Family schedules can be complex to manage. Thankfully, we have geniuses like Caspar von Wrede who've taken the time to build an open-source solution for us all. Using our favorite SBC, the Raspberry Pi, von Wrede has created a custom dashboard he calls DinkyDash to help his family keep track of all sorts of important data at a glance.
The project is basically a Raspberry Pi outputting a custom dashboard to a screen. This dashboard can be customized and integrated with other tools to suit individual needs. In this case, von Wrede is using it to keep up with chores, events, and schedules. It isn't an interactive design but instead works as a stationary screen that family members can check throughout the day.
The dashboard runs on a web server that von Wrede put together himself. It displays the current date, outputs recurring tasks like you'd find in a chore schedule, and shows countdowns for upcoming events and holidays. Any settings and customizations are done on the backend server side using a YAML file.
A project like this doesn't require a lot of power, but you need internet access to make it work. You could absolutely get away with using the latest Raspberry Pi 5, but it's easily overkill for a project like DinkyDash. Even something small like a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W would work fine in its place. As far as the display goes, you can output to any screen you choose as long as it's compatible with the Raspberry Pi.
As we said before, von Wrede was kind enough to make the project open source, which means the code has been made fully available for anyone who wants to try it out for themselves. It uses a combination of Python, Flask, and HTML. The source code is available, along with some instructions on how to set it up. If you want to get a closer look at this Raspberry Pi project, check out the DinkyDash project page at GitHub.
