Sam-K.net

So I think I finally have this photoframe working properly.

Over the past several days, I’ve been trying to get the wireless card working. I was worried that spending only $20 on a wifi card would be a mistake, and that a more expensive card would be a better investment.

On the one hand, that’s true, as there are many wifi cards that don’t work with Ubuntu.

But on the other hand, if I had managed to buy a wifi card that worked without any problems, I wouldn’t have learned so much about Ubuntu.

The process of getting this particular wifi card to work in Ubuntu was nothing short of exasperating, but I think I finally did it.

The solution, it seems, was to re-install Ubuntu and install the Windows XP drivers found on the CD that came with the card. Now I could swear I tried that already and it didn’t work, but this time the Linux gods were nice to me.

So far, I have a working laptop sans frame that can (finally) reliably connect to the internet. When the system boots, it automatically loads the Firefox browser full-screen and opens to a Google homepage which contains only calendar, weather forecast and radar widgets. I’ll have access to an on-screen keyboard as well, to allow text input with just a mouse/touchpad.

The system is also accessible via VNC so I can adjust it remotely from the other computers in the house. This will make changing settings much easier once it’s all built.

Stuff left to do:
- Buy the frame
I’ll have to pick a solid wooden frame with a wide border, and will most likely have to build the back panel from scratch for securely mounting the laptop guts.
- Attach the touchpad (so access to the keyboard isn’t required) – I’d like to either make the touchpad hidden from view unless needed (like having it slide out from behind the frame, or maybe even create a hinged section of the frame border itself with the touchpad mounted on the back surface, so it’s accessible by flipping down the hinged piece of the frame.

I’ll post pictures later.

My current project — one which I’m determined to finish — is turning an old laptop into a photo frame.
I hesitate to call it a “photo frame”, because ultimately, I don’t really see using it for displaying photos. I’d like to use it to display weather or other useful information, but photos will do for now.

There are directions on making laptop photo frames all over the web, so there’s no shortage of ideas.

I’m starting with the guts of a Dell Latitude CPx laptop:
– PIII 500MHz processor
– 256 MB RAM
– PCMCIA Wifi card
– 12GB Hard drive

These specs are pretty pitiful compared to today’s laptops, but for something like a photo frame, it’s more than adequate.

The first thing to do when scavenging a laptop for something like this is to make sure all of the parts are working. Once you’ve verified that it isn’t dead, the next step is to strip the laptop of all of the non-essential parts: mainly the chassis.

When making a photo frame, there are only a few components that are essential: the screen, motherboard, memory and hard drive. Everything else is unnecessary (unless the motherboard is missing some functionality like built-in wireless, which would require a USB or PCMCIA wifi card).

In fact, it’s amazing how those components make up such a small percentage of the laptop’s physical bulk.

The LCD screen, when removed from the shell, is quite thin. The motherboard is less than half the footprint of the laptop — the rest of that real estate is used by the battery and media drive (CD/DVD or floppy drive).

Input devices like the keyboard and touchpad are also unnecessary if you can set up wireless connectivity; this allows you to access the system remotely via programs like VNC.

So far, I have disassembled the laptop and reassembled the necessary pieces and installed the OS.

In general, an expensive operating system like Windows is overkill for a photo frame. I decided to install Ubuntu, a version of Linux that is meant to be more intuitive and user-friendly. Ubuntu is free, and it runs much better on only 256 MB of memory than heavier operating systems like Windows XP.

After doing some tests, I realized that the I needed more memory before going any further, so I’ve ordered some cheap RAM from eBay.

The next step is to work on getting Ubuntu to recognize the Wifi card. Once that’s done, I’ll start shopping for a nice frame in which to mount the entrails.