What To Do With Those First Generation Photo Frames? 146
First time accepted submitter icepick3000 writes "There are probably many digital photoframes unused these days laying around. Mine is from the first generation meaning you can only insert a compact flash card and display photos. Newer models nowadays can display weather, news, and stocks. Anyone have some good idea's how to give these old frames a second life? I have been thinking about compact flash cards that support wifi... maybe someone has a better idea?"
Why choose to be unhappy? (Score:5, Insightful)
Um, use them as designed? Why do you need all of those extra features for just a photo frame?
If you're still on the upgrade treadmill, give the old frames to someone who will use it.
Re:Why choose to be unhappy? (Score:5, Insightful)
Bravo for saying what needed to be said so politely!
Re:Why choose to be unhappy? (Score:5, Insightful)
I thought this was Slashdot. This should be the home of people hacking devices and breathing new life into them.
Re:Why choose to be unhappy? (Score:5, Funny)
It's a photo frame for crying out loud. If it doesn't work, you can perhaps fix it. If you want weather on your fireplace's mantle, punch a hole to the outside and be done, mmkay?
Re:Why choose to be unhappy? (Score:5, Funny)
You seem very angry about some guy who just wants to tinker with some old piece of electronics. Did a digital photo frame once fall on your head or something?
Re:Why choose to be unhappy? (Score:5, Funny)
They.. They took my job. Those photo frames.
I hate them all.
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Hermegerd... ernermplered....
Re:Why choose to be unhappy? (Score:4, Insightful)
I thinker too, but man, if you need to ask around on slashdot for inspiration, you're in a real dry rut :)
Re:Why choose to be unhappy? (Score:5, Insightful)
Your first grade teacher was wrong, there are such things as stupid questions.
Disgusted with lameness (Score:3, Insightful)
You seem very angry about some guy who just wants to tinker with some old piece of electronics.
It's just that it's so very lame to ask a question that is essentially "what can I do with an LCD panel?". If you don't know already, you probably will have no use for the answer.
It's also a bit absurd to think a photo frame it broken because it doesn't display something besides photos you can get more easily and with better detail on your smart phone.
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Anything that can display pr0n is not broken.
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It's just that it's so very lame to ask a question that is essentially "what can I do with an LCD panel?". If you don't know already, you probably will have no use for the answer.
Wow, that's a pretty asshole answer. What do you do in your spare time, kick puppies and push old ladies in front of traffic?
Yes, and I haven't reached my quota today, so look out!
Seriously, though, this works.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=hacking+lcd+photo+frames
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Usually when someone asks for interesting tech ideas on slashdot, they get piles of ideas, not elitist assholes...
Actually, in my experience when someone asks for interesting ideas on slashdot, they usually get a fair balance of both. :c/
The nature of things (Score:2)
It is not a "photo frame". It is a full-featured, though weak, embedded computer with a LCD display. Just because it has a limited firmware and marketers call it a "photo frame" does not take away from its inherent nature.
What's it with people these days that they let themselves be limited with how things are named?
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I thought this was Slashdot. This should be the home of people hacking devices and breathing new life into them.
... Sorry, not since 2004 and the release of the ipod mini. Here, we praise the almighty apple, and their policies of less-than-user-repairable designs.
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I thought this was Slashdot. This should be the home of people hacking devices and breathing new life into them.
... Sorry, not since 2004 and the release of the ipod mini. Here, we praise the almighty apple, and their policies of less-than-user-repairable designs.
Looks like you need to get a better Rx on your bifocals or perhaps a stronger magnifier [amazon.com] (not an affiliate link). Plenty of instructions and parts here [ifixit.com] and elsewhere for 'less-than-user-repairable' designs. Let me guess, you think you can't change the oil on a modern car, either?
I've delved into a couple of iPods and my brother has repair at least three iPhones. No tougher than replacing bits on a modern laptop, and only slightly more involved than replacing bits in a modern tower PC. Had you mentioned the g
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I don't have anything with the pentalobe screws. Last time I looked was shortly after they came out when the drivers weren't well sorted out. I'm sure it's different today.
FWIW, I didn't link to iFixit as an example of 'non-repairability' but exactly the opposite.
mm, what? (Score:2)
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...when is someone with brains, insight and money....
In Hollywood? Where are you going to find one person with all three?
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Yes, stuff like that still gets linked over here, but all I'm saying is that Slashdot isn't the hacker's and nerd's paradise that it used to be. Heck, every time something about evolution pops up, there's a ton of people here saying the earth is 6000 years old, evolution is false, etc. I don't remember that happening here in the 90s.
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Heck, every time something about evolution pops up, there's a ton of people here saying the earth is 6000 years old, evolution is false, etc. I don't remember that happening here in the 90s.
That is just trolling. On the positive side there are a lot less of GNAA, Nambia trolls for example these days, You can't expect everything to remain the same but with millions of registered users there is bound to be a change in what gets covered on Slashdot on the plus side there is usually less than 500 comments on any particular article, so if something has interest to just a few hundred users it can be an article on slashdot. Choose what to read, don't bother with stuff that doesn't interest you. This
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You're making a massive jump to assume that religious people can't also be hackers.. being religious doesn't necessarily mean you're stupid, it just means you've been brainwashed with fairytales, often from a very young age (as I was).
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Exactly. Many of history's greatest scientists were religious people, but they were trying to understand God's creation. Their flavor of religion was entirely different from that of the YECs and other fundamentalists, who think they already know all the answers.
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Things have been going down hill since they let the 6-digit id's in. It used to be paradise here.
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The original poster misstated. This was the picture frame he was referring to:
http://apple.slashdot.org/story/02/09/09/1958256/old-powerbook--hot-glue--cheap-digital-picture-frame [slashdot.org]
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Re:Why choose to be unhappy? (Score:5, Interesting)
You're thinking of Hackaday.com
Here's a fun project, even if it's limited in scope.
http://hackaday.com/2011/06/13/wifi-sniffing-digital-picture-frame/ [hackaday.com]
No (Score:3, Interesting)
This is Slashdot 2012, home of console gamers and modding everything as troll and flamebait that people don't agree with.
The real hackers moved on. They didn't tell me where. Hackers and my parents... is it so hard to leave a forwarding address?
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Maybe the screen quality is better on the new ones.
Personally, I just print out and hang the photos I like (dye sub, not horrible inkjet, store quality would suffice as well). Much less energy use in the long run. Plus just playing with it won't erase the wanted image from it.
My girlfriend uses her iPad as a photo frame some of the time (obviously not all), much more easily updated with new stuff without going out of the way to only just that, and the (slide to unlock) makes it automatic. The screen is m
Re:Why choose to be unhappy? (Score:5, Insightful)
> give the old frames to someone who will use it.
Like your local animal shelter - we use them at ours to display pictures of adoptable animals in local businesses, a volunteer drives around once a week with updated CF/SD cards. Much better than static posters.
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Like your local animal shelter - we use them at ours to display pictures of adoptable animals in local businesses, a volunteer drives around once a week with updated CF/SD cards. Much better than static posters.
Hmm... I have an idea for some fun hijinx... you're not perchance in the Seattle area, are you?
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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I mean what is this complete obsession with putting every damned thing on everything else?
That's the idea that we can re-use things that we own. Recycling, if you will. It's kind of a thing on slashdot that we have the right to tinker and be in control of the things we own. There's that noticeable shift from being owners to renters even when it comes to our hardware and software. That irks us. We push back. When we buy something, we own it, and we will damn well do whatever we want with it.
I too have one of these photo frame things. I guess I've used it a couple times at parties, but otherwis
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You already get news and weather on your PC, your laptop, your phone, why can't a picture frame just be a picture frame?
In the OP's defense, though, it's a DIGITAL picture frame. When they first came out, I bet a lot of people said, "Why can't an analog picture frame just be an analog picture frame?" He's got something that probably does have other uses besides simply displaying pictures and all he did was ask if anyone has any other ideas.
In the spirit of Halloween, I give you this [wordpress.com].
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That's pretty good for a Garmin. They're generally just useful as night lights.
Consider yourself lucky!
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That's what I was thinking of too. Load it up with family photos and give it to an older relative who otherwise would want printed photo albums. (Then, periodically, refresh the frame manually with new photos and/or teach your relative how to do this.)
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how to give these old frames a second life?
Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuurn !
I'm still confused about why he wants to give his photo frame a SecondLife. Isn't SL just a desolate wasteland of porn and spam now? Or has it made some kind of big comeback I wasn't aware of?
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Simple solution (Score:5, Funny)
1) Download image http://i.imgur.com/Oq3OW.jpg
2) Place image on digital photoframe.
3) Place digital photoframe outside front door.
4) ???
5) Peace and solitude.
Surprisingly not Goatse (Score:5, Informative)
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yeah. i was expecting hello.jpg
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The profit meme appeared on Slashdot immediately after the underpants gnomes episode of Southpark... probably before 4chan existed.
Re:Simple solution (Score:5, Funny)
OK I bit...
awwwww cute!
New Year's Gift (Score:5, Insightful)
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Porn (Score:3, Funny)
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A giant wall of porn to great you when you, er, come home.
Did you mean:
idea (Score:5, Interesting)
Use the GPIO on your Arduino/RaspberryPi/Anything network connectable really to emulate an SD card with a filesystem and produce the images to display stock prices/weather/intertubes content on your legacy photo frame.
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Well consider that there are stock cf to sd card adapters that's not much of an issue.
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There are sd cards that are wifi capable. I assume you can write to them (they were meant to deliver images real time from camera to computer), no need for hardware development.
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Samsung did a photo frame which was able to be used as a display port device. making it work as a second monitor I did have it in mind as a portable second monitor for a netbook. Some reason USB display port devices cost stupid money, as in more than the frame would cost. hopefully they have dropped to a price point where they are reasonable.
My Nas is hacked to run debian,I guess it could be used with display port and a photo frame as a display usb sound cards are supported also...
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Personal Telescreen (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Personal Telescreen (Score:5, Insightful)
Heh, I like that!
It's almost Halloween... I would just hook one up to a battery pack and make it part of my costume somehow. It could display the blue screen of Death! Or you could just get the t-shirt.
Maybe load a few pictures of evil-looking eyes, and hang them out in a dark corner of the yard.
Or load a few pictures of x-rays on it.. with a little rehearsal and good timing (or maybe it just has a "next photo" button). Then you can hold it in front of various 'ahem' parts of your body, and show off or something.
There are so many crappy old laptops around with nicer displays and better functionality to waste time hacking a photo frame, though.
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no - just take a photograph of behind you and then hang it on your front.
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Hack the firmware (Score:5, Informative)
Use them as a video output device.
Many picture frames can be hacked and used as displays. Cheap and very handy for devices lacking traditional a traditional video out.
Some smart people have been working on this over at the Doozan forum [doozan.com].
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Use them as a video output device.
Many picture frames can be hacked and used as displays
Funny, I've been using mine as a display for my photos and didn't have to hack anything.
First World Problem (Score:2)
Wow, I don't own any digital photo frames yet and wasn't aware we had hit "generations" of them now. I was wanting one that could display animated gifs if anything so I could do something like a Harry Potter-ish moving picture such as these [annstreetstudio.com]. Either that or a e-paper one so it would run off batteries for weeks.
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Actually, I'm pretty sure any photo frame that's digital is at least second generation - a "first generation photo frame" to me is something made of wood or metal that I can put a print in. I have several of those, but none of the digital kind.
Display information (Score:5, Insightful)
Do you want a bigger house? Own your own business? Climb Kilimanjaro? Put frames that show those goals into it and let the photo frames remind you. This will make a powerful subconscious urge for you to achieve your goals.
Do you want to learn rote things, such as another language? How about showing word - translation flashcards for the language, or whatever information you need to know. Put them on your desk and occasionally glance over and try to guess which translation will follow the shown word. (Or the times tables, or whatever info you want.)
How about installing quick-reference sheets for work? (I personally have an ASCII chart hanging in my office since I can never remember the codes.) You can have a "perl quick reference sheet", "perl debugger sheet", "Cisco router quick reference sheet" and so on. Most of the frames have buttons to stop or flip through the images - find the reference sheet you need and freeze it.
The photo frame can hold all sorts of static information within limitations.
Re:Display information (Score:4, Interesting)
Googling "digital photo frames hacks" I find the following suggestions as well:
Trouble ahead (Score:3)
Put recipes on it, store in the kitchen.
I tried that but it was pretty hard to make a soufflé before the five seconds were up.
Scan manuals you use frequently.
I had to wait an hour for the instruction manual for my mixer to come up.
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Googling "digital photo frames hacks" I find the following suggestions as well:
How is any of that a "hack"? That's the actual purpose of the device, you're not hacking jack shit.
Let's start with something that should be right up the slashdot alley: http://hackaday.com/tag/digital-picture-frame/
Use it as a cheap monitor for a Rasberry Pi setup. That's a hack.
Here's another- reprogram the guts and put Linux on it. http://hackaday.com/2012/01/10/this-digital-picture-frame-runs-linux-better-than-you-might-think/
Seriously folks, come up with something better than "durrrr show a picture on
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Do you want a bigger house? Own your own business? Climb Kilimanjaro? Put frames that show those goals into it and let the photo frames remind you. This will make a powerful subconscious urge for you to achieve your goals.
But I just want a new photo-frame you insensitive clod
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Do we have to think of *everything* for you?!
A status display for your Linux device (Score:5, Insightful)
e.g on openwrt
https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=34133
Where are the nerds today?
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e.g on openwrt
https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=34133
Where are the nerds today?
Back in my day, "nerds" hacked things to make things you couldn't otherwise do.
Hacking a $20 photo frame to do something a $40 photo frame can do? That's not being a "nerd". That's just being bad at economics. When people were asking ten or fifteen years ago what they could do with their old laptops and the answer might've been "hack it into a photo frame you can hang on a wall!", that was hacking. You couldn't buy digital photo frames. When a digital photo frame was $300, that was creative recycling and a
You mean second generation? (Score:5, Insightful)
I think you mean second generation photo frames. The first generation had superior DPI, didn't use any power and was a lot cheaper. It was also often made of wood.
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Nah, analog is generation zero, mostly because back then nobody gave a shit about retarded marketroidese like "generations".
First generation? I'm still on zero generation (Score:2)
back on topic
This is stupid (Score:1)
Hey slashdot, I have a cat but my cat doesn't display the traffic conditions outside my house, what can I do to upgrade to a second-generation cat?
Re:This is stupid (Score:4, Interesting)
Take your pick (Score:1)
Turn them into some kind of art project.
Run linux on them.
Connect them to an arduino or raspberry pi.
Send them into space using cubesat, as a kickstarter project.
Write a slashdot article about them (oh wait, you already did that).
Or my personal favorite: Sell them.
Grammar tutorial (Score:2, Funny)
Why not display images on them? Start with this one [angryflower.com], you bent-wristed neckwetter.
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Why not display images on them? Start with this one [angryflower.com], you bent-wristed neckwetter.
The dude has an excuse: he is Dutch, and they legally use apostrophe's for plural's (for some word's).
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Gosh, what's not legal in Amsterdam? Have these people no standards at all?
What to do with useless crap I bought 2 years ago? (Score:4, Insightful)
We seem to get a "What to do with this useless crap I bought 2 years ago?" question every month.
Don't buy it in the first place!
If you think you want to buy something, write it down in a "could_buy.txt" list.
Take a look one month later, and more often than not, you'll ask yourself why you even considered it.
I still love my LS-120 (Score:2)
I will sell you my limited stock of media for $500 per 120 MB disk.
Here's a nice DIY project: (Score:1)
Carefully remove the LCD panel, electronics and power supply from the frame a discard them.
Now print out one of your favourite photos on glossy paper, and mount it in the now-empty frame behind a piece of glass. Put it on your wall or mantelpiece for a beautiful display that you will treasure.
Use it for education. (Score:5, Funny)
Anyone have some good idea's how to give these old frames a second life?
Display a different grammar rule every day. You can start with correct use of apostrophes.
This is quite unorthodox but (Score:5, Funny)
what if you put some favourite pix on a compact flash card, load it in there... and use the thing to look at the photos or display them to visitors ?
Here's an idea! (Score:2)
Glue 4 of them together in a box shape, solder all the usb sockets together and upload a totally white pic. Now you have a unique lamp.
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Bring them to a senior center (Score:5, Insightful)
Help the new owner load some pics of the grandkids from their kids' Facebook page.
Great for props (Score:2)
Use as monitors (Score:2)
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one 0r 7he other [goat.cx]
what bot ton use the photo-frame for. (no don't look)