wraggster
December 12th, 2014, 08:09
HaD reader [Greg] just finished an LCD picture frame project he’s been working on for a while. This is no ordinary photo display. His brother came up with the idea of having a device to display photos that could be changed remotely (http://betzmobileengineering.blogspot.com/). [Greg] gave it some thought and came up with a plan; use a Raspi as the brains, connect to the internet via WiFi and display photos stored in a specific Google Drive folder. Any authorized user can upload photos remotely to the frame so the frame-owner has a constant stream of new photos to view.
Of course, using an off-the-shelf picture frame may have been too easy. Instead [Greg] decided to start with an old computer monitor and wrap it in a wooden frame so it looks good. Mounted to the back of the LCD is a Raspberry Pi with a USB WiFi dongle. The monitor runs at 14 VDC and luckily has an external power supply. Since the Pi runs at 5 V, a buck converter taps into the LCD’s input power and outputs a Pi-happy 5 volts.
This project doesn’t stop with displaying photos! The user can also switch to a weather view. The weather image displayed is generated from weather data pulled from the internet in the exact same manor used by folks who make stand-alone weather displays out of old Kindles (http://hackaday.com/2012/09/17/turning-a-kindle-into-a-weather-display/). Oh yeah, switching between photos and weather is done by wireless remote! On the frame unit itself there is only one button, but it has 3 functions: A quick press turns the screen off, a short hold syncs with Google Drive and a long hold powers off the RaspPi.
If you’d like to make your own frame, [Greg] has graciously made all his scripts (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9ToSQHL-beBSkVoQzByaXBKTEE/view?pli=1) available for download…. not to mention his very detailed build log.
http://hackaday.com/2014/12/11/raspberry-pi-powered-super-digital-photo-frame/
Of course, using an off-the-shelf picture frame may have been too easy. Instead [Greg] decided to start with an old computer monitor and wrap it in a wooden frame so it looks good. Mounted to the back of the LCD is a Raspberry Pi with a USB WiFi dongle. The monitor runs at 14 VDC and luckily has an external power supply. Since the Pi runs at 5 V, a buck converter taps into the LCD’s input power and outputs a Pi-happy 5 volts.
This project doesn’t stop with displaying photos! The user can also switch to a weather view. The weather image displayed is generated from weather data pulled from the internet in the exact same manor used by folks who make stand-alone weather displays out of old Kindles (http://hackaday.com/2012/09/17/turning-a-kindle-into-a-weather-display/). Oh yeah, switching between photos and weather is done by wireless remote! On the frame unit itself there is only one button, but it has 3 functions: A quick press turns the screen off, a short hold syncs with Google Drive and a long hold powers off the RaspPi.
If you’d like to make your own frame, [Greg] has graciously made all his scripts (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9ToSQHL-beBSkVoQzByaXBKTEE/view?pli=1) available for download…. not to mention his very detailed build log.
http://hackaday.com/2014/12/11/raspberry-pi-powered-super-digital-photo-frame/