Screensaver

Screensaver

When the kiosk is idle, Kinboard switches to a fullscreen screensaver — a slow photo carousel with a clock overlay, optional news ticker, and presence-aware activation.

TODO: screenshot of the screensaver in idle state TODO: screenshot of the screensaver showing a news article overlay

What's on the screensaver

Top → bottom:

1. Background photo — fades between images from the configured photo source (Immich or Unsplash)
2. Clock + date (bottom-left) — large, low-contrast white-on-photo
3. Photo credit (bottom-center) — photographer name + location, small text
4. Birthdays today — if anyone has a birthday today
5. Upcoming events / next 7 days — small overlay top-right showing the next 5 events
6. Solar widget — if energy integration on screensaver is toggled, current solar production
7. Tesla widget — if Tesla integration on screensaver is toggled (battery, range)
8. News headlines — RSS-fed news headlines, slowly rotating
9. "Touch to unlock" hint — subtle, top-center

Tapping anywhere dismisses the screensaver and returns to the dashboard.

Photo sources

Two configurable sources, picked in Settings → Photos:

Immich

If you have a self-hosted Immich instance, point Kinboard at it + pick an album. Two album modes:

• Specific album — always the same one
• Automatic monthly album — Kinboard searches for an album named like the current month (e.g. 2026-05, May 2026, Mai 2026) and uses it. Falls back to a default if none match.

The "monthly album" mode pairs nicely with a Smart Album in Immich that filters photos taken in this month across all years — your kitchen wall shows mid-May 2024 photos in mid-May 2026.

See Immich for the connection setup.

Unsplash

If you don't have Immich (or don't want to share family photos with the wall display), Unsplash is the fallback. Per-month "search terms" generate a curated stream:

Month	Default search terms
January	winter landscape, frost architecture, frozen lake, snowy forest
April	cherry blossom, tulip field, blooming orchard, raindrops
July	beach sunset, milky way, mediterranean alley, alpine lake
December	christmas market, snow factory, candles cozy, fireplace

(See webapp/src/lib/unsplash-defaults.ts for the full list.)

The terms rotate hourly — every hour, the screensaver picks a fresh term and refreshes the photo. Customize per-month terms in Settings → Photos.

Photo rotation

Every 30 seconds by default (configurable 10 s – 5 min), the photo cross-fades to the next one in the source. Smooth framer-motion transition, dimmed so the clock overlay stays readable.

Presence-aware activation

If you've configured an LD2410 presence sensor for this device, screensaver behavior changes:

• No presence detected for N seconds (default 30) → screensaver activates immediately (or display blacks out, depending on mode)
• Presence detected → screensaver dismisses, dashboard returns

Without a presence sensor, the screensaver activates after the configured inactivity timeout (default 5 minutes; configurable 1 / 2 / 5 / 10 minutes / off).

Configure in Settings → Screensaver.

Two presence modes

When a sensor is present, you choose what "no presence" does:

Mode	Behavior
Screensaver only	Show photos, keep display backlight on
Display off (DPMS)	Turn the display off entirely (saves power, longer panel life)

Use Screensaver only if you like the kitchen wall showing photos as ambient art when the room is empty. Use Display off for max efficiency — typical setup for nighttime when no one's in the kitchen anyway.

News ticker

The screensaver pulls headlines from an RSS feed (configured family-wide). When a news article rotates in:

• Headline + source + relative time ("3 hr ago")
• Image (if the feed includes one) for the latest 1-2 articles
• Tap → expands into a modal with the full description and a "Read article" button that opens the source in the browser

Tapping the screensaver doesn't dismiss it when a news modal is open — only the modal close button does.

Auto-close: news modals close themselves after 5 minutes of inactivity to prevent the kitchen wall from being stuck on a news article forever.

Configuration cheat sheet

Setting	Path
Photo source	Settings → Photos
Inactivity timeout	Settings → Screensaver
Presence mode (Screensaver only / Display off)	Settings → Screensaver
Presence delay	Settings → Screensaver
Photo rotation interval	Settings → Screensaver
Show solar / Tesla widgets on screensaver	Settings → Home Assistant → Energy / Settings → Tesla

Patterns that work well

• Family photo nostalgia mode: Immich monthly album → kitchen wall shows photos from this same time of year, every year. "Oh look, that was when she was tiny."
• Ambient art mode: Unsplash with curated month terms, presence "Screensaver only". The kitchen wall is wallpaper when the room is empty.
• Power saver mode: presence sensor + "Display off" → wall is dark unless someone walks up.

What's not supported

• Multiple photo sources mixed. Pick one — Immich or Unsplash, not both.
• Audio/music on the screensaver. Photos only.
• Per-room or per-time-of-day photo sets. One source per family.
• Custom widgets on the screensaver. Solar, Tesla, news, clock are the only overlays. Adding your own would be a code change.

Related

• Immich — Immich photo source setup
• Presence-Sensor — LD2410 hardware + script
• Themes — locale-aware date formatting on the screensaver