low-fat-al
Hi all..
I am wanting to see if this is possible. I don't use a laptop to DJ anymore because of the limitiations and being able to expand and customize. I do however use a cube style computer with all the bells and whistles to do scratch video mixing with TCV and an Ecler Nou 4 mixer. I just ordered an Odyssey turntable coffin to house all the components. This case has a shelf right above the mixer for a laptop. There are no pictures of this new product on-line yet. But is it is similar to this one which is for a 10" mixer:
http://www.odysseygear.com/display.php?sku=frgsbm10w&PHPSESSID=16a316db2d25178b647bb83b1677c665
I want to utilize this shelf for my LCD monitor and keyboard and mouse. I was thinking it would be nice to use an old laptop and just have the monitor and keyboard and mouse be used for my cube style computer. So is it possible to gut a laptop or get parts for one and just use these parts for exactly that? This would solve SO many problems for all the users like me who use a custom PC for DJ-ing instead of a laptop. Or am I the only one who thinks this?
I am wanting to see if this is possible. I don't use a laptop to DJ anymore because of the limitiations and being able to expand and customize. I do however use a cube style computer with all the bells and whistles to do scratch video mixing with TCV and an Ecler Nou 4 mixer. I just ordered an Odyssey turntable coffin to house all the components. This case has a shelf right above the mixer for a laptop. There are no pictures of this new product on-line yet. But is it is similar to this one which is for a 10" mixer:
http://www.odysseygear.com/display.php?sku=frgsbm10w&PHPSESSID=16a316db2d25178b647bb83b1677c665
I want to utilize this shelf for my LCD monitor and keyboard and mouse. I was thinking it would be nice to use an old laptop and just have the monitor and keyboard and mouse be used for my cube style computer. So is it possible to gut a laptop or get parts for one and just use these parts for exactly that? This would solve SO many problems for all the users like me who use a custom PC for DJ-ing instead of a laptop. Or am I the only one who thinks this?
Inviato Sun 02 Jul 06 @ 10:23 am
xeon
Very similar to my setup lol ;)
Inviato Sun 02 Jul 06 @ 2:17 pm
Superstom
low-fat-al,
that will not be easy. The mouse pad and the keyboard are usually connected (internaly) by usb. With some tweaking this could probably be attached to your cube pc. The screen of the laptop would be the problem (I think). It will be hard to get this to work. But you could try. I recommend to get somebody in with a lot of computer hardware knowledge or a repair technician.
Ewout
that will not be easy. The mouse pad and the keyboard are usually connected (internaly) by usb. With some tweaking this could probably be attached to your cube pc. The screen of the laptop would be the problem (I think). It will be hard to get this to work. But you could try. I recommend to get somebody in with a lot of computer hardware knowledge or a repair technician.
Ewout
Inviato Sun 02 Jul 06 @ 2:35 pm
steve_djdawson
you could set up a VNC between your cube computer and a very cheap laptop using nothing more than an ethernet cable, however, response on VNC tends to be quite slow of what I've tried, and wouldn't really be ideal for using VDJ with, there's just too many risks of something going wrong.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/learnmore/northrup_multimon.mspx
Scroll down to the section "Re-purpose an old laptop" that may be worth a try, but I don't know about it's response. also, this doesn't allow you to use the mouse & keyboard from the laptop.
To be quite honest tho, you'd probably be better off getting a stand alone keyb/mouse/mon, and making them all fit exactly how you like into the case.
These may be of use as well:
http://www.fentek-ind.com/minikb.htm
Although, I don't know about buying from there, it gives you an idea of the keyboards that are available.
Steve.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/learnmore/northrup_multimon.mspx
Scroll down to the section "Re-purpose an old laptop" that may be worth a try, but I don't know about it's response. also, this doesn't allow you to use the mouse & keyboard from the laptop.
To be quite honest tho, you'd probably be better off getting a stand alone keyb/mouse/mon, and making them all fit exactly how you like into the case.
These may be of use as well:
http://www.fentek-ind.com/minikb.htm
Although, I don't know about buying from there, it gives you an idea of the keyboards that are available.
Steve.
Inviato Sun 02 Jul 06 @ 2:36 pm
A Man and His Music
So, you would like to have a build in keyboard and mouse pad, and a fold down monitor, on that shelf? I don't see why this can't be done. I would not go the laptop parts route. You can cut a hole, and install the keyboard yourself. Get the monitor mount from here!You may be able to just mount the keyboard onto the shelf, and the monitor will just fold down on top of it. Ask Todd, from djrak for some info, and he will be glad to help you.
Inviato Mon 03 Jul 06 @ 2:47 am
low-fat-al
I actually have one his mounts from him for my Gator case already. I wasn't completely pleased with his slow approach to completing an order. Not to go off on him or his fine product. But I ordered one his mounsts explaining to him what case I have. I got it in about a month from placing the order and it didn't exactly fit correctly. It put tension on my lid and broke one of the case handles. I had to replace the case and told him via phone about this. He was to send me a replacement for the correct size immediately. Well after a month AGAIN I got the replacement which was the complete opposite. IT WAS LARGER. So called him AGAIN... and he appologized and sent the supposed right one out again... a few weeks passed and I got the same one I orginally ordered in size. So I gave up on him and ordering the RIGHT product. I ended up mounting his mount from underneath the top rack to MAKE it work. It was WAY expensive to get this mount and the time that had passed was unacceptable.
The Odyssey case has a lid that I am sure goes directly over the shelf. I don't think anything is meant to be mounted directly on the shelf on a permenant basis. I need something I could place on there and open up and patch into a PC for use. Like the old LunchBox computer cases or something without the bulky size. It would be nice to have a product that looks and feels like a laptop but is meant for a regular PC as an external portable keyboard/mouse/video solution. Maybe I am just a dreamer and thinking of the next money making product... never fails I always think big and never get paid with my ideas.
The Odyssey case has a lid that I am sure goes directly over the shelf. I don't think anything is meant to be mounted directly on the shelf on a permenant basis. I need something I could place on there and open up and patch into a PC for use. Like the old LunchBox computer cases or something without the bulky size. It would be nice to have a product that looks and feels like a laptop but is meant for a regular PC as an external portable keyboard/mouse/video solution. Maybe I am just a dreamer and thinking of the next money making product... never fails I always think big and never get paid with my ideas.
Inviato Mon 03 Jul 06 @ 3:38 am
djsherz
Funny, I've often wondered about doing cannibalising a laptop myself. I think it would be quite difficult to achieve though, particularly the monitor. You might assume that the internal cable that connects the monitor to the rest of the laptop simply carries the power and the VGA signals. If that were the case, you'd just need a power supply for the monitor (probably 12 volts, capable of delivering around 10 watts or so), and then, having worked out the pin connections, wire the data cables up to a VGA plug. However, I suspect you'll find that the ribbon cable that goes to the LCD screen does not carry pure VGA signals - the circuitry associated with the monitor is often built onto the motherboard, which would render the screen part of the laptop pretty useless on it's own.
Inviato Mon 03 Jul 06 @ 6:23 am
A Man and His Music
Actually, that is not the case. I saw a project in a PC mag, detailing how to turn an old laptop into one of those desktop photo changers. They took the monitor, fit it into a frame, hooked up a hard drive, key drive, or something and Bam. I don't remember if it was PC World, Computer Shopper, or PC Magazine.
Inviato Mon 03 Jul 06 @ 7:12 am
djsherz
Really???? Now that *is* interesting, I've got a couple of old knackered laptops knocking around in my junk room, I might have a play! Might take a bit of figuring out which wires go to which pin of a VGA plug though, there's about 15 pins isn't there?
Inviato Mon 03 Jul 06 @ 8:22 am
djsherz
Hmm, tried Googling for "convert laptop lcd photo frame" and it came up with a few sites that explain how to do it. However, they all seem to use the original laptop's motherboard in conjunction with the LCD, ie it's still essentially the same hardware, just built into a different shaped box. It's as I thought - the ribbon cable for the LCD will not accept a standard video signal without adding a whole load of extra circuitry to convert it. Check this link, one of the guys on here gave a detailed explanation of LCD wiring.
http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/98801
Apparently it can be done, but would probably be prohibitively expensive compared to the cost of simply buying an LCD monitor. Shame really, I've got so many potential monitors lying around in my junk box!
http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/98801
Apparently it can be done, but would probably be prohibitively expensive compared to the cost of simply buying an LCD monitor. Shame really, I've got so many potential monitors lying around in my junk box!
Inviato Mon 03 Jul 06 @ 8:52 am