THE LAN CRATEAuthor: jawapro
Date: Mon 04/08/2008 08:04 PM
Ok - for those who know me very well, you’ll know that I do a fair bit of LANing.
So I’m often trying to improve my LAN experience.
When I first started LANing, it would take me hours to sort of the stuff that I wanted to take, and then I’d lug bags and bags of stuff to the LAN, only to have to sort it out there, and then again when I go home after the LAN.
Eventually I got myself a LAN box. Not what most people think of as a LAN Box, which is a smallish PC that’s easy to carry. I got a plastic box to put all my LAN gear in. Most of the gear didn’t need to come out at home either, it could just stay there until the next LAN.
But there was still a problem. I had a PC, a monitor, the LAN box, and a shopping bag of food. That was my minimum load for a LAN. And because you couldn’t carry them easily together, it meant at least 4 trips to the car and back.
So my ultimate goal was to get it down to 2 trips. I could get smaller if I wanted a small PC - but that’s a pointless move if you ask me. So 2 trips was my goal.
So I kicked off Project LAN Crate.
First up - I bought myself a large black plastic box thing from Supercheap. It’s a Stanley brand, which means it would make a good knife.
Now - I realize this is a lot more than most people take to a LAN - but I seem to have inherited the role of the person who brings everything. It’s extremely rare to go to a LAN where no one has forgotten a power cord, network cable, or powerboard. So I always carry spares.
I wanted to keep things organized, so with some help from my Dad I made some wooden dividers.
This slightly odd design has a purpose.
The small section closest to the camera is for the keyboard. The section on the right is for food, drink, and other non-computer stuff.
And the two other pieces are the right shape to support my monitor.
So I added some foam to the wood.
And then finally loaded it all up.
Here it is mostly loaded. Still missing the food, the monitor, and my mouse etc (hole on the left).
The final result!
And it works. I took it to a LAN on the weekend. It’s really heavy - but not so much that I can’t lift it. I think there are still too many cables in the spares section - so I’ll ditch some of them before the next LAN which is give me a little more space, even if it won’t help the weight much.
At the LAN, it looked great. And I could finally arrive in only 2 trips from the car.
Mission accomplished!
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