Sleep & Schedule

Choose when the screen sleeps, what it shows, and how it wakes. Open Screen > Sleep & Schedule on your device setup page.

Setting	What to do
Cover Art Screen Saver	Show artwork from a playing media player.
Screensaver	Sleep after inactivity or when a presence sensor clears.
Night Schedule	Set overnight behaviour using hours or a separate sensor.
Pin Protection	Require a PIN before using touchscreen controls after wake.

Start with Screensaver > Timer and Then > Display Off. Add Night Schedule if you need different overnight behaviour. A time-based Night Schedule takes priority over presence wake and media cover art; touch or Home Assistant’s Screen: Wake button still works.

Cover Art Screen Saver

Open Screen > Sleep & Schedule > Cover Art Screen Saver on your device setup page.

Set It Up

1. Check that your media_player entity shows artwork in Home Assistant.
2. Turn on Show Cover Art and enter Media Player Entity, such as media_player.living_room.
3. Set Show After to the delay before artwork appears; the default is 10 seconds.
4. Start playback, leave the panel untouched, and check that the artwork loads.

Screensaver Settings

Setting	Use it to
Keep Screen Awake During Playback	Prevent normal screensaver sleep while playing. On by default; applies only with Show Cover Art enabled.
Show After	Choose how long to wait after the last touch before showing artwork.
Show Track Details For	Set the detail timeout on 4-inch square panels, including Never and Always.
Persistent Play/Pause Control	Show or hide the playback button on 4-inch square panels. Larger panels always show it.

With Keep Screen Awake off, Timer or Sensor screensaver mode can still show eligible artwork when sleep activates. With Screensaver Disabled, artwork uses Show After. A time-based Night Schedule takes priority during night hours.

External Sources

Enable Show external sources for TV, Line-in, or HDMI inputs. Optionally set External Source Media Entity to the player feeding that input, so its artwork and playback details can be used.

The saved external player remains configured when the toggle is off and can still supply usable artwork. If that player becomes unavailable, the external-input hide rule applies again.

Advanced Options

Enable Advanced Filtering to reveal Only Show When. Enter matching attributes, for example app_id=com.apple.TVMusic; media_content_type=music. Turning Advanced Filtering off clears these conditions.

Track Details Work but Artwork Is Missing

Playback metadata and image downloads use separate connections.

1. Confirm artwork appears for the selected player in Home Assistant.
2. Open System > Home Assistant Settings and check the image endpoint.
3. Follow connection settings to set a reachable host, protocol, and port if Automatic fails.
4. Retry playback and confirm artwork loads.

If only one music source fails, collect USB logs and report the source and firmware version. Remove private URLs and credentials before sharing logs.

Screensaver

Open Screen > Sleep & Schedule > Screensaver on your device setup page. Touch the sleeping panel to wake it.

Choose When It Starts

Mode	What to set
Disabled	No automatic screensaver. This is the default.
Timer	Choose an inactivity delay from 10 seconds to 1 hour. Every touch restarts it. Short delays require supported firmware.
Sensor	Enter a Home Assistant motion or presence entity in Presence Entity, such as binary_sensor.hallway_presence. Presence keeps the panel awake; no presence starts sleep.

Choose What It Shows

In Timer or Sensor mode, set Then:

Action	Result
Display Off	Turns the backlight off. Default action.
Screen Dimmed	Keeps your cards visible at a lower brightness. The first tap wakes instead of pressing a card.
Clock	Shows a drifting clock. Set daytime/nighttime clock brightness; optionally enable Show date.
Camera	Shows a camera.* or image.* entity full-screen on supported P4 and 4-inch 4848S040 S3 panels.

For Screen Dimmed, set its brightness. Automatic and Timed Backlight modes offer separate daytime and nighttime dimmed levels.

Choose Apply Configuration, wait for the panel to reconnect, and test both sleep and wake. With Sensor mode, clear and trigger the sensor to check each state.

Show Photos or a Camera

Select Then > Camera and enter Camera Entity. Choose Fit to keep the whole image visible, or Fill to crop to the screen. Enable Display Clock if you want a time overlay. These options require supported firmware.

Background Dimming darkens only the camera or image background: 0% keeps its original brightness and 100% makes it black. Clock and metadata overlays keep their brightness. The setting defaults to 0%, is shared by Timer and Sensor modes, survives restarts, and is included in configuration backups. Older backups leave the current dimming value unchanged; firmware without this setting hides the control.

The image refreshes when Home Assistant reports an update; the last successful image stays visible during downloads. Animated GIFs play automatically within the image limits. If images fail, check Home Assistant connection settings.

Photos from Immich

Use EspControl Immich Companion for photo selection and slideshow timing. Follow Connect to EspControl, then use its Home Assistant image.* entity as the Camera Entity.

Photo Metadata

With Camera selected, enable Display Metadata and enter Photo Metadata Entity, a sensor.* containing the caption, date, or location. Turning metadata off keeps the saved entity.

Text appears at the bottom-right on screens at least 1024 pixels wide and at the upper-right on smaller screens or portrait orientations. Empty, unknown, and unavailable states are hidden; long text wraps to three lines. Metadata can appear with Display Clock off. The clock overlay applies to Camera, including image entities, and is hidden during media cover art.

Wake from Home Assistant

Press the panel's Screen: Wake button in Home Assistant. It wakes the panel and restarts inactivity timers without pressing a card or changing the page. Select your panel's actual button entity in the automation editor; replace these example IDs:

triggers:
  - trigger: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.front_door
    to: "on"
actions:
  - action: button.press
    target:
      entity_id: button.your_panel_screen_wake

Screen Schedule

Night Schedule has its own hours or sensor. Its Time mode takes priority over screensaver presence wake and media cover art during night hours. Touch or Screen: Wake still works using the schedule's temporary-wake settings. To make presence control night behaviour, use Night Schedule's Sensor mode.

Start the Screensaver with a Card

Add a Screensaver card in Layout; it needs no Home Assistant entity. Tapping it starts the selected Then action immediately, even with automatic screensavers disabled or media playing. Touch to wake, then enter the PIN if enabled.

Night Schedule

Open Screen > Sleep & Schedule > Night Schedule on your device setup page.

Set the Schedule

1. Choose Mode > Time for fixed hours, or Sensor to follow a Home Assistant sensor. Disabled leaves normal screensaver and backlight rules in charge.
2. In Time, set Daytime (normal use starts) and Night Time (night behaviour starts). For example, 06:00 and 23:00 keep normal use from 6 AM until 11 PM. The window can cross midnight. Equal times keep normal mode on all day.
3. In Sensor, enter Sensor Entity and choose Activate Night Schedule When > Sensor Is Off or Sensor Is On. The opposite state returns to normal use.
4. Choose At Night Time from the table below.
5. Choose Apply Configuration, then test the boundary or change the sensor state.

Night action	What to set
Screen Off	When Woken, Idle Time to Screen Off and When Woken, Screen Brightness for temporary wakes.
Screen Dimmed	Dimmed Screen Brightness for overnight use.
Clock	Clock Brightness and Clock Text Colour.

How It Works with Other Settings

The schedule's sensor is separate from the Screensaver Presence Entity. Time-based night hours take priority over screensaver presence wake and media cover art. If presence should control night behaviour, use Sensor mode here.

Normal-use hours follow your Backlight and Screensaver settings. When a scheduled Clock period ends, an idle panel goes directly to its normal screensaver action.

Enable Screen > Appearance > Clock Bar > Show Night Mode Icon to see a moon while night mode is active.

Manual Wake and Sleep

Touch the sleeping panel or press its Screen: Wake button in Home Assistant. Screen Off and Clock modes temporarily wake using the saved wake brightness and idle time, then return to night behaviour. Waking does not change the schedule. PIN protection still applies.

Press and hold a touchscreen button for three seconds to sleep manually. It stays asleep even during normal-use hours until you wake it. See Wake from Home Assistant for an automation example.

PIN Protection

In Screen > Sleep & Schedule > Pin Protection, enable Require PIN after wake, enter a numeric PIN (1–16 digits), and choose Save. Protection starts once a PIN is saved. Update the panel firmware if these controls are missing.

• Save also changes an existing PIN. Clear removes it and disables protection; switching the toggle off keeps the PIN for later.
• Randomize keypad layout shuffles the digits each time the keypad opens (off by default).
• The Screen Lock card shares this PIN and keypad setting, and works with automatic wake protection off.

After a screensaver or manual sleep, enter the PIN and press the checkmark to unlock. An incorrect PIN keeps the panel locked. X clears digits; with no digits entered, it closes the keypad without unlocking. All wake methods use this protection, and Cover Art playback controls remain blocked until unlocked.

The PIN protects local touchscreen controls only. Secure web setup separately with web authentication, as anyone with setup access can change or clear the PIN. PINs persist across restarts but are excluded from backups; importing a backup clears the destination panel's PIN, so set it again afterward.