Original Project Thread: https://www.aussiearcade.com/topic/80458-fast-and-dirty-kiosk-conversion/
kiwimex nicely organised to both purchase and transport a number of kiosks up from Newcastle. These came out of a Centrelink Office refurbishment.
I immediately put my hand up for 2 as two mates of mine keep seeing mine and wanting one. Only one available for me as they were popular and cheap so I let them “fight” it out 😉
Not going to go into a lot of detail as it’s all pretty basic. I forgot to take pictures before I tore it down so here’s one from the original ad.
First thing is I took the phone handset off from the side and threw it away. The mounting bracket is still there as taking the fascia off to unscrew it is a pain the arse and I’m leaving that to my mate when he gets it.
Took the front cover off to see what was inside. I wasn’t actually expecting a PC but one was in there. Though let’s see if it works. There’s a power board near the top and an IEC PC power socket so plugged it in and fired her up. Screen works and PC fires up.
Only issue is that the PC is an old dog and far too slow for the software we were going to run on it so out it goes.
In case this is the same as everyone else’s the two plugs I pulled out are for:
- A dialup modem which I pulled out and binned
- The REALLY noisy case fan
You can see the IEC socket wired into the powerboard. There is a space behind the base near the foot where the external power lead can be run. Also note the power supply which was for the modem and also binned. FYI the power supply you can see zip tied is for the sounds amp so leave that in but move if you like.
Inside with PC gone.
That metal tray has a small keyboard attached and as you can see like the Mouse have PS2 connections despite having USB ports on the PC LOL
The PC below is a Lenovo SFF PC that’s been installed into a custom case. I ended up rebuilding it and using it in a Mame Project that didn’t need the grunt.
Unfortunately, the HDD in it which is a laptop one is dead but looking at the bios, it was running Windows XP and was new at least 12 years ago. 256mb ram and a Celeron CPU. Now I have spare drives I could use and for some software this would work no problem eg:
SKJukebox: http://wiki.aussiearcade.com.au/index.php?title=Jukebox_Software
But I want this to run E-Touch so needs something a little beefier. I have a spare Core 2 Duo sitting around and I’ll put a 1TB drive in that my mate bought for it. Install Windows 7, E-Touch and fill with music 😉 The screen itself works fine, so I’ll grab drivers when ready.
My only real concern in the speakers. Normally you’d want at least a 2:1 PC setup for this. The unit includes two speakers mounted just under the screen. You can see the grills from the front. Now I’d suggest these are really shitty but I couldn’t test with the PC dead. I should hook up a laptop to see and will let you know. Interesting is what appears to be an amp with volume control on it though.
Eventually my mate is going to paint this unit. Personally I wouldn’t as the silver and black looks fine imo.
A real good clean and you’re done. If I did anything, I’d be creating a speaker grille in the door and covering it with speaker fabric from Jaycar so that audio is unimpeded and it sounds nice.
So job done. It was a bit of a pain in the arse to be honest and I’ll be glad to see the back of it lol. Taking that screen off was shitty as the bolts at the bottom are in a VERY awkward spot, especially since I broke my finger a few weeks ago.
Incidentally, the touchscreen drivers can be gotten from here:
The cooling fan above the audio amp is noisy as hell. You could replace it with a quiet one. Its just a PC part but I elected to snip the power wires to it. Despite the board having a modular plug, the wires had been soldered onto the pins. I suck at soldering so off they went and I just taped them up.
PC strapped up and wiring zip tied.
Windows 7 Ultimate 64(bit)
E-Touch up and running with the Metal Skin
