Some Toughbooks have transreflective screens and/or very bright backlights. http://www.ebay.com/itm/OEM-Black-Panasonic-Toughbook-CF-30-Touchscreen-GPS-160GB-DVDCDRW-Extras-/322332887225?hash=item4b0c8988b9:g:vLcAAOSw7XZXiAve This one has a 1000 NIT screen (very bright) and built in GPS. Joe Coquina
From: CnC-List [mailto:cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com] On Behalf Of Marek Dziedzic via CnC-List Sent: Monday, November 21, 2016 23:08 To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com Cc: Marek Dziedzic <dziedzi...@hotmail.com> Subject: Re: Stus-List 12 volt desktop computer You hardly ever need 90 W; that is for charging the battery _and_ running the computer. Most of the time you should be fine with about 20 W (this is what I measured on a number of occasions when I really wanted to know), but this is still double what your Pi 3 draws. If you are into that old laptops, you can easily have a Toughbook for about $300 (or even less). Btw. Toughbooks, at least the ones I used in the past, had terrible screens. If you complain about iPads in the sun, forget about the Toughbook. You should have a nicely dimmed room to be able to read the screen correctly. But they had the touch screen for decades. Marek From: CnC-List [mailto:cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com] On Behalf Of Josh Muckley via CnC-List Sent: Monday, November 21, 2016 13:30 To: C&C List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com<mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com>> Cc: Josh Muckley <muckl...@gmail.com<mailto:muckl...@gmail.com>> Subject: Re: Stus-List 12 volt desktop computer Joe, I totally agree and understand about the cost of a screen bringing the project to a halt. FYI a Raspberry Pi can be set up to be "headless" (ie: no screen). When you need to see the system you can use any device (cell phone, laptop, tablet) to remote desktop in. My original use for the Pi was to multiplex my nmea 0183 signals. This quickly grew to include receiving AIS and backing up the GPS input. When the new Pi 3 came out my needs grew again to including running OpenCPN. The latest price for a Raspberry Pi 3 is $35 and you can do all of the aforementioned activities. The biggest reason to use a Pi over a laptop is power draw. The Pi 3 max draw is 2.5A@5v=12.5w<mailto:2.5A@5v=12.5w>. Thus 1amp@12v. My laptop power supply is 90w. Thus 7.5A@12v<mailto:7.5A@12v>. The laptop draws 7.5 times as much power to do all the same functions. With the Pi, I can leave it running full time and then use a laptop/tablet/cell phone for a few moments and then leave it in hibernate/standby until the next time I need it. This amounts to a considerable power savings. Josh Muckley S/V Sea Hawk 1989 C&C 37+ Solomons, MD On Nov 21, 2016 12:01 PM, "Della Barba, Joe via CnC-List" <cnc-list@cnc-list.com<mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com>> wrote: 2 year old! HA! My boat laptop is from 1999 – an IBM Thinkpad 600E. It has a wonderful sharp display and can run on straight 12 volt input. I do have the car adapter that feeds it 16 volts or so to keep the battery up, but I can do without it. It does nothing else but run OpenCPN. It has W98SE on it and NOTHING else but OpenCPN. It never ever connects to the internet, plays games, or anything else. This has proven to be very reliable for years now. Every time I look at a Raspberry PI or Mini-ITX box or anything else not a laptop, the expense of a decent screen brings the project to a halt. It just doesn’t make sense with so many laptops around for cheap. This is my happy hunting ground for cheap laptops, www.pcretro.com<http://www.pcretro.com>. $250 or so is more than enough budget for a boat PC unless you want to find a Panasonic Toughbook, which would likely be more. I did manage to score a 2016 CMAP cartridge for the East Coast for $90 on Fleabay, so I am going to get my Standard-Horizon 180 plotter set up at the helm. My biggest complaints about PC navigation are the power consumed and not having it at the helm. Hopefully I’ll get waypoints transferring correctly so I can lay out my course on the PC and send it up to the SH plotter. Joe Coquina C&C 35 MK I
_______________________________________________ This list is supported by the generous donations of our members. If you wish to make a contribution to offset our costs, please go to: https://www.paypal.me/stumurray All Contributions are greatly appreciated!
