Lap top as Marine GPS

[grumpy_o_g]

I'd agree with that. In fact a laptop or a mini system is usually far worse than a desktop in a less than perfect environment. The bigger desktops tend to get a flow of air through far better than the small systems which means that any moisture or dirt doesn't gather or hang around so much. It's also a lot easier to take the covers off and clean inside plus, because the base unit doesn't have to be beside the screen, you can keep it out of the way more.

The most likely thing to kill a system (apart from the software or finger trouble) is shock to the hard drive when it's spinning. I doubt a normal hard drive would stand much slamming on planing hull without shock absorption. By the way some of the laptops that advertise shock protection when dropped do so by shutting down the hard drive very quickly (they've got an accelerometer that detects a drop I believe). Some Thinkpads do this but none of the true "ruggedised" devices.

I should say I've extrapolated my experience with avionics and IT as my experience with PC's on boats is limited to laptops on yachts.

As for the Toughbook, is there a decent nav package that runs on Linux? That would probably be a lot more stable than 9x once set up and you'd probably get a lot more joy out of the open-source community for support.

 

[grumpy_o_g]

Isn't that effectively a satellite compass, as sold by the likes of Simrad and Furuno for serious money? I'd be interested to hear the comments of some of the GPS gurus here.

Given an accuracy of say, 3 metres and boat length of 10 metres the heading would be pretty vague or can it be guaranteed that the error is constant for two identical receivers in roughly the same location? Also would pitch and roll cause problems if the update rate was fast enough to be useful?

Be nice if you could build a cheap GPS compass like that.

 

[BrendanS]

The GPS guru was Tome, who is now on forums far away, so we need some new ones to step up to the mark

 

[LittleShip]

I hate to do this but................

As I stated I'm no expert in these matters although I do have a reasonable grounding on how to use computers. The postings you have put on here do nothing to explain to the average computer person anything that will help decide on a operating system for their boat.

From a personal point of view I know nothing about "Linux" "9X" and as for this statement :-

Given an accuracy of say, 3 metres and boat length of 10 metres the heading would be pretty vague or can it be guaranteed that the error is constant for two identical receivers in roughly the same location? Also would pitch and roll cause problems if the update rate was fast enough to be useful?

WTF is that all about.........

Remeber, some people on here just want basic information to make judgment calls by.

Now who's a Grumpy OG

Please at least detail what on earth you are talking about! /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[Talbot]

That toughbook is a P2 300MHz, which is man enough for Maxsea chart plotter running CMap CM93. However refresh rate sucks, and it is incapable of running AIS software.

 

[grumpy_o_g]

Sorry, very fair comments. I posted after a long day at work with a bunch of geeks...

That tough book has 128 MB of memory so it won't run Windows Vista or XP. It could run Windows NT or Windows 2000 (as supplied in one option) but I think it would be marginal. It could definitely run Windows 95 or 98, often called Windows 9x generically. The problem is that it will be difficult to get support for any Windows 95 or 98 products due to their age. Windows 2000 is still supported by Microsoft but only in the event of security issues or if you pay them money.


Since I posted Talbot says it will run Maxsea, presumably with Windows 2000 installed, but not very well, so I guess that answers that question for definite. For what it's worth, that's pretty much what I would expect.


The reason I mentioned Linux was because it was the only way I could see to get chart software working on that configuration of laptop.

You may want to ignore this bit but basically, Linux is a different operating system altogether, often used in equipment where the operating system isn't obvious. Video recorders, wireless routers and things like that often run Linux without the user even being aware of it. I don't know for certain but it's highly likely a lot of dedicated plotters use a version of Linux.

It can have a big advantage over Microsoft Windows because it will run in very little memory on much slower (and cheaper) processors. It is becoming increasingly popular as a replacement for Microsoft Windows and, if there is a suitable piece of navigation software available, could be a better choice to use on this particular Toughbook than an old version of MS Windows that isn't supported fully any more.

It wouldn't be straightforward to set up but, once it is installed, it should continue to work without crashing as long as it's left alone.



The other comment was referring to a different post so was probably guaranteed to cause confusion with hindsight. Ignore it - I'll live without knowing the answer.

Regards....

 

[LittleShip]

Thanks for the feedback and learning English for the rest of us.

"I posted after a long day at work with a bunch of geeks..." and I thought it was only me that suffered them!

Actually I run one of those laptops with Cmap installed and it works perfectly....... OK sometimes it is slow if I change programs to my tidal program but thats all.

I have bounced this computer around the Irish sea, dropped it (it wasn't a test) had salt water on it and this is after it spent several years being used as an engineers work tool. I found the site (above) after I got my computer.

Many on here are looking for a laptop that wont fall apart in the marine environment and can run a navigation program, for the money, I don't think you can get a better offer.

Tom

 

[terryfb]

I use an IBM Thinkpad, with a Magellan 3000 plugged into the 9pin connector. Software is SeaClear, free to download from sping.com, it will use c-map data, but I scan my paper charts, reference them with Lat/Long and have been entirely satisfied with the performance. No 'bells or whistles' but entirely FREE! Seaclear comes with full instructions, several languages and MapCal software.

 

[ADLS]

I run a IBM ThinkPad, using a SeaPro program, boat position is by way of a USB mouse GPS. The only problem I have is battery life as the GPS and chart program realy suck power.
Have installed a 12vDC to 220vAC inverter to overcome this and all works well, but would like to use a direct 12vDC charging device. But as yet have not checked out the web sites mentioned in prev posts for available units.