Before You Begin

Before diving into flashing SD cards and wiring displays, let’s make sure you’ve got everything ready and know what to expect.

This Smart Panel project is designed to be flexible — you can build a simple display with a few buttons or a full-featured smart home dashboard. Either way, a little preparation goes a long way.

What You’ll Need

Here’s the minimal hardware checklist to follow along:

Raspberry Pi (Zero 2 W, 3B+, 4, or CM4)
MicroSD card (8GB+ recommended)
Power supply
Display (HDMI or DSI, touchscreen optional)
Keyboard & mouse (optional but helpful during setup)

💡

Planning to embed the display into a wall or enclosure? Make sure you test everything before mounting!

Recommended Tools

You may also want:

microSD card reader
Access to a second computer (Windows/macOS/Linux)
Internet connection (Wi-Fi or Ethernet)

What’s Next?

Now that you know what you need.

👉 Head over to the Preparation section to start flashing your SD card and setting up the system.