Ansley W. Sawyer wrote:

We have the Cap'n Mosaic on the laptop in the nav center, 2 garmin gps,
fathometer, speedo, water temp smart transducer, simrad autopilot, furuno
radar all hooked together thru brookhouse multiplexer.

I am currently looking for screen for repeater in cockpit. May put in fixed
screen or may look into tablet with wired or wireless input.

Ideas are welcome.

The Panasonic Toughbook line is a line of laptops that is approaching
what you want to do at nearly normal laptop prices. I have not bought
one but the Toughbook line has some qualities in waterproofing and
daylight viewing that makes look to be pretty suitable for use in boats.

And they do it with some interesting features. For example, you can
have a good industrial strength Toughbook on the nav station
communicating with a wireless touchscreen display out in the cockpit.
Here's an example of a laptop that should work well on a boat:

http://www.feeneywireless.com/produc...hbook_73.shtml

And a companion wireless touch screen tablet display that could be used
on deck, in the cockpit, or at a secondary helm station:

http://www.feeneywireless.com/produc...ook_mdwd.shtml

There are two primary models of Toughbooks, they are the rugged models
and the semi-rugged models. Only the former have the waterproofing and
other features that really make them appear to be suitable for marine use.

And the model they call the Permanent Display Removable Computer or PDRC
is pretty interesting:

http://www.feeneywireless.com/produc...ook_pdrc.shtml

I've been looking at some of the Toughbook stuff on eBay and the prices
on the used and trailing edge models from the industrial arena look
pretty interesting.

I think the mobile computers that are suitable for use in marine
environments could become of viable alternative to dedicated chart
plotters. I'm not sure yet how viable they are now. A good chart
plotter is a great thing but a computer can do all that it does and more.

If someone wants to put me in a boat and let me go away for periods of
time to explore the viability I'm open to discussion on that. :)

Jack

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA - jackerbes at adelphia dot net
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine.com)