Now what can I do with 120x of these...? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: aabbcc
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2019, 05:30:04 pm
content: So I did my usually weekly dumpster search in the office electronics dumpster and snagged one of these:Yes I replaced the promotional video with some random clip I found.There were in total 3 large unopened shipping boxes and 1 opened box, each box contained 40x of these...Probably some HR person expressed some interest in their system and the company send 120x of these things as promotional material and they went straight to the dumpster room, quite sad and disgusting when you think about it...I was thinking about trying to accommodate the screen for a raspberry pi or something. Sure I could just salvage the batteries and screen but hey, wheres the fun in that.

author: schmitt trigger
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2019, 05:36:49 pm
content: There is another thread here in this forum which precisely discusses E-waste and the environmental disaster it creates.I remember when plain Christmas Greeting cards were considered wasteful. This is an order of magnitude worse.I think, at the very least, you could salvage the batteries.

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2019, 05:41:32 pm
content: For 120 of them, it would make sense to reverse engineer them up to the point of being able to reuse the hardware, or at least to reprogram the movie.

author: aabbcc
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2019, 05:58:18 pm
content: Quote from: schmitt trigger on January 07, 2019, 05:36:49 pmYea its horrific tbh...Yea true, but then I would just be sitting with a shit ton of batteries Id probably never useQuote from: RoGeorge on January 07, 2019, 05:41:32 pmHehe it was just a matter of plugging the provided usb cable to the computer and it showed up as a USB device, I switched out the mp4 just to try it out since the provided mp4 was some corprate dude talking about their amazing hr/finance system

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2019, 06:03:06 pm
content: From the picture the main SOC seems to be an ATJ2273B (a bit erased on the pic but looks like the most probable fit).You can find a datasheet here:https://datasheetspdf.com/datasheet/ATJ2273B.htmlAnd there seems to be a schematic using it there:http://www.go-gddq.com/upload/2017-08/17081516033140.pdfSo that may help figuring out the LCD connections and such.

author: Fred27
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 07, 2019, 07:16:07 pm
content: We use workday software at work. It's abysmal. I was amazed when I saw an advertisement for it and realised it wasn't just some temporary thing they gave the worst developer on the office to do to keep him out of everyone's hair.

author: stmdude
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2019, 07:30:21 pm
content: If you're in the southern parts of Skåne, I can take a few off your hands. I'd like to reverse-engineer the LCD interface on them. (Pinout, rates, etc)

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2019, 10:57:00 pm
content: That's a "second-generation" MP4 player SoC. Pretty powerful if you consider that less than a decade ago decoding that video would've taken a desktop PC. At least for thefirst generationthere are a bunch of tools for modding the firmware, but I left that scene before the 2nd generation became common so I'm not so sure about them.If I had 120 of those I would arrange them in a 12x10 grid and have each of them play a slice of an HD video...

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2019, 12:11:24 am
content: Or, stitch all 120 of them to a jacket, and made a human video billboard

author: texaspyro
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2019, 04:13:14 am
content: Quote from: RoGeorge on January 08, 2019, 12:11:24 amAll playing pron, of course...

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2019, 04:41:55 am
content: It would be just great if it 1.) could be used as an RPI display or 2.) could run Linux and access a network.Its a shame it isn't a touch screen!

author: t1d
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2019, 05:22:57 am
content: In the USA, we have "MakerSpace" clubs... They are groups of DIYers. They might like some. So would an electronics class, or club, at a local school.

author: technix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2019, 08:39:22 am
content: I would want one just so I can reprogram it into something more useful.

author: capt bullshot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2019, 09:27:29 am
content: Quote from: stmdude on January 07, 2019, 07:30:21 pmOnce back in the time, I got my hands on one of the previous generation ones. I did some investigation, was able to replace the video (had to attach a button to the board and press it 4 times to enable the USB), and figured out the LCD interface being a quite standard 40 (or maybe 50) pin parallel RGB interface. Could be easily driven by any standard controller or FPGA.So I put it back to the pile of junk ...Anyway, if I had as many of them as the OP does, I'd consider making some kind of video wall from it, as I sometimes like to make blinky things (http://wunderkis.de/Blinkenlights/blinkenlights.html)

author: capt bullshot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2019, 09:31:30 am
content: Quote from: aabbcc on January 07, 2019, 05:58:18 pmOh, that batteries might be useful. I've made a >= 1kWh battery out of a shitload of discarded company swag shitty chinese USB power banks. The battery is finished and working, but still waiting to be integrated here:http://wunderkis.de/pvbat/index.html

author: madires
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2019, 11:38:16 am
content: A multimedia art installation about e-junk?

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 08, 2019, 12:52:48 pm
content: Remove LCD and try selling on ebay.

author: Richard Crowley
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2019, 01:12:20 pm
content: Glue on new paper overlay and sell them a premium programmable greeting cards.If you marketed them cleverly, you could probably sell them for $50 each.

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2019, 01:28:46 pm
content: try to make a trench coat that acts as optical camouflageor a stealth carhttps://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=optical+camoflague+car

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2019, 04:46:24 pm
content: Didn't Dave do a teardown of something similar and work out how to upload new files to it?

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2019, 05:29:17 pm
content: That's pretty cool, I have a similar device meant for advertising animal heartworm medication which was sent unsolicited to a vet clinic. I replaced the videos on it and played around with it. Looking inside it's essentially the guts for a digital photo frame.If you search on ebay for Video Brochure there are people trying to get ~$50 each for this sort of thing. I wouldn't pay that much, but they're handy little video players.

author: aabbcc
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 09, 2019, 12:57:34 pm
content: Ok I'll say it again:Uploading your own media files to the device was the first thing I did by simply connecting the device with the included usb cable to my laptop, it showed up as a removable storage device and had a folder called video, simple moving a media file to that folder was all that was required.I guess I could try and resell them but tbh thats way too much effort and I got better way to spend my timeI'll try to post a few devices to the people here that asked for them.Also the screen is super low resolution so I doubt it would make for a decent raspberry pi screen.

author: schmitt trigger
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 09, 2019, 02:57:24 pm
content: Still, for the sake of environment, I sincerely hope that you will recycle or reuse them.I know that you willOr give them away for free. Just request that they refund you any postage and handling.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 09, 2019, 06:33:26 pm
content: I bet if you posted them on ebay for $10 + postage they would sell like hotcakes, if it didn't cost so much to ship overseas I'd buy a few to play with. You could use them as-is as digital photo frames or video players.

author: Apollyon25_
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2019, 02:37:43 am
content: Or you could put them back in their boxes and ship them to the company who sent them all out, suggesting that they dispose of them responsibly, and in future maybe examine their *need* for such wasteful advertising?

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2019, 04:09:54 am
content: Spend money so that fuel can be wasted shipping a box back to a company that doesn't want it and will likely drop it in the dumpster? That doesn't seem very productive.

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2019, 05:02:53 am
content: Maybe mikeselectricstuff could use them for something?On second thought he would probably only want stuff that's known good-quality and wont fail after a week or so.Given he does professional installations.Might be worth asking him though

author: Domagoj T
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2019, 06:19:42 am
content: I just noticed this thread. Is the screen at least half decent? Because if it is i could use a few.