Laptop charging trolley with CAT5 connections

[andyturpie]

Just wondering if anyone uses a laptop charging trolley with CAT5 connections and superb cable management? At the moment we have to keep removing laptops,powering them on to get WSUS and AV updates at the moment over our wifi, I would love to be able to use WOL to wake them up, apply updates and shutdown with minimal effort.

 

Has anyone any recommendations on where to look for these trolleys?

 

Cheers in advance,

 

AJT

[Ant]

Quite a few years ago I bought a couple of Lapsafe trolleys for our laptops. Each held 30 laptops with built in chargers, however I recall there was a model that also had network leads built in too. I wish we had it at the time for the exact reasons you mention. They weren't cheap though.

 

Have a look at these: Mentor | Mobile Laptop and Tablet Security, Storage

[GuyJD]

I've got 3 of Lapsafe trolleys with cat5 ports and never used the ports, because 1) I doubt the teachers would ever bother to plug the RJ45 back in and 2) I'm not so sure I want 45 Laptops powering up to do updates in the middle of the night when the timer for the chargers turn on.

[difinity]

Considering how many charging cables i used to replace on the Lapsafes because the kids had pulled out the laptops without unplugging the power, having network cables would just be something else to damage and replace.

Not a day went by without replacing keys on them too so getting them out once in a while to update and give a check over was no real hardship.

[howartp]

Do laptops on battery retain their WOL voltage in the capacitors?

 

If they're shutdown before being returned to the charger, would they still WOL with or without power applied - I suspect not, until they've been powered up once on power?

[NokiX]

We use the following:

 

Ergotron 24-2_*-085 PS Laptop Management Cart

 

They are pretty good if you cable them correctly but you do need a switch to put inside the top. Also when your not using the network cables it's worth using some cable ties to move the network cables out the way so the kids don't pull or catch them.

[andyturpie]

Hi Guys, cheers for the advice - One of our current trolleys is kept in our room, the other is in the art department. Laptops are booked out and in general returned to us to put away. I have tested using a switch and some temp cabling and if you turn them on and perform a shutdown across the network, they do wake up again. I think what we will do this time around is to attach a 2m Ethernet extender to each divider of our laptop trolley patched back to a switch and then just patch in the laptops every night with 30cm cables into each extender female socket. With a bit of clever cable management this should do rather than spending big bucks reinventing the wheel...

 

The only caveat is getting staff and pupils to keep the laptops on until they are returned to us...

[rad]

@andyturpie see my post in Classified for laptop trolleys, you are very close to us (if your location is correct). You could easily modify one to do what you want. They are getting in the way.

[andyturpie]

Thanks for the offer Rad, we have more trolleys than laptops here at the moment too. I am going to cobble together with the help of my technician, a switch with cabling inside an existing one. We lease our kit and renew every three years, with us being nearly at our halfway mark before the next refresh. My aim to get (If laptops or other mobile devices are sought) to get new trolleys with the management built built in next time....