Turned an old lappy into a wall hanging media frame

[bruno19]

This is something I did around a year or so ago and thought I'd share it here. I'm not one for waste etc. and love to poke and mod anything techy if I can think of something to do with it

800mhz pentium chip with 512meg ram.

Split the two halves and removed plastics;

After seeing the rather high prices of buying some framing wood in some craft shop, I popped into a couple of charity shops and finally found a suitable frame which was oversize so I could cut to fit:

Having made the frame and secured the joining sections with angle brackets, I made sure all areas of potential shorting were insulated, and then joined both sections, added the screen wiring to the motherboard. You can just see the inverter within the frame, and I've also attached the underside plate section so I can secure the CPU fan/heatsink assembly:

Flipped over the motherboard and fitted at a slight angle so I have access to the main connection blocks along the bottom. Added fan assembly etc. and hanging string:

Hung it on my wall next to TV for testing etc. Running Slackware version of BackTrack with media app add-ons. I think they've taken BT on to the Ubuntu flavour for the newer versions.

 

[johnlgalt]

I saw something like this on LifeHacker a while back - problem is, I don't have any old laptops currently lol....

 

[nkk]

I'm confused. When you said wall hanging media frame I pictured a small version of those televisions that museums or whatnot will have that loop through pics and videos of art/science/models/whatever.

Is the computer running backtrack and the larger display is mirroring it? Or is the frame a mirror of something?

Why backtrack on a multimedia frame? Seems like an odd choice to me (or maybe I am missing something).

Either way, this is definitely a cool project.

Nkk

 

[bruno19]

I'm confused. When you said wall hanging media frame I pictured a small version of those televisions that museums or whatnot will have that loop through pics and videos of art/science/models/whatever.

Is the computer running backtrack and the larger display is mirroring it? Or is the frame a mirror of something?

Why backtrack on a multimedia frame? Seems like an odd choice to me (or maybe I am missing something).

Either way, this is definitely a cool project.

Nkk

Yes, it's the laptop which is the main display and has the external connection going to the bigger screen. The reason it has Backtrack on it is that's what was the OS on the laptop when it was originally used as a laptop so rather than wipe etc. I just added a few apps for viewing/playing media, just being a little lazy I guess

 

[Seanette]

I saw something like this on LifeHacker a while back - problem is, I don't have any old laptops currently lol....

I've got a dead one or two taking up space.

 

[jonbonazza]

I saw something like this on LifeHacker a while back - problem is, I don't have any old laptops currently lol....

That's what ebay is for

Cool project! Might copy you.

 

[argedion]

I'm doing something similar but totally different I have an old lap top I am going to use in the kitchen to display pictures and stuff but I also want the ability to look up / write / download recipe's. At the present the Laptop has sufficent space memory and power for doing so. This project you took on was really a lot more involved then the one I am doing as the laptop will still be together even though I have though about framing it and using a wireless keyboard and mouse. However with the kitchen the way it is the only places to hang it would leave it way to high or to low. I am open to ideas though. I'm not a Great carpenter so probably shouldn't try to build anything complex. My wife is the main one who will be using it even though I will use it from time to time. Of course I'll be the one maintaining it. I will be using Fedora 16 or 17 with Gourmet Recipe Manager and probably just use the screen saver for showing pictures.