Re-purposing hardware
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Last week I replaced the EPOS system in our social club which left me with three touch-screen tills (running Windows) looking for a role in life. We have a problem with radio reception in the building and can usually only get one station on FM so the staff tend to use one of the Sky TV boxes to play a music channel though the sound system. But this falls apart if both Sky boxes are needed to show TV. We already had an Ipod on the back bar also wired into the sound system. So, I ran an ethernet cable from the router, through the ceiling to this point. Connected up the internet and the audio to the till and have a simple Winforms app which has 20 buttons, each with a radio station logo on the touch screen - along with a volume slider and mute/unmute button. Just plugged it all in at lunchtime and it flew first time. The staff seem to like it ... So, who can come up with a sillier idea than using a till (I think it cost around £1,000 when new) as a radio (worth a tenner)?
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Last week I replaced the EPOS system in our social club which left me with three touch-screen tills (running Windows) looking for a role in life. We have a problem with radio reception in the building and can usually only get one station on FM so the staff tend to use one of the Sky TV boxes to play a music channel though the sound system. But this falls apart if both Sky boxes are needed to show TV. We already had an Ipod on the back bar also wired into the sound system. So, I ran an ethernet cable from the router, through the ceiling to this point. Connected up the internet and the audio to the till and have a simple Winforms app which has 20 buttons, each with a radio station logo on the touch screen - along with a volume slider and mute/unmute button. Just plugged it all in at lunchtime and it flew first time. The staff seem to like it ... So, who can come up with a sillier idea than using a till (I think it cost around £1,000 when new) as a radio (worth a tenner)?
I mean, if it was already used and done with it has probably long since amortized its cost, so actually you're making it worth something again. Just sayin' :)
Real programmers use butterflies
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Last week I replaced the EPOS system in our social club which left me with three touch-screen tills (running Windows) looking for a role in life. We have a problem with radio reception in the building and can usually only get one station on FM so the staff tend to use one of the Sky TV boxes to play a music channel though the sound system. But this falls apart if both Sky boxes are needed to show TV. We already had an Ipod on the back bar also wired into the sound system. So, I ran an ethernet cable from the router, through the ceiling to this point. Connected up the internet and the audio to the till and have a simple Winforms app which has 20 buttons, each with a radio station logo on the touch screen - along with a volume slider and mute/unmute button. Just plugged it all in at lunchtime and it flew first time. The staff seem to like it ... So, who can come up with a sillier idea than using a till (I think it cost around £1,000 when new) as a radio (worth a tenner)?
Rich Leyshon wrote:
So, who can come up with a sillier idea than using a till (I think it cost around £1,000 when new) as a radio (worth a tenner)?
1. Replace the front door bell with one, add an application requiring visitors to identify themselves, and use it to "screen" your visitors. 2. If you are asleep - require potential visitors to deposit a sum in the till if they wish to wake you. If, upon waking, you agree that they had a good reason, you refund the money. otherwise, you spend it on booze. [Taken from Robert Heinlein's The Cat Who Walks Through Walls] :)
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -- 6079 Smith W.
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Last week I replaced the EPOS system in our social club which left me with three touch-screen tills (running Windows) looking for a role in life. We have a problem with radio reception in the building and can usually only get one station on FM so the staff tend to use one of the Sky TV boxes to play a music channel though the sound system. But this falls apart if both Sky boxes are needed to show TV. We already had an Ipod on the back bar also wired into the sound system. So, I ran an ethernet cable from the router, through the ceiling to this point. Connected up the internet and the audio to the till and have a simple Winforms app which has 20 buttons, each with a radio station logo on the touch screen - along with a volume slider and mute/unmute button. Just plugged it all in at lunchtime and it flew first time. The staff seem to like it ... So, who can come up with a sillier idea than using a till (I think it cost around £1,000 when new) as a radio (worth a tenner)?
Repurposing an ATM to Play Doom on[^]? Not me - I was always far to busy playing it to spend the huge time investment on that ...
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Last week I replaced the EPOS system in our social club which left me with three touch-screen tills (running Windows) looking for a role in life. We have a problem with radio reception in the building and can usually only get one station on FM so the staff tend to use one of the Sky TV boxes to play a music channel though the sound system. But this falls apart if both Sky boxes are needed to show TV. We already had an Ipod on the back bar also wired into the sound system. So, I ran an ethernet cable from the router, through the ceiling to this point. Connected up the internet and the audio to the till and have a simple Winforms app which has 20 buttons, each with a radio station logo on the touch screen - along with a volume slider and mute/unmute button. Just plugged it all in at lunchtime and it flew first time. The staff seem to like it ... So, who can come up with a sillier idea than using a till (I think it cost around £1,000 when new) as a radio (worth a tenner)?
I've never really had any formal electronics training, so a few decades ago, I was rather happy with myself having hooked up a discarded 2-line LCD display unit (the kind you used to find attached to cash registers) to a serial port, with no documentation whatsoever, and figuring out settings (parity, baud rate, data bits, etc) through trial and error, to make it display any string sent to it. I turned it into a simple clock showing full date and time. Definitely not much of a thing compared to what some people here manage to do, but it was enough for coworkers called me a nerd when they saw it. I wore that badge with pride...
