Maker Network status board

I'm interested in building a status board webapp that can use the Maker Network site's API to display each makerspace's upcoming events, who's in each space, and recent photos taken within that space. Each of Tufts' makerspaces would get one of these status boards.

Panic Inc. makes an iOS app called Status Board that allows you to set up a custom dashboard that displays a variety of information gathered via RSS, JSON, Twitter, etc. The problem with Status Board is that it requires a dedicated iOS device (which can get expensive) and outputting video to a TV can be a tricky over AirPlay or a weird HDMI setup.

Laurence Koret and many others have tried similar things in the past, so it seems doable.

Components

• Raspberry Pi 2 (1GB of RAM)
• Any HDMI-compatible monitor

The gist is that the Raspberry Pi will be a headless, dumb PC that boots up and opens up a web browser pointed at the Maker Network website's /dashboard page. That page will have its own custom CSS and content designed specifically for large displays. JavaScript on the website will force the page to refresh every once in a while, so the Raspberry Pi doesn't have to do anything.

To set up the Raspberry Pi I'll use the commands listed in Laurence Koret's site and 3D print a box to mount it to the back of an old monitor. Then I'll mount the TV to the wall, build the dashboard site, and it should be good to go from then on.

Ideally, the Raspberry Pi will turn on whenever it's connected to power and boot automatically to the browser.