Advice about laptop for our boat

[LORDNELSON]

I think a laptop might be useful on our boat, not necessarily for navigation (we have a chart plotter) but for wifi connection for met information/keeping in touch, etc, entertainment (for the younger ones); would like to keep the whole thing as simple as possible and not too expensive. If anyone out there has experience of using a computer on board for this kind of usage I would be grateful if they could pass on any experience they can remember. Is there any particular aspect that makes Marina wifi different from normal house-hold usage? The boat (28 foot)is used for sailing along the South and East coasts of UK. Thank you.

 

[fireball]

I find a netbook is excellent for boat use - they are cheap, light and easily stowed.
For Wifi access I find that sometimes the built in wifi isn't good enough - so I have a wifi stick and a few USB extension leads so I can put the stick up higher - just be careful you don't drop the stick on the screen like I did though!
You can also get PAYG 3G sticks which give you a mobile dial up to the internet - handy if you're not going near known Wifi spots and staying in the country.
Mine is an Acer Aspire One (first version).

If you're looking at entertaining the kids though, you might need a larger screen and DVD player ...

 

[huzar30]

The advantage of a laptop vs netbook is that a laptop can play DVDs - very useful when you are weatherbound! I too use mine for internet access, although as fireball says, an extender can be very useful. Depends where you are. Useful too for navigation [another drawback to netbook: with no CD drive, it's difficult to install software]. Also for downloading from the digital camera.

If you have shore power, there's no problem, otherwise you can get a 12V adaptor which fits into a cigarette lighter socket. You certainly need that if you are using it for navigation.

 

[PeteE]

Aldi have an ad in today's papers for a Medion 10" Netbook @ £259.99 - apparently on sale tomorrow, 4th. Haven't a clue if its any good or "cheap" but as I'm in the market myself I'll be checking it out.

 

[oGaryo]

Have a look at the Toshiba NB200 10Z, should give you everything you need with hard disc vibration protection, bluetooth and usb charging for your other electonikity stuff when the netbook is in hybernation (most have to have the lid up to unable USB charging).. has 1gb of RAM and 160gb and a fast 280 Intel Atom processor... a big plus is the battery life.. min 6hrs max 9! upgrade to 2gb and install windows 7. as for the DVD consideration, you can pick up a usb slimline external unit for about 20 notes... the netbook will set you back somewhere between £180 and £200.

I've just ordered one for the same reason as you are looking.. the Tosh unit here has very good reviews

http://www.trustedreviews.com/video/Toshiba-NB200-10Z

 

[FullCircle]

Yep, the power saving of a netbook (1a or less) to my old laptop (4a) is considerable.
I also have a plug in USB DVD external drive.
Mine is a Samsung N140, about £250.
I bought things like a wifi stick and a 9dB gain antenna which gives much more range, and a 12v charger (standard is 19v) all for about 40 quid.
I also bought a usb plug in waterproof keyboard from Aldi for £6.

Its great...... I also keep all the boat equipment manuals on it, plus the weather, and a chart plotter,AIS overlay and on screeen Navtex, not to mention graphic displays of all my boat instruments.

 

[fireball]

but don't expect the graphics card to be of blistering performance - it won't be good at displaying movies .... mine isn't!

 

[PeteE]

As far as I can tell, the Medion Ayoka E1222 spec looks like it will do the job pretty well - even movies. Price appears ok so looks like a visit to Aldi, Havant is on the cards for me.....

 

[FullCircle]

Have you looked at the battery life? I can't find it.
You should be expecting between 5.5 and 7 hours.

Also, check how many USB ports it has, couldn't see that either...

 

[ff_nick]

Yep, the power saving of a netbook (1a or less) to my old laptop (4a) is considerable.
I also have a plug in USB DVD external drive.
Mine is a Samsung N140, about £250.
I bought things like a wifi stick and a 9dB gain antenna which gives much more range, and a 12v charger (standard is 19v) all for about 40 quid.
I also bought a usb plug in waterproof keyboard from Aldi for £6.

Its great...... I also keep all the boat equipment manuals on it, plus the weather, and a chart plotter,AIS overlay and on screeen Navtex, not to mention graphic displays of all my boat instruments.

FC, could you give us a quick description of your system? AIS engine, plotter softeware, how you get the navtex data and the NMEA interface? Would be very useful. It sounds as though you have exactly what I wanted on my previous boat - a few good toys to complement the very basic gps and paper charts I have. Looking for a replacement (boat, that is) now, so I don't know yet whether it'll be necessary in future, but certainly interesting.

Thanks

Nick.

 

[FullCircle]

FC, could you give us a quick description of your system? AIS engine, plotter softeware, how you get the navtex data and the NMEA interface? Would be very useful. It sounds as though you have exactly what I wanted on my previous boat - a few good toys to complement the very basic gps and paper charts I have. Looking for a replacement (boat, that is) now, so I don't know yet whether it'll be necessary in future, but certainly interesting.

Thanks

Nick.

I have a powered USB hub which is fed by

Actisense NMEA multiplexer (feeds to and from Radar/Chartplotter, GPS, Autopilot,Instruments)
Comar AIS-2
NASA navtex engine.
Cmap Reader
Spare USB GPS
Wifi Dongle
iPod (but that normally runs through HiFi)

Netbook has Digiboat Software On Board plotter with all overlays for instruments, wind, gribs etc
ZyGrib
SeaTTy

System feeds out to DSC VHF and can accept infeed from SW radio via the mic input for Weather fax.

I have a
12v adapter
External USB DVD Drive
2 x 2Gb memory sticks
TP-Link Wifi Dongle and small extension antenna
TP-Link 9dB Gain Wifi directional antenna (about 1 mile range allegedly)
2 x 2m USB A-B extension cables
Phone and Net cables
Muliti country 110v-230v power adaptor for use in cafes.
Waterproof USB roll-away keyboard
2 USB mini mouses

I have also been unable to find a sensible Netbook swing arm, they are all very industrial and for much larger laptops, so I have designed one that fits over the chart table and swings the netbook out of the way and stores it upright. When it is delivered, I will try it and let you know.
I have mounted the other equipment feeds in a box behind the main power distribution panel.

 

[Quandary]

Full Circle
You should be charging for publishing stuff of that quality.

 

[FullCircle]

Full Circle
You should be charging for publishing stuff of that quality.

I do this in memory of the Forums greatest source of NMEA knowledge, now in sailing heaven, Tome.

Tom was working on my NMEA woes until only 7 or 8 days before he died of cancer. What a bloke.

It was his business, but he always gave away the advice free.

 

[ff_nick]

Thanks

Wow, many thanks. Printed and saved for future reference

 

[bromleybysea]

I too am thinking about the options. No1 son has nicked my laptop, which in any case was a bit big for the available space on the boat. We use Thinkpads at work and mine takes all the abuse I throw at it, so I was thinking about going for one of the sub-notebook X60s with a dock with a DVD built-in, which would give me lots of extra ports. They are available refurbished for about the same price as a decent new netbook. What does the panel think? Would I be better off with a netbook as above? A main consideration for me is being able to watch movies.

 

[Vara]

Jim,

Great set up, silly detail question, how do you power your USB hub.

Be interesting to see how it stands up to the sailing environment, quite well I suspect. I don't think net books are quite as fragile as people think, mine cetainly takes a hammering ashore and afloat and has survived well, and on the expense scale they are relatively cheap.

On battery life, my set up will give 3.5 hours, I find that this is just about adequate for day sailing with power management turned right up.

I'm not going down the WiFi route, IMO it's expensive and a fiddlle in UK and a 3g dongle works better.

Still agonising over location of instrument heads, at present on wheel binnacle, but have got dedicated area over companion way.

 

[FullCircle]

Jim,

Great set up, silly detail question, how do you power your USB hub.

Be interesting to see how it stands up to the sailing environment, quite well I suspect. I don't think net books are quite as fragile as people think, mine cetainly takes a hammering ashore and afloat and has survived well, and on the expense scale they are relatively cheap.

On battery life, my set up will give 3.5 hours, I find that this is just about adequate for day sailing with power management turned right up.

I'm not going down the WiFi route, IMO it's expensive and a fiddlle in UK and a 3g dongle works better.

Still agonising over location of instrument heads, at present on wheel binnacle, but have got dedicated area over companion way.

Hi Col,
the USB hub has its own 12v input supply (to 5v), as I found that on a netbook powered hub when you plugged heavy users like the DVD into it, the little thing just died. With the powered hub, it handles all the inputs just fine.

This year, I have bought a GRP bridgedeck instrument pod, and I am moving all the log/depth/wind to there, so as the crew can see whats going on. I am just having a single repeater on the binnacle which shows 95% of that info. I can read the instrument displays from the helm anyway.

I will leave the netbook plugged into 12v and remove the battery when its fully charged. That way, if I get a total power failure, I have 9 hours of plotter/gps power for emergency use.

 

[gjgm]

just been down this route, though now prompted by home pc giving up the ghost.
The netbooks are a curious product, I ve concluded. The one big point is portability.. in fact that really is the only point as far as I can see. Everything else is a drawback! So unless you really intend to walk about with it all your life, why go for the limited power and small screen? Its mildly more convenient on a boat perhaps, but its not that hard to find space for a laptop, and at least if you over 17 years old, a laptop screen is big enough to read!
As I say, we were partly prompted by needing a new home pc. so we ve just gone for a laptop full stop.

 

[FullCircle]

just been down this route, though now prompted by home pc giving up the ghost.
The netbooks are a curious product, I ve concluded. The one big point is portability.. in fact that really is the only point as far as I can see. Everything else is a drawback! So unless you really intend to walk about with it all your life, why go for the limited power and small screen? Its mildly more convenient on a boat perhaps, but its not that hard to find space for a laptop, and at least if you over 17 years old, a laptop screen is big enough to read!
As I say, we were partly prompted by needing a new home pc. so we ve just gone for a laptop full stop.

I sold my laptop, because of the power consumption. It would flatten an 80Ah battery in 10 hours. Oops.

 

[stefan_r]

Or Toughbook from the US?

Couple of hundred bucks...usually WinXP so a bit old...but not a problem for basic use.

Totally solid, moisture not a problem.

Also CF29 (and others) have built in DVD drive, WiFi, touchscreen.

Horses for courses.