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elucid · Apr 17, 2003, 12:02 PM

i was thinking about moving my tower and all equipment into basement for audio recording purposes but family wants it upstairs in tiny "computer" room.
all they need is monitor and keyboard, maybe speakers..
i live in a small enough house so 35' or so of able would do it

does any one know if i could get extra long cables or buy bulk wire and attach connectors myself to keep the price down?
would this have any relay affect? (ie words typed into extension keyboard take a second or two longer to reach extension monitor)
any idea how expensive this might be?
is this just a stupid idea for some unseen reason?

l008com · Apr 17, 2003, 06:55 PM

You would need active usb extensions for the keyboard and mouse, and you probably wouldn't loose all sorts of visual quality, if you'd even get a picture with a 35' monitor cable. And the third problem is, it wouldn't be very usable. Unless you set up the monitors as mirrors, assuming they are simliar/ the same, you would have troulbe making the whole thing usable. It would be nice if you could use some sort of software that would let two people log in at once and have it seperate the two keyboard and two monitors into two completely seperate environments, but there is no such software that im aware of. If you have more than one monitor of your own and you wanted a thrid or fourth for them to use, that wouldn't be possible. You're best bet is a cheap older computer, like an iMac or something. The active USB extensions alont would cost a fair amount of money, you'd need alot of them.

jaisun · Apr 17, 2003, 10:59 PM

I'm nearing completion of a similar project (not exactly the same, but close). The project costs a handful of coin, but well worth every penny in my mind. I can't give out all the details until I'm finished...don't want anyone to beat me to the finish line, if you know what I mean

A few clues:

I'm using a TV as a second monitor (makes sending the video signal over long distances much easier...even though you're limited to 640x480), and I've solved the input device conundrum (this is where things get a little spendy).

As for the computer being able to be used by two people at once...I'm with l008com. 7x00 series machines (for instance) are SUPER cheap on eBay. In fact the machine I'm using in my project above was purchased for a mere $45 w/shipping...it was completely stock, but in perfect mechanical condition. A second machine may just be the answer here.

l008com · Apr 17, 2003, 11:03 PM

I used TV output before and even on a 19" TV, the image was extremely poor for fine images like text and web sites and even thin ibeam cursurs.

Mohammed Al-Sabah · Apr 18, 2003, 07:23 AM

Originally posted by jaisun:
I'm nearing completion of a similar project (not exactly the same, but close). The project costs a handful of coin, but well worth every penny in my mind. I can't give out all the details until I'm finished...don't want anyone to beat me to the finish line, if you know what I mean

A few clues:

I'm using a TV as a second monitor (makes sending the video signal over long distances much easier...even though you're limited to 640x480), and I've solved the input device conundrum (this is where things get a little spendy).

As for the computer being able to be used by two people at once...I'm with l008com. 7x00 series machines (for instance) are SUPER cheap on eBay. In fact the machine I'm using in my project above was purchased for a mere $45 w/shipping...it was completely stock, but in perfect mechanical condition. A second machine may just be the answer here.

hmm gonna have 2 motherboards in one box? hehe tried that once

was fun to do

good luck ( did that with a PeeeCeeee not a mac tho)

elucid · Apr 18, 2003, 09:04 AM

thanx fer responses!

i didn't mean two users at the same time. homework upstairs in the afternoons and audio in the basement in the evening. does this matter?

COmie JOe · Apr 20, 2003, 02:23 PM

Just by an old used Mac, it would make it a lot easyer.

Xyphoid Process · Apr 23, 2003, 01:45 PM

There are pre-packaged all-in-one solutions out there:
http://www.national-tech.com/specs/41ce-700h.htm
Of course, that's $300 so it's a little pricey...

For $100 you can get a USB extender.
http://www.bb-elec.com/product.asp?s...rt_dept_id=119

If you buy a decent purpose-built video extension cable, 35' should be no problem - think of all the lecture halls out there with ceiling-mounted video projectors. The signal doesn't get up there on its own.

If you want to hack it together, though, you might run into problems with acceptable signal strength.

bluedog · Apr 25, 2003, 09:48 AM

Or get yourself set up with a new Mac-compatible "CoreCrib"!!!

This guy is building macs from apple supplied motherboards so they are 100% OS compatible and using other standard parts for a great deal.

Check them out. I'm NOT affiliated with them in any way, but excited about the possibility of getting a top-end mac for non-premium 'Apple' pricing. For a server, I don't care how it looks. If the OS looks good, you can always hide the box.

http://www.2khappyware.com/

Enjoy!

l008com · Apr 27, 2003, 10:12 PM

Originally posted by bluedog:
Or get yourself set up with a new Mac-compatible "CoreCrib"!!!

This guy is building macs from apple supplied motherboards so they are 100% OS compatible and using other standard parts for a great deal.

Check them out. I'm NOT affiliated with them in any way, but excited about the possibility of getting a top-end mac for non-premium 'Apple' pricing. For a server, I don't care how it looks. If the OS looks good, you can always hide the box.

http://www.2khappyware.com/

Enjoy!

They take all thier orders over pay-pal, that looks like a total SCAM to me!!! I wouldn't go near that page!

Luca Rescigno · Apr 28, 2003, 08:18 AM

You can get a Blue G3 for $250 from macofalltrades.com. You'd have to get a bigger hard drive because it only comes with 6 GB, but you should be able to live with the Rage 128, CD-ROM, and 256 MB of RAM for the time being if you don't have much money.

Also I calculated that getting either a Blue G3 or a PowerMac 7500 and upgrading either of them to a G4/450 with a 40 GB hard drive, 384 MB of RAM, CD-RW drive, and Quartz Extreme compatible graphics would cost $600.

And if you're REALLY on a budget... I have a PowerMac 7100/66 that I could send to you for the price of shipping. It's pretty useless, but if you really NEED a computer... seriously, why do all this crap when you could just buy another computer for probably less money?

iamnid · Apr 30, 2003, 10:39 PM

or you could get an extra long microphone cord and just yell upstairs "HEY! START RECORDING NOW!" Then, when you are done recording, yell "TURN THE GODDAMN THING OFF!" -- Problem solved, and extensions for microphone cords are cheap.

Seriously though, maybe you should just look into getting a decent recorder than you can plug into your computer after you're done recording.

ebolla · May 1, 2003, 01:20 PM

just buy the old mac to put upstairs and network the 2 machines together
use that machine for the family and other simple stuff
but install your user folder for both machines on the downstairs machine so whenever you use the upstairs machine you dont have to deal with worrying about coodinating too computers

then you can have a comp upstairs and downstairs but feel like you are working on one machine

whatever small hardrive is on the old machine shouldnt matter then cuz only the other family members will be using it