Turning e-waste into a digital photo frame

BF Hammer

Senior Member
I'm am currently evaluating Fotoo app for Android on 3 tablet devices that I am not actually using anymore. But I can see this app is also on Amazon for FireTV devices. So we have the potential to convert an old smart TV also for a photo display. Or an old Android smart phone.


To sum things up, this app plays a slideshow of photos from local media, network shared folder, or Google photos. It has time schedules for being active. There is a switch for making the app load and run whenever the device is plugged into a charger. It can show photo information and/or time-date-temperature. In a nutshell, it is what I always wished for in commercial digital frames.

My goal for a frame has long been to have a slideshow run on a daily schedule, blank the display overnight, update the photos from either a central storage location on the network or from an online source like Google photos. This does it. I did the first evaluation on an old 7.5-inch tablet with Android 4.1. This version cannot log into Google accounts any longer due to security updates, so I can use the network share option and local media only. But it is simple, just plug in the charger cable and it comes alive. Change the photos on the share, slideshow adjusts after doing doing it's next sync. Next I brought out another 7.5-inch tablet with Android 4.2 and a hi-def display. Now I have Google Photos as a source option. Another 10.2-inch tablet with Android 11 running, and also good to go. I'm undecided on converting this tablet for use this way, but I should since I use it maybe every 5 months now. An old phone that still turns on could also make a small desktop frame.

But what gets interesting is the potential to also convert a TV. I do still have an old 26 inch LCD TV that is not used in years now, and 3 different FireTV devices that can plug into it. So a slow first-gen FireStick + old 720p TV could make a decent-sized photo frame. Or an old PC monitor with an HDMI connector. Or an old Fire-enabled smart TV. Main drawback being the power consumption for something like this. But hey, if the equipment is about to turn into e-waste, why not?

For tablets, you can basically buy picture easels for cheap to hold them on a table. Or a wire plate wall-hanger is also very cheap for that option. Then be sure you have a charger cable that can reach to an outlet. My local Menards store has USB phone charger cables 9-feet long for $3.00.

I do not find this on the App Store, so Apple devices might have another app that can do all of this.

 
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BF Hammer

Senior Member
Some updates on the project. The old tablet with Android 4.1 required to have Fotoo side-loaded after I downloaded a many versions from many sites until I found 1 that worked. Discovered it was the premium (paid) version that was installed. It does work perfectly, but cannot log in to Google at all to use my albums online. So I have a slideshow loaded onto a micro-SD card. I have since taken that tablet and have it hanging by 3M command strips above my workbench where I work. It starts at 8am and ends at 4:30pm, and blanks the screen overnight.

I have the better Android 4.2 tablet running the free version of Fotoo at home above my TV. This version Android does still work with Google, so I could download Fotoo legitimately from the Play Store. This version does access my Google Photos shares. It also does a nag screen every 15 minutes for 5 minutes before resuming the slideshow. I am not annoyed by this, so I am saving the $20 upgrade cost for now.

My Lenovo 10.1 inch tablet has also been tested with the free version of Fotoo. It may not be necessary to use this app on it if I just use local photos. I has a timer built-in for starting up and shutting-down daily by itself. But more importantly I do actually use this tablet as a portable TV around the home especially during football games. So I won't be retiring it to be a photo frame yet. And the Shield TV box I use on my TV does run Android and Fotoo is working on this platform also. It integrates to the Android TV system enough that Fotoo can be set as the system screensaver. So now I can view my own photos during the screensaver slideshow instead of random photos by strangers. This ability was removed from Android TV quite some time ago so this will stay active for me.

I have not tried out running on my old 1st generation FireStick or FireTV 3.0. I'm not very motivated to try it yet.
 
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