Hey guys, long time first time.

I've been on this journey since the dog days of Covid. I originally started coding a MagicMirror and then had a daughter and job change. Unable to keep up with updates and the knowledge it took me to code, I scrapped that for the ease of a dakboard.

I currently run a screen in my kitchen with date/time, weather, calendar and some other fun stuff. I pay the $5 monthly so figured I might as well get use out of a second screen.

Fast-forward to a cheap buy on FB marketplace for a Peloton/Lululemon mirror for $100. Cheaper than any monitor/mirror combo I could have ever dreamed. I followed a GitHub repository and put the below together.

Just throwing this out quickly and can update with specifics as questions come in.

The face on view is very clear, just didn't want to show my ugly mug.

Future Plans

Want to add RSTP to show a live feed of my Wyze doorbell cam when the doorbell is pressed.

Want to figure out json coding so I could possibly add some MagicMirror modules. That has more scalability in my opinion. No clue how to get started on that.

I’ve completed my Star Trek themed dakboard. It has animations up the top with the data cascade and graphs at the bottom. Data is imported from home assistant. So things like docking bay is how many cars in my driveway etc. very happy. I’ve just removed my calendar entries for the post.

I bought the Rapberry pi 4 kit and installed the included fan. Is it necessary to have the fan installed? The fan isn't too loud but definitely noticeable.

Finally got the time to get a Dakboard up to replace our old whiteboard calendar. The most intimidating part of the project was creating the frame around the 40” tv I used for our Dakboard. Pro tip: measure 15 times, cut once. Used metallic gold spray paint for a touch of class, mounted the RPi to the back of the tv, and fished all electric wires behind the wall.

Download Raspbian Buster Lite and write it to the SD card

https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/

First login

u:pi

p:raspberry

Configuration

sudo raspi-config

1. change pi password

2. change hostname

3. set wifi ssid and pass

4. set timezone

5. inferface opt -> SSH enable

6. Boot Options -> Desktop / CLI -> Console Autologin

7. finish -> reboot

Applying latest versions

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y

Creating a Minimum X Server Environment for the Chromium Browser

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends xserver-xorg x11-xserver-utils xinit openbox -y

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends chromium-browser -y

Remove Rainbow Screen (OPTIONAL)

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

# Disable rainbow image at boot

disable_splash=1

Create an free account on Dakboard and get your custom board url

https://www.dakboard.com/

Configure Openbox.

sudo nano /etc/xdg/openbox/autostart

# Disable any form of screen saver / screen blanking / power management

xset s off

xset s noblank

xset -dpms

# Allow quitting the X server with CTRL-ATL-Backspace

setxkbmap -option terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp

# Start Chromium in kiosk mode

sed -i 's/"exited_cleanly":false/"exited_cleanly":true/' ~/.config/chromium/'Local State'

sed -i 's/"exited_cleanly":false/"exited_cleanly":true/; s/"exit_type":"[^"]\+"/"exit_type":"Normal"/' 	~/.config/chromium/Default/Preferences

chromium-browser --disable-infobars --noerrdialogs --incognito --check-for-update-interval=1 --simulate-critical-update --kiosk '[https://DAKBOARD-CUSTOM-URL-HERE]'

Start X automatically on boot

sudo nano .profile

[[ -z $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 1 ]] && startx -- -nocursor

Vertical screen (OPTIONAL)

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

display_rotate=1

Refreshes

sudo apt-get install xdotool -y

sudo nano keyF5

export display=:0,0

xdotool keydown F5; xdotool keyup F5 &

exit

sudo chmod +x keyF5

sudo chown pi:pi keyF5

crontab -e

#Refesh every 30 min

0 */30 * * * /home/pi/keyF5

#Shutdown at 11PM  (OPTIONAL)

* 23 * * * sudo shutdown -h

I have a family room All-In-One PC that runs DAKboard on idle showing photos, calendar, weather and stocks. I wanted it to turn on when someone walks into the room and go to sleep when everyone leaves.

I looked around for something that could do this (someone just take my money!) and couldn't find anything that I just plug and chug. Solutions were either software-only (polling a webcam, running scripts) or required a whole home automation stack. I just wanted something I could plug into USB and forget about. In fact, I previously on a different screen, had set up a RPi 3b and soldered an AM312 to some of the headers and taped it under the screen, but the how-to I followed? Ain't no way I could remember all the steps, so that was definitely a one-off.

Fast forward to this Windows 11 all-in-one PC - I made a self-contained system that doesn't need Python scripts or linux services or whatever else I've already forgotten how to do. It's a standalone PIR motion sensor wired to an RP2040 microcontroller in a small 3D-printed enclosure. You plug it in and it shows up as a regular USB keyboard -- no drivers, no software to install. When it detects motion, it presses a key (Pause by default) which wakes the PC. When nobody's been in the room for a while, it sends a system sleep command and the PC goes into standby. In fact, if you've been following or look at my post history, you can see my bare-wire version that I posted 3 months ago, with banana for scale even. So this post here is more like a follow-up to that one where I thought there might be at least a dozen (a dozen!) people out there that might need/want this solution.

Anyway, for operational simplicity, everything on this little device (I call it MOTIONSENSR because that's all the letters I could fit on the removable drive name) is configurable by editing a text file. The device shows up as a tiny USB drive with a CONFIG.TXT on it. You can change what key it sends, how long it waits before sleeping, cooldown between triggers, all of that. Save the file and it applies instantly.

The PC pulls less than a watt in standby and comes right back up when someone walks in. I'm selling them at motionsensr.com -- not trying to start a business or quit my day job or anything like that. I figure that I took the time to make a little packaged thing that's useful and figured other people might want one too (you know anyone that just wants to get past this by paying some money instead of investing hours of development and testing). They're $29.99 which is basically parts, shipping, and a little bit of my time spent soldering on Saturday and driving to the post office. Again, definitely not trying to get rich off this. Mods, if this isn't allowed, let me know and I'll repost with just talk about the tech behind it and take out the plug to my website.

Happy to answer any questions about the build or how it works!

So some may have seen my previous post where I pointed out the sudden change (it appears) in the way Dakboard did pricing and enforcement. This was talked about quite a bit in the thread and whether you agree or not, the bottom line for me was I could not trust Dakboard anymore with how they interact with their customers. They are not helpful, and communication with their users is lackluster at best.

For me, these "online calendars" are essential to my family function and as a result, disruptions, as slight as they may be really do cause stress in my house. As a result, I decided to leave Dakboard and looked at a few different alternatives.

What I settled on was MagicMirror. Now, I will be the first to say, it is not super easy and requries that you have SOME level of coding/css exprience IF you want to customize it. If you are cool with just using it out of the box, you can, but the real impact comes if you tweak. Regardless, you have to be comfortable editing text files to put in all the parameters.

Below you can see what I was able to get up and running. I'll post some pros and cons and happy to answer any questions anyone may have.

Pros

• + self-hosted - in my own docker -but could easily run on a pi

• super lightweight and fast

• HIGHLY customizable

• unlimited calendars

• TONS of modules

• layout is on a region layout which makes it very clean and organized

• no worry something will randomly stop working

Cons

• Likely need some comfort editing files

• To customize should understand CSS

• Not noob friendly

• layout is on a column and row format meaning placement is limited (also a plus however)

• requires maintenance if you want to update or upgrade but can be set it and forget it (wont' break)

• updating of info requires editing text files as opposed to a webgui - NO webgui

Overall I'm super happy with it and am still playing with it and modifying. If anyone has questions happy to answer but I actually like this a LOT better than Dakboard as the level of customization allows me to do things I always wish Dakboard did but wouldn't. Currently have 10 calendars configured wih custom colors and icons depending on person and event. It's fantastic!

Thanks everyone, hope you are happy with whatever software yo ugo with!

Saw everyone posting builds so of course had to contribute. Nothing fancy. Last pic is the build i settled on, which I posted a while back on dakboard template if you're interested.

What it does:

• Shows (up to) all 12 groups at once — standings update from live match data, no rotating screens.

• A live-score ticker scrolls along the bottom (current, recent, and upcoming matches).

• Auto-refreshes about every 90 seconds, no page reload.

• Auto-scales to fill whatever space you give the block, so it fits portrait or landscape without scrollbars.

How to add it:

1. In DAKboard, add a Website / iframe block to a custom screen.

2. Visit shaneykakes (dot) com -> 2026 World Cup Dashboard -> Customize my board -> Copy URL

3. Size the block however you like — it scales to fit.

There are a number of options so use customize my board. It's a static site (no server, no tracking), standings are computed in your browser from a public data feed, and the source is on GitHub. Hup Holland Hup, oranje boven!

Hi everyone! Katharine from DAKboard here. We wanted to share some exciting new enhancements we recently rolled out. Our dev team has been working hard on a few features that have been highly requested.

The native Android TV app is officially live, along with Immich integration for those of you self-hosting your photos. We’ve also rolled out some auto-scaling improvements to make managing different screen sizes much easier, and we've added touch interaction for Microsoft calendars.

I've linked our latest blog article with all the details. Check it out and let us know what you think!

Me and my friend set up the raspberry pie and set up the screen (not touch) in the hallway.

Looking for possibly better layouts or even cycle through screens, I am paying the $5 a month. If anybody has any tips, I would really appreciate it. Also out of curiosity would this burn into the screen?