A Home Assistant wall panel, not a tablet
Most people who want a Home Assistant dashboard on the wall start by mounting an old tablet. It works for a while. Then the battery starts to swell, the kiosk app needs renewing, and the screen keeps drifting back to a lock screen or an advert. HAPanel is the alternative: a wall panel built to do one job and keep doing it.
A tablet on the wall
- The battery swells behind the glass within a year or two, because a tablet was never meant to stay plugged in.
- It stops getting security updates once the maker drops the model, often after two or three years.
- It wants a cloud account, plus a kiosk app you keep paying for.
- It slips off the dashboard and shows adverts, system updates or a lock screen.
- It stays a tablet, so someone keeps picking it up and carrying it off.
- When it breaks, there is no one to call.
HAPanel, built for the wall
- Runs straight from a USB-C supply on the wall. No battery to swell or replace.
- Follows mainline Armbian, so security updates keep coming long after a tablet would be dropped.
- No account and no monthly app. It talks to your Home Assistant on your own network.
- Boots into your dashboard and stays there, even after a power cut.
- A sealed case made to live on the wall, not in your hand.
- Built and supported in the Netherlands, by the people who made it.
What about building my own?
A Raspberry Pi, a touchscreen and a kiosk browser is a fun weekend. It is also a permanent side project: you maintain the image, chase the updates, and fix it when it freezes. HAPanel arrives finished, sets itself up over Wi-Fi, keeps itself patched, and reports its own status so we can help if anything ever goes wrong.
See the two sizes, or read the questions people ask.