Live clock in power bi on raspberry pi

[duddys]

Hi, I once got help here to make my live clock in power bi via the custom Deneb viusual, with this code. However, the remort is shown on TV with raspberry pi, on chromium and the clock never loads, is there any other solution that would work for my enviroment?

Code:

{

  "$schema": "https://vega.github.io/schema/vega/v5.json",

  "description": "Robust digital clock for Power BI.",

  "width": "container",

  "height": "container",

  "autosize": { "type": "fit", "contains": "padding" },

  "signals": [

    {

      "name": "currentDate",

      "init": "now()",

      "on": [

        { "events": [{"type": "timer", "throttle": 1000}], "update": "now()" }

      ]

    },

    {

      "name": "timeText",

      "update": "timeFormat(currentDate, '%d-%m-%Y %H:%M')"

    },

    {

      "name": "fontSize",

      "value": 35,

      "on": [

        {

          "events": {"type": "resize"},

          "update": "max(20, min(width, height) / 3)"

        }

      ]

    }

  ],

  "marks": [

    {

      "type": "text",

      "encode": {

        "enter": {

          "align": { "value": "center" },

          "baseline": { "value": "middle" }

        },

        "update": {

          "x": { "signal": "width / 2" },

          "y": { "signal": "height / 2" },

          "text": { "signal": "timeText" },

          "fontSize": { "signal": "fontSize" }

        }

      }

    }

  ]

}

[v-hashadapu]

Hi @duddys , Hope you're doing fine. Can you confirm if the problem is solved or still persists? Sharing your details will help others in the community.

[duddys]

Hi, I havent been able to get to it, so I didnt try the solution, it looks solid, I think it will work, but unfortunetly I couldnt test it yet so I cant mark it as solution.

[v-hashadapu]

Hi @duddys , how you doing? Just wanted to know if you have had a chance to test @FarhanJeelani 's answer to see if it solves your issue. If you still have any issues, please share the details, we are always happy to help.
Thank you.

[v-hashadapu]

Hi @duddys , 

Hope you're doing okay! May we know if it worked for you, or are you still experiencing difficulties? Let us know — your feedback can really help others in the same situation.

[Poojara_D12]

Hi @duddys 

The Deneb/Vega clock you’re using works fine in Power BI Desktop and most modern browsers, but the problem on your TV setup with a Raspberry Pi running Chromium comes from the way Vega’s now() and timer events work. Deneb relies on JavaScript execution inside the Power BI visual container, and in lighter or restricted environments like Chromium on Raspberry Pi, the timer signal that refreshes the clock (events: {type: "timer"}) often fails to fire or is throttled, leaving the clock frozen at the initial load time. Unfortunately, this means your setup isn’t guaranteed to render live updates consistently. A more reliable approach for your environment would be to avoid client-side timer logic altogether and instead pass the current system time into Power BI from the data source (for example, via a small query returning GETDATE() or CURRENT_TIMESTAMP from your database, or a Power Query function). Then you can refresh that lightweight query every minute in the Power BI Service or use the Power Automate refresh trick for near-real-time updates. Another option outside Power BI is to overlay a simple system clock widget directly on your Raspberry Pi display or TV screen (using a kiosk/overlay app), leaving Power BI just for reporting. This way, you won’t be dependent on Vega’s timer, which is the root of your issue.

[v-hashadapu]

Hi @duddys , Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Community Forum.

We find the answer shared by @FarhanJeelani  is appropriate. Can you please confirm if the solution worked for you. It will help others with similar issues find the answer easily.

Thank you @FarhanJeelani  for your valuable response..

[FarhanJeelani]

HI @duddys ,

the per‑second timer clock in Deneb/Vega often doesn’t survive all environments. On a Raspberry Pi running Chromium in kiosk/TV mode, the Vega runtime inside the Power BI custom visuals can fail to update. T

use a real-time streaming dataset (most reliable) If you can push data to Power BI, you can get a true live clock without relying on Deneb inside the report.

What you’ll do

Create a streaming dataset in Power BI Service (Push dataset) with one field, e.g. CurrentTime (DateTime).
Build a tiny report in Power BI Desktop that uses that field (a Card visual showing the latest CurrentTime).
Publish to the Power BI service.
On the Raspberry Pi, run a small script that pushes the current time to the streaming dataset every second (or every few seconds). The script should authenticate to the Power BI REST API and post rows to: POST https://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg/groups/{groupId}/datasets/{datasetId}/rows Body: { "rows": [ { "CurrentTime": "2025-09-09T12:34:56Z" } ] }
What you’ll need 

A Power BI workspace, a “Push” streaming dataset, and the dataset’s groupId/datasetId.
An app registration (Azure AD) or a service principal to obtain an access token for the Power BI API.
A small Python script (or Node.js, etc.) on the Raspberry Pi to push data every 1–5 seconds.

Please mark this post as solution if it helps you. Appreciate Kudos.