An ideal Computer for a Yacht, One for the IT lads!

Re: Ok onto specs ...

Bit lost there ..... with your needs ...

Comms ? Is that wifi or via mobile ? Thinkpad 600E has IR - so Mobile is catered for - but then its a GSM data link and expensive. Wifi can be via a plug-in PCMIA card ? Similarly any other req't .... or via USB

VDU - if you have the Thinkpad 600E - then VDU ? Why - it has its own screen ...

Word Processing - this is where we only upgrade in our office because others do and then we cannot read their docs. Yes you can get add-ons / 3rd party readers etc. - but at end of day its better to have the later package. BUT for on boat use ? Maybe an older version of MS Office ? Or even MS Works later versions ....

A suite that I am surprised hasn't caught on is - OpenOrg - which reads near all other suites ..... designed to be a bridge application between various software offerings. It was on one machine I bought - it worked ! Bit strange when first viewed, but users I have met say that you soon get used to it .... it's FREE as well .... Takes up little space compared to Office etc.

Me - I hate Outlook, Outlook Express etc. - but in this instance would stay with Outlook Express and above simple word processing package - leaving max amount of HDD available.

All in my humble non-IT opinion ..........

I've just had my spare Maxdata 350M returned to me after firing an inspector ... so that will now go head to head with my 600E - to see which one will be consigned to nav duties on the boat .... so far the 600E has performed marvelously .....
 
[ QUOTE ]

/ <span style="color:red">
1 Cost effective (say a budget of around £500 for the hardware)
2/ Very low electricity draw. </span>
3/ A basic operating system.
4/ basic progs. for comms, tides, chartplotter, etc.(ok these to be paid for &
added by user not included in the hardware cost)
5/ <span style="color:red"> Water resistant </span>
6/ Internet & wireless capable, also an external aerial if required?
7/ An external plug in hard disk (data)
8/ Very small footprint

What do the IT specialists think???
is it even possible /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

poter

[/ QUOTE ]

Point 2 (power) and 4 (waterproof) all drive point 1 cost up. However a good NEW laptop can be had for £300 form the highstreert ( and could be found considerably cheaper online).

Better processor = faster PC but also MORE AMPS
Better Screen resolution (not necessairly BIGGER) = More AMPS and usually higher cost
Waterproof = custom = higher cost

Building a PC is simple and cheap but the screen and power consumption are going to be high.

There are various custom made products around that perform better but you are either into a dedicated system (chartplotter etc..) or expensive rugged and/or waterproof PC to get there.

A slightly higher spec laptop choosen, installed in toe 12v (or 24v) supply and configured correctly can be tuned to use around 3 to 4 amps. Which with current mass produced technology this is a good as it gets.

I currently have an OLD TOSHIBA 1800S laptop fitted in the boat on a permanent basis but asI have access to a wide selection of equiplent I regularly use a number of different laptops, PDA, Mobile phone and other techonogy on board to see how it works.

I keep comming back to a cheap laptop that I am prepared to throw away after a few years. The current toshiba has been on board as the primary laptop for 4 years and last year I removed the dedicated chartplotter.

There is no ideal choice as with most things related to boats it is all a compromise and you need to make up your own mind.
 
A slightly higher spec laptop choosen, installed in toe 12v (or 24v) supply and configured correctly can be tuned to use around 3 to 4 amps. Which with current mass produced technology this is a good as it gets.

Not sure why you would want to "tune" them to use so much power or maybe they are just very hungry notebooks. Maybe you are quoting figures while charging (which is useful energy stored for later use so is not "lost").

Both my notebooks (4 year old Compaq 1.3'ish GHz and recent HP 2.0'ish GHz) draw around half that when running my ECS. That ECS is one targetted at commercial vessels so it does heavy load things such as continuously writing every NMEA sentence received to the hard drive as a complete log of all sensor outputs for the voyage so the drive gets quite a work out.

I came across some test results on the internet a while back, and for the couple of notebooks tested they were both around 2 amps for not very processer hungry applications.

I would be interested in the results from anyone else who has actually measured the current consumption of their notebook.

John
 
John,

I've generally found that a my Tosh will draw 2 (ish) amps when running and 3 to 4 while charging. Depends much on HDD use and CPU. Although screen refresh rates hit the AMPS also.

Tested a series of DELL laptops last year (low end to high end and some not on the market yet models) and found most used 3 and even 4 amps while running and charging. Think I've found one model that uses 1.5 amps while running going to 3 amps if charging.

Given that you should be running the laptop fron the ships supply the charging current is not very relevant.

Also had some HP kit for a while and the high end onds were drawing 4 or 5 amps running and maybe a much as 10 while charging - but i suspect something was not right with the setupo here as this if far too much.

PDA's are a good bet but i just can't get on wiht the interface or small screen. Others may have another view.
 
Thanks for the feedback on that - looks like somewhere around 2 amps is usual.

I use a PDA for other things and like them for those, but I also would not be able to get to grips with such a small screen for navigating - even 15 inch on a notebook is too small for me /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif.

John
 
Take the battery out or ....

isolate the contacts so that weight is still there to balance the notebook. Then all power in is going to process and not for charging .... in that way often most notebooks will quite happily chug away on 12v direct.

Ampage should then drop significantly - as even when battery is full charged, it still acts as a "top-up" to boost power when CD's etc. start up ..... meaning that ampage is still more than really needed.
 
I have the equivalent of the Slimpro 300FL from Sumicom on board with a 400MHz Celeron. It works without a hitch and very few amps. The separate screen (XGA) is switched off when I need to save energy, but the whole thing draws less than 3 amps anyway, so is mostly running all the time.
The nice thing is that the CPU is hidden from any water ingress, and if the screen gets damaged, well there is only a screen to be changed. Keyboard and mouse are waterresistant.
 
Its best to leave the battery in place! Useing my old compaq M300 without the battery in i lost all the new date being added when the power went off.

Not only that the external HDD stopped when i started again i coulden accsses any data nor any of my stored photos it somehow made a partshen? Today i use it normally but there is still about 2giga of images and data i cant get to!!!

Surly with the battery in when its 100% the energy needed willonly be that needed torun the machine??

I couldent do without my PDA but a better OS would be handy as sites such as yahoo dont work!! They tellme to get a modern browser!!!! And of course the small screens a reall pain as is not opting for a bulky keyboard, But without it i would have noconvenient email accsses and other internet services i need.

The PDA is wonderful and the newes offerings look really promising, but never tried the Palm PDA nor the new win 5.0

2 feachers id like would be usb to attach my external HHD to store photos and data.(charts pilot books etc) and say a 7 inch screen to veiw wholpages-

In fact PDA spec laptop that is 624 prossesor rom memory(in case of crashes) and plenty of flash memory,plus smallkeyboard could be a portable DVD size PDA??
 
Loss of data .....

Never had this - but I do not intentionally use a write-later cache etc.

If the machine is cacheing data and then writoing later when machine is quiet or when cache is full - this could lead to that fault. Creating another partition ???? One I never heard of ... but then again someone like Brendan would be able to answer that better.

The Acer Aspire I am typing on now - the manual advises that battery SHOULD be removed if used a lot on AC mains power .... so Acer seems to think it ok ....

I have used Maxdata, IBM Thinkpads, Dells, HP's and this Acer without problem sans battery. All you have to remember is to not pull out power plug before machine shuts down properly etc. But surely a Notebook without battery is no different to a Desktop machine ??

As to the power drain with battery in .... having watched the amps change battery in / battery out even if fully charged - yes it does make a difference. I assume and the LED's on the casing seems to agree - that accessing CD etc. creates a power surge that battery meets - meaning that a small amount is put back from charging ... namely the battery LED goes from green to amber for a short spell ....
 
Re: Loss of data .....

I agree about it saying remove the battery but! With the new? IBM X40 i bought 2 years ago to replace the then broken Bios Compaq says the same but on the IBM the batterys comfortable in place on the compaq it obstructs the usb and other connectors.

I was transfering images id just loaded it was march and there were grey clouds and thunder on the horizen but i felt comfortable below in a walm, and at that time comfortable cabin then the light just filickerd the PC shutdown and restarted, it was may old la cie 20giga HDD and i still use it as its very small and portable has even been droped very badly.peww but still goes and the partitions there if i could get back 2 years of images i would be quite pleased.

I will have to messure the drain once but i havent room for a cheap 15inch laptop and the new body i got from ebay(i was cheeted again had to email secrity before the shop in Paris sent it then not the 500 but a 333 with missing promised and paid for HHD) And small useles laptops cost more than a large new one!!????
 
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