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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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...

$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.

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.

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