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Ik las hier een topic over digiframes............dit deed ik vorig jaar :
Hi fella's,
Since i always wanted to buy a digital frame, but lacked cash to spend onto that thing, i decided to surf the net...........and stumbled uppon this marvelous idea of turning an old laptop into a digitalframe.
For those not knowing what a digital frame is.........a pictureframe with digital content able to slideshow pictures.
1st step : getting a laptop and prepping it
I found myself an old latitude xpi (pent1 133mhz, 2gig HDD, 32meg ram) laptop.
Preparing it was somth completely else!!! It went DIFFICULT, i've installed tons of os's but this one was weird. It didnt take 'freedos' it didnt take 'dos6.22', it didnt like '3.11'....my guess at the end was that the bootdisk i used to fire it up was made with ME and XP, leaving me with a laptop started using a 'newer-version' boot disk.....
The thing that DID install was win95....on disk........since this laptop only has a FDD and no cd options, it was a struggle to get the damn thing running, but i succeeded.
I also found a nice free-slideshow screensaver for 95,me,2000,xp etc...
And it works!
After all of this, the screen wouldnt let go of its 16colors!!!!!!!! Pffffff
it aint easy to find a driver for a laptop tft, being an old laptop didnt really work in my advantage either........after surfing for ages AGAIN, i finally found the driver that worked. Now i could run 640x480x16bit color or 800x600x256color..........i choose running at higher res but with less color, since that was the best option by far for this laptop.
Take a picture of the keyb, it might come in handy later, since a lot of laptops have screws hidden underneath the keys............this one didnt !!, lol so i took it half apart for nottin......
(keep the keyboard for later, if the system EVER brakes downu might need it if your ps2 connection is busted or u wanna us e a mouse and keyb)
2nd step : rip that baby apart ! BE VERY GENTLE THOUGH
A laptop is like a woman.........u got to de-essemble it with a soft touch, dont make it upset or it'll brake somthing!!! in this case any old soldered piece of equipment might be crucial for your success...........
" I got somth and it goes stumping like this , all you need is uhm tiss uhm tiss uhm tiss" > singing didnt help either so i just took the time needed to rip it bare-parts.
U can throw away a lot of stuff, like the battery (heavy and big) cause u'll run it with power supply only, keyb, docking bay, cover, trackball, casing etc etc etc, u should end up with only the TFT, MOBO, HDD and a cd or a fdd to upload pics later on (if your laptop aint that old u can use its pcmcia card to establish a network, but i didnt wann go through the hassle and money to get one, and running at 800x600 has one big advantege : PICSIZE !!, its about 200-300kb, so i can upload 7pics per diskette !!!)
PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION to the screen, its VITAL and the connections are too !!!
3nd step :would u run for me baby ?: check everything runs like u wish b4 re-essembling it
It still did it, even the slideshow kicked in nice after1 minute.
final step : casing and essembling
Essemble the baby and look for a big size pictureframe or glass or plexi or use your imagination !!
Second thoughed: LEAVE the plexi, i tried to alter it but its a real b*tch since u cant cut it properly , even tried it with my dad whos quite handy, but we didnt succeeded. Plexi is a NO-GO or u should be heavily good equiped with special gear, MAYBE it works than.
I used my imagination and made a wooden frame with 'bars' in the middle and 'folded' over that a alminium mesh ( use special scissers or u will not be able to cut that mesh !!! )
Than i connect the mesh to the bars and began placing all the stuff on the mesh !!
BE ADVISED: alminium i s a conductor so make sure your tft NOR mobo touches it !!!! >> i used 'tek7' (a polymere tube) and let it dry over night, its strong, isolates and easy to use. At the back of the mobo i placed small 'draft strips' that stick by itselfs and is neat and leave your mobo bout few milimeters away from the mesh, use the tube again to lime it to the mesh again.
Built you frame quite firm, cause it does weigh a bit and needs some support to hold it steady.
final result :
the back:
the front :
So here u have a digital 12inch frame for
laptop : 60€
plexi : 20 € (i busted that one!!)
frame bars,mesh : 20€ (mesh is quite expensive)
That leave su with about 100€ instead of 400€ for a 10 and 600€ for a 12inch digital frame. Ok, those come with wireless lan and easily uploaded possibilities and no OS, so they ARE easier, but the cost bout 4-6 times as much...........and are often not great to look at.
Hope this review helps u any further with building a digiframe.
review by
-M-
ps: hoop dat je er iets aan hebt
Hi fella's,
Since i always wanted to buy a digital frame, but lacked cash to spend onto that thing, i decided to surf the net...........and stumbled uppon this marvelous idea of turning an old laptop into a digitalframe.
For those not knowing what a digital frame is.........a pictureframe with digital content able to slideshow pictures.
1st step : getting a laptop and prepping it
I found myself an old latitude xpi (pent1 133mhz, 2gig HDD, 32meg ram) laptop.
Preparing it was somth completely else!!! It went DIFFICULT, i've installed tons of os's but this one was weird. It didnt take 'freedos' it didnt take 'dos6.22', it didnt like '3.11'....my guess at the end was that the bootdisk i used to fire it up was made with ME and XP, leaving me with a laptop started using a 'newer-version' boot disk.....
The thing that DID install was win95....on disk........since this laptop only has a FDD and no cd options, it was a struggle to get the damn thing running, but i succeeded.
I also found a nice free-slideshow screensaver for 95,me,2000,xp etc...
And it works!
After all of this, the screen wouldnt let go of its 16colors!!!!!!!! Pffffff
it aint easy to find a driver for a laptop tft, being an old laptop didnt really work in my advantage either........after surfing for ages AGAIN, i finally found the driver that worked. Now i could run 640x480x16bit color or 800x600x256color..........i choose running at higher res but with less color, since that was the best option by far for this laptop.
Take a picture of the keyb, it might come in handy later, since a lot of laptops have screws hidden underneath the keys............this one didnt !!, lol so i took it half apart for nottin......
(keep the keyboard for later, if the system EVER brakes downu might need it if your ps2 connection is busted or u wanna us e a mouse and keyb)
2nd step : rip that baby apart ! BE VERY GENTLE THOUGH
A laptop is like a woman.........u got to de-essemble it with a soft touch, dont make it upset or it'll brake somthing!!! in this case any old soldered piece of equipment might be crucial for your success...........
" I got somth and it goes stumping like this , all you need is uhm tiss uhm tiss uhm tiss" > singing didnt help either so i just took the time needed to rip it bare-parts.
U can throw away a lot of stuff, like the battery (heavy and big) cause u'll run it with power supply only, keyb, docking bay, cover, trackball, casing etc etc etc, u should end up with only the TFT, MOBO, HDD and a cd or a fdd to upload pics later on (if your laptop aint that old u can use its pcmcia card to establish a network, but i didnt wann go through the hassle and money to get one, and running at 800x600 has one big advantege : PICSIZE !!, its about 200-300kb, so i can upload 7pics per diskette !!!)
PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION to the screen, its VITAL and the connections are too !!!
3nd step :would u run for me baby ?: check everything runs like u wish b4 re-essembling it
It still did it, even the slideshow kicked in nice after1 minute.
final step : casing and essembling
Essemble the baby and look for a big size pictureframe or glass or plexi or use your imagination !!
Second thoughed: LEAVE the plexi, i tried to alter it but its a real b*tch since u cant cut it properly , even tried it with my dad whos quite handy, but we didnt succeeded. Plexi is a NO-GO or u should be heavily good equiped with special gear, MAYBE it works than.
I used my imagination and made a wooden frame with 'bars' in the middle and 'folded' over that a alminium mesh ( use special scissers or u will not be able to cut that mesh !!! )
Than i connect the mesh to the bars and began placing all the stuff on the mesh !!
BE ADVISED: alminium i s a conductor so make sure your tft NOR mobo touches it !!!! >> i used 'tek7' (a polymere tube) and let it dry over night, its strong, isolates and easy to use. At the back of the mobo i placed small 'draft strips' that stick by itselfs and is neat and leave your mobo bout few milimeters away from the mesh, use the tube again to lime it to the mesh again.
Built you frame quite firm, cause it does weigh a bit and needs some support to hold it steady.
final result :
the back:
the front :
So here u have a digital 12inch frame for
laptop : 60€
plexi : 20 € (i busted that one!!)
frame bars,mesh : 20€ (mesh is quite expensive)
That leave su with about 100€ instead of 400€ for a 10 and 600€ for a 12inch digital frame. Ok, those come with wireless lan and easily uploaded possibilities and no OS, so they ARE easier, but the cost bout 4-6 times as much...........and are often not great to look at.
Hope this review helps u any further with building a digiframe.
review by
-M-
ps: hoop dat je er iets aan hebt
)
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