I remember reading an article in one of the sailing rags on how to build
your own boat computer using a flash memory card...no spinning disk, no
fan...minimal opportunity for salt-water corrossion.

Anybody remember what magazine and issue, or where to get such plans?

Glenn.
s/v Seawing
www.seawing.net

Glenn A. Heslop wrote:
I remember reading an article in one of the sailing rags on how to build
your own boat computer using a flash memory card...no spinning disk, no
fan...minimal opportunity for salt-water corrossion.

Anybody remember what magazine and issue, or where to get such plans?

Glenn.
s/v Seawing
www.seawing.net


I built a mini-itx system using a Via motherboard. I think this was
the highlited system. Although I use a small laptop drive, it can be
configured with a flash card. Overall, I'm a bit disappointed by it
(on a bang for the buck level - the performance is behind others, etc)
but I can run it 24/7 without fan noise and the power usage is down
around laptops. It sits quietly next to my kid's room and runs our
printers, scanners, etc.

Maybe this summer I'll move it to the boat, which was supposed to be
its destiny. I should look for a waterproof screen ...

Search on mini-itx, or start at:
http://www.caseoutlet.com/

Glenn,

See

http://www.informationweek.com/story...leID=177102101

Good luck!

-Nancy

Thanks for the comments. Great little computers on that site. What I was
hoping to do is get away from a moving disk, and use flash memory to reduce
posibility of corrosion.

Glenn.


"Jeff" wrote in message
...
Glenn A. Heslop wrote:
I remember reading an article in one of the sailing rags on how to build
your own boat computer using a flash memory card...no spinning disk, no
fan...minimal opportunity for salt-water corrossion.

Anybody remember what magazine and issue, or where to get such plans?

Glenn.
s/v Seawing
www.seawing.net


I built a mini-itx system using a Via motherboard. I think this was
the highlited system. Although I use a small laptop drive, it can be
configured with a flash card. Overall, I'm a bit disappointed by it
(on a bang for the buck level - the performance is behind others, etc)
but I can run it 24/7 without fan noise and the power usage is down
around laptops. It sits quietly next to my kid's room and runs our
printers, scanners, etc.

Maybe this summer I'll move it to the boat, which was supposed to be
its destiny. I should look for a waterproof screen ...

Search on mini-itx, or start at:
http://www.caseoutlet.com/

On Tue, 24 Jan 2006 03:58:05 +0000, Glenn A. Heslop wrote:

I remember reading an article in one of the sailing rags on how to build
your own boat computer using a flash memory card...no spinning disk, no
fan...minimal opportunity for salt-water corrossion.

You certainly can do that, but there's good reason it isn't done often.
Flash memory has a limited number of read/write cycles. IOW it wears
out. This may or may not be a problem, depending on your needs.

There are dedicated solid state hard drives for this purpose, but they're
quite a bit more expensive.

Personally, I'd just buy a ruggedized computer, like a Panasonic Toughbook.

Matt O.