DrummerJonny Posted April 3, 2010 Share Posted April 3, 2010 I'm glad you explained what you wanted the UPS for... Mega Slow day, and I was thinking "But if there's no power... why do you need to control the lighting rig??!!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonkiDonki Posted April 3, 2010 Author Share Posted April 3, 2010 I'm glad you explained what you wanted the UPS for... Mega Slow day, and I was thinking "But if there's no power... why do you need to control the lighting rig??!!" I'm used to running Q from a laptop, there's been plenty of times it's been saved by the laptop battery; distro tripped, dodgy building supply, noise boy unplugging my control mains to plug in his Mac psu, etc.I would feel a bit naked running from a PC which would need a couple of minutes to boot back up when there are so many ways to encounter "little hiccups" in power. Since seeing the lovely PC Wing enclosure earlier in this topic I have been inspired to get more serious with my own design (hands up to "borrowing" some style direction...), I have constructed the basics in wysiwyg which I will tweak as I source the final components. I will add some images when I can find somewhere to post the pics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smalljoshua Posted April 3, 2010 Share Posted April 3, 2010 Just as a side note, to post pics you need to upload them to Photobucket or similar and then link to them on here. Josh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonkiDonki Posted April 3, 2010 Author Share Posted April 3, 2010 Just as a side note, to post pics you need to upload them to Photobucket or similar and then link to them on here. Josh Just trying it for the first time, fingers crossed... http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/aa1ae53910.jpg ]http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/5e32f04025.jpg[/img] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted April 3, 2010 Share Posted April 3, 2010 I would feel a bit naked running from a PC which would need a couple of minutes to boot back up when there are so many ways to encounter "little hiccups" in power.You can get PC power supplies which run from a DC input; I guess they're designed for either vehicle or boat applications. You could build you own online UPS by using one of those, a battery and a battery charger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonkiDonki Posted April 3, 2010 Author Share Posted April 3, 2010 You can get PC power supplies which run from a DC input; I guess they're designed for either vehicle or boat applications. You could build you own online UPS by using one of those, a battery and a battery charger. Thanks for that tip Brian. It's been a while since I've had a go at anything like that, I guess the likes of Maplin, CPC and RS are still the best places to look for that kind of thing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted April 3, 2010 Share Posted April 3, 2010 ...I guess the likes of Maplin, CPC and RS are still the best places to look for that kind of thing?Bit specialised for them. Try a web search on "dc pc psu", I got a few good hits including this one and even better this one. [EDIT]The car PCs on the first site I linked to look interesting for portable applications. [EDIT2]And they do PCs which will boot from CF or USB = no HDD to go wrong! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryson Posted April 3, 2010 Share Posted April 3, 2010 Well you could always use a small SSD instead of a HDD. They're kind of pricey, but the improvement in boot time and reliability is probably worth it in this application. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonkiDonki Posted April 3, 2010 Author Share Posted April 3, 2010 Well you could always use a small SSD instead of a HDD. They're kind of pricey, but the improvement in boot time and reliability is probably worth it in this application. True, that is something I have been considering. It would be a bit of luxury, as I am trying to keep the costs to a minimum (currently the project is waiting for me to score a couple of 15" touch-screens at the right price on Ebay) but I like the idea of as few moving parts to worry about as possible. Looking into it, it's tempting to push up the overall PC spec a little to get an SSD with decent read/write speeds and have Windows 7 (apparently 7 is much better than XP for long term SSD performance ). We will have to see what I end up going for. I have been considering using a mini-ITX motherboard with on-board Intel Atom CPU which is cheap and should perform well with XP & MagicQ but I'm not so sure with Windows 7. The other option, and only slightly dearer (and uses a few more watts, only an issue if I manage to sort an internal UPS) is a micro-ATX motherboard with a low-end dual core CPU. At least that should handle anything I chuck at it. Thankfully ATI now have triple monitor support across the latest range of graphics cards, so even the cheapest will be able to drive 2x15" and my existing 10". I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all the touch-screen drivers work together without conflicts - I really like the 3 screen concept. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smalljoshua Posted April 3, 2010 Share Posted April 3, 2010 I'd be tempted to use Linux on the machine. It's what is on the desks themselves IIRC. Josh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt_h Posted April 3, 2010 Share Posted April 3, 2010 I don't know what your budget is for touch screens but there are some reasonably priced new ones here. I have a couple at work for EPOS systems, they aren't as responsive as the ELO screens we have on most stuff, but at the price I can't complain too much. E2A: Browse that site a bit, they do frame mount screens which if your building an enclosure may be better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wol Posted April 3, 2010 Share Posted April 3, 2010 err...... want to double check that link Matt? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bråthe Posted April 3, 2010 Share Posted April 3, 2010 For the touch screens it could maybe be cost efficient to look for overlay? I built one into my net-book and it works perfectly. this one is a bit overpriced I think but you get the picture of it, worth a search. I picked mine like this up for 70€ one year ago. Add some cheap monitors and your there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonkiDonki Posted April 3, 2010 Author Share Posted April 3, 2010 For the touch screens it could maybe be cost efficient to look for overlay? I built one into my net-book and it works perfectly. this one is a bit overpriced I think but you get the picture of it, worth a search. I picked mine like this up for 70€ one year ago. Add some cheap monitors and your there. I have heard a few reports that the overlays are easy to break, how have you found yours? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themadhippy Posted April 3, 2010 Share Posted April 3, 2010 I'd be tempted to use Linux on the machineunfortunately multi windows and matrix viewer wont play nicely under linux,or at least the version ive got, wont. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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