Mini-ITX instead of laptop

claymore

claymore

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Just considering putting together a mini-itx to replace my laptop.
They can be run of 12v so no need for an inverter. No fan in some of them thus reducing power consumption and the are small so I could make it a home somewhere protected from the elements. Thinking of getting a tft flatscreen for improved picture of charts and using a waterproof keyboard
Has anyone else considered them?
 
Yep, great minds think alike..am considering exactly the same thing.
About to retire my old Sony 233 (1998 Vintage) laptop. Poor old thing struggles these days to run Maxsea with the weather overlays and gizmos. It's maxed out on memory at 128MB so not a lot else I can do.
Cost isnt that great. CPC do 12v ITX cases for about 40 quid and complete ITX motherboards complete with CPU etc inc serial ports for about £85 ish. Just buy DRAM...er Memory to you, not the peat flavoured elixir.
These as you say run on 12v and draw about 4.5 amps.

One issue is Hard drive.
I'm minded to go for a laptop drive as these are more rugged than the standard desktop types.
I havent looked to see if you can get an adaptor lead to fit them into a standard IDE yet...so hopefully.
If not a standard drive mounted between layers of foam or something will probably do.
TFT screens are cheap these days. PC world had a pile at about £85 a few months ago.
Total cost for a new ITX system well below that of a new laptop I reckon, with the added bonus that I wont have to bu*ger around with serial to USB converters.
You try finding a new laptop with a serial port these days to run the autopilot.

Steve.
 
Have a chat with "jimbuoy" as he has made a few of these with the purpose of marine use. Found teh smaller screens (8") are not really up to the task for chartwork. Need a decent screen 12" and upwards that works from 12v. Also need a large boat size. I have tried them on my Vega (27') and found the purpose built plotter far superior but certainly not as versatile. The Mini-ITX is a good PC and even use them as my office PC. I think the board was the M7000 but I stand to be corrected. Cheers
 
yes, you can get cables to convert 2.5" drives to standard ide cables, www.linitx.com is a good place to look, they even do mini-itx boards with SATA interfaces now, so you get the benefit of fsater drives, normal 2.5" drives are pretty slow. I'm not sure that a standard 12" screen would be any good on a boat mainly due to its poor quality in daylight conditions.
 
I emailed the mini itx people about using one on a boat, they warned against using it when the batteries are being charged as they have had reports of damage when run off 13-14v. Maybe they have added something to the internal power supply though as I see people on the site are using them in cars.
 
Yes, I am using one of these small shoeboxes. It is a Sumicom S300 with a Celeron 400MHz, 500MB of RAM, 60GB harddisk and no fan. It does look slow on paper, but it is more than enough to handle the onboard tasks like electronic charting and HF fax reception, and guess what, it draws only about 1 amp under 12 volts and does not suffer when charging the batteries. Screen is a 14" TFT accepting 12 volt power (draws about 1.5 amps).
 
I didn't quite build a mini ITX but a Shuttle - all the bits came to under £200. Only expensive extra was the 300W 12v PSU which I had to get from the US. Also picked up a 14" tft screen for peanuts - one of the ones with an external 220v to 12v DC transformer that people don't like. Just chuck the transformer away. Perfect for chartplotting and you can play mp3s and watch DVDs on board as well.
 
thought these things were cute but a decent dell laptop is £600, which comes with all the bits fitted and working, and with low power wifi cpu + maximum energy saving will consume not a lot more power than an ITX + screen ...

with a dell, you can buy a 12v DC-DC power supply which seem to be very much more efficient than AC-DC converter.

I did, though, wonder about the small screen which seemed to be capable of being driven by wifi. If that was waterproof, I could keep the laptop down below and have the diddy little screen in cockpit showing charts etc or latest DVD whilst trundling along.

However, given the size of yer patio, there's space there for latest 42" big screen and with new heating and air-con on the auld tub you could go the last mile and kit yersel with usherette's uniform and dole out ra icecreams ....
 
Sorry to say it .... but JIm and I have been with ITX for quite a while and explored all possibilities with them ...

They are excellent - but it is always the display that will let you down - as you cannot get a marine-suitable display at sensible price.

In fact the problem of display has been so acute - that Jim and I have temp. reverted to Notebooks again ...
 
champ, what do you mean by "marine suitable display"? If you are talking about one of these industrial IP something models, yes they are out of reach for many wallets. I am using a standard commercial display (cost about EUR 300) which has been prepared by the dealer (circuit boards and connectors protected), and it does its job quite well. I would be more worried by potential keyboard and mouse problems. When things go wet, I use a waterproof keyboard and mouse.
 
Displays ....

Not everyone has a wheelhouse / pilot-house to mount their screen - but near everyone wants visible screen from cockpit ... This is where the displays let you down. Truly waterproof displays are very expensive and out of reasonable economics ....

I agree that many over counter screens can do the job - but for example on Jim or my boat - we would be looking to replace water-damaged too often.

True Marine PC's do not exist ..... all the versions seen in chandlers / adverts so far have been standard desktop / notebooks with labels .... IOHO .....
 
Re: Displays ....

I understand your problem with the display being outside. The best solution would be a 12" XGA Datalux display, but it costs about 1500 Euros. As for my setup, I have the screen on the chart table wall and it stays there. As a result, the chances of it getting a load of water are indeed quite remote. In the cockpit, I am using a small Garmin chart plotter, connected to the PC. I do the planning on the PC and load the data on the Garmin, which is then used to navigate. Underway, the PC is mostly used to get weather data (HF Fax, RTTY or Navtex)
 
Re: Displays ....

you can get a decent used Panasonic Toughtbook with a transreflective screen for £300-£400. Might be worth looking at. Another option might be a tablet PC, very compact and neat and available cheapish off eBay. Ideally the Xplore tablet, although the ones with full sunlight readable displays are much more expensive.
 
Re: Displays ....

[ QUOTE ]
True Marine PC's do not exist

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh, right ho Nigel. So the computers we're making here for use on open boats which are IP67 rated (waterproof to 1m immersion) and ruggedised with sunlight viewable transflective TFT screens are just a figment of my imagination, then?
 
I\'m talking for the man in street .....

Not pro use ....

Blimey - it's you again .... This forum I assume usually is talking non-professionally and about gear for average boats - not Seismic or other pro stuff.

Of course there are sets that are IP67 - but are they produced to market to the average AWB / MAB ............... not likely as most would run a mile when they see the price ....

AND if you had read all my posts properly - I did mention pro / military stuff ....

When do you get off your box Tome .... or does someone regularly put the proverbial right boot up your ....... and that makes you post so .... Again I shall leave you to sit and grin - thinking you are so bl.....y smart.

Byeeeeeeee !
 
Re: I\'m talking for the man in street .....

[ QUOTE ]
AND if you had read all my posts properly

[/ QUOTE ]

Jeez Nigel, there are only so many hours in a day
 
Re: I\'m talking for the man in street .....

They're not available in caravan shops then Tome?

{The debbil made me say it /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif}

John
 
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