You are not going to be able to use a cheap, run-of-the-mill desktop
straight from 12v DC power. Inside there is a power supply that produces
several different voltages used by the PC. Your only alternative is to use
an inverter.
I don't think power consumption would be that great if you use a flat panel
monitor. If your activity caused your hard drive to run a lot this would be
increased. Additional RAM would reduce this need.
FWIW, John Neal comments in his cruising book that he has used common
desktop computers on his boat for years without trouble.

"Rolf" wrote in message
om...
"Doug Dotson" wrote in message
...
Laptops tend to be a bit more rugged, but using a small desktop and
a flat panel display will keep the power consumption down.

Doug
s/v Callista

wrote in message
...
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?

I would like to use a desk top for the following reasons:
1. Lower cost than Laptops
2. Can be readily adapted to fit my needs by adding cards etc
3. If a drive goes BO it can be changed.

So, how can I get a desktop that maintains the above advantages, but
uses 12 V power and low amps.
I don't want to buy a specialty desktop, then I might jsut as well buy
a laptop.
The suggestion to use a Flat panel screen is good. But what about the
PC itself. How should I confugure that.
Are 12 V power supplies available for a desk top?
One reply said that a 1 GHz Celeron processor uses the same amount of
power in as a laptop.
Wat about drives? I think I would need a hard drive and a CD reader.
Are they the culprit for high power consumption?

What about Cards I need the mother board plus a modem.

On Tue, 10 Aug 2004 22:39:36 GMT, "Gordon Wedman"
wrote:

You are not going to be able to use a cheap, run-of-the-mill desktop
straight from 12v DC power. Inside there is a power supply that produces
several different voltages used by the PC. Your only alternative is to use
an inverter.

There are some 12 volt power supplies that can be used in place of the
standard AC supplies in most desktop machines - but they may cost more
than a suitable inverter.


--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI
peterbb4 (at) interchange.ubc.ca
new newsgroup users info : http://vancouver-webpages.com/nnq
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca

There are some 12 volt power supplies that can be used in place of the
standard AC supplies in most desktop machines - but they may cost more
than a suitable inverter.

OK

Well it sounds like that maybe rather than "swimming
upstream" one should go ahead and just buy/use laptop
PCs

Im not really a big fan of laptops cause they cant be
serviced easily, etc..... but sometimes I guess one
cant fight the economies of scale of some things such
as laptop production and prices.

So....sounds like it just best to use laptops on sail
boats and such cause they are cheaper, use low power
components, etc

On Wed, 11 Aug 2004 10:00:54 -0500, something compelled
, to say:

So....sounds like it just best to use laptops on sail
boats and such cause they are cheaper, use low power
components, etc

That is all true. And you can take it ashore to connect it to
your broadband Internet connection to download software or upload
files to your website. Or you can just take it ashore so nobody
steals the damm thing.

FWIW, John Neal comments in his cruising book that he has used common
desktop computers on his boat for years without trouble.

OK

Well reason Im asking is cause a good friend and his
wife just sold EVERYTHING and drove down to Florida and
bought a 32' sail boat and taking a year to "cruise"

They started planning three years back for this by
taking all kinds of classes, etc

se link

http://www.sailkabuki.com/

Anyway..... I don't own a boat and don't know anything
abt sailing... but his adventure has me fascinated!

As a result Ive posted a few messages on the "nuts and
bolts" for doing such a thing

wrote in message . ..
FWIW, John Neal comments in his cruising book that he has used common
desktop computers on his boat for years without trouble.

OK

Well reason Im asking is cause a good friend and his
wife just sold EVERYTHING and drove down to Florida and
bought a 32' sail boat and taking a year to "cruise"

They started planning three years back for this by
taking all kinds of classes, etc

se link

http://www.sailkabuki.com/

Anyway..... I don't own a boat and don't know anything
abt sailing... but his adventure has me fascinated!

As a result Ive posted a few messages on the "nuts and
bolts" for doing such a thing

From all of this discussion I have learned that I have two choices:
Use a cheap, fixable and adptable Desk top PC with an LCD monitor to
hold power usage down, and an inverter to supply the power, or
use a laptop.
The first choice uses more epower, the second choice loses on
varsatility and fixability.
For me Computers is a learn-as-you-go thing and therefore I am leaning
to the cheap PC route. Maybe I can use the LCD monitor also as TV for
watching movies and therfore would get a larger monitor thatn usually
comes with a laptop.

On 11 Aug 2004 18:33:16 -0700, (Rolf) wrote:

For me Computers is a learn-as-you-go thing and therefore I am leaning
to the cheap PC route. Maybe I can use the LCD monitor also as TV for
watching movies and therfore would get a larger monitor thatn usually
comes with a laptop.

Something else to consider is this: a 15 inch LCD display is well
under $500 these days and can also display chartplotter info, GPS,
radar and whatnot when hooked into the appropriate "black boxes"

To my mind, getting separate displays or "multi-function marine"
display at six or seven inches across is silly when you can have the
same info on an LCD screen in a waterproof bag on an armature in the
companionway. When needed, fire it up and pull the screen into
view...when finished, push it back into relative weather protection.

I have heard of people using infrared controls and wireless mice to
"click" between GPS, charts, radar and the evening news on LCDs hooked
into small PCs and the appropriate sensing units...the point is that
ANY relatively current PC is much more powerful and adaptable than a
single task-oriented "marine" display, like a chart plotter.

Of course, there's the "all eggs in one basket" argument, but that's
why you throw a handheld GPS with extra batteries into the "crash
box".

R.

On Thu, 12 Aug 2004 01:47:52 -0400, rhys wrote:

Something else to consider is this: a 15 inch LCD display is well
under $500 these days and can also display chartplotter info, GPS,
radar and whatnot when hooked into the appropriate "black boxes"

To my mind, getting separate displays or "multi-function marine"
display at six or seven inches across is silly when you can have the
same info on an LCD screen in a waterproof bag on an armature in the
companionway. When needed, fire it up and pull the screen into
view...when finished, push it back into relative weather protection.

I have heard of people using infrared controls and wireless mice to
"click" between GPS, charts, radar and the evening news on LCDs hooked
into small PCs and the appropriate sensing units...the point is that
ANY relatively current PC is much more powerful and adaptable than a
single task-oriented "marine" display, like a chart plotter.

Of course, there's the "all eggs in one basket" argument, but that's
why you throw a handheld GPS with extra batteries into the "crash
box".

What you say has a good deal of merit, IMHO. 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. 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. 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...
__________________________________________________ __________
Glen "Wiley" Wilson usenet1 SPAMNIX at worldwidewiley dot com
To reply, lose the capitals and do the obvious.

Take a look at cpRepeater, my NMEA data integrator, repeater, and
logger at http://www.worldwidewiley.com/

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.

Something else to consider is this: a 15 inch LCD display is well
under $500 these days and can also display chartplotter info, GPS,
radar and whatnot when hooked into the appropriate "black boxes"

Exactly. And that was the impetus for my question....
i.e. whether a single "box" or PC can be used for
multiple functions on a sail boat or any boat

Again.... I know NOTHING abt boats.... but just curios

And i really "prefer" desktop PCs cause they are more
flexible than laptop PCs in that one can open the
desktop up and work on them, adding things, etc.


Of course, there's the "all eggs in one basket" argument, but that's
why you throw a handheld GPS with extra batteries into the "crash
box".

Good point!

Or maybe just have a backup box on hand at all times