Do you bother replacing old, but working smartboards?

[sidewinder]

This is something I've never been sure about. All projectors are on a replacement cycle but for Smartboards I've only ever replaced them when they arnt working. We've got lots of 5 series boards about - they look old fashioned and the old serial cable is annoying, but technically they work fine, so in a way it seems like a waste of money.

Should I be pre-empting problems and replacing or keeping them until they die (some are probably over 10 years old now)

[Pottsey]

Only ever replaced one and that was due to a full room revamp. With no real moving parts they should have a long life span so I see no reason to replace something that works 100%. As long as there is a spare or mobile projector I see no reason to put IWB on a rolling replacement. That worst that should happen is you control the system via the computer for a week while a replacement is ordered.

[Snuffkins]

Well we do the same thing. Providing they are in full working order they are just an input device with some nice software. I wouldn't replace a mouse unless it was broken. You can get some degredation in Smart boards because of the type of technology it is. So you might get a dead spot around the start button or where the X is on a full sized window. You're probably unlikely to see that mind and if you do you can always shrink the projection down a little. Not many people notice. The question is if you are going to start replacing them, what do you replace them with? To a budget you'd have to just replace the board i guess, but if the funding was there maybe LED touch screens (we can always dream ).

[Willott]

I would only be looking to replace if new features/failure warranted it - for example, if multitouch would be useful then buy newer multitouch boards and get rid of the old ones. Maybe keep one in reserve incase one of the newer ones fails

[EvLPhenom]

I can't remember the last time that we replaced an old board. We still have lots of 5 series boards in our school and would only probably replace on if it failed.

[elsiegee40]

If one of them breaks, we'll replace it. Otherwise they stay

[rad]

We leave the "Whiteboard" until they die, hardly any teachers use them to write on anyway, I'd rather spend the money on the projectors than the boards themselves.

[sidewinder]

Ok that's good to know, I was doing the right thing then . A new projector makes a huge difference to a dim 5 year old one, but yeah, a smartboard is just an input device

[Sylv3r]

We have never replaced a promeathean board in the 15 years we have used them, they don't particularly get used to the full potential anyway and if a board was to fail it would be unlikely that we would replace it, we certainly wouldn't replace them unless their was a curriculum need (the teacher was one of the better users).

[john]

No replacement program for our Smarts they can run until they die, and speaking to a couple of installers the 5 series are more reliable and robust than the newer units he has more issues with newer boards than the older ones so says its a good thing we keep the old ones

[Duke5A]

Speaking of 500 series boards and those annoying RS232 cables: Smart USB-FRU | Smartboard Serial To Usb cable | Smart Board USB-FRU -

I've still got a fleet of 500 series boards and we use the above cables to plug them in USB. Don't have to screw around with drivers either as they're already present in the Smartboard software install.