RE: In-wall controllers

["Ian Lowe" <ianlowe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I basically got a touchscreen monitor intended for use in cars (and
comes
with a housing for sinking it into headrests), from this ebay shop:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/3xdf8y

This unit has a "tail" of cables, including a USB connector for
the
touchscreen, vga etc. I sunk the unit into the wall, then fitted a modular
faceplate at the bottom of the wall, where a mini-itx system (an epia C500,
fanless with a laptop HDD) is hidden away: in my case, behind the fish
tank.

My Mini ITX is in a Cubid case: http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=3#2688

THere's one of these at the moment, plus a regular 15" TFT monitor
that I
mounted in the Kitchen: it runs through the wall to a "proper" PC
that lives
in the cupboard under the stairs.

Major hit, as it is really useful for finding recipes, playing music etc,
as
well as controlling the heating, house "modes" and so on.

You can do a lot with distributed small form factor PCs and these low cost
touchscreens.

Doing it over, the only thing I would do is use one of the higher powered
fanless Epia boards to have the possibility of streaming video to them.

Ian.


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