Kitchen Computer: DONE!

Yes, you read that right, the long fabled kitchen computer is finally complete! Just one more finishing touch and it'll be 100 percent done! I spent literally the entire day yesterday getting the screen mounted in the cabinet, running all the wires, etc.

Here's a picture of the screen ready to go into the cabinet. My laptop is next to it where I'm Googling how to fix a problem. :-)

The next step was to actually mount the screen inside the hole in the cabinet door. This proved harder than I thought. See, I ended up using a different screen than the one I originally intended to use, which means that the hole in the cabinet was the wrong size for the new screen. Luckily, it was too big, not too small. Still, I had to find more secure ways of mounting the screen. I used pieces of metal from other places inside the monitor casing that I bent into the right shape and screwed in. The screen isn't going anywhere now.

Here's a picture of the inside of the cabinet door. Needless to say, I'm going to have to do something to cover up all those sensitive circuits, especially the ones marked, "Caution: High Voltage!"

In the picture above, the three sets of wires running into the cabinet are for power, video signal from the computer, and the touchscreen controller wire.

Once the screen was in and all the wires were secure, the final step was to cover up all the ugly computer stuff hanging down below. Here's a picture of the final product:


Looks pretty good, doesn't it? :-) As you can see, there's a considerable gap above and to the sides of the screen because the hole was too big. So, I'm going to make one more Home Depot trip today to pick up some small pieces of trim or something I can use to make a nice looking frame. The frame will also hold the touchscreen glass in more securely.

So, that's it! We have a computer in the kitchen! We are now looking for a good recipe management program. There are several we're checking out and once we buy one, I'll post a review.

Once I get the frame built today, I'll post a video tour of the awesome Kitchen Computer!

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