Help me replace the whiteboard!

Hardware
1

Ok, so… Like lots of families (I assume) we have a whiteboard… things like basic notes, a calendar that everyone can see, things like that.

I think it would be cool to replace it with a 24" touchscreen monitor, running pi, that would primarily display lovelace. I have no issue with the physical aspects of this - running power, connecting to power safely, that sort of thing… but the following few issues.

I don’t want it sticking out into the room any more than necessary - where it is located, it will be seen on-edge pretty often, and I think that is a bad look. So, I’m guessing that I’ll need a recessed flat mount. However, even with a flat mount, most of the touchscreens have a big bump on the back - so at best the screen would have an ugly gap behind it. Also, this wall is exterior - so I’d like to try and preserve whatever insulation that I can - and most of the recessed boxes are nearly a full stud in depth.

What would you do?

  1. Surface mount. Build a pictureframe.
  2. Recessed mount, with the “goal” to provide power and a truly flush mounted monitor
  3. Mount a flush mount as deep as possible in the recessed box (or frame out a box). Get the “back of the front” flush as possible.

Then, I’d run basically an instance of pi and just a full-screen web browser. have someway to edit my calander directly there, as well as change days/months/etc. Give a place to access notes (tie it into apple notes if possible), and mabye do some fun stuff like give access to plex or something.

2 Likes
2

You have another possible option of using a projected image on the wall and using something similar to the way projected keyboards determine ‘touched’ location. This will be a pain to calibrate but will definitely get you the ‘flat’ you want.

3

My very subjective $0.02 :grin:

Honestly ? I would keep the analog manual whiteboard. You just can’t beat the convenience of quickly scribbling something on it so you don’t forget it, stick a quick note onto it, etc. If you replace all that by something digital, you better make sure that it works 100% and is super convenient and easy to use. Like those larger digital whiteboards you typically find in corporate board rooms, but the few ones that don’t suck are really expensive. Worst case is, your family (yourself included) will just get frustrated with it and stop using it altogether.

I think a better option is to set up a touch wall panel next to it with things like calendar, upcoming events / schedule, Apple Notes, Media control, and so on. But I would keep the whiteboard.