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Most smart homes hide their controls inside a phone app. BorisDigital took the opposite approach: he built a wall-mounted control panel that looks like an industrial process-control room, complete with physical buttons, indicator lights, electrical meters, plumbing diagrams, alarms, a key-operated lockout, and a 7-inch touchscreen.
The project uses two Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ computers. One drives the touchscreen and Home Assistant dashboards; the other manages the panel’s physical inputs and outputs. Ethernet and Power over Ethernet (PoE) help keep the installation organized, although the panel still requires substantial internal wiring.
A smart-home control panel designed like industrial machinery
Boris’s panel is best understood as a physical control room for a house. Its visual language draws on aircraft cockpits, nuclear-plant control rooms, industrial process panels, and traditional electrical or plumbing schematics.
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That aesthetic serves a functional purpose. Home Assistant normally presents household information as software entities, cards, and dashboards. This build translates some of those invisible states into objects that can be seen and operated directly: illuminated indicators, seven-segment displays, switches, push buttons, and a schematic showing the home’s plumbing.
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The result is not simply a touchscreen kiosk. It is a custom interface layer around a Home Assistant installation, combining digital dashboards with dedicated physical controls.
Hackster’s project coverage identifies BorisDigital as the builder and documents the panel’s main functions and hardware arrangement.
What the panel can show and control
The panel brings several parts of the house into one permanent wall-mounted interface:
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- Lighting controls
- Switch and outlet controls
- Security-camera pages
- Voltage, current, and power readings
- Water-flow status
- Leak and overflow warnings
- Excessive- or prolonged-flow alarms
- Physical status LEDs and seven-segment displays
- A key-operated lockout for the panel’s buttons
Some controls navigate the touchscreen rather than directly operating a device. Physical buttons can select different pages, including camera views and information about the panel itself. Other controls operate lighting, switches, or outlets through the connected smart-home system.
The original coverage also notes that some controls had not yet been labeled. That is a small but important human-factors lesson: an industrial appearance is useful only when the operator can quickly understand what each control does.
Why the project uses two Raspberry Pis
The documented division of labor is straightforward:
| Component | Role |
|---|---|
| Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ A | Drives the 7-inch touchscreen and displays Home Assistant dashboards. |
| Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ B | Handles physical buttons, LEDs, seven-segment displays, GPIO expansion, and related inputs and outputs. |
| Home Assistant | Provides the smart-home dashboards, entities, integrations, and automation context. |
| Ethernet and PoE | Connect the panel to the network while reducing the number of separate power cables. |
| GPIO expansion modules | Provide additional connections for the panel’s numerous controls, indicators, displays, and sensors. |
Splitting the system prevents the touchscreen computer and the physical-I/O computer from competing for the same hardware and wiring space. It also suits the panel’s architecture: one computer behaves like an operator console, while the other behaves like a hardware controller.
However, the available project coverage does not document the complete software design. It does not establish whether the second Pi runs Home Assistant, MQTT, custom Python, Node-RED, or another intermediary. Nor does it confirm that either Pi is the main Home Assistant server. The safest description is that the Pis form the panel’s display and hardware-control layer around a Home Assistant setup that may be hosted elsewhere on the network.
The touchscreen: a permanent Home Assistant dashboard
One Pi is connected to a 7-inch touchscreen that displays multiple Home Assistant views. Those views include general home controls, security cameras, and information about the control panel. Buttons beside the display allow the user to move between pages.
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In current Home Assistant terminology, dashboards are made from views and cards that monitor entities and issue commands. The platform supports visual dashboard editing and dashboard types such as Overview, Energy, Map, Activity, History, and to-do dashboards. The current capabilities are documented in Home Assistant’s dashboard documentation.
That documentation should not be read as a reconstruction of Boris’s original interface. The project predates today’s Home Assistant editor and card ecosystem, and the coverage describes a dashboard extension without specifying the exact historical configuration.
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Turning household data into physical signals
The panel’s strongest idea is its translation of software states into physical cues. A phone can show almost anything, but a dedicated indicator can make one important condition visible immediately.
Buttons and status lights
Physical buttons are used for dashboard navigation and for controlling lights, switches, and outlets. LEDs provide at-a-glance status, while the larger panel layout gives frequently used functions a permanent location.
This is particularly useful for actions shared by several people in a home. A clearly identified wall control does not require a phone to be unlocked, an app to be opened, or a dashboard to be found. The trade-off is flexibility: once a button is physically assigned, changing the Home Assistant configuration may require new labels or a revised panel layout.
Key-operated lockout
A key switch disables or locks out the panel’s buttons when the key is removed. It contributes to the control-room appearance, but it also has a practical role: it can prevent accidental operation.
The available documentation does not specify whether this is implemented as a low-voltage input, a hardware interlock, a power cut-off, a software lockout, or a combination of methods. Its function can be described with confidence; its electrical implementation cannot.
Energy monitoring with seven-segment displays
Three groups of seven-segment LED displays show readings for voltage, amperage, and wattage. The data comes from an Aeotec Home Energy Meter, and the panel can represent one or both incoming electrical phases according to the project coverage.
These measurements describe different things:
- Voltage is electrical potential, measured in volts.
- Current or amperage is the amount of electrical current flowing, measured in amperes.
- Power or wattage is the instantaneous rate at which electrical energy is being used, measured in watts.
- Energy consumption is accumulated usage over time, commonly recorded in kilowatt-hours (kWh).
Current Home Assistant energy features distinguish instantaneous power sensors from accumulated energy sensors and can use data from compatible energy meters, smart plugs, utility meters, solar systems, and batteries. The relevant concepts are covered in the Home Assistant energy documentation.
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The panel is a visualization and control interface, not a replacement for proper electrical metering. Its readings depend on the installed meter, sensor placement, integration, calibration, and the way data is presented. The project coverage does not provide a wiring diagram, measurement accuracy, or electrical installation details.
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The lower section depicts the home’s plumbing as a schematic. LEDs indicate conditions such as water flow, leaks, and overflows. A flow indicator changes state when a faucet is opened, while a bar graph represents the flow rate.
The system can also raise an alarm when flow becomes excessive or continues for too long. That makes the panel more than a decorative display: it presents a simple model of what is happening inside an otherwise hidden household system.
A comparable modern installation would need several separate elements:
- A water meter or flow sensor.
- Leak sensors in vulnerable locations.
- Threshold logic for unusually high flow.
- Time-based rules for flow that lasts too long.
- An alert path, such as a dashboard warning, audible alarm, notification, or light.
- Optionally, an automatic shutoff valve.
The source does not identify Boris’s exact water-meter model, sensor protocol, valve hardware, alarm thresholds, or automation rules. It is therefore more accurate to say that the panel detects and reports the documented conditions than to describe it as a guaranteed flood-prevention system.
There are important limits to any sensor-based water system. A sensor can fail, lose power, or be installed in the wrong location. A network outage can interrupt notifications. Normal activities such as filling a bathtub may resemble a leak, while a leak outside the sensor’s coverage area may go undetected. An automatic shutoff also needs its own power, valve, isolation, and fail-safe strategy.
Why Ethernet and PoE suit a wall panel
Both Pis use Ethernet, and PoE boards reduce the number of cables that must reach the panel. With suitable network equipment, one Ethernet cable carries both data and power to each compatible Pi.
Raspberry Pi’s official PoE HAT documentation identifies IEEE 802.3af operation and a 5 V/2.5 A output, with active cooling on the HAT. The Pi 3 Model B+ supports PoE through a compatible HAT.
PoE does not mean that an ordinary Ethernet switch will power the panel. The network must provide suitable PoE power-sourcing equipment, or the installation must use a compatible 802.3af injector. The HAT supplies power through Ethernet, but it does not eliminate the panel’s internal wiring for the display, GPIO hardware, sensors, indicators, relays, or power distribution.
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For a fixed wall installation, the advantages are mainly organizational: centralized power, fewer long cable runs, and a cleaner route back to the network cabinet. The costs include compatible network hardware, HATs, heat management, and the need to verify the available PoE power budget.
What GPIO expansion adds
A panel containing buttons, LEDs, seven-segment displays, flow indicators, alarms, and sensors can quickly exceed the number of convenient direct GPIO connections on a Raspberry Pi. Expansion modules provide more inputs and outputs and make the wiring easier to organize.
The project coverage confirms the use of GPIO expansion modules but does not identify their exact boards, chips, buses, or addressing. Those details matter for anyone attempting a faithful replica, so they should not be guessed.
Could you build this today?
Conceptually, yes. As an exact replica, not from the published summary alone.
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Exact reproduction is a different matter. The available coverage does not provide a complete bill of materials, touchscreen model, PoE arrangement, GPIO map, expansion-board models, display-driver details, button wiring, relay or isolation hardware, water sensors, entity names, dashboard configuration, automation YAML, source code, enclosure dimensions, total cost, or build time.
The original hardware also needs historical context. Boris’s build uses two Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ boards. Home Assistant’s current Raspberry Pi installation guidance recommends a Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 with at least 2 GB of RAM for a new installation, while the developer board documentation still lists the Pi 3B+ as supported.
That makes the Pi 3B+ reasonable historical context and potentially suitable for a lightweight display or I/O node, depending on workload. It is not the obvious first choice for a new Home Assistant server. A newer Pi may also be unnecessary for a simple dashboard endpoint, so the best hardware depends on whether the computer is hosting Home Assistant, rendering camera feeds, driving a kiosk browser, or only handling GPIO.
Physical panel versus tablet
| Approach | Strengths | Trade-offs |
|---|---|---|
| Boris-style custom panel | Tactile, visible, highly customized, and visually distinctive. | Labor-intensive, difficult to modify, permanently installed, and dependent on many separate components. |
| Tablet dashboard | Fastest and usually simplest way to provide a Home Assistant interface. | Less tactile, less integrated with custom indicators, and not always permanently available. |
| Pi touchscreen kiosk | More configurable and maker-friendly than a tablet. | Requires enclosure work, operating-system maintenance, browser setup, and display troubleshooting. |
| Single-Pi physical controller | Fewer computers, storage devices, and network dependencies. | Less separation between display and hardware I/O, with potentially tighter resource and wiring constraints. |
| ESPHome wall controller | Well suited to low-power buttons and sensors distributed around a home. | Needs a separate display strategy and adds another class of device to configure. |
| Commercial wall panel | Cleaner installation and potentially better support. | Less flexible and often tied to a vendor ecosystem. |
The custom panel is the right choice for someone who values the construction project, tactile interaction, and visual storytelling. It is not the efficient choice for someone who simply wants the cheapest way to turn lights on and off.
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Safety and reliability considerations
Do not connect household mains directly to GPIO
The panel displays electrical measurements and controls lights, switches, and outlets through the smart-home system, but the available material does not describe its mains-voltage wiring.
Any project involving household electricity should use properly rated enclosures, certified relays or contactors, fusing and overcurrent protection, strain relief, grounding, insulation, and compliance with local electrical regulations. Raspberry Pi GPIO should interface with isolated, appropriately rated control hardware—not exposed mains conductors. Use a qualified electrician where local rules or the installation require one.
Keep critical controls independent
A networked control panel has several possible failure points: the Home Assistant server, network switch, PoE source, Pi boot process, display browser, GPIO service, sensor integration, or the automation itself.
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Plan for storage and recovery
The original coverage does not specify the operating system, storage media, backup routine, watchdog behavior, or recovery process. A modern builder should nevertheless plan for configuration backups, spare storage, recovery images, remote administration, automatic restart behavior, and a documented local fallback.
Allow for display workload
Dashboards with heavy graphics, animations, or multiple live camera streams can place more demand on a dashboard client than a simple status page. Performance depends on the browser, stream format, resolution, and software configuration. This is a general design risk, not a reported failure of Boris’s panel.
Verdict
BorisDigital’s project succeeds because it treats a smart home as something that can be operated and understood physically, not just through an app. The two-Pi arrangement separates the touchscreen interface from the dense GPIO hardware, while PoE makes the wall installation cleaner.
Its greatest value is not proving that every home needs two Raspberry Pis, a plumbing schematic, or a key lockout. It shows what is possible when Home Assistant’s software is given a purpose-built physical interface. The trade is clear: compared with a tablet, the panel demands more design, wiring, maintenance, and safety planning—but delivers far more tactility, visibility, and character.
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