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Kitchen iMac project

Cybix

Cybix

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 10, 2006
993
1
Western Australia
I'm gonna 'blog' my kitchen iMac project here.

First, concept:

1x iMac, wall mounted in kitchen. (why you ask)..

Why:
iCal (to replace the hanging calendar on the wall that is there right now)
iTunes (to stream music around the house to one of the airport expresses)
Address book
Online directories (white pages, whereis, google, etc)
Recipes (macgourmet looks like good software, from what I've trialed)

and more...

Firstly, I didnt want to put a new 24" iMac on the kitchen wall, a tad overkill, however only the 24" in the new iMac's can be mounted, so I set out to find an older 17" or 20" iMac G5 (with no iSight built in) as these CAN be wall mounted, cheaply.

I found one through one of my local apple stores. a 20", 1.8Ghz, 256MB ram, 160gig hdd, airport extreme, bluetooth, with wireless keyboard and mouse, for $999 (australian) which is probably about $600 USD.

It finally arrived, i picked it up today, it's in perfect condition, as are the keyboard and mouse (which had batteries inside too! score). I also purchased applecare for it while i was at the shop, and the VESA wall adapter.

I got it home just earlier, plugged it in, was greeted by the Leopard 'hello' jargon, and created my account.

Some surprises: (no, not porn)
It has 512MB ram in it, not 256! score!
It already has apple care on it (another year or so), so i can get a refund for my $250 !! score!

okay, surprises are over..

at the moment I'm doing a system update on it, looks like I can update it to 10.3.9. ultimately i need tiger on it, a lot of the apps i want to use need tiger. I'll probably wait until leopard comes out before i lash out, as we also have two MBP's in this house (I'll go a family pack of leopard and save dollars)

Can I just say this thing is big! like, the screen, it's large! 20" doesnt sound like a big screen, but next to my 15" MBP, it's a monster!

Anyway, I'll leave you with a few pictures of my newly acquired but 'old' beasty...

* UPDATE 19-01-07 *

Here's some stuff that made this project possible:
Apple iMac G5 20" (Rev A or B, mine is Rev A 1.8Ghz)
Sanus VM-1 Wall Bracket
MacGourmet (recipe software, very cool!)
this thread in MacRumors for inspiration, but obviously not as cool a thread as this :)

* UPDATE 14-02-07 *

HOWTO PDF Document, here

James
 

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might as well update the thread a little more, to get the ball rolling:

here's a pic of the wall (column) in the kitchen, at the end of the kitchen bench, the iMac will be ON this wall.. just about the tiled bit, pretty much where the old calendar is.

Also, a pic of the wall bracket I bought. it's a Sanus VM1 bracket:
http://www.sanus.com/en/products/Pr...ionmount/pcat/fullMotionMounts/modelCode/VM1/

it's for upto 30" displays, and holds 50lbs... how heavy is a 20" iMac? hrmmm

With the kbd and mse being bluetooth, the goal is to have no cables coming out of the mac. Just need to sort out how to do the power cable. I cant really put it IN that wall.. (brick, not hollow), will sort something out.

more, SOON. hope to mount this baby THIS weekend :) let the games begin!
 

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Provided you have the power cable neatly done (ie, straight up the wall central to the iMac and wall) it should look Ok.

Why not go the whole hog and mod a Wacom tablet into the display?
 
Nice project! :) It's too bad those touchscreen mods for the iMac are so expensive... (if they even go up as high as 20" to begin with).

Have you considered adding some kind of remote control to it, so that you can do a lot of things without using the kb/mouse at all?
 
mkrishnan said:
Have you considered adding some kind of remote control to it, so that you can do a lot of things without using the kb/mouse at all?
Click to expand...


He's already got two "remotes" -- the wireless keyboard and mouse. Does that model come with the Apple Remote?

Also, if he has a bluetooth phone he could use that as a remote.
 
I have mine in my kitchen (not wall mounted) for pretty much all the same reasons.

Between my wife and kids, I can never get near the thing. I'm interested to see how it looks wall mounted. I find my kids always changing the angle of the screen so they can look at it better.
 
If you have a Bluetooth capable phone, you absolutely positively definitely MUST get Salling Clicker. That would be great for controlling the computer from across the room.
 
SpookTheHamster said:
If you have a Bluetooth capable phone, you absolutely positively definitely MUST get Salling Clicker. That would be great for controlling the computer from across the room.
Click to expand...

I wish GSM phones worked for their non-phone functionality without SIM cards... like my old Nokia 3650 would make a great dedicated bluetooth remote, but I don't have a SIM card for it anymore (as it's in my RAZR now).
 
mkrishnan said:
I wish GSM phones worked for their non-phone functionality without SIM cards... like my old Nokia 3650 would make a great dedicated bluetooth remote, but I don't have a SIM card for it anymore (as it's in my RAZR now).
Click to expand...

Can you not get one of those free pay as you go SIM cards to use? And then just not top it up?
 
Keirdre said:
Can you not get one of those free pay as you go SIM cards to use? And then just not top it up?
Click to expand...

That might be a thought...hm... although I could just get a dedicated remote for the same price! ;) I could also use Sailing Clicker and my Axim, but my Axim is somewhat more fragile than an old GSM phone.
 
Thanks for the tips regarding the bluetooth phone idea. But it would probably drain my cell phone battery pretty fast!

This model doesnt have an apple remote, nor can it use one as far as I'm aware. But thats fine... it's really just a kitchen machine, for the kitchen! we have Macbook Pro's for everywhere else.. :)

on another note, since letting the iMac run through it's updates (to 10.3.9), it's really slow, and just crashes constantly now... I can hardly get it to boot up anymore, argh!
 
My kitchen iMac

Yeah, mine is a lot more simple...

Based on the position of the stove, and being under the deep cabinets, that corner was pretty much dead space. An old gumdrop iMac fit perfectly. With an AirPort card, it's a great little internet machine. Same basic use as yours. I have Safari set to Epicurious as its home page, and have CookWare Deluxe as my recipe software. (I've been using CookWare for about 10 years on various computers. At a previous house, I used an SE/30 as my kitchen computer.)

The keyboard has been replaced with roll-up waterproof one (a local Mac reseller has a Mac-specific one,) and the mouse replaced with an Apple Wireless Mouse that has been sealed against spills. (Saran wrap and Elmer's glue, it's a pain to replace the batteries, but I can dunk the bugger in the bathtub now.) And, yes, Salling Clicker is used to control iTunes.

(The area is a lot cleaner now, this was taken for a friend right after a party, so the counters were a mess.)
 
You should have gotten the iSight model just in case you decided you want to make a cooking show.

It came with Panther already installed? Do a clean install, all the upgrading and stuff on a used OS probably made it get clogged up.
 
What a great idea! I'd been looking at mounting an older laptop for my kitchen machine, but this might be a viable alternative.....

Will definitely be checking back
 
ehurtley:

nice one! with the spill proof peripherals, I'm going to check out all the software you mentioned now, good to see others with 'kitchen mac's' providing input!

Have you tried looking at MacGourmet? it looks fantastic, I installed the trial and it's very very nifty! check it out! (although it looks like your loyal to cookware deluxe! hehe)

ITASOR:

the iSight iMac's are NOT wall mountable. (except the latest 24" model which I didnt want to splash out for) Thus I HAD to get a rev A/B G5 iMac (17 or 20")

-------------

as for my prev post re a crashing/halting machine... seems okay now, it was trying to apply a 'sleep light' software/firmware update... I was just not letting it sit for long enough to sort itself out. Fixed now however!

so I'm now at a fully updated 10.3.9. (panther?)....

I really need TIGER for my MacGourmet software (and other things), but I think I'll wait for leopard and then splash out for the three machines in the house.

Everything is ready to go, except the fasteners (bolts) that I need to fix this bad boy onto the wall. (brick)... it's 10Kgs, which is a fair weight, I wonder what it will be with the stand removed.

Anyway, this weekend all will be revealed! more pics to follow.
 
Dude, that is awesome! Great idea Cybix. I think I might have to try this myself for my parent's house. My mom has been wanting something like this as was thinking about a mini for the kitchen, but an older iMac G5 will do just the trick.
 
McGarvels said:
Dude, that is awesome! Great idea Cybix. I think I might have to try this myself for my parent's house. My mom has been wanting something like this as was thinking about a mini for the kitchen, but an older iMac G5 will do just the trick.
Click to expand...

I was very close to doing a new mac mini, but in comes the cable problem, which kind of defeats the purpose of wall mounting a screen. I even had a 17" samsung tft ready to go on the wall (which is now in my home office closet on the wall) see attached...

The thing is, I picked up the 20" iMac for the same price as a low-end new mac mini.

Using a wall mounted 20" iMac, I get huge screen, all-in-one package, no cable mess, and it will just look really awesome (compared to a black samsung on the wall)...

I'm getting pretty excited about getting it all up and running, should be really sweet!
 

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Cybix said:
The thing is, I picked up the 20" iMac for the same price as a low-end new mac mini.

Using a wall mounted 20" iMac, I get huge screen, all-in-one package, no cable mess, and it will just look really awesome (compared to a black samsung on the wall)...
Click to expand...

Can't wait to see what it looks like after you're finished. I will be looking on ebay tonight for a Rev A/B iMac G5. I just hope I can find one for a reasonable price, but I'm sure it won't be too much trouble to find one. I think my mom will like this much better than the mini and the cables being everywhere.

Are you going to be using a BT keyboard/mouse for it? I'm not sure which would be better, however, the least amount of wires the better.
 
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