What started as Hari's pet project got extended to our custom one of a kind tech project.
This has to be hands down one of his favourite project given its a) a technology related b) recycled an old laptop screen , also used Raspberry pi modules and made something useful out of it.
Technology and anything remotely close to it is Hari's thing, so when he found my broken Lenovo laptop's screen was in good shape he was super elated and wanted to mount it on the wall and use it as a smart screen (that shows from F1 racing stats to having his favourite sitcom played in the background, twitter, photos, weather and much more).
What we used:
-Old laptop screen (that works, duh!)
-Raspberry pi
-Wood pieces
-Nails
-Spray Paint
-Mask
-Cardboard Box
-Acrylic paint
-Paint brushes
-Water
-3m No nails
-Power supply
-HDMI cables
What we did:
First few steps are as geeky as it gets, so I will get the excerpts from the Expert ;)
- The first step was to retrieve the monitor screen from the laptop. There are plenty of youtube videos that can help here, all that was needed was a Philips screwdriver and it was fairly an easy process to get the screen out
- The next step is to get a Monitor controller. At the back of the screen there will be a model number, and one search for controller with the model number will help finding the controller to buy and its available in amazon. They are typically under $30 and comes with the connectors. It may need a power supply and an HDMI cable too
- The display screen can be used as an additional screen, but we chose to connect a raspberry pi and make it a smart screen to display a few of Hari's favourite things
Design (Using Morse Code )
-One of the first things both of us were clear is to get the laptop screen framed, thankfully we had some leftover wood pieces at home and used it to create a frame which also has a provision in the back to hold some wires and the monitor's controller
- Next step was to paint the wooden frame, and thus started our quest for the perfect colour. Initially I was wanting to use acrylic however soon realised the wood wasn't going to have it and had to give up on that option
- So moved to our trusted friend, Black spray paint and voila that got the job done within a minute. We let it dry for 20 mins.
Now, I could have stopped it here and this would have still been a perfectly good project, but i was too crazy and wanted to take it a step further and wanted to use the empty space below the screen
- After multiple searches and ideas, it jumped on to me that given its a tech project I wanted to do something more geeky and thought we could paint our initials (A&H) in 'Morse Code'. The current trend is using paint blocks on the wall so this fit right up my alley and was easy to achieve as well.
- I then created three blocks and drew a rough outline on each of them respectively , i) Morse code for A (which is 1 dot and a dash) ii) A geometric pattern iii) Morse code for H (which is 4 dots)
-Finally the end is near and all we had to do was pick the colours, I am so happy with the ultimate colours we went it and love the way it ties in with the rest of his office space
The best part however is the fact that we were able to recycle an unused laptop screen to something very functional yet beautiful addition. This is a win-win situation for us :)
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