Thread: computer in my workshop

I'm interested in doing the same thing, but the dust worries me.
A few years back i stuffed a hard drive in my office when i was a smoker. Obviously those cigarette smoke particles are a lot smaller than saw dust. Putting it in a box will cause overheating problems which they don't like.

Will follow this with interest.
Hope someone has some ideas.

What you want to do with it Carl?

I got one that plays music only. No moving parts so dust not much of a problem.

I reckon dust in the monitor (if CRT) would probably be the greatest problem to be overcome.

Cheers,

i jsut wanna play music.

i gues there is some way to make it start playing automaticly when i turn it on thus not needing a monitor. but i am not good with that sort of thing im sure that i can do it just gotta know where to start.

i have been using an cd player but i am sick of changing cds. i have enough songs on my computer to play for 10 hours without repeating a song.

I have had a computer in my workshop for years and years.

There are pictures around the internet of big air filters to protect computers but I just give it a blow with the compressor every now and then.

Turn the keyboard upside down and give it a wack once in a while (I recommend this with all computers).

Some people put a lid over the monitor to prevent dust falling into the little holes but you should really put a fan in to get the heat out. You could pull the back cover off the monitor (don't touch any thing) and blow it out.

I run my workshop computer now with out a case and just blow it clean when I clean the table saw.

Always have a back up of your data!

I've got the guts of an old P3 400mhz PC which has passive cooling (no fans). No hard drive - I use a compact flash card from an old digital camera and a cheap adapter.

Music is all on USB sticks (4GB) that come with me out the the shed. Winamp just starts playing random tracks.

You can easily make external controller for winamp as here:

http://www.danielandrade.net/2005/11...inamp-control/

so, no drives, no keyboard, no monitor.

That said a cheap mp3 player and a set of cheap PC speakers would do a better, cheaper job but where's the challenge in that?

Cheers,

Try What I did and talked the kids into getting me an ipod. 4 gig. 1,300 songs hooked up thru amplified speakers. Set on shuffle to play the music randomly.

It only took me 3 days to load the music off the computer.

My sons only comment was he didn't know there was so much old fart music out there.

http://geexbox.org/en/index.html


You can burn this to a disk and boot from that and play the media on your hard drive or make a disk with the software and media on it so that you do not need a hard drive.

Carl,
When I ran the electric cables to the new shed recently I ran, in different conduit at least 300mm away, a cat5 cable from the router and a couple of phone lines. I have a computer inside a cupboard with at least 400mm all around for ventilation and the flat screen and keyboard on the top. I will eventually build an angled support for the keyboard. the mouse is a laser mouse so no dust in the ball! I listen to internet radio stations, my favorite is Absolute (was Virgin) from London (my service provider doesn't count the radio feed against my download limit BARGIN!). The times I am in the shed a chap called christian O'Connol is on and he is a hoot! Thoroughly recommended. So far it has been working without a problem but I will take a look inside at some point to assess how much dust gets in.

Regards

Mike

Basically, you shouldn't worry.

I've worked in IT for years, and seen computers in the harshest of environments. Basically, by the time the environment stuffs them up, the computers are well and truly out of date.

I have a computer in my shed, unprotected. I give it a blow out with an air compressor every six months or so, and it has never let me down.

HTH

Wongdai

Carl,

If you are really worried about the dust then put a piece of 4" PVC tube over the fan at the back and have it go outside (probably less dust out there). The fan blows air into the chassis to cool everything.

Then you can put it in a box. Just turn the monitor off after you have started the PC and playing the songs you want.

Steve

If you've got an Apple wireless network and your stereo is compatible just run iTunes from your Mac or PC down to the stereo in the shed.

i have a wireless network but teh old computer dont have a wireless router.

ill just stick it down tehre and if it brakes tehn it brakes it is about 12 years old.

it dosent even have usb ports

So it's got two massive copper wires that plug into the back of it then. At that age, it wouldn't matter if it carked it. And if you needed to replace it then at the next hard rubbish I'm sure you'd find something half it's age easy.

Hey Weisyboy!
If you are worried about dust etc in the keyboard just cover it with "Glad Wrap".