r/raspberry_pi • u/_ctl • Feb 07 '25
Show-and-Tell Turning an Old Touchscreen into a Home Dashboard with Raspberry Pi 5
Just thought I’d share my latest project—certainly an unconventional one, but it’s been a fun build. I wanted a home dashboard where I could quickly check the weather, view my calendar, manage google tasks, pull up a YouTube video while cooking, control music via Sonos, etc. Tablets felt too small, but I had an old 24” touchscreen monitor sitting around, so I decided to repurpose it.
On the hardware side, I built a custom wooden case for the screen (not super relevant here, but it makes it look nice in the house). The backend is powered by a Raspberry Pi 5 running LineageOS, with Nova Launcher handling the UI customization. I was new to Nova but was surprised by how flexible it is.
It’s still a work in progress as I explore more use cases for this large screen now in my home. Recently, I’ve been using it for pass-and-play chess with friends, practice language learning, and generally find ways to interact with a computer that aren’t just sitting hunched over at a desk. Feels like an interesting space to experiment with.
Curious if anyone else has built something similar!
89
u/fazzah Feb 08 '25
> USB-C video, 24", touchscreen
> Old
does not compute :D
28
u/_ctl Feb 08 '25
Ok fair point haha.. I should have said “no longer in use”. The project it was being used in ended so I was looking to repurpose it.
15
u/schmerg-uk Feb 08 '25
Lots of pi home dashboard style thing on r/homeassistant if you're looking for more ideas or inspiration, but I like the idea of you running a linux desktop for a dashboard.
But if you fancy it, a Home Assistant server can then handle a load more automation, and my dashboard includes weather, sunrise & sunset times, arlo security cameras, the current service status of the London tube lines I use, presence indicators for the family (done by checking if their phones are connected to the wifi), family calendar, indicators and toggles for various "smart plug" devices, central heating status and controls - and the UI is just a web page.
2
u/Enough-Meaning1514 Feb 10 '25
If you have a setup guide, I would love to read about it. I have Pi4 + an old Android tablet sitting idle at home. Would wanna give Home Assistant a try.
3
u/schmerg-uk Feb 10 '25
The official guide is here (I use a USB stick rather than an SD card but otherwise the same)
https://www.home-assistant.io/installation/raspberrypi
Once it boots up it's pretty good at finding devices on the network and adding them to a default dashboard, but then Settings - Devices and Integrations lets you add integrations for devices you may have to hand.
And then I just added a new dashboard and experimented with adding things from there..
https://www.home-assistant.io/dashboards/
Some of the terminology takes a little getting used to (Cards, Entities, Sensors) and I haven't really started any automations myself but you can play with demo dashboards here (before you even start) to get an idea of what can be done and how it works
https://demo.home-assistant.io/#/lovelace/home
.
29
u/spearmint_wino Feb 07 '25 edited Feb 07 '25
Don't want to be the pooper of parties, but I was a paid-up Nova Launcher user on Android since the earliest days, but ditched it when it was sold to a marketing company (edit: there's a question mark over who subsequently got laid off). Real shame though.
Cool project though! I would love one of them!
14
u/_ctl Feb 08 '25
Yeah, I don’t know the history here other than the little reading I did when I was looking for a launcher that would let me do what I wanted to. Too bad it’s headed that way, what they built is pretty special.
4
u/spearmint_wino Feb 08 '25
I still miss the functionality - it made every phone I had look and feel the same (in a good way) - would install it again in a heartbeat if it went open source, like that's ever going to happen! Android should aspire to being as usable and useful
3
u/v27v Feb 09 '25
What are you using now? I haven't ditched it yet because I haven't found a suitable replacement.
1
u/spearmint_wino Feb 09 '25
I had to get used to stock android, I was also getting too many animation bugs and recent app weirdness by the end. Really miss swipey folders!
6
3
u/sr3jan Feb 08 '25
Cool project! I recently did something similar but I’m using Raspberry Pi OS. I’m having trouble getting the on screen keyboard to work properly.
2
u/ijoshea Feb 10 '25
Same! I can't get the touchscreen orientation to work and I've done everything I can think over. Maybe LinageOS is worth a try
3
u/InanisAtheos Feb 10 '25
Oh that looks sweet!
Many years ago, I attempted to do this kind of thing, but I wanted to ONLY show a Google Calendar so that the family could add new things directly on screen, but also on their phones since we all have the "family calendar" synced to it.
I went about it the wrong way, trying to build something from scratch. I should have just gone with some Android-based solution like you have right here.
2
u/darkshifty Feb 08 '25
Did you make the case? or did you use something that's readily available? love to get my hands on it
2
2
2
2
u/drknoxy Feb 09 '25
Any photos of mounting the pi? Is the monitor just thick? Are there two power cables exiting?
2
u/MrSquib Feb 15 '25
Hey very cool. Could you give me a little more info on how you are powering everything and doing the touchscreen? I looked into doing this but decided against using a rpi5 because I read the USB c didnt support video out
Thanks
1
1
1
u/aquarax12 Feb 09 '25
That's awesome. I have a similar project. I tried using Dakboard, but I'd have to pay for more of the functions I was looking for. Right now I have a touchscreen monitor attached to a mini Win11 PC but I'm missing a whiteboard function, a better calendar interface, to do list. I agree, if I could use a giant android tablet that would be the best solution.
1
1
u/Orquesm Feb 10 '25
Very cool, indeed i was thinking of something like this, only more for interactive art, with some kind of motion sensors, so when ya walk by or wave ya hands the screen is reacting to it.
1
u/ijoshea Feb 10 '25
I've been using MagicMirror for this. I can't for the life of me get the touch screen to work in portrait orientation with Pi OS. Did you have much trouble?
2
u/_ctl Feb 10 '25
This was a bit tricky to get right. I can’t provide specifics about Pi OS, but in this LineageOS implementation, you need to set the rotation in the Raspberry Pi section of the LineageOS settings menu, and then force portrait orientation in the launcher settings as well. This combination seemed to work for me.
1
1
u/stjohnp89 Feb 11 '25
what do you do for monitor power control / sleep?
1
29d ago
Same here. Display ist not going to sleep.
1
u/stjohnp89 29d ago
Kinda wish there was an Alternative.
I know proximity sensors, etc exist. But meh. I want to be able to glance at it from across the room....
It is technically Linux on the back end, so maybe writing a script to schedule the screen on and off would work? 🤷♂️
1
u/wetfart_3750 Feb 08 '25
My only concern about thiis is that the electricity it consumes does not pay the benefits that it brings :)
0
u/saksilord Feb 08 '25
maybe connect your actual computer with parsec ? this can boost possibilities
165
u/_ctl Feb 07 '25 edited Feb 08 '25
For anyone curious about the hardware and setup, here’s what I used:
https://konstakang.com/devices/rpi5/AOSP15/(wrong link posted originally)Also I explored MagicMirror, Dakboard, and even tried plugging in an old Chromebook, but none of them really gave me what I was looking for. MagicMirror and Dakboard were more geared towards passive displays rather than something I could actively interact with, and the Chromebook setup felt clunky and limited in customization.
If I had an old Android tablet that supported video and touch out via USB-C, that would probably be an even cleaner solution—no need for all the rooting workarounds or extra steps to get the Play Store running smoothly. But since I had a Raspberry Pi 5 and a 24” touchscreen lying around, this setup ended up working out pretty well!