Project: Kitchen Utensil+ (Mk II in progress 22/09/10)

[Rob_B]

Got some spray glue (somewhere) it's just the material itself I'm unsure of. I'd like to have access if needed so don't want to cover it all in case I need to get to the screws. That leaves doing it as three seperate bits.
I've got a spare metre of worktop I could take the top off but I know they're pretty brittle & the back would be covered in wood chips so think I'll leave it for now. Will check out my local 'tat' shop on Saturday for some ideas!

[mycarsavw]

I covered an old bit of worktop years ago with some sort of vinyl/laminate roll but I can't for the life of me remember what it's called and where I got it from.

/Mr Helpful!

[Pob255]

You could just paint it in black gloss paint, match the tiles behind it.

[Rob_B]

I do have some (I think) but I'm not that good a painter & want a nice clean finish, could always tile it!

On a side note I've source an 80Gb HDD for my other (possibly dud) laptop & if that gets it working then I may hack that up & have a much more powerful setup.

[Rob_B]

Well, firstly the other laptop is indeed a dud so what a waste of an 80GB HDD!

Got quite a bit done today, re-did the box & counter-sunk all the screws.
This is the box screwed on, the back is attached as otherwise I can't get to the screws as the wall gets in the way, oh and yes, it's odd as the screws aren't at the same level either side, no biggy!



The box completed.



The laptop installed with no frame, when completed the frame will sit higher to cover the big gap that you can see the laptop through, for now I just wanted to see how it looked.



To do list:

Get covering for the box.
Get 2 hinges.
Get the on-screen keyboard & a wireless mouse sorted.
Wait for the acrylic sheets, the seller sent the wrong size so I need to wait for that again

Here is the almost completed box, the frame is resting on the screen hence its a bit wonky!



It all works fine, got wireless up & running ok, does seem to be a bit slow sometimes but that's just XP running on such a low spec. I need to get a 256mb SODIMM to upgrade to 384mb (anyone help?!) & go through blkviper's services page to get a bit of memory back.

[Fortune117]

If you're just using it for web why not try a flavour of Linux? Ubuntu would run perfect on that setup imho.

+ Project is looking good mate

[kellyharding]

Nice looking project.

Good use of an otherwise to most people obsolete laptop

I've considered doing a similar thing before now, but using a netbook rather than a full laptop, but whether I will or not is another matter!

I'd second putting a slim version of Linux on there, it'd make good use of the lower memory, and as well as that you might be able to find a distro that would run from a suitable flash card, to take the hard drive out of the equation as a failure/noise/heat problem.

[Rob_B]

I'd never really considered Linux, just as I've never used it & already had XP installed

It's for internet, video & iPlayer/etc not sure how much hassle it would be to do & the benefits being worth it?

[Pob255]

For just internet and such linux is a great option as it's far less resource hungry.


Howabout one of these for a wireless keyboard+trackerball all-in-one
http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/prod...EE-MCEKB&af=50

I can also fully sugest the emprex 5193 for a mini-keyboard, have a load of these at work, they've been the best mini keyboard so far, it has a usb hub built in as well (one usb port on each side) around £15
http://www.emprex.com/02_products_02.php?id=209
for an idea of how larger it is, look at a normal computer keyboard, cut it off just before the arrow keys and that's roughly who big it is.

[Fortune117]

I'd never really considered Linux, just as I've never used it & already had XP installed

It's for internet, video & iPlayer/etc not sure how much hassle it would be to do & the benefits being worth it?

Give linux a try mate, for the things that you are specifying linux will do all of them, and it will do it fast ;D

[shakerist]

wouldnt a wireless keyboard be better for that kind of an environment?

[Biscuit]

Another vote o give linux a try, its much more efficiant and ubuntu is a doddle to navigate

[razer121]

man i wish i thought of that idea, ive got loads of old laptops hanging about.....this is looking like a brill idea! what gave it you? just because you was board? or did something somewhere make you think "aha!" ?

[Pob255]

Quick question, what are you going to do about sound/speakers?

The laptop speakers are going to be too weak, speaking from experience of using a laptop&netbook in the kitchen to lissen to the radio, and being inside a box would make them even worse.

[golwg]

Brilliant project mate!!

[Rob_B]

Well, got a wireless mouse from Argos for £1.99 (thanks Nectar points!) which works prefectly & I'm thinking of building a holder on the side of the box for it.

Linux - Think I'm going to have to do it (see below for why!)

Problem - iPlayer wont run, well, it will but at about 1FPS, even after I turned it to desktop mode (so it runs at full pelt all the time) the CPU just doesn't cut it
RAM suprisingly seems to be ok & a little extra would help but won't rid me of the crappy CPU power.

So, my next step is to go Linux & see what happens, would I be best with the desktop Ubuntu or perhaps the one optimized for netbooks?
Silly questions but...what are the browsers like for it? (any suggestions?) Are there media players for Divx/etc? I'd also need a driver for my Wifi adapter.

Linux master needed in this thread please!

man i wish i thought of that idea, ive got loads of old laptops hanging about.....this is looking like a brill idea! what gave it you? just because you was board? or did something somewhere make you think "aha!" ?

Just because I had a laptop spare & I needed something to occupy me as I am very bored at the moment.

Quick question, what are you going to do about sound/speakers?

The laptop speakers are going to be too weak, speaking from experience of using a laptop&netbook in the kitchen to lissen to the radio, and being inside a box would make them even worse.

They're actually not that bad, fired up iPlayer & the sound boomed around the house (as the Vol+ button had jammed down!) after setting it to a decent level it seems ok as the box amplifies it nicely