So i have been experimenting with various little LCD slide show players for use perhaps in stations as schedule boards that have changing schedules and ads on them. you can usually pick these up for $3-10 range. One example:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-1-5-LCD-Digital-Photo-Frame-Album-Key-Chain-Silver-/290647051707?pt=UK_Photography_DigitalCamAccess_RL&hash=item43abea0dbb#ht_2177wt_1211most are in the 1-1.5" screen size and almost a square format. they usually have a small amount of internal storage to hold 100-150 128x128 images that are loaded via usb. some require a provided software program to load the images while others you can just load on jpegs like a flash drive. the one above was a bit of a hybrid in that you could mount the player to even move stuff on and off, but they also had software (both mac and pc) on the unit you could download, very nice. they all have rechargeable batteries that recharge with connection to usb so you can keep them powered with 5vdc. most have brightness and contrast settings you can change along with the length of pause on each jpeg.
i have now tried 3 of these now. while these do provide nice and bright displays there are a few downsides to using them easily on a layout:
Setup
when these units are powered up they usually require a button be pushed to turn them on or put them into slide show mode. also they may require some settings at some point in which case you need to have access (or extend to somewhere) 3 switches (two for menu nav and one to select). this is not fun to deal with every time you could potentially turn on the device. each one of the three i have have different start up cycles, menus, and picture loading. it would be optimal to just have to at most hit one button to turn it on when powered up, but that may be a dream for something thats low priced! unfortunately there are few options for tiny screens you can throw jpegs up on easily for something like a train/advertising board.
Transitions
each one of the three i tried all have various transitions it cycles through to go between the images. these are odd ones like diagonal wipes, checkerboards, square zooms, etc which really would not be great for the train boards, but might be ok if most of the board is just a schedule as not many pixels are changing each time.
USB connection
might need to keep usb access to the unit in case you want to change the files or if the unit would blank it self (they come with internal flash memory that stays live even when the battery runs out).
so far im not thinking that these devices are so optimal to use like this, but i think i will go ahead with the best one i have and mock it up all the way to see how well it would look and work.
cheers
jeff
