Rack Mount LCD Keybd recommendations

[ddybas]

Recently I purchased a few Middle Atlantic rack mount LCD/Keyboard-mouse units. I found their hinges to be very stiff and the slide mechanism too seemed to bind. Overall I was disappointed with both units.

Does anyone know of another manufacturer of this type of gear that they have had good results with ?

 

[gHz]

I have used a Belkin unit that was actually pretty nice. The keyboard would slide into the rack independant of the screen so you could tuck the keys away and leave the display nicely visible. It had nice ergonomic handles on the keyboard and screen also, which made it easy to get out and put away. The installation instructions were somewhat poor, and the unit did need rear rail support to stabilize it. No matter how hard I tried, I could not figure out the intended use for all of the hardware and strange looking pieces that were a part of the mounting kit. It was mounted just fine but there were pieces and hardware left over.

All of the units I have looked at were somewhat pricey for what they are. A 99 dollar lcd and a 20 dollar keyboard cost well over $500 bucks when they are integrated into a rack package....but then we sell time for hundreds of dollars too.

 

[littlejohn]

We got five or six of the Middle Atlantics. If you take some time and fiddle with the mounts, they can be got to be fairly smooth. Takes 30 minutes or so of moving each mount seperately till you hit the good place. A good starting place is to get the rack absoultely square (Odds are your floor ain't flat) and the rear and front rails absolutely plumb and straight. After that exercise, it goes much easier. Everything else mounted in the rack goes in a lot easier too, it's truly worthwhile to spend the time.

 

[gunterm]

Tripp-Lite makes some that are total pieces of [EDIT-profanity] and the warranty sucks STAY AWAY!

Dell used to make some great ones with a little trackball, should be able to find them on eBay.

 

[RadioMan203]

For the campus radio station I'm building up I ended up mounting the monitor to a standard rack panel and I had a quantity of the heavy duty Middle Atlantic rack shelves which will end up as the keyboard drawer. The shelf movement is quite smooth but it leaves me with the dilemma of locating a decent keyboard that will fit on the shelf, as most of the keyboards I have available are too wide to fit between the rack rails.

We have one of the Dell combo monitor/keyboard rack mount systems in our data room and it works quite nice, but I suspect even on ebay they will still be a bit pricey.

 

[littlejohn]

Several vendors sell the Cherry narrow keyboard. We use them in the air studios to save counter real estate. They ain't cheap though, I'm thinking hadda give roughly $40 a pop last time we got more.

 

[OttoM]

Several vendors sell the Cherry narrow keyboard. We use them in the air studios to save counter real estate. They ain't cheap though, I'm thinking hadda give roughly $40 a pop last time we got more.

eBay always has a bunch of mini keyboards (including the aforementioned Cherry - there's a current dutch auction with starting bid at $10 and no takers). Run a search for "mini key*" and you'll find 'em.

 

[littlejohn]

I'll be there next time we give out. Which, with jocks using them all day, probably weon't be a long time. Thanks!

 

[ddybas]

Thanks Everyone for your LCD/Keyboard suggestions. I've used the small Cherry keyboards in the past and they've worked out well but still left me without a rack mount LCD solution. In the past, for the engineering room, I've set a LCD on top of some rack mounted equipment and let it sit in the rack. It worked out fine and didn't cost anything extra.

But in this situation I need to make the racks look slick and "techie" for the folks passing by. Maybe I'll try reseating the Middle Atlantic units in the rack and play with them till they work properly.

Thanks Again
Dave Dybas