Laptops on boats

[Guest]

I am planning to buy a laptop in the near future and was hoping for advice on what features/models I should look for, given its main purpose will be to have on the boat.

I expect to use it for electronic charts interfaced with GPS, SAILMAIL or similar, etc etc.

Are there any particularly marine friendly laptops out there?

Will

 

[kdf]

Will,
No doubt you will get many replies from people who'll tell you that a PC has no place on board a boat. Probably from the same
people who will tell you that GPS shouldn't be used either etc .

I have used a regular Toshiba laptop on board for the last 3 seasons. Its nothing special - not marinised in any way and its worked great for the three years. I have it running my chart plotting, email, to do list (we all have those), online access, weather etc. Dont bother with getting a rugged one - they are expensive and the money you save by getting a standard laptop will more than cover any replacement you have to make.

Just make sure you have regular serial ports on it. The tendancy for modern small laptops is to put USB ports on them which don't always work well with Nmea etc.

 

[claymore]

Agree entirely - I use a Toshiba Satellite something or other and it is brilliant. It spends its days in the wheelhouse and at night it goes to bed (if we are not sailing) I'm paranoid about not letting the damp get to it so I have silica gel sachets in its case. I plug it into a 240v socket which is wired through a thingy and it is kept well tide down with bungy and velcro. The rugged ones are expensive and I think that by thinking it isn't rugged it encourages me to look after it.
I don't use email or access the internet when on the boat, but I keep my maintenance log on it and use word to write narratives as well as downloading pictures from the digital camera. Really useful tool all round.
Nearly forgot - I use Dolphin Maritime Software and Arcs charts linked via nmea cable to a port so it interfaces with the gps. Really brilliant system.

regards
Claymore

 

[wishbone]

I agree! I use a Toshiba Satellite Very robust and reliable machine very good communications interface, USB is good for printers quite fast a lot of peripherals now link with USB you can also get a USB splitter that you can leave connected and have a number of thingy’s running side by side, also free’s up COM port etc

Wishbone

 

[ECDC]

Hi I have just picked up on the topic. Can anyone help, I am looking for the best means of sending / receiving email from a laptop on the boat from European waters. We had a simple mobile phone and internet ISP and it cost a fortune (when indeed it worked, which was rarely!)

Any ideas most welcome.

Thanks

 

[BrendanS]

An alternative to buying seafaring friendly laptops, is to get a pile of them so cheap that you can treat them as disposables.

Most big companies turn over their laptops on a 3 year plan. It's possible to get hold of perfectly good 4 or 5 year old laptops with quite decent specs for 20 or 30 pounds each, as they are effectively worthless. These will run Windows 98 quite happily, which is what most boatie type software is still running on.

Once you've got the first laptop up and running, get someone with a writable CD drive to make a cd backup that you can use to reproduce your system (this is quite easy, but is better done by someone who already knows how to do it, as it can take a lot of time to figure out first time)

Once a laptop gets knackered on the boat, chuck it, and use CD to bring another cheapy onto line. It helps if you can buy a job lot from one company, all of the same type, then the setup is exactly the same for all of them.

 

[oldsalt]

Tell me where I can get a 4 or 5 year old laptop for the price mentioned.........

 

[Trevethan]

same here.. I'll take 4

Despite the high cost of living, it still remains popular.

 

[zefender]

If you can can get a used cheapie as mentioned, I'd snap it up.

I've a Toshiba too. Despite having been washed with sea when some idiot left hatch open (probably me!), it recovered after a day in bed with a warm blanket (just left switched on). I agree that ruffty-tuffty versions are a waste of money. I'd be inclined to leave it on overnight when aboard and take it home when not out and about.

If you do manage to get a real cheapie, I'd be inclined to buy two. If one falls apart, it is most unlikely to affect the disk, which will probably be removeable. Just stick it in a new PC, of same make and spec and, pretty much, away you go.

You don't need a superfast jobbie but you might want to look at the screen resolution since many of the new charting companies use quite high resolutions that an older PC won't really be able to cope with very well. In my experience, one of the first things to go is the screen, so buying a naff old notebook with a decent screen means you can use the better notebook (tucked away somewhere safe) running the display on the screen of the old, cheapo one.

 

[Apetts]

It's most important to have a serial port, I bought one with only USB and it took ages, and more money for USB/serial interface before I managed to link it to my GPS. Not all USB/serial interfaces will actually make the link! Mine now connects to the GPS but will not run my weatherfax software or connect my mobile phone for e-mail. The old laptop with serial port had no problems with all of them.
If you are intending running weatherfax through the sound card make sure you have a "line in" socket and not just the microphone input.

 

[charles_reed]

Whilst I have a laptop on my boat I wouldn't rely on it as my sole navigational aid.

I use a dedicated chart-plotter and when I want to use gizmos like the Max-Sea polars and grib file forecasting, plug in the laptop.

There are a number of reasons for my preference, but the overriding one is personal, first-hand knowlege of the unreliability of all PCs, especially using those any of Mr Gates OS.

If you are determined on this course of action, the only laptops which will survive the attentions of Traffic Department squaddies are the Panasonic Toughbooks range - expensive but vitrually unbreakable.

Toshiba have always made good laptops - and if they're too expensive for you look at the Dell range, which is probably gives the best price/performance factor.

 

[claymore]

Well - if you are not being amazed at how "You Brits" rise to some bait or other - you're having a bash at Bill Gates.
The windows system on my toshiba has been faultless for the 5 years since it was first put on the boat. Indeed windows is a good operating system - perhaps you are just jumping on the "Its not fair - Microsoft has a monopoly" bandwagon -
What on earth are you on about Traffic department squaddies for - he's a private boat owner - so the spec of your panasonic suggestion is probably miles over the top for what is wanted.

regards
Claymore

 

[BrendanS]

Find someone who works in IT industry, preferably large (over 1000 employees). Cultivate them over a period of time, buy them beers. Most of these cheapies go to those in the know, never advertised as employees will buy them, get taken home, used for a while, then chucked away when something better comes along.

There's no instant source available, as most of the people who have these things just bin them or give them away, as there is no perceived value.

 

[vyv_cox]

Serial ports

Rather than a USB, you can buy a PCMCIA with serial ports attached. That's what I have, as my laptop has no serial port. This PCMCIA was difficult to find but is a good option, especially if you need two ports, one to control an ICOM PCR1000 and the other for the input.

 

[ThomasHome]

I've worked in the IT departments of some very big places and never sold off cheap laptops as mentioned, when we sell kit it goes to the staff and there is normally a waiting list. I know of one of the big accountancy firms who send all the out of date laptops back to the lease company to be destroyed, this ensures that sensitive date is not leaked, it also gets rid of the machines to keep them off the second hand market, more money is made through the sale of new computers! crazy if you ask me.

 

[ThomasHome]

I too have have had Windows on a PC, it has not crashed fro nearly two years now - but then I haven't switched the thing on for nearly two years!

 

[Trevethan]

I work for a company with many more staff than 1000 and we are very much an IT based business. All our old stuff gets wiped clean and given to schools/charities. No opportunities here for second hand kit especially things like laptops.

Frequently buy the techies beers and still no joy... taken me two years to get my Pentium II desktop upgraded... course I don't have nice legs like Jimmie and rarely wear a skirt, which seems to help when you want something done. I think the goatee puts them off too.. ah well...

rgds

Nick

Despite the high cost of living, it still remains popular.

 

[davtt]

Hi Brendan.
I work in the IT industry (big Companies > 1000 employees etc) and although what you say about 'cheapies' was true a few years ago, many Companies now explicitly have their old machines 'rendered' as they are worried about people accessing the data even when it has been deleted! I think that although the persistant storage on the machines (eproms, hard disks etc) can be re-initialised, many Companies have decided not to bother and just scrap them. This is a great shame as you are correct in assuming that these machines are still very useful. The alternative is to go somewhere like stirling, where an adequate notebook can be had for well under 500 smackers!

Regards,
Dave T

 

[colin_jones]

The disposable laptop seems a very good idea -- especially if it crashes your navigation system at the dead of night, with a rising wind in somewhere like the Swinge, or the Little Russell -- so that you can immediately bin it and revert to something you can rely on.

PS I am a computer hoobyist and fan --- but not in the Little Russell at night.

 

[stubate]

Computers are like cars

Computers are like cars, look after them, learn how to drive them properly and they wont crash.
I earn a living sorting out probs caused by foolish owners. The biggest probs are caused by fiddlers, not Bill Gates (although his licensing regime is something else)
As to the urban myths about Tough Books, phooy,
Tough books are for repair men who are out and about in all sorts of weather, the operative word being weather, if you are going to get it wet and muddy it needs to be water proof. If you are taking it on a boat, I hope it is going into a nice dry saloon, HP do a nice entry level with all that you need for less than a grand inc VAT. if you drop it and ruin it you can still buy three for the price of a Tough book. as long as you dont fiddle with it or load dodgy progs on it it will go on for ever without crashing, on second thoughts, boys, you just carry on fiddling and give me lots of lovely work !!
s