Tread-o-puter station, 1.0 (beta)

Not too long ago, when writing about my new desk set-up, I mentioned this “treadputer” workspace that was one of the finalist in this contest they had at the web site Lifehacker. It seemed like a good idea at the time, it seemed like a good idea as of yesterday (when I started to do the research), and it seems like a pretty good idea now as I try out my own version of the tread-o-puter.

By “research,” what I really mean is I went to the store where we bought our treadmill in the first place, my thinking being that perhaps there already was some sort of tray or something already on the market. No such luck, but the guy in the store was pretty entertained by and interested in the concept. He claims he gets asked this question about a way to do computer stuff while on the treadmill all the time and that there are some high-end models out there with computers built into them.

Anyway, I soon figured out that I was going to have to make something on my own. I considered various shelving options, but I am not exactly a fine woodwork kind of guy, and I didn’t want to spend that much time or money on this.

So I settled on two 99 cent spring clamps. When I got home, I cut off part of a box down here in the basement and clamped that cardboard to the treadmill and set up an old keyboard and mouse thusly:

So, while one the treadmill itself, I have a view sort of like this:

On the left there is the TV and DVD player, and on the right is my computer running on battery power.

On the one hand, this is a less than ideal set-up, and I’m not sure that this angle is quite right for both typing and looking at stuff on the screen. I’m writing this post while tread-o-puting, and it is taking some getting used to. It sort of hurts my neck a bit, maybe because of where the computer and the keyboard are located. And it kind of gave me a slight headache; it’s harder than reading and walking on a treadmill at the same time, and that’s bad enough. For this to work, I might have to get a bit more used to it. On the other hand, I’ve been walking (slowly) for about an half-hour now. And it cost me $2.

So stay tuned for more variations….

3 Replies to “Tread-o-puter station, 1.0 (beta)”

  1. I was gonna try this with my elliptical trainer along with voice command support, but I was too lazy to actually do it.

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