Introduction: Goodwill GUI Smart Display

By
About: Hey! I'm a YouTuber who has been building on Instructables since I was 9! I occasionally post on here but you can find me on @ShepTheCreator on YouTube! If one of my projects has inspired you or you make one f…

before we start if you could check out me and my brothers YouTube channel that would be great! all of my projects and extra reviews will be posted on mine and my bros is Minecraft


link to mine, ShepTheCreator

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJmbd9kueKYd92oO...

link to my bros, Loki Diamond

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJmbd9kueKYd92oO...

This is a great project if this is your first time with a Raspberry Pi. I'm only 9 and it's my first tech project and it was a fun and simple way to start! My Goodwill GUI shows the weather, time and date, to-do calendar and swaps photos in any format you like. Everything but the Raspberry Pi was bought at our local Goodwill store.

Supplies

raspberry pi 3b+

hdmi cord hdmi monitor

on off dongle for raspberry pi (optional)

a key board and a mouse

wood and white paint

micro SD card

micro SD card reader

Step 1: Finding the Parts

Every thing but the Raspberry Pi can be found at your nearest Goodwill. They have everything tech! Mouses, keyboards, every chord you could ever need, monitors, speakers and more. You should pick a monitor with no stand if they have one but if they don’t, just remove the stand for wall mounting.

Step 2: Installing Rasbian

Go to balena.io and download etcher. then go to raspberrypi.org and go to downloads and instal the rasbian zip file. Put in your micro SD card in the reader and press select your image and then press the rasbian zip file and your SD card should automatically be detected then hit flash. This should take around 15 minutes once that’s done you can remove the SD card and insert it is the Raspberry Pi.

Step 3: Making the Display

Hook up your Raspberry Pi and open DAKboard.com on your browser. Then create a free account or you can do the four dollar package where you can make a custom GUI board. After you sign in, you will get a screen like below. Then hit My Predefined screen or My Custom Screen if you paid.

Then this will come up and you can customize every thing on the board or if you paid you can do the GUI version on your display then hit view screen.

Then your screen will come up.

Step 4: Stopping the Pi From Screen Sleeping

You’ll notice that if you leave it untouched for 30 minutes the pi will rest. To stop that from happening run these simple codes.

sudo apt-get install xscreensaver

Now open the app

xscreensaver

Click Settings, then at the top choose Disable Screen Sleep from the dropdown. Now you’re done! Build a frame to finish it off and hang it on the wall!

Step 5: Make a Simple Wooden Frame Box

I used scrap wood from around my farm but if you went to Home Depot you could get everything for less than $10.

Step 6: And Here Is the Finished Product!

My mom loves it because we have a farm and she needs to stay on top of the weather all the time. I hung it in our den so when she has her coffee in the morning she can watch the pretty photos and see what weather is coming. My next step is to load her farm photos so that we can watch images of our own farm play all throughout the day! My total spend on this project outside the Raspberry Pi was only $30. It was my first ever tech project and I had so much fun!

Attachments