🇬🇧 Smart Home Display - From Photo Frame to Info Hub

I transformed a cheap touchscreen monitor from AliExpress into an interactive smart home info system. Connected to a Raspberry Pi 4B running Raspberry Pi OS (Wayland), it displays photos from Immich (Immich Frame), Home Assistant notifications, and weather data.

Full Setup

• HGFRTEE 16” portable touchscreen monitor (16:10, 96% sRGB, 350 cd/m², USB-C/HDMI) for ~400 PLN from AliExpress. Nothing fancy—but perfect for a photo frame.
• Raspberry Pi 4B: HDMI + USB-C cable (touch support), handles DDC/CI via ddcutil for brightness/power control.
• OS: Raspberry Pi OS with Wayland (sudo raspi-config → Advanced → Wayland).
• Extras: Immich for photo management (self-hosted), Immich Frame for display (self-hosted).

Home Assistant Integration

Config in configuration.yaml (HA on separate host, SSH to Pi “display”):

shell_command:
  display_reboot: ssh -F /config/ssh/config display 'sudo /sbin/shutdown -r now'
  display_shutdown: ssh -F /config/ssh/config display 'sudo /sbin/shutdown -h now'
  display_screen_off: ssh -F /config/ssh/config display 'ddcutil setvcp D6 04'
  display_screen_on: ssh -F /config/ssh/config display 'ddcutil setvcp D6 01'
  display_brightness: ssh -F /config/ssh/config display 'ddcutil setvcp 10 '
  display_notify_message: ssh -F /config/ssh/config display 'DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus notify-send -u  -i "" "" ""'
  clear_notifications: ssh -F /config/ssh/config display 'dunstctl close-all'

HA Scripts

Key automation scripts:

script:
  display_screen_on:
    sequence:
      - service: shell_command.display_screen_on
      - service: input_boolean.turn_on
        target: input_boolean.display_screen
  display_show_message:
    sequence:
      - if: ""
        then: script.display_screen_on
      - service: shell_command.clear_notifications
      - service: shell_command.display_notify_message
        data:
          title: ""
          message: ""
          timeout: ""

Real-World Automations

• Photo frame: Automation turns on screen at 8:00 AM, displays Immich Frame in surf browser.
• Notifications: script.display_show_message with title=”Weather”, message=”Rain 80%”, icon=”weather-rainy”—queues notifications, clears previous ones.
• Power saving: binary_sensor → adjust config to your hardware setup.

ddcutil & Autostart Install

On Raspberry Pi:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install ddcutil dunst swayidle
echo 'pi ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/ddcutil' | sudo tee -a /etc/sudoers.d/ddcutil

This setup saves power (turns off screen), integrates Immich (Frame) and Home Assistant—scalable for homelab. Running stably for months!