[Tfug] OT: Outdoor displays

[Bexley Hall]

Hi,

World Care has large "pallet scales" used to weigh
pallets (surprise!) of stuff at a time.  E.g., they
probably have a limit of a few thousand pounds
and accept loads with footprints up to 4ft x 4ft.

These are outside as they are accessed by forklift
(I don't think you could get a forklift *into*
the facility!).

The "indicators" (electronics) for these are located
*inside* the building (on the end of long cables).
This keeps them out of the weather and prevents
local urchins from vandalizing them after hours.

Unfortunately, the location of the indicator as well
as the *size* means you have to literally be standing
a few feet from the display in order to read the
weight registered, there.  This means the forklift
operator has to dismount his truck to view and
record the weight.

I've been asked to "fix" this problem.

A quick and dirty solution is just to interface a
large display to the indicator and mount that in
a location viewable from the forklift.  I.e.,
operator can just jot the displayed value on a piece
of paper from his seat.

A zero-cost way of doing this is just to interface
an otherwise unusable LCD monitor to the scale (via
a "PC"), poll the scale and display the result in
a very large "typeface".

Downside of this is the display would have to be outside
(since the scale's location was chosen less than ideally).
Ignoring the urchin threat, (:<) I suspect even a shaded
location would toast the monitor pretty quick (I have no
desire to be repairing monitors all Summer!).

So, one alternative is to find a display medium that is
intended to be "exposed" to the elements and cobble
together an interface between the scale and display.

Another approach is to use a wireless display siting
the "receiver" in/on the forklift.  That "display"
could "have memory" to eliminate the problem of
writing down the weight (you can see the logical
extension of this).

The "no cost" implementation there would be a laptop on
each forklift, etc.

The downside to this is the laptops would get beat to hell,
stolen/vandalized *or* toasted when stored with the
forklifts (outdoors).

So, the "ideal" solution would probably be WiFi-enabled
PDA's (?).

Or....?