Category Archives: FrameChannel

Customized, pre-filled photo frame memory cards from FrameAlbum?

I’ve been noodling on the problem of how to get photos on frames.  FrameAlbum fills the need for folks with internet capable frames (and a little tech knowledge).  What about all the folks without internet capable frames, or, don’t have the skills to adjust their frame (or Grandma’s frame 1,200 miles away) to use the FrameAlbum service?

Replace the internet connection with a memory card

Any digital photo frame will have at least one memory card slot.  What if you could setup Grandma’s frame with your Flickr/Picasa/other photos on FrameAlbum and then have a memory card sent directly to Grandma!  If your Grandma is anything like mine was she has mad cookie baking skillz but was stumped by pretty much anything with more than one knob. This method would not require internet,, wifi, or any other wizardry beyond pushing a memory card into a slot.

Time to pay the piper

This would not be a free service.  There would be a fee to cover the cost of the memory card, shipping and a little something for the gnomes that will fill the cards with your photos.  This could work as a subscription with a regular update card sent out monthly/quarterly, or a one-shot deal.

Thoughts?

I haven’t built any of this yet.  Before I go down this road I’d like to see if there is any interest in such a service.  Please share your thoughts in the comments below, or contact me directly.

Thanks for your support of FrameAlbum!

Toshiba frames now working with FrameAlbum — Thanks Ian!

Yes, I know the quality of the image on the left is quite poor — I’m just so excited!

I received Ian’s Toshiba DMF102X frame today and immediatly set upon getting it working on FrameAlbum.  I had made some changes earlier in the day to the feed format in the hopes of resolving the dreaded ‘File format is not supported’/’Cannot connect to service’ messages many of you with Toshiba frames have experienced.

I fired up Ian’s frame, entered in the static IP information along with the custom FrameAlbum DNS server and selected the ‘FrameChannel mode’.  A few nerve wracking seconds later the green “FrameChannel have ceased operation” image — Yippie!  This means that the frame was talking to FrameAlbum and the frame had understood it’s reply.

I then added Ian’s frame to my FrameAlbum account (using the frameID information contained in the green ‘ceased operation’ image) and added on of my Flickr channels to it.

I restarted the frame and…  WooHoo!

If any of you are having trouble seeing your photos on a Toshiba frame let me know in the comments below and I’ll get it fixed.

Update:

It appears that frames with software version 2.01 are working fine; the ‘newer’ version 2.05, not so much.  I’ve identified and repaired a potential issues; testing ensues.

PicasaWeb channel warning images

I’ve added a new feature to the PicasaWeb channel type today.  The system will now generate an text-based image that will be included in your feed under certain circumstances.

If the system is unable to find a PicasaWeb user that matches the name you entered on your channel you will see an image that looks like this:

Sample 'PicasaWeb user not found' image
If there are no public images in your PicasaWeb account you will see an image similar to this:

Sample 'No public PicasaWeb photos found image'

If you see either of these two warning images on your frame please verify that your PicasaWeb channel is configured correctly, specifically that the username field contains either the email address you used when registering for PicasaWeb, or, the really big integer number that is a shortcut to your account (most people will not know this value)

I will be adding this functionality to the Flickr feeds in the next day or so.

As always, if this is confusing or doesn’t work as you expect drop a comment below.

Brother, can you spare a Toshiba frame?

I’m having a hard time getting FrameAlbum to play nice with Toshiba frames.  It’s bad enough that they lack a custom RSS feed function but even the FrameChannel mode is not working the same as my Kodak frames.  Toshiba frames use an older version of the FC protocol that was not released and despite several nuggets I’ve received from ‘people close to the situation’, and lots of help from you fine folks, I’ve not yet been 100% successful.

It was rather easy to get support for Kodak frames working; I have one and was able to see immediately if something I built was working.  I don’t have that luxury with Toshiba frames.  Which leads me to ask…

Would someone please lend me a Toshiba frame for development and testing?

I will, of course, return it to you at my expense when I an finished.  Ping me on any of the normal channels if you can help.

Thanks in advance.

 

Update: Many thanks to Ian in SC for the loan of his Toshiba frame!  I’m anxious to get your photos on these frames.

Email issue identified and fixed; invites re-sent.

I resolved an issue with outgoing email that caused many of the registration invites to get stuck in a quagmire of email queues, delivery failures and failures to deliver the delivery failure messages.  (Yes, it makes my brain hurt too.)

I’ve resent as many of the failed messages as I could identify.  Have another look in your inbox (and spam folder please) for an invite from FrameAlbum.

If this batch goes through without incident (OK, so far!) I’ll release another batch later tonight.

Thanks for your patience!

Changes to PicasaWeb support – it now works for a lot more people

Based on feedback I received to yesterday’s post I spent a few hours yesterday re-writing the PicasaWeb feed grabber.  This new version pulls all public images in your PicasaWeb account regardless of the name of the album.  I think this better matches folks expectation of how it should work and puts it into parity with the Flickr photostream grabber.

I also added a feature that converts HTTPS links to standard HTTP.  I’ve found that some frames do not support HTTPS and therefore were not displaying PicasaWeb images that included HTTPS in the link (which is most/all of them).

The net effect of these changes is that PicasaWeb photos are now appearing on many more frames!  If you have configured a PicasaWeb channel and are still not seeing any photos on your frame please contact me.