gthing: Look what I made!

gthing (

gthing) wrote,
@ 2005-03-31 02:53:00

Current mood:	creative
Entry tags:	awesome, build, custom, pictureframe

Look what I made!
    When it comes time to clean, I get very creative about how to get out of it. Tonight I was cleaning up my room , and I just couldn't help but get distracted by a project I had been thinking about.

    I got this old tablet PC (read: ~100Mhz AMD) from a room mate. It's pretty slow, so I didn't know what to do with it exactly. Tonight, I decided to make it into a framed photograph slideshow picture viewer thingy.

    Here are some pictures of my device:

This is a closeup showing the contruction of my photo viewer. The border is held onto the tablet with small velcro circles, and the frame is held on by bent up hangers. I later removed the glass because this doesn't seem like very good construction and it will probably fall apart randomly.

Realizing my hanger method of holding things together was super ghetto, I attached some small bungie chords to hold the frame on. I still took the glass out though. The frame can fall off without sustaining too much damage, but the glass will break for sure.

In case your wondering, the sticker in the upper left hand corner of the tablet says "STOLEN PROPERTY CALL 1-800-xxx-xxxx." Although I bought it from a kid, he might have stolen it. Oh well.

Here is a closer picture of the photoviewer displaying a picture of my family.

And there it is in the context of my messy, messy room.

I have configured the thing to run a server application and serve a page where users from the internet can upload their own pictures. Also, a random picture from the photo viewer will appear in the left navigation bar of my blog at www.gthing.net. These pictures are being served directly off the device.

edit:: Visit this page to uplod an image directly to the picture viewer. Your picture will appear periodically on the main page!

(Post a new comment)

	bowtothetallone 2005-03-31 07:25 pm UTC (link)
	Dude, this is awesome! amazed by all your nerdly glory! (Reply to this)(Thread)

	aroundthebend 2005-03-31 07:59 pm UTC (link)
	Not nerd, geek. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	gthing 2005-03-31 08:44 pm UTC (link)
	ha yea (Reply to this)(Parent)

	aroundthebend 2005-03-31 08:11 pm UTC (link)
	Sam you are a genious with a very messy room. Remember last time I saw your room I told you you need to clean it? Yeah, well if a clean room keeps you from letting your inner genious out then keep that room messy. You are so effing awesome. Oh, yeah. I don't understand those instructions. Blah. Come show me how it works. I have a very boring picture to send your way. (Reply to this)

	sareah 2005-03-31 09:59 pm UTC (link)
	Geeks are cool. That is awesome. I vote for the hallway. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	gthing 2005-04-01 12:14 am UTC (link)
	I think I will move it out to the hallway as soon as I get tired of it lightingh up my room at night. :) (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	aroundthebend 2005-04-01 04:27 am UTC (link)
	Like that will ever happen. You don't sleep. SO why would a light on at night bother you? Hmmmmmm? (Reply to this)(Parent)

	spinch 2005-04-04 06:19 am UTC (link)
	Best. Pictureframe. EVER. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	gthing 2005-04-04 07:58 am UTC (link)
	thankyou! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	What a difficult project. (Anonymous) 2005-07-12 08:05 pm UTC (link)
	You put a frame on a tablet PC. Wow, that must have taken at least 5 minutes. I'm really not impressed. (Reply to this)(Thread)

Re: What a difficult project.

gthing
2005-07-13 06:20 am UTC (link)

Thanks for taking a look. You're right, its not a terribly difficult project - I thought about taking the casing off and building a frame and everything but that just seemed like a lot of work and it would look pretty much the same in the end.

The real hard part was getting the webserver working. It's not as easy as you might think on a very old tablet with minimal input devices and win98 for the operating system. Getting all that up and running ws the real task.

Besides, it wasn't meant to wow anyone - just to entertain me and whoever else might come over.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: What a difficult project. phicode 2005-07-13 06:45 am UTC (link)
	Good reply! I liked it. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	zaku_ii 2005-07-12 08:05 pm UTC (link)
	That's an expensive pictureframe. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	gthing 2005-07-13 06:21 am UTC (link)
	The tablet was about $60 a year ago. I wasn't using it for anything - and its so old this was the only good use I could think of... (Reply to this)(Parent)

	(Anonymous) 2005-07-12 08:16 pm UTC (link)
	Quote: "That's an expensive pictureframe." It wouldn't be that expensive... it was a 100mhz tablet... RTFA! not bad. -pillowcase (Reply to this)(Thread)

	gthing 2005-07-13 06:21 am UTC (link)
	thanks! (Reply to this)(Parent)

i'd give this an A+ for recycling and bungie usage
of_the_apes
2005-07-12 08:59 pm UTC (link)

anyone who thinks this sucks can shove it...it's not expensive either. rtfa indeed, and certainly don't take hack-a-day's word for it since they completely miscategorized this(but at least they linked this for more people to see)

this is a very good use of something that otherwise would have sat around gathering dust...and it's still better than those damn ceiva frames that can't even work without a service fee. really, what else are you going to do with something with an LCD that runs @ 100MHz? I can think of only 1 thing...a picture frame. and who doesn't love bungie cords??? it looks great from the front and that's really all that matters.

i definitely think this needs to be left out where more people can admire it...like the hallway or living room.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	Re: i'd give this an A+ for recycling and bungie usage gthing 2005-07-13 06:23 am UTC (link)
	Thanks for your kind words! Yea, it aint really pretty but it doesn the job and looks fine from the front. I have moved it so its at the end of a hallway now, with the cords mostly hidden, so you can't see the sides, and it fits actually pretty well! (Reply to this)(Parent)

smilr
2005-07-12 09:30 pm UTC (link)

meh - I give it 1 star out of 5 for originality, 5 out of 5 for recycling an otherwise out of date and unusable piece of tech, 5 out of 5 for reversibility, and 1 star out of 5 for construction quality.

There have been more involved laptop -> picture frame conversions out there, most of them ripping the screen and motherboard out of an old junker laptop, and building a wooden box to go on the back of the picture frame to hold everything inside. I always thought they could benefit from a touchscreen - here you get one for free as it was already a tablet PC :)

(Reply to this)

Picture Frame
(Anonymous)
2005-07-12 10:22 pm UTC (link)

What an awesome idea. Creative, recycling..and just pure fun! I can't wait to peruse some "junk" stores and buy some old laptops... each of my techie kids are going to get a kit to make for Christmas.. plus lots of frames, mats, bungie cords etc.. so they can create thier own! We work hard every year to top last years "too funny" but useful gifts... We then create framed certificates for the WINNING gift.. I have a contender if not a winner this year. THANKS for the great idea.. I will include this web page in the directions.. with full credit to y'all. Thanks, a very happy surfer. Cindy

(Reply to this)

	drone9of15 2005-07-13 01:02 am UTC (link)
	I wonder how many pictures of goatse are going to be uploaded! (Reply to this)(Thread)

	gthing 2005-07-13 06:23 am UTC (link)
	Oh man, I better start screening! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	mirrors_r_fun 2005-07-13 01:52 am UTC (link)
	nice way to use an old tab pc i was thinking about using one as a "fish tank" just run some aquarium software on it (Reply to this)(Thread)

	not as cool as mine I did over a year ago (Anonymous) 2005-07-13 03:59 am UTC (link)
	http://www.rollette.com/iopener/index.html and mine was only 50 bucks. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: not as cool as mine I did over a year ago gthing 2005-07-13 06:25 am UTC (link)
	wow - that is almost identical to mine - same OS and walmart frame it looks like! I wonder if you can upload to his? (Reply to this)(Parent)

	Re: not as cool as mine I did over a year ago gthing 2005-07-13 06:27 am UTC (link)
	oh I didn't realize you said YOU did it. So how was it cooler? I mean, besides better construction did yours allow people to upload to it and such? What other ideas have you used it for? (Reply to this)(Parent)

	:) (Anonymous) 2005-07-13 05:56 am UTC (link)
	Heh, dude, it's cool. You could make a hole in the wall, and it'd be like a simple picture on the wall - and even the cable wouldn't be there. :) (Reply to this)(Thread)

	Re: :) gthing 2005-07-13 06:25 am UTC (link)
	tell that to my landlord! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	(Anonymous) 2005-07-13 06:36 am UTC (link)
	this is actually pretty lame, ive seen like maybe a dozen diy digital frames which own this one hack a linux kernel into that bitch and use it as a control point for a digital media center and then i *may give you some props i would also like to find out where i you can get one of those for $60, i would be all over that (Reply to this)(Thread)

	(Anonymous) 2005-07-13 03:02 pm UTC (link)
	why hack linux noob? Just compile it yourself.. Mate that is best thing I have seen yet, I am even thinking about doing one, just think it's everyone's else tastes. You dont know what the hell is going to go up... JB (Reply to this)(Parent)

	h4ck DA LEENUX KURNUL (Anonymous) 2005-07-13 03:06 pm UTC (link)
	Hmm 'hack' a linux kernel into it, eh? Now that would be so 'leet', controlling a media center. I bet your version of that would be slapping knoppix on that and calling yourself 'k1ngh4x0r'. Or getting the kernel build all wrong, trying to 'make HACK_DA_KERNEL'. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	gthing 2005-07-13 07:24 pm UTC (link)
	I already have a pinnacle showcenter that plays media from my network onto my TV. It was free and has a remote that doesn't take 10 minutes to boot. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	Another WallTop (Anonymous) 2005-07-13 03:11 pm UTC (link)
	I did the same thing, but getting a better finish on it (in depth especially - 0.8"/22mm) with my WallTop project. Have a look at it at Grynx.com (http://www.grynx.com/index.php/projects/laptop-on-the-wall-walltop/) Still - yours is a great idea of using something 'useless' that you have and doing something useful with it. /Chris (Reply to this)

	theoni 2005-07-13 03:54 pm UTC (link)
	Pretty cool stuff man. Not the best construction, but Ive seen worse. and the bungie technology, that shit will never go out of date. Keep up the good work. ~Kiyoshi PS-your site was featured on hackaday.com in case you didnt know already. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	gthing 2005-07-13 07:25 pm UTC (link)
	Thanks - you know I originally considered duct tape but dropped it in favor of bungie cords which wont sufficate the thing. :) (Reply to this)(Parent)

this has allready been done before you slut
(Anonymous)
2005-07-13 07:24 pm UTC (link)

this has allready been done before you slutthis has allready been done before you slutthis has allready been done before you slut
this has allready been done before this has allready been done before you slutyou slutthis hthis has allready been done before you slutas allready been done before yothis has allready been done before you slutu slutthis has allrethithis has allready been done before you sluts has allready been donthis has allready been done before you slute before you slutady been done before you slut

-slut*star-

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	Re: this has allready been done before you slut (Anonymous) 2005-12-20 09:53 am UTC (link)
	Great! Thanks for your input! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	glad (Anonymous) 2005-07-13 09:04 pm UTC (link)
	i'm glad i'm not the only one with 2 crappy monitors ;) anywho take that sillything down and go war driving sheesh (Reply to this)(Thread)

	Re: glad gthing 2005-07-14 04:42 am UTC (link)
	I have plenty of laptops to go wardriving with - enough that I dont want to try getting the wireless drivers working in win98 (which turned out to be a big pain!) (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: glad (Anonymous) 2005-11-07 05:12 am UTC (link)
	It's micro$oft what do you expect? Still mate it's the best I've seen question are you able to veiw the all the uploaded pics in a gallery? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: glad gthing 2005-11-07 09:22 am UTC (link)
	yes, I can ftp to the pictureframe and view all the pictures and delete them if needs be. By the way, it has been down for the last week or so because I've been moving. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: glad (Anonymous) 2005-11-09 11:36 am UTC (link)
	are you able to lock the ftp down, so we can view all of the crazy people's photos out there cause that would be kinda funky (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: glad gthing 2005-11-09 04:26 pm UTC (link)
	the only way to view them from the outside is on the gthing.net webpage, although currently, where the pictures should be there is a hole. I haven't quite gotten moved in to my new place yet and decided where to put the thing back up. cheers. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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