Hi, Richard, Gordon, Larry, Bob (cc'd), et. al...
On Sep 15, 6:30*pm, CaveLamb wrote:
Gordon wrote:
* Any advice on a boat computer? I think you bought a notebook a while
back. Good , bad, ugly?
*Thanks
*G
We'll have to wait to see what Lary says.
I've been leaning toward a mini-ITX fanless system - with a fan in the case
and a 12 volt power supply.
Heat is nearly as bad for electronics as water.
So we are running in a hostile environment.
The other issue is mounting. *An ITX case is small and can be tucked in
almost any corner. *The display can be wall mounted.
No need to take up precious horizontal filing space.
The screen is still a problem for me.
I've yet to find one at a reasonable price that runs on 12 volts.
--
Richard Lamb
If you're a geek, you can probably build one like Bob Stewart, at
islandtimepc.com did for me (I'm a geek, but his CS is so amazing,
including getting me up and running in WiFi before I was even a
customer, at great personal effort on his part, when legions of
supposedly knowledgeable folks in several newsgroups and forums could
not, that I felt I really needed to give him the business - and you
already know how I feel about his WiFi setup which I use now). Mine
has 8xUSB (2 front), 5xserial, 2xLAN, hdmi, HDI, VGA, a dedicated
filtered 12V out (to power my 12V devices that won't run on boat
power, like my HDs - 1x 500G, 1T, 2x 2T, and my Vonage phone
chargers), front and back sound in-outs plus line in on the back, PS2
mouse and keyboard inputs and firewire (front). Dual processor 2GHz,
DVDRW, 500G 2.5" SATA, 4G RAM (ya, I know, windoze doesn't support
more than a little more than 3, but the parity/dupe in 2 chips made
sense). About 2.5A, unless my conversion to 2.5" from 3.5" drive (in
about 2 weeks), with their 2.5W vs 15W 5V draw makes a big difference
(dunno until it's installed and can check the in-use draw). He
includes a 135W 19.2V brick for when you carry it ashore, as I do, and
the pigtail for boat power. Of course, an OS (mine is XP), and all
the usual OEM add-ons for playing with.
LED monitors are mostly 12V, but require - if they have provision for
it at all - the newer, larger (vs the common 100MM VESA) mounts if you
want it on the wall. Not all that pricey. Some don't have removable
bases; that's a must because we watch our movies by moving the screen
from the Nav to a shelf, switching from HDI to VGA (nav station has
the HDI cable; aside from my current mouse/keyboard, which is IR and
has a puck on a USB wire, you see no wires in my installation),
picking up the VGA cord from under when we raise the shelf from a seat
back to shelf. My screen and (laser - inkjets run!) printer are all
that remain AC at the moment, and I'll seriously shop for an LED
screen when I go ashore again for a wedding in the spring. Router,
WiFi and computer run on house power (10.5-18.5V); I have a separate
5V PS for my powered hub and Vonage base. The only thing you see of
our computer is about 2.5"x4" out from our bulkhead of the 11.5"
square x 2.5" tall case, and even that's partly hidden under the
screen, which stands out from the wall.
You may not require all that functionality, but I did, so he built it
that way. Drop him a line at
, or go to his
website and get his phone number - he answers his own phone - and give
him a call. Let him know what you want in a box, and he'll tell you
how much it will be...
OTOH, if you want something you can drop in the ocean or take a
boarding wave while you've got it topside for your nav program like a
boater I met does, check out Itronix laptops which are coming back
from Iraq, on eBay. Touchscreen, waterproof, sandproof, dropproof,
swappable HDs, GPS and WiFi, yada yada (see prior discussion in this
space about them)...
L8R
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