I have been thinking about setting up a dashboard on my outdoor TV. It is a Roku TV so I can control it over IP. I was thinking of a display dashboard to begin with. No input. But maybe added a remote pointer or something. First thing came to mind was a Raspberry PI. Would have to be really small to put in the enclosure with the TV. And of course it would have to run cool as it can get hot out there. Any thoughts? Thanks.
Did you end up going down this route?
Personal Experience w/ Outdoor TV
My dad has a cheap Roku TV out on his patio – it’s a deep patio so it’s pretty well covered already, but he also puts a TV cover over it when he’s not using it to prevent dust and other build-up.
Most of his actual electronics are inside the house and he pushes the video feeds out to the outdoor TV and other TVs in the house with a Monoprice Blackbird video distribution system (HDMI Matrix). Of course the TV has it’s own sources too with it being a Roku TV, so that’s an option too.
He just commonly has Spotify playing music or has sports playing (Golf, Football, etc) and has it playing indoors and outdoors.
His main TV box (NVIDIA Shield) is close enough that he can even just take that remote outside and control the distributed feed from outside, but I’ve been tempted to build him a solution with a SharpTools dashboard like a remote or whole-home distribution management system. 
Raspberry Pi
The dust might also be a risk for the Raspberry Pi over time and condensation could build up – but perhaps putting it in a weatherproof enclosure could help. There’s lots of IP65/IP66 rated project boxes that are commonly used for outdoor electronics projects and you could throw a small dessicant pack in too for good measure.
In a sealed enclosure, I guess you might then be fighting against temperature build up… but I guess that probably depends on how much load the device really is coming up against.
I went down the PI route. I have it setup on my test bench and plan to install in small ventilated enclosure. My TV is in a gazebo and completely protected from the elements. I used a 4b. Not the greatest performance but for general feedback and think it will work well. Will follow up once installed.
1 Like
Working nicely. Threw together a quick dashboard for testing. The Roku TV is automated so it comes on when we are on the porch.
1 Like
Looks great! Thanks for sharing.