Built my own smart home panel – Tessera

Some of my projects end in disappointment, but this one is a nice success. I was scrolling AliExpress, as one does, when I came across a little 4-inch touchscreen with an ESP32 built right into the back of it, a Guition ESP32-S3-4848S040. A 480×480 color display, capacitive touch, WiFi, the works, for under 15 bucks, though the pricing is dynamic and shifts each visit. So cheap. I wondered if I could turn it into a Home Assistant control panel. A quick conversation with Claude confirmed it was feasible, so into the cart it went. I worked up a project plan with Claude and waited for its arrival. I named it Tessera, Latin for tiles, because I envisioned the interface as a mosaic of control tiles. It took about two weeks from online order to the working panel on my desk. And a video of the panel in action: June 28, 2026No Description When the panel arrived, the first job was flashing the hardware and getting any kinks out of that process. My desktop recognized it easily over USB. It…