The Desk and The Robot

My desk is coming along.  I built the platform that the 5" caster wheels mounted to out of 2x4 studs.  That raises the desk surface 8in.  I mounted my new battery backup to one of the studs using three thick 24in zip ties.  It has breathing gills on the sides, so I had to mount it standing vertically. 

The laptop in on a swing arm at the end of the desk.  A separate surge protector was mounted on the other side of it on a strut.  The only power cord that I ran through the electrical channel today was to reach the laptop and it's accessories.  So far, the channels look like their going to work well.  But I'm in need of 3 new extension cords capable of handling high heat because of the new arrangement.

I drove to Micro Center today to get The Robot's 1,200 watt power supply replaced.  Turns out that I didn't get an extended warranty, so I had to purchase a new one :-(.  And then I got the extended warranty for 3 years.  I don't know why I didn't do that in the first place?

So, I threw the old one way in the parking lot garbage can.  I have a power supply tester and it never powered on when I used it.  When I got back, I mounted the new one, but the system still wouldn't turn on.  So, I'm still in the middle of troubleshooting as I write this.

Other other channel on the desk is for data cables.  They and the electric need to be separated as much as possible to prevent "cross talk" through the cable and cord shieldings.  This is when stray bolts of energy in a power cable slip through a cord's shielding, then enter a data cable's shielding and disrupt communications because they use electricity, too, just lesser amounts.

The Robot is a "media center" computer.  It's built for movies and television shows.  But it's big and fast enough that it could be it's own server.  These days, I watch the same 700 episodes of television that I have been for the last 14 years.  What The Robot really is a glorified trail mapping machine.  And that needs a lot of power, too, considering what I do.

I'm an amateur GPS cartographer.  I've tracked out the 6,800 mile American Discovery Trail, merged together the 1,444mi Buckeye Trail and I have 4 of 7 states on the North Country Trail merged with Michigan in progress.  In order to do these, I had to display tracks for the Triple Crown  and the Great Western Trail (one trail at a time).

Since I have this data, I can make placemarks/ waypoints for items like Post Offices, libraries, hotels, motels, bed & breakfasts, hostels, campsites, campgrounds and grocers just to name a few.  You need tracks in order to have a basis on where to search for these things.  I've got mile markers for the Buckeye, American Discovery's tracks are already set up to get them and North Country's are already provided by the NCTA.  Overlaying park maps was resource (computer) intensive.  I have a full library. for the Buckeye and American Discovery.

I'm getting The Robot repaired to do some mapping this winter.  But I've got to get it repaired to channel the data cables on the desk and in the correct order.  It has 21 USB ports with 1.1's in the front, mostly 3.0's and two 3.1's.  I like to prioritize them by device.  For instance, keyboards and mice don't need 3.1's.