The Garage Computer

[ruquik]

I always relegate my oldest laptop in the house to my small garage. I try to keep it clean but don't feel too bad if i happen to smudge it. =)

I have it hooked up to an external monitor that is mounted to the wall and a wireless keyboard and mouse.

Best tool I have!

Headless FTW

 

[HvyEquipMech]

I like what Snap-On has come up with on their new boxes: http://www.snapon.com/epiqpower/

 

[Gamble]

I just took mine down because I never used it. This shelf is not sold in stores

I gave the shelf away and have the laptop for sale.

 

[mrgm]

I will be integrating mine with kinect. Hands free.

 

[Chief Geek]

CF-29 toughbook for mobile use. Wall mounted ultra short throw projector giving me 100" screen for games, movies, music, research, youtube how tos (much easier to watch while doing something when it's life size and usually larger). In the process of coming up with new work bench design, demod the old broken down one before I had a solid plan to build a new one.

 

[rmalkow2]

I like my setup better its enclosed away from all the metal, wood and paint dust!!

Great job. It's inspired me. I have a Mac Mini in an upper cabinet with LCD monitor hung below the cabinet in a similar position but no good place for the keyboard/mouse. The swing down lid will be a new addition. Maybe a little wider to allow mouse area.

 

[Ishy]

I have an older Thinkpad laptop in the garage and one in the basement. Paid $10 for each at garage sales. They are built like tanks and because they are old and cheap, I don't care if they get dirty. They also serve as MP3 players via 3.5mm to RCA converters.

iPad would be nice for the garage if it had Flash. No Flash = a lot of sites don't work.

 

[bimmerZ5]

I have an older Thinkpad laptop in the garage and one in the basement. Paid $10 for each at garage sales. They are built like tanks and because they are old and cheap, I don't care if they get dirty. They also serve as MP3 players via 3.5mm to RCA converters.

iPad would be nice for the garage if it had Flash. No Flash = a lot of sites don't work.

old thinkpads are indeed awesome for such purposes. they've always been well built laptops.

 

[MNBackpacker]

For those looking for a quick and simple laptop cabinet, our Swedish friends have one available: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10139134/

I've been thinking of picking one up, just to keep the laptop out of the way when not in use...

 

[Big_Jim]

I like my setup better its enclosed away from all the metal, wood and paint dust!!

I'm stealing this idea!

 

[Drewstang]

I'll be running some coax and cat5 out to my garage this fall to hook my workshop PC to my network (wireless router is too far away.) That way I can access all my shop manuals, music, and pics from anywhere.

 

[GSEninja]

Scrap metal/wood laying around..

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gseninja/7559711988/" title="IMAG0280 by GSEninja, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7122/7559711988_6d0512a130.jpg" width="500" height="282" alt="IMAG0280"></a>

works great!

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gseninja/7559712834/" title="IMAG0282 by GSEninja, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8431/7559712834_4fdf657b2f.jpg" width="500" height="282" alt="IMAG0282"></a>

 

[Scottwi]

I picked this up about a year ago. Now that the garage is finally getting finished it will be for the laptop when I need it in the garage.

 

[fteufert]

Older desktop computers are cheap on Craigslist or even at the local Goodwill. CRT monitors are dirt cheap (and usually even free).

Even most old desktops can be cabled to a LCD TV, and a wireless mouse and keyboard are fairly cheap.

Wall mounts for the LCD TV's and monitors are cheap too.

 

[jhochst]

Old iPad works nice for me.

 

[kelpaso1]

i have two old clunkers,both windows me or 2000.lol but they work one is for basic web searches and the other has my automotive info systems downloaded into them and also serves as my invoice and estimate printer in my home shop.

Where did you get the Snap-on key rack and where can I get one?

 

[sxk122]

My old EEE pc is relegated to the garage. Loaded with Linux Peppermint, it just sits in the cabinet, hooked to my speakers ready to go to garage journal and google when needed. Pandora beats local radio.....

 

[afmrick]

I think my set-up is a little unique, possibly. My shop is divided in two areas, the main 3-bay work area, and the lift bay. I wanted to be able to control music and look up things in both areas. So, the main computer is in a cabinet in the main room running a monitor (which happens to be mounted on BMW e39 hinges) and plugged into the stereo. The stereo is set to have two zones, one for each room. There's about 250ft of speaker wire all said and done.

The computer has a dual-output video card, running in mirror mode. That outputs to a 50ft VGA cable and a 50ft USB cable. Those two wires run into the lift bay, feeding another monitor and a USB hub with a keyboard and mouse. So, it becomes a console. You can control the computer equally from both as they're receiving identical inputs and outputs. It's a pretty handy set-up so I don't have to walk between the rooms when I want to change a song on Grooveshark.

I have basically the same setup.
We have a trickle down system for computer upgrades at home so, computers usually end their life in the garage. I use it mostly just for playing music or surfing the internet but, it's handy for looking parts and PDF versions of service manuals. With some software and a bluetooth OBDII adapter it actually has some actual maintenance purposes too. ...although, I can use my phone for that too.

The tower is in a cabinet near my main workbench and there's a monitor/speakers/keyboard/mouse there. It's wall mounted with the cheapest monitor brackets they had on Amazon. Nothing special to protect the keyboard/mouse either - they're also cheap and seem to breed like coat hangers.

The tower also has a dual monitor video card and combined with some long DVI/USB/Speaker cables I have a second mirrored workstation closer to the lift with the mouse/keyboard plugged into the USB ports on the monitor. Here I used a touchpad for the mouse since I wanted it to be mounted flat against the wall.

It's perfect for my needs and most people think it's pretty fancy when I have a movie playing (mostly as noise or just to showoff) on both screens.

 

[christopizza]

+1 on the saran wrap on the keyboard - I lost a keyboard and then wrapped the next one and it's been great for two full sandings and painting of cars. The wrap has been replaced a few times.

i have a flat screen tv with computer connected and blueray sony box for streaming nextflix.

A-team re-runs were my companion during my rebuild of my high school car 54 TR2. did lots of research on that computer during that time.

 

[Blazin8556]

I have an old iMac G3 in the garage. Seems to handle the cold temps well.
Bose speakers do well.

I had a better laptop, but I dropped a 3/4" long wrench on it and skipped the HD. D'oh.

Tip. I wrap the keyboard in plastic cling wrap to keep it clean.

i remember wanting one of these as a kid when they came out. i was just learning how to work on computers. been thinking about buying one still lol.

 

[macarych]

Computer in the repair shop welding equipment.

more photos

 

[autobon7]

CF-29 toughbook for mobile use. Wall mounted ultra short throw projector giving me 100" screen for games, movies, music, research, youtube how tos (much easier to watch while doing something when it's life size and usually larger). In the process of coming up with new work bench design, demod the old broken down one before I had a solid plan to build a new one.

I'm with ya.....panasonic toughbooks are perfect for the garage. I have a CF-Y4 that I use. No problems with lower temps and can keep my newer lifebook in the house where it belongs. I going to get a Bluepoint rolling service tray so I can roll it where I need it.

 

[Whytetrashe]

one of my gaming rigs have ended up on my new workbench. dual screen with the Tv comes in quite handy

 

[TheOtherChris]

I made a mount for the monitor and keyboard so I could bolt it to the wall next to the little mill.


It has an articulating arm that allows me to pull it out where I can see it from the mill (or the lathe behind me).
It is very handy to have drawings/plans that I can zoom in for my old eyes.

 

[nicksnothereman]

There's lots of reason to have a computer in the shop. I guess the biggest reason is research... There is nothing like have Google at a moment's reach. However, placemen...
To read the rest of this blog entry from The Garage Journal, click here.

You should just use an external keyboard (or a wireless keyboard). Don't have to worry about messing up the integrated keyboard with gunk. Sometimes you can pick them up at salvation army for a buck. I bought a bunch of those "ez eyes" keyboards at one of the dollar stores (think it was dollar tree?) for a buck a piece. While kind of goofy looking but they work very well and don't have to worry about messing them up.

 

[MN4x4]

I am normally a Mac guy, but a friend is selling a bunch of these and gave one to me to try.
It's an Atom processor unit, mounted on the back of a Planar 15 " display. Very compact, and quite fast.





Specs/Info here:

CPU - Veriton N260G
http://www.engadget.com/products/acer/veriton/n260g/specs/

Display - PL1500M LCD Monitor - 15" - 1024 x 768 @ 75Hz - 4:3 - 8ms - 0.297mm - 700:1 - Black
http://www.engadget.com/products/planar/pl1500m/specs/

It makes a great little shop computer that takes up almost no bench space. The CPU's have built in restore images for both XP and Win7 native.

 

[catalytic]

Or you could go the steampunk route to match the style of the old iron in the garage:

 

[jethro29]

I have two,they are both out dated but are fine for shop use,one I have Mitchell on demand w/discs downloaded on and the either I have Wi-Fi on and use it for identifix,iatn,two car pro's and google searches.

 

[macarych]

Upgrade.

 

[milner351]

Does anyone have experience with getting a wireless signal from the house to the shop that's 200-300 feet away?

I don't want to deal with trenching in cable, surely there's a directional antenna type of device I could use?

 

[EarlyBroncoGuy]

At my old house, in the attached 2 car garage I had my son's old Dell desktop on the bench and the monitor/TV up in the wall cabinet over it. Handy to look up parts, installation/service manuals, etc. I also used to stream Pandora, and ran a cable so I could watch TV.

Here at the new place, the shop is 150 feet away from the house, and the wifi signal doesn't quite reach that far. I've ordered a wifi extender, once it's installed it'll be nice to be able to surf without coming back to the house.

No cable out to the shop yet, but I picked up a TV antenna and a digital/analog converter box and hooked it up to the free big screen TV I picked up CL, it pulls in all the local HD over the air channels just fine. It also has input jacks for audio, so all of my music on the Mp3 player sound nice and loud through the huge speakers in the TV.

Both my kids are in college, whenever one of their electronic devices (laptop, PC, phone, camera, whatever) quits working or they just get a new one, they give me the old one and I can usually get it going well enough for me to use. As a result, I've got a Toshiba laptop, Dell desktop, old iPods, etc to use in the garage/shop for free.

 

[mdbeck1]

At my old house, in the attached 2 car garage I had my son's old Dell desktop on the bench and the monitor/TV up in the wall cabinet over it. Handy to look up parts, installation/service manuals, etc. I also used to stream Pandora, and ran a cable so I could watch TV.

Here at the new place, the shop is 150 feet away from the house, and the wifi signal doesn't quite reach that far. I've ordered a wifi extender, once it's installed it'll be nice to be able to surf without coming back to the house.

No cable out to the shop yet, but I picked up a TV antenna and a digital/analog converter box and hooked it up to the free big screen TV I picked up CL, it pulls in all the local HD over the air channels just fine. It also has input jacks for audio, so all of my music on the Mp3 player sound nice and loud through the huge speakers in the TV.

Both my kids are in college, whenever one of their electronic devices (laptop, PC, phone, camera, whatever) quits working or they just get a new one, they give me the old one and I can usually get it going well enough for me to use. As a result, I've got a Toshiba laptop, Dell desktop, old iPods, etc to use in the garage/shop for free.

Wifi extenders and other directional devices should work for the 150 feet. It will be less for the 300 feet. It will help if you can put the antenna for the receiver outside the building (especially if it's a tin building).

 

[mantakev]

Mine is a dell PC small form and I've put a dual screen video card in
Broadband connection and linked to my stereo in the garage
The VGA connection is split to a second display over the bench too
Total screens in garage 37" LCD 21" LCD and a 17" LCD over the bench

 

[Chevy-SS]

I've got a spare laptop dedicated to the workbench. It's great to have internet access right at the bench. I am looking stuff up all the time. Plus, I have it wired to my Onkyo stereo system and I can stream music from the internet, or play MP3's from the computer. Very handy!

-

 

[rmmiller]

I have an old desktop stuffed under the bench along with the stereo with a slide out for the mouse and keyboard. The monitor and speakers are on the wall and the sub is with the cpu. It doesn't get a lot of computing use but I do have it hooked into the stereo for commercial and idiot DJ free music.

 

[macarych]

 

[VTX1800]

My wife bought an IPAD for me as a gift, I didn't think I would use it a lot. I was wrong. It goes to the shop in the evenings, we use it for music (Pandora, IHeart radio, YouTube Etc) as well as when I need it to look something up that I am working on. It's wireless so no plug ins except where I plug the amp for music using four speakers. Life is good.

 

[Regnar]

I have been thinking about putting a 32" TV with a Raspberry Pi 2 hooked up to the back of it. Add a wireless mouse and keyboard and would be all set.

Windows 10 will eventually be free for it as well. http://dev.windows.com/en-us/featured/raspberrypi2support

 

[86turbodsl]

Does anyone have experience with getting a wireless signal from the house to the shop that's 200-300 feet away?

I don't want to deal with trenching in cable, surely there's a directional antenna type of device I could use?

I did this. shop is 300' away from the house. I used big soup cans on each end, google "cantenna" with a wireless access point at each end. Worked great for years, when i finally had trenching done, i went to ebay fiberoptic. I think i had less than $100 in the fiber. Wifi was more than that.

 

[Beemer533]

I have been thinking about putting a 32" TV with a Raspberry Pi 2 hooked up to the back of it. Add a wireless mouse and keyboard and would be all set.

Windows 10 will eventually be free for it as well. http://dev.windows.com/en-us/featured/raspberrypi2support

Just remember that the RPi build is sort of like Windows RT; you won't be able to install standard applications on it (Word, Excel, Acrobat, etc)..

Also, at least right now, you can only install it from a Windows 10 based PC... Kind of strange, and since my only current Windows 10 PC is a VM I couldn't get the install to work on my RPI2..