Making an inkplate dashboard with home assistant

By CLN Posted on 25/08/202421/09/2024 Category :

Compiling the software for the inkplate

Clone / Download https://github.com/lanrat/homeplate
Open it with Visual Studio
Install PlatformIO IDE

Open the cloned/downloaded project and click the PlatFormIO button
it will download and set up
Go over to inkplate10v2 and hit upload after adapting the config.h

My config.h (as a quick test)

#pragma once

// WiFi SSID
#define WIFI_SSID "IOT" 
// WiFi password
#define WIFI_PASSWORD ""

// hostname
// NOTE: if using multiple homeplate devices, you MUST make the hostname unique
#define HOSTNAME "homeplate"

// How long to sleep between image refreshes
#define TIME_TO_SLEEP_MIN 20

// How long to sleep for quick activities like e.g. showing info and qr code (default 300 / 5 min)
//#define TIME_TO_QUICK_SLEEP_SEC 30

// Static IP information
// If unset uses DHCP, but updates may be slower, set to use a Static IP
// #define STATIC_IP "192.168.1.10"
// #define STATIC_SUBNET "255.255.255.0"
// #define STATIC_GATEWAY "192.168.1.1"
// #define STATIC_DNS "192.168.1.1"

// NTP Time server to set RTC
#define NTP_SERVER "pool.ntp.org"

// How often to re-sync the clock to NTP
#define NTP_SYNC_INTERVAL (24*60)/TIME_TO_SLEEP_MIN // ~ once a day when updating every TIME_TO_SLEEP_MIN minutes

// URL of PNG image to display
#define IMAGE_URL "https://placehold.co/600x400/EEE/31343C.png"

// WiFi QR Code
//#define QR_WIFI_NAME "Guest WiFi Network Name"
//#define QR_WIFI_PASSWORD "Guest WiFi Password"

// MQTT Broker
//#define MQTT_HOST "MQTT Broker IP"
//#define MQTT_PORT 1883
// Set MQTT_USER & MQTT_PASSWORD if needed
//#define MQTT_USER "mqtt username"
//#define MQTT_PASSWORD "mqtt password"
// Customize node id and device name if needed
//#define MQTT_NODE_ID "homeplate"	// defaults to HOSTNAME
//#define MQTT_DEVICE_NAME "HomePlate"	// defaults to "HomePlate"

// Disables touchpads if they are overly sensitive and result in phantom touch events
// Touchpads are not supported on the Inkplate10v2. This must be false if ARDUINO_INKPLATE10V2 is set
#define TOUCHPAD_ENABLE false

// Timezone
// see timezone_config.h for options
#define TIMEZONE_CE

// If your Inkplate doesn't have external (or second) MCP I/O expander, you should uncomment next line,
// otherwise your code could hang out when you send code to your Inkplate.
// You can easily check if your Inkplate has second MCP by turning it over and 
// if there is missing chip near place where "MCP23017-2" is written, but if there is
// chip soldered, you don't have to uncomment line and use external MCP I/O expander
//#define ONE_MCP_MODE

// Displays the time from the RTC whenever a new image is loaded
#define DISPLAY_LAST_UPDATE_TIME true

// keep this to signal the program has a valid config file
#define CONFIG_H

the result (as a quick test)

Setting up home assistant

Add https://github.com/sibbl/hass-lovelace-kindle-screensaver to your home assistant addons, I have no interest in running this on a dedicated docker, I want to run this as a home assistant addon directly

My addon config

HA_BASE_URL: http://192.168.1.2:8123
HA_SCREENSHOT_URL: /lovelace/0
HA_ACCESS_TOKEN: >-
  xxx
LANGUAGE: en
CRON_JOB: "* * * * *"
RENDERING_TIMEOUT: 59999
RENDERING_DELAY: "0"
RENDERING_SCREEN_HEIGHT: "825"
RENDERING_SCREEN_WIDTH: "1200"
BROWSER_LAUNCH_TIMEOUT: "30000"
ROTATION: "0"
SCALING: "1"
GRAYSCALE_DEPTH: "8"
IMAGE_FORMAT: png
COLOR_MODE: GrayScale
REMOVE_GAMMA: true
PREFERS_COLOR_SCHEME: light
HA_BATTERY_WEBHOOK: ""
ADDITIONAL_ENV_VARS: []

I wanted to get the http://supervisor url going, but failed after some quick tries, so sticking to a hardcoded IP … sigh

Start the addon, check if its working

check if the screenshot works

so you can put the URL into the inkplates config

HACS – Kiosk mode

We will need this addon via HACS https://github.com/NemesisRE/kiosk-mode
so we can run the dashboard without menu

Card mod

I’ve added card mod with HACS too so I can get rid of the boxes on the dashboard, so it looks cleaner on e-ink

card_mod:
  style: |
    ha-card {
           border-width: 0;
          --ha-card-background: transparent;
          color: var(--primary-color);
        }

I’ve had issues with the card mod not rendering consistently:

card_mod CSS values not consistently rendering see:

https://github.com/sibbl/hass-lovelace-kindle-screensaver/issues/85#issuecomment-2271603343