Reccomend me a good/cheap in wall PC please

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • jaffab
    Automated Home Sr Member
    • Dec 2008
    • 94

    Reccomend me a good/cheap in wall PC please

    Hello All,

    Can anybody recommend an in-wall (cut recess into wall and slot in) PC. I want to create my home automation system, and I am looking for a PC for downstairs that I can develop my applications for. It must have touch screen (for on-screen keyboard) and ideally, Windows CE (although I could live with XP/Vista)

    I have looked at some from a Google search, but they either are very small (5 inch screens) or very, very expensive. When you can buy a desktop PC for £300 and a tocuh screen monitor for £150, why are the ones that I have been able to find only available from the USA, and cost over £1200 for a 5-7 inch display?

    The bigger the display, the better as eventually I was thinking of loading Windows 7 on it, and when it was not being used for home control, using it as a virtual photo display on the wall.

    Any pointers would be very useful.

    Many thanks

    Jaffa
    Last edited by jaffab; 11 December 2008, 10:22 AM. Reason: Change Vista to XP/Vista
    __________________________________________________ _______________________
    My life is Home Automation, and my PS3 clan friends at http://www.ps3crowd.com
  • toscal
    Moderator
    • Oct 2005
    • 2061

    #2
    How about making your own using an ITX Pico, running XP.



    Or why not go for a Car Pc system. Like this I should imaging having the monitor slide out of the wall would like quite good.


    Or these on Lin Itx
    Wireless and Networking Experts. UK based distributor of MikroTik RouterBoards, Ubiquiti Master Distributor including Unifi and airMax. Supplier of routers, firewalls. IT and Networking consultancy.


    Have a look at the smart displays from viewsonic.
    IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.
    Renovation Spain Blog

    Comment

    • Otto-Mate
      Founder
      • Jan 2004
      • 882

      #3
      Yeah, another vote for http://linitx.com/viewcategory.php?catid=122&pp=115,122 here.

      Great support from LinITX too.

      M.
      Editor AutomatedHome.co.uk


      www.facebook.com/AutomatedHomeUK
      www.twitter.com/ottomate
      www.instagram.com/automatedhome/

      Comment

      • toscal
        Moderator
        • Oct 2005
        • 2061

        #4
        Another idea is to use a normal PC and connect a CAT5 KVM extender to it. Then run a length of cat5 cable from the PC to where you want the touchscreen to be hook up the touchscreen to the adapter and hey presto.
        Aver Key Media make some very good KVM extenders as do Blackbox (very very expensive but very high quality). http://www.blackbox.com/Store/Result...4294964208/p-0
        Don't have a link for Aver Key. But a google for Cat5 VGA extenders or cat5 kvm extenders should yield some good results.
        IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.
        Renovation Spain Blog

        Comment

        • MccLtd
          Automated Home Jr Member
          • May 2006
          • 19

          #5
          How about the asus EEE box these are very small and dont produce much heat. Easily sit behind a screen.

          They now even have the eee top with touch screen.
          http://www.medwaycomputercomponents....085&RP=0&BSP=0 (http://uk.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=...90&modelmenu=1)
          I sold one of these to a guy that wanted to use it in a wall. i dont know how he got on
          Regards,

          Da\/e.
          webshopwww.medwaycomputers.co.uk
          PCbuild shopwww.instantpc.co.uk
          Our new Forum:www.hardwareit.co.uk
          One Stop PC-I.T Shop

          Comment

          • jaffab
            Automated Home Sr Member
            • Dec 2008
            • 94

            #6
            All, just to say (in case anybody else is looking for a similar solution), that after a few weeks of search, I have narrowed my choice down to one of the two devices that are supplied by Advantech. One is around 6.5" in size, and the other is 7" in size, so just the right size for displaying some family pics when not being used to check the home automation, display the weather, read emails or bring up web sites. Both units cost around 700 eros, and can be fitted in a well.

            They are the PPC-L61T (http://www.advantech.com/products/65..._1-2OKQBV.aspx) and the UbiQ-470 (my fav) at (http://www.advantech.com/products/70..._1-2JKQ2S.aspx)
            __________________________________________________ _______________________
            My life is Home Automation, and my PS3 clan friends at http://www.ps3crowd.com

            Comment

            • scottmark
              Automated Home Lurker
              • Apr 2009
              • 4

              #7
              I've had a loan of the UBIQ-470, from a very helpful guy at APC (http://www.apc-plc.co.uk who are an Advantech distributor) called Richard Colpman. I'm not associated with them in any way I just contacted them on spec and they offered the loan.

              Its a really nice bit of kit, although perhaps a little underpowered, if you are a .Net programmer you will get along fine, although it does run WinCE 5, which is getting a bit old now.

              The price was approx £650 including the in-wall box, which as you say is very expensive but there is very little choice. Also there is an 8 to 9 week order time on them!!!!

              I'm still undecided as to which way to go at the moment, but I'd be interested in what you decide as well.

              Mark
              Last edited by scottmark; 3 April 2009, 12:44 PM. Reason: added order delay

              Comment

              • jaffab
                Automated Home Sr Member
                • Dec 2008
                • 94

                #8
                I have contacted them to see if I can get a loan. I am very tempted with the 470, and have already decided what I will (program) it to do (will create a nice app in .NET). The hit list is:

                1) Home automation overrides - a nice picture of the house plan, with zoom in options, and options to change the X10 configuration. Will get the device to send an XML command to the main X10 server, which will poll for the XML files and will then do the control thing.
                2) Weather displays – will have the main server pick up the local (and world) weather and display nice graphics for today, and the next 5 or 6 days worth of weather
                3) News – as above
                4) Quick web browsing. It wont be as good as say a full PC experience, however I/E which comes with CE is good enough for the job.
                5) Film catalogue. All my DVDs have already been transferred to twin 1Tb drives (played through my PS3). I will create a catalogue of films, with pictures of the covers, allow browsing through them and pick a film – with the system recording what I watched and when – with an option to randomly pick a film to watch, based on how long its been since I watched it
                6) Display of electric usage in the house (fed to the server from the OWL device, and then down to the in wall terminal)
                7) Link to camera outside, when the door rings, up pops a picture of who it is
                8) Link to google maps – for finding places and people and maps of where they are (get rid of the yellow pages)
                9) A few other bits and bobs of similar nature
                10) And when its not doing all of that, displaying family photos

                Jaffa
                __________________________________________________ _______________________
                My life is Home Automation, and my PS3 clan friends at http://www.ps3crowd.com

                Comment

                • TimH
                  Automated Home Legend
                  • Feb 2004
                  • 509

                  #9
                  Jaffa,

                  Some of the features you describe are already available through xAP - an open inter-communications protocol.

                  xAP Floorplan might be a good place to start - check out the list of apps at http://www.mi4.biz/modules.php?name=...howpage&pid=37

                  and for more info see; www.xapautomation.org

                  Certainly #1, 2, 3 & 7 are possible right now (#7 using xAP Switchboard IIRC) and 8 is probably possible too. There is also some current (excuse the pun) work going on to read in data from the CurrentCost electricity monitoring devices. Is that the asme as Owl?

                  HTH,

                  Tim.
                  p.s. also see the xAP group here on the Automated Home forums.
                  My Flickr Photos

                  Comment

                  • toscal
                    Moderator
                    • Oct 2005
                    • 2061

                    #10
                    Have a look at main lobby http://www.cinemarsolutions.com/ . This produces a rather slick front end. And is fairly easy to use and set up. Plus you can have Main Lobby running on more than one machine within your network.
                    IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.
                    Renovation Spain Blog

                    Comment

                    • toscal
                      Moderator
                      • Oct 2005
                      • 2061

                      #11
                      Just came across this site http://www.audon.co.uk/hmi.html
                      The CUWIN 3100 is 229 pounds don't know if that includes VAT or not.
                      IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.
                      Renovation Spain Blog

                      Comment

                      • jaffab
                        Automated Home Sr Member
                        • Dec 2008
                        • 94

                        #12
                        Good Find - a lot cheaper than the one I was looking at. However, the unit has no connection options. The Slightly more expensive (£50) CUWin3200 has network connectivity.

                        Just for information, the price DOES NOT include VAT. So the cost of the device (the one with 10/100) connectivity works out as:

                        Unit Cost = £279.00
                        Delivery = £8.95
                        Vat = £43.19
                        total Cost = £331.14

                        Just ordered one from my home. Currently out of stock, being despatched on 21/4/09. Cant wait.
                        Last edited by jaffab; 9 April 2009, 12:08 PM.
                        __________________________________________________ _______________________
                        My life is Home Automation, and my PS3 clan friends at http://www.ps3crowd.com

                        Comment

                        • scottmark
                          Automated Home Lurker
                          • Apr 2009
                          • 4

                          #13
                          I also looked at these although this is not as convenient as there is no wall mounting box, I did post onto the CuBloc forums about this http://cubloc.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.p...&t=1897&p=6237 and got a few ideas but then saw the Advantech.

                          But best of luck and if you find an easy way of in-wall mounting pleas let me know.

                          Comment

                          • KirasHome
                            Automated Home Jr Member
                            • Oct 2006
                            • 37

                            #14
                            Originally posted by toscal View Post
                            Just came across this site http://www.audon.co.uk/hmi.html
                            The CUWIN 3100 is 229 pounds don't know if that includes VAT or not.
                            Going off topic - but they also do a GSM unit that can:
                            Switch on/off outputs from simple SMS text message
                            Send an SMS message when a input changes state
                            Could be useful for adding SMS capabilities to a system.


                            Edit:
                            Or they have a DIN rail one as well


                            Jamie
                            Last edited by KirasHome; 9 April 2009, 04:33 PM.

                            Comment

                            • toscal
                              Moderator
                              • Oct 2005
                              • 2061

                              #15
                              Its getting cheaper

                              Found this, and its quite cheap. Could possibly make a nice hand held interface.
                              mobile-internet-device-mid-multimedia-pc-with-touchscreen
                              I've ordered stuff from these guys before and the service has been very good. 4 days to send 2 mobile phones to Spain which I think is not bad, and no customs duty.
                              Last edited by toscal; 10 April 2009, 11:12 PM.
                              IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.
                              Renovation Spain Blog

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X