Paul
How I actually use it
One obvious place for a panel like this is close to the entrance.
Before leaving the house, I can quickly check the weather forecast for the day, see the current state of the house, and trigger the Away scene. The forecast is especially useful when deciding what to take with me before heading out.
Home Assistant can then perform whatever actions are already included in that scene — for example, switching off lights or changing climate settings.
Another useful location is the living room.
For example, a Movie scene can change the required lights and devices, while the panel remains available if I want to adjust anything afterwards.
The important point is that CrowPanel does not introduce another smart-home system. These are still normal Home Assistant dashboards, scenes and automations.
How the system works
One important thing to understand is that Home Assistant does not run on the CrowPanel itself.
My existing Home Assistant installation continues to run normally on its server.
The CrowPanel I used in this project comes pre-flashed with firmware designed for this Home Assistant setup. I did not develop or modify the panel firmware as part of this project.
Instead, a dedicated Elecrow ESP32P4 Display application is installed inside Home Assistant.
It acts as the communication layer between the existing Home Assistant installation and the panel.
The useful part of this approach is that my existing Home Assistant setup stays exactly where it is. The panel simply becomes another physical interface for it.