Old PowerBook + Hot Glue = Cheap Digital Picture Frame

option8 writes "Have an old laptop gathering dust? Here's another fun hack from Applefritter - this time utilizing an old Mac laptop (a Duo 280) but could be applied to pretty much anything with an LCD, and turning the guts into a cheap, flexible digital picture frame. Now, off to the flea market to pick up one of them cheap Duos I keep seeing..." As the author points out, this isn't a new idea -- but it's a great step-by-step.

Comments

Re:Powerbook

[danielsmc]

Actually, all Mac laptops after the Mac Portable were called PowerBooks, even though they used 68k procs. The name has nothing to do with the processor. Daniel

Re:Powerbook

[nbvb]

My condolances sir, but neither did the early PowerBooks:

PowerBook 100

PowerBook 100

PowerBook 100

Well, you get the idea ........

So, exactly how DOES your sock taste?

--NBVB

ThinkPad version

[HawaiianMayan]

Here's another page where somebody did this with a ThinkPad. (This one's not so involved; the guy just flipped the keyboard back behind the screen).

Make sure you only try this on a computer you don't care about losing!!! I killed a NEC laptop messing around with this. Those ribbon connectors between the LCD and the motherboard are FRAGILE!!! :-(

Power cost?

[TFloore]

Just from curiosity, what is the power cost for running this for a year?

I assume it will be running with the LCD active 24/7. Nothing seemed to imply a normal time-based shutdown (as if anyone here keeps "normal" hours anyway...) so that seems a valid assumption.

That said, what's the power usage for this, and therefore what is the approximate cost to run this for a year?

No, I'm not an eco-freak, I just like to know how much something will cost before before I jump in and do it.

This says 36Watts for the Duo 2300C. Okay.

36 * 24hours = 864watt-hours.
365 days of this = 315360 watt-hours, about 315kilowatt-hours.

My power company charges me about 6 cents per kilowatt-hour. This will cost about $19 per year in energy costs for me.

Amazing, that's actually low enough to be acceptable.