Dell Laptop into Digital Photo Frame

These are the steps I used to create my Digital Photo Frame from an older Dell 1150 laptop.
EDIT: thanks for the Feature!

Step 1: Software overview/Gut the Lappy

Before I did anything, I planned it out. I knew I wanted a fully-functioning laptop on the wall mainly to be used as a DPF.
The software I used for the slideshow was Slickr, a screensaver that downloads pictures of any specified subject, flickr user, or set of photos on the fly. It works really nicely if you put a shortcut to it in the Startup Folder.
I also use TightVNC to connect to it across the network so I can have total control over it when I need to. I also wanted some control over it without VNC, so I also have the touchpad available, but more on that later.

The first thing I did was to really commit to the project and begin dissecting the laptop to see really what I needed. You'll find lots of extraneous plastic and metal brackets, and knowing what's what will help you decide what you need and what you don't.

Comments

[A good name]

Okay... but who the hell wants to give up their laptop to build a picture frame?

[electronic boy]

people with rubbish old laptops.

[dummy1977]

I milked my 366mhz/10gb/256mb Compaq Armada running Win2k til about 2007 (bloatware free) without issue for basic surfing/portability, electrical tape holding some of it together and all ; ).

Something like this would make a perfect netbook and hardly be considered rubish, but I'd do it if it was faulty and was just left with parts.

Unbelievable to see someone calling his specs rubbish in 2008.

[blckthng]

I have a really really old laptop(its friggin ancient) its spec are as follows Pentium 3 or a celeron 64 MB ram 4.5 gig hard drive and one usb port(one, hard to imagine innit) so any point trying this out? +this should theoretical work for any laptop on earth right? or it there something special in a dell.

[phreakincool]

I'm converting my Dell Inspiron 7000 (how's that for ancient?) into a digital frame. I'm using Damn Small Linux. It takes up only 50MB. The 7000 cannot boot from USB, so I'll be installing DSL to a CF card which will be plugged into the 2.5 ide interface via a CF-ide adapter. Photos will be stored on 1GB flash drive plugged into a 4 port USB micro hub, which is plugged into the single USB port. I'll be using the 2Mbit wireless card I bought for it almost 13 years ago. I'm hoping VNC or SSH will be enough to configure it.

[wingl]

If you could get a cd drive to this, you could try Puppy Linux. It only takes 100M of space.

[vorin]

Nothing Special about tearing apart a dell, It's just that your dissection will probably be much different than mine. But if you know your way around a computer, you should be able to do the same thing with any functioning laptop

[blckthng]

Thanks and btw nice 'able!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Cybergeek004]

Where did you put the keyboard and if you left it out did the PC not say to attach a keyboard?

[Lubeck]

You can configure the bios to ingnorere all errors and boot up even though it can´t find the keyboard.
Think he might have done that :o)
And if you need at keyboard at some point... Just use an USB type

[Cybergeek004]

Thanks I will try that what slidshow program can I use rather then flicker. A program that I can just add pic. that it displays at diffrent transisions.

[Lubeck]

Well, XP have a screen saver that does just that.. and so does vista and Win 7.. But if you want something more fancy, then here is some top rated programs

http://photo-slideshow-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

But im sure you can finde som free ones if you browse the www 
Google is you friend :o)
-
Lubeck

[electronic boy]

thanx for the help a bit back and yes i finaly got one working gr8 instructable

[FelixTheCat-etris]

It's funny, I have the exact same laptop and I went to Walmart and got the exact same frame. I tested my old laptop, worked, disassembled it (not the first time I have done this) and when I put back the bare necessities for a boot, I get nothing on the LCD or an external monitor. Also, it turns off after 30 seconds-1 minute. Any ideas?

[tieguy]

ha, I used the same laptop for mine.

[Thecoolguy123]

Awesome project btw i was just wondering how do i get the motherboard out of the casing because i took off the top half with the lcd and i am stuck there? Also how do you turn the thing on and off? Thanks a bunch dude!

[Thecoolguy123]

also i have the dell 1100 but yours looks the same

[GeekyAdam]

I looove how cleanly organized the hardware is mounted on the back of the frame. It's not easy to remove all laptop internals and mount elsewhere like it is with desktop internals. Very nice work! I'm not a fan of the touchpad hanging out in the open so much, but that's just my $.02.

[vorin]

if you noticed the wooden pieces on the back, you could see that the touchpad slides completely behind the frame when it's in use. I just wanted a picture to show that the touchpad was there.

[Yerboogieman]

wha are the specs, just wondering

[vorin]

it was a Dell 1150, so if you need more info, you can find it elsewhere, but here are some quick specs: Pentium 4 Intel Celeron 2.60 GHz 256 MB RAM 30 GB 2.5" Hard Drive 14.1 in TFT active matrix Intel Extreme Graphics 2

[Hal The Hacker]

what the hell is a p4 celeron? it is either a p4 OR a celeron and celerons tend not to come that fast so my guess would be a p4

[Xial]

Nearly a year later, here's your rebuttal: "N5379: 2.8GHz Celeron, D-Step" That's a part number for that 1150 used, for its fastest Celeron processor, available from its manufacturer. :)

[Yerboogieman]

...For dell.

[jbulldog_11]

I got it done! I suck at cutting mats... haha
[IMG]http://i541.photobucket.com/albums/gg382/jakeholland11/DSC01820.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i541.photobucket.com/albums/gg382/jakeholland11/DSC01821.jpg[/IMG]

[jbulldog_11]

Okay, I'm in the middle of making one of these with an old Toshiba, but I cannot for the love of God figure out how I'm going to be able to get to my power button to get it on. I could flip the mobo around but then the fans wouldn't get any air flow. How did you solve this problem??? Thanks!

[jbulldog_11]

Never mind, I just soldered a switch onto the other one.

[vorin]

nice, i would have liked to use that method to make a decent-looking switch on the front or side for easy access, but i guess i'm not that smooth, lol.

[jbulldog_11]

haha, I'm usually not. But I actually did some good soldering for once. I actually had to do like surgery on the lcd connector as I stupidly clipped like 4 tiny wires and bent a connector. Now I'm just waiting on my custom shadowbox!!! I'll post a pic when it's done.

[vorin]

do it!

[vorin]

on the pictures in step 8 you can see the slim silver circuit board that connects to the bottom of the frame, facing the wall. Look for the black connector on the MB. I left that button there, and although it is not an elegant solution, it does work.

[mythbusterma]

i was looking at this and think about making one of these with a multitouch display. if i could fit that on a wall...

[electronic boy]

try using the wiimote and ir leds to get a proper 3d image[try jonny lees wiimote projects] it should be useful, right now i am using a wiimote.

[vorin]

multitouch would be impossible (prob), or at least Much harder than a (single) touchpad control over the front of the display.

[mythbusterma]

hmmmm maybe a hole in the wall would work

[greatscotmagic]

Neat radio, what kind is it? Thanks.

[vorin]

I'm not sure, it's a keepsake from my dad's childhood. Unfortunately, it is no longer working.

[electronic boy]

i have a laptop but its a Toshiba tecra 8000 with no hard drive has anyone got any ideas of what i could use instead/memory sticks are not recognized.

[vorin]

assuming it has a functioning CD drive, one route could be a boot-from-CD OS that is entirely run from the CD and RAM. This could be a noisier solution, but it could work just the same.

[mspark400]

while dismantling my laptop i seem to somehow caused the backlight to fail. all connections are still there except for the shielding ground wires which i disconnected. Any thoughts anyone? thanks, mspark400