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Build Your Own LCD Picture Frame

Posted by michael on from the when-thumbtacks-just-aren't-good-enough dept.

mbrain writes "PopSci is running a really good how-to story that shows how to build your own LCD picture frame. Since you are building it yourself, you can make it any size you like, using an off-the-shelf LCD monitor as the display. The frame as described uses a cheap motherboard, power supply and HD and runs Linux. It can hold thousands of photos. A little pricey, but still a cool project (especially if you have some of the parts laying around)."

3 of 175 comments (clear)

  1. Yawn - Done way back. by Graemee · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Check these links for a Duo (Laptop) mod to a picture frame. I remember this site as the first I saw. I have an old 486 and a 64MB compaq flash just waiting for a conversion.

    http://www.applefritter.com/hacks/duodigitalfram e
    http://www.applefritter.com/node/view/728

    Duo Digital Frame by James Roos

  2. Missing the point by SuperBanana · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Creating an entire PC just to show a picture?

    I agree, but you're missing most of the point- it's not the hardware, it's the concept; low-tech is best.

    • framing a picture means it was good enough to warrant said treatment. The whole point of putting up a picture frame is lost if all you show are crap photos of your dog or whatnot. Further, if I have a great photo, I want it to always be there, or at least be instantly accessible. No easy way to do that here...
    • the LCD panel won't last very long being on all day, every day; the backlights are rated for a few thousand hours tops.
    • they're horrible for viewing at anything other than dead-on; gamma and contrast change drastically from side to side or above/below
    • they need a power cord, which is fugly
    • they have vastly inferior resolution; high-resolution LCD panels aren't available anywhere except in laptops. A standard print from even, say, Walmart's digital photo lab machine...is at least 300dpi, more like 600dpi.
    • Archival photo paper, with UV-blocking glass, mounted with acid-free materials, will last decades. This toy will last about 2-3 years if it's lucky. Maybe 5.
    • at the temperatures involved (the mini-itx site lists a figure around 44C) none of the components will last very long. Hard drives especially don't like heat...
    --
    Please help metamoderate.
  3. $500 is waaaay too much.. by Awptimus+Prime · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is probably the worst article I've seen posted on making digital picture frames. I apologize if that hurts anyone's feelings, but a lot more thinking could have gone into the design and parts.

    For starters, why not go to the flea market or ebay and pick up an ancient laptop? This gives you a cpu, motherboard, hard drive, network interface, and a display. I was able to find old, functional laptops for under $150 on ebay.

    I would pull the motherboard and mount it against the back of the display, then order a premium, custom built frame from a picture frame shop for ~$25-$100. You could be cheap and build your own, but $100 should get something nice and elegant. Another option would be to just pick up a pre-built frame and put in an insert cut to your spec.

    For people not up to the skill level of configuring Linux, they could simply boot to Windows and set their SHELL variable to a screen saver's executable for cycling pictures. There is one built-in to XP, but many freebies are out there for previous builds of Windows.

    Personally, I would opt for a wireless NIC and mount a share where the pictures are to be stored. That way I could simply copy new pictures over to the system from my main computer.