Conachair
Guest
But not nasa navtex engine or the stuff to control the ham radio. Unfortuanately. If all that side of things would work then I'd be a happy bunny, getting nowhere with xp install
ideas on 12V computer and clean power
- Thread starter farmer.leo
- Start date
But not nasa navtex engine or the stuff to control the ham radio. Unfortuanately. If all that side of things would work then I'd be a happy bunny, getting nowhere with xp install
idpnd
Member
If you had enough ram you could run it as a virtualbox inside ubuntu?
charles_reed
Active member
My computer (I've a CULV powered ones as being more workmanlike than Atom-powered netbooks) uses almost exactly the same amount of power in 24-hrs as the fridge (about 32 AH the pair).
On Win 7 power use is about 170% of SuSe11.4 Linux. Win XP was about 250%.
The main reason is that you have a far greater control over screen brightness with Linux (the greatest power-hog) than any Win OS - and Win7 suffers from interminable start-up and close-down sequences, more than doubling the time it's on for a log-entry.
Using an SSD (the HDD is the 2nd biggest power-hog) will save some additional power.
I've always (for 8 years) used solid-state transformers producing clean, consistent power, whatever the input voltage. The only computer that didn't work on perfectly was a Dell 8600 - described by one dissatisfied user as the most perfect doorstop ever produced by the US computer industry - where it demanded its own charger to put any charge into the batteries.
The latest project is an AMD E350 dual CPU Lenovo ThinkPad E325, which should prove even more economical if I can get it to run on Linux.
(there's a problem with the boot agent GRUB being incompatible with the chipset and E-lilo is still a little experimental)
As I see it - a large screen will use more power than a small screen - 13.3" is a compromise size between the full size 15.6" (one can now get 17.7" laptops) and the 10.1" netbook.
A separate video card slows down and makes the unit more thirsty.
A fast (7200rpm) HDD uses more power than a 5400rpm one and both use more than an SSD, but are significantly cheaper if more accident prone.
Why anyone (except for the challenge) would want to build a one-off fitted unit, when laptops are evolving so fast and are so cheap, defeats my imagination.
idpnd
Member
I built my nav pc with an nvidia ion atom motherboard, its low powered, but the graphics chip nonetheless permits hd video playback. Combined with a 12V car PSU and SD hard drive for eur 250 or so, doesn't really use any lecky at all
pappaecho
New member
I have been following the thread with interest, and posted twice myself.I have not really thought about using a laptop ona boat before, and have realised that the 12 volt cheapo 17 inch LCD TV which we use has a vga port, to that is the monitor problem solved.
A number of posts have expressed doubts as to the PC being affected by engine starting.
I cannot understand this, as most boats have house and starting batteries, and clearly the laptop would be on the house circuit. Further the laptop would be running on its own battery, which is being charged by the 12 volt circuit, so a short interruption in supply should make no difference unless we are talking about RF interference .
I like the idea of single board micro, with possibly a solid state hard drive, as th amount of data storage would not be large. I currently have an old Unix based netbook with 9 hour battery life, with solid state drive, and really need to work out how to charge the battery from the 12 volt supply, and change the operating system which is quite easy. ork in progress over Xmas
A number of posts have expressed doubts as to the PC being affected by engine starting.
I cannot understand this, as most boats have house and starting batteries, and clearly the laptop would be on the house circuit. Further the laptop would be running on its own battery, which is being charged by the 12 volt circuit, so a short interruption in supply should make no difference unless we are talking about RF interference .
I like the idea of single board micro, with possibly a solid state hard drive, as th amount of data storage would not be large. I currently have an old Unix based netbook with 9 hour battery life, with solid state drive, and really need to work out how to charge the battery from the 12 volt supply, and change the operating system which is quite easy. ork in progress over Xmas
Conachair
Guest
Beyond your imagination there are many reasons. My laptop draws 1.2a with the screen turned off, this motherboard looks like drawing about 0.8a. The power supply initially seems rf silient so weatherfaxes are cleaner with no need to run a laptop on batteries. The wiring gets into a mess with a laptop, ais and gps in need serial - usb adaptors, then theres audio from the ssb radio for weatherfax, another serial to get the computer talking to the radio. If i ever get winlink sorted then theres another data link and audio out to the radio. And serial in from a nasa navtex engine. Very quickly a mess with a laptop.
And i get the chart table back, just a mini keyboard and mouse instead of a laptop with all the power and cabling.
The power savings aren't massive but having a dedicated hardwired system with proper serial ports instead of shakey serial/usb adaptors is something worth a bit of effort.
westhinder
Well-known member
This is a major argument imho: you can put the pc out of harm's way, mount the screen on a bulkhead and have your chart table free for the paper chart, as it should be. Has worked very well for me for 3 years.
Conachair
Guest
Was your CD drive usb 2.0 or 1.1 ? i can't get it to boot from a usb pen drive, sounds like the bios will only see usb 1.1 and the drives I have are 2.0 so it won't boot from them.
st599
Well-known member
But not nasa navtex engine or the stuff to control the ham radio. Unfortuanately. If all that side of things would work then I'd be a happy bunny, getting nowhere with xp install
http://hamlib.sourceforge.net/sup-info/rigmatrix.html
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/hamlib/index.php?title=Applications
http://es.sourceforge.jp/projects/sfnet_opennavtex/
Hoolie
Well-known member
+1 and I have a wireless trackball instead of a mouse as it avoids running across the charts. And the PC is splash protected which you can't do with a laptop!
owlybear
New member
sea whisper PC
I've been using a Sea Whisper 12V PC (www.seawhisper.co.uk) for the last 2 years of blue water cruising without any problems. No special precautions or provisions with the power supply.
I've been using a Sea Whisper 12V PC (www.seawhisper.co.uk) for the last 2 years of blue water cruising without any problems. No special precautions or provisions with the power supply.
Conachair
Guest
Lots
I've never played with linux so didn't realise.Got Lunbuntu on now, what a runaround! Vmware player virtual machine on laptop then loaded lunbuntu on there using the cf card as install destination hard drive, then boot the epia using that card.
But...
If i boot up on the epia with the monitor turned on I just get david hockney diagonal lines, but give it a few minutes booting then turn on the monitor all seems well. ????? What's that about?
under 0.6a though
contessaman
Member
ah, its an ancient top loading usb 1 cd rom. I have it form an era when laptops never had cd drives. You can probably pick one up for a few quid off ebay. the older, clunkier and naffer it is the more likely it will work!
just saw your later post on monitor fuzzy lines. Is that driving it off the 12v stabilised yellow and black from ATX PSU? if so mine does same. Sequence is, power on, wait for beep from motherboard, count a few bananas, then switch on monitor. Usually just missed the bios screen and windows is just about loaded.
Re: software, I had a play with linux derivatives. I gave up because of software availability. The linux is so much better than windows - you can use any CF card it cares not if it has a 'removable flag'. But granted you can get openCPN and (probably more and more as time goes by) other software, like it or not, theres just so much other stuff out there for windows. my nasa pc navtex: windows, hamcomm: windows, etc etc. I'll probably get shot by computer whizz's for saying it but its the whole Betamax vs VHS arguement. sometimes the best just aint the most popular.
0.6 amps! not bad at all. but have you unsoldered all the LEDs on your PSU and CF adapter? and tried about 4 USB gps receivers to see which takes the least current, and then unsoldered the LEDs off that.......?
chop chop, jump to it!!
Conachair
Guest
Update
Update:
Two good soucres of linux preconfigured for us boatys with opencpn & other software available..
http://navigatrix.net/
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=69875
Update:
Two good soucres of linux preconfigured for us boatys with opencpn & other software available..
http://navigatrix.net/
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=69875