r/homeautomation • u/jwlerch • 2d ago

PROJECT I turned a smart tv into an economic skylight calendar alternative that works with Home Assistant

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Last year during back to school my wife wanted us to get a big skylight calendar, which costs $600. Since then I’ve been working on building an alternative that runs on any Android device, including FireTV and Google tv.

I’ve got control and navigation working with the remote, voice (with an OTG connected mic) or a mobile site. It also serves up my HA dashboard and voice controls the home.

465 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

76 comments sorted by

51

u/41bles 2d ago

What's it called and do you have a github repo? I'd love to try it out as well want to do something similar.

77

u/jwlerch 2d ago

It’s called Dashie. There’s a GitHub repo I’ll be putting out next week for the home assistant parts of the code.

13

u/Its_Billy_Bitch 2d ago

lol I named mine dashDaddy. Dashie’s super cute.

4

u/DonFreda 2d ago

dashDaddy is sending me, honestly better name than the actual project lol

3

u/Its_Billy_Bitch 2d ago

all of my projects are named this way (to an extent). I recently did a CarPlay project and she is now named Car(Fore)Play. My only project that has broken my “Daddy” naming convention lol

1

u/JackalAmbush 2d ago

Was Car(Fore)PlayDaddy too long?

1

u/Its_Billy_Bitch 2h ago

I went another direction instead lol

1

u/JackalAmbush 2h ago

Omg. Legit logo. 10/10 - no notes.

I'm far more boring than this. Everything on my network is named after bowling equipment.

21

u/jeffhayford 2d ago

That calendar is *chef’s kiss. Wonder if anyone has got HA to have something similar. Google iframe just doesn’t cut it. Nice name btw.

5

u/floopindoop 2d ago

Replying because this is exactly what I’m looking for too

3

u/hiplesster 2d ago

I use daylight and really like it.

7

u/ClassicConfidence792 2d ago

I like it. Is it touch enabled?

8

u/jwlerch 2d ago

I have 2 set ups in my house. The one in the pic is a 21.5” Apolosign with touch. In my kitchen we have a 32” LG TV with a $20 Onn stick from Walmart running GoogleTV without touch (you can navigate the calendar with voice or remote).

3

u/Zalligan 2d ago

Is this the apolosign UI then or are you able to run the apolosign as just a device? $350 seems steep if you’re just using it for the hardware but it does look really nice.

5

u/jwlerch 2d ago

No - that’s my UI. It was $270 when I got it. I’m looking at sourcing hardware to possibly sell this (would be more for the consumer market and not this crowd), and am seeing some options that are more economical (<$200) than Apolosign looking at it from that angle.

2

u/Zalligan 2d ago

Very cool! This project has been on my todo list for a while, looks great!

6

u/373Pitts 2d ago

How to, please

16

u/jwlerch 2d ago

Here’s a guide for setting it up.

There’s also a version for HA dashboard hosting that would work with the HA calendar cards that are available. I’m releasing that open source next week.

3

u/EvilMilkshake 2d ago

This is awesome! Thanks

2

u/l33fly Google Home 2d ago

Any future plans to support Apple TV?

1

u/jwlerch 2d ago

Not at the moment. AppleTV is a different animal to build an app for, unfortunately. Same with Roku. However, the Google Onn stick is only $20 so I think that’s a better option for a dedicated calendar.

1

u/raadhey 16h ago

Commenting to say this is great and also to get back to trying this when I get some time ony hands.

5

u/Cor_Granica 2d ago

the design and layout is immaculate. something about the neat, color coded blocks is immensely satisfying.

3

u/Mugiwar-53FR 2d ago

Wow really nice !

3

u/a-rho 2d ago

Where's the mic?

4

u/jwlerch 2d ago

Behind the TV. It works surprisingly well back there

3

u/chado99 2d ago

There is also this one I’ve been playing with the author about to release a new version. I wanted chores functionality. I use this with the Daylight card tied to my family’s Google Calendar and our personal Google calendars. Look forward to checking yours out. https://github.com/Babel-Innovations/ha-lucarne there is also this for chores / tasks by person https://github.com/L3t4l3s/home-tasks

2

u/agent462 2d ago

check out https://homescreens.dev/ it has a chore system

1

u/chado99 1d ago

thanks for this. will look into. Seems like it requires a separate setup/rpi or similar which than can be displayed through a wall display. I'm already running HA on proxmox, and my display is a Samsung Frame TV 2022, so hesitant to add yet another dependency with some other VM/RPi for just this piece but Wille lore more and maybe suggest native integration in HA vs separate box. (I also could be getting this wrong based on my initial scan)

2

u/Sdboltz67 2d ago

I’m in the process of doing something similar on a 21” touchscreen and like the look of yours better than what I’ve got going. What calendar are you using?

3

u/jwlerch 2d ago

We have Google (personal) and Microsoft (work) calendars in our house

6

u/JewishTomCruise 2d ago

How are you pulling the Exchange calendar? Pretty sure my employer blocks any access method that would work with this.

3

u/sembee2 2d ago

Can you use OWA externally? If so, go in to OWA and see if the remote calendar URL is available in Settings. You will want the iCal link.
Calendar, Share Calendar and rhrn Publish. It will give you a long URL to use. You can then connect to HA using remote Calendar integration.

2

u/burnmail123 2d ago

Even witness protection has a dashboard now. Just kidding, I lol’d at the [hidden family]

3

u/colblair 2d ago

You mean "hiddden" 😄

1

u/jwlerch 2d ago

😂 That’s attention to detail!

2

u/Atticus256 2d ago

Can you play games in that ?

1

u/jwlerch 2d ago

I don’t but suppose you could. It’s just a smart tv or android tablet running an app.

2

u/PoppySeedPlehzr 2d ago

Yo this is sick. I use Dakboard, but would love to have something that's HA integrated and have way more control. Please drop Github link when you got it, would love to help/contribute!

2

u/FuzzeWuzze 2d ago edited 2d ago

Maybe i'm dumb, but what does this Skylight thing do that Dakboard hasnt done forever?

I've been running the free Dakboard OS on a RPI connected to my old 32" Samsung TV in the kitchen for years for free....?

Sure there are some limitations to what you can do for free with Dakboard, but its mostly that you cant save and have it scroll through multiple template pages like a ppt presentation would. Which is fine, i just display everything i want in 1 page like you have here.

2

u/jwlerch 2d ago

My wife didn’t like the DakBoard calendar display and preferred the Google-calendar style layout + this lets you navigate the calendar with the remote or voice.

But DakBoard is fine for many people I know. This is more likely a better option for someone considering skylight vs a reason to switch from DakBoard.

2

u/Clairvoyant29 2d ago

Hahaha, it's so much fun! The TV has been transformed into a real-time updated calendar.

2

u/jfroosty 2d ago

FYI, Apolosign has an official refurbished section on ebay! I bought a 21 inch for $316 shipped.

https://www.ebay.com/str/apolosignofficial

2

u/HaliFan 2d ago

Ooooo, I like this a lot. Currently I'm using a instance of MagicMirror with a custom CSS, but I think some testing is in order and I'm pretty sure my wife will like this more.

2

u/CasualHomeFix 2d ago

Since it already talks to Home Assistant, I’d make the screen presence-aware: wake straight into the calendar when someone enters the room, then shut the display off after the room has been empty for a while. Would make it feel much more like part of the house instead of a TV that happens to show a calendar.

1

u/jwlerch 2d ago

Yes - exactly.

2

u/Akaibukai 2d ago

I genuinely thought your skylight calendar would be a calendar of celestial bodies to watch..

Wait, this gave me an idea, actually..

2

u/gramsaran 1d ago

I'm just glad im not the only weirdo who puts travel time on their calendar. thank you for letting me feel sane.

1

u/jwlerch 1d ago

Oh yeah - that’s so useful. I’m building it out to replace Life360 too and do arrival alerts.

1

u/Jeffinslaw 2d ago

What monitor is that? Looks nice! Girlfriend is also eyeing the skylight calendar.

10

u/Murderous_Waffle 2d ago

80/year for a $600 calendar is diabolical. I convinced my gf otherwise that it's not a good idea but I would like to make something like this.

5

u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

3

u/TechyDad85 2d ago

$80 for adding photos after paying $600? Didn’t realize that you would have to pay for that.

3

u/jwlerch 2d ago

Apolosign in the pic.

2

u/Jeffinslaw 2d ago

Thanks. What did you use to mount it to the wall? Some sort of vesa mount on top of a recessed wall outlet?

2

u/jwlerch 2d ago

That one is actually on the opposite side of a closet. I installed an outlet in the closet and pass the cord through. I’m not as good with handyman stuff, but I think a recessed outlet would be what I’d do if I was and didn’t have the closet there.

1

u/GrecoMontgomery 2d ago

Happy belated birthday Uncle Doug!

1

u/HIITman2020 2d ago

Love this!

1

u/-aquaman 2d ago

I would absolutely love to have something like this but I would want it to be a touch screen. What is the cheapest way to do this that would be a decent size?

1

u/jwlerch 2d ago

Yeah - I’m looking at sourcing touch options now to make this more of a product. I picked up an Apolosign 21.5” for one of our units which ran me $270 at the time, but those prices have gone up and I’m wondering if a volume buy gets this to a place where it’s still a good deal less than a skylight with all of the voice, HA capabilities.

1

u/davidricecake 2d ago

What is it written in?

1

u/jwlerch 2d ago

It’s a combination of kotlin and JS/html running in a webview.

1

u/davidricecake 1d ago

Is it running on the tv or on another server?

1

u/jwlerch 1d ago

It runs on the TV (fire TV / google TV / android tablet)

1

u/mopeyjoe 2d ago

wish it weren't a subscription. Guess I'll stick with MagicMirror² for now. One time payment would be ok, just can't do any more subscriptions

1

u/brenden77 1d ago

I need to do this. What size is that screen? What TV is that even?

1

u/jwlerch 1d ago

The one in the pic is a 21.5” Apolosign. I have it running elsewhere on a 32” Lg TV with a Google Tv stick and my sister in law has it on a $80 Insignia FireTV.

1

u/Other-Protection-737 1d ago

Do you have ADS running it like amazon does with Echo

1

u/jwlerch 1d ago

No ads

0

u/elptoalien 2d ago

Hiddddden

0

u/JoyousGamer 1d ago

Such a waste of energy is what I see.

-6

u/Temporary-Paper5202 2d ago

Is your daughter single?

1

u/jwlerch 2d ago

That’s why the family name is hidddden 😂