I want to share my story with pleasure on how I organized a wireless computer for the education of my son just for $100! I believe many will be interested in this amazing experience.
What is a good computer for a child? It should be a good computer for school and gaming. At the same time, it should be a cheap computer for kids. Moreover, the computer should be in my son’s room. And finally, it should be an unusual computer which nobody has. I have some home classroom ideas. And I think my current setup is the best computer for kids in school.
ACER NITRO 5 Laptop
I came to know that my ACER NITRO 5 laptop supports connecting to a wireless display. And I thought why don’t I try to organize a wireless workplace for my elder boy. To create the computer for distance learning my laptop should always be at home. And yes, my son is lucky, I work remotely and it would not be a problem.
Microsoft Wireless Windows Display Adapter!
I was looking for a way to remotely transfer a video signal from my laptop to my son’s monitor. I found a Microsoft display adapter and I bought it. I thought that even if I fail, I would use the adapter to connect my laptop to our TV set and watch some movies from the Internet through my laptop.
Connecting the adapter to the display is via HDMI cable. The adapter gets power through a USB cable. Therefore, we needed a display with an HDMI port and a USB port. Our TV set had both HDMI and a USB port. I found a YouTube video on how to connect a PC to a TV set wirelessly in the Windows operating system. Soon my son would have a wireless workplace. Wow! I had some doubts that wireless display may not work well in my son’s workplace in the adjacent room.
Workplace for my son
So, we organized a fast test of the ASTER program and wireless transmission of video. I installed another ASTER trial on my laptop. We used our set of a mouse and a keyboard for the test.
These are my son’s workplace without a PC and my laptop which I could move to my cabinet! Microsoft Adapter works as a zero client in this scenario. The video was transmitted from my laptop to the monitor with the adapter surprisingly well through a wall! The Bluetooth mouse and keyboard worked normally through the wall as well. But there were problems with my Bluetooth earphones. The sound transmission was bad for both the microphone and the earphones.
I was walking around with my laptop to understand the best location of the Bluetooth transmitter. I found out where the signal transmitter should be located for the perfect sound quality. Then I bought a USB extension cable to put the transmitter into the location which we found for the transmitter of the Bluetooth signal. Finally, we fixed the issue with sound. My test was successful! I decided to use one of our TV sets for my son as a display. It has quite a high refresh rate of 70 Hz. The TV set has a USB port. It was convenient to power the Microsoft adapter through the USB port.
Finally, we got my son’s computer for school work. The distance learning classroom equipment and expenses are below:
- $18: Bluetooth kit mouse + keyboard
- $16: Bluetooth headset with microphone
- $57: Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter
- $4: USB extension cable
- $15: Web camera
- $13: ASTER HOME license
Total: $122
Result
As a result, my son got
A good PC for school and gaming
His PC is indeed a powerful computer with the performance of gaming laptop ACER Nitro 5 with NVidia graphics card. My son does his homework, plays games, watches movies, chats with his friends using his new virtual desktop PC
Cheap PC
My expenses for creating my son’s workplaces were just $122! Amazing! Savings on the purchase of a cheap desktop PC were around $500!
PC in his room
His PC is wireless. There are no network, video, and USB cables. Just the power cable is necessary for the monitor. Therefore, he simply moved it to his room.
Unusual PC
My son’s friends came to his room and amazingly asked him “where is your desktop?” He shared a story about his computer on his TikTok and Instagram.
The solution was implemented within a week. My son is happy because he got the best computer for children’s homework. If the remote work and study are over. Then, all the equipment that we purchased we could use for additional online lessons and entertainment. If we decide to buy a computer for him, then we just would need to buy a desktop. And even in this case, the ASTER license we could use to create a learning and playing computer environment for our youngest son!
Thanks to the ASTER program and Microsoft technologies!
