It's getting heavy!
It has been a while since the last update, but I started to continue the project again after being busy with other projects and redecorating at home.
It now has all 16 screens assembled and the wiring has begun. I've already hooked up two screens to the original CPU. 14 to go... *sigh*.
The whole thing is becoming heavier each time I add some components, I estimate it will weigh about 60 kilograms when it is ready.
I've been getting question on the size, so I've included a picture of a 15.4" laptop. As you can see, it is getting a very large photo-frame.
It now has all 16 screens assembled and the wiring has begun. I've already hooked up two screens to the original CPU. 14 to go... *sigh*.
The whole thing is becoming heavier each time I add some components, I estimate it will weigh about 60 kilograms when it is ready.
I've been getting question on the size, so I've included a picture of a 15.4" laptop. As you can see, it is getting a very large photo-frame.
4 by 4 = 12mp
After I've sold a number of the Eizo terminals to some friends I started making plans for a very large photo frame. Because I have plenty of screens I designed a plan for a 4 by 4 frame.
By using 16 screens I could maintiain the 4x3 aspect ratio of most of my pictures. Next to planning the size and weight of the final product, I also started making function plans with a friend for a .NET application custom build for this frame.
Because the resolution of each LCD panel is 1024x768 it was not hard to calculate the number of total pixels: 4096x3072, and this is ofcourse 12 megapixels!
The software should run on a single screen and able to retrieve a picture from a remote server. It should be able to communicate with other terminals so that it can time the picture views. Last, it should be able to show a piece of a picture. With the correct server configuration it should then be possible to display a single picture using all screens at the same time.
I quickly dissambled a large number of LCD panels from the Terminals and went out to buy some building materials. After some measuring and trial-and-error DIY work I got this with 12 screens:
From the back the whole thing looks like this:
There should be enough space inbetween the pillars to mount all electronics for each screen...
By using 16 screens I could maintiain the 4x3 aspect ratio of most of my pictures. Next to planning the size and weight of the final product, I also started making function plans with a friend for a .NET application custom build for this frame.
Because the resolution of each LCD panel is 1024x768 it was not hard to calculate the number of total pixels: 4096x3072, and this is ofcourse 12 megapixels!
The software should run on a single screen and able to retrieve a picture from a remote server. It should be able to communicate with other terminals so that it can time the picture views. Last, it should be able to show a piece of a picture. With the correct server configuration it should then be possible to display a single picture using all screens at the same time.
I quickly dissambled a large number of LCD panels from the Terminals and went out to buy some building materials. After some measuring and trial-and-error DIY work I got this with 12 screens:
From the back the whole thing looks like this:
There should be enough space inbetween the pillars to mount all electronics for each screen...
30 Tombstones
Because I used an RSS feed to warn be about new EIZO 630L-N terminals being sold, I received a new message that someone sold 30 (!) used terminals. All Windows CE 2.12 and in good condition. That is a bit much, but I though some nice things were possible.
I discussed this with some of my friends and we could not find any reasons to actually buy 30 of the machines. But I started to negotiate anyway to see if the price of the screens can go down to a level that I can't refuse.
And so it did.... The next weekend we stepped into the car and filled it with Eizo terminals. There were just too many of them. After we've moved them back into my house there were just about everywere!
Here is a picture of a few of them:
In the dark and from a distance, they looked like a bunch of tombstones in a graveyard, someone noticed...
Now that I have this many of them, time to make plans for a larger digital photo frame! ;-)
I discussed this with some of my friends and we could not find any reasons to actually buy 30 of the machines. But I started to negotiate anyway to see if the price of the screens can go down to a level that I can't refuse.
And so it did.... The next weekend we stepped into the car and filled it with Eizo terminals. There were just too many of them. After we've moved them back into my house there were just about everywere!
Here is a picture of a few of them:
In the dark and from a distance, they looked like a bunch of tombstones in a graveyard, someone noticed...
Now that I have this many of them, time to make plans for a larger digital photo frame! ;-)
Four Frames Prototype
I repeated the steps to disassemble the terminals a couple of times so that all my four Eizo 630L-N terminals look 'naked'. I wanted to find out how 4 screen next to eachother look so I tool a steel-bar and fitted them on it.
Because each of the terminals will need a network connection I need a switch with at least for ports. One more port will also be needed to connect it to another switch, router or hub. So I want out and bought a brand-new 5 port switch and connect it to the four screens and my internal network.
I quickly fitted it all toghether and tried to hide the cables as much as possible to get a feeling on the size and looks. Again, it is a bit rude, but it should give a general idea on how a photo frame with 3 or 4 screens next to each-other will look like.
Sorry for the poor quality, but this was quickly taken with my phone camera:
Because each of the terminals will need a network connection I need a switch with at least for ports. One more port will also be needed to connect it to another switch, router or hub. So I want out and bought a brand-new 5 port switch and connect it to the four screens and my internal network.
I quickly fitted it all toghether and tried to hide the cables as much as possible to get a feeling on the size and looks. Again, it is a bit rude, but it should give a general idea on how a photo frame with 3 or 4 screens next to each-other will look like.
Sorry for the poor quality, but this was quickly taken with my phone camera:
Automated Remote Desktop Session
Because the Windows Based Terminals will operate without a keyboard and mouse attached, it should be possible for them to automatically login to a server through remote desktop and start an application.
The configuration of the terminal was very straightforward and without problems I was able to have it automatically connect to my Windows 2003 Server. First I used the Administrator credentials, but that gave problems when multiple terminals were active at the same time. So I created a user for each terminal so that the Terminal Services of Windows 2003 accept them all.
Because I would like to have 4 photo frames active at the same time, I needed to install Terminal Services on the Windows 2003 server. This caused a problem, because the license is only valid for 120 days. So in the coming months I will need to find a cheap pack of licenses...
Because I didn't want the terminals to wait for a minute so that the (previously mentioned) screens saver becomes active I've tried to configure it in the terminal. I was able to enter the filename of an executable, and tried "ssmypics.scr". As a command line parameter, I've found out that "start" will start the slideshow.
It is also possible to select a configuration that should start automatically after booting the terminal. After some other smalll configurations, I rebooted the terminals and it automatically started showing my pictures!
Next step was to test multiple frames at the same time as a prototype...
The configuration of the terminal was very straightforward and without problems I was able to have it automatically connect to my Windows 2003 Server. First I used the Administrator credentials, but that gave problems when multiple terminals were active at the same time. So I created a user for each terminal so that the Terminal Services of Windows 2003 accept them all.
Because I would like to have 4 photo frames active at the same time, I needed to install Terminal Services on the Windows 2003 server. This caused a problem, because the license is only valid for 120 days. So in the coming months I will need to find a cheap pack of licenses...
Because I didn't want the terminals to wait for a minute so that the (previously mentioned) screens saver becomes active I've tried to configure it in the terminal. I was able to enter the filename of an executable, and tried "ssmypics.scr". As a command line parameter, I've found out that "start" will start the slideshow.
It is also possible to select a configuration that should start automatically after booting the terminal. After some other smalll configurations, I rebooted the terminals and it automatically started showing my pictures!
Next step was to test multiple frames at the same time as a prototype...