Digital photo frame

[Roadie]

You may have noticed that i mentioned in another thread one of the computers in my possession is a laptop that i am converting into a digital photoframe, well i think i've managed to cobble something together that i am reasonably happy with and thought i'd show you lot how easy it is to do! Simply take one old laptop that gets no use (or find a cheap one somewhere, i paid £20 for the one i am using, and apart from a slightly dodgy hard drive (anyone got one they don't want!) it was in very good nick) Then take said laptop apart, somepeople take it to the extreme and remove anything that is not vital to the running of the laptop, me i couldn't be bothered going to that length and thus just did enough to do the main thing which is to make the screen point in the wrong direction! Then make a frame that will support the laptop in the correct manner and bob's your uncle (well just about anyway!) The photo's describe it better so i'll let them do the talking for now!

[Roadie]

And the frame and the "finished" product, still needs some paint to finish it off.

[Grant Lamontagne]

Very nice!  I am considering a new laptop, and have been giving serious consideration to what to do with my old one when I do.  I figured I'd just offer it to anyone who wants it.

This might be an interesting alternative though!

Def

[Roadie]

Yep! Just imagine all those multitool and SAK photo's you'll get to see more often with them scrolling through in the background! Best of all though is its a) cheaper to build than a prebuilt one (£200 vs £20) and b) it has all the functionality of a computer so you could have it playing music aswell or downloading the latest greatest program while you sit and watch the pretty pics go past!

[Grant Lamontagne]

I dunno if I'd go that far- my old laptop is pretty sad... In fact, come to think of it, I don't think I can use mine for that since it opens all pictures in IE... running Win98, and not enough power for anything more. 

It really is just a glorified typewriter, and to be honest, there's very little glory left!

Def

[Roadie]

The one i am using was designed for windows ME its only a P3 600 with 128mb of ram, it doesn't need that much processing power to stick a couple of pics up, found a nice little program that can make an exe that contains the slideshow, so just run it and it displays all the photo's at full screen changing at the rate you set it to. CPU usage jumps up at each change but drops right down again straight away (using transition FX does make it run a teensy bit hot but thats not a a problem just do without them!) Go for it! The worst that could happen is you try it before you make the frame and it doesnt work! XnView is the program i used to make the exe's)

[Grant Lamontagne]

That blows mine out of the water... I've tried upgrading to ME or XP, but with 166mhz proc and I think 96mb RAM, it's not gonna happen!

I suppose I could install a small slideshow program like ACDSee...

Def

[Roadie]

ah a 166....well it might work!! you could just have it display one pic all day....don't want to stress it out by making it change!

[Grant Lamontagne]

That's ok, I have a fire extinguisher!

Def

[Roadie]

Sounds like you've done this before!

[Grant Lamontagne]

Not tellin'.... 

I just checked eBay, my favorite place to look for high tech gadgetry straight from the Orient and fresh with the smell of 5 year old blood, sweat and tears, and I found a number of photo frames for a fraction of what they go for in stores.

Usually these are the exact same items you find in Radio Shack, only they don't have a big, expensive Western name on them!

Def

[Roadie]

Just an update, got a cheap hard drive to replace the noisy one and its now extremely quiet in operation, even if the fan does kick in (i couldn't hear the fan over the noise of the hard drive before!) its not particularly noisy and with even a minimal amount of background noise it becomes inaudible. Next on the list of to buy items is a PCMCIA card reader and a PCMCIA usb card, as the usb slots on the laptop are on the bottom and there's not enough clearance to plug in a usb cable. Although i may have found a wireless mouse with a dongle that rotates 90 degrees which means i can have a mouse plugged in all the time without any unsightly wires hanging out the side.

And for Def: Click This guys using a 200mhz processor but its in french so i haven't a clue what he's on about! I'm sure i've seen another one using a similar speed processor but i can't find a link for it.

[Grant Lamontagne]

Very cool.  I've been more impressed with the ones on eBay lately though.  Apparently putting a "Sony," "Toshiba," or "Panasonic" sticker on them is a very expensive process!

I know buying cheap knockoffs from Asia is bad, but when the "big name" manufacturers are buying them from there, putting their names on them and selling them at several times the price, well a brand name is only worth so much IMHO.

Def