In case you are searching for the right present for a classic computing fanatic and are brief on time, don’t go spending the day scouring eBay. As a substitute, you must construct them a replica of the cool little digital body dreamed up by Mark Wilson. The body, referred to as LackPaint, mimics the look of a picture being displayed in MacPaint on a classic Macintosh.
LackPaint is de facto easy to construct: all you want is an Arduino Uno and a 480×320-pixel LCD defend. To make issues look presentable, Wilson created a laser-cut case to deal with the elements — however that step is non-obligatory. Or, in the event you don’t have entry to a laser cutter, you can merely 3D print your personal model of the case.
Making ready to assemble the {hardware} (đź“·: Mark Wilson)
A barely modified model of the MacPaint interface (to suit the facet ratio of the show) was developed and saved in a PROGMEM information construction. Photos are then loaded into the “window” of this fake MacPaint interface from an SD card to point out them off like no boring-old trendy body ever may.
After all, you possibly can’t simply go and stick a high-resolution, full-color picture into MacPaint. So, Wilson first processes every picture with ImageMagick. This transforms JPG recordsdata to monochrome (or grayscale) 3×3-tile dithered BMPs. Since MacPaint additionally shows a reputation for every file, Wilson made it non-obligatory to append a reputation to the tip of every BMP to make use of for this objective. With out this, the body may solely present ugly 8.3-style file names.
Try the complete mission write-up to search out out how one can shortly whip up a LackPaint of your personal for that particular somebody.
