ChodTheWacko

Anyone have one?

I've always had the desire to either buy/make a digital picture frame.

I'm highly considering buying this:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...ssage=13981919
(Probably the cheaper 19" one for $850).

Pictures just sit around and generally get seen once and stay buried in a photo album/your hard disk. It'd be nice to have it just switching on the wall by itself (probably not too often, maybe once an hour)

I could get a smaller cheaper one for the desk at work, but it'd be way more satisfying to have a big one hanging off the wall, like those photos.


Of course, the REAL question is, how much would it cost to make something equivalent. In theory it sounds easy enough to buy a cheap 19" laptop and just throw it on the wall, so what you are paying for is the work it takes to get something that looks really nice hanging off a wall.

ChodTheWacko

Just some ramblings:

Pondering the DYI route, in theory you could go two routes:
1) Buy a cheap LCD monitor/motherboard & merge them. (Having two power cables would be annoying though)
2) Buy the cheapest large lcd laptop and use that. This hardly needs any cpu power/memory, but I just need to find a nice (and as large as possible!) monitor.

Anyone make a 286 laptop with a 19" LCD?

Ashburner

I not sure about DIY but that thing is awesome. I would love to have the 19" above my fireplace scrolling through all our family memories. $1,000 is not cheap though.

JJ4Short

Doing it yourself will probably be more expensive then the actual unit when you factor in the cost of an LCD screen and a computer.

Because the color on a 286 laptop or any really old laptop probably would suck ass

fdl

Its hard for DIY to be cost effective when this stuff is basically put together in China for pennies.

Sarlacc

The only Idont like is how it runs off wireless....a nice option yes...but it needs to have a CF slot or something as well...

Maybe it does?

I didnt look at the specs.

Sarlacc

nevermind...it supports USB flash drives.

Awesome.

JJ4Short

If the price were about the price were in the 300-400 mark I wouldn't mind getting one but thats because I am a cheapo.

Sarlacc

I actually would love to get the 19"...I am love with the idea of revolving photos on display.

Speed_Racer

I've seen a couple different people do this themselves on MSDN using Windows CE to cycle through the pictures wirelessly from their home PC. Here's one How To site:

http://www.windowsfordevices.com/art...361803439.html

ChodTheWacko

Ya, I ebayed a laptop for $70 including shipping (an gateway solo 9100 - a pentium TWO! woo hoo. but a nice 14" screen apparentlY)

so I plan on ripping that sucker apart to see what I can do with it.

- Frank

ChodTheWacko

I have to say, even if this doesn't turn out as planned, i'm having a lot of fun:


To the right of the mouse is a pile of 75 screws.
The big pile on the right is mostly casing and crud


Well, if it's good enough for windows 95, it's good enough for me!
That thing on the left kind of looks important, but it seems to work with it unplugged, so uhhhhhhhh.

ChodTheWacko

Finally done (unless it burns up, but I'm hoping since it'll be 99% idle, it'll be OK)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xycjlpx_5T8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCDvLzPNRvE

Scribesoft

Good Job man. Looks nice. Do you have any video of it actually up on a wall rolling through some photos?

rise

that looks awesome! great work, how long did that take you?

Dan Martin

That turned out better than I expected!

sasha

That's cool!

fsttyms1

Ive been looking to do something like that for awhile now. Great work!

Beelzebub

Cool Frank.

I should do this with my old p3 17" dell laptop

BC2G

i love how you pick your nose mid vid

nice job btw

ChodTheWacko

Here it is hanging in the office:


The power cable is hidden in the top of the wall - you can barely see the power brick
sitting on top of the shelf on the right.

I don't want it to be distracting, so it only changes once every couple of hours or so.

It took me all weekend, because this is the first thing I've ever built, but all in all it is actually pretty easy. Longest part was just waiting for the wood glue to dry, and experimenting with how much I could remove from the laptop and still have it work.

iamhomin

That's crazy, theory, I mean Chod!

Sly Raskal

iTrader: (1)

Sweet Job Chod!

ChodTheWacko

Man it started overheating and locking up.
I had to glonk on some fans on the back. Kind of a hack, but works well enough.
I used big 120mm fans for maximum air, minimum nose, connected to a power supply from Radio shack.

badboy

great work!!

Did you know the meaning of Chod in other languages?

cl_jay

I had to put the fan back on along with the little heatsink. I hate that the fan turns on and off so much. If the noise of the fan was constant it could be tolerable, but this fan is off one second and going bloody fast the next. I have my picture frame off now. It was a nice DIY though.

ChodTheWacko

My fans are the NEXUS 120MM REAL SILENT CASE FAN - D12SL-12
and I can't hear them at all.

It's annoying that I need a separate power supply for them, but I managed to hide both cables so you still can't see them.

cl_jay

Thanks for the tip Chod, I'll probably pick a couple up.