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Use desktop PCs on sail boat?
On Thu, 12 Aug 2004 07:07:43 GMT, "Glen \"Wiley\" Wilson"
wrote: What you say has a good deal of merit, IMHO. Well, thanks...it mainly comes out of being forced to think outside of the box (PC box?) due to the effective 300% premium of the word "marine"... Just to be fair and balanced, I'll mention the two downsides I've observed. First, daylight visibility of commonly available and reasonably priced displays is poor. Which is why I would NOT have the display in the sun, per se, but mounted on a swiveling armature that is viewed in the relative shade of the companionway. Fiddling with the text size settings can conceivably give huge numerals that should be visible for depth finding, say. I would concur that if you want to see radar or densely packed charts in your cockpit, you may need a specialty display. It needn't be "marine", however, as there may be options from the automotive arena or the sort of displays used by paramedics in the field and so on. Or a simple hood with Velcro strips to block extraneous light. Second, when the chips are down and the seas are high, screwing around with a mouse and standard keyboard to setup waypoints is a bit problematical. Yes, it is. But if you require, say, a switch between a chart plotting display linked to the GPS providing a current position and a heads up radar display set to 12 miles, you can click a wireless mouse at the IR sensor in the display (add on or built in) without leaving the wheel or tiller. That's actually easier than punching in waypoints using most Raytheon etc. displays. I am not knocking such devices, but merely pointing out that they command a high and perhaps unnecessary premium (for most sailors) considering what they do and how they display information....part of the reason many people don't want bigger displays is, I suspect, that they don't want that windage on the cabintop, and/or to cut that big a hole in the bulkhead, or to clutter up the binnacle. The largish, fold away display which uses a PC to link the various incoming depth sounder/radar/GPS signals seems to me to be a workable compromise. I have some thoughts about that, but I haven't had a chance to experiment. My current approach is to keep the standalone instruments, using the PC as a repeater. That gives me the best of both worlds. Please excuse the blatant commercialism in my standard sig. At least it's on topic... Actually, it's handy to consider, as there are a few "getting all the kids not to argue" issues with integrating all these gadgets on a PC. The repeater idea is good, too, because you can bury the PC box someplace safe and dry and run USB to displays and keyboards, etc. you can pack away when not in use in the nav station drawers. R. |
Use desktop PCs on sail boat?
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Use desktop PCs on sail boat?
Or you can run your desktop PC on 12 volts. See link below for one
example. Search with "dc input" as one of your terms to find others. PC Power & Cooling company offered a 12volt supply once, but I didn't see it on there site when I glanced through it today. http://www.orbitmicro.com/products/p...c-dc%20ps2.htm This is not a sure fix, but it _might_ help a lot. You need to check power consumption specs, what sort of power management controls the supply includes (some supplies can be controlled by your software, something like a laptop), how clean the input voltage has to be and what RFI certification (if any) the product has - amoung other things. By selecting your operating system and components (harddisks, CDs, DVDs, displays, etc) carefully to find those with good power management options, you can produce low consumption PC. Some mother boards and power supplies provide fan controls to slow or stop the fans when the machine hibernates. However, the process can be frustrating because: 1) the real specs take time to locate; 2) the software and hardware interactions can become complex - and sometimes they just don't work like the book says they do. But it's doable, and a little research should tell you whether you can get 80% of the benefit by spending 20% of the effort (skip the tough power management/software issues). Another idea would be to use laptop harddisks. They run slower, but they use less power; AFAIK they use the same hard disk interface protocol and I believe there are mounting kits (with adapters for your ribbon cables) to install them in standard cases. Dirt and cooling can be issues and they are related. This is just standard PC stuff, but if you're not living 3 blocks from CompUSA, it becomes more than just an annoyance when the machine takes a crap. A PC generates heat and when things are right, cooling fans carry it away. But the air the fans move around can contain dust and cat hair and the like and this clogs up the fins of heat sinks, covers the fan blades, and generally messes up the heat/cooling balance. It helps to take the time to find all the air inlets on a PC case and cut pieces of furnace filter material to cover them and keep (some of) the dust out of the PC. Or mount the whole case inside a protective box with large carefully located air holes which you cover with several layers of filter material; seal all seams. Nothing complicated or difficult about this, but it can save your PC. You can build machines with motherboards and operating systems which monitor temperatures and will shut down before the PC toasts itself, but this takes a fair amount of research and careful software installation (but not more $$). I use a wireless mouse and keyboard and find them a god-send. I just throw the keybd and mouse in a slot by the display and have the table clear - no muss with cables. Haven't got rid of the USB or printer cables yet, but with the USB I just bring one cable up and velcro the multiport connector to the bulkhead above the table. You could probably install the DVD in a separate box on the table, as long as the PC is located within about 36". The point of all this is to keep the PC locked away safe, clean, and cool, untouched. Have fun. Rufus wrote: Im not a sailor but I have a question out of curiosity. Is it possible to use small form factor desktops on boats with DC systems rather than use laptops? Bottom line.... can one use and modify a desktop to run off 12 vdc boat system..... or is one just stuck using and buying laptops that are already setup to use battery DC power? |
Use desktop PCs on sail boat?
And like a desktop machine, I
can take it apart and swap out components. Exactly! That was reason for my original post abt even using desktops for marine/boat use |
These guys offer the Shuttle case with a 12v power supply and they
coat the boards as well to give them some protection. http://www.marinercomputers.co.uk/ Mark |
Those prices are a bit high for just adding conformal coating. You can
build a really nice SS56G shuttle system equal to the 2.8 Mhz P4 "Mariner II" for about $700. They want $1,500. The heat pipe and variable speed fan are standard features and a can of conformal coating spray is about $6. M A Shaw wrote: These guys offer the Shuttle case with a 12v power supply and they coat the boards as well to give them some protection. http://www.marinercomputers.co.uk/ Mark -- Glenn Ashmore I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com |
Those prices are a bit high for just adding conformal coating. You can
build a really nice SS56G shuttle system equal to the 2.8 Mhz P4 "Mariner II" for about $700. They want $1,500. The heat pipe and variable speed fan are standard features and a can of conformal coating spray is about $6. That's even better info! Thanks! |
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