vd Brink Home Automations

Home automations: Home Assistant, ESPHome, Node-RED and more.

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Stretch display

With a Home Assistant dashboard


Introduction

Old weather station I had for years a basic weather station with a radio receiver to see the in- and outside weather data (temperature, humidity and pressure). Now with Home Assistant, and my local weather station, I have so much more weather data available that I want to replace my old weather station display for something new, based on the data in Home assistant.

I was also looking for a small display to show the actual CO2 and temperature data in my home office. I found out when the CO2 was too high and/or the temperature is above 23 degrees, the concentration drops.

This page is still under construction, I fill in all chapters one by one how I set it up. So you can create exactly the same, or use it as a reference for your own display project.


My solutions

A small stretched display, next to my monitor, where I can see my office climate data in a Home Assistant dashboard, controlled by a Raspberry pi.

stretch display in action stretch display close-up

I created two Home Assistant dashboards: one for my office climate and the other as my weather data display.

HA weather display HA office display     HA office display   HA display other theme

Table of Contents


Required hardware

It’s always good to use parts which you still have lying around, but otherwise you can buy these products as well to create this project yourself.
Also affiliate links are used here.

These hardware components (or alternatives) are required:

Stretch Display

For my project, I use option 1, but there are a lot of displays available on the market!

Option 1

Stretch Display 1 ~ € 50,- (AliExpress)

  • 8.8 Inch

  • Resolution 1920 * 480

  • NO touchscreen

  • Comes with power and HDMI cable

    Stretch display with touchscreen

Option 2

Stretch Display 2 (select the touch variant) ~ € 110,- (AliExpress)

  • Same size and resolution but a better version as above

  • WITH IPS touchscreen

  • Brighter colors

  • Raspberry mount on the back

    Stretch display with touchscreen

Option 3

Stretch displays are also in all different size available (AliExpress)

Of course, any other display can also be used!


Display holder

Display holder (AliExpress)

The mount for the display can stretch to hold devices in a range of 4.7” - 17.3”. It fits perfect between the claws, and the cables fit also perfectly through the bottom and directly connect to the ports. Which gives it a smooth design.

The stand itself can also adjust in height and angle to position the display in the right position. The big round heavy feet make it stand stable.

Display holder

Device with a web browser

A small device with an OS which can run a web browser on it.
I had a Raspberry 3B (AliExpress) lying around which I could use. I bought a black case (AliExpress) for it.
You can also buy a cheaper Raspberry Pi Zero W (AliExpress), a faster Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W (AliExpress) or use an old mobile phone. For a mobile phone, I recommend to remove the battery and hack an USB power plug to it.

Raspberry 3B Raspberry Pi zerro Raspberry Pi 3B case Old phone

Micro SD-card

SD card to install the OS on, such as Raspberry Pi OS desktop. A minimal of 8 GB version is already enough, but larger one are just a little bit more expensive. Speed is not an issue for this card, it only boots and then doesn’t need to read and write once it’s booted.

SD card

Power

To power the Raspberry 3B it requires at least 5V with 3A, otherwise you get the message “Low voltage warning” in Raspberry OS. To also power the display, I use this adapter.

5V USB EU power adapter

An USB cable type A to micro USB to power the RPI 3.

Micro USB cable

EU Smart socket

Zigbee smart EU plug (AliExpress), to only run the PC and display only when someone is nearby otherwise it can automatically be turned off to save energy.

BlitzWolf EU SHP-15 smart socket


USB Keyboard

Optional USB keyboard to install the Raspberry.
They have different versions with different layouts.
Once installed, it can be controlled via SSH.


CO2 sensor

I have a project page how to create a cheap CO2 sensor yourself.

DIY C02 sensor


Temperature sensor

An example of a temperature sensor is this Aqara Zigbee sensor.

Aquara temperture sensor


Found a dead link? Please inform me

Alternative links for above mentioned products.


Required software

https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/operating-systems/

Home Assistant


Display PC configuration

Install Raspberry OS Desktop

Auto load browser in kiosk mode on boot

Home Assistant auto login user

Home Assistant hide header toolbar

https://github.com/NemesisRE/kiosk-mode

Energy saving - auto boot/shutdown


Home Assistant dashboard

See this page where I describe the different elements on the dashboard.

Weather station stretch display

HA weather display

Office stretch display

HA office display

Links to other sections of this blog site:

Main page | Other projects | Home Assistant | ESPHome | Node RED


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