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An XDA contributor described turning a spare monitor into a family information screen using a Raspberry Pi 4, DietPi and the self-hosted Home Screens project. The setup displays items such as calendar events, photos, chores and meal plans, though some content still needs manual editing and the contributor reported troubleshooting kiosk-mode startup.

An XDA Developers contributor has repurposed a spare monitor as a family dashboard by connecting it to a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B running DietPi and the self-hosted Home Screens project. The personal project displays calendar events, photos, reminders and meal-planning information, showing one way to give an idle screen a practical role without using a full-size computer.

The contributor said the monitor was an inexpensive, older display with no touchscreen, and that it had mostly sat unused after serving as an external screen for a laptop. A Raspberry Pi provides the computing hardware, while DietPi, a lightweight operating system, runs the dashboard. The writer reported that a Pi 4 with 1GB of memory was adequate for this particular setup; that is an account of one project, not a general performance guarantee.

The dashboard software, Home Screens, is a self-hosted project available through GitHub. The writer used its page-building portal to create a screen with weather, calendar information and other cards, then added separate pages for a photo carousel and a combination of meal recipes, calendar items and to-do lists. Google Photos and iCal links were configured to bring selected images and upcoming events into the display.

To keep the dashboard visible without a person manually opening it, the Raspberry Pi was configured to launch Chromium in full-screen kiosk mode at startup. The writer encountered a startup failure involving the system’s Wayland setup and kiosk configuration, then said the problem was resolved after troubleshooting and using an AI assistant for help. Once running, the dashboard used about 50% of the available memory, according to the article; the source does not specify a measurement period or detailed workload for that figure.

A Useful Screen Without New Hardware

The project illustrates how a spare display and a small computer can serve as a shared household information point. Instead of relying on a dedicated smart display, the setup uses hardware the writer already owned and software managed on the local Raspberry Pi. That may appeal to households seeking a visible place for schedules and reminders, or to people who want to reuse equipment rather than leave it idle.

Its usefulness depends on more than showing a webpage. The writer describes Home Screens as offering separate tools to build dashboard layouts and edit their contents. The remote editing page can change brightness, put the monitor to sleep or wake it, and send on-screen alerts. Chores, users and meal plans can also be edited there. Those features could make the screen more practical for a household, but the article is a first-person account and does not establish how well the system works across different homes or hardware.

From Idle Monitor to Shared Display

The writer’s monitor was a low-cost Frontech model bought several years ago, without a touchscreen or high refresh rate. It had sometimes been connected to a thin client or a single-board computer, but otherwise was not in regular use. The new arrangement gives it a defined job as a sticky-note and information screen, with a family-facing mix of calendar, chores, photos and food planning.

The article mentions MagicMirror as another project associated with home dashboards but says the contributor chose Home Screens for this experiment. The dashboard runs on the Raspberry Pi rather than being hosted elsewhere, and the writer accessed the management portal through a browser on the local setup. Templates provided a starting point, while the writer adjusted the layout and added connected data sources. The source does not provide a formal comparison between Home Screens and other dashboard tools.

“My old display became the center of attraction.”

— The XDA contributor describing the result

Limits and Setup Details Still Open

The article documents one person’s installation, not a tested guide covering every Raspberry Pi model, monitor or Home Screens release. It does not give a full installation procedure, exact software versions, or a complete list of the commands and configuration changes used to fix the Wayland and kiosk-mode issue. Readers should not assume that the same steps will work unchanged on different systems.

Some dashboard information was connected to external services, including Google Photos and iCal, while chores, meals and lists still required manual input. The writer said Home Screens includes AI features but had not tested them. The account does not explain the service’s privacy controls, security arrangements, or whether all features can be used without internet access. It also does not quantify the cost of any additional accessories or the time required for setup.

More Testing for Household Use

The contributor said the meal-planning page still needed refinement and that only a few tests had been run on how its elements behaved. The immediate next step described in the article is further adjustment of that page and exploration of Home Screens’ other features. No product release, formal update or broader rollout is announced.

For anyone considering a similar project, the reported setup suggests starting with a basic template and adding connected data sources gradually, while accounting for the possibility of operating-system and kiosk startup troubleshooting. The article does not establish a definitive configuration for other users, so compatibility and setup details remain dependent on their own hardware and software.

Key Questions

What hardware did the contributor use?

The project used a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B with 1GB of memory connected to an older monitor over HDMI. The writer said that configuration was sufficient for this dashboard, but did not test or compare other Pi models.

Which software runs the family dashboard?

The Raspberry Pi runs DietPi, with the self-hosted Home Screens project used to build and manage dashboard pages. Chromium launches in full-screen kiosk mode so the dashboard appears at startup.

What information can the screen show?

The writer set up weather, calendar events, selected photos, recipes, to-do lists and chores across several pages. Calendar and photo content were connected through iCal links and a Google Photos API, while some household items needed manual editing.

Does the setup work automatically after installation?

The writer configured the Raspberry Pi to load the dashboard at startup, but reported having to troubleshoot a Wayland and kiosk-mode problem first. The article does not provide a universal fix for other installations.

Are Home Screens’ AI features part of the tested setup?

No. The contributor said the project includes AI features but had not tried them. The article’s described pages and integrations do not establish what those features do or how they perform.

Source: XDA Developers