Ping Larry
Any advice on a boat computer? I think you bought a notebook a while
back. Good , bad, ugly? Thanks G |
Ping Larry
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 |
Ping Larry
In article ,
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. Get yourself a used Toughbook, and call it good.... -- Bruce in Alaska add path before the @ for email |
Ping Larry
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 Skip |
Ping Larry
|
Ping Larry
Hi Skip,
Yeah, I think we're on the same wavelength. That's pretty much the kind of system I'm specing out for Temptress. We don't have your power budget, being so much smaller, but it pretty much takes that kind of horsepower to do heavy graphics processing... Like moving around a chart (with 2 or more open simultaneously) That's one strong reason for dual (or more?) displays. I have eight USP ports on my desktop system, with 3 or 4 hubs (who knows for sure any more - I'm not going back there!) That's just for a home computer. No GPS, wind and water sensors, depth scanner, etc. And so the question arises - how to keep USB connections - connected? Even on this stationary box they tend to work lose over time. Richard PS: Strange how it works out that way so often. I no sooner asked about 12 volt monitors - than I came across one - at the local CVS, of all places. Craig 13" TV, but has all kinds of inputs (including VGA). $149.99 - on sale for $99.99 I don't know how well it works. No brightness, contrast or field of view numbers on the box. But it did claim 8ms update rate. And it uses a 12v wall wart (2.5A) for power! Paradise is no inverters? Skip Gundlach wrote: Hi, Richard, Gordon, Larry, Bob (cc'd), et. al... 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 Skip -- Richard Lamb |
Ping Larry
|
Ping Larry
On Fri, 17 Sep 2010 00:51:50 +0100, Justin C
wrote: In article , wrote: All your boat computer problems can be solved ... by chucking it all over the side and getting the paper charts out (those are the ones that the grand-kids used to cover their school books), winding up your wrist watch, and dusting off the sextant. VBG :) Justin. No, I'm not at all serious about that. I wouldn't travel anywhere without at least two GPS devices. However, should I cross an ocean then I would certainly have a sextant-plus-reduction-tables as a back-up. And if you drop the sextant over board? Break a mirror? Cheers, Bruce (bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom) |
Ping Larry
In article , Bruce in Bangkok wrote:
On Fri, 17 Sep 2010 00:51:50 +0100, Justin C wrote: In article , wrote: All your boat computer problems can be solved ... by chucking it all over the side and getting the paper charts out (those are the ones that the grand-kids used to cover their school books), winding up your wrist watch, and dusting off the sextant. VBG :) Justin. No, I'm not at all serious about that. I wouldn't travel anywhere without at least two GPS devices. However, should I cross an ocean then I would certainly have a sextant-plus-reduction-tables as a back-up. And if you drop the sextant over board? Break a mirror? Awwww, c'mon Bruce, I did put a VBG and a smiley. I'm not advocating a no-tech ocean crossing, and a GPS gives a much quicker and more accurate fix than most could manage with a sextant. You have got a sense of humour haven't you? BTW, my reference to the mast-top windage of your 4ft parabola antenna was not serious either. Perhaps my British humour is off at the moment, or maybe I didn't catch you on a good day. I'll try to remember to add more smilies in future. Have a good day. Justin. -- Justin C, by the sea. |
Ping Larry
On Thu, 16 Sep 2010 20:10:02 -0500, CaveLamb
wrote: wrote: On Wed, 15 Sep 2010 17:30:55 -0500, 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. All your boat computer problems can be solved with an old Panasonic Toughbook. You can find a CF-28 or CF29 very cheaply on Ebay. They were designed to be used by contractors on building sites in the rain and mud, and they are also popular with Law Enforcement. You can spill as many cups of coffee as you wish on the screen and keyboard without worry. The screen is readable in sunlight, and they are drop tested 6 feet onto concrete. The models I mentioned are very common, and will run Windows XP or 98 My friend has a couple of them. Our common opinion is that they are simply too slow for the heavy graphics load for charts. But they are, indeed, Tough! Good Lord! And I ran two different chartplotter applications on an OLD Toshiba with no problems at all (one at a time :-). I now run it on a Eee with solid state memory now with no noticeable delay. Cheers, Bruce (bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom) |
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