Using Joggler as a monitor

Everything relating to hacking, expanding and modifying the Joggler hardware.
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marctwo

Using joggler as a monitor?

Post by marctwo »

I bought an HP Microserver and plan to set it up as an unRAID server. However, I don't have a VGA monitor. Is there any way I could use the Joggler to view the VGA output from the Microserver?

Once it's up and running I can just use an Ubuntu image and connect to the unRAID web interface but I need to install custom BIOS first which will need the direct VGA feed.
Paul Webster
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Re: Using joggler as a monitor?

Post by Paul Webster »

I've not researched this ... but does VNCViewer work on Joggler?
If yes, then you could run VNCServer on you other box and then connect wired or wireless over your home LAN Would be relatively slow screen updates but ok for casual interactive work.
Juggler
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Re: Using joggler as a monitor?

Post by Juggler »

I can think of a few possible solutions. If you were looking for some way of connecting VGA directly to the Joggler, then as far as I am aware, it is not directly possible. If you had some serious electronic skills, quite a bit of time and the right tools and components, then you could well do some direct connection. Have a search on here for user inaxeon and see what he has done, I think with regard to connecting a large monitor directly to the joggler. This may give you some idea of what is involved. Have a search on the wiki part of this website and this work may be on there and there may be some other articles of interest.

Another possibility is to use some sort of VGA/composite video grabber on the usb port. May well work ok, but these are not that cheap or that good, from what I gather.

I seem to recall that some modern BIOSes allow for ssh access or some similar, so you can access remotely and maybe even install an alternative BIOS. If the feature exists in your server's BIOS, why not give it a try, so long as you have some back-up plan to get you back to where you came from, if it doesn't go as you would like.

Of course, once you have some sort of an OS running on your microserver, you can use all sorts of software solutions to gain access and view the output remotely. VNC, as just mentioned, is a good solution. Most of these solutions should work quite happily on the Joggler in all/most of the OSs that have been made for the Joggler.

IMHO, I think your best bet is to find some old VGA monitor. Due to electronics disposal rules now, you will find many people quite happy to give you perfectly good VGA monitors. And if you wanted to get a flat screen VGA cheap, to give you an example, I got a 15" from ebay 2 years ago for £10. Don't use it much, but it always good to have something that takes VGA output directly, nearby.

Just thought, may be worthwhile talking to HP or doing some searches to see if anyone has done what you want to do headless - ie without a monitor. Some places have a lot of servers, and I think they do server maintenance locally by using a customised CD/DVD/USB etc, and view status lights on the server, for the outcome.

HTH
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pete
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Re: Using joggler as a monitor?

Post by pete »

You could also give the Mimo USB monitor a try.

I was able to connect and use it with a 1.2Ghz PogoPlug (Seagate Dockstar) and it worked fine.
- Pete
O2 Jogglers running EFI Ubuntu / Squeezeplayer
OpenPeak Voip Telephony / Zigbee tabletops hardware modded with Seabios / RTC / Ethernet ROM edits / SSD drives running XPe for automation screens

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Juggler
Posts: 249
Joined: Thu Apr 21, 2011 2:34 am

Re: Using joggler as a monitor?

Post by Juggler »

This ones got me thinking...

Found this on a search :

Making a laptop take VGA input, or a cheap, tiny display. - monitor | Ask MetaFilter
http://ask.metafilter.com/64819/Making- ... ny-display

Basically, check to see if your server has some sort of console (serial) output at BIOS time. This may be via USB or some pins on the motherboard, or may be something else, (ethernet?). Then you can use your Joggler as a terminal, and you should be good to go. If the output is some sort of serial (RS232 alike) then you will need a serial to usb adaptor for your joggler, but these are very cheap, and you may be even be able to hack an old USB phone data cable for this purpose.

I toyed with the idea of hacking some VGA extenders :

VGA OVER CAT5 VIDEO VIA ETHERNET CABLE to 120 ft 36 m | eBay
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VGA-OVER-CAT5 ... 20-ft-36-m

I don't know exactly what the chips inside these do, but I'm guessing that the video signals will remain analog over the wire, so there will still be the issue of doing analog-to-digital conversion for some sort of input to your Joggler. But I may be wrong.
marctwo

Re: Using joggler as a monitor?

Post by marctwo »

Thanks for all the good suggestions. I think the most workable is to borrow a monitor from a neighbour or get a £10 one from ebay. The irony is that I gave away a complete PC with monitor a few months back as I didn't think I had any use for it anymore.
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JimbobVFR400
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Re: Using joggler as a monitor?

Post by JimbobVFR400 »

If it's just for the initial setup you may find your TV might have a suitable input, most flat screen TVs seem to come with VGA these days, at least mine all have done
marctwo

Re: Using joggler as a monitor?

Post by marctwo »

Good call but I don't have a VGA cable. I'll see if I can get hold of one.
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pete
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Using Joggler as a monitor

Post by pete »

Moved post to make it easier to find.
- Pete
O2 Jogglers running EFI Ubuntu / Squeezeplayer
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pete
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Re: Using Joggler as a monitor

Post by pete »

I needed to connect a combo TV VGA monitor running a cable from the basement here to the kitchen one floor above. I didn't want to drill a large hole for the VGA cable so I made one using the 8 wires from a cat5e cable. It worked fine.

I used similiar to these instructions:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-yo ... AT5-cable/

On another note sometime in the 90's while playing with pico cpu PCs (tiny) with LCD outputs I did take a new LCD and connect to the wires for the old LCD on the motherboard. It was a one for one connection and I did know the pinouts for the LCD connector. They are not always pinned the same. That said if you had the exact pinouts for the Joggler LCD and a means to connect it to the HP motherboard; theoretically you could connect the LCD.
- Pete
O2 Jogglers running EFI Ubuntu / Squeezeplayer
OpenPeak Voip Telephony / Zigbee tabletops hardware modded with Seabios / RTC / Ethernet ROM edits / SSD drives running XPe for automation screens

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marctwo

Re: Using Joggler as a monitor

Post by marctwo »

I just used a VGA cable connected to a TV in the end. Now it's all configured I am running headless and have the Joggler with Xubuntu to admin a QNAP NAS, an UnRAID box and an Ubuntu Server.
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