Digital Photo Frame At some point in time, my very old NEC Versa V50 laptop became too annoyingly slow to use, but still perfectly functional, running Windows 95B. Its active TFT display is small by today's standards and only displays 4096 colours, but it is nice and clear and easily readable from a wide angle. So I decided to put it to service in a new and interesting way! I built a nice wooden frame from a few pieces of Tasmanian Huon pine I had in the workshop and fitted it with a matte and glass to suit the display panel. I disassembled the laptop lid and removed the display panel, carefully cut off the hinge moulding and fitted the display panel onto the bottom of the laptop case with double-sided tape. Technical: This is a 486 DX50 CPU with 20MB of RAM and a 780MB harddisk. It has a small trackball on one edge of its case and I made a cut-out in the frame to allow access to it and the mouse buttons next to it (see image above). I then mounted the entire laptop case into the picture frame and clamped it in place. It is fitted with an old 2Mbs 802.11 (not 'b') wireless PCMCIA network card which communicates with an 802.11b access point in another room in the house. The only cable connecting the frame is a power cable which is relatively unobtrusive. Software: As mentioned, the PC runs Windows 95B (just) and is loaded with IE4 set to full screen mode with auto-hiding toolbars, ACDSee4 and wireless network card drivers. It also runs VNC remote control software to change any settings remotely when desired. The harddisk also contains a few image files to run as a slideshow - the initial intended use for the photoframe. However, as it is connected to the Internet, I wrote a simple web page containing nothing but a link to a webcam in Cologne, Germany, where I grew up (see above). The page has a refresh interval of 1 hour, and the harddisk is parked and the PC is entirely silent in between. I'm able to watch the sunrise behind the cathedral in Cologne, observe the weather and activities in that city.

[About us] [Joe's Resumé] [Links] [Album] [WLAN page] [Media PC] [Photoframe] [Kölsche page]       updated: 26-02-2007