How can I program a digital frame?

Question

I am not sure if that is the right place for this question but I couldn't find any posts on that subject.

I want to upload my own program into a digital frame. Any ideas how to do it?

• Languages ?
• Interfaces ?
• API maybe?

Answer 1

First, find out what microcontroller the digital picture frame uses. Everything, from languages to libraries to compiler toolchain (and especially the programmer hardware needed to talk to it) depends on that.

If you're unlucky, you might have a one-time-programmable part. They're slightly cheaper than flash or EEPROM devices, so often used in high volume consumer electronics.

Answer 2

I recommend turning your question on its head: don't ask "how can I upload my own code to my picture frame" but rather, "which picture frames most easily support uploading my own code?"

The Chumby is a platform designed from the start to serve as -- amongst other things -- a digital picture frame. It's also designed to be hackable.

• At a very high level, you can upload flash apps.
• At a low level, it runs linux and they have published the COMPLETE hardware and software specs and support an active developer forum
• "Insider info" direct from the hardware designer bunnie available at his blog
• Versions marketed for as low as $49

Answer 3

Like Ben says, you need to know the microcontroller and how to program for it. But you will also need to know the surrounding hardware - i.e. how to perform I/O to talk to the display, power states and what not. Truth be told, if you can't get help from the company that made it, you might be better off making your own from scratch. It depends how complicated the frame is, of course, and what kind of program you want to feed it with. If you can get hold of a debugger for the microcontroller, you might be able to modify the existing program to work like you want it to, but that's a shot in the dark.

I see this is tagged C and C++, but you should probably be prepared to work with assembly programming and a soldering iron and put your C++ compiler away for a while.

Answer 4

Do you have a particular frame in mind? The Infocast 8" from Best Buy is a) basically a modified Chumby with some less hardware and larger display, and is on sale real cheap at the moment. Like a Chumby, you can write Flash apps for it. Underneath it's running Linux, and you can remote into it using ssh to do more coure stuff (although you can't add none Flash stuff and still run it's built-in functionality at the same time. And yes, it displays pictures (from built in memory, USB stick, PhotoBucket on the web, or a local network device.