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Well, at least I know there is interest out there (and of course, there
are those who aren't interested, thanks for your input too). Thanks for the great info, everone! Just some things that I've learned and I'll share. - Johnhh, the VIA is a little slower, definitely, but I've found it to be more than sufficient for most everyday tasks, and it exceeds most hardware requirements for navigation programs (everything I've seen except for Nobeltec's Admiral "recommended" hardware, it blows away the minimum requirements). Even Pentium M's can't meet Admiral's recommended hardware. I've looked at Pentium M, but I think the cost isn't worth it. It would jack up the price by a couple hundred and the performance gain isn't really worth it. Of course, people know "Pentium" though. - I looked at Shuttle, but they seem to have focused on Pentium 4 processors. The problem is power consumption there. The P4 chip itself can draw 70-90 Watts, my whole system draws ~25W at idle, ~50 at peak performance. VIA runs cooler and much more efficient. - Embedded OS is a great idea. I don't know much about Win XP Embedded, but I'll definitely be looking at that. I know there are devices that allow you to boot a PC from CF card, just like any IDE drive, I just thought they were too small for Win XP (the largest I've seen is 2 GB). Maybe Embedded gets around that. - Currently, I'm using a 2.5" disk in a shock-resistant mounting bracket (exactly like you said, Meindert). It's worked well so far. Power consumption is minimal, and I think negligible if we're talking about P4 chips. I did an experiment recently, where I installed 2 2.5" drives, ran a stress test and measured power consumption, then I removed one drive and ran the same test. I couldn't see a noticeable difference (on an analog ammeter, maybe I'd have seen a difference on digital, regarless, it was minimal if anything). The manufacturer says it consumes .6 W at idle (no measurement at peak), so spinning drives that aren't being accessed really isn't as big a problem as one might think, at least not with this drive. One recent customer had 2 drives, one for everyday access, the other for backup. This kept power consumption to a minimum. Eric |
- I looked at Shuttle, but they seem to have focused on Pentium 4
processors. The problem is power consumption there. Not completely true. I have a shuttle with an Athelon processor. Bought the Shuttle and processor from New Egg. Uses the heat pipe cooling system and runs at around 2GHz. Fine machine and quite! HTH Vic -- __________________________________________________ ______ Victor Fraenckel - The Windman victorf ATSIGN windreader DOTcom KC2GUI Home of the WindReader Electronic Theodolite Read the WIND |
I guess it comes down to what is sufficient. I built a VIA M10000 system
for this purpose and am not happy with it. You are going to be very hard put to compete with one of these 10" Pentium M based laptops that with the monitor are as small if not smaller than my ITX system, quieter and as energy efficient. Put it into a port replicate (or not into one) under the chart table or in a cabinet and you have the same thing only faster and you can pull it out and take it to the internet cafe. For now, I am using my monster laptop with the WUXGA display. I don't intend on using a PC for navigation or anything critical because I don't trust them enough. I use them for route planning and all that fun stuff. And least you think I am a technophobe, I'm not, I am a recently retired software engineer. That said, I am a PC junky and can't resist toying with all this stuff. Even not using it for critical functions, I feel the need for at least two PCs on board if not three. I might start quivering and shaking if the only one I had died. By the way, did anyone mention printing? I am using one of those Canon portables, can't remeber the number right off, but so far it has been awsome. Battery powered and with bluetooth it lives in a cabinet and when I need to use it, just pull it out, pop it open, turn it on, put it on the table with some paper and I'm printing. Thirty seconds from waterproof bag to printing. I wish you luck on this poroject. I may be a customer some day. John wrote in message oups.com... Well, at least I know there is interest out there (and of course, there are those who aren't interested, thanks for your input too). Thanks for the great info, everone! Just some things that I've learned and I'll share. - Johnhh, the VIA is a little slower, definitely, but I've found it to be more than sufficient for most everyday tasks, and it exceeds most hardware requirements for navigation programs (everything I've seen except for Nobeltec's Admiral "recommended" hardware, it blows away the minimum requirements). Even Pentium M's can't meet Admiral's recommended hardware. I've looked at Pentium M, but I think the cost isn't worth it. It would jack up the price by a couple hundred and the performance gain isn't really worth it. Of course, people know "Pentium" though. - I looked at Shuttle, but they seem to have focused on Pentium 4 processors. The problem is power consumption there. The P4 chip itself can draw 70-90 Watts, my whole system draws ~25W at idle, ~50 at peak performance. VIA runs cooler and much more efficient. - Embedded OS is a great idea. I don't know much about Win XP Embedded, but I'll definitely be looking at that. I know there are devices that allow you to boot a PC from CF card, just like any IDE drive, I just thought they were too small for Win XP (the largest I've seen is 2 GB). Maybe Embedded gets around that. - Currently, I'm using a 2.5" disk in a shock-resistant mounting bracket (exactly like you said, Meindert). It's worked well so far. Power consumption is minimal, and I think negligible if we're talking about P4 chips. I did an experiment recently, where I installed 2 2.5" drives, ran a stress test and measured power consumption, then I removed one drive and ran the same test. I couldn't see a noticeable difference (on an analog ammeter, maybe I'd have seen a difference on digital, regarless, it was minimal if anything). The manufacturer says it consumes .6 W at idle (no measurement at peak), so spinning drives that aren't being accessed really isn't as big a problem as one might think, at least not with this drive. One recent customer had 2 drives, one for everyday access, the other for backup. This kept power consumption to a minimum. Eric |
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I have been toying with the same as a hobby project.
The wishlist in short: - Low power - Suitable for marine use. Well engineered and splash proof. - No moving parts, possibly except HDD. Certainly no fans. - Low power - Open source software. We do not want the machine to die 10 days from port due to some MS virus or other hazzle. - Server facilities as on-board e-mail server, DHCP, DNS, printer, file, X etc for connected crew lap tops and others. - Lots of I/O - Low power - Supporting logging, navigation, automation etc on board - Providing entertainement, DVD, MP3, e-books etc - Low power - Automatic e-mail forwarding and fetching via SSB, GPRS, Satellite, WLAN or whatever is available, cheep and chereful at the time - Low power and finally - Low power One could also think of having a second low power battery operated wireless thin client in cockpit while sailing near land for navigation, radar image or similar. ottar |
A normal windows installation will
wear out the flash disk in no time. You have me puzzled here. How does it "wear out" solid state? You'll need XP Embedded to make sure it does not write registry, log and swapfiles files to the flashdisk "millisecond". What is wrong with writing data to a flash drive? I use them to move data between computers anyway. They can hold with power off and unplugged. Unless I am misunderstanding what you are saying? |
wrote in message
... A normal windows installation will wear out the flash disk in no time. You have me puzzled here. How does it "wear out" solid state? Because a solid-state flash disk has a limited number of write/erase cycles per sector of 100,000 to 1,000,000 times. So having windows put a swapfile on that, or any other temporary file will make the flash disk reach that number in no time. You'll need XP Embedded to make sure it does not write registry, log and swapfiles files to the flashdisk "millisecond". What is wrong with writing data to a flash drive? I use them to move data between computers anyway. They can hold with power off and unplugged. Unless I am misunderstanding what you are saying? Yes. Writing data to flash is ok. But having an OS putting temporary files on a flash disk that are write thousands of times during one session is bad. Meindert |
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I am using one of those Canon
portables, can't remeber the number right off, I am interested when you can take a look. |
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