Question Gaining access to a PC from the garage.

[13thmonkey]

I'm trying to setup access to a PC for cycling in my garage, so far i've been using a shield tablet streaming from my main PC, however accessing zwift via this is not ideal, very low bandwidth over wifi and connectivity to the power meters etc. is worse over BT than ANT+. So i'm thinking of moving some components into the garage so that I can use ANT+.

I have:
Power in the garage
A spare PC (HDMI/DP/DVI)
A Spare monitor (VGA + DVI) 1680/1050
Gbe in the garage, and a wifi extender

So the easy answer is to use the spare PC, put it in the garage, and just set it up.

However this takes up a lot of room and is not ideal, so i'm wondering if it's possible to keep the PC where it is, or use my main PC and remotely access it in a better way than the shield is doing using KVM over ethernet, what's actually needed is 2 USB ports and DVI/VGA over ethernet, and not ridiculously expensive. No audio is needed,
I can move the spare PC to a room directly over the garage, so I could get BT and ANT+ signals through the ceiling/floor but then I still need the VGA/DVI.

Any simple solutions, or just make room in garage?

 

[punkncat]

In my own case I have a TV wall mounted in the garage with VESA mount on the back. It was the ideal place to hang a small custom build. I would imagine even a NUC would run Zwift....

 

[13thmonkey]

In my own case I have a TV wall mounted in the garage with VESA mount on the back. It was the ideal place to hang a small custom build. I would imagine even a NUC would run Zwift....

Trying to minimize cost, but yes a 3570k and a GTX 970 is a bit of Overkill..

 

[punkncat]

Trying to minimize cost, but yes a 3570k and a GTX 970 is a bit of Overkill..

IDK if you happen to have an old laptop or something that is up to the task?
You could probably remove the 970 and use integrated, but would have to verify that under minimum requirements.

For my own Garmin devices all the ANT stuff has to be pretty close to work well.

Cheaply I would probably go with the attic room/nearby and some cables and an ANT dongle.

 

[13thmonkey]

I have a dongle just getting the video into the garage is the problem, I suspect I'm going to spend some time making space, happy to use the 970 for it.

 

[punkncat]

VGA wil run 100' without issue. The room above should well fit that issue. Are you concerned about how to get the cable there?

 

[13thmonkey]

Rather not drill a hole in the floor not when the current circumstances are likely to be time limited.

 

[punkncat]

Rather not drill a hole in the floor not when the current circumstances are likely to be time limited.

I can certainly understand that.

I have been an installer for years, so questions like, is there access beside this bonus room or sheetrock all around?
Do you have vinyl siding?
Is there a closet above the area or chase (drain vent for sinks, flue) that leads from the one floor to the other nearby?

I am unsure what the limitations would be on trying something like screen casting to a Chromecast dongle? Etc.?

 

[13thmonkey]

I was half thinking about casting but monitor only has DVI... So unless USB plus HDMI to DVI would work then casting is out without a new monitor. Hence wanting to use gbe to transmit the video, except that the room above doesn't have gbe... Hence wanting video and USB over gbe so I use my main pc and move all the signal connections to the garage.
I think moving the pc is looking easiest.

 

[punkncat]

If nothing else a bit of elbow grease, couple of L brackets and a bit of wood would easily hold the components until you didn't need this setup. Then a small bit of spackle and paint repairs it back to before.