A reviewer tested the Elecrow CrowPanel Advanced 10.1" touchscreen, an ESP32-P4 based device, as a solution for providing smart home control to family and guests. The device is intended for those who enjoy tinkering and is not an out-of-the-box solution.
The reviewer, motivated by the inconvenience of requiring family and guests to use a phone to control Home Assistant devices, sought a dedicated control panel. Existing solutions like Home Assistant’s Voice Preview were unsuitable due to cloud connectivity requirements. The Elecrow CrowPanel, with its 10.1” touchscreen and ESP32-P4 processor, presented a potential solution.
The device features a camera connector, speaker port, and battery connector, along with accessible I2C, UART, and GPIO pins. The reviewer’s unit also included a camera. The initial firmware is a demo showcasing the screen, but to integrate with Home Assistant, custom firmware is required.
The reviewer opted for an ESPHome firmware, which connects to Home Assistant via its native API, avoiding the need for the Supervisor add-on. Initial flashing proved challenging, specifically establishing a WiFi connection. The ESP32-P4 relies on an ESP32-C6 for WiFi via an SDIO link, and the reviewer found the data line order reversed compared to reference configurations, causing reboot loops. The stock demo firmware also did not retain WiFi credentials after a reboot, but the custom ESPHome firmware did.
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