Any advice on a boat computer? I think you bought a notebook a while
back. Good , bad, ugly?
Thanks
G

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

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

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

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.

--
Justin C, by the sea.

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

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!



--

Richard Lamb

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)

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.

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)