Build Your Own LCD Picture Frame

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)."

Comments

Pictureframe PC

[Xeed]

This is very similar to a Mini-ITX project I saw a while ago.

The main difference is, the Mini-ITX page shows you how everything is layed out inside the picture frame.

A bit OTT

[brejc8]

That is so over the top. Creating an entire PC just to show a picture? That's 200 for the screen and another 200 for the computer. On top of that they are recommending a hard disk?
My version uses a 5 quid FPGA and some junk thrown away equipment. The LCD was a 12" 9bit colour from some factory and a fiend of a friend offered them to us for a quid each. And the RAM is an old 1Mb 30simm (I have about 3kg of these). There you go. A picture displaying system with no need for a huge/noisy PC power supply (runs from one of those 12v ac/dc plug converters). The images can be sent to it via a serial cable (two wires internally so it can be passed over any old cable you have lying around).

Re:A bit OTT

[shokk]

All you have to do is pick up an Audrey from Ebay and point it to a Gallery installation and set the page to slideshow for the album. Simple and done quickly from very off the shelf parts. For bonus points, have the gallery hosted so that you don't have a server gobbling electricity 24/7; plus others can easily access the gallery the same way and emulate a Cieva service.

Someday

[Anonymous Coward]

I hope to surround myself with LCD walls and change my room based on my mood.

Still Wanted:

[swordboy]

Open form-factor laptop specification.

I *can't* believe that companies like Viewsonic and Asus have not gotten together to create a chassis and DC power spec so that we can all build/repair our own laptops. Things like LCD panels could be purchased affordably at Best Buy or Circuit Shitty if this was the case.

A similar Project using an old PowerBook Duo...

[beerits]

can be found here.

Yeah..

[destiney]

Yeah I'm almost certain we all have a few unused LCD monitors lying around..

Right over there in the corner with my old 486's.

Coolness factor

[barenaked]

I guess the reason for doing this would ahve to be the coolness factor of it and rolling it yourself. But when you realize it is going to cost you $500+ for the "coolness factor" and you see there are cheaper already built alternatives out there for less than half the cost why not buy a prebuilt one? None of your family cares what your picture frame runs on or your picture frames uptime FYI

A bit OTT indeed :-)

[Space cowboy]

... a fiend of a friend offered them to us for a quid each.

Man, you're hard on your friends!

Simon.

Cheaper alternative

[detritus`]

I did something similar to this but i just bought an old PII/300 laptop with a 15" screen... got the whole deal for $350 and then only cost me ~$50 for frame materials. On the whole was a lot more simplistic than trying to get all the parts together like this guy did, and as a plus i could get everything running while the laptop was still intact.

Just think of the uses....

[aidanjpadden]

These could be cool - imagine the possiblities - you have one hard disk with the family photos on and one with the porn.

When the family come round show the nice xmas pictures of you and that jumper you didn't want then when they go a simple swap of disks and it'll be like the Playboy mansion....

At least it's got to be better than looking at fish all day right?

Hard drive?

[DrSkwid]

You should at least boot if from a Compact Flash card

silent, no heat, droppable (kinda)

I've got no references for Linux but FreeBSD has a sectionin the Handbook

And my fellow 9fan Matthias showed me a handy reference guide and bunch of scripts for the binaries you want. Well that's for non-X, my next stage of my project is trying to get my EPIA working in SVGA mode or, if I get a big enough CF card (I think a 256Mb should work and they are about $50 on ebay). I'm trying for an in car system. I already got it playing mp3s from the CD Rom 35 seconds from power.

A solution in search of a problem?

[Jeff DeMaagd]

Hey, there's nothing like converting a low-res display and computer hardware to make a high-tech $300+ version of a $10 picture frame.

Re:A solution in search of a problem?

[Cthefuture]

Uh, except that it changes, moves, or could even be interactive given some sort of input/stimulus.

Any size?

[Vo0k]

you can make it any size you like, using an off-the-shelf LCD monitor as the display.
So, I want the display to be, say, 10" diagonal, with frame 11", yeah, I go and buy such a display (where?) or get a ready one and cut it to the right dimensions?

You are pretty much stuck with the display size and you can only obscure it or extend the frame. You are stuck with factory display sizes.

Wireless, eh?

[Dark Lord Seth]

With the basic functionality up and running, you can start to play around with expansion options. My first project was to give the frame a wireless connection so I could transfer new pictures without taking it off the wall.

Wargoatseing, anyone?

sweet monkey jesus

[OwlofCreamCheese]

my lord this is a retarded plan. I see absolutely zero advantage in doing it this way, what overkill! I'd be impressed if it ran off a chip or something senseable, but this is just way too much work. you can get jpg decoders on a chip, I'd be impressed if you made this out of a digital camera (just switch the LCD to a bigger one). but this is just "buy a computer, glue it to the wall"

Just go out and buy one...

[answerer]

At the prices + time you're looking at with a project like this, you might as well go out and buy one.

http://www.artpix.com/
http://www.pacificdigital.com/products/memoryframe .asp

This project is only economical if you have old laptops sitting around. If that's the case, you probably won't have enough CPU/RAM to install the latest version of debian. For me, I don't even have a hard drive.

Anyone found a lite solution to picture frame software? Here are two solutions that I've found so far:

PictureFrame Linux
- Too heavy on system requirements
DOS Solution

Re:Just go out and buy one...

[Tony]

This project is only economical if you have old laptops sitting around. If that's the case, you probably won't have enough CPU/RAM to install the latest version of debian.

I have built picture frames out of old pentium-class laptops ('bout $100 off ebay, or cheaper if you shop around your own town), and they have no problems running the latest Debian. Just don't run X!

I use zgv to cycle through the pictures. Works great, *and* is less filling.

Visa Commercial

[Jozer99]

James Earl Jones like voice:
Mini-ITX motherboard 150
Custom 3 inch deep fram 100
Penium II desktop 100
USB CD-ROM 30
USB Wireless Adapter 80
15 inch LCD 300
RadioShack Switch 7
Power Brick 60
100 Hours you should
have been at work
1 60000year job
Getting the same result for 827 as you would for a $300 digital picture frame: Priceless Fade to black

Re:Visa Commercial

[damiam]

Except it would be a Mastercard commercial.

Somebody Didn't Read Linux Toys

[cmholm]

It doesn't cost 400 quid to put together an LCD picture frame. PopSci is taking a different route from Linux Toys, which starts with a $50 laptop from eBay. This has also been reviewed on Slashdot. While I like PopSci's mini ATX method, the Linux Toys laptop method is usually cheaper, if you shop eBay carefully, and refer to Linux On Laptops to make sure it'll work.

Re:Somebody Didn't Read Linux Toys

[bhtooefr]

Of course, it seems a bit overboard to use Linux for something that's only running one process. I've got an old P75 laptop (and it only uses a cord, no brick, too!), and it has an 8.4"x6.3"x640x480x16-bit screen, and an 810MB HDD. It'll run FreeDOS just fine, with a VESA TSR and LxPic (designed for HPLX palmtops, but works great on just about anything that runs DOS). After all, it does fairly well with Win95 (except with only 16MB RAM, it's dog slow). Flip the screen around, devise a latch, make a frame around it, and you've got a good picture frame. I suggest NOT matting it, as the choice of mat depends on the picture, and if it's changing pictures...

Yawn - Done way back.

[Graemee]

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

The possibilities

[ecarlson]

Put in a tiny camera and have a portrait image with eyes that follow the viewer. That would be pretty creepy. Or add some speakers, and and have it "jump out and scream" at the viewer when they get close, like those trick images on the web.

Missing the point

[SuperBanana]

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...

Re:Missing the point

[Rick the Red]

After I RTFA I see he did include 802.11, but he didn't know how to make it work.

Really, is this story telling us anything a /. reader couldn't do cheaper and better?

Re:Missing the point

[barawn]

they're horrible for viewing at anything other than dead-on; gamma and contrast change drastically from side to side or above/below

Yah, valid point. But the digital photo frame does actually generate light, so it does draw attention to itself.

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...

What if you have 5 "great photos"? Then you either take up a huge amount of wall space, or cycle through 5 of them slowly in a digital frame.

framing a picture means it was good enough to warrant said treatment.

How many people have a ton of picture albums rather than a ton of frames? The reason you only hang pictures you consider important is that the frame + the picture enlargement cost money, and the wall space is precious.

I have a lot of pictures from a lot of trips that I'd love to have hanging on a wall for people to see - especially right after I've taken the trip - but I don't know if I'd want to go through the money to have it hanging for a long time.

they need a power cord, which is fugly

Not very creative, are you? Here's what I've come up with so far to hide the power cord for mine:

1) Grab a potted plant, put it beside it, run it down behind it.
2) Hang a picture or something behind it, run it behind that.
3) Drill a hole into the wall behind it, drop the cord down to the ground, drill another hole and plug it in there.

the LCD panel won't last very long being on all day, every day; the backlights are rated for a few thousand hours tops.

Is 50 a few? Most are in the neighborhood of 50K hours, which is about a year of constant use. And it wouldn't take that much fiddling (you can even do it in Windows!) to turn it off during crazy points of the day. Plus the 50,000 is of course a worst-case: backlights have routinely lasted for far longer than that in constant commercial use.

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.

Oddly enough, you don't need high-resolution - pictures look very good even at 640x480 at larger than 6" x 8" if they're on an LCD. Plus the added benefit of having consistent lighting (via the backlight) makes the color representation look much more vivid and lifelike.

Hard drives especially don't like heat...

Hard drives, if not being accessed, can last for a long time with in a moderate heat setting. All the pictures sit in memory. Spin down the drive, and put it in full sleep mode.

Archival photo paper, with UV-blocking glass, mounted with acid-free materials, will last decades

Digital photos last forever. And that's just natively! Physical frames, however, can get damaged just as easily.

Of course, you're forgetting the main reason: it's a PC, for crying out loud! Get creative! Drop a wireless keyboard, wireless mouse, 802.11b card. Boom, instant easy Web access at your fingertips anytime (the number of times I've grabbed movie times from mine...). A normal frame can't do that.

what photoshop?

[Janek Kozicki]

Before transferring your pictures to the frame, you may want to use a graphics program like Photoshop to resize all your pictures to the monitor's native resolution. That will save a little CPU power and a lot of hard drive space.

I don't know what photoshop is, but I know that the best program for task described above is a batch job running convert.

hey, I just checked that photoshop is not a linux program, why this guy is talking about non-linux programs?

$500 is waaaay too much..

[Awptimus Prime]

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.

Linux Toys

[desktopj]

Picked up a book by Chistopher Negus and Chuck Wolber published by Wiley Tecnology Publishing called Linux Toys They do the same thing with an old laptop - something you can pickup for less than $100

Re:The trick is controlling the LCD

[TuxMelvin]

Thanks, and you're right, it can't hurt to try. Moreover, since the LCD is almost flat, why not mount it and only it to the wall, and hide the computer somewhere else? You'll have to drill a hole in the wall if you don't want to have a power cord showing, so why not just hide the actual box somewhere else? Most picture frames aren't that thick.

Another good option might allow you to flip the screen for portrait or landscape. Most of my photos are taken in portrait format.

Well, that does it

[idiot900]

The idea of being able to SSH into your picture frame makes D&D enthusiasts look good by comparison...

Nano-ITX

[-tji]

The upcoming Nano-ITX boards should offer even more flexibility for this type of design.. It's smaller, takes less power, and runs cooler. It also takes DC power, so you don't need to mess with the ATX -> DC/DC converter stuff that the Mini-ITX requires (although, there is supposed to be a DC Mini-ITX board coming out).

The down-side is that these have been announced for several months, but are still not available for purchase.

Coolness factor has nothing to do with it

[flieghund]

You're absolutely right that your family is unlikely to give a spit about the technical specs of the digital picture frame you give them. They'll be happy that it shows pictures that change over time. Wheee!

But there's more to giving a gift that just giving someone something that's off the shelf. I'd wager that your family will appreciate a custom-made gift (if it's well-made, that is) more than something you spent thirty minutes on picking up at the mall and which they can see sitting in their neighbor's house the next day.

But what happens when the pre-built models really aren't that great? When I looked into getting a pre-built model for my folks last Christmas, the models all seemed to hover around 640x480 pixels and 8-bit color. I take my digital photos at 1280x1024 with 24-bit color, and frankly I don't think they'd look all that great at one-quarter the size and an even smaller fraction of the color palette.

Also, most of the models I looked at used a plain telephone line to download updates (new photos and the like). Everyone in my family is sitting on broadband Ethernet connections, so I'd much prefer something that at least had the option of an Ethernet jack.

And another thing: most of the pre-built digital frame companies charge a monthly service fee in order to download new content. So not only do you have to pay for the frame itself, you have to keep paying in order to use it!

So for me, the "coolness factor" has little to do with it. Instead, it's all about pride in displaying my work, being able to include the options I want, and only having to pay for the whole thing once.

This has nothing on

[The Analog Kid]

Mr. Roger's Picture Picture.

DON'T DO IT - PATENT ALERT

[Linker3000]

Take care,

According to this article on ZDNet, uncle Billy has a patent on this kinda thing. Dunno if a home brew version will fall foul of the patent, but best keep yours in an upstairs spare room, draw the curtains ('drapes' for our US chums) and not show it to friends or neighbours.

Of course, if you wanna really p*ss people off:

Bill: Have the thing scroll through your virtual art library

then...

RIAA: Show some stills from your favourite music video accompanied by the matching MP3

then...

SCO: Show a tasty source code snippet from the routine of your choice

Snapshots

[cgenman]

If you want to display just snapshots, why not pick up an older color PDA with a cradle? They look great, run on low power, and can be had for about 100 bucks. Rigging them into a custom frame is easy, as the hardware is small.

Sure, you're not getting a 17" LCD, but let's be real... You're not getting a 17" LCD. A mini ITX board is easy to come by (I've got a spare if anyone wants one), as is a tiny HDD (Microcenter routinely sells 5gb strips for 15 dollars). Of course, you could always pick up a T-cube

Or bypass style and class altogether and get one of these things.

Note: above links courtesy of Mini Itx.com.

I-Opener

[Keck]

I'm a little late to the "discussion" as it were, but I'm using an i-opener obtained for $50 on ebay in this capacity. Hella easy; get a replacement bios chip and even the newer 'unhackable' versions are great little terminals. Add usb ethernet, and make a 2.5"->3.5" ide cable so you can load a low-overhead version of linux (midori, m4i, etc) on the 16Mb sandisk and you're in business. I spent $100 and 4 hours total on it. Can't beat the price for a p-200 class machine with no fans, no noise, no heat, a 10" lcd, no box to hide, and can be used for web browsing/email to boot.

iFrame

[macgyvr64]

Use old iBook parts and run a network (wireless!) iPhoto slideshow with all those cool transitions.

Someone Care to Help?

[Hex4def6]

This is an idea ive done in a fashion; I used a reasonably crappy 640x480 19 inch LCD-TV board, and constructed a wooden frame for it; I had the good fortune to get a bunch of LCD's of different types from a company clearance - most of them the bare lcd's and drivers.

I have in my possesion at the moment 5 of the bare lcd's that Apple used/uses in their 22 inch cineman display's; unfortunately I haven't got the plug and play logic boards for them, so they don't work too well :). The closest I can get to them working in a fashion under WinXP is to plug in a dvi LCD panel that works, let it be detected, then swap to the bare lcd. Unfortunately any change of resolution etc screws it up. Perhaps someone can advise me on where to get these boards / make them; Ive had these LCD's kicking around for nealy a year now, and it seems like a real waste not to use them.

Thanks in advance, and sorry for being slightly OT :)
Stewart

Re:Networked Home Appliance

[travisd]

Two words: Touch. Screen.

I Just Finished My Own

[Aldurn]

Oddly enough, I just finished building one of my own. It's a $20 NEC laptop from eBay. I believe it's a 486/25 with a 640x480x256 display, and 4 megs of RAM. It's got an Orinoco wireless card, and that's about it.

It runs Linux, except the kernel uses my own program as init. The program is statically compiled, and takes up about 600k. It contains cardmgr (to run PCMCIA cards), hdparm (to spin down the hard drive), ifconfig (to configure the network), udhcpcd (to configure the network as well), and my own "Picture Frame Server" program.

At boot, the program sets the hard drive's spindown time, installs the PCMCIA card, configures the NIC, and then begins listening. I've created a simple 8-bit (overkill, I know) bytecode containing such commands as "[P]ut Pixel at [x, y]", "[C]hange VGA color [n] to [r],[g],[b]", and "Accept Raw [S]tream".

It runs fairly quick. and needs not store ANY pictures on the frame itself, except what's on the screen. I have helper programs that convert standard pictures into a raw format that can be piped to the picture frame from any platform that can dump files to a network socket (Perl is good for that.)