Milepost is the in-vehicle touchscreen display that puts system status, controls, and navigation within arm's reach. After evaluating several display options, we've finalized the hardware: the Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-7B.
Why this board
The ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-7B gives us a 7-inch capacitive touch display at 1024×600 resolution—sharp enough for clean typography and detailed UI at a comfortable viewing distance. More importantly, it exposes backlight control, which means Milepost can dim to match ambient light or go nearly dark at night without killing the screen entirely. That was a hard requirement we couldn't compromise on. Nobody wants a bright rectangle glowing in their face at 2 a.m.
The ESP32-S3 onboard also keeps us in the same chip family as the rest of the TrailCurrent platform, so our existing PlatformIO build tooling, OTA library, and debug infrastructure all carry over without modification.
A case that disappears
We've designed a new enclosure with a detachable wall mount. The mount fastens to the wall first, then the display clicks into place on top of it. No visible mounting tabs, no exposed wires, no screws showing from the front. It looks like the screen just lives on the wall. If you need to remove it for maintenance or firmware flashing over USB, it lifts off the mount without tools.
Firmware is underway
Initial firmware work has started and the basics are running—display initialization, touch input, backlight dimming, and WiFi connectivity are all functional. The goal is to have the core firmware complete by the end of this week, including MQTT integration for real-time system data and the primary dashboard layout. Once that's solid, we'll move on to the full UI: energy monitoring, lighting controls, thermostat, and navigation overlays.
What's next
Finish the firmware sprint this week. Get the case printed and test-fit the board. Then start connecting Milepost to the rest of the system so it can pull live data from Headwaters and display it the way Fireside already does on smaller screens—just bigger and bolder.