Home Assistant wall panel on ESP32-P4: can it replace a tablet?
Pavel Loktev published a review on Habr after living with the Elecrow CrowPanel wall panel on ESP32-P4 for a week, and looking into why such a device is needed at all. I'm passing on the main points, because I appreciated how honest his conclusions were.
The device has a 10.1-inch 1024×600 screen, 32 MB PSRAM, 16 MB flash, a capacitive touch sensor, audio, an SD slot and GPIO. The firmware is closed, so this is a ready-made product rather than a development platform. The panel works as a client: you install an add-on on the Home Assistant server, then enter the server address, login and password on the panel itself. After that it shows a regular HA dashboard, and there is no need to design a separate interface.
The author provides measurements. A cold start to a working dashboard takes about 20 seconds. Pressing a button until its state changes takes 0.7–0.8 seconds, and switching a tab until the block is ready takes 1.1–1.3 seconds. The command goes out almost immediately, but the visual confirmation on the screen comes noticeably later. Sliders work fine, and he also tested cameras and media playback.
He is honest about the alternatives. A tablet is faster and more versatile, but it needs a mount, power and kiosk mode. ESPHome with LVGL is cheaper, but you have to build and maintain the interface yourself. Ready-made panels such as the Sonoff NSPanel solve the housing and power issues, but often require third-party firmware. CrowPanel is a happy medium: one dashboard for phone, PC and wall.
The author lists lower performance, a resolution that is too small for dense dashboards, and closed firmware as drawbacks. There is no built-in battery. The conclusion: this is not a replacement for a tablet, but a replacement for a control remote at the entrance, in the kitchen or in the garage. I liked his phrasing about a switch with a large screen. I think it's very accurate.
Source: Habr
The device has a 10.1-inch 1024×600 screen, 32 MB PSRAM, 16 MB flash, a capacitive touch sensor, audio, an SD slot and GPIO. The firmware is closed, so this is a ready-made product rather than a development platform. The panel works as a client: you install an add-on on the Home Assistant server, then enter the server address, login and password on the panel itself. After that it shows a regular HA dashboard, and there is no need to design a separate interface.
The author provides measurements. A cold start to a working dashboard takes about 20 seconds. Pressing a button until its state changes takes 0.7–0.8 seconds, and switching a tab until the block is ready takes 1.1–1.3 seconds. The command goes out almost immediately, but the visual confirmation on the screen comes noticeably later. Sliders work fine, and he also tested cameras and media playback.
He is honest about the alternatives. A tablet is faster and more versatile, but it needs a mount, power and kiosk mode. ESPHome with LVGL is cheaper, but you have to build and maintain the interface yourself. Ready-made panels such as the Sonoff NSPanel solve the housing and power issues, but often require third-party firmware. CrowPanel is a happy medium: one dashboard for phone, PC and wall.
The author lists lower performance, a resolution that is too small for dense dashboards, and closed firmware as drawbacks. There is no built-in battery. The conclusion: this is not a replacement for a tablet, but a replacement for a control remote at the entrance, in the kitchen or in the garage. I liked his phrasing about a switch with a large screen. I think it's very accurate.
Source: Habr
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