A digital picture frame with weather forecast
Reuse and Recycle
© Lead Image © Christos Georghiou, 123RF.com
A digital picture frame displays photographs and a current weather forecast with just a few hundred lines of Bash and a Raspberry Pi.
Not all that long ago I was thinking it would be pretty neat to buy the small-form-factor SheevaPlug computer [1]. However, it was pretty pricey for a computer for which I had no specific use, so I never bought it. All of that went out the window when the pretty powerful and super affordable Raspberry Pi came out in 2012. Although I didn't have any immediate project in mind, I lined up with everyone else to purchase one.
Once I received my Raspberry Pi, I set out to create projects (e.g., a proxy server, LED cube [2], and networked music device [3]) just to get started. I also experimented with the I2C and SPI protocols and played with devices previously in the domain of the Arduino.
Before I knew it, I had a small collection of these neat little devices. Over time, however, they fell out of use. These classic Raspberry Pis still work, but they aren't as fast and as capable as the most recent Raspberry Pi. While visiting my parents last summer, I saw their old unused TFT monitor in the corner, and it occurred to me how it could be reused. A 15-inch monitor is nothing special when connected to a PC, but it is pretty fabulous when turned into an electronic picture frame.
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