Build Your Own
What you need to build a ClaudePanel display from scratch. Total cost is around $50–80 USD depending on which dev board, which panel, and how many of these things you already have on the bench.
Required parts first, then optional add-ons. Prices are approximate USD as of late 2026 and will drift; check vendor pages for current numbers.
Required parts
| Item | Choice A | Choice B |
|---|---|---|
| Dev board | SparkFun Thing Plus ESP32-S3 — ~$25 | Lonely Binary ESP32-S3 N16R8 Gold — ~$20 |
| HUB75 panel | WaveShare RGB-Matrix-P2.5-64×32 — ~$30 | Adafruit Product 5036 — ~$45 |
| 5 V power supply | 5 V / 4 A center-positive barrel jack (any reputable brand) — ~$10 | — |
| Jumper wires | Female/female dupont kit, 14+ wires used — ~$5–10 | — |
| USB-C cable | Whatever you’ve got handy | $0 |
Notes on the choices
- Dev boards: both work and the firmware tests against both. The Thing Plus is more polished and has a microSD slot if you want to extend, but its GPIO 0 has a known conflict with the onboard status LED that can cause flaky reads on the ack button (see the Thing Plus wiring page for the workaround). The Lonely Binary’s GPIO 0 is clean, the module has more flash + PSRAM (16 MB / 8 MB), and it’s cheaper — but it’s a smaller vendor.
- Panels: both options above are the same OEM panel under
different branding. Both have the [B/G-channel pin swap]
(boards/thing_plus.html#wiring) that the firmware compensates
for. Generic AliExpress P2.5-64×32 panels often follow standard
HUB75 — they’ll mostly look right but greens and blues will be
swapped. Edit
BoardPinsin the firmware if you go that route. - Power supplies: the panel can pull up to ~4 A at full brightness on all-white. Don’t try to power it from the ESP32’s 5 V rail — USB can’t supply enough current and the panel will brown out the controller. An old phone charger is almost certainly not enough — read the spec sticker before you assume.
- Jumper wires: 13 signal lines + at least one ground = 14 wires. Round up. Female/female is what you want for header-to-IDC connections.
Optional add-ons
| Item | Why you’d want it | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 10 kΩ resistor (¼ W) | Pull-up between OE and 3V3 — kills the brief boot-flash on the panel at chip reset. | ~$0.10 |
| 6×6 mm tactile push button + 2 jumpers | Off-board ack button if you’d rather not use the dev board’s BOOT button (e.g., panel mounted across the room from the keyboard). | ~$0.30 |
| 16-pin IDC ribbon cable | Some panels ship with one; some don’t. Check yours before ordering. | ~$3 |
These are all “from any starter electronics kit” parts. Mouser, DigiKey, Amazon, AliExpress, your local hackerspace bin — whatever’s convenient.
Already have some of this stuff?
Likely already on your bench:
- USB-C cable from any phone-era thing
- Jumper wires (most ESP32 starter kits include them)
- A barrel-jack 5 V supply that’s not powerful enough for a P2.5 panel — measure before assuming
Next step
Once you’ve got the parts, head to your dev board’s wiring page:
The flash button on each page is one click away once your board is plugged in.
Last reviewed: 2026-05-05. Vendor pricing and SKU availability drift over time; cross-check before ordering, especially if more than six months have passed since this date.