Convert your fridge into a smart fridge with this App for the iPad

Project mission

Create an iPad dashboard App that can be used by everybody in the family, showing all important items on one single screen. It will show upcoming events with a day countdown, a Shopping List with favourites, Today's events calendar, and easy to use Kitchen Timer.

When the iPad is mounted on the Fridge it can show a family slide show, opening the fridge door will automatically interrupt the slide show. The iPad app is compatible with iOS 11, which means older iPads will be supported.

Shared iCloud albums is supported, so everybody can upload their favourite photos to be displayed

The Home Screen

Shopping List

Write your shopping list here for everybody to see, you can use the 'heart' button to add favourite items. The share button allows you to send the shopping list to whoever you want.

To Do List

The 'To Do' list is a handy place to add your items that you do not want to forget.

Today

The 'Today' calendar shows your events planned for today. You can set up which calendars to show here.

Kitchen Timer

An easy to set kitchen timer, with a large display. It can be enabled by pressing the timer button in the header bar (1)

Upcoming Events

The 'Upcoming Events' calendar shows the number of days countdown, perfect to keep track of upcoming birthdays.

The Home Screen Buttons

Favourites

The favourite screen can be accessed by pressing the 'Heart' icon (2) in the shopping list window.

Share the 'Shopping List' or 'To Do List' by pressing the share button (1)

To Edit the 'Shopping List' or 'To Do List' press either the required screen (4) or (5)

To delete the whole 'Shopping List press the delete button (3)

Favourites Editing

The Favourites list can be edited by pressing the edit button, so your shopping favourites can be set.

The Slide Show

The build in Slide Show can be activated from the home screen via the 'Slide Show' button. The slide show can start automatically after a set time and be interrupted when movement of the iPad is detected. Eg. when the Fridge door is opened.

The Slide Show Activation

When the iPad is mounted on your fridge, FridgeNote gives you the best user experience together with the fridge door detection*, which shows the home screen, when opening or closing the fridge door.

If you selected to display the photo creation date in the slide show, you can swap between the creation data and the elapsed time by pressing the label itself.

Families can use the shared iCloud album feature to add images to a shared album, which can be displayed by the App. This is ideal for families living apart, which want to share their day to day photos.

*If the screen saver does not stay up, decrease the 'Fridge door movement sensitivity' in settings.

The Calendars

Month and Week View

To access the Month and Week view, press the buttons on the top of the Home Screen

The Month View

This view shows the full month, you can select a specific month at the bottom of the page. Selecting an individual day, allows you to edit it.

For future/past years press the Month in the header bar to select a future or past year.

The Week View

This view will show all events for the selected week. The arrow buttons at the bottom of the page allow you to move to the next and previous weeks. Selecting an individual day, allows you to edit it.

Calendar Edit

Edit a Calendar Event

To edit a calendar event, press the Edit button on the top right of the screen or press on the desired calendar or Upcoming events window.

Create or Edit a Calendar Event

To create an event, at a minimum, the event name has to be filled out, and the green '+' button pressed (2)

A duration, repeating event, alarm and Calendar can be selected from this screen.

To enter a specific time for the event press the Chevron (1)

To delete a calendar event, select the event from the list, and it can be deleted.

To update a calendar event, select the event and press the edit symbol to edit.

7 day calendar overview

7 Day Calendar

To view upcoming events over the next 7 days, press button (1)

View 7 Day Calendar Overview

To show the upcoming events, it is best practise to place dedicated events in seperate dedicated calendars, this way it will show a clear overview, what is coming up per person/category. The specific calendars to be displayed can be selected and ordered in Settings.

Upcomming Events

Upcoming Events

To view the Upcoming events in a dedicated window, press the event button (1)

Press the Timer button(2) to enlarge the Upcoming events view.

View Upcoming Events

Here you can view all 10 upcoming events from the upcoming 180 days. Pressing individual events, allows you to edit them. This is the ideal place to view upcoming birthdays.

Kitchen Timer

The Kitchen Timer

The Kitchen timer has 3 set time buttons:

10 Minutes
1 Minute
10 Seconds

Once the desired time is set press the start button (2).

To reset the timer press the reset button (1)

When the Timer is running and the Pause button (2) is pressed, extra time can be added by pressing the desired time buttons.

The Blackboard

The blackboard provides a convenient way of showing important messages

To select a pencil colour select from the range (1)
To select the eraser press (2), the size of the eraser depend on the pencil thickness chosen by (3)
To delete the drawing press (5)
To remove the selections panel after drawing , press (4)

Notes

To record notes, press the Note button in the header bar.

To add a note press button (3)

To Delete the current note press button (4)

The Title of the note can be changed by pressing in the title area (2)

To edit the text inside the note press area (1)

Selecting a Note is done by pressing the requested note in area (5)

To share the text in a note, press the note button (6)

FridgeNote setup

Settings

To access the Fridgenote's App Settings, press the Settings button.

To get the best user experience with FridgeNote, it is recommended you disable the auto-lock feature, in the iPad's settings menu this will make the screen stay on always, to show you the Home Screen or the slide show.

The settings menu allows you to:

Info, tips and tricks how to setup the iPad.
Setting if the time, date, or photo creation date is to be displayed in the slide show.
Shuffle the photos and set the speed how much the photo zoom should be applied during the slide show.
Select which photo album to show for the slide show, and the duration.
Select which calendars to use for the 'Upcoming events' and 'Today events' Calendars.
Create a new calendar and change the colour and name
Set the time of the day when the screen brightness needs to be increased or decreased.
Selected if you would like to use dark or night mode.
Select the calendars to be displayed in the 7 day forcast view, and re-order them.
Unlock the App, so unlimited photos can be displayed in the slide show and unlimited calendar events can be created.
Restore the Purchase in case you install the purchased app on a new device.

TipS for the best user experience

To get the best user experience, disable the Auto-lock feature in iPad Settings. It will make FridgeNote always able to show calendars and a slide show.

When FridgeNote is mounted on the fridge door, enable in settings the feature ‘Slide Show to stop after movement is detected’ this way when the fridge door opens you can see your agenda and upcoming events.

The slide show is activated after a set time and is interrupted when movement is detected by the fridge door, or when the screen is touched.

Mounting the iPad to the Fridge Door

Mounting Instructions

To mount the iPad to the fridge, I used double-sided heavy-duty mounting tape from 3M (3) and high-strength magnets strips (3). Both can be bought from your local hardware store. This provides a mounting solution with a small gap between the iPad and the fridge. The magnet is covered with clear sticky tape (1), to prevent scratching the fridge surface.

The iPad is connected permanently to a USB power supply, to be always on. Make sure to use powerfull enough charger, else the iPad might still go flat.

Scan the QR code, to download the FridgeNote App directly from the Apple App Store.

Questions and Feedback

For feedback regarding FridgeNote send me an e-mail on:

fridgenote2020@gmail.com

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse