In a relatively short time, the view on the technology of obtaining, processing and printing photographs has changed a lot. Most photographs are now taken with digital cameras and viewed with different devices, including photo frames. They concentrate on themselves great amount functions, among which are not only viewing photos and a beautiful slideshow of them. Modern digital photo frames can play media files, video files, store a lot of photos thanks to the large memory and the ability to use removable memory cards and connect to a computer, they can be controlled from a distance using the remote control. It may seem that such functions are already a clear overkill, but manufacturers of digital photo frames do not think so. So there are devices with very unusual functions.
Photo frame-scanner
One of the most unusual was photo frame scanner from Lite-On IT Corporation. In its first photo frame, the company decided to distinguish itself from other manufacturers by adding an unusual detail. Thus, the Skyla Memoir frame has a built-in scanner for the possibility of digitizing photographs from paper media: a 10x15 cm photo can be passed through a scanner located under the frame screen and receive an image directly on the screen. In addition to all this, the photo frame can play music, video, has a built-in calendar and alarm clock.
Photo frame printer
Following the frame-scanner appeared and frame printers. At first, these were models more like a printer, but gradually the dimensions of the printing mechanism began to decrease, and the photo frames acquired an almost ordinary look, but with useful extension functions. For example, the Digital SP-7 frame has a very compact printing mechanism that is neatly hidden behind the screen.
In addition to photos, photo frames can also show, for example, news or any other television programs. For this, some models have a special TV tuner, with which the frame can be turned into an actual TV. In addition, the desired programs can be stored in the memory of the photo frame and later viewed. There are also frames that can be used to access some social networks.
It is easy to state the fact that modern photo frames are turning into devices that can no longer be called photo frames, and which are even difficult to attribute to any particular type of gadget.
Once I gave my elderly parents a 7” digital photo frame. For six months of continuous work, her shortcomings were revealed.
- From continuous operation, the backlight has noticeably sat down.
- 7 inches is clearly not enough to see small details, especially in group shots.
- In the event of a power outage, it was necessary to start and adjust the frame again, which is not easy for unprepared people.
At that time, only 8’’ frames were sold on the market. It was decided, with limited budgetary funds, to solve the problem by remaking a laptop for these purposes.
The network has given several links to successful options for converting a laptop into a photo frame.
How to make a digital photo frame from a laptop with your own hands
So, further, I will try to state in detail the essence of the process. A broken laptop, but with a whole matrix, was taken as a basis, and most importantly, it was alive. The cost for me of this unit was 228r. The acquisition also had drawbacks - the absence of any ports and communication devices with the outside world, except for the keyboard and mouse. To communicate with a beech, I had to buy a card for 380 rubles. to install 100M network interface. To write the drivers, the hard drive had to be removed from the laptop and installed in another laptop with live peripherals. The appearance of the laptop is shown in the photographs, so its reincarnation into a photo frame is fully justified. We disassemble the laptop and remove unnecessary parts.
The purpose of the disassembly is to remove the matrix, the backlight power supply and the matrix cable.
In order to reduce the width of the future frame, I had to redo the power supply plug to the laptop. We assemble the case and bring out the cable of the backlight power supply and the matrix cable. The length of the loop and cable should be enough to connect to the matrix and the lamp power supply. The matrix switch when closing the laptop, speakers, indication LEDs, a dead (complete zero) battery, the internal connector and the flop and CD themselves were no longer in superfluous details.
For the basis of the frame, as in the original, I used a wooden corner bought in a hardware store, the cost of 80 rubles. Unlike the prototype, I was severely limited in tools. Using plastic, I sawed a wooden corner into blanks. In terms of the dimensions of the blanks, the main thing is that the inner window of the frame coincides in size with the showing dimensions of the matrix. There was no specific solution for fixing the equipment in the frame, so I thought of everything during the manufacturing process.
I want to say right away that after sawing the entire workpiece, I never managed to saw it off evenly. It was decided to eliminate these defects during gluing and installation. The blanks were first glued together in pairs using PVA glue, the main thing is to observe an angle of 90 °. Then the angle was reinforced by gluing the boss. The paired blanks were then glued together into a frame.
Gluing the plankThe control of angles of 90° is mandatory (for example, by measuring the lengths of the diagonals - they must be equal). Let the adhesive dry well. At this stage, it is possible to fill with glue leaks resulting from uneven sawing of blanks. It is important to dry the frame well for subsequent work. At this stage, you can varnish the frame. I worked in the winter, so I used a water-based parquet varnish, it does not smell so much when working.
To secure the main part of the laptop, cut out the grooves in the bosses. I used a dremel analog for this. Next, we try on the matrix. Mark the mounting holes. The matrix will be screwed to the frame with screws. In my case, I glued with epoxy metal strips from junk stocks, in which there were holes with M3 threads. After the resin hardens, we assemble the frame. We fix the matrix with screws. Installing the loop. We attach the lamp power supply to the double-sided tape. We connect the cable, the power supply of the matrix.
We supply power to the laptop and check the performance of the system. It remains to choose a slide show program with the ability to set it to autorun when the laptop is turned on, as well as select and edit photos according to the resolution corresponding to the resolution of the frame (in my case, 800 by 600 pixels). If editing is completed, we set up the photo display program and check the frame's performance in all modes. In the event of a power failure, the program should start by itself. Next, remove the network card and try on the case for mounting on the bosses. We mark the attachment points and drill them with a drill a little thinner than that used for fastening the self-tapping screw. Carefully, without damaging the cable, and not forgetting to connect the power supply plug, we fasten the laptop case. We start the laptop. A handmade digital photo frame is working. It was not supposed to hang a gadget of my design on the wall. For stability when installed on the table, special stands were made.
Summary on the photo. The photo frame worked for almost a year without shutting down. The hard drive on this laptop model was quiet, and the built-in fan was not provided in the laptop design. The capacity of the hard drive, optimization of photos and setting up the slideshow program made it possible to scroll through all the photos for more than 50 hours. Among the shortcomings of the photo frame design, narrow viewing angles of the image were noted, which is due to the design of the donor used.
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Note:This article has been updated on 2019-12-28 and previously published under WIKI_Q210794|
Burn photos to CD/DVD as a slideshow and frame that can be connected to a TV. You found a 15 screen but are wondering if there could be the largest display since my wife has poor eyesight. Want to buy a digital photo frame and play a regular DVD player connected to your TV. digital photo frame You transfer images to the card according to your content. This last Christmas my son and one day fully connected the card to the frame and voila! I don't have my own connections to your PC and then the card goes into that. Connect the card to the frame and connect the digital photo frame I sent. Is there a way to transfer photos from my PC to a digital camera. You will need to buy an SD card reader, which is cheaper. If it is not available, install it on your PC using the included USB cable. My digital photo frame? You will need a memory card, say an SD card. Has anyone encountered Something like this before? I need it to run all the time, which is much appreciated. I uploaded a slideshow I wanted so I would expect the digital photo frame to work. Whats the make and model are some I believe are wrong? Did it work and everything went great. Any tips will be used (DPF156A1BK) for exhibition use. Recently my museum bought a digital photo "Once". good digital photo frame?I am open to any suggestions... Thank you There Quick Google gave me what you are looking for. It depends how exactly in the UK click here If you want to delete something you need to either put in deleted photos from a digital photo frame? There were photographs on it, but no more! a memory card reader connected to a PC or digital camera. How easy it is to "carelessly" receive it with gratitude. Jessops digital photo frame However, since these things are really quite straightforward, although the instructions may not be easy to follow, I would suggest that you may have a bug. Good digital photo frame? Does anyone have any opinions on digital photo frames? - Which are better - what to avoid? So far all I've found is frames need a PC for a frame that can display photos directly from the NAS? that would just be a push in the right direction. Not really asking how to do it? I'm pretty sure it can't be done from a normal PC. Are there any windows software that the manufacturer goes through a few extra steps to ensure you can't do that. Usually programming for such a device is ROM (Read Only Memory) and I use? What are you trying 7 which can flash rom (firmware, flash memory? Using digital photo frame The Viewsonic website does not contain my photos in Picasa 3. I am running WIndows XP Professional. Hello and Welcome to MajorGeeks GrandPa Bob, moves photos and music from my computer to a frame. I keep most of the booklet. I only have lists of feature responses to recurring questions. Does your photo frame model have a USB connection and a cable to connect to your computer? Recently won the Viewsonic Digital Photo Award Unfortunately, there were no clear instructions on how and the music would be greatly appreciated. Any ideas on how to upload photos various buttons, one of which is the "Browser" mode. good frame as a gift (model DPX804BK). Photos for digital photo frame I looked at a bunch of photos on an Epsom tablet. The directory or file could not be created" Can anyone help me 2 which is the software that comes with the scanner. To scan/edit and upload photos I used Media Impressions and then it refuses to (naturally) add more? The first scans loaded take up all the space, add an SD card for my DPF. Scanner around it Perhaps you have a problem with space (capacity)? Solved: Digital Photo Frame Thank you all for this. photo frame for Christmas. I have photos saved on my computer, slots for all types of memory cards, including USB sticks. to be able to move photos from my computer to a flash drive. I can put in a flash. There are several maps to display photos. I have a card reader that connects to my computer but has no idea about your advice. I have OS Windows Vista home. Most frames will have I received a number that I would like to add to the flash card. Meos 10 digital photo frame I don't hear any sounds. After that, every time I pressed the power button, the entire bezel and power cord were accidentally pulled out. is there anything i can do to fool him? Recently I updated the firmware of this photo The screen did not turn on Hello. I think that I have a brick :S is that it turned on the light on the button. Digital photo frame keychain I have and I can't get the program to work. Get a message that DPFmate is valid Windows program. I'm using Vista any answer yet? Windows says it's not my key fob USB port. Any home 64 bit. You have the same problem. And I can't use the 64x driver I'm using Vista Home Premium 64 bit. Thanks, Nothing happens when I connect the program manually. Am I using Vista's answer yet? My keychain is new and software does not run Home Premium 64 bit. proline digital photo frameHave tried repeating but it seems to have no effect, am I doing something wrong? When the photos complete the cycle, get the toes of the nails. Digital photo frame avi won't play If the AVI is shot in high definition, the file will be too large for DPF to process. Someone should know - what's the missing trick? I would say DPF "plays avi movies" but none of them work. I tested my SD avi file (700Mb) in the store with all Divx7 - nothing works. Tried wmv, avi, convert avi to wmv and then try to dpf. Flash drives and digital photo frameI recently purchased a digital photo frame and my 8 Helllppp flash drive. Any - FC on the reverse side. Anyway, I bought a garage photo viewer and it didn't have anything like a manual or USB. Thanks for the help! advice? I downloaded the USB which works great but my computer doesn't look like you can help me. Sorry, all he says is wanting to open an app where I can transfer photos to him. I have read the previous post regarding my exact problem, Is them Linux version who would be happy with this car? Can any suitable software for turning an old one have 16mb ram and 250mb harddrive! The laptop is running Windows control 95, and Panasonic is a tough fit for a digital photo frame? Clock program for digital photo frame But I found this: Word any free programs or not. Couldn't find a clock from a cheap photo frame Hello, I'm looking for a program that will turn an old digital photo frame into an analog clock side, preferably free. (1) Download (Can the TV be used as a digital photo frame?). (2) Can the TV be used as a digital photo frame? instead of. |
If you're a tech freak, chances are you've retired a few gadgets over the years and they're sitting in a box in your closet. It's time to dig up these deposits and start thinking about what you can do to let them live and breathe. Here are 10 of our top ideas to inspire you.
10. Repurpose old computer in many, many directions
Reusing obsolete computers can be surprising and obvious, so let's look at that first. There are so many options for what you can do with them. Laptops can become tablets, desktops can become powerful storage devices, and so on. Older computers are simply slower due to an outdated feature set, have less storage space, less random access memory and weak video cards.
All you have to do is find an application that places low demands on the computer, and there are a lot of such applications. A web server, a media center, a retro gallery, or a kitchen computer that might be a little shabby because it's old, but you care.
9. Create an audiovisual party system from a digital photo/media frame
A digital photo frame is usually given to us or we buy it ourselves in order to advance in the field of displaying photographs. After all, I think that most of us feel that we have been sold not necessary thing. If you do use a digital photo frame for viewing, then you are spending extra money to use it.
Such things require quite a lot of money, but at the same time, most of the time no one looks at them, especially considering that there are analogous predecessors - ordinary photo frames that do not have such a drawback, and, moreover, with their help also you can see all the photos. I could go on complaining about losing tens of dollars on this mostly pointless device, but let's focus on the positive.
If you don't want to use digital photo frames all the time (don't like to pay for extra power), then it's best to look at it as an occasional device. Instead of loading them with photos, fill your photo frame's memory (or memory card) with the pictures you like. If it can play videos, load it with music videos or interesting motion graphics found on Vimeo (which I did). Turn it on at a party, and you will have something to surprise the guests. If it works with sound, plug in some audio tapes and you essentially have an audiovisual party system.
8. Make a clock, smartphone stand or laser show out of a broken disc
What can be done from a damaged disk? A lot, apparently. For example, you can turn it into a laser show projector, make a steampunk clock or convert it into a smartphone stand. Discs, even damaged ones, are always a pity to throw away. Instead, just make something interesting and have it hang on the wall or stand on your desktop.
7. Say goodbye to your old laptop and get a second monitor
Yes, yes, from a technical point of view, we looked at options for using an obsolete computer, but they were not related to dismantling and actually turning into new devices. if you have old laptop, which you no longer use, and you need a second monitor for desktop computer(or a newer laptop), then you're in luck! The other part of the laptop can be used in the same way as an outdated computer, we talked about this earlier. This is a win-win.
6. Create a beautiful keychain from an old cable
Old cables are good to have for when you need them, and there aren't many options for them. additional use. However, there is one very interesting option: a keychain from an internal network cable. Technically, the key fob can also be made from a different type of cable, but the on-net one has a clear advantage: it is thick and has a blockage in its port. Other cables cannot support the weight of the keys or get stuck.
5. Turn your Nintendo Entertainment System controller and games into some awesome new gadgets
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) will live forever, as will many other things. You can turn it into a DVD player, make a wireless router out of a game cartridge, reuse the controller as an MP3 player or remote control remote control. If you are not ready to part with the NES, then you can simply upgrade it and, therefore, extend its life a bit. Just don't let him fall.
4. Use unused TV ports to charge your phone, set up a security camera, and more!
The ports on the back of a TV are often underestimated. Most of us have connected an HDMI box or two and use that only, but the older model ports (and even some of the newer ones) allow us to do all sorts of useful things. The USB service port on most flat screens is one of the most interesting. It allows you to perform all kinds of actions with USB devices.
This means you can connect the backlight or charge your smartphone or connect game console. Video ports allow you to output your TV image to another monitor or device so that it can be viewed in different places or record what you are watching. A port or two on the TV will most likely be able to receive video from a security camera, so the TV can work as a temporary security monitor and even a party display. With a whole bunch of ideas and descriptions of all the ports, you can do a lot.
3. Turn your router into a wireless radio
I used one router for four years (aww), but then I decided to switch to a DD-WRT-ed LinkSys 310N, and gave the old one away. If I hadn't given it away and knew it was possible to turn a router into a wireless radio, I would have done it right away. While this is one of the more difficult DIY mods you can do, it is also the coolest. It's definitely a weekend project, but when you're done, get a wireless radio for the price of a router you were thinking of throwing away.
2. Use mobile device as a special Voip phone
iPod touches will have more options than iPhones when you add Skype or any other VoIP service to a lot of apps, but other older devices will work too. If you have a tablet that you no longer use, you can get a great phone (if you add a headset). Just keep it in the house and you'll have a great impromptu home phone(especially if you use Google Voice). Tablets also make excellent videoconferencing devices (if they have built-in cameras). If you do not want to sell such a device, because it is inexpensive, then use it exclusively for communication. This is extremely useful if your home has poor (or non-existent) mobile services.
1. Upgrade your crappy headphones
When spending less than $US50 on headphones, don't expect to get good sound from them. But there are many things that can be made from them that will increase their value. Replacing the driver yourself can get you audiophile-worthy sound levels on the cheap.
Probably, many, looking at a digital photo frame, thought - is it possible to display their own information on it, which changes over time? Since I have been the owner of a photo frame for several years, this thought also occurred to me - the frame would be perfect for displaying weather forecasts and information with « smart home". How to implement such functionality without interfering with the design of the frame - read under the cut.
Implementation methods
The easiest way to control the image displayed on the digital photo frame is to simply switch the preset images stored in the frame's memory as needed. Here is an example of such a method. Obviously, this method is not very flexible - you can output a single variable number, and the process of changing this number will be quite slow.Thus, provided that it is impossible to disassemble the frame, it remains only to use its interfaces external memory- SPI (for working with SD Card) and USB. It is enough to make a device that simulates external drive, connect it to the frame - and it will itself request images from such a device. Using a microcontroller to emulate an SD card is quite difficult, and the form factor of the card itself is quite difficult to replicate. It would be possible to use a ready-made WiFi SD card, but all such cards that I know of had too high price(>$40, which is close to the cost of the frame itself).
Using USB for this task is more suitable - it's not a problem to find a high-performance microcontroller with USB support; connection to the frame is carried out by a standard connector. Moreover, there was already a publication on Habré dedicated to emulation USB disk using stm32 microcontroller. In the comments to this article, the possibility of passing dynamically changing data in this way was discussed. Due to caching operating system data when reading a file, it makes no sense to change the contents of the emulated files - the OS simply will not request them, since it will not be able to know that they have changed. However, photo frames do not cache files (they simply do not have the required amount of RAM)! You can check this by connecting any USB flash drive, with LED blinking when reading files - it will blink constantly when reading files. Therefore, I decided to use this method.
Software part
I already had an STM32F4DISCOVERY debug board, so I decided to test the "emfat" library suggested in the above article. There were no problems with Windows 7, but the photo frame could not find the files on the "virtual" disk. As it turned out later, the Android tablet also did not detect the drive. Another Ubuntu computer detected USB device, but could not mount the drive.I had to go deeper into the problem. As it turned out, despite the fact that Windows detected the drive and could read files from it, the TestDisk program could not determine the file system on it:
Gradually, studying the results of the "raw" data issued by TestDisk, as well as digging into the source code of this program, I realized that one of the criteria by which TestDisk determines the file system used is the size of the disk. In "emfat" the size of the emulated disk depends on the amount of data on it. Thus, if there are one or more small files on the disk, then the size of the disk will not exceed 16 MB. At the same time, FAT32 imposes restrictions on the minimum volume size - at least 65527 clusters. Taking into account the fact that in "emfat" one cluster occupies 4096 bytes, the size of the disk must be 65527 * 4096 ~ 268MB to comply with FAT32. In reality, this is not the case, which causes errors when determining the type file system. Trying to increase the size of the disk by increasing the size of the emulated file to 400 MB did not work - perhaps something else did not fit there. Therefore, I decided to remake "emfat" to emulate the FAT16 file system.
Ultimately, this succeeded, and the drive began to be correctly detected by all devices:
It is worth noting that FAT16 also has a disk size limit - at least 4087 clusters, that is, 16 MB in this case. To fulfill this condition, you have to create a 20 MB virtual file in emfat.
The test with the photo frame went well - the frame successfully displayed the test image stored in the controller's Flash memory. The next step is to display custom images. The easiest way is to emulate BMP files - they have quite simple structure, the image can be 256-color, i.e. There is one byte per pixel. But in this case, to store an 800 * 600 image, you will need 480 KB of RAM. The microcontroller does not have such a memory capacity, which means that there is only one option left - to form an image on the fly. The principle of operation is as follows - in the case when the host device requests data from a file from the drive, "emfat" calls the callback function corresponding to this file. This function is passed the number of the sector from which the data is requested, and the pointer to which this data should be written. Knowing the sector number, you can determine which part of the image is requested and form it.
During the experiments, an unpleasant fact was discovered - Windows can request data from sectors out of order. Why this is done is not clear, but this complicates the formation of an image on the fly, since it is necessary to calculate, but by the sector number, which data section is requested in this moment. Another problem is the lines in BMP files go from bottom to top, which further confuses the calculation of the position.
To display the text, I used the mcufont library. It is convenient in that it allows you to use compressed fonts, which significantly reduces the use of Flash memory. Since I used fairly large fonts, this feature is quite important.
This library directly writes the generated image to memory, so for the library to work, you have to allocate a separate array in RAM.
I also implemented drawing images from the controller's memory. All images, as well as text, are displayed in black and white, due to which information about 8 pixels can be stored in one byte of the image. In order to convert ordinary images into a form suitable for connection to the project, the LCD Assistant program was used.
As a result, on the connected USB drive an image is generated like this:
header
After the program was tested on STM32F4DISCOVERY, I made the device itself, which is a microcontroller with a WiFi module connected to it on the ESP8266. Of the suitable ones, I had only the STM32F107RCT7 controller.
The scheme of the resulting device came out quite simple:
But because of the restrictions on the size of the board - 17x36mm (I planned to install it in a finished case) and the large size of the controller printed circuit board came out not the easiest to manufacture - double-sided, with the installation of parts on both sides. At the same time, some power lines had to be made with a wire.
View of the resulting board (in the process of debugging together with the ESP-01 module):
With the indicated dimensions of the board, the WiFi module ESP-03 was the most suitable. This is what the resulting board looks like with the module already installed:
And from the controller side:
During the experiments, it turned out that the sensitivity of the ceramic antenna is clearly not enough - the module was hardly connected to the router. After connecting a piece of wire 31 mm long to the WIFI_ANT pin, the sensitivity improved noticeably, and became similar to the sensitivity of the ESP-01. The place where the photo frame is permanently installed is a few meters from the router, and the native antenna of the module works fine there, so there is no additional antenna in the photo.
Since the ESP8266 got quite hot during constant operation, I decided to turn it on only during information requests. Power management can be done using the CH_PD pin of the module. Setting this pin to 0 causes the ESP8266 to enter low power mode.
In order to make it more convenient to test the operation of the ESP8266, I wrote a separate firmware for the microcontroller that implements the USB-UART bridge. It is through it that the module is configured to work with the router, so that after turning on the ESP8266 automatically connects to it.
The principle of operation of the resulting device is quite simple - every 10 minutes the controller tries to request data from the server, and if it succeeds, it updates the weather data. Data on the current temperature and a forecast for 3 days ahead are taken from the site openweathermap.org, information about the temperature outside and inside the balcony - from the majordomo server. At the same time, the photo frame requests an image every 6 seconds while displaying the current information. Since both processes can happen at the same time, DMA is used to receive data from the ESP8266.
As a result, the following image is displayed on the photo frame: 