I built a really Nifty Computer Rig

[Wiley50]

at the head of the bed in my boat, a Kells 28 sailboat I've been living in for 4 1/2 years. The laptop is attached to what's called a Jotto Desk with steel plastic coated cables top and bottom with velcro underneath. It is infinitely adjustable. The full size keyboard which swings up and out of my way and the mousepad are made from wall TV mounts I bought at a flea market for $2 each. The mousepad is also adjustable. The box plugged into the USB outlet on the left side of my laptop is a modem as I use Verizon Wireless Broadband ISP. In the picture that shows the floor, it's so ugly because I have the carpet up for cleaning. When I bought the boat the galley was only 5 ft long and then had a completely useless setee which I tore out and extended the galley the full length of the main cabin, building in a fridge and microwave and covering the counter with ceramic tile. I also did the head (bathroom) floor and counter in the same ceramic tile, leaving the round stainless sink. There are 45 hooks on the galley utensil hanger with utensils that come from 3 generations of my family. It stretches the entire length of the main cabin. Outside,in the main hatch, I have an air conditioner with my grill mounted on top makes it easy to cook the steaks without leaving the galley (I forgot to rotate one of the pictures of it.) The bronze pheasant was my great great grandfather's. I think I have a matching one that I haven't unpacked yet.The photos were taken with my Nikon 4600 camera by a kid who wasn't into it because I wouldn't let him take it on a 2 week vacation in Florida. Florida=parties=beaches=sand. A no- no for a kid with an expensive camera.

All 14 pictures can be seen at:

https://cid-fac79957021717e0.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Nifty%20Boat%20Computer%20Rig%202

[RoyGBiv]

1. TechnoPr0n!

Tease. :) The link sends me to a Windows Live login screen.

Sounds like an extremely cool setup. Must see.

This sounds like the kind of thing that needs to be in MAKE Magazine.

[Old and In the Way]

2. I clicked, but came to Windows Live sign in.

As much as I'd like to check it out, I'm not going to create another account with MS. I miss my Pearson 26....

[canetoad]

3. Same here Wiley50

Link to sign up/log in to Windows Live and much as I'd love to see your rig, just can't do it.

[Paper Roses]

4. Me three. I don't have a boat but was married to a sailor for 45 years.

Still find posts like this very interesting because I can visualize the area below. Sounds like a great arrangement.

[Wiley50]

5. No Shit! They Make You Join Windows Live To See them?

I only joined for the photo sharing thing, but I found 4 old friends I'd lost track of waiting for me there. So That's somethimg.

I wonder if I can post them here either straight from My Pictures or use the free Nero Home essentials that came bundled with my external DVD RW software?

Fuck! I'll just upload to photobucket

[Wiley50]

6. Here's the first Pic from photobucket (I don't know how to post albums yet)

This is the top of rig with full size keyboard swung up over the head of my bed, out of my way. It's Heavyduty velcro holding the keyboard to the teak board, but if it let's go, it will drop on the matress in the quarter berth, behind my bed

[Wiley50]

7. Man, This may take all day (so many options to learn at photobucket

Do we have a forum for photobucket help for newbies?

[Wiley50]

8. Here's a Shot From Underneath showing how the Jotto Desk all works

This is a slightly out of focus (I didn't shoot it) shot from underneath showing adjustments. The mounting post for the JOTTO desk is mounted at the end of the half- wall that has the head of my bed on this side and the quarterberth on the other. It adjusts overall height. (As you can see I'm a smoker (45 yrs).) The arm mounted to the top of the post swings the whole rig around (in circles if I want) At the other end of that arm are two other arms (each with levers that tighten or loosen that joint. At the end of the second one of those arms is a swivel mount that tilts the whole desk any angle I choose (It has a lever to tighten it in place). Above that is a post mount that allows the desk to turn (in circles if I want.) I also has a tightening lever. The Steel Rings are attached to adjustable Plastic covered steel cables that hold the laptop to the desk top and bottom. (with Heavy Duty Velcro under the laptop for extra security) You bring the cables across the laptop and hook them to a lever (with flanges on both sides of the end of the lever (just big enough for the rings to go through, one side of the ring at a time)and the hook them onto hooks . The lever is attached to a steel threaded rod with a round locking nut with knurls on it to you can grip it good with your fingers.The other end of the rod is attached to a spring so you won't crush your laptop when you flip the lever tight and lock down the locking nuts. That's it for the Jotto desk. Quite a rig, HuH? I got it at the Jotto Desk Store on EBAY.

Now, Both the swing arm and the mousepad mount are wall TV mounts I bought at a flea market for $2.Both are adjustable in several ways and tighten (as much as you want) with a special socket wrench supplied with the mounts. The mousepad is glued to a a solid teak board (an extra shelve I didn't need when I re-did my galley). It is screwed to the plate where one would normally mount a TV. It swings left and right. The arm it's attached to adjusts and tightens up and down (I keep both just loose enough to move when I want it to). The whole shelve will swing around in circles if I want and the angle is adjustable right or left side up or down.

And that's the way the whole rig works in just two pictures and a lot of words: Two TV wall Mounts (large and smaller, a jotto desk and a spare teak board. And it works Great. I can even lie flat on my side on my bed and turn the whole rig on it's side too. If I got a longer arm machined for me, I could even lie flat on my back and put the computer, in the computer over my head.

[Wiley50]

9. And It Wouldn't Be Complete Without One With Me In It

Me sitting at the head of my bed with full size keyboard flipped down. the main hatch and stairs are behind the computer. The quarter berth is behind me. Behind the stairs is an old Yanmar YSB-12 One Lung (one cylinder) Diesel (anyone a diesel mechanic? It spins like crazy when juice is put to the starter but won't run) I've got an almost new 4 stroke 15 horse Honda Mounted on the back though. The air conditioner is in the hatch with the grill mounted on top of it

I'll post Pics of The Galley and the Grill Mount later

[RoyGBiv]

10. That's a cool setup ...

This could be modified for use in various situations. I can think of a person I know right now who could benefit.

[Wiley50]

12. Thanks! If You can't build one

I'll bet you can find someone who can.


The TV Wall Mounts were a gift from the Flea Mkt God
Bet they cost a bit stiffer retail

[Wiley50]

11. Galley Pics

Galley (I extended it from about where I'm Standing another 5 feet
For a total length of almost 10 ft, ripping out a useless settee and building in fridge and microwave (did I tell you I did the ceramic,among other floor coverings I installed for 25 yrs (If it goes on a flat surface, we install it)

[Wiley50]

13. Grill Mount Pics

Grill mount and stand (Don't have to leave Galley to grill steaks)

[canetoad]

14. That is really cool Wiley50

About a thousand years ago we had an ex-trawler that we went through refitting. The backup motor for charging batteries etc was one of those Yanmar single cylinder diesels that needed to be hand cranked. It was a pig.

Always loved this definition of a boat...'A boat is a hole in the water surrounded by wood, fibreglass or metal into which you can pour an infinite amount of money.'

[Wiley50]

15. Well, I love her

And I can't spend an infinite amount of money: I'm on SSI Disability.

and thatks for the compliment

[Wiley50]

16. Thanks For Putting Them Back, Skinner

You see, it is relevant to the group. It's for bedridden people like me and I put a whole lot of time into this.

I'm gonna be real selective if I post any more of the 14 pics I got that kid to take. I think I told the whole story in on 5 pics.

But you forgot to tell me how to dump the Windows Live I got suckered into without losing the only email addy I have: a hotmail acct I've had since 2002. No one I know would know where to find me. But the rest of Bill Gate's foolishness I can do without: Popups and sounds all of the time. It's driving me nuts!

But, Thanks again. You run a wonderful Discussion board, that's why I've come to call this place home and DU's members my family. My blood family has divorced me, changed their phone numbers and email, because all they watch at night and all they listen to all day is Rush Limbaugh and his ilk, and they'd never listen to me. I never thought I'd see it change this way and so fast.

Aren't blood family always supposed to come before politics? I've been thinking the American politic is going to come to blood since December of 2000. I believe it so strongly, that when, after 4 1/2 years, my lawyer got my SSI Disability through, simply by waiting until TN Disability Determination's appeals ran out and they were forced to turn it over to a Judge Advocate to grant me a hearing. When my file hit his desk, instead of granting a hearing, He simply granted my disability. There was so much evidence in my favor.

They owed me $14,000 by then and the lawyer got half. I bought a 28 foot sailboat on EBAY for $2500 located at the far eastern end of Long Island, Ny which I outfitted enough to sail up Long Island Sound, Through NYC, down the Jersey shore and then to Virginia via the Delaware River and the Chesapeake Bay To a little marina on the Coan River, off the Potomac, where world class sailors from all over the world pull in for refit before crossing back across the atlantic. There was oodles of hand-me- down sailboat equipment which I was graciously given. I had been staying with Joe Bageant and his wife Barb in Winchester, Va for 4 1/2 months while shopping for both a boat and a pain management doctor. I found the boat, but not the doctor. The most well known pain management doctor in Va had just been sentenced to 40 years in prison on bogus charges that were later reversed. No Va pain management doctor would take any patient who wasn't terminally ill with cancer. So I reluctantly trailered the boat back to TN where I had a doctor and have been living in it, rent free, on friends farms ever since.
My good friend Joe Bageant, who included both DU and I in his book "Deerhunting with Jesus" which you read and did a thread on invited me to come live with him in Hopkins, Belize in a cabana he built for $6000 but, Bush put a stop to that by, suddenly, requiring a passport and check out for Caribbean travel, but I had my sights slightly farther south on the Rio Dulce (sweet water) Guatemala, the best "Hurricane Hole" in the Caribbean, where over 200 sailboats spend Hurricane season. That's why Wiley, the broke back carpet layer, named his boat "Beyond Belize"