- Aug 28, 2003
- 4,084
- 17
- 81
inspired by a thread from several months ago, i decided i wanted to build my own touchscreen jukebox...
I wanted to leverage my existing home theater setup and also some outdoor speakers I have controlled from a tuner in my garage - i wanted to be able to play music on either setup. Also, I wanted 1 central repository for my music - i have my itunes library shared on the network.
I had an old laptop with a jacked up screen (perfect for using an external monitor).. all I really needed was a touchscreen and some sort of furniture to place it all it - also, I wanted it to be portable, so I could move it out to the patio during BBQs.
I decided on an old student desk - it is the perfect size and is somewhat portable (the steel legs do give it some heft, though).
I decided on Touchtone jukebox software(link)... it was like $34 or so, but you get the license to put it on as many PCs you own.
I simply cut out a whole just big enough for the screen - the screen had mounting points for the original bezel - I just screwed through those points into the desk.
I made a new bezel out of some molding from lowe's and fitted that on.
front view
looks like the bezel is a little off level - i'll have to fix that... somehow...
side view
back view
I cut out a hole to fish out the power cord
inside view
as you can see, I just dropped in the laptop and a surge protector.
bottom of lcd
this is what the touchscreen looks like from below - VGA cable, USB, & power - i had to cut out some extra space on the right side for the screen adjustment buttons
My last step was to stream music from the shared drive to the laptop and out to the tuner... surprisingly, this was the most difficult step. I thought there would be dozens of solutions..
I finally stumbled on the Linksys WMB54G - it had really mixed reviews and was pretty difficult to get going, but once it worked - it's working great. It needs a client installed on the laptop, and has a wireless receiving station attached to the tuner. The music is streamed over my existing network from the shared drive to the client, then over wireless to the receiving station, then cable out to the tuner.
Expenses:
Laptop - free
15" touschscreen from Ebay - ~90
antique student desk on Craigslist - 100
wood for bezel - 6
stain for bezel - 5
TouchTone Jukebox software - 34 (I could have easily used Itunes or Winamp to eliminate this cost, but this software provides large buttons making it easier to use touch screens).
Total is about 235 - not bad for a project that gives me something a little unique and I think pretty cool to show off.
I have a few things I need to do now:
1) clean it up, inside and out, and tie up all those cables.
2) It does get a little hot in there, so I'm thinking about installed some sort of ventilation - I'm thinking of throwing in a 120mm case fan in the back or facing downward to exhaust some heat - but i need to figure out how to get power to it.
3) I'm thinking about cutting out a port for an external card reader - so, if someone has some music on USB or SD, they can plug it in directly from the outside of the desk.
I wanted to leverage my existing home theater setup and also some outdoor speakers I have controlled from a tuner in my garage - i wanted to be able to play music on either setup. Also, I wanted 1 central repository for my music - i have my itunes library shared on the network.
I had an old laptop with a jacked up screen (perfect for using an external monitor).. all I really needed was a touchscreen and some sort of furniture to place it all it - also, I wanted it to be portable, so I could move it out to the patio during BBQs.
I decided on an old student desk - it is the perfect size and is somewhat portable (the steel legs do give it some heft, though).
I decided on Touchtone jukebox software(link)... it was like $34 or so, but you get the license to put it on as many PCs you own.
I simply cut out a whole just big enough for the screen - the screen had mounting points for the original bezel - I just screwed through those points into the desk.
I made a new bezel out of some molding from lowe's and fitted that on.
front view
looks like the bezel is a little off level - i'll have to fix that... somehow...
side view
back view
I cut out a hole to fish out the power cord
inside view
as you can see, I just dropped in the laptop and a surge protector.
bottom of lcd
this is what the touchscreen looks like from below - VGA cable, USB, & power - i had to cut out some extra space on the right side for the screen adjustment buttons
My last step was to stream music from the shared drive to the laptop and out to the tuner... surprisingly, this was the most difficult step. I thought there would be dozens of solutions..
I finally stumbled on the Linksys WMB54G - it had really mixed reviews and was pretty difficult to get going, but once it worked - it's working great. It needs a client installed on the laptop, and has a wireless receiving station attached to the tuner. The music is streamed over my existing network from the shared drive to the client, then over wireless to the receiving station, then cable out to the tuner.
Expenses:
Laptop - free
15" touschscreen from Ebay - ~90
antique student desk on Craigslist - 100
wood for bezel - 6
stain for bezel - 5
TouchTone Jukebox software - 34 (I could have easily used Itunes or Winamp to eliminate this cost, but this software provides large buttons making it easier to use touch screens).
Total is about 235 - not bad for a project that gives me something a little unique and I think pretty cool to show off.
I have a few things I need to do now:
1) clean it up, inside and out, and tie up all those cables.
2) It does get a little hot in there, so I'm thinking about installed some sort of ventilation - I'm thinking of throwing in a 120mm case fan in the back or facing downward to exhaust some heat - but i need to figure out how to get power to it.
3) I'm thinking about cutting out a port for an external card reader - so, if someone has some music on USB or SD, they can plug it in directly from the outside of the desk.
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