netbook for nav?

[MM5AHO]

Which small laptop or netbook would be most suitable for navigation software (GPS to charts etc) at lowest cost second hand?
Are any particularly rugged?
I know toughbooks etc very rugged, but too expensive.
Any netbooks more rugged than normal?

 

[aluijten]

Netbooks are cheap because of two things. Small screen and cheap CPU. Most navigation software has little hardware demands so CPU is no a real problem. What I found to be the most annoying problem is the screensize/resolution.
A resolution of 1024*600 drives you nuts because many programs assume a minimum of 1024*768. Especially the height can cause the OK button for some dialog boxes to fall off the screen.

So a netbook on itself is fine, but do try to get one with a resolution of minimum 1280*800 or so.
Problem is these are hard to find and a bit more expensive.
In general Netbooks are not build more rugged. It's mostly because they are small that they 'feel' sturdier.
I've got a Asus eee netbook for a few years now, but I will probably not use it on the boat anymore. Mostly because of the screen.

 

[fishermantwo]

Which small laptop or netbook would be most suitable for navigation software (GPS to charts etc) at lowest cost second hand?
Are any particularly rugged?
I know toughbooks etc very rugged, but too expensive.
Any netbooks more rugged than normal?

I've used two Toshiba's so far. Don't bother with netbooks the screens are too small, you may as well use a plotter if your only after a small screen. Buy a 16 inch screen laptop of your choice off eBay with preferably XP loaded. 16 inch is the most common size used by business so there are thousands out there. Concentrate on the screen type, the glossy high definition sort that displays pictures well. Bigger the screen the better!

My Toshiba sits in a timber cradle on the chart table, battery removed and run off the ships supply. I can read the screen easily from my normal steering position in the cockpit.

 

[maby]

Consider swapping the mechanical hard disk for a solid state drive. It's the disk that is the most fragile component and most likely to fail when it's bounced around in a heavy sea.

 

[OGITD]

Cheap Laptops

Have a look at these guys.

 

[VicMallows]

Consider swapping the mechanical hard disk for a solid state drive. It's the disk that is the most fragile component and most likely to fail when it's bounced around in a heavy sea.

Have you actually had one fail .... that you can definitely attribute to 'being at sea'?

Vic

 

[Ex-SolentBoy]

iPad
iPad
iPad
Ipad

 

[SlimRick]

I will have a second hand CF-T5 toughbook for sale in a week or so. I use one on my boat with a maplins 12v adapter and a USB gps.


Sorry for the "Spam"

 

[lustyd]

Have you actually had one fail .... that you can definitely attribute to 'being at sea'?

Vic

+1
Google did a study (as the largest consumer of hard drives globally) and found that the following do not cause disk failure:
Heat (up to a point, obviously)
Humidity
Vibration
G-Force (within spec - this is something like 40G though usually)
Hours of operation
Age

What did have a correlation though was batch number. They concluded that your drive would either fail fairly soon, or it would go on for many years but it was always build quality at fault. This is the research that lead to the change to a 5 year warranty on hard drives.

 

[Heckler]

Which small laptop or netbook would be most suitable for navigation software (GPS to charts etc) at lowest cost second hand?
Are any particularly rugged?
I know toughbooks etc very rugged, but too expensive.
Any netbooks more rugged than normal?

I have had 300 of the below high spec netbook made available to sell for today only. This is the best value netbook I have had in a long time so stock will move quickly. If you are interested then let me know asap.



SAMSUNG

BLACK - INTEL ATOM DC N570 1GB 320GB INTERGRATED GRAPHICS CAM 10.1" WIN 7 STARTER

NP-NC110-A03UK

Cost £185

http://www.GetTheSpec.com/getdata.a...A&id=D056A0D5-AA71-423C-80B2-880FB735119F&s=0

I had this this morning from my supplier, its plus vat and post of course.
Stu

 

[Roberto]

Which small laptop or netbook would be most suitable for navigation software (GPS to charts etc) at lowest cost second hand?
Are any particularly rugged?
I know toughbooks etc very rugged, but too expensive.
Any netbooks more rugged than normal?

I have a Samsung NC10, used on the boat for more than two years, Opencpn, RMSExpress/Airmail, weatherfax, etc, very light to bring ashore for wifi hunting, 6+ hours on the battery, no idea how many pixels in the display but it has never been a problem.

Very happy with it, I will buy a second one as a backup, probably the newer version of the same model.

 

[HunterWanderer]

I've got a Samsung N150.
Works well on OpenCPN ,Winlink for gribs and emails and Nasa AIS. and Tiki navigator tested Ok but no AIS so didn't buy.
Its waterproof if you put it in a bag. I've got a zip up freezer bag if I need to take it into the cockpit.
10 hour battery life is more like 6 but still OK
Take ashore to use wifi etc

 

[RobbieW]

Google did a study (as the largest consumer of hard drives globally) and found that the following do not cause disk failure:
Heat (up to a point, obviously)
Humidity
Vibration
G-Force (within spec - this is something like 40G though usually)
Hours of operation
Age
....

Can you post a link to the study please? Questions in my mind include what sort of hard drives and where were the ones studied installed. Google would seem to use mainly ones installed in controlled (machine room) environments?

I have certainly lost one hard drive to vibration on a delivery of an X41xx, centre engine close to the chart table. I also lost a hard drive on a transat to unkown causes.

I now use a pair of Panasonic CF-73s (one for backup), specifically because the harddrives are in a vibration resistant carrier. Theres currently one on eBay at £169. I've had mine in hard use for 4+ years now.

 

[LadyInBed]

iPad
iPad

S/H HP2133 does a job

Netbooks . . . What I found to be the most annoying problem is the screensize/resolution.
A resolution of 1024*600 drives you nuts because many programs assume a minimum of 1024*768. Especially the height can cause the OK button for some dialog boxes to fall off the screen.

Agreed. This HP can handle 1280x720 & 1280x768 both run OpenCPN ok

Edit: Forgot to add that you do need good eyesight and some screens suffer from external light reflection.

 

[Danny]

Consider swapping the mechanical hard disk for a solid state drive. It's the disk that is the most fragile component and most likely to fail when it's bounced around in a heavy sea.

Any users with questionable (or possibly illegal) tastes in recorded media, or who have pirated charts or software, should note that erasing data securely can be a problem with SSD drives.

 

[VicMallows]

Any users with questionable (or possibly illegal) tastes in recorded media, or who have pirated charts or software, should note that erasing data securely can be a problem with SSD drives.

Why? As long as you overwrite the entire data area I can't see why there would be any difference to a magnetic medium? Arguably it might even be more secure - I have read suggestions that forensic analysis can theoretically recover magnetic media after one or two rewrites .

Vic

 

[V1701]

I have a Samsung with Open CPN/CM93 as back-up to chart plotter. Only thing I would add to the above is if you do go for a netbook get one with a matt rather than a glossy screen as less light reflection, still can't view it in sunlight though. (I would have one with a solid state hard drive if it was my primary system)...

 

[Danny]

Why? As long as you overwrite the entire data area I can't see why there would be any difference to a magnetic medium? Arguably it might even be more secure - I have read suggestions that forensic analysis can theoretically recover magnetic media after one or two rewrites .

Vic

Assuming it's using flash memory (rather than dram) it cannot be directly overwritten! New writes have to be written to previously "erased" areas. This means that your secure erasure program, which "overwrites" the data you want erased, actually writes to a different physical location. The original data is still there untouched. With the right tools it's still readable. It will only get overwritten when the flash translation layer logic within the SSD decides to use that logical data block again.

 

[VicMallows]

It will only get overwritten when the flash translation layer logic within the SSD decides to use that logical data block again.

OK. I was looking at it from the perspective of completely erasing the SSD (as when disposing/reloading the O/S ). I guess most people would want to retain the operating system and other data

Vic

 

[Mistroma]

If I remember correctly, flash memory doesn't hold up to repeated re-writes as well as magnetic media. So the controller tries to avoid turning the same "bit" on and off repeatedly. i.e. Uses most recently used space last. However, if you write enough data to fill a device in one pass then it must use all available space.

So that should prevent snooping. I don't know if "layers of data" can be recovered in similar fashion to magnetic media but I doubt it (due to the method used)).

Of course normal hard disk deletion & re-writing doesn't guarantee erasure either. Normal process is just to clear the directory entry and mark relevant parts of the disk as available for use again. However, it is highly likely that deleted data will persist for quite a long time in normal use.

It is possible to use specialised equipment to read data that's been deleted and deliberately overritten a few times. The process uses analogue rather than digital hardware at a very low level. Ages since I looked at this but I could probably dig out the information about how it works.

PS When would you be likely to be worried about your PC being searched for pirated charts etc. Is this sort of thing common when sailing abroad? Never heard of that but doesn't mean it won't happen. It would involve quite a lot of work (especially as clued up people would use encrypted partitions.