Low power, fanless 12v motherboards

dgadee

dgadee

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Idly browsing and came across the idea of fanless 12v motherboards. I know nothing about PC hardware but the idea seems interesting for putting together a system for navigation. Does it seem a possible onboard replacement for laptops? I could see it with wifi keyboard and mouse.

The kind of thing I mean is:

http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=53

Supposed to be around 25w consumption.

And a solid state disk? http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=16#satassd

Philip
 
Entirely possible, and I believe a lot of people do exactly that.

The sad fact is that by the time you've put it all together, and (assuming you want to run Windows) bought a retail copy of the operating system, it will cost much more than a cheap/old/secondhand laptop .... which many may regard as 'throw-away' items anyway.
 
Mini-ITX

Been using a PC based on a mini ITX board for the last 8 years. Current consumption is 2 amps including the monitor. Currently using a 2.5" hard disc but am about to upgrade to a solid state disc to improve performance. Had no problems using this on my yacht even when being beaten up by rough seas. Linked to GPS and AIS and autopilot which gives me a great navigation station and when moored up you have an entertainment station when the weather is to bad to go sailing. Cost about £300 to build.
Go for it.
 
I have a miniITX based on a epia via 5000, but just ordered a 6000 from ebay, 30 quid. the 5000 pulled 0.8a but bit sluggish and a major hassle was only having usb1 ports so booting from usb isn't possible. I'll post the power draw of the 6000 when it gets here. Power supply was about 40 quid, stabilised car job. Steel case 20 quid. Hard drive is a CF card. Works OK, nice to have it hard wired and get the chart table back. Miniusb keyboard and wirless mouse. Real serial port is nice to have. Linux & opencpn all free. :cool:
 
VicMallows said:
Entirely possible, and I believe a lot of people do exactly that.

The sad fact is that by the time you've put it all together, and (assuming you want to run Windows) bought a retail copy of the operating system, it will cost much more than a cheap/old/secondhand laptop .... which many may regard as 'throw-away' items anyway.
Click to expand...

I tried the cheap/old/secondhand laptop route for general use. Purchased from a local computer recycle business which were known to me. The advice they gave was " our laptops have commercial grade key boards etc much more rugged/ reliable than a new laptop that you can buy on the high street" Now with 3 replacements later that were FOC to me, I'm looking for the 4th before this one dies, cant face loosing all my info again.

I would be interested in a low power computer or laptop for use on the boat, the problem is how to make a sensible decision to spec something that's going to be reliable at a reasonable price. These build your own threads start simple then for me get lost in technicalities or to many opinions/alternatives. Currently my thinking is laptop Visitmyharbour charts with AIS, as its reasonable cost plug play

Michael
 
dgadee said:
Linux, OpenCPN, Visit my harbour charts - £29.99?
Click to expand...

I have no direct experience of this but the visitmyharbour web site explicitly states that their charts don't work on Linux. Other than for the west coast of Scotland, I'm not aware of any charts for use with OpenCPN on Linux that are reasonably (ie sub £100) priced. Would be delighted to hear of any which are
 
laika said:
I have no direct experience of this but the visitmyharbour web site explicitly states that their charts don't work on Linux. Other than for the west coast of Scotland, I'm not aware of any charts for use with OpenCPN on Linux that are reasonably (ie sub £100) priced. Would be delighted to hear of any which are
Click to expand...

I see that now - I read it that the demo charts didn't work on Linux.

Of course, with an old laptop perhaps the best thing to do is dump the hardware and use the OS licence ...
 
Beyondhelp said:
How about this:

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3760143
Click to expand...

Just looked at "this" and see it is a discussion about the Raspberry Pi and the possibility of OpenCPN working on it which quickly degenerates into discussion of the difficulties of getting the two to marry. I actually have one sitting on my mantelpiece at the moment, and while it may be interesting for playing about with, seems just a little too limited for a real life nav system. Perhaps I am wrong?
 
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