Digitalized, Wi-Fi To-Do-List Monitor

About

Every home should have their own private website to be able to store all of their data and to maintain their everyday tasks. This project is about building a low power digitalized, Wi-Fi to-do-list that will replace the typical paper-to-do-list that usually hangs on fridges, automatically updating members of the household of custom events and tasks (clean up room, take out trash, wash dishes, etc) that are assigned by other members via through your own website. This would for example, allow parents to assign chores to their kids while they are away at work or to look up their grocery list anywhere through their smart phone or computer. This removes the inconvenience of having to remember tasks or to bring the paper list along with you, in which the list can be accessible anywhere through any Wi-Fi device. A paper to- do list would be easily forgotten on a fridge and is not noticeable. With the digitalized to-do-list, it would attract attention from the household members, be accessible and updatable thorough the Internet and most importantly, make it more convenient for the household.

I believe this is a very nice starter project for those who seek to use the Raspberry Pi as a way to automated their home and to enjoy the IoT experience. Most of the parts in this Instructables can be found in almost every home, so cost of the project will be very low.

Lastly, credits to the Window Developer Center for providing code examples for the Rasperry Pi and to powertothepeople who did the Instructable "Free Whiteboard Fridge To Do List" (https://www.instructables.com/id/Free-Whiteboard-Fridge-To-Do-List/). His Instructable inspired me to build a to-do list without having the need to search for physical material to write on and to get my life more organized :D

Step 1: Tools and Materials

These common parts can be found in almost every home, so the cost of this project will be very low.

Components and Supplies

Raspberry Pi 2 Model B

Computer Monitor (Any visual display can work but it must have a HD port or you will be require to buy an HDMI to VGA converter)

HDMI Cable

Raspberry Pi Wi-Fi Dongle (An Ethernet Cable will also work. It will need to be plugged in via Ethernet port on your computer or through a USB to Ethernet adapter)

Keyboard

Bluetooth Mouse (Any mouse will do. A bluetooth mouse however does not require a cable to plug in, just a bluetooth module)

16gb Micro SD Card

Rasperry Pi Micro USB Power Supply Charger (Any charger can work as long as it can provide 5v and 1500ma)

Tools and Machines

Computer

Apps and Online Services

Google Sites

Visual Studio 2015 Community (Free software by Microsoft)

Microsoft Windows 10 IoT Core

Step 2: Here Is the Code You Will Need

You will be downloading a sample program "IOT Browser Sample", in which this step will be covered in "Setting Up Your Windows Application for Raspberry Pi 2" in the next step of this Instructables. The text file attached is not required, though if you wish for your application to look just like the one shown in this Instructable, please feel free to use it. The attached text file contains the MainPage.xaml.cs (responsible for the actions of MainPage.xaml) and the MainPage.xaml (responsible for the user interface of the Windows application).

Step 3: Getting Started

Setting Up Your Windows Application for Your Raspberry Pi 2

1. Follow each step of the Get Started Guide provided by the Windows Developer Center. Search windowsondevices on any search engine to navigate to the page. Here is the link for your convenience: http://ms-iot.github.io/content/en-US/win10/SetupP...

(Note: When connecting to the Rasperry Pi to my computer wirelessy, I used PuTTy to communicate between my computer and the Rasperry Pi to avoid the hassle of using an Ethernet cable.)

2. Download the sample "IoT Browser Sample (Windows Universal)" and open it in Visual Studio. If prompted with a warning, click yes. Here is the link: http://ms-iot.github.io/content/en-US/win10/sampl...

3. Select the MainPage.xaml (highlighted blue in picture) and replace code with the code provided in this project. Same applies to MainPage.xaml.cs (under the highlighted text)

4. Save it and move on to the next step (Building Your Family Website) but leave Visual Studio open because we will make one more final adjustment to the code after building your website.

Step 4: Developing and Editing Your Website

Building Your (Free) Family Website

Any website provider or service will do but for this project, I chose Google Sites not only because it's free but for the vast amount of pre-build templates available to your choosing and its quick easy set up.

1. Navigate to Google Sites. The link:https://sites.google.com/

2. Sign in to your Google account. If you don't have one, you should make one since Google also offers lots of services that can be beneficial to your website.

3. Click Create on the top left hand corner and click browser the gallery for more. Select "Personal & Family" and click on the "Family Site" Template.

4. Name your site (something easy to remember. You will need the URL later to replace line 72 on Main Page XAML)

5. Once created, click on the pencil shape button to edit the site to your desire. If you have trouble editing the site, click on Help and select "Sites Help" to receive additional help.

6. Important: Make sure you select the gear icon and click "Sharing and Permissions" in which you should select only family members gmail accounts to access the website, not the entire world. You wouldn't want anyone to find out about your everyday life.

7. Save your changes on the website and check if it works.

8. Replace the URL in line 72 of the code MainPage.xaml.cs with the URL of your site.

Step 5: Here Is My Sample To-Do-List Website

Here is my sample to-do-list website to give you guys an idea.

Step 6: Combining It All Together (Last Steps)

1. Hook up the bluetooth mouse, keyboard, and Rasperry Pi Wi-Fi Dongle to your Rasperry Pi.

2. Attach HDMI cable to Rasperry Pi to computer monitor.

3. Attach power supply to the Rasperry Pi and wait for it to boot up.

4. Once boot up, deploy the app you created from visual studio into the device. Instruction are similar to those of the IOT Browser sample.

5. And congrats, you created your Wi-Fi To Do List. You can set notifications everytime someone posts on the website in settings. Play around with it and add more code and functionality (sensors, motors, etc) to the website so you can incorporate the full IOT experience with your Rasperry Pi.

The video is about sending a post from a separate mobile device to the to-do-list monitor, in which the list is updated in seconds