How to Build an Electric Poster Scroller
An electric poster scroller is essentially a computer with a large screen. Companies advertise their products by placing advertising images on the scroller in a slide-show format, changing to a different advertisement every minute or so. You can make an inexpensive electronic poster scroller to display your business advertising, photographs or artwork by using a large LCD flat screen and desktop tower computer.
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Things You'll Need
- LCD flat screen monitor
- Desktop computer
- Keyboard
- Mouse
- Pencil
- LCD wall mount
- Stud finder
- Grease pencil
- Wall anchors
- Drill
- Screws
- Hammer
- Concealing cabinet
- 5-foot VGA extension cable
- Pictures
- Cable management raceway
Instructions
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1
Purchase a large liquid-crystal display (LCD) flat-screen monitor of 32 inches or more.
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Choose the wall you want to mount the screen to. Mark an area that is at eye level on a focal wall. This will attract the most viewing interest for your poster scroller. Make sure this area has a wall outlet nearby. Mark the wall where you want the top of the TV to be.
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3
Locate the studs behind the wall if the area you want to hang the LCD monitor from is drywall. Use a stud finder to do this. Mark the stud locations. Place the TV mount on the wall in the location you want it to be and mark the drill locations on the stud by pressing the pencil point through the mount hole. You might not be able to make all of the drill locations on the studs, but try keeping most of these in the stud location. Remove the mount and darken the marks with a grease pencil.
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4
Drill starter holes in each of the marked locations. Insert plastic wall anchors into the drilled holes for a more secure mounting. Tap the anchors into the studs with a hammer.
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Place the mount over the holes you made and screw the mounting hardware through the holes on the mount to the wall studs.
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Install a computer tower in a furniture cabinet or under a table somewhere near the wall mount. Conceal the tower as much as possible. The memory and hard drive size are unimportant as you will only install a small set of images on this computer, but it must turn on and load Windows.
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Attach the end of a 4-to-5-foot VGA extension cable to the port located under the LCD screen. Connect the other end of the cable to the VGA port on the computer.
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Connect a keyboard and mouse to the computer tower for installation purposes. Upload the pictures, artwork or images you want to use on the poster scroller. Turn on the computer and wait for Windows to load.
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Add the pictures, advertisements or artwork to the “Pictures” folder on the computer. Use a flash drive or DVD disc to transfer the images. Insert the flash drive or disc in the USB port or DVD tray. Open the drive by clicking on “Computer” and selecting the appropriate drive letter. Right click on the images you want to use and select “Copy” from the drop-down menu. Go to “Start” and select “Pictures.” Right click a blank area of the screen and select “Paste” from the drop-down options. Remove any pictures you don’t want to view on the scroller.
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10
Close the “Pictures” folder and right click any blank space on the desktop. Click “Personalize” and choose the “Screen Saver” tab in the Display Properties window that appears.
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Click the “Down Arrow” icon in the center of the window under the Screen Saver category and choose “Photos.” Change the start time as one minute and click “Apply.” Disconnect or conceal the keyboard and mouse. The poster scroller will start in one minute, after your turning on the computer.
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Roll excess VGA cable and conceal it behind the cabinet. Remove the tape backing from a cable management raceway and adhere it to the wall over the exposed cable. The plastic raceway conceals the cable against the wall.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit flashfilm/Lifesize/Getty Images
