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Digital Job Board

14 posts
  1. Matt Dutkiewicz
    Matt Dutkiewicz avatar
    0 posts
    1/13/2014 9:01 PM
    So, after a year+ of planning and hoping I finally got the go-ahead to create a digital job board, and wouldn't you know it, after all that time and begging I ended up being able to do it all for free....ugh. Digital Job Board: fancy talk for an on-the-fly, editable whiteboard. I set mine up using a leftover monitor from a SitePro computer, about 50ft of hdmi cable, a tv mount, and an hdmi/VGA videocard. Simply insert the video cards into the PC, literally it's THAT easy, let the software install and boot up, what this does is create a secondary screen for your PC to use. Then find the spot you want your monitor screen to be, and install the tv mount and install the monitor to the mount. Final steps; route the hdmi cable from your new videocard to the monitor, and viola! You're in business. Now you need to setup your employees and tasks on a spreadsheet either using excel or google docs. I prefer google docs because it cuts out the middle man, if you prefer excel you can either load that excel file into google docs or not. The key feature with google docs is that you can edit the tasks in real time from the golf course! So let's say you notice a high plug on #6 green, you open the doc on your smartphone/tablet and type in "fix high plug on #6" and bam it appears in your job board. Of course there is more to it and more you can get out of it than this, but it's a start and if your looking for an excuse to try something new, than let this be your excuse. I've attached a crudely thrown together pic of the pieces used to make my digital job board, I wish you good luck in creating yours. I'd be happy to help anyone out if they decide to undertake this fun little project. Have a great day!



  2. Andy Jorgensen
    Andy Jorgensen avatar
    1 posts
    1/14/2014 6:01 AM
    Awesome, Matt! Well done!



  3. Brandon Hayes
    Brandon Hayes avatar
    0 posts
    1/28/2014 1:01 PM
    I have been thinking about getting a setup very similar to this for shop for about a year now. I have a few questions and maybe a few of yall can answer them. The big thing that I am wondering about is, What if I am out or off for a few days of vacation? Does my assistant have to come use my computer to use the tv? I am thinking that google drive will be the solution for this but i have never used it. If I leave the document up on the second monitor will the screen automatically refresh when I make changes from my smartphone or someone else makes changes from a second computer? I am assuming if my computer locks or has a screen saver set on a timer that it will also go to screen saver out on the tv? What about sound when I want to use the tv for watching some training videos? What if i am just watching a video in my office and I don't want the sound to go out in the breakroom, can this be done? I was planning on just using a VGA splitter and a long VGA cord to get from my office to the tv, is this the best set up? What other setup would work better? Thanks,

    Brandon



  4. Matt Dutkiewicz
    Matt Dutkiewicz avatar
    0 posts
    1/28/2014 2:01 PM
    Hey Brandon,
    I think I can answer your questions, with my own experiences. Creating your document with Google Drive is, IMO the best way to go. Every time you make a change to the document (from your pc, from your home pc, from your smartphone, or from your tablet) the change is instantaneously done on the document. For instance your job board is up at work with Pete scheduled to hand water back 9 Greens as his 2nd job of the day. You are at a meeting in the Clubhouse with the GM, and he mentions to you that there is a divot next to the hole on #7 Green. You can, while still meeting with him, pull out your phone/tablet, and change Petes 2nd Job to "repair divot next hole on #7" or, when creating your document you can add a "Turf 911" box and train staff to always look at that box, when they come in/out of the shop, and you can add tasks like that there, so that it gets done faster. When you set this up, you will need 2 video cards in your computer, if you don't have 2, it is very easy to install a 2nd.Literally, just open the PC, slide in the 2nd card, close the pc, and install the driver. good to go. You should turn off the screensaver setting, and disable windows from logging you out of your acct. (Just turn off the monitors by hand when done for the day). You will absolutely want sound for training videos, and here is where decisions need to be made before starting the process. If you choose to use a smaller tv (30" - 42") as your monitor, then sound is already built in, and you would use a VGA to HDMI cable. The downfall to this setup is purely cost, as flat panel tv is much more costly than a monitor. If you choose to do a computer monitor then you will run VGA to VGA cable, and also need a set of speakers, and an extension cable for the length of distance from your pc to the monitor. This is less costly, but not as ideal. Your call. You mention that you would use a VGA splitter, and while that will work, the downfall to that setup is whatever is on your screen will also be on the other monitor. So if you need to work on something during the day, the job board will disappear, and your crew will be looking at what you are looking at, that would not be good for oh, so many reasons. Installing the 2nd video card is the way to go. I am including a screenshot of the document (google drive) that is displayed on my job board, I hope it helps you get an idea of what you can do and how you might tailor a document to suit your needs. I'm happy to help in any way, if you get in a jam and need help quick, you can catch me on twitter, or drop me an email and i'll do what i can. Good Luck



  5. Brian Lentz
    Brian Lentz avatar
    0 posts
    1/29/2014 7:01 PM
    We just setup a TV at our facility and I discovered this Android product for $80 bucks. ( Android Mini PC RK3188) It turns the TV into a giant Android phone like system. You can download the Google Drive app, hook a mouse and keybord to it and you're good to go. The only adjustment I needed to make was to remove the on screen keyboard and of course there's an app for that too.

    Brian Lentz
    Lakewood Ranch, Fl



  6. Christian Pekarek
    Christian Pekarek avatar
    0 posts
    1/30/2014 8:01 AM
    I bought a Chromecast for $35. It plugs into any tv with a HDMI port. The device lets you 'cast' anything you have on your computer screen or smart phone if you are using the Chrome web browser.

    You need wi-fi to connect to the Chromecast.

    I created a daily assignment file in Google Drive similar to what Matthew has. The file is 'cast' to a tv in our break room. Any changes I make to the assignment file from my phone or pc connected to the internet instantly shows up on the break room tv.

    So if you have a wireless router in your building and a tv you can set up your 'white board' for $35.

    Chris Pekarek



  7. Brandon Hayes
    Brandon Hayes avatar
    0 posts
    1/30/2014 11:01 AM
    I have been playing around with the google drive app and I am having some problems. The computer seems to "freeze up" (it does not actually freeze, I just can't make any changes to the open document) when it goes to auto save or auto update the file that I have open. A small bar at the top pops up and says "trying to connect to google". To get off of this screen I must hit the refresh button. When I make a change on my phone it does this and it will not do anything util I hit refresh. Now if i do it the other way around and make the change on the computer my phone will change instantly. I have tried this on Internet Explorer and Google Chrome. I am assuming this is a problem with my computer. Has anyone else ran into this problem?

    ** After a little more playing around with google drive I have figured out that any spreadsheet that I create on the computer does what I described earlier. If I create the sheet on my phone it does fine and will update instantly. Thoughts????



  8. Matt Dutkiewicz
    Matt Dutkiewicz avatar
    0 posts
    1/30/2014 8:01 PM
    Christian and Brian, great ideas! I need to be able to stream training videos, webinars and GoToMeeting to my job board weekly or that would be the route I would have considered. Making it your own is the key, do what works for you, and it sounds like you have succeeded!
    Brandon,
    What version of windows are you running? Does your PC have any other issues that might be related? My immediate thought would be that the PC might be a bit bogged down with other processes or it doesn't have the resources to operate properly. Try it from your home PC, (with Drive/google docs, you can edit from anywhere) and see if the same problem exists, if not then your work PC either needs to be upgraded or debugged and cleaned. Just my guess, but i think that might be the case.



  9. Brandon Hayes
    Brandon Hayes avatar
    0 posts
    1/31/2014 7:01 AM
    After playing around with it some more I finally got it to work right. Matt, I am sorry for hijacking your thread, but thank you for answering all of my questions. I am currently looking at adding a separate computer dedicated solely for the tv in the break room. This computer will just stay on and we can access the spreadsheet via google drive. If we want to show videos to the crew we can just go to that computer and pull them up. This way none of our computers are affected by the separate monitor issue. Thanks for all of the help.



  10. James Smith
    James Smith avatar
    112 posts
    10/15/2014 8:10 AM
    Hey I just thought it would be good to bump this post back up with winter coming on.

    I just completed building the Digital Board and love the way you can interact with it using your phone! It did not cost me anything since I generally have a few old computers hanging around and I happened to get a hold of a 40" monitor to hang on the wall.

    I would love to hear what other uses have yall found for the board!



  11. Sean Hoolehan
    Sean Hoolehan avatar
    0 posts
    10/15/2014 1:10 PM
    James,

    Thanks for reposting this to the top. I am doing this right now and this discussion has come in handy.

    Sean



  12. Andy Jorgensen
    Andy Jorgensen avatar
    1 posts
    10/15/2014 1:10 PM
    We use ours for quite a few things. We YouTube safety videos during meetings, post pictures of things not to do during meetings, put the radar up when it is raining to avoid a million questions about "is it going to rain", stream the Masters live...

    Only downside I have found is that our 50" isn't big enough. Should have gone to a larger tv or even a projector.



  13. Matt Dutkiewicz
    Matt Dutkiewicz avatar
    0 posts
    10/22/2014 6:10 AM
    Andy kind of beat me to it, but this year I not only used the DJB for daily duty assignments and updates, we also did all of our (extensive) Orientation and trainings through the DJB, I would always but up a weather radar on any day that weather was questionable, and we used it as a presentation tool for demos and educational speaker engagements. I'm sure there are other potential uses for it, I can't wait to hear some of the ideas!



  14. Justin VanLanduit
    Justin VanLanduit avatar
    0 posts
    11/13/2014 3:11 PM
    In the process of finally putting up our DJB as well. I'm purchasing the Sony Internet Player with Google TV. Functionality is much greater and isn't overly expensive. We've been using Google Drive for 2 years now for a multiple amount of functions; daily jobs, invoice tracking, reports, building forms to collect data, etc... Now taking it to the next step and not having to write stuff on a board anymore with anytime any place adjustment capabilities. Amazing how technology continues to revolutionize what once used to be just a cut and dry operation. Makes things more efficient by organization on the go, and saves paper and file cabinet space.

    Hope Everyone is Well!
    Justin



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