NetFrames is a lightweight, connected display platform that allows digital picture frames or embedded screens to automatically fetch and display images from a central server. Designed for Raspberry Pi, Meadow, or mobile clients, NetFrames is ideal for personal photo galleries, public displays, or IoT art installations.
NetFrames.Server is a .NET Core Web API, exposing endpoints to:
- Upload an image
- Get list of images
- Get specific image by ID.
The purpose of this portal is to manage the image collection that client devices will display on its screens.
You can build this digital portrait using a Meadow F7 Feather board and a ILI9341 TFT SPI 320x240 display.
Wire the Meadow F7 Feather board with the ILI9341 like the diagram below:
Feel free to 3D print this enclosure so you can place it on a desk or mount it on a wall. STL files are here or download directly from TinkerCad.
If you have a raspberry pi, install dotnet and run both the NetFrames.Server and NetFrames.WebPortal app:
Go to the NetFrames.Server folder and run the command dotnet run:
jorgedevs@Jorge-:~/Projects/NetFrames/Source/NetFrames.Server$ dotnet run
Using launch settings from /home/jorgedevs/Projects/NetFrames/Source/NetFrames.Server/Properties/launchSettings.json...
Building...
info: Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime[14]
Now listening on: http://0.0.0.0:5000
info: Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime[0]
Application started. Press Ctrl+C to shut down.
info: Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime[0]
Hosting environment: Development
info: Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime[0]
Content root path: /home/jorgedevs/Projects/NetFrames/Source/NetFrames.Server
Clients such as the Meadow Digital Frame will send request to this web API. You'll need to jot down this server's IP address, and send request to the port 5000.
To get the Web portal up and grow your photo gallery, on your terminal go to the NetFrames.WebPortal project and run the command dotnet run:
jorgedevs@Jorge:~/Projects/NetFrames/Source/NetFrames.WebPortal$ dotnet run
Using launch settings from /home/jorgedevs/Projects/NetFrames/Source/NetFrames.WebPortal/Properties/launchSettings.json...
Building...
info: Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime[14]
Now listening on: http://0.0.0.0:5150
info: Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime[0]
Application started. Press Ctrl+C to shut down.
info: Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime[0]
Hosting environment: Development
info: Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime[0]
Content root path: /home/jorgedevs/Projects/NetFrames/Source/NetFrames.WebPortal
Now you can open a browser anywhere and enter the server's IP address with the port 5150 and the NetFrames web portal will show up.
Finally, to set up your Meadow-powered Digital Frame, you'll only need to set your WIFI credentials in the wifi.config.yaml file, and set the base URL in the RestClientController class:
public class RestClientController
{
// Base URL for the REST API (IP Address:Port)
string baseUrl = "http://192.168.1.73:5150/";
...
The following table show's whats available and what features are next in upcoming updates.
Finding bugs or wierd behaviors? File an issue with repro steps.