Best Way To Put a Monitor On a Robot? 48
I'm part of my schools IGVC team, and we're upgrading our bot's computer to an onboard mini-itx. Most of the access to the box is gonna be through ssh, but I want a terminal I can just mount on the bot for convenience. Bidding on a psOne LCD already, but what are some good options if that doesn't pan out? I want to keep it as cheap as possible and small (in the 5-7 inch range). I haven't found any good guides to modding a digital photo frame or portable DVD player, but I'm probably just not looking in the right places.
Easy answer (Score:5, Insightful)
Duct tape.
Re: (Score:2)
Duct tape.
Correct! It's the only possible answer. It should be modded +5 insightful, end discussion, no other answers shall be modded higher.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
First Thing (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
"Nun Soup!"
Why not... (Score:2, Interesting)
Here is how you do it (Score:2, Informative)
I've done similar work before for mounting monitors on ships. Get some thin aluminum bars, and then bend and braze them so that they form an end to a cage with the monitor screen unobstructed (bend four bars along their long axis and then cut and braze them together so that the monitor fits into the cage end). Depending on how you mount it, you may want to add other bars. You will probably also want to put impact padding inside the cage-end and strap-down cables or some other capture method to prevent th
Re: (Score:1)
...bend four bars along their long axis....
It would be an interesting exercise to try and bend them along their short axis...
Small VGA LCDs (Score:5, Informative)
There are a number of 7" VGA LCD displays with touchscreens in use in the car computer hobbyist community. The low-end ones are around USD $250-$300.
http://store.mp3car.com/category_s/27.htm [mp3car.com]
http://www.logicsupply.com/categories/lcd_displays [logicsupply.com]
http://digitalww.com/store/products.asp?cat=8 [digitalww.com]
Take a look around there and I'm sure you'll find something that will work quite well.
Re: (Score:2)
and they work well on server racks..
although the one got the touch screen really doesn't like the kvm
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
PDA's? Palm or Windows devices should be available for really cheap.
Layne
PDA's (Score:1)
You can probably find some used ones real cheap.
Re: (Score:1)
For terminal use, I'd recommend monochrome (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe a 4x20 or a small graphic display with 8 bit interface. A lot easier to program (minimal graphics driver needed) and a whole heck of a lot cheaper than a color panel.
I had good luck at www.crystalfontz.com, but Digikey and Mouser have stuff as well.
We have used the TFT panels here at work, and they require a lot to get them up and running. Even if your mini-itx has a built in panel controller, the graphics driver is a not inconsiderable programming job (unless you are fortunate enough to have one included with your OS). You might well decide that the time spent trying to get a graphics display working would be better spent on bot functionality.
Re: (Score:1)
nuts and bolts (Score:1)
2. Duct tape would probably work just as well.
3. I doubt that elmer's glue would be able to hold the monitor onto the robot very well.
4. Magic is not quite feasible with today's technology.
5. Wishful thinking won't get you very far. 6. You could go for the steampunk look with gears and welding (be careful not to weld the screen itself)
7. Double stick tape.
8.Rub it on your head and stick it with static electricity.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
OP is unclear (Score:1)
Specifically he asks "how can I" when he means "what can I use".
Have you looked into the carputer/car-pc scene? (Score:5, Informative)
We frequently use LCD's in the 6-8" size, but they're usually touch-screen and that may be overkill for your application. If it's not, though, a good bang-for-the-buck 7" touchscreen is the Lilliput 7" touchscreen - ~$250. If you want something a little better, try the Xenarc 7" - ~$350 (I personally use the Xenarc 7" 700TSV and have tested the Lilliput 7".. I have only great things to say about Xenarcs)
The touchscreens connect to your computer via USB and the video source can be either VGA or a single RCA coaxial.
If you're on a budget, my best advice would be to search for a cheap Lilliput non-touchscreen in the size you want. A quick google search came up with this 7" Lilliput for $120 [case-mod.com]
If you want touchscreens, a good place to start is www.mp3car.com. Non-touchscreens are less popular in the carputing world, so you will probably have better luck with google for those.
Re: (Score:2)
the Lilliput also supports SVideo...
i have the touch screen version - had it set up as a second display on my media PC so you could reach over to the side table and queue stuff up while it played on the other display.
only issue with that is that the drivers for the touch screen on it relayed the pointer to the primary monitor.. which got screwy if the media pc botched and put the TV as primary inestead of the Lilliput
Bigger question here. (Score:2, Insightful)
What is the best kind of monitor to get and where is the best place to get it from.
Tag this one "ifyoucantductitfuckit" (Score:1, Offtopic)
Words to live by - Macguyver would have had this stuff done faster than you could have typed out the submission.
What worked for me (Score:4, Informative)
What I used on the robot for my EE senior project was a serial LCD from seetron.com
It took the serial port data form a 16bit microcontroller and displayed it on screen. We used it mostly for text feedback but also used the low end graphics to display a graph of what our analog sensors saw in real time.
Probably low end for what you want but still a good option for embedded hardware hackers out there, as they could run it off of a pic or Basic Stamp. Will except TTL or RS232 voltage levels.
State surplus auctions (Score:2)
Go hit up your state surplus auctions. Sometimes you can find a very old laptop that it too outdated for anything but its tiny display.
I hope (Score:2)
Ebay - Industrial Automation - Operator Inteface (Score:2)
You can often find decomissioned HMI panels for next to nothing. That's how I change the temperature on my hot tub.
They are usually touch screens and their power suppliers can be pretty versatile (combo 120vAC/24v DC is common).
Re: (Score:2)
You can often find decomissioned HMI panels for next to nothing. That's how I change the temperature on my hot tub.
Sounds like those HMI panels run pretty hot, if they can change the temperature of such a large mass of water.
Why not a laptop? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Ditto, especially since this "robot" is an autonomous vehicle. You can run the whole thing off the cigarette lighter.
Nokia Internet Tablet n770/800/810 (Score:1)
The nokia tablets run maemo linux and have a nice hi-res display as well as USB/wifi/bluetooth as well as a camera.
The older models can be obtained for little money and run very well indeed.
The best way to put a monitor on a robot: (Score:2)
Illustration here. [animegalleries.net]
Psion 3 / 5 (Score:2)
Go get a second-hand Psion 3 or Psion 5 off ebay.
They're tiny, they have usable keyboards and a decent screens, they run for about a week on a few AA batteries, they have enough CPU to run proper diagnostic tools using the built-in scripting language, and they have built-in serial ports (although, alas, they're non standard). The Psion 5 will run Linux, but they've both got lots of useful built-in software on ROM. They're also pathetically cheap; 10 dollars for a Psion 3...
Mounting (Score:2)
Whatever you put on it, I'd place it on a flat top surface with another piece of glass atop it so that when someone inevitably puts a beverage on it, it won't damage the actual display.
of course... (Score:2)
The minimalistic course(?) (Score:1)
laptop can be a solution (Score:1)
Put a monitor on a cart (Score:1)
What about having a regular monitor-keyboard-mouse on a cart? Wheel it up to the robot and plug in to the relevant connections on the mini-ITX board. That's how I would go if you want to do development on the robot platform itself.
If what you're really looking for is a way for the robot to display debug/state information while it's running I think the serial LCD character displays are probably the cheapest text displays you'll find. If you just need some basic error information consider throwing on some
Ob. xkcd ref (Score:2)
Seriously, I'm surprised no one has posted a link to http://xkcd.com/413/ [xkcd.com] yet.
And seriously, $300 for the 2GB surf model will give you a 7" screen and a keyboard/trackpad. Can't beat that for convenience.
OK, maybe the $200 Nokia N800 would work well too, if you don't mind using the onscreen keyboard.
LCD picture frame, NO MODDING NECESSARY (Score:1, Informative)
ALL the LCD picture frames I've owned/bought as gifts had a "video in" port of some sort or other on them. No modding necessary. And they're all clear about what sort of power to feed them to make 'em work. Smaller ones can be found for cheap, too.