Espcontrol

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Backlight ​

The panel automatically adjusts screen brightness based on time of day — brighter during daylight, dimmer at night.

How It Works ​

Sunrise and sunset times are calculated on-device from your selected timezone using a NOAA solar algorithm. During the day, the panel uses your Daytime Brightness; at night, it switches to Nighttime Brightness. The transition is checked every 60 seconds, and sunrise/sunset are recalculated at midnight. No internet connection or Home Assistant is required.

Settings ​

Configured in the Brightness section of the Settings tab in Setup.

  • Daytime Brightness — screen brightness during the day (10%–100%, default 100%).
  • Nighttime Brightness — screen brightness at night (10%–100%, default 75%).
  • Automatic Brightness — when enabled, EspControl uses the calculated sunrise and sunset times. Turn it off to set manual Dawn and Dusk times for the day/night brightness changeover.
  • Dawn / Dusk — shown when Automatic Brightness is off. These manual times decide when the panel switches between Daytime Brightness and Nighttime Brightness.

Sunrise and sunset times are derived from the timezone set in Time Settings.

Home Assistant Control ​

The panel exposes Screen: Automatic Brightness, Screen: Brightness Dawn Time, and Screen: Brightness Dusk Time to Home Assistant. Turn Screen: Automatic Brightness off when you want fixed manual dawn and dusk times instead of the calculated sunrise and sunset times.

For example, you can set Dawn to 07:00 and Dusk to 22:00 if you want the panel to stay in daytime brightness for a fixed daily window. Turning automatic brightness back on returns the panel to the calculated sunrise and sunset times for the selected timezone.

Screensaver ​

When the screensaver uses Screen Dimmed, it keeps the normal screen visible at the saved dim brightness. When the screensaver clock is active, it can use separate daytime and nighttime clock brightness values based on the same automatic or manual day/night times. If the screensaver is set to Display Off, the backlight turns off completely. While the backlight is off, EspControl can exercise the LCD pixels in the background to reduce burn-in risk without showing that pattern. On wake (touch or presence sensor), brightness returns to the correct level for the current time.

Screen Schedule ​

The screen schedule can turn the physical backlight off, keep the panel dimmed, or show a clock at set hours. Screen Off uses the schedule's separate When Woken brightness during a temporary wake and can run the same invisible burn-in protection while dark. Screen Dimmed uses its own overnight brightness setting. Clock uses its own clock brightness setting.

Before Clock Sync ​

If the panel hasn't synced its clock yet, it defaults to daytime brightness. Once synced, sunrise and sunset are calculated immediately.