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A kiosk that lives in a music store and blends in with the surroundings: it's a PC stuffed in an acoustic guitar, with a monitor on a music stand, and a tambourine mouse pad!
Important: No guitars that didn't suck were harmed in the making of this instructable : The donor axe was pronounced crappy by several reliable sources (and at least one quasi-reliable source); un-tunable and beyond repair. Please don't try anything like this on a viable instrument, or you'll suffer eternal damnation on a special plane of hell where they alternate between Rick Astley's "Never gonna give you up" and Rebecca Black's "Friday" over the loudspeaker, 24/7. Don't tempt fate.
"I see a kiosk made out of a guitar and I want it painted black..."
-Mick Jagger
Another note: Die-hard nit-pickers may notice that this isn't really a step-by-step, but is rather more of an in-depth tour. "Why not do a slideshow instead?" they might ask. To them I say, "I am far too long-winded for a mere slideshow. And don't you have something you can go alphabetize?"
Indeed, I won't be going "in order," because the order doesn't matter much. Instead, each "step" will address a different chunk of the project, and how I ended up addressing said chunk.
Important: No guitars that didn't suck were harmed in the making of this instructable : The donor axe was pronounced crappy by several reliable sources (and at least one quasi-reliable source); un-tunable and beyond repair. Please don't try anything like this on a viable instrument, or you'll suffer eternal damnation on a special plane of hell where they alternate between Rick Astley's "Never gonna give you up" and Rebecca Black's "Friday" over the loudspeaker, 24/7. Don't tempt fate.
"I see a kiosk made out of a guitar and I want it painted black..."
-Mick Jagger
Another note: Die-hard nit-pickers may notice that this isn't really a step-by-step, but is rather more of an in-depth tour. "Why not do a slideshow instead?" they might ask. To them I say, "I am far too long-winded for a mere slideshow. And don't you have something you can go alphabetize?"
Indeed, I won't be going "in order," because the order doesn't matter much. Instead, each "step" will address a different chunk of the project, and how I ended up addressing said chunk.
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Signing UpStep 1Overview
I've been inspired by the many fine projects I've seen out there to build a PC into a guitar (Like this one and this one and this one and this one), so I was happy when circumstances provided the following excuse to do so:
I run a "labor-of-love" website devoted to promoting the music and musicians of Humboldt County, California. One of our local music stores graciously offered to devote some of their retail space to allow our website to have a presence in their store. The ensuing project proved to be an entertaining mix of challenges both predictable and unpredictable, and I think it turned out pretty cool!
-Low/no-cost:
Most of the donor parts were musical gear that had been replaced (but not thrown away, of course!) because it was no longer reliable. The PC was an "extra" that we had on hand, the speakers were available (and of halfway decent quality, for PC speakers). The guitar stand and music stand were both tweaked. A touchscreen would certainly have been nice (and would have eliminated the need for a lot of the engineering involved), but big touchscreens tend to get pricey, so I went with a "normal" LCD monitor and a mouse-driven interface.
-Durability:
While the parts are certainly sturdily attached to one another, this is pretty flimsy by "public kiosk" standards: you could break it if you wanted to. Luckily it's considerably safer than most because the store is staffed by folks who can keep one eye on any evil weasel weeniehead who might wish to do harm to the hardware or software, but in truth it's only slightly resistant to real malice.
-Care And Feeding:
None, if possible. Ideally this fires up and runs all by itself, and requires no interaction by the store's staff: they have more important things to do. Any maintenance would be done by me (remotely when possible).
-Interface:
Software: Full-screen browser with no access to the address bar. On-screen keyboard.
Hardware: No keyboard; mouse only (with right-click disabled). Note: This Instructable accidentally happened during the creation of this kiosk, but I hope you won't hold that against me.
-Structure: I knew I needed a strong base, and I knew that the donor music stand would need some support if it was going to hold up a flat screen monitor. I knew that I would need a surface to use as a mouse habitat, so I designed a plywood assembly that served as a table for the mouse as well as a sturdy structure to which all of the other bits could be mounted.
I did a whole lot of doodling, including a stab at Sketchup... I'll post said doodles when I find said doodles.
-Materials:
Your mileage will vary, but here's what I used:
-Donor PC & music gear :
With the exception of the PC, monitor, and speakers, all of the items donated for this project were sufficiently wonky to warrant their retirement from use, and were therefore either cheap or free:
PC: a desktop with sufficient "oomph" to run a browser, wireless connectivity. Mouse, no keyboard (er... sort of)
Monitor: 17" LCD.
Speakers: Decent Advent PC speakers
Guitar: an unplayable Peavey (with a fatal flaw in how the neck meets the body), but no obvious cosmetic issues.
Guitar stand: with an unreliable locking pin
Music stand: an old brass stand with a serious wobble that I couldn't manage to correct (which incidentally led to this instructable)
Tambourine: a cheap import taking up space in my family's collection of noisy objects
USB Wireless adapter: the store has a wireless router and we had this USB wireless network dongle on hand.
-Other materials :
Plywood: 3/4 inches thick. I had some good-quality "A/A" on hand, but any grade would work.
Misc. wood pieces: for inside the guitar, to hold the PC bits
Wheels: four casters (two of which lock to prevent rolling)
U-bolts: for fastening the guitar stand to the base, attaching the music stand, and keeping the power cable where it belongs
Misc. screws, nuts, bolts, washers
Split loom tubing: for cable management (four feet or so)
Cord grommet: more cable management
Misc. zip ties: because zip ties hold the universe together
Extension cord: with three-way splitter: power for the monitor, speakers & PC
Paint: black spray paint, black latex gloss house paint: for camouflaging ugly stuff
Button: red momentary switch: on/off for the PC
Magnet, metal plate: Closure for the "door" that allows access to the PC
Hinges: also for the flap
Rubber Mouse pads: used in the monitor mount
-Tools:
Circular saw
Jigsaw
Driver/drill
Hole saw
Paint brushes
Gorilla glue
I run a "labor-of-love" website devoted to promoting the music and musicians of Humboldt County, California. One of our local music stores graciously offered to devote some of their retail space to allow our website to have a presence in their store. The ensuing project proved to be an entertaining mix of challenges both predictable and unpredictable, and I think it turned out pretty cool!
-Low/no-cost:
Most of the donor parts were musical gear that had been replaced (but not thrown away, of course!) because it was no longer reliable. The PC was an "extra" that we had on hand, the speakers were available (and of halfway decent quality, for PC speakers). The guitar stand and music stand were both tweaked. A touchscreen would certainly have been nice (and would have eliminated the need for a lot of the engineering involved), but big touchscreens tend to get pricey, so I went with a "normal" LCD monitor and a mouse-driven interface.
-Durability:
While the parts are certainly sturdily attached to one another, this is pretty flimsy by "public kiosk" standards: you could break it if you wanted to. Luckily it's considerably safer than most because the store is staffed by folks who can keep one eye on any evil weasel weeniehead who might wish to do harm to the hardware or software, but in truth it's only slightly resistant to real malice.
-Care And Feeding:
None, if possible. Ideally this fires up and runs all by itself, and requires no interaction by the store's staff: they have more important things to do. Any maintenance would be done by me (remotely when possible).
-Interface:
Software: Full-screen browser with no access to the address bar. On-screen keyboard.
Hardware: No keyboard; mouse only (with right-click disabled). Note: This Instructable accidentally happened during the creation of this kiosk, but I hope you won't hold that against me.
-Structure: I knew I needed a strong base, and I knew that the donor music stand would need some support if it was going to hold up a flat screen monitor. I knew that I would need a surface to use as a mouse habitat, so I designed a plywood assembly that served as a table for the mouse as well as a sturdy structure to which all of the other bits could be mounted.
I did a whole lot of doodling, including a stab at Sketchup... I'll post said doodles when I find said doodles.
-Materials:
Your mileage will vary, but here's what I used:
-Donor PC & music gear :
With the exception of the PC, monitor, and speakers, all of the items donated for this project were sufficiently wonky to warrant their retirement from use, and were therefore either cheap or free:
PC: a desktop with sufficient "oomph" to run a browser, wireless connectivity. Mouse, no keyboard (er... sort of)
Monitor: 17" LCD.
Speakers: Decent Advent PC speakers
Guitar: an unplayable Peavey (with a fatal flaw in how the neck meets the body), but no obvious cosmetic issues.
Guitar stand: with an unreliable locking pin
Music stand: an old brass stand with a serious wobble that I couldn't manage to correct (which incidentally led to this instructable)
Tambourine: a cheap import taking up space in my family's collection of noisy objects
USB Wireless adapter: the store has a wireless router and we had this USB wireless network dongle on hand.
-Other materials :
Plywood: 3/4 inches thick. I had some good-quality "A/A" on hand, but any grade would work.
Misc. wood pieces: for inside the guitar, to hold the PC bits
Wheels: four casters (two of which lock to prevent rolling)
U-bolts: for fastening the guitar stand to the base, attaching the music stand, and keeping the power cable where it belongs
Misc. screws, nuts, bolts, washers
Split loom tubing: for cable management (four feet or so)
Cord grommet: more cable management
Misc. zip ties: because zip ties hold the universe together
Extension cord: with three-way splitter: power for the monitor, speakers & PC
Paint: black spray paint, black latex gloss house paint: for camouflaging ugly stuff
Button: red momentary switch: on/off for the PC
Magnet, metal plate: Closure for the "door" that allows access to the PC
Hinges: also for the flap
Rubber Mouse pads: used in the monitor mount
-Tools:
Circular saw
Jigsaw
Driver/drill
Hole saw
Paint brushes
Gorilla glue
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And yes, I feel your pain: but I assure you that the donor axe was already terminally borked and would have lived out its days in the back of somebody's closet had I not repurposed it thusly. So at least now it will be able to hang out with other guitars and pretend it's cool...