Hooking up a monitor & mouse 40ft (12m) away

That's right; the extra monitor and mouse are 40 feet away, outside of the house, in the garage. Any idea on how it could be done? I'd imagine that there's some kind of tv tuner that has a coaxial output, but I've never dealt with any of that. For the mouse I'm going to just buy a USB-to-old mouse style (ps2? mini din? not sure what it's called) converter and solder in some phone line, and do the same on the other end.

The reason I want to do this is so I can access my 1,100+ mp3 files in the garage, rather than listening to a radio, since there is no such thing as a good radio station. I actually did this years ago with an old PC. I used 6 conductor phone line and extended a mouse cable, and hooked two very long VGA monitor cables together. There was a bit of distortion on the monitor, but it wasn't really an issue since everything worked and the audio wasn't too bad.

If it's too much hassle, I might just find an old PC in the paper for $50 and copy all of my music to it. Might actually be cheaper.

Mr.Jowee said:

there is no such thing as a good radio station.

Click to expand...

I must agree! I have all but stopped listening to commercial radio at this point and rely on my iTunes collection for music as well.

To your problem, wouldn't it be easier to simply get an iPod and hook it up to a pair of powered speakers in your garage. I have a pair of Bose Companion II powered speakers that I can cable directly from my iPod earphone jack to the speaker. The sound is nothing short of amazing. After listening to this very simple setup, my wife went out and got herself a pair. Then my daughter did. Then my father-in-law did. The sound from this set up is simply amazing.

You can get the Companion II speakers at Amazon.com for less than $100. There are two variations: the Companion 2 and the Companion 2 Series II. I haven't figured out the difference between them frankly. I have the Companion II and my wife has the Companion II Series 2. The sound is equally awesome from both. The Series 2 has a more pleasing styling perhaps?

Anyway, I would strongly recommend an approach like this. Not that expensive and excellent sound.

I agree. An iPod would be a much better solution, and it would work not only in your garage, but anywhere you wanted to go.

Good point technologist. I failed to mention that you get two additional benefits with this approach:

1/ The Bose speakers are small and reasonably lightweight. You can move them to anywhere you have an AC plug. So the solution becomes easily relocatable from one place to another.

2/ The iPod, with its headphones, is COMPLETELY portable, and you can take it with you anywhere.

Well, I already have an iPod Mini ("Everyone knows it's for little girls!" -Borat), and it's only 4 gig. I have just over 10 gigs of music.

I already have a way to hook it into a stereo, and it does work really well. It would just be nice to access the entire library from somewhere else.

It looks like the cheapest route is a used PC. After all, it's just going to be used as a jukebox.

Just get one of the new ipod classics. 80 or 160 GB I believe. And that should be enough for you. And with the speakers would be a good option in my opinion.

how about an airport express hooked to the stereo in the garage? Thats what I do.

192 FT USB cable for your mouse (this is the first thing that came up on google, I know you only need 40ft)

http://www.shopping.com/xPF-Belkin-Belkin-USB2-Hi-Speed-Cables-F3U133-16

50 FT VGA cable for monitor
http://www.cablestogo.com/product.asp?cat_id=2810&sku=43100

You will also need a USB amplifier
http://www.usbgear.com/USB2_extension_Cable/usb-extension-cable.html