Making hanging light scoreboard for blind clock - questions (1 Viewer)

[Jake14mw]

Hi all,

I've always had a wierd obsession with having the clock and blinds clearly visible to everyone. We usually run Tournament Director, but sometimes I just use Blindvalet.com. In the past, I have used TeamViewer software to "cast" the clock to either phones or a Fire tablet.

Now, I just bought a hanging light to hang over the table and the plan is to hang 3 Fire 7 tablets from it in kind of a hanging scoreboard style so that anyone at any seat can just look up and see it. Nobody will ever have to ask what the blinds are!

So, I have two main questions:
1) How should I attach the Fire tablets to the lamp? The lampshade is plastic. I am currently thinking to drill holes in the lampshade, and use some sort of metal hook to attach to cases that I would buy for the tablets. There must be a better way though.
2) Is there a better way to get either Tournament Director or other app to show on the 3 tablets?

Thanks!

 

[Jake14mw]

Come on, some of you smart folks must have suggestions!

 

[Machine]

There is an example buried in this forum somewhere, it looks like an ice hockey clock I think...

FOUND IT! @4SUMERZ any advice?

 

[BEANO52]

Anxious to see the final result! And, I have no advice . . .

 

[Jake14mw]

There is an example buried in this forum somewhere, it looks like an ice hockey clock I think...

FOUND IT! @4SUMERZ any advice?

Yeah, that's very cool. I actually reached out to him with some questions a while back, but he never responded.

 

[Jake14mw]

Bumping this. Hoping someone has ideas about the light, or suggestions for casting a timer to tablets.

 

[HaRDHouSeiNC]

Just hang one extra big ass TV to the ceiling

 

[tabletalker7]

I don't know about using tablets. My thoughts (which are probably the exact opposite of yours) would be mounting cheap tvs on the walls and using a splitter to connect them with the computer running TD.

 

[Jake14mw]

I appreciate your feedback guys. I'm guessing the reason I haven't gotten much feedback is that most people think my idea is dumb, or tacky, or ugly, etc...
I understand that. I guess maybe it is, LOL.

I already have 7" Fire tablets for this, and I don't want to spend a bunch of money, so I'm still thinking of trying to do this, but looking for any ideas or feedback, positive or negative. God knows 7" Fire tablets are useless for anything else!

 

[Moxie Mike]

I appreciate your feedback guys. I'm guessing the reason I haven't gotten much feedback is that most people think my idea is dumb, or tacky, or ugly, etc...
I understand that. I guess maybe it is, LOL.

I already have 7" Fire tablets for this, and I don't want to spend a bunch of money, so I'm still thinking of trying to do this, but looking for any ideas or feedback, positive or negative. God knows 7" Fire tablets are useless for anything else!

You'd probably get better feedback on a forum that focuses on custom electronics builds - like maybe one about custom MAME arcades or virtual pinball games?

I don't know of any way to cast a PC signal to multiple Fire tablets (or any tablets for that matter). You'd probably be better off building something with multiple monitors and a PC or maybe a Raspberry Pi.

 

[tabletalker7]

I already have 7" Fire tablets for this, and I don't want to spend a bunch of money, so I'm still thinking of trying to do this, but looking for any ideas or feedback, positive or negative.

The big problem is the Fire tablets. If they were windows tablets I know you could screen cast from windows 11 to them, but I know very little about these Amazon disasters other than Amazon does it's thing with the software, and that makes most Fire things useless. Wish I had better information for you, but I don't.

 

[Mandos]

The big problem is the Fire tablets. If they were windows tablets I know you could screen cast from windows 11 to them, but I know very little about these Amazon disasters other than Amazon does it's thing with the software, and that makes most Fire things useless. Wish I had better information for you, but I don't.

Agreed that this is your primary issue. I know you can mirror a pc to a Fire stick (attached to a TV or whatever) but I haven't heard of a reliable method to mirror to a fire tablet. Looking through google it looks like there MAY be some app based solutions but it sounds like YMMV.

 

[Daddy N]

I have 2 computers running blind valet. I sign in on both devices and they link up automatically. I can pause one and the other pauses as well because it's web based. I've even used my phone to pause both computers. You can just log into the same account with all the tablets and not have to worry about running wires.

 

[brains613]

If I were doing this, I'd try to rig something up with a Raspberry Pi and a couple of LCDs on an HDMI splitter. The 400 even has a built-in keyboard.

If you have access to a couple of old-ish LCD monitors, the rest won't cost you much.

Edited to add - Thinking about it more, if you're stuck on the Fire tablets, they're just Android based. You could use the Fire Tablet Toolkit to install the Play Store and strip out all the Amazon stuff, and then install any of the clock apps there. Home Poker Tournament Manager is a free one.

 

[Jake14mw]

I have 2 computers running blind valet. I sign in on both devices and they link up automatically. I can pause one and the other pauses as well because it's web based. I've even used my phone to pause both computers. You can just log into the same account with all the tablets and not have to worry about running wires.

This is great. I didn't even think that this might work, but it makes perfect sense. Thanks!

 

[Josh Kifer]

This is great. I didn't even think that this might work, but it makes perfect sense. Thanks!

I run Blind Valet on my computers off the app on my phone.

 

[eightyWon]

We use a cheap projector connected to a phone or laptop running the tourney software. Projector casts to a wall or the ceiling. Works great.

 

[Jake14mw]

We use a cheap projector connected to a phone or laptop running the tourney software. Projector casts to a wall or the ceiling. Works great.

As long as you have good HVAC in the room, this should work really well. I have a projector in the basement for showing Sports, but in the summer I don't use it because the room gets too hot.

 

[4SUMERZ]

Although it took awhile, I did respond to Jake14mw in another thread. I've had time to think about this further, using my overhead clock/scoreboard.
The clock shell is simply a hard plastic flower planter. These are available in various sizes, so one that is wide enough at the top portion would suffice to do cut outs to inset the tablets on 3-4 sides as required. I have a pendant light base and rod that I have attached to a 5 liter draft beer keg with a light on the bottom of the keg. I used the keg light to hang the planter off it using metal rods that sit on top of the keg. That way, I can swing the rods and remove the clock scoreboard to access the led clocks to change time, or to change a clock if one fails. I can certainly give more info on this if required, with pictures in an email. Any pendant rod can be used to attach to the planter.
I purchased my planter on Facebook Marketplace for $10.00 but available at any big box stores. The top of my planter is 13.5" and the bottom is 8.75".