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Powerbook 5300cs PictureFrame

Submitted by Gossamer on March 22, 2006 - 4:57pm. Hardware Hacks

Here's a little project I did over Christmas break for my girlfriend.
http://gossamerthree.student.iastate.edu/pictureframe/pictureframe.html
The wooden frame is just a $2 frame from Wal-Mart. The backing is a plastic 'case' type frame from Target, it was about $4. I cut slots for the ports and then painted the inside of the plastic so it was no longer transparent. I crazy-glued the mobo to the inside of the case and fashioned a powerswitch out of a clotheshanger and a plastic drinking straw. So pressing the apple on the side turns it on and off.
The matting was made at Hobby Lobby to my exact size for about $3, I already had the material, they just had to cut it. I glued the back of the real frame to the back of the assembly so it could be easily propped up. There is a slot in the top to allow PCMCIA cards in for possible expansion, I'm looking at an xD card reader so she can copy pictures right off her camera card. Otherwise the only way to get pictures on is Target Disk Mode.
The Powerbook itself is 100MHz/24MB running OS7.5. The 750MB hard drive can hold thousands of pictures at 640x480. It's set to open JPEGView on startup and begin the slide show immediately, so no keyboard is connected at all. Pieces from an erector set are what actually latch the top to the bottom. If you've seen my Classic G3, you know I like erector!
She absolutely loves it, it runs 24/7 with no problems (except power-outages) and everyone that sees tells her it is really cool, I'm happy with it.
Total costs:
"broken" pb on eBay: $15 shipped (the battery had leaked, so there was corrosion, but everything worked perfectly
Wood frame $2
Plastic frame $4
Matting $3

So a total of about $25, which is cool because digital pictureframes of this size usually run about $200 or so.

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nifty :) Hows the noise facto

Submitted by smilr on March 26, 2006 - 9:10am.

nifty Smiling Hows the noise factor of the running hard drive?

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Ex-parrot's picture

That's very nicely built - cl

Submitted by Ex-parrot on March 27, 2006 - 11:13am.

That's very nicely built - clean, especially. I actually built a digital picture frame some time ago and intended to mount it inside the wall so it appeared like a regular picture... I even got as far as making a hole and having power brought to it.... then we moved.

Story of my life, really.

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Oh wow, that's too bad! Th

Submitted by Gossamer on March 27, 2006 - 5:02pm.

Oh wow, that's too bad!

The HD noise is not bad at all. With the cover on, most of it is muffled, and I set energy saver to sleep the hard drive immediately, so it's only spun up for 30 seconds to a minute each time the picture changes.

» iBook G4-1.33/768 || B&W G3-450/512 server || B&W G3-G4 400/768 || Beige G3-400/256 in Classic case || Beige G3-300/256 || PB 5300cs Pictureframe 100/24

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alk's picture

Two slots

Submitted by alk on March 28, 2006 - 7:00am.

Since you've got two PC card slots, why not reserve one for the xD reader and the other for a CF reader? Then buy a relatively massive CF card (256 MB cards are a dime-a-dozen these days), and install your OS on that. Pull the HD. Boot from solid state flash RAM!

I've done this in my 5300c digital picture frame, and the darn thing is spokey quiet. About the only noise you can hear from it is a very faint electronic hiss. And you have to listen hard to hear that over the noises your own body makes.

Peace,
Drew

» Read the 5300 FAQ: http://www.alksoft.com/5300_FAQ/
Join the Resistance! Enlist in the PowerPC Macintosh Liberation Army!

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That is a good idea and I had

Submitted by Gossamer on March 29, 2006 - 1:10am.

That is a good idea and I had heard of doing that before. The only problem is that one of the slots is iffy...the ethernet PCMCIA card I got only worked in the top slot. I do have a spare mobo complete minus HD and display cable that I'm wanting to make another one out of, that would be a really good idea.

» iBook G4-1.33/768 || B&W G3-450/512 server || B&W G3-G4 400/768 || Beige G3-400/256 in Classic case || Beige G3-300/256 || PB 5300cs Pictureframe 100/24

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DrBunsen's picture

Re: CF

Submitted by DrBunsen on March 29, 2006 - 6:01am.
alk wrote:
Pull the HD. Boot from solid state flash RAM!

Two other ways:

Keep the OS on the HD, boot from that, and just use the CF (or whatever the cheapest memory format is at the moment - I've seen 1 gig SD cards for the price of 512MB CFs) for the picture storage. More room for pictures/ or less money to spend. Also makes transferring between machines a snap with a card reader at the other end.

You can also mount the CF card straight on the internal IDE bus (with a boot OS and photos), but you need two adapters for that, and you have to hack one of them - reversing a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter and cutting the power lines. I think Smiling Don't take my word for it. Then an IDE to CF adapter. Dunno if that works for other card formats though.

Meanwhile, nice work! Always more personal to make than buy a gift. Cheaper too Smiling

» Damn the Torx screws, full speed ahead!
Apple and Wireless FAQ

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alk's picture

Maybe

Submitted by alk on March 29, 2006 - 6:40am.

I've found that JPEGView tends to spin up the hard drive regardless of which volume the pics are on. That may have just been an idiosyncracy of my particular setup, though.

You're right about using an internal adapter. I don't think you need two adapters (2.5 to 3.5 to CF) - I thought there was an existing 2.5 - CF adapter, but I could be wrong. Either way, PC Card CF readers are dirt cheap ($15US).

Peace,
Drew

» Read the 5300 FAQ: http://www.alksoft.com/5300_FAQ/
Join the Resistance! Enlist in the PowerPC Macintosh Liberation Army!

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Like I said earlier, the HD I

Submitted by Gossamer on March 29, 2006 - 3:01pm.

Like I said earlier, the HD I have for this one is pretty much dead. Whenever I try to format or initialize in Target mode, it disappears and I get an error. So a CF boot drvie would be perfect.

» iBook G4-1.33/768 || B&W G3-450/512 server || B&W G3-G4 400/768 || Beige G3-400/256 in Classic case || Beige G3-300/256 || PB 5300cs Pictureframe 100/24

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DrBunsen's picture

Re: CF

Submitted by DrBunsen on April 1, 2006 - 11:21am.
DrBunsen wrote:
reversing a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter and cutting the power lines. I think Smiling Don't take my word for it.

Well, the instructions for doing it right are on the applefritter main page as we speak :-) At least as far as the 3.5" HD on 2.5" controller bit. The other posters here are probably right, a little hunting around would probably turn up a single stage CF on 2.5" ATA adapter.

» Damn the Torx screws, full speed ahead!
Apple and Wireless FAQ

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New Website

Submitted by Gossamer on April 8, 2006 - 12:55am.

I just put in a new server, so here's the new address:

http://xenon.student.iastate.edu/iweb/

Enjoy!

» iBook G4-1.33/768 || B&W G3-450/512 server || B&W G3-G4 400/768 || Beige G3-400/256 in Classic case || Beige G3-300/256 || PB 5300cs Pictureframe 100/24

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