Re: [tlug] mounting LCD displays

["Conor McTernan" <conormcternan@example.com>]

Thanks for the ideas guys.

On 10/18/07, Andrew Errington <a.errington@example.com> wrote:
>  The core of the system was a
> locally-running Java app that rendered the information onto the local X
> display.  The app fetched information from a central server, but it also
> kept track of 'local housekeeping' such as, what to do if the server
> became unavailable, turning off the screen at night (with DPMS) etc.
>
> We tried a web browser refreshing itself automatically, but you still have
> a problem if the server goes away for any reason, then the screen won't
> refresh.  Either it goes blank and won't restart, or it stays frozen with
> stale data.
>
We are essentially doing the same as you described, except we will be
'streaming' the info from our web server. We're not too worried about
the screen freezing/data being stale, if it's lost it's Internet
connection then the office is probably has probably lost it's
connection too and I'll have bigger fish to fry at that point anyway.

> One of the key design points was putting the PC and the monitor close to
> each other, controlled via Ethernet.  It is of course tempting to use a
> central PC with many video cards and loooooong cables, but that doesn't
> work in all cases.  The mini-ITX system was cheap enough that we could
> afford to put one with each monitor, rather than coming up with bespoke
> installations for each case.
>

I've been leaning towards the same approach myself, I can pace a small
box somewhere close to the screen and conceal it behind a desk or
something, this seems like the 'simplest' solution (maybe not the most
elegant though).

> If this is a commercial product you are designing then you have to think
> very carefully about making it robust.  If it's some convenient hack
> around the office then you can probably get away with having string and
> sealing wax holding it together for a while.

This is going to be for internal use only (for the time being). It
could be commercial at some point in the future. Either way I plan on
making it as robust as possible given the resources/constraints I'm
dealing with.

> Either way, you can probably
> grab some hardware *right now* and dabble with a few ideas before you
> start buying specific LCD panels and PCs and start making infrastructure.
>

Any recommendations on 'inexpensive' hardware? I've used some VIA mini
ITX machines before (I cant for the life of me remember the model) and
they've worked great. As Keith mentions I'll have to confirm that I
can find something that will support my resolution (for production
anyway).

> Don't forget, a large screen TV can
> look very small in a huge open space, but look around you, in malls,
> stations and airports you can see many examples of what you describe.
>

I was in some department store the other day and ended up spending
about 20 minutes walking around checking the different wall mounted
displays outside different stores trying to figure out what brands are
the most popular, I couldn't really find any consistency.....

I think we're going to go with LCD monitors, I'm looking at 22" or 24"
displays, whilst it would be nice to have 40" display hanging on the
wall the reality is we're dealing with relatively small offices with
limited real estate on the walls as it is...

> You could buy a system to do this, but maybe you want to play?  Perhaps
> you could list some more constraints or resources you have and we can help
> more.

Playing is one part, but I've also got budget constraints i.e. do this
for as little money as possible. Resource wise (from the hardware
point of view) I don't really have much, but I don't really need much
at this point anyway. I've some test machines that I will be using to
test out the web application, which is probably all I really need
right now, and a couple of old monitors sitting around that I can
probably demo things on. The software to display these graphs is in
the process of being built right now, so there's not really much there
that I can test out.

Can anyone recommend any good stores around Akiba that have a good
selection of mini-ITX systems?

Conor