I turned an old monitor into a digital dashboard — and it's a game changer

[admin]

I finally built my own digital dashboard using an old monitor and a mini PC to stay on top of my work life.

I turned an old monitor into a digital dashboard — and it's a game changer : Read more

 

[RG Geiger]

Great "how to" piece! Highlights the reason I went with the echo15, although your solution looks better. Amazon dropped the ball on widget development so it's becomes a good concept with possible potential. Your solution looks mature.👏👏👏

 

[TheRen]

Made an account to jump in here and ask: why is this not what the "smart displays" are?? Or alternatively: isn't this what all those fancy "smart displays" should be?? I think this is worth looking into.
Honestly, it boggles the mind (my mind anyway) that we have so many gadgets, so many "solutions" pushed onto us that never had their problems to begin with, but a simple digital calendar, as it were, for the desks is just... not a thing. Or at best, left to small 3rd parties and DIY enthusiasts. Maybe it's just me, but if I buy what's essentially an always-on tablet for my desktop... idk, it's all well and good that it can display alerts for events and show me photos at random from my cloud and perhaps control devices around the home. But why can't it function as a smart calendar, pulling things from my various accounts to show me my schedule, optionally from already existing calendars of interest (religious/national holidays, sport events, etc), displaying various timezones, weather even, and maybe as a secondary function - news (not "curated" crap but feeds I actually select myself)? Again, it might be just me, but THIS is what I'd expect from a smart display, not the ~85% redundant or outright PR features Google&co are pushing.

 

[Brad1974]

I went a slightly different route and used my old Galaxy phone in Dex mode to drive the display. Before that I using a cheap casting device with an even cheaper and older phone

 

[Kroberts]

I use DAKboard to display thousands of scanned family photos on my mother-in-law's TV. She lost her husband of 65 years a few years ago and enjoys seeing all the family photos everyday. The photos are in my Dropbox account linked to DAKboard making it easy to add new photos. We tried a photo frame first but it was too small to see from across the room, the TV is a perfect solution.

 

[colinashley]

I also went a different route...I purchased a cheap 12" Android tablet and used the Google Calendar app to display my schedule. To eliminate the notification & tool bars, I downloaded the "Fullscreen Immersive" app. I also purchased Koala tablet wall mount brackets on Amazon to attach the tablet in landscape mode to the kitchen wall. The tablet stays on morning to night and works like a charm 😊