What's a nugget?

It's a simple communal dashboard (or information radiator), although perhaps not in the typical sense.

While a lot of dashboards are complex and meant for reacting and driving decision making, nuggets are more about creating general awareness. And looking awesome.

Here's an example - Hudl's concurrent user count:

The number moves up and down in real time.

You can put one up on a spare monitor or a TV, but for maximum #mindblown, you should project it onto a surface:

How do I make one?

1. Fork this repository
2. Create a datasource and a display
3. (optional) Get a projector

Still interested? Continue on for more detail.

Presentation Slides

This project has been the subject of a presentation. See the slides.

Project Structure

The system is just a simple client-server architecture, with a node.js/socket.io server retrieving and curating data, and a browser/socket.io client subscribing to data events fired by the server.

Terminology

• Stat - A (javascript object) message containing a small piece of data to be displayed.
• Datasource - A node.js module on the server that grabs data from one or more external sources, builds them into a stat, and emits that stat.
• Display - A require.js module in a browser client that consumes stats and renders them.

Datasource

Datasource modules go in server/user/datasource.

See a simple, documented Current System Time datasource example.

Display

Display JavaScript, HTML, and CSS goes in server/user/displays.

For each display you should define exactly one file with the same name. For a display called current-time, you'll create:

• server/user/displays/current-time.js
• server/user/displays/current-time.css
• server/user/displays/current-time.html

Each of the links above is to an example that works with the system-time datasource (above).

Making It Go

_{Note: This assumes you're running the server on linux. For Windows, some additional work may be required.}

1. Download and install node.js

2. Switch to the server/ directory and install dependencies with npm

    npm install
    npm install forever -g
   

3. Start the server

    ./start.sh
   

   This uses forever to run node server.js. You can list running processes with forever list and stop the server with forever stop server.js. See the forever documentation for more details.

4. Open up a browser and visit:

• http://localhost:42420 to load a display
• http://localhost:42420/dashboard to load the nugget control panel

Projectors and Raspberry Pi

More coming soon.

These are the parts I used that've worked pretty well for me. I'd recommend price shopping a bit for them.

• Raspberry Pi
• Acer X1220H 2700 lumen projector
• Edimax EW7811Un WiFi adapter
• Rosewill 4-port powered USB hub
• PowerGen 2.4A USB wall charger
• Rosewill RPM-MP0010 projector mount