Ok, the digital picture frame project is done and a success!
I was looking for a way to display the 1000s of digital pictures I had taken and stored on my PC. I've printed a few of the best, but this is only a small fraction of my total collection. The digital frames I saw out there commercially available were expensive, small, low-resolution, and had very limited memories. So thats when I decided I could do much better, cheaper myself:
I found a inspiron 7500 laptop for this project - the nice thing about it was a 15" screen (12x9.5") and 1280x1024 resolution. This is worlds above the store-bought digital frames which are often 5x8" and less than 800x600 resolution. Be careful if you're buying a old laptop for this type of project - many of the old laptops on ebay are only 800x600.
Software:
Installed W2k on it (just because I had a license available) for the OS. I suppose linux would be slicker, but I was having some issues with the CD drive so I needed a single disk install. The next piece of software was key: VNC (http://www.realvnc.com/). You install VNC server on the laptop, and the client on your PC so you can access the desktop from my main computer and make changes. I did leave the keyboard of the laptop attached, but it would be a huge pain to try to do anything with it.
Also I put in a ethernet card for updating photos. It has a 40 gig drive as well. My first batch of photos - 1000 pictures, 1.1 gig file.
Right now I'm using Irfanview to create standalone EXEs of slideshows with customized settings. There was nothing too special about Irfanview - it was free, and it can create slideshows into standalone EXE files. I just copy the new .exe to the startup folder on the picture frame (a shared folder). Then log in with VNC, delete the old .exe out of the startup folder, and startup the new .exe...
I took the laptop apart as much as possible, but the case for the non-screen clamshell section was very hard to remove - I decided to leave that half more intact rather than risk breaking the laptop.
I then went to hobby lobby and cut a matte for the screen (12 x 9.5) and got a shadow box frame (16x20) - all for around 25 dollars.
As you can see the shadow box was a bit too shallow to totally enclose the laptop, especially since I couldn't remove all of the case. But it's only about 1/4" above the plane of the back of the frame, so shouldn't interfere or be visable in normal operation. Plus very easy to use the keyboard/mousepad for emergency backup interface needs.
Overall, looks very nice.... Working well for over three weeks now with 12hrs+ a day of use. No heating issues. The laptop fan never even turns on, except when rebooting.
I was looking for a way to display the 1000s of digital pictures I had taken and stored on my PC. I've printed a few of the best, but this is only a small fraction of my total collection. The digital frames I saw out there commercially available were expensive, small, low-resolution, and had very limited memories. So thats when I decided I could do much better, cheaper myself:
I found a inspiron 7500 laptop for this project - the nice thing about it was a 15" screen (12x9.5") and 1280x1024 resolution. This is worlds above the store-bought digital frames which are often 5x8" and less than 800x600 resolution. Be careful if you're buying a old laptop for this type of project - many of the old laptops on ebay are only 800x600.
Software:
Installed W2k on it (just because I had a license available) for the OS. I suppose linux would be slicker, but I was having some issues with the CD drive so I needed a single disk install. The next piece of software was key: VNC (http://www.realvnc.com/). You install VNC server on the laptop, and the client on your PC so you can access the desktop from my main computer and make changes. I did leave the keyboard of the laptop attached, but it would be a huge pain to try to do anything with it.
Also I put in a ethernet card for updating photos. It has a 40 gig drive as well. My first batch of photos - 1000 pictures, 1.1 gig file.
Right now I'm using Irfanview to create standalone EXEs of slideshows with customized settings. There was nothing too special about Irfanview - it was free, and it can create slideshows into standalone EXE files. I just copy the new .exe to the startup folder on the picture frame (a shared folder). Then log in with VNC, delete the old .exe out of the startup folder, and startup the new .exe...
I took the laptop apart as much as possible, but the case for the non-screen clamshell section was very hard to remove - I decided to leave that half more intact rather than risk breaking the laptop.
I then went to hobby lobby and cut a matte for the screen (12 x 9.5) and got a shadow box frame (16x20) - all for around 25 dollars.
As you can see the shadow box was a bit too shallow to totally enclose the laptop, especially since I couldn't remove all of the case. But it's only about 1/4" above the plane of the back of the frame, so shouldn't interfere or be visable in normal operation. Plus very easy to use the keyboard/mousepad for emergency backup interface needs.
Overall, looks very nice.... Working well for over three weeks now with 12hrs+ a day of use. No heating issues. The laptop fan never even turns on, except when rebooting.
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