It's Finished (but in the end - I cheated)

As you may (or may not) recall, I set a target cost of max $200 for this project. Going into the framing stage, I was at $178. I had some frame material and mat board from an old (failed) print framing indeavor --- if I'd had a more steady and surer hand, I could have completed the project under the $200 limit, it may not have looked so great, but it would have worked. The frame really didnt' fit well, and the mat board was a really wierd color (even to me and I'm major color-blind). I wasn't happy with the framing and I couldn't cut the mat straight and I did want it to look decent.

So, I cheated and solicited my friend Bryant Kelly of Prestige Gallery to help me out. I blew the budget, but I know I could have done it within the limits. I'm very happy with the result and have no regrets. At Bryant's suggestion, we used a matte black frame and mat board - which really makes the image stand out. We used small "easel" feet directly attached to the frame which allows it to stand on it's own.

Here are the results ---- pretty cool - huh?


The back showing the system board side, and the Black on Black frame & Mat.

And, the finished project:

Is that way cool or what??

Mounted, and It Plays.......... Yes!!

Ok, the LCD Screen and the Systemboard are mounted to the mounting board using velcro.

It appears to be sturdy, and secure -- only time will tell. I really worked at getting the LCD screen square with the mounting board and once you let the sticky side of the velcro strips touch -- you're pretty much committed.

Then the acid test came -- applying power and seeing if it would play ........ and voila:

the mounting board is just set in a table-top easel for now.

Here it is with the slide show running.

Wireless networking is good-to-go, I can control it from my office pc, -- all that's left is getting the whole thing into a picture frame.

The next post should complete the project -- it's been a really fun one too.

I Think I Figured Out How To Mount It

I decided that I would mount the laptop systemboard onto a piece of sturdy, but lightweight board and mount the LCD screen onto the opposide of that board .... then, mount the board into a picture frame.

In researching materials for the mounting board, I came across two products that I felt would serve the purpose well. One product is called Coroplast. It's a strong, but very lightweight corrugated plastic. It comes in sheets and in thicknesses of 4mm and up. I was having some trouble finding a single sheet of the right size and buying 10+ sheets would drive me over my overall project $ limit of $200.

My crafty wife Kay (the cute red-headed barmaid) suggested I look at Michels, a do-it-yourself crafts store. Sure enough, they had a 20"x30" sheet of Coroplast for $4.99. Just before I made the purchase decision, I noticed that they had 20"x30" sheets of foam board with placticized sides - also very sturdy and lightweight. The foamboard was about 3/16" thick and looked like it would work very well ...... and, it was $1.99 (just saved me $3.00)

The foamboard has proven to be very easy to work with and is easy to cut... etc with an X-Acto knife.

Below are come pictures to give you an idea what I'm talking about.

I cut the mounting board to 17" x 14" and squared an LCD screen sized rectangle in the middle - leaving a 2 3/4" border all around. The two slits at the bottom right are to allow the LCD cables to pass to the opposite side to connect to the system board

Here's the LCD Screen centered on the mounting board -- the cables will go through the slits to the opposite side to connect to the system board.

And here, the board has been flipped over, and the system board is roughly centered on it.

Placement of the systemboard onto the mounting board is not critical, as it will not be seen. Placement of the LCD screen is very critical as it must be perfectly square with the frame, otherwise, the image will be not be straight.

It is my intent to mount the LCD screen and the system board to the mounting board with velcro. I think velcro will work fine -- if not, then VHB (Very High Bond) tape will work. I prefer to use velcro as VHB tape is somewhat expensive, and isn't tolerent of mistakes.

So, the next step is to get these pieces actually mounted -- the cables connected and once again the power-on "does it play" test.

More of a Challenge Than I Thought

Well, now that I'm all ready to mount the beast into a picture frame - it's proving more challenging than I thought. That means there will likely be further delays as I try different methods to see what works best.

My first action will be to mount the systemboard, hard drive ... etc onto some kind of backing board (plastic, or wood, or something). It needs to be rigid enough and strong enough to support the pieces without being bulky or heavy. My focus will be to try to use velcro wherever I can.

Then, I'll mount the LCD screen onto the opposide side of the board, where the cable can attach to the system board on the other side.

The bigger challenge will then to mount that assembly into a picture frame where the screen is perfectly square with the picture frame itself.

I'll report again when I make some positive progress.