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DIY BMW Computer Chair
vortimax writes "Roger Arrick has put up a web page describing his quest to build the ultimate computer chair. It's based on the powered passenger seat from a late-model BMW. Add a power supply, a frame with a working surface, and you've got one unique computer workstation." Nothing
like automated lumbar support while you're gam^H^H^H working. Just good
luck getting the parts on your own ;)
Now if I can justify the cost for the darn thing, itll be perfect. The ultimate computing machine
Add a refridgeration unit in the base so I can store beer/soda/etc. and then we'll talk.
I -hate- having to get up when I'm on a hot streak in Q3A, just to get more beer. Damn that beer! Give me a chair with a fridge!!
What about a seatbelt and airbag for racing games?
All it needs is an automated dashboard plug-n-suck and he'd be set for life.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
Can someone offer to fix CmdrTaco's TERM export? :)
Maybe because it's powered, but you can buy a Recaro racing bucket seat as a desk chair as well. Maybe it's because he can (marginally) do it cheaper than $3500.
THIS is a computer chair... :)
Where's the airbag for the windows users in case of the good old Blue Screen 'o death!!?
Talk about getting the priorities all wrong!
Roger Arrick has put up a web page... and Slashdot has taken it down again.
Sailing over the event horizon
How I need one of those chairs to sit and wait for the slashdotting to end, so I can see the chair.
Here is another computer chair. Interstingly enough, the computet has a BMW logo on it. Atleast, I think it is. I don't read Korean nor can tell for sure if it says "BMW"
Please note, I pay like 7 bucks a month for this hosting, so be gentle...
Ahhh forget it, I know you won't.
"Why should we leave America to go to America Junior?" - H. Simpson, on visiting Canada
If you are going to have a chair like that you don't want to be cramped in a computer desk like you are disabled or something.
A chair like that deserves a huge wall sized screen and voice activated controls.
I'd place it in the middle of a room, take a seat and say things like:
"main screen turn on" or
"Make your time",
"make it so",
or even "Yes, we're gonna have to go right to.....ludicrous speed!"
* * Always question "the National Interest" - 9 times out of 10 it is a cover for evil
A: A porcupine has its pricks on the outside.
Disclaimer: I live in the Silicon Valley and am therefore, by law, entitled to make fun of the assholes driving their beemers around in the far-left lane at 5 miles below the speed limit, changing lanes without signaling and generally acting as if they purchased soverign right to the roads along with their overpriced German-made Civics.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Since I spend 3+ hours a day on the computer working and playing
Imagine what he would have built if he had spent 10+ hours a day at the computer!
I know I spend a lot more time than 3+ hours a day at my computer (work and home).
Visit the Arcade Restoration Workshop @ http://www.arcaderestoration.com
Years ago -- and I mean something on the order of a decade -- I remember the famous racing-seat manufacturer Recaro offering an office chair. It was simply one of their less aggressive (read: touring instead of racing) seats attached to an office chair base. There was even a model that included power adjustments and bolted a small 12v battery to the frame.
Now, all I can find is this sad example. ~$1000 for fabric upholstery, ~$1500 for leather... but that's just one site I found on a Google search.
It's a shame the site is buried under the load, I'd like to see that chair. I've had the same idea for some time... I used to own a VW Corrado (which came with Recaro seats), and I often thought about mounting one of those on a swivel base for non-car use. That thing was comfy! However, looking at the prices for a new Recaro, I think I'll just search ebay for an Aeron.
"...America's great minds of today, teaching America's great minds of tomorrow. Poor bastards." -- A Beautiful Min
It won't squeek and wake your folks.
Finally, math books without any of that base 6 crap in them.
here
composite seat, gas shock, aircraft cables, & the seating position stolen from my favorite lazyboy
- tensions in our lives that are attacking our minds, unite themselves together to make our consciousness blind - op'ivy
From the article:
Since I spend 3+ hours a day on the computer working and playing, I figured that it should be comfortable.
If that's the formula, I should be sitting on Shakira's lap when I'm computing.
--Blair
BMW installs fine seats in their automobiles... for firm support needed in performance driving. If I were to build a computer desk around an automobile seat, I would probably use something a bit more plush from a Lincoln, Cadillac, or Jaguar. Or better yet, get an overstuffed leather chair from a furniture store.
integrates the chair, computer, and controls in a more
mototcycle-like geometry.
Still, it's cheaper to sit in an Aeron.
Now this is what I consider to be a proper computer workstation...
http://www.sara.nl/hpc.www/images/unite/unite.jpg
Ok... so it's 1997 technology, but you get the idea.
Plus it's cooler looking than SARA's current monster.
If that's the formula, I should be sitting on Shakira's lap when I'm computing.
[/quote]
Wouldn't that be better the other way around?
Still, with a plan, you only get the best you can imagine. I'd always hoped for something better than that. -CP
i spend 16+ hours.. and i sit on my floor..
Playstation doesn't count.Error: PANTS NOT FOUND. Press <F1> to continue.
The previous comment reminded me of this joke:
On the farm lived a chicken and a horse, who loved to play together.
One day, the two were playing, when the horse fell into a bog and began to sink. Scared for his life, the horse whinnied for the chicken to get the farmer for help.
Off the chicken ran, back to the farm.
Arriving, he searched and searched for the farmer, but to no avail, for he had gone to town with the only tractor.
Running around, the chicken spied the farmer's new Z3 series BMW.
Finding the keys inside, the chicken sped off with a length of rope, hoping he had time to save his friends's life.
Back at the bog, the horse was surprised, but happy to see the chicken arrive in the shiny beemer, and managed to get a hold of the loop of rope the chicken tossed to him.
After tying the other end to the rear bumper of the farmer's car, the chicken then drove slowly forward, and with the aid of the powerful car, rescued the horse!
The friendship between the two animals was cemented - best buddies, best pals.
A few weeks later, the chicken fell into a mud pit, and soon, he too, began to sink and cried out to the horse to save his life!
The horse thought a moment, walked over, and straddled the large puddle.
Looking underneath, he told the chicken to grab his "thingie" and he would then lift him out of the pit. The chicken got a good grip, and the horse pulled him out, saving his life.
Moral: When you're hung like a horse, you don't need a BMW to pick up chicks.
Unfortunatly, it looks like I may have more trouble finding the chair, I called the local junk yard, the guy answered, I explained that I was looking for a chair, he said "Let me guess, from a BMW for a project?" I was the third to call in 5 minutes, and he has none, any one else got good suggestions, on where to find them cheep?
"Since I spend 3+ hours a day on the computer working and playing..."
Less than four hours in front of your computer per day and you need a fancy chair? When I was your age, we sat on rocks (hard, pointy ones) in seven feet of snow, for 32 hours a day (days were longer then, you know), and we were THANKFUL!
What's up with the other 20 hours in your day? I certainly hope you're not out getting fresh air or talking to girls instead.
Buckle down, slacker.
Once you get the fridge, you *know* that your going to be asking for a built-in urinal.
And that won't be good for anyone...
I am not a number! I am a man! And don't you
Try www.oem-car-parts.com and www.car-part.com.
Incidentally, I used to have a special seating system set up in my school apartment for playing gran turismo (a game I excelled at until i moved in with my girlfriend and suddenly lost all time to play). It consisted of an old Chevrolet AstroVan seat (price: $6 at Gary's U-pull-it) screwed into a carpetted plywood board on lockable casters, two pedals and a suspended steering wheel. We'd roll it in front of the shitty RCA TV and take turns smoking the competition. Afterwards, it would roll back up against the wall, for easy storage of dirty dishes.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
Hello, Police?
Somebody broke into my car. I'd only left it for a few minutes.
Yeah, they smashed the window and took the seat.
No, NOT the CD - the seat.
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
I've owned 2 different BMWs and done moderate interior work on both of them. The seat he's pulled here looks like its from an E34 5 series (1989-1995). It might be from a similar vintage 7 series as well.
Had he chosen a slightly earlier seat, mounting it would have been significantly easier, as the E12 and E28 5 series seats simply bolt to the floor of the vehicle with 4 17mm bolts.
Incidentally, you can often get these seats _extremely_ cheaply at junkyards. I got an entire 1985 528e interior (non power seats, however) for $60 bucks at a junkyard.
Also, the seats he has pictured are in no way high performance seats. they have the collapsable arm rest which makes them more like captains chairs. BMW sport seats have thick deep side bolsters that keep your body planted during high side loading conditions. These seats are from a comfortable touring car, not a racing machine.
My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
fed up with the standard office furniture, my dad made a couple of chairs like this ... except that since his desk is a standing-height drafting surface as well as a computer station, his two pilot-seats are each mounted on 4-foot pedestals with casters
09
Check out this computer in a BMW:
t ml
http://www.vb.quik.com/jmciver/pages/computer.h
Now if I can justify the cost for the darn thing, itll be perfect. The ultimate computing machine
Hey, that seat is a really good idea. However, it disturbs me that the guy didn't go all out and make a powered top, so that it slides into position when you sit down. A couple of power window motors would do that job very nicely.
Even better, those Lincolns with the seat memory don't have magic seats. All that's needed is appropriate software, and an interface to the computer.
Imagine it: Sit down. Log in. Immediately, the computer adjusts the seat and desktop position. Heated seats could be employed, which would warm your tender buttocks on those days when the air conditioner is just set a notch too high. Do your work, log off. Instantly, the desktop rolls back and the seat reclines to a position where egress is easy.
Save money, too. Why bother with a regulated supply to run DC motors? The computer to seat control electronics could run off the computer's power supply. A bunch of relays would control the seat motors, desktop and heater. If they're just DC motors, use a car battery charger - they're cheaper and provide lots more current.
Jeez. I gotta build me one of these. I've got a set of leather bucket seats from a 1971 Chrysler Imperial kicking around my garage, just begging for a home.(Well, the back seat has already made an excellent sofa in the basement den.)
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
That aside, I'd rather have an M5 anyday. :-)
Money for nothing, pix for free
The Corvette Office Chair
OK, I'll admit it. I'm not the best grammarian or speller, but has anyone noticed the glaring errors that always show up on geek prepared sites?
;)
Here's a good example from the BMW Chair site:
"Misquitos were terrible in my garage on a hot Texas summer evening but progress prevailed and the whelps diminished over time."
First, it's mosqito, not misqito. And I can only guess he meant "welt" (lump on the body) rather than whelp, which is generally a puppy. Unless his garage was in fact infested with puppies, in which case diminishing whelps might be a good thing.
And how progress can prevail over mosquitos is anyones guess.
* As is generally the case, my opinions do not reflect those of my employer.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Her hands are free.
And then they aren't.
And then they are.
And then they aren't...