
Panic-inspired Dashboard Made From Photo Frame for ~$150.  Code is OSS. - patio11
http://www.bingocardcreator.com/articles/dashboard-on-a-shoestring.htm
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shard
Working as a full time salaryman AND work on BCC AND hack out little side
projects like this?

Patrick, you must have ungodly time management skills.

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patio11
Just an unsustainable schedule this week, which is why I am quitting. I think
I probably hit 80 hours plus commute. Still, midnight to three, midnight to
three, plus Saturday was enough for this.

Note that my budget for BCC is usually five hours a week. I am efficient
because I have to be. One tactic is to make email check only Must Be Done
task. Now I can get away without actually checking due to frame, for mornings
without support email.

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DenisM
_I am efficient because I have to be._

And therein lies a lesson in how to make yourself productive.

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vannevar
Extra points for being able to make $4000/mo from an online bingo card
creator. I never, ever, would thought that was possible.

The long tail indeed...

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patio11
You and me both, believe me. I had grand ambitions of eventually making $200 a
month and hopefully learning a bit. I did end up learning a bit.

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marcus
I did the same thing a few months ago, only my implementation uses an old PSP
I had lying around.

<http://hackaday.com/2009/03/30/psp-as-a-status-monitor/>

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starnix17
Very cool that it's open source, but definitely not as eye catching as the
Panic dashboard.

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patio11
Patches welcome.

Been waiting years to say that.

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g0atbutt
I'm a designer, and would love to help out. What's the best way to get in
touch with you?

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stanleydrew
If you look closely you can see his gmail address near the bottom of the
dashboard frame :)

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alanthonyc
Awesome. If nothing else, I'm going to put one up that has the "# Days Until I
Quit My Job" metric. It's technically the days until my current gig ends and I
can work full time on my project, but it will work for me.

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durin42
Anyone know of a frame that works like this that can work without some third-
party service for publishing? I'd like to do something like this on
information that's under a strict NDA.

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patio11
I know of options for that sort of thing (look for "digital signage") but the
pricing is not in the same ballpark as a digital photo frame. (In Japan at
least, it is sufficiently expensive that I think going the Panic way is
probably cheaper if you plan on providing your own programming.)

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durin42
Yeah, everything I've found thus far it'd make sense to just get a Fit PC and
a small LCD - it'd be nice if there was a small frame like this that was
hackable (a la the WRT54g) for a small status display.

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harisenbon
That's interesting. I just picked up the next version of up that photoframe at
sofmap (6000yen, go get one!) and have been trying to figure out what the hell
to do with it other than show my wife's facebook pictures.

I do have two questions though: Does the photoframe automatically update the
RSS feed each time it runs through so that your stats are always current? I
was under the impression that it only reads the RSS feed once on slideshow
startup, and then just keeps display the same info over and over (whether or
not it keeps the photos in memory I don't know)

Also, have you figured out a way to get your dashboard to startup when you
turn the photo-frame on, instead of having to select windows framit from the
menu? That's my most cringe-worthy "feature" of the buffalo frame. I'm
actually thinking about calling them and getting them to fix that.

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replicatorblog
Have you thought about making something like this a startup? A SaaS metrics
dashboard service? I deal with a lot of call centers and marketing houses that
do big "competitive" dashboards to motivate/track staff and they have to roll
their own systems. I'm sure a bunch of tech groups would like to have a Panic-
esqe dashboard, but wouldn't want to go through the hassle of doing it
themselves. Not sure if it is a huge market, but could be interesting!

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patio11
Hardware + per customer customization + sales cycle which requires talking to
people = I have no interest in that business at all. But if you want it, go
for it.

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akd
It wouldn't necessarily have to involve any of these. Most of these that I've
seen have been cobbled together through Excel, so they have the skills to get
everything into Excel. You could offer a product that made really pretty
charts around these metrics.

The hardware would be just a 720p TV which they would have to buy and mount -
you would just sell teh software.

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akd
A cursory search reveals no less than 8 companies already selling this

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replicatorblog
What companies? I did a search for "LCD Marketing Dashboard" and didn't come
up with anything. Not doubting you, just curious what these would be called!

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onewland
Look up anything related to "digital signage".

I used to work in kiosk software, sort of a similar area.

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cullenking
Zack's been wanting one of these but with analog gauges, and I just hooked him
up with an atmega128 complete dev board with LCD. I have been thinking of the
design, and will probably be hitting the junkyard for some old car gauges.

But man, car gauges just don't have the same flexibility as an LCD...nice work
Patrick!

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javery
Very cool but a little bit of information overload, I would reduce and just
put up the 2-3 metrics you really care about.

I have a digital photo frame sitting here doing nothing though, might have to
give it a shot.

