Here's my display board. It's in the hallway to the family room. It is currently showing:
- Daily agenda, including chores list.
- Multi-week family calendar.
- Clock.
- Thermostat.
- 4-day weather forecast.
This was initially inspired by the DakBoard 24" display, but I figured I could do better than the $349 retail price by building it myself.
Hardware shopping list:
- HP 23" IPS monitor VH240a ($109)
- CanaKit Raspberry Pi Zero W ($25)
- Swift Mount SWIFT110-AP ($11)
- 1ft HDMI to Mini HDMI ($9)
- Velcro Command Strips ($6)
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
The Pi Zero W is not by any means a powerful device for GUI; if you want to YouTube or use other rich media, it may be time to upgrade to one of the more powerful devices. But it's cheap, and works great for DakBoard.
Software:
- DakBoard. You can do a simple site for free, but for $5.95 a month, you can get a premium account with a lot more customization. Admittedly, with a bit of HTML, one could accomplish the same thing for free, but DakBoard's customization tools are actually pretty cool.
- Google Calendar. We created two shared calendars - one for family schedule, one for family chores. The separate calendars allow me to show the chores on the agenda without putting it on the calendar view.
- Google Photos. Because seriously, what else would you use? I have a shared album with my display photos, that goes not only to my large display, but also to all the Google Home smart displays in the house.
- Nest Thermostat integration.
Setting up a Raspberry Pi is a whole separate topic. I'll share if people have questions.
