6 ms·

ScreenWall – Turn old phones into synced widgets for your space

146 points by buibuibui 2mo ago

buibuibui 2mo ago
Working on ScreenWall (https://www.screenwall.app https://www.screenwall.app) because I had old phones sitting in a drawer doing nothing, and now I use them as passive widgets on my desk and wall. I use the browsers of the devices to join a shared "wall". From there I can push images, video, gifs, or a synced canvas to it (and any other old screens I add) without installing anything. Started as a one-device hack for my desk clock, but it scales to syncing multiple screens at once if you've got more than one old device lying around.
buibuibui 2mo ago
The oldest device I found that works with ScreenWall as a widget display, is an iPad 3 (2012)!
prmoustache 2mo ago
Usually I replace a smartphone because it has some hardware fault that makes it unusable and it is hard to repair or the cost of repair vs capability is not very favorable. Even if I was replacing smartphone before they died, I would probably sell them anyway. Do people really have various phones in working order waiting in a drawer?
- NeuroWinter 2mo ago
  I will upgrade when my device is many generations out of date. So no one really wants to buy one and I will then buy not the latest but a generation or two “out of date” so it’s cheaper. So I have a heap of phones over the years that no one wants. Not even me.
- gonzalohm 2mo ago
  Usually I replace my phone when the battery is almost dead and a full charge doesn't last more than a few hours. At that point the phone is usable but not good enough to sell. I usually keep it as an emergency backup phone
  - crefiz 2mo ago
    You might as well buy a new battery then Did that for 20 € for my Oppo Find X3 Pro at my closest tech store and saved me from buying a brand new phone
    - gonzalohm 2mo ago
      I damaged the screen of my pixel trying to open it to replace the battery. It was literally booby trapped to self destroy when trying to repair it
      - adkaplan 2mo ago
        Having replaced batteries on my pixel... The best trick ive found is a ziplock baggie full of near boiling water plopped on the screen until the glue loosens. Use a thin tool to break the seal all the way around then peek under it like youre checking for spiders. Feels like most electronics these days have sneaky weak ribbon cables with ultra brittle connectors behind them. This might be what all the youtube tutorials recommend as well I cant recall where I saw it. Of course the YouTube teardowns also show you in advance where the booby traps are.
      - lopis 2mo ago
        So happy being able to buy a Fairphone. Have replaced the screen once, the battery twice, and the back twice too. Fairphone 4 on the its 5th year. I want to upgrade but this thing is really resilient.
  - prmoustache 2mo ago
    For some reason I tend to break screens way before the battery dies usually. I am not afraid to replace a battery or even a screen if phone is not totally out of date. Having said that there seems to always be a point when they start acting semi eratically or stop booting. I had a totally outdated and probably insecure Samsung S6 edge 2 years ago that started rebooting randomly. I think that prior to that it was so old I could only install stuff from f-droid and aurora because roots certs installed on that old android version were too old for playstore to work. Too bad as you can't easily find smartphones in similar sizes anymore. Knocking on wood my pixel 6a still going strong after 2 years.
- pmontra 2mo ago
  I never sell anything, everything finds a new life. I got a Sony Xperia Compact from maybe 2016. I use it as a bicycle navigator / recorder. Recently it stopped reading SIMs, probably rusty contacts, but all I need is wifi to update OSMAnd and send me the tracks I recorded. I also have a very old tablet, maybe 2014. My SO uses it to view movies with VLC and TV via TVHeadend.
- mannykannot 2mo ago
  I take my previous phone kayaking. Once I have downloaded the appropriate maps over wifi, I can use it for navigation, logging and photography without being worried by the prospect of dropping it in the water.
- jerlam 2mo ago
  I try to get rid of my old stuff ASAP, it reduces clutter both physically and mentally. I know many people who had their old phones and computers lying around because they didn't invest the time to transfer the data. Not long after, the phone was unusable either due to hardware problems or forgotten passwords, and the data is lost forever.
- wolvoleo 2mo ago
  Hell yes and even tablets. I keep everything. Usually I use it so long it's not worth selling it anymore anyway. The problem is even old tablets are often too slow to use for something as simple as home automation control because home assistant uses so much JavaScript
- brasscupcakes 2mo ago
  I have four old androids and one old iphone. I tend to like global dual sim phone brands that often have poorer North American connectivity -- plus they aren't whitekisted by AT&T --and I live in the states, so people aren't exactly clamoring to buy them.
buibuibui 2mo ago
Oh wow, although I submitted it some days ago, I somehow got on the front page! Thanks for that! Also as a note: this platform is nowhere near finished! I had this idea in my mind for a long time that I wanted to reuse my old phones and tablets as displays in my home. I also know that finding the right apps for these old platforms is a challenge in itself, that's why I went the route of creating an ES5 (that nobody writes anymore!) web app that most of these devices still support. The client's whole purpose is to display canvas and media files that the server dictates on-demand via websocket, while keeping a synchronized clock. On Instagram I always saw these very cool widgets like retro clocks, split-flip boards, YouTube subscriber counters that I felt urged to buy. But I thought to myself that the old phones I already have could also do the same. I am a long-time software engineer myself, but could never take the time to validate whether my ideas work. So I thought, why not try it out with Codex. After long prompting, supervising and correcting, I got a very usable solution that I now pleasantly use myself at home.
- buibuibui 2mo ago
  You can also vibe-code your widget if you want! You are not restricted to use the built-in ones. Just copy the "Canvas Widget Guide" you find under "Left Sidebar > Create > Smart Widget > Tutorial" and copy that article in ChatGPT or Claude while describing what your widget should display. Then paste the code to "Create > Smart Widget > Edit the Code" in the Widget Details. (this flow should be more intuitive...) You are able to send JSON data to your widget via an API. It's all just canvas and old Javascript code!
- rippeltippel 2mo ago
  Very nice project, thank you for sharing it on HN! May I ask why login is required, and how are emails/passwords stored?
  - buibuibui 2mo ago
    An account is necessary to couple your devices to your wall. And auth is implemented via Better-Auth. I stopped Codex immediately when he tried to implement the login stuff from scratch. :)
kotaKat 2mo ago
Junkyard Jumbotron redux? ;) https://github.com/mitmedialab/Junkyard-Jumbotron https://github.com/mitmedialab/Junkyard-Jumbotron https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAUtSVSTbzU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAUtSVSTbzU
- buibuibui 2mo ago
  I like the wall position detection feature via markers! :)
- takenotice 2mo ago
  That’s what I was thinking. I loved that project.
JackMorgan 2mo ago
I've wanted to build this myself for a long time but couldn't figure out how to overcome the spicy pillow problem. Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree, but I thought it was risky to leave a phone plugged in all the time. Does it need to be a modern version of Android OS that has the smart charging that stops at like 85%?
- cydodon 2mo ago
  The safest option is probably to remove the battery and run the phone from a (well defined/build) external power source, e.g. like this: https://yaky.dev/2022-09-06-smartphone-without-battery/ https://yaky.dev/2022-09-06-smartphone-without-battery/
  - NordStreamYacht 2mo ago
    Not all phones work without a battery in the case.
    - jolmg 2mo ago
      The link provided by cydodon is about emulating a battery.
  - wolvoleo 2mo ago
    Yes that's what I do too! I didn't know that blogpost but I generally replace the battery with a DC-DC converter module from Ali. You can even tune the voltage and see the indicator change the battery charge level. I put them around 4 volt. The advantage of these modules is also that you don't need a beefy 5V power supply, you can simply grab a 12V or so (I have a full drawer of those from shucking external hard drives) and it will regulate it down nicely. They are 80 cents a piece (10 for 8 euro): https://es.aliexpress.com/item/1005007508685885.html https://es.aliexpress.com/item/1005007508685885.html and they can deliver up to 3A or so which is enough to handle the peaks. They're a bit bulky but I just tend to mount them elsewhere. Make sure you use a fairly thick cable to the phone then to minimise losses at that low voltage. I didn't have to bother with the thermistor but some models need it yes. And some even have an i2c charge level module which is even harder to simulate though it can be done.
joenot443 2mo ago
I'm confused - is the product finished yet?
- buibuibui 2mo ago
  This is work in progress project of mine! I have so many ideas how I can make it better, but before I overengineer it just for myself (I think this is typicial engineer mentality), I wanted to submit it to HN before I lose my interest over time, like my other projects…
TheJCDenton 2mo ago
Congrats, this looks very cool! I haven't tested it yet, but is it possible to make it work offline? I'd prefer devices running unsupported or unmaintained operating systems to avoid Internet access altogether.
- buibuibui 2mo ago
  I see you. I am thinking about providing a self-hosted version.
Jemm 2mo ago
The flight sim community is going to love this project for home cockpits.
XLowPingFNX 2mo ago
I literally wanted to use RasberryPi to build this for my desktop since i loved those desk widgets showing cool info like the weather or time ... this is so cool!
davsti4 2mo ago
Sounds great, but why create an account mechanism for something that can be accomplished locally? Who's data are you mining?
- buibuibui 2mo ago
  The account mechanism is just used to scope the devices to „walls“. Otherwise I don‘t mine anything. But I share your sentiment, that this should maybe a self-hostable tool.
buibuibui 2mo ago
I am interested to hear what features you guys want in the next iterations! While building ScreenWall, I actually had art installations, home dashboards and train depature info screens in mind. Interacting with the screens and triggering events across other screens is also in the pipeline. Would be cool, if you can give me some crazy ideas, so I can prepare the client runtime better.
adamsmark 2mo ago
This might be a good alternative to Terminal. I can use a cheap e reader like the Boox Go 7 to display whatever.
tamimio 2mo ago
Ok great loved it, the typical question, can I self host it? Besides privacy, I won’t need internet access.
- buibuibui 2mo ago
  Please keep an eye open on the website! I will publish a self-hosted version soon.
joymonger 2mo ago
This looks cool and useful. I'm trying to better understand what's going on behind the scenes. If the technology is browser-based, why are we being asked to sign up? What are we signing up for? If the technology runs through third-party infrastructure, is the data e2e encrypted?
- buibuibui 2mo ago
  Hey, owner here. I think it‘s wonderful that you find it useful! Your questions has been answered in the comments already, because some people asked the same. But I think what you probably want is a way to use this without a cloud and run this locally in your network. Please keep an eye open on the website! I will publish a self-hosted version soon! Keeping old-devices from beeing thrown away is my number one priority here!
buibuibui 2mo ago
ScreenWall builder here. Thank you so much for the wonderful feedbacks! Please keep an eye open on the website! I will publish a self-hosted version soon and open source! Keeping old-devices from beeing thrown away is my number one priority here! They deserve a second life.
anonymous344 2mo ago
so old phones stays' their screen on forever and does not pause the browser ?

146 points by buibuibui 2mo ago

Working on ScreenWall (https://www.screenwall.app https://www.screenwall.app) because I had old phones sitting in a drawer doing nothing, and now I use them as passive widgets on my desk and wall. I use the browsers of the devices to join a shared "wall". From there I can push images, video, gifs, or a synced canvas to it (and any other old screens I add) without installing anything. Started as a one-device hack for my desk clock, but it scales to syncing multiple screens at once if you've got more than one old device lying around.

buibuibui 2mo ago

The oldest device I found that works with ScreenWall as a widget display, is an iPad 3 (2012)!

prmoustache 2mo ago

Usually I replace a smartphone because it has some hardware fault that makes it unusable and it is hard to repair or the cost of repair vs capability is not very favorable. Even if I was replacing smartphone before they died, I would probably sell them anyway. Do people really have various phones in working order waiting in a drawer?

NeuroWinter 2mo ago
I will upgrade when my device is many generations out of date. So no one really wants to buy one and I will then buy not the latest but a generation or two “out of date” so it’s cheaper. So I have a heap of phones over the years that no one wants. Not even me.
gonzalohm 2mo ago
Usually I replace my phone when the battery is almost dead and a full charge doesn't last more than a few hours. At that point the phone is usable but not good enough to sell. I usually keep it as an emergency backup phone
- crefiz 2mo ago
  You might as well buy a new battery then Did that for 20 € for my Oppo Find X3 Pro at my closest tech store and saved me from buying a brand new phone
  - gonzalohm 2mo ago
    I damaged the screen of my pixel trying to open it to replace the battery. It was literally booby trapped to self destroy when trying to repair it
    - adkaplan 2mo ago
      Having replaced batteries on my pixel... The best trick ive found is a ziplock baggie full of near boiling water plopped on the screen until the glue loosens. Use a thin tool to break the seal all the way around then peek under it like youre checking for spiders. Feels like most electronics these days have sneaky weak ribbon cables with ultra brittle connectors behind them. This might be what all the youtube tutorials recommend as well I cant recall where I saw it. Of course the YouTube teardowns also show you in advance where the booby traps are.
    - lopis 2mo ago
      So happy being able to buy a Fairphone. Have replaced the screen once, the battery twice, and the back twice too. Fairphone 4 on the its 5th year. I want to upgrade but this thing is really resilient.
- prmoustache 2mo ago
  For some reason I tend to break screens way before the battery dies usually. I am not afraid to replace a battery or even a screen if phone is not totally out of date. Having said that there seems to always be a point when they start acting semi eratically or stop booting. I had a totally outdated and probably insecure Samsung S6 edge 2 years ago that started rebooting randomly. I think that prior to that it was so old I could only install stuff from f-droid and aurora because roots certs installed on that old android version were too old for playstore to work. Too bad as you can't easily find smartphones in similar sizes anymore. Knocking on wood my pixel 6a still going strong after 2 years.
pmontra 2mo ago
I never sell anything, everything finds a new life. I got a Sony Xperia Compact from maybe 2016. I use it as a bicycle navigator / recorder. Recently it stopped reading SIMs, probably rusty contacts, but all I need is wifi to update OSMAnd and send me the tracks I recorded. I also have a very old tablet, maybe 2014. My SO uses it to view movies with VLC and TV via TVHeadend.
mannykannot 2mo ago
I take my previous phone kayaking. Once I have downloaded the appropriate maps over wifi, I can use it for navigation, logging and photography without being worried by the prospect of dropping it in the water.
jerlam 2mo ago
I try to get rid of my old stuff ASAP, it reduces clutter both physically and mentally. I know many people who had their old phones and computers lying around because they didn't invest the time to transfer the data. Not long after, the phone was unusable either due to hardware problems or forgotten passwords, and the data is lost forever.
wolvoleo 2mo ago
Hell yes and even tablets. I keep everything. Usually I use it so long it's not worth selling it anymore anyway. The problem is even old tablets are often too slow to use for something as simple as home automation control because home assistant uses so much JavaScript
brasscupcakes 2mo ago
I have four old androids and one old iphone. I tend to like global dual sim phone brands that often have poorer North American connectivity -- plus they aren't whitekisted by AT&T --and I live in the states, so people aren't exactly clamoring to buy them.

buibuibui 2mo ago

Oh wow, although I submitted it some days ago, I somehow got on the front page! Thanks for that! Also as a note: this platform is nowhere near finished! I had this idea in my mind for a long time that I wanted to reuse my old phones and tablets as displays in my home. I also know that finding the right apps for these old platforms is a challenge in itself, that's why I went the route of creating an ES5 (that nobody writes anymore!) web app that most of these devices still support. The client's whole purpose is to display canvas and media files that the server dictates on-demand via websocket, while keeping a synchronized clock. On Instagram I always saw these very cool widgets like retro clocks, split-flip boards, YouTube subscriber counters that I felt urged to buy. But I thought to myself that the old phones I already have could also do the same. I am a long-time software engineer myself, but could never take the time to validate whether my ideas work. So I thought, why not try it out with Codex. After long prompting, supervising and correcting, I got a very usable solution that I now pleasantly use myself at home.

buibuibui 2mo ago
You can also vibe-code your widget if you want! You are not restricted to use the built-in ones. Just copy the "Canvas Widget Guide" you find under "Left Sidebar > Create > Smart Widget > Tutorial" and copy that article in ChatGPT or Claude while describing what your widget should display. Then paste the code to "Create > Smart Widget > Edit the Code" in the Widget Details. (this flow should be more intuitive...) You are able to send JSON data to your widget via an API. It's all just canvas and old Javascript code!
rippeltippel 2mo ago
Very nice project, thank you for sharing it on HN! May I ask why login is required, and how are emails/passwords stored?
- buibuibui 2mo ago
  An account is necessary to couple your devices to your wall. And auth is implemented via Better-Auth. I stopped Codex immediately when he tried to implement the login stuff from scratch. :)

kotaKat 2mo ago

Junkyard Jumbotron redux? ;) https://github.com/mitmedialab/Junkyard-Jumbotron https://github.com/mitmedialab/Junkyard-Jumbotron https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAUtSVSTbzU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAUtSVSTbzU

buibuibui 2mo ago
I like the wall position detection feature via markers! :)
takenotice 2mo ago
That’s what I was thinking. I loved that project.

JackMorgan 2mo ago

I've wanted to build this myself for a long time but couldn't figure out how to overcome the spicy pillow problem. Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree, but I thought it was risky to leave a phone plugged in all the time. Does it need to be a modern version of Android OS that has the smart charging that stops at like 85%?

cydodon 2mo ago
The safest option is probably to remove the battery and run the phone from a (well defined/build) external power source, e.g. like this: https://yaky.dev/2022-09-06-smartphone-without-battery/ https://yaky.dev/2022-09-06-smartphone-without-battery/
- NordStreamYacht 2mo ago
  Not all phones work without a battery in the case.
  - jolmg 2mo ago
    The link provided by cydodon is about emulating a battery.
- wolvoleo 2mo ago
  Yes that's what I do too! I didn't know that blogpost but I generally replace the battery with a DC-DC converter module from Ali. You can even tune the voltage and see the indicator change the battery charge level. I put them around 4 volt. The advantage of these modules is also that you don't need a beefy 5V power supply, you can simply grab a 12V or so (I have a full drawer of those from shucking external hard drives) and it will regulate it down nicely. They are 80 cents a piece (10 for 8 euro): https://es.aliexpress.com/item/1005007508685885.html https://es.aliexpress.com/item/1005007508685885.html and they can deliver up to 3A or so which is enough to handle the peaks. They're a bit bulky but I just tend to mount them elsewhere. Make sure you use a fairly thick cable to the phone then to minimise losses at that low voltage. I didn't have to bother with the thermistor but some models need it yes. And some even have an i2c charge level module which is even harder to simulate though it can be done.

joenot443 2mo ago

I'm confused - is the product finished yet?

buibuibui 2mo ago
This is work in progress project of mine! I have so many ideas how I can make it better, but before I overengineer it just for myself (I think this is typicial engineer mentality), I wanted to submit it to HN before I lose my interest over time, like my other projects…

TheJCDenton 2mo ago

Congrats, this looks very cool! I haven't tested it yet, but is it possible to make it work offline? I'd prefer devices running unsupported or unmaintained operating systems to avoid Internet access altogether.

buibuibui 2mo ago
I see you. I am thinking about providing a self-hosted version.

Jemm 2mo ago

The flight sim community is going to love this project for home cockpits.

XLowPingFNX 2mo ago

I literally wanted to use RasberryPi to build this for my desktop since i loved those desk widgets showing cool info like the weather or time ... this is so cool!

davsti4 2mo ago

Sounds great, but why create an account mechanism for something that can be accomplished locally? Who's data are you mining?

buibuibui 2mo ago
The account mechanism is just used to scope the devices to „walls“. Otherwise I don‘t mine anything. But I share your sentiment, that this should maybe a self-hostable tool.

buibuibui 2mo ago

I am interested to hear what features you guys want in the next iterations! While building ScreenWall, I actually had art installations, home dashboards and train depature info screens in mind. Interacting with the screens and triggering events across other screens is also in the pipeline. Would be cool, if you can give me some crazy ideas, so I can prepare the client runtime better.

adamsmark 2mo ago

This might be a good alternative to Terminal. I can use a cheap e reader like the Boox Go 7 to display whatever.

tamimio 2mo ago

Ok great loved it, the typical question, can I self host it? Besides privacy, I won’t need internet access.

buibuibui 2mo ago
Please keep an eye open on the website! I will publish a self-hosted version soon.

joymonger 2mo ago

This looks cool and useful. I'm trying to better understand what's going on behind the scenes. If the technology is browser-based, why are we being asked to sign up? What are we signing up for? If the technology runs through third-party infrastructure, is the data e2e encrypted?

buibuibui 2mo ago
Hey, owner here. I think it‘s wonderful that you find it useful! Your questions has been answered in the comments already, because some people asked the same. But I think what you probably want is a way to use this without a cloud and run this locally in your network. Please keep an eye open on the website! I will publish a self-hosted version soon! Keeping old-devices from beeing thrown away is my number one priority here!

buibuibui 2mo ago

ScreenWall builder here. Thank you so much for the wonderful feedbacks! Please keep an eye open on the website! I will publish a self-hosted version soon and open source! Keeping old-devices from beeing thrown away is my number one priority here! They deserve a second life.

anonymous344 2mo ago

so old phones stays' their screen on forever and does not pause the browser ?