The Tool Desk
Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →A small touchscreen pet can make server trouble hard to ignore. Adam Davidson’s Cheap Yellow Display (CYD) project turns selected Proxmox and Home Assistant status data into a Tamagotchi-like character that loses health when monitored workloads fail or memory pressure rises. It is a glanceable alert layer, not a replacement for the dashboards used to diagnose and fix problems.
Why turn homelab monitoring into a pet?
Davidson runs Home Assistant, Jellyfin, Audiobookshelf, Calibre, Uptime Kuma and other services on a Mini PC, alongside local language models. A memory-heavy container had previously caused other services to fail. He wanted a more engaging way to notice trouble than relying on conventional status screens.
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
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Tamagotchi Original - Tama Collage | $19.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
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Giga Pets Interactive Digital Pet Toy, Boys & Girls, Puppy, Ages 6+ | $18.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
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Tamagotchi Paradise - Orange Tropics | $44.97 | Buy on Amazon |
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Tamagotchi Original - Neon Lights | $22.97 | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 |
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Tamagotchi Nano x Hello Kitty - Sky Blue | $19.99 | Buy on Amazon |
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He already had a Cheap Yellow Display, an ESP32 development board with a built-in color touchscreen, running a Tamagotchi-like character for a separate sit/stand reminder project. For the homelab version, he repurposed that screen as a visible status indicator.
How the status data reaches the display
The data path starts with Proxmox VE, passes through Home Assistant, and ends at the CYD running ESPHome:
#1 Best Overall
- The Original digital pet you love with stylish shell design!
- Feed it, turn lights on/off, play with it, give it medicine, clean up after its used the bathroom, check it’s health and discipline your Tamagotchi character if it bothers you when its happy, fed and all cleaned up
- Includes a game which helps to keep your character happy
- Raise your Tamagotchi from egg, to child, to adult and how you take care of it will decide which of the 7 Adults you’ll get
- Comes with 1 Tamagotchi device on a chain to take with you everywhere. Battery (CR2032) included. For ages 8 and up
- Proxmox VE: Home Assistant’s Proxmox VE integration monitors nodes, virtual machines and containers. Home Assistant says entities appear when there is at least one Proxmox node with a VM or container; the integration uses local polling.
- Home Assistant: The integration supplies entities describing the selected Proxmox workloads and system information. In Davidson’s setup, Home Assistant itself is also monitored for reachability because it runs inside Proxmox and provides the entities the display depends on.
- CYD: The display runs ESPHome firmware and receives relevant Home Assistant entity data through ESPHome’s native API. Home Assistant describes ESPHome as a system for configuring and generating microcontroller firmware, with its native API connecting ESPHome devices to Home Assistant.
The CYD presents status; it does not perform the corrective actions. When an alert appears, Davidson uses the Proxmox interface to investigate and address the underlying issue.
What makes the Tamagotchi lose health?
Davidson’s implementation starts the character at 100 health and checks the relevant Home Assistant entities every 60 seconds. It requires two consecutive readings before treating a value as a problem, a safeguard intended to avoid reacting to momentary changes. These are settings from this project, not general monitoring recommendations.
Rank #2
- Puppy dog pet play: Giga Pets Puppy brings classic 90s virtual pet fun back with handheld puppy care, interactive activities, and digital animal play boys and girls can enjoy anywhere each day
- Learn to take care of a pet: Name, tame, feed, play, and care for your virtual pet bestie! This electronic pet toy helps boys and girls practice patience, daily care, and responsibility through play
- Feed, play, and train: Care for your electronic puppy with daily feeding, games, vet visits, tricks, and playful routines that help boys and girls stay engaged through daily pet care and fun
- Virtual pet keychain: GigaPets for boys and girls puts digital pet fun in the palm of your hand! Attach this portable virtual pet keychain and bring app-free handheld play on everyday adventures
- Perfect gift: Unlike a traditional GigaPet, Puppy gives boys and girls a playful digital dog friend to feed, train, care for, and enjoy each day! This digital animal game is ideal for ages 6+
- A VM or container is off: If a monitored workload is reported off when it is expected to be running, the pet loses health. Its appearance changes and the screen names the affected workload.
- RAM use exceeds 85%: Health falls when system RAM rises above that project-specific threshold, and the display shows the current percentage.
- Home Assistant is unreachable: Because the device depends on Home Assistant for the entities it watches, losing that connection causes health to drop rapidly. The screen reports that the monitor connection was lost.
When a problem is fixed, the pet returns to full health; if it has died, a new one hatches. The display also keeps a death count. The account does not specify the health lost per event or the exact drain rate when Home Assistant is unreachable.
What the display can—and cannot—tell you
The pet compresses selected conditions into a quick visual cue. A changed character or named workload can prompt a closer look, but it is not a complete diagnostic view: the Proxmox and Home Assistant interfaces remain the places to examine what failed and take action. The display’s usefulness also depends on the data path staying available. If Home Assistant cannot be reached, the screen can report that its monitoring connection is lost, but it cannot retrieve the entities it normally observes.
Rank #3
- ZOOM. Nurture with a spin! Zoom into Paradise! Turn the dial to take care of your Tama. Zoom from cell to space for traditional nurturing play - clean the poop, feed them delicious food and make them feel better! Play new mini games and nurturing activities and shop in the new LAB MODE.
- CHARACTERS. Raise more than 50,000 Tamas. Depending on the environment and the way you take care of your Tama, you can grow over 50 different characters in 12 species, with over 30 new Tamas. Plus, BREED play creates more Tamas by bringing parent's genes to the next generation.
- CONNECT. Connect with friend's device directly to see how your Tamas interact - is it a good match or a bad match? And, now, when you connect, you can play games with or against your friend! ** Please note that the connect mini-game is not available in "Tamagotchi Paradise - Pink Land / Blue Water / Purple Sky / Jade Forest.” **
- THREE FIELDS. Start in the Tropics field and unlock the Glacier and Forest fields for different play and Tamas. Plus, purchase are expansions to expand the field!
- AND MORE. The Orange Tropics device has a pretty pink shell with orange top, dial and buttons
Davidson says the display helped him notice and fix issues before they took down other services. That is a personal report, not a measured before-and-after reliability result; no independent test establishes how much the project improved uptime.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What you need to reproduce the idea
At a high level, a similar build needs a Proxmox environment with monitored VMs or containers, Home Assistant’s Proxmox VE integration, an ESPHome-capable device, and a display configuration that maps selected entities to pet behavior. The official Proxmox VE integration documentation and ESPHome documentation describe the roles of those integrations.
Rank #4
- The Original Tamagotchi digital pet you loved back in 1997 is back with the original programming! Feed it, turn lights on/off, play with it, give it medicine, flush after it’s used the bathroom, check it’s health and discipline your Tamagotchi if he bothers you when he’s happy, fed and all cleaned up
- Includes Character game where you have to guess which way the Tamagotchi will move next
- A purple shell with neon lights and 'Tamagotchi', dark pink frame, green buttons, and original programming and characters
- Raise your Tamagotchi from egg to child to Adult and how you take care of it will decide which of the 7 Adults you’ll get. Comes with 1 Tamagotchi on a chain to take with you everywhere
- Battery (CR2032) included. For Ages 8+
The project account does not provide its display YAML, ESPHome version, configuration files or exact CYD model and revision, so it is not a step-by-step build guide. CYD boards come in variants; a Home Assistant Community discussion includes ESPHome examples for CYD hardware, including one ESP32-2432S028R variant, but does not establish that this is Davidson’s board. Check the exact board revision and its compatibility before adapting an example.
Quick Recap
Best Value
- Hello Kitty is helping to raise and nurture your Tamagotchi character! Raise your Tamagotchi character well and you might receive one of the surprise characters!
- Feed your Tamagotchi character Hello Kitty's favorites - apple pie or milk. Three fun mini games - Piano game, Balloon game, and Apple game
- Joey will make a mess of Tamagotchi character's space, so Hello Kitty needs to come and clean the room or clean Joey’s footprints!
- Raise your Tamagotchi character from egg to baby to adult, and how you take care of it will decide which of the 7 Adults you’ll get. This version of Hello Kitty will reveal 2 new Adults!
- If you take good care of your Tamagotchi character, it will go on a journey to London with Hello Kitty! But if the Tamagotchi character is sad for too long, it will run away from home
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