Setting up a computer in a restaurant kitchen

[mizerydearia]

I am looking into setting up a computer and lcd monitor in a restaurant kitchen in close proximity to a very greasy area of the kitchen for the purpose of the cooks being able to see food orders placed by customers.

I want to know if there are any inexpensive products available to protect the devices from grease build up.

Anyone have any ideas/suggestions?

 

[Sarge83]

Honestly? I'd hand make a Wooden container for the PC Tower, and coat it in about 5 layers of gloss enamal paint in your desired color, or a Plastipaint spray... 3 coats maybe.

THE CASE BOX
If you need an idea on how to construct it, think of it like an over sized bread box for your PC tower instead of a loaf of bread... you want the air intake to be coming from under the case, and a single flow out of the top/back area of the case... The reasoning is that greasey particals that tend to manage to coat everything around wont make it from outside the case, thru the fan, and from with in that enclosure to the inside of the case thru its ventilation. It can be nearly garanteed it wont even get to the outside fan if you construct it right.

CASE CHOICE
To assist in this, you can use one of those flatbed cases for yoru PC, as you wont be placing a Lot of tech in a computer for this purpose. It will save you a lot of room, and the cords you will need to run out of the case will be much more closely spaced allowing you to bundle them easier to avoid any mishaps in the kitchen.

CORD MANAGEMENT
When it comes to the cords going out of the box, I'd bundle them with in a plastic sheath and run that all the way to the wall to protect them from any spills/impliments/clumsy staff etc.eletrical tape the end of plug to the sheath and secure with a good 20 cms of binding up the sheath, to ensure the thick part of the plug sits nice and flush in teh end of the sheath. You dont want to rush this part because nothign is worse then a custom job you have to mess every month due to shoddy application.

DISPLAY PROTECTION
Similar concept but use a strong clear perspex for the front panel of this box. I would suggest using TWO front pannels, one permanently afixed, and the 2nd that should slide up for removal should be an inch larger in all directions. This will keep internals clean even when your washing down the external perspex front panel.

PERSONAL PREFERENCES - if you hate this idea quit reading and save yoru eyes.

I PERSONALLY, would have a slightly larger box that held the flatbed case, the display, and a surge protected power board in it. The only cord coming out of the box would be the Power Boards cord and the networking cord, each individually sheathed incase you ever have to move the Unit.
The case's side pannels would extend atleast 6 inches lower then the base of the container to raise it off the ground, allowing for the fans to have sufficient room to feed air up into the box. These fans would be externally set with air filters that come stocko with most fans. The same for the Outtake Fan at the top/rear. Air Filters can be purchased and replaced if they ever get unrecoverably greasey. The restaurants petty cash on any given day would cover as many filters as you'd use in 100 years.
The front panel would extend down till there was only 2 inches of free space at the very front of the "air space" so that you get a downwards momentum on the grease particals, promoting them to hit the base and never lift into the intake fan in the first place.
Also ensure the overal base area is sturdy, as you know, kitchens can be busy and dangerous. Under no circumstances should this be able to be knocked over, and even a flying pot of angry half cooked crab shouldnt be able to damage it/penetrate the shell.
Your access panel (the removable panel to get inside and fiddle with it if you ever HAVE to) should CERTAINLY be at the rear, as reloading the case will be easiest by placing the monitor in, then the box, then the power board, and connecting all connections, before closing it up nice and tight again. You may consider having a slide in panel like the front panel to totally seal this thing up. I'd just use soft flexible thin rubber wings that push into place when you slide the "access panel" on tho. what ever you think is most effective.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING
The main concern you should really have tho, is how big is your order display? can you run it at low res on a decent size screen to make it READILY readable? does the kitchen need ACCESS to the computers function? or is there a better way to clear off completed orders? Such as reliable notification to the person who placed the order into the PC via the front desk? You really need to CLARIFY your needs in total completeness..... (crap sentence). Anyway, let me knwo what you think, and redifine what you need ti to do, adn I'll see if Ic an get something simpler but effective if you want.

 

[Roguestar]

Have the monitor mounted on the wall in the kitchen, run a long VGA/DVI cable to it from the office or somewhere out of range of splashes. Problem solved.

 

[bruceb]

Go into your local McDonalds and see how they have it set up.
Basically what you want to do. They have a touch screen monitor
that the grill side has to know what to make and another facing the
cashiers so they know what orders are pending and when they are
ready. Ask them what make of system they used or who built it
for them.

 

[Sarge83]

Macdonalds isnt like a restuarant kitchen no matter how much they want it to be considered a restuarant... they have specific service benches and a lot less movement between areas... When you're cooking a variety of stuff, especially if the kitchen is small or the computer is close to stove top/grills (open air cooking) you're going to get a lot of airbourne grease...

Have you ever seen a kitchen that doesnt get cleaned properly for 2 weeks?

If you dont encapsulate the machine, then you're going to have to clean the machine... regularly... and risk damaging it/a staff member...

Was a good idea to think about he maccas thing, and it MIGHT work depending on the kitchen arrangement...

If you can run a 2nd monitor output the distance you need to then your set... easy to set up... But if you're restricted like that, to build what I was talking about before, it would be about the size of 2 fullsize toweres side by side. Not expensive, not technical... not if you plan it right anyway. I would think that the encapsulation would go to a total cost fo 80-100 dollars australian including the eletrical tape/paint/plastic sheathings.

The issue here is that your asking for a solution and theres not enough information... It could be VERY simply handled,,, but I doubt you'd ask if it wasnt difficult, so I assumed the worst...

 

[JackMDS]

Mizerydearia welcome to AnandTech's General Hardware Forum.

Rugged Wireless Tablet.

http://www.ruggedtabletpc.com/...29SQkpMCFQL1PAodbz0sFw

 

[Sarge83]

Has anyone smelt a commercial kitchen that is cleaned poorly? A Tablet PC is actually an excellent choice for space saving and simplicity, but I wouldnt have it sitting in a kitchen for waht I would assume is a permanent basis... Unless this is a vegetarians kitchen your going to want to encapsulate the thing.

Tablet is a brilliant tech suggestion tho as its compact, wireless is supported well on most models, and doesnt require keyboard/mpuse for opperation. If you can get very thin perspex for your front panels on the box I described, you should be able to use the stylis pen thru teh perspex allowing for input's with out having to expose the machine to the grubby environment EVER. ummm EXCEPT maybe to power on, unless you can think of a solution. If you cant get perspex thin enough, look at a well fitted taught plastic cover... Just be sure it's pretty much immune to stretch, and very clear/decent quality.

Come to think of it, the plastic comic book protectors collectors use would be about the right size to seperate and affix to the box to give you vision of the whole screen. I've had a McGyver idea for how to power it on with out exposing it, but its kinda humerous and weird, so I'll keep it to myself lol :/

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

As a Chef and part time techy, I would never put the computer in the kitchen. A screen and protected keyboard is helpful though. I need more information about the type of restaurant, if this is a new or new to you kitchen and, what are you wanting to achieve with the computer that is better than the existing tools?

 

[Knavish]

Buy an industrial, sealed touchscreen monitor. (google search will find these easily). Add a KVM ethernet extender.

Now you can put the computer outside the kitchen and wipe down the monitor with the kitchen counters. If you can make the touch screen work for your application, which you NEED to do, then you're done. Perhaps you'll want to seal the KVM extender-box by the monitor in some kind of plastic bag to protect it...

-Knavish

 

[bruceb]

Basically, that is what I was thinking of when I said to look at what McDonalds uses.
It is exactly what Knavish is suggesting. The computer itself, is nowhere near the
cooking environment of the kitchen. See link below for a company that has all
types of this item. One of them is sure to meet his needs.

http://www.directindustry.com/...nitor-9044-121135.html

 

[JackMDS]

Yap, and what BigMac designs, order to manufacture, and implements all over the world, would be cost effective to obtain for a single private restaurant? :shocked:

 

[mizerydearia]

I'm not sure why I didn't think of it initially, but instead of setting up a computer or monitor in the kitchen for cooks to receive food orders, a simple ticket printer connected to a computer or network to print out food orders would be most cost effective and efficient.

I'll look into what kind of products are available. Perhaps I can find something that connects to a wireless network (which may not be most cost effective, but would be better than having an ethernet cable to deal with).

I appreciate the responses, especially the thoroughly written insights from Sarge83...thanks! I'll definitely keep note of them for future reference if the need ever arises.

The restaurant is a Thai restaurant. The kitchen is rather large, but the location where I had in mind to place the LCD monitor/touchscreen is rather minimal and it may even be hard to reach by the cooks. Not to mention having to deal with touching a screen constantly to sort through food orders may take too much time away from preparing the foods. A kind of ticket printing solution as suggested by one of my friends sounds more suitable and likely to be accepted by the owners.

 

[gsellis]

Google/Dogpile "Point of sale restaurant order system"

Complete packages already done with terminals, back office accounting, kitchen monitors, printers, and ticket printing. Once you get that, you can even find systems for sale from restaurants that are closing.