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Ask HN: What are some interesting projects to reuse your old devices?

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Re: Ask HN: What are some interesting projects to reuse your old devices?

#161

Post by mrtweetyhack »

reeddavid wrote: post #30

Not a company, but sharing a personal project: I got a free broken 55" TV and turned it into a big daylight panel. I got a great explanation of why this works well (fresnel lens) from the DIY Perks channel on YouTube: Turning Smashed TVs into Realistic Artificial Daylight ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JrqH2oOTK4 ). The main board had failed so the screen was black and the backlight cycled on and off. After disco…

replacing the mainboard is about $30-40 used. Could have potentially fixed it.

Re: Ask HN: What are some interesting projects to reuse your old devices?

#162

Post by [deleted] »

dsiegel2275 wrote: post #54
rhardih wrote: post #18

I've built a good ol' web app which runs in fullscreen mode on an old iPad 1, turning it into a "smart" picture frame. Runs on top of Trello, with a small backend in Go for caching and proxying. Works great.

I have an original iPad here just waiting around to die. Something like this seems like a perfect use case for it. Thanks.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What are some interesting projects to reuse your old devices?

#163

Post by opless »

mindslight wrote: post #121
opless wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IPS upgrade? Tell me more!

Some of the x230 configurations shipped with IPS screens, so you can just obtain one of those (or a compatible replacement) and swap it in. The resolution is still 1366x768. Beware of sellers falsely claiming "IPS". Alternatively, you can do a bit of soldering/modding and put in an aftermarket 1920x1080 panel. https://nitrocaster.me/store/x220-x230-fhd-mod-kit.html

Oh. My.

This!!!

Re: Ask HN: What are some interesting projects to reuse your old devices?

#164

Post by rhardih »

dsiegel2275 wrote: post #54
rhardih wrote: post #18

I've built a good ol' web app which runs in fullscreen mode on an old iPad 1, turning it into a "smart" picture frame. Runs on top of Trello, with a small backend in Go for caching and proxying. Works great.

I have an original iPad here just waiting around to die. Something like this seems like a perfect use case for it. Thanks.

I do intend to release it and also open-source the code at some point. It's not entirely in that state yet, but I'll probably throw it up on a Show HN when the time comes.

Re: Ask HN: What are some interesting projects to reuse your old devices?

#168

Post by JohnFen »

I don't think this is exactly what you're looking for, but my favorite repurposing of old devices was when I was looking for something to do with the eight Kaypro IIs I had kicking around about 15 years ago.

What I ended up doing was chaining them together to use as a single multiprocessor PC. Those 8, working together, came very close to reaching the same performance as a low-end "modern" PC of the time.

Re: Ask HN: What are some interesting projects to reuse your old devices?

#169

Post by metalliqaz »

gwbas1c wrote: post #165

Not very creative: I use my older phone to read books in the hot tub. This way, if I drop it, I don't loose my fancy new expensive phone.

you have a fancy new phone that isn't waterproof? mine is and it's not even that expensive.
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