Solar Display

A tabletop display that changes how you view and understand your solar energy production and home energy consumption.

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Project Overview

This is my first GitHub project and the first time I’m publicly sharing one of my projects. After putting so much time into it, it felt pointless to keep it to myself if no one else could enjoy or use it.

I originally just wanted a pretty power flow display. That idea quickly snowballed into:

“But could I also add this graph… or that value?”

There will be issues, so please let me know if you find any. I’ll try to resolve them or help where I can.

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Images

Example images of the Solar Display can be found in the ReadmeImages folder:

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Inverter Compatibility

Sigenergy

• Currently there is a version that works with the Sigenergy inverter
• This version is made for systems with a battery
• Home Assistant Integration (HACS):
  • Sigenergy ESS

SolarEdge

• There is also a version for SolarEdge
• Home Assistant Integration (HACS):
  • SolarEdge Modbus Multi

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Software

Home Assistant

Home Assistant is the backbone of this project.

Files needed in Home Assistant

Place these files in the packages folder:

config/packages/

• energy.yaml
  Used for creating energy meters, usable sensors, helpers, and other required entities.

• energydevices.yaml
  Used to add Home Assistant entities as devices.

  On the Home Usage page, there is an option to display power flow within the house. This allows energy to flow from the home to the first subpanel and then to individual devices.

  Power entities are added here so they can be displayed in the power flow view. Once devices are added, they can be selected in the device usage settings. You can choose device icons and set the name shown on the display.

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Swiping between pages

Swipe in from the edge of the screen to move between the main pages, in the same order as the menu: Home → Power Flow → Solar → Battery → Grid → Graph → Home Usage (and around again).

• Start at the right edge and swipe left for the next page.
• Start at the left edge and swipe right for the previous page.

Start the swipe within about 1 cm of the edge and move at least about 2 cm inwards. A tap near the edge still presses whatever button is there. Swiping does nothing on the menu and settings pages, or while the screen is off (the first touch only wakes it).

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Themes

The display has 8 colour themes (Graphite is the default look). Pick one under Settings → Themes, or use the Theme select entity in Home Assistant, for example in an automation that switches to OLED at night. The choice is saved on the display and survives a power cut.

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Sigenergy Notes

Once the integration is installed, make sure the entity naming is the standard Sigenergy naming:

sensor.sigen_inverter_...

This naming is required for the energy file to work correctly.

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SolarEdge Notes

Because I have two inverters, I needed to use the SolarEdge Modbus Multi integration (it also works with a single inverter).

I also needed an energy file to handle many of the additional calculations.

Current naming convention (this is the standard provided by the integration — do not change):

• B1 – Battery
• I1 / I2 – Inverters
• M1 – Meter

There are Home Assistant package files for both setups:

• Homeassistant/solaredge/2 inverters/packages/
• Homeassistant/solaredge/single inverter/packages/ (only uses I1)

Lifetime production is calculated from the inverters' own AC Energy counters, so the SolarEdge cloud integration is not needed.

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ESPHome

• ✅ Now works with the latest ESPHome! The issues with the display are resolved, so you no longer need to stick to an old version.

Upgrading from the old 2025.10.0 version

If you are running the old firmware, just take the new solar-display.yaml, keep your own secrets.yaml, and update over Wi-Fi (see Updating over Wi-Fi).

If you made your own changes to the old YAML, these are the changes needed for current ESPHome:

• Remove the external_components: block that points to github://pr#10071 (waveshare_io_ch32v003 is built in now)
• Remove platformio_options: under esphome: (ignored by the new build system)
• Remove CONFIG_ESPTOOLPY_FLASHSIZE_8MB: y from sdkconfig_options (conflicts with flash_size: 16MB and breaks the build)
• Add these sdkconfig_options (without them the screen glitches around text and elements):

  CONFIG_ESP32S3_DATA_CACHE_LINE_64B: y
  CONFIG_ESP32S3_INSTRUCTION_CACHE_32KB: y
  CONFIG_LCD_RGB_ISR_IRAM_SAFE: y
  CONFIG_LCD_RGB_RESTART_IN_VSYNC: y
  CONFIG_FREERTOS_PLACE_FUNCTIONS_INTO_FLASH: n
  CONFIG_HEAP_PLACE_FUNCTION_INTO_FLASH: n

• ESPHome now uses LVGL 9 instead of LVGL 8. In lambdas:
  • get_lv_img_dsc() → get_lv_image_dsc()
  • lv_point_t → lv_point_precise_t (for lv_line_set_points)
• LVGL 9 has slightly different default padding; containers whose children fill them can suddenly show a scrollbar. Add scrollable: false and scrollbar_mode: 'off' to those containers.
• image: entries now need - platform: file in front of each image (the old format is removed in ESPHome 2027.1)
• zoom: on images is now scale:
• The display driver rpi_dpi_rgb is deprecated; use platform: mipi_rgb with model: RPI (same pins and timings) and setup_priority: 800
• Remove reset_pin from the gt911 touchscreen. ESPHome's touch reset is too fast for this board and makes touch randomly fail to start (touchscreen is marked FAILED: Calibration error)
• Optional, for smooth scrolling: the performance changes (little-endian data_pins, a 20-line draw buffer in internal RAM from includes/lvgl_helpers.h, larger LVGL caches) are explained in HANDOVER.md

Build Recommendation

I recommend building this using the command-line version of ESPHome on a powerful computer.
Building on a Raspberry Pi is very demanding and not recommended.

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Hardware

• 3D Printed Case

• Display:
  Waveshare S3 7-inch Display Development Board (Type B)
  ESP32 with Display
  Resolution: 1024×600
  Optional touch function
  32-bit LX7 dual-core processor (up to 240 MHz)
  WiFi & Bluetooth support
  Waveshare Display Link

• 8× M3 heat-set inserts

• 12× M3 small screws

• MMWave Sensor
  Uses 3.3V, GND, and OT2 on the display GPIO.
  (The display works without this sensor. If not used, disable the motion sensor option in settings.)
  Example Link

• USB-C Power Plug
  Buy the 6-pin version so it works regardless of USB-C cable orientation.
  The display is very sensitive to power issues.
  Example Link

• Fabric Covering
  Fabric is glued and stretched around the case to give it a finished look.
  The fabric used here was from an old polo shirt.
  Glue used: Tesa permanent spray glue.

  I recommend using a stretchable fabric — this step was very difficult.

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Case Notes

The case can be 3D printed, but the design is not ideal. This was one of the first models I ever made.

To screw the display into the case, you’ll need a bendable screwdriver attachment (such as one from an iFixit kit), as access is very tight.

If anyone wants to redesign the case, please PM me for the CAD files.

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Installation

Home Assistant

1. Pick which inverter you are using (Sigenergy or SolarEdge)
2. Place the package files into:

config/packages/

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ESPHome Builder

Before flashing the device, you’ll need a decent computer. Flashing from a Raspberry Pi is extremely slow and not recommended.

I used the ESPHome command-line tool on Windows, as my Pi 5 (16GB) could not handle this build.

Download and install the latest ESPHome:
Installing ESPHome Manually

For Windows, the command should be:

python -m pip install --upgrade pip wheel esphome

If you have a powerful PC running Home Assistant, you can also build it with the regular ESPHome add-on
(not advised for Raspberry Pi).

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Flashing the Display

1. Open the Sigenergy or SolarEdge folder
2. Open PowerShell in that folder
3. Open solar-display.yaml
4. Fill in substitutions and the secrets.yaml file
   Generate your own api_encryption_key — the one in the example secrets.yaml is public. You can generate one on the ESPHome API docs page or with openssl rand -base64 32.
5. Plug the display into your computer

Run:

esphome run solar-display.yaml

Updating over Wi-Fi (OTA)

After the first flash over USB, you never need to open the case again. Updates can be sent over Wi-Fi:

esphome run solar-display.yaml --device <display-ip>

• api_encryption_key and ota_password in secrets.yaml must match what is on the display, otherwise the upload is refused or Home Assistant cannot connect afterwards.
• If an update crashes on boot, ESPHome falls back to a safe mode after 10 failed boots, so you can upload again over Wi-Fi.
• Wi-Fi settings entered on the display itself are kept after an update.

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First Boot

Once booted, the device should automatically connect to Wi-Fi.

You can find the device IP address in the settings and add it to Home Assistant.

If Wi-Fi fails to connect, you can enter credentials in settings, but reflashing with the correct credentials is recommended.

Enjoy!

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More Images

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Future Updates

I want to keep updating this project.

Currently, some text displayed on the homepage describes what the house is doing (for example: battery low, please reduce usage).
These values are currently hard-coded, and I want to expose more numbers so setup is easier.

I would also like to:

• Allow changing the suggestion messages
• Add specific graphs to the interval page

Any suggestions would be really appreciated.