmware 0.2.41+) and the numbers Standby after, Normal brightness, Standby brightness and Night brightness. Changing them there, for example from an automation, also changes them in ESP Screens and keeps them after a restart. Turning Auto standby off wakes the screen and keeps it on; turning it on counts the standby time from that moment. To keep a screen on while someone is home and a light is on:

alias: Keep the kitchen screen awake
mode: restart
triggers:
  - trigger: state
    entity_id: [person.alex, light.living_room]
actions:
  - if:
      - condition: state
        entity_id: person.alex
        state: home
      - condition: state
        entity_id: light.living_room
        state: "on"
    then:
      - action: switch.turn_off
        target:
          entity_id: switch.kitchen_screen_auto_standby
    else:
      - action: switch.turn_on
        target:
          entity_id: switch.kitchen_screen_auto_standby

Every change is saved on the screen, so switch on changes that happen a few times a day, not on every motion. ESP Screens → Settings → Claude installs a skill that writes such automations for you.

Night hours use the ESPHome device's timezone and the time from HA. Without a valid time, the screen uses the regular standby brightness; matching start and end times turn the night window off. At 0%, only the backlight turns off: this is not deep sleep and not a screensaver. The first tap wakes the screen without controlling a device, except on a page that is one full-page switch (firmware 0.2.65+): there the waking push also switches it.

With firmware 0.2.49+ the screen owns its settings and keeps them in its preferences; an offline screen shows them as unknown in ESP Screens and takes no changes until it is back. Older firmware gets them from the add-on's persistent data, also as soon as it comes back. ESPHome batches the preference writes (normally up to a minute), so don't unplug the power right after a change. Existing CYD calibration, tiles, API, and OTA keys are preserved. Regular HA status updates don't wake the screen and don't reset the standby timer.

A setting that needs newer firmware than the screen has doesn't show in ESP Screens until the screen is updated. The tiles remain usable.

The current Guition uses the native ST7701S configuration; see the hardware comparison. Settings and tile colors don't change panel timings. Physically check the display and touch.