I was sitting around with a couple of broken laptops so I decided to make a smart screen with one of them.
Required items: 1.
I took my laptop screen out of my old laptop. 2.
Two photo frames, larger than the laptop screen. When Michael had "Buy One Get One" on two frames, I bought these two frames from them. 3.
The LCD controller board kit and kit power supply are your friends here.
I bought mine from here: a lot of people ask how to get the right LVDS board.
That's what I have to say.
The way I found my motherboard was to search the ebay store that sold the LVDS motherboard for my LCD screen model.
As an alternative, I have heard and read many times that people have emailed ebay stores to detail their LCD screens and have sellers help them find the right screen.
I know they sell a lot of different boards, each with its own set of features.
Some have only VGA, some have no audio, and some have HDMI, audio, VGA, and RCA.
Know what features you want your motherboard to have, your LCD screen model, and send them an email. 4.
Raspberry Pi/Amazon Firestick/Chromecast (
Whatever you want to show)5.
I didn't have an HDMI cable while I was writing this, but I bought one on Amazon for a few bucks. 6.
Frame hardware I bought hinges and hanging eyelets from ACE and I bought them from Jo-Ann Fabrics. 7.
Foam Board also purchased this at Michael's and you can buy it at any craft store. 8.
Miscellaneous WiresI left my stuff from other Raspberry Pi/Arduino projects.
Laptop speakers this is not a requirement, but it's cool if you want to do something other than show photos. 10.
VelcroTools used: 1.
You need to center the LCD screen in the frame and not move.
I use the foam board and cut it into the size inside the frame.
The frame I bought has a double layer cushion which is about the same as the LCD screen depth and foam board thickness.
I removed the double layer mat and cut a center hole on the foam board, and the size and shape fit perfectly with my screen. 2.
Cut off the mat for the screen.
Using the demo photo page of the frame, I cut a thin mat to get as close to the screen as possible.
An easy way to do this is to use the borders of the old laptop. 3.
Fix the glass on the rear frame.
In the second frame, I'm hot-
Glue the glass to the inside of the frame so that it does not come out and will cover, but the electronics will be displayed on the back of the frame. 4.
Add your frame hardware.
I added hardware hinges, snap rings, and hang rings to be careful to drill the pilot holes so that the thin wooden racks don't crack. 5.
Clean the glass and place the LCD in place.
I used some glass cleaner to clean up the front glass pieces of the drill hole and then put the thin mat I cut off from the demo photo into the frame.
I then center the screen in the foam board at the top. 6.
Get the front frame ready and locked in place.
After putting the backing of the front frame on the stack and marking the position of the LCD cable, I cut the hole on the backing, put the cable through the hole, and put the backing in place, lock the screen in the front frame. 1.
Lay out and insert all the hardware to make sure it works.
I plugged everything into the controller board, the data cable, and the back
Light power cord on screen and power inverter as well as menu button board.
I plug in the power supply of the controller board and the HDMI cable of the Raspberry Pi.
Even though I know this will change later, the Raspberry Pi is powered off from the USB charger.
I would like to test to make sure everything is OK. 2.
Weld and test the connection between the speaker and Raspberry Pi.
I want to turn off the Raspberry Pi on the LCD controller board, but I don't want the Raspberry Pi to be present permanently, so I use cables that can be plugged into each other, and weld the two cables to the Power board of the Raspberry Pi (Front Fuse)
, And 5 v and GRD pads marked as "power output" on the LCD controller board.
I also soldered the two speakers I rescued from my laptop to the LCD controller board labeled "audio output" and then I plugged everything in and tested to make sure3.
Connect the hardware to the back of the front screen.
I wanted a way to easily remove the board from the back of the hill, so I decided to use Velcro.
I put the straps on each board and fixed them in the right place so they stay in the right place.
After the main LCD controller board was in place, I decided to drill a hole in the side between the two frames to accommodate the power cord.
Raspberry photo frame slide operating system.
I used the raspberry photo frame slide operating system in the Raspberry Pi operating system because I wanted to make sure that it was very simple for someone to add photos to the frame if needed.
This operating system allows you to add photos via a USB drive or by configuring WiFi and downloading photos from a web album.
You can get download and installation instructions here: fire sticks running KODI.
Or, I plugged in Amazon Firestick running KODI so I can listen to music while testing.