Make Your Treadmill More Entertaining For $0

Treadmill Computer

Treadmills can often be found on the side of the road, after someone gave up on their running regimen and found that the machine was taking up too much space in their basement. This is great for hackers, since they have some useful parts in them.

However, if you’d like to actually use a treadmill for running, some entertainment would certainly help. [KingJackOff] decided to roll his own treadmill entertainment system out of things he had lying around, bringing the total cost to $0.

He took an old laptop and mounted it in a piece of rigid foam using a gratuitous amount of duct tape. With the screen and keyboard mounted, he added speakers and a slot for the DVD drive. Then a printed graphic was taped to the front, with a nice motivational message.

Lots of people have old laptops lying around with mechanical issues. Broken hinges and frames make them unusable, even though the electronics are fine. Some foam and paper could be all you need to bring one back to life.

[via Reddit]

20 thoughts on “Make Your Treadmill More Entertaining For $0

    1. Outside is dangerous like. You might get kidnapped or run over by a ‘mere human’ driving a car as Google cars aren’t widespread yet, or shot by someone if you don’t live in an enlightened European country where guns are completely banned. Its safer to stay in your home (provided of course every appliance and every bit of copper wire is unmodified and installed by a qualified installer)

  1. I can convert my Honda Civic to a Fararri 308 for $0 because I happen to have one lying around.

    Honestly $0 is a complete lie, and it should be updated to remove that bit of marketing fakery. Just because someone happens to have a good junk pile does not make it $0. check ebay for the used prices and list them for an honest article about cost.

      1. The only people who will replicate this are those who happen to have a treadmill & old laptop lying around.

        So yeah, it’ll cost them $0.

        (there may be a few with more money then sense who’ll rush out and but new stuff, but eh.)

    1. For some items maybe, but used treadmills are a dime a dozen, I just did a quick search for free treadmills on Craigslist in my area and 4 have been offered since yesterday. Another 20 in “nearby” areas.

      I did think it was funny that he got 90% of the way through before deciding to check if the laptop actually worked.

      Also, [KingJackOff] … is he king of his own domain?

    2. meh… It wasn’t even free for this guy. He forgot about the opportunity cost; namely that he now can’t use that laptop for anything else, such as a DIY All-in-one, or the brain for some robot, or a donor, or whatever.

  2. Such a good idea for a cheap enclosure, I have a hinge/ase/keyboard broken laptop I’ve wanted to turn into a living room DJ all-in-one pc for my share house this year, was put off by the having to work with wood, may have to use this idea!

    1. Why be put off by having to work with wood? If a friend has the necessary tools/skills, bring them a beer of six and ask them to teach/guide you. Alternatively, find a local hackerspace, find someone there who likes working with wood, and offer them a beer or six in exchange for their guidance.

      Note that the beers must be of far better quality than the pisswater known as ‘Miller’, ‘Keystone’, or ‘Budweiser’.

  3. The need isn’t for a computer to be mounted to the treadmill. What is needed is:

    1) Universal interface for the treadmill onboard shite monitor to the computer

    2) Using that interface, games that provide incentive for you to continue.
    Imagine a World of Warcraft type game where you had to run everywhere to do anything. I’d be in shape in a week.

    Back in ye old day, I was in the military and they had this row machine with a shark that chased you. I played that everyday. I miss that game.

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