What About Building Your Own Digital Picture Frame?
Are you frustrated by the digital and wireless picture frames being offered by manufacturers? Do you love the idea of the digital picture frame, but find yourself wanting something not currently for sale? Are you very technical, a tinkerer who can create or fix their own electronics regularly?
If so, perhaps you should consider building your own digital picture frame.
This kind of project is surely only for the technically advanced or adept, the folks who really like to take stuff apart and put it back together. DIY digital frames may also lack some of the nice content features offered by companies like Ceiva – though I’ve got a great solution to that for you DIYers at the end of this article.
If you’re not a tinkerer, or if you’re someone who gets worried when they put something back together and can’t figure out where all those “extra” pieces are supposed to go, it will be best for you to buy a commercial product.
But, if you figure those leftover pieces were probably wasted anyway, this project is right up your alley.
In order to build your own frame, you need a few things:
- Hardware
- Software
- Tools
- Know-How
- Some time
Hardware
Exactly what hardware you’ll need to build your own digital picture frame will be determined by what you want the frame to do. However, every frame will need an LCD screen, some kind of device to store pictures, a case, and, if you want to go wireless, a wireless network adapter.
Getting an LCD screen may seem expensive, but doesn’t need to be. There are tons of old laptops for sale on eBay or Craigslist for cheap that you can cannibalize for their screens.
For storage, you can snap up a cheap USB drive (a 1 GB thumb drive might run you about $20 these days). You could also use a removable media card, or if you’re really gung ho, a hard drive, for not much more money.
For a case, you can buy a traditional picture frame and modify for it for your needs, or consider building your own, if you like working with wood as well as electronics.
If you’re planning to go wireless, there are many network adapters that can do what you need for under $50.
Software
For software, you’ll need something that can display the photos and, optionally, connect to the Internet.
If you’re using a laptop to make the frame, it may already have Windows on it. This will simplify your life, as you’ll just need to configure Windows and install some software.
Linux is also a good bet for this, since it’s free and ultra-configurable. If you’re interested in this kind of project, you may be pretty familiar with Linux already.
If your frame is wireless, be sure to find some software that can accept RSS or Flickr feeds (you’ll need that for the content help we’re going to give you in a minute).
Tools
You’ll need an array of tools, include a soldering iron, a saw for woodworking, a drill, and some screwdrivers.
To learn from those who have gone before you (and see what software and hardware they used – all articles contain many links), check out these step-by-step guides to making your own digital frame:
Traditional Digital Frames
- Instructables.com
- Make magazine has some ideas at its blog, and ran an article on the topic in Issue 6 (subscribers can read it online)
Wireless Digital Frames
Whichever option you choose, you’ve got a neat project and (hopefully) a great frame.
The great promise of wireless frames is subscribing to content feeds that push frequently updated content to your frame. Some frame companies offer services tied to their products that do this. But if you build your own frame, you don’t have access to those services.
Well, we’ve got just the thing for you. FrameMedia, the sponsor of WirelessPictureFrame.com, is offering a RSS-enabled photo and content viewer for wireless picture frames. You can sign up for a free account and then decide what content you what in your slideshow. You can upload your own photos, share photos from friends, and subscribe to content channels that include news, trivia, photos, and cartoons. (Even if you don’t have a wireless frame yet, FrameChannel offers a screensaver for Windows and Mac that pulls all of the photos and content to your desktop!)
Adding a content tool like this to your DIY Wireless Picture Frame is a great combination that should bring happiness and the satisfaction of a job well done into whatever room you hang the frame in.
Digital Picture Frames, What About, Wireless Photo Frame, Wireless Picture Frames
Digital Picture Frames, diy-digital-picture-frame, diy-wireless-picture-frame, Wireless Photo Frame, wireless-picture-frames
2 Comments
Wireless Digital Picture Frames » DIY Wireless Frame Kit Hits Market wrote at June 21st, 2007 at 12:18 am
[...] idea that some of the people who will be joining the wireless photo frame world will be doing so by building their own digital frames. For those who like tinkering projects, this is a great undertaking, but it required buying a lot [...]
jkish wrote at April 28th, 2007 at 4:59 am
When will the FrameMedia site actually begin to allow registrations? It doesn’t seem to do anything right now except talk about a public Beta at the end of the month.