Update on the DIY Digital Picture Frame

In my first post on the frame (found HERE), I discussed using Windows 2000 along with a screen saver application to turn the laptop into a digital picture frame. While this setup worked, it did not stand up to my expectations. The WIFI was sketchy and the machine was very unstable. The software relied on a constant internet connection to fetch pictures from and as soon as the link went down, it was quick to notify the user with an annoying message on the screen. Also, updating pictures was impossible since the connection was down. Something had to be done. A little searching for some DIY software options and other people's projects came up with a plethora of options.

Home screen of McDPF:

From Digital Picture Frame

One sparked my interest, a software set called McDPF. It is based on a linux distribution called DSL (Damn Small Linux) and features a set of applications that work together to provide a simplistic, stable, and functional slideshow that is easily managed from a networked PC. DSL is the "Biz-Card Desktop OS" that only take up 50MB. It was perfect for my application since my frame only had a 4GB hard disk. It would leave me with plenty of storage for pictures. The installation of McDPF was fairly simple! After installing DSL, I copied the backup file for McDPF to my flash drive and booted the machine. After the installation did it's work installing the necessary files, I had to tweak a few settings to make it play nice with DSL. An in-depth explanation of all the installation steps can be found HERE.

Installing DSL:

From Digital Picture Frame

My work space:

From Digital Picture Frame

Once all the software configuration was complete, it was time to copy some photos to the frame to test it. Being already connected to my home network and assigned an IP address, I simply typed the frame's IP into a web browser on another computer on the network. This opened the frame's configuration web page, which allowed me to upload photos, turn the screen on or off, change the duration each photo stays on the screen for, or restart the frame. I was also able to connect to the frame's shared folder, which holds the photos, from my Mac to add pictures directly over the network. As soon as I added some photos, the slideshow began! It was working perfectly. The web access isn't completely done yet since the screen schedule isn't working. I was able to adjust the schedule manually from the frame using Cron. More on this HERE. I have it turn the screen on every day at 6:30am and off every night at 10:30. It can be set as specific as each day if you so desire.

Administration webpage:

From Digital Picture Frame

Manually adjusting the screen schedule:

From Digital Picture Frame

On to the network connectivity issue. My experience configuring WIFI cards in linux isn't all that great. I had used a wired PCMCIA card for setup and the initial copying of photos. I searched around on the DSL wiki and found a list of verified WIFI cards. A lot of them were older cards using only 802.11B or WEP only. I use WPA2 encryption here and wasn't about to change it just for this. I opted to stick with the wired card and create a wireless bridge using my Linksys WAP-54G bridged with my WRT-54G. This made an extension of my wired network, wirelessly. This took some configuration in the WAP but all went well and the frame was assigned an IP by the WRT. I could have bought a WIFI card and installed it using the ndiswrapper tool and configured the WPA but I took the cheaper (free) route for the time being. It gets the job done!

Testing the bridged link:

From Digital Picture Frame

To be able to install DSL, I needed access to the CD ROM drive, which was blocked by part of the wooden structure of the frame. I was able to remove the side and gain access to the drive.I cut a slot in the wood to allow access to the CD drive in the future. While I had it partially apart, I figured it necessary to clean it up a little, smooth out some rough edges, and touch up the paint job a little bit. I added angled feet with soft felt feet to raise it up off the table a little and make it a little more stable. Once it was all touched up and the paint was dry, I put it in theliving room, hooked up the wireless bridge, and started everything up. The frame got an IP and I added some more photos. It was an instant hit! Everyone who came through commented on it(as well as on the photos themselves).

CD sot cut out:

From Digital Picture Frame

Feet:

From Digital Picture Frame

Frame in the living room, running its slideshow:

From Digital Picture Frame

I really like the new software! It is lean and very stable.It has been running non-stop since Christmas day without a glitch! I encourage you to give Linux a try, it is very versatile as you can see here!

Thanks for stopping by!

My custom built digital picture frame

I have been wanting to get my parents a digital picture frame since ever since I started college. I really liked the the wireless-enabled ones because it made updating pictures very simple and easy but they were just too expensive and too darn small for my liking! So I figured I would do some research and build my own.

The Laptop

I had an old WinBook XL laptop in the basement with a 12 inch screen, plenty big enough for a picture frame! The battery had died a long time ago and even surfing the interneton this was painfully slow. The specs were perfect for this use though... 233mhz Pentium processor and 128mb of RAM. The hard drive was very loud so that had to be replaced. More on this soon.

Here is the WinBook before:

From Digital Picture Frame

To solve the loud HDD problem, I purchased an IDE to Compact Flash (CF) adapter and a 4GB CF card. The adaptor allowed me to use the solid state CF memory as the main HDD in the laptop! Silent and low power-usage... perfect!

From Digital Picture Frame

A PCMCIA Wireless laptop card was used for internet access to update pictures. Any card will suffice. I used a wireless G card that I picked up for $35 at WalMart.

The Software

Now that I had a working laptop, I figured it would be better to configure the software that will display the photos before taking it apart so that I had access to the CD and floppy drives, which will be removed/inaccessible once the frame is complete. For an operating system, Windows 2000 PRO was my best bet due to WIFI card capability and ease of use. Once Windows 2000 was installed and all updated, I installed a screen-saver software called Slickr. It downloads pictures from an online Flickr account and makes for easy updating of pictures on the frame. A simple change in pictures on an Flickr account changes the pictures displayed on the frame, without even touching the frame! More details on the Slickr screensaver can be found HERE.

The Frame

Once I had a working slideshow, it was onto building the frame. A lot of other people have built their own frames using pre-made picture frames and matting the screen. I decided to build my own frame to fit the laptop's screen. I had some scrap pieces of laminated tongue -and-grove floating floor in the wood pile. The thickness and finish was perfect. I removed the front bezel from the laptop screen and traced the inside of it on a large piece of paper to use as a guide for the inner size of the frame.

From Digital Picture Frame

The pieces of wood were too wide and I didn't need the tongue-and-groove on the edges so I ran the wood through the table saw set to the desired width. I decided to use 45degree angles to join the four pieces of wood for that real picture frame look. This was done using a radial arm saw set to 45degrees.

From Digital Picture Frame

One by one, the pieces of wood were marked using the paper template and placed on it to make sure everything was square. The finished product after some tweaking of the corners and before gluing:

From Digital Picture Frame

A little bit of wood glue on the faces of the 45s and a square strap made the frame face complete.

From Digital Picture Frame

Because the wood had been cut on the sides, it was bare wood. To clean up the inner and outer edge of the frame, a few coats of glossy craft paint was applied (by my sister) to finish it up.

From Digital Picture Frame

Putting it Together

Once the glue dried, it was time to start taking apart the laptop and assembling the frame. First thing was to remove the LCD from the laptop and mount it to the back of the wood frame.

Screen in laptop ready for removal

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Screen mounted to frame with backlight inverter board

From Digital Picture Frame

The rest of the screen assembly was removed from the base of the laptop as well as the keyboard. An external power switch was connected to the power switch on the laptop to be mounted on the back of the frame for easy access to on and off.

From Digital Picture Frame

I used the cover that the screen was originally mounted in to protect the delicate LCD panel. I simply hot glued this in place.

From Digital Picture Frame

As you can see in the photo above, the wires for video and power to the LCD panel are very short. This limited where the base of the computer could be mounted. Once I got the video and power cables connected to the motherboard, I dry fit the laptop. It was a little off center but was still well within the frame. A little hot glue between the laptop and the screen cover and a little more around the edge prevented the laptop from moving. To enclose and protect the laptop, I glued some scrap furring strips on edge to form a box. I used leftover pieces from the frame to secure the bottom and still allow access to the USB and power ports. The extended power switch was also mounted near the top for easy access.

From Digital Picture Frame

To finish up the back, I added a cross-member with a prop-rod to hold it up. The prop-rod has a string to adjust the angle of the frame. I intentionally left some space along the top to allow any hot air to escape. The entire back was then painted with the same gloss black paint for a clean finish.

From Digital Picture Frame

From Digital Picture Frame

The first run

From Digital Picture Frame

After one minute, the Slickr screen saver starts up, checks online for new pictures and displays the pictures in a slideshow.

From Digital Picture Frame

Here is the frame in use in my home. It was a Christmas gift to my parents.

From Digital Picture Frame

Final Thoughts

This project was fairly cheap and easy to do! I spent about $50 total and the rest was acquired free or found laying around. Try finding a 12 inch WIFI enabled digital picture frame for $50! And the best thing is it isn't made of cheap breakable plastic. It is all wooden construction securely glued together (so no screws show) which makes it heavy and thus hard to knock over. There are 2 USB ports exposed for a keyboard and mouse in the event of the frame needing maintance or updates. I am looking into remote connetion software for maintance. So far, it has not needed any maintance with the exception of the WIFI card needing to be replaced because it didn't talk nicley with my router.

I spent about 3 days configuring the software and building the whole frame. Before that, however, I spent a few weeks researching what other people did and my options for software. I would do this project again in a heartbeat now that I know what it takes. A few steps can be cut out if you want to use a pre-made picture frame and matte it. For my application, it would have been difficult to mount the laptop to a pre-made frame without a lot of complicated modification.

Tools and materials used

a few scrap pieces of floating floor, wood glue, old laptop, hot glue, various small screws, large switch and small wires, small phillips screwdriver, scrap wood, table saw, radial arm saw, square strap, black paint, string, soldering iron and solder, patience, and creativity.

Thanks for reading!