Fancy pants 5.25 LCD display for storage use?

[thepriceisright]

I'm working on a special "NAS" project and I was interested in getting one of those spiffy LCD 5.25 displays to show hard drive usage on different drives. I have two bays available physically, the case only has two and I have no plans to use them for anything else. I don't really need fan control but I don't mind if it's included. I also wouldn't mind temperature display.

Really though all I care about is hard drive usage, everything else would just be extra.

I plan on running a Windows OS for the host, probably server 2012 or 2008 R2.

The unit will be in a rack about 1-2 feet above eye level (viewing angle).

I've come across a couple, specifically from nMEDIAPC, but the outdated software and poor viewing angles makes me a little worried.

Everything else seems to be a fan controller/temperature display.

I thought I would pull from the vast knowledge here as I just want something that will work well for this specific task and would rather not rely on trial and error.

Any ideas on what you think would work or something I should take a look at that you are aware of?

 

[thepriceisright]

Well, since I received no feedback, personal experience or any kind of pointers I decided to go the route I was trying to avoid and rely on trial and error.

I settled on the nMediaPC pro-lcd model. It displays everything I was looking for with the ability to customize the display in several different ways. It works fine in server 2012 but the application needs to be running in order for the LCD to show the designated information. I got around this with an auto login script that locks the screen once running.

The viewing angles aren’t very good but it worked for my install.

I am very happy with it, and it only cost a little over $30. Just thought I would share in case others needed something like this. Check out the on-line manual for more info on what it can display. http://nmediapc.com/LCD/LCDManualWeb.pdf

 

[ther00kie16]

Interesting. I haven't been on these forums much lately but would've recommended the green on black VFD as opposed to the black/grey/white on blue, which are slow and cheap. It's cool and all, especially when included with an aluminum HTPC case for $40 after rebate but its viewing angles (~120deg maybe?) and refresh rate (~1/3 second?) are worse than the oldest LCD monitors.

 

[sm625]

Why not just create a simple webpage and host it on your LAN. Have it update all your stats at some regular interval. Then use your phone to view it.

 

[thepriceisright]

Interesting. I haven't been on these forums much lately but would've recommended the green on black VFD as opposed to the black/grey/white on blue, which are slow and cheap. It's cool and all, especially when included with an aluminum HTPC case for $40 after rebate but its viewing angles (~120deg maybe?) and refresh rate (~1/3 second?) are worse than the oldest LCD monitors.

Yeah, I was looking for a green on black. I had hopes it existed from some pictures in the manuals but apparently it was an old model? Perhaps the "OEM" version of this panel is green on black.

Why not just create a simple webpage and host it on your LAN. Have it update all your stats at some regular interval. Then use your phone to view it.

Yes! I really want to do this. It's not something I can do off the top of my head though, it would require quite a bit of time and lots of learning. I was planning on wiring a few probes in my rack to an arduino and have it control fan speeds and ventilation based on what it was seeing (just the rack cooling, not going to control the system fans). I also wanted to feed general system info to it as well and have it all on a web interface that was touch friendly. I hadn't really thought about using my phone, I was just going to use the LCD panel on the rack but doing it from the phone too is a great idea!