Something for the kitchen

[flavius]

Well, we have an electronic family calendar (iCal) that's available for all our machines (3 Mac's+ 4PC's). However, where we need it most - in the kitchen - I can't access it. We also have all our music digitized on one of the boxes.

I don't want to put yet another box in the kitchen, I'm actually trying to reduce the number of boxes we use. All I need is a screen that displays our calendar and maybe the weather forecast. Ideally, I could also use a remote to access our music server.

Today, you can get a 'kitchen entertainment system' that does very little or a fridge with a 10" screen that does some of it. Other people have used some 17" G5 to solve the problem.

Any other ideas?

[waynedunham]

How about something like an Apple Mini, or one of the Asus mini pc's (that look almost exactly like the Apple Mini's)? Mount the mini under a cabinet with the DVD slot facing the side and then mount a small LCD flat panel monitor in front of it "hiding" the Cpu.

There are quite a few places that sell LCD's, and some undercabinet DVD players have an aux in that you could probably use to get the graphics from your pc over to the LCD. The advantage of those undercabinet DVD players is that some of them are pretty decent looking.

Here's a place that sells computer systems for autos. They have small PC's, LCDs, Touchscreens, etc.

MP3Car.com

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

[bcjenkins]

What about a used tablet? eePC, OLPC

B

[btrcp2000]

I have an lcd touchscreen mounted under a cabinet that is connected to a pc in the basement with a vga/kvm extender over cat 5. I also daisy chained three usb active repeaters, so there is a powered usb 2.0 hub in there too to offload pictures from the camera, connect my archos media player to get more sage recordings for the car.

The main purpsoe of this setup was to have a fully functioning computer that is used for everyday email, internet, picture storage/management, kids games, etc. I also have placeshifter installed now, although it gives me issues on occasion, but I think that's because the computer is older and a bit "rode hard and put away wet" due to all the kids games and junk that get installed.

At one time I had a full computer inside the cabinet, but it was noisy and i lost a hardrive due to the heat (just like I thought I would). Once I found the cat5 extender, it no longer mattered whether it was noisy and ugly, and the WAF went way up. We use it all day every day for one thing or another

[Underfunded]

Sounds like that would work pretty well in the Bathroom too!

Originally Posted by btrcp2000

I have an lcd touchscreen mounted under a cabinet that is connected to a pc in the basement with a vga/kvm extender over cat 5. I also daisy chained three usb active repeaters, so there is a powered usb 2.0 hub in there too to offload pictures from the camera, connect my archos media player to get more sage recordings for the car.

The main purpsoe of this setup was to have a fully functioning computer that is used for everyday email, internet, picture storage/management, kids games, etc. I also have placeshifter installed now, although it gives me issues on occasion, but I think that's because the computer is older and a bit "rode hard and put away wet" due to all the kids games and junk that get installed.

At one time I had a full computer inside the cabinet, but it was noisy and i lost a hardrive due to the heat (just like I thought I would). Once I found the cat5 extender, it no longer mattered whether it was noisy and ugly, and the WAF went way up. We use it all day every day for one thing or another

[btrcp2000]

So we now have SageTV, SageClient, SagePlaceshifter and SageCrapper?

As for the original poster, you might also look into a 3com Audrey (look on ebay, google, and wikipedia). Very simple device, should do what you want with some imagination. That is actually what I started out with, but eventually realized I wanted something more because I wanted to be able to log into my bank account and other things from the kitchen, and only a full pc (therefore upgradeable) would ensure that.

I would still encourage finding a way to use a full pc, as I was where you are about 3 years ago, starting with the audrey. I promise you, whatever you do you will find something that you wish you could do. Be creative with where you put the box, doesn't have to be on the counter or anywhere near if you can come up with a cat5 extender. I found mine on ebay for about $100, and I figure I saved more than that by using an old noisy ugly pc hidden in a basement room. As another thought, maybe you could split the video display off of an existing pc into a cat5 extender, and use a good wireless keyboard/mouse with some range. I use a gyration setup that has 30' range, works great. I can probably post some pics if you want to see how it turned out.

[flavius]

Thanks for all the tips and comments.

And yes, some pics would be great. I do have a couple of mothballed PC's I could use, but - I guess what I might be looking for is an x terminal with a touch screen interface.

Hm, lots of interesting ideas.

Edit: Worth noting seems that I am an engineer who likes solutions - aka appliances - at home. I prefer solutions that do few things good over devices that do a lot of things. Interesting: touch screens have come down in price big time.-

[btrcp2000]

Picture #1 is what it looks like when the kitchen counter is clean. It's a 10.4 inch touchscreen limited to 800x600. If I had it to do over again, I would make sure I had something that could do 1024x768, because more and more sites are formatted that way and i have to scroll side to side a lot. I think that's the perfect physical size, though, because it folds up semi-neatly under the counter, although you have to watch the wires.

#2 is the mess inside the cabinet. The very bottom shelf holds the extender, which is the black thing on top of the dvd-rom, white thing is the 7 port usb 2.0 hub, gyration mouse charger, various usb cables for charging cellphones and cameras that live in there too. Wires run up each rear corner to the top shelf, which has a surge protector and a 2.1 speaker system. The speakers' volume control is mounted on the underside of the cabinet.

#3 is the panic room downstairs that runs the whole mess. The kitchen pc is the one against the wall, and the other is my sage server. They used to be the same computer (what a mess!) You can also see the guts of my wireless mvp, which I am trying to run off of a battery inside of an old sony playstation for an all in one wireless client. It works but i'm worried it will burst into flames at the moment, so the project goes on. When my sage server is finally fully tweaked and done, all those wires are coming out and getting organized, but until I stop mucking around, there's no point in cleaning it up.

Hope this is helpful to somebody, I know I found lots of other people's setups online that gave me ideas for this, so I'm just paying back!

[flavius]

That's what I'm going to start working with, the OLPC.

[matt91]

Originally Posted by flavius

That's what I'm going to start working with, the OLPC.

How so?

I have one, but I'm waiting for an RMA since it was DOA two weeks ago

[Jesse]

#3 is the panic room downstairs that runs the whole mess. The kitchen pc is the one against the wall, and the other is my sage server. They used to be the same computer (what a mess!) You can also see the guts of my wireless mvp, which I am trying to run off of a battery inside of an old sony playstation for an all in one wireless client. It works but i'm worried it will burst into flames at the moment, so the project goes on. When my sage server is finally fully tweaked and done, all those wires are coming out and getting organized, but until I stop mucking around, there's no point in cleaning it up.

I gotta tell you btrcp2000, that looks like the sort of room where one could loose all track of time. What the wife calls "football time." You know, where regulation time is one hour and fifteen minutes but it takes three hours to play. It sure looks more comfy than my basement shop. I could be right at home there. All you need now is the beer fridge....

BTW, nice screen setup in the kitchen.

Jesse

[flavius]

Originally Posted by matt91

How so?

I have one, but I'm waiting for an RMA since it was DOA two weeks ago

For one, it's green. Fits well in my kitchen. It's portable. It's also programable. No hard drive, Superior battery life. It has a swivel-screen, a camera and on and on..

I'm also a fan of the project (olpc.com). Sorry to hear, yours was DOA.

[tmiranda]

All you need now is the beer fridge....

Don't forget the urinal and easy chair....

[matt91]

Originally Posted by flavius

For one, it's green. Fits well in my kitchen. It's portable. It's also programable. No hard drive, Superior battery life. It has a swivel-screen, a camera and on and on..

I'm also a fan of the project (olpc.com). Sorry to hear, yours was DOA.

I guess I meant how would you begin to incorporate it into sage? Or were you just saying that it would be your kitchen CPU (and not run sage)?

[Apap]

Originally Posted by flavius

For one, it's green. Fits well in my kitchen. It's portable. It's also programable. No hard drive, Superior battery life. It has a swivel-screen, a camera and on and on..

I'm also a fan of the project (olpc.com). Sorry to hear, yours was DOA.

I have one too!
I think it would make a nice client but I don't think I will be able to pry it out of my daughter's hands for a few years.

[CollinR]

Might also consider a few thin clients and beef up a box to act as a terminal server.

If you do this look for units with USB ports, this will allow for a touchscreen if desired. Unfortunately it will effect the cost it seems, a basic unit that supports RDP can be had for $25, with USB maybe $100. These are silent and solid state.

[appelm]

I was seriously considering these from touchtronix for various rooms in the house.. Can't give you any review as I never pulled the trigger but looks interesting:

http://www.touchtronix.com/products/iptouch-121.html

[flavius]

Originally Posted by Apap

I have one too!
I think it would make a nice client but I don't think I will be able to pry it out of my daughter's hands for a few years.

That's one application.

[BitBass]

We got a Mac Mini (refurb!) and hooked it up to an older 17" LCD. I put a touch screen overlay on it. It works pretty well, but not great. Let's the wifey look up recipes, explore pics, play music and open the dashboard, which has the weather widget running. We keep a wireless mouse in the drawer just in case the touchscreen gets tricky. OS X has a built in screen keyboard too. I think it's under the accessability stuff. I'll see if I can find a pic. The Mini actually fits behind the screen and is pretty much invisible.

[BitBass]

Let's see if this works...

The one pic is on the side but it shows the Mini standing up behind the screen.