what type of laptop do you have onboard?

[saildad]

Hello Vikings!
We ( my wonderful sailing girlfriend and I) are looking into buying a laptop that will one day be used on the boat. This will be used for internet access, weather, chart plotting, blogging, etc, etc.
Make & model would be nice. System capacities would be great as well. Opinions, reviews, sneers and jeers are all welcome
Thanks guys & gals
Capt Bill & Tina
ON PORPOISE II
Channel Islands Harbor
Life is good at 70 F

 

[Loren Beach]

Here ya go...

http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/showthread.php?t=4117&highlight=ibook

This is a good thread with lots of commentary on several operating systems and navigation applications.

Best,
Loren
(three year old 14" G4 iBook)

 

[JMCronan]

We use an HP dv6000. It's a good all around computer. I have it connected to the autopilot and other instruments via nmea connections.It runs the chartplotting software and other connections with no problem, which I'm sure would be the same for any new laptop. When we get where we are going we use it to watch movies and connect to the internet. The main drawback is the mount of power it uses. It is by far the biggest "amp hog" on the boat. The other thing that can be annoying at times is the location of the computer at the nav station rather than at the helm. But, for us, the benefits are worth the occasional annoyance.

 

[treilley]

Most any good quality laptop will do. Tend to stay away from the cheapies you can get at the big box electronics stores and places like Staples. Go online and stay with a major brand like HP or Dell. Gateway's are pretty bad. Always go for the business class machines as they are much better built and will put up with more abuse. The best selection is probably the Panasonic Toughbook but they are very expensive. They are what the police use in their cruisers. They stand up to a much higher level of abuse but you will pay for it.

 

[jkm]

I use a MacBook, it's quite fast without all the virus protection a PC has to have.

I use it while in the harbor and over at Catalina. The wireless connection seems to be slightly better than the PCs and if I get a good mooring I can use it while on the boat rather than going ashore.

On occasion I borrow a wireless pod and can use the Mac for the entire 30 mile trip to Catalina. Don't really use it to navigate though-line of site usually does it or the hand held 276.

What a life we have


John

 

[FullTilt E28]

Wife and I bought one of these

http://www.laptop.org/laptop/

$400 pays for two laptops - one goes to a village being set up for wireless internet connection and the kids are all being trained how to use them. We saw this on 60 minutes - amazing story.

So for $400 and $200 tax deductible we will have a very durable - waterproof keyboard - extended range Wifi capable energy effiecient laptop - once we get it we'll be messing around to see what type of nav software we can use with it etc.

On the flip side we used an old - long retired junker on the race boat for our Pacific Cup - used it for Weather Fax - sailmail etc. Worked fine till water condensing on the window above the nav station dripped on the key board and rendered a few important keys usless.

I think the most important thing is determining what your going to use it for then finding the most reliable cheap laptop you can find with that will do the job. Energy efficiency is important - big screens and high powered chips will drain your juice faster than you think.

 

[Ericson27]

I use a G4 Ti powerbook, 2002 and still running fine, latest 0S Tiger.

Don't have an internet account anymore but never had a problem finding an open network

 

[rbonilla]

when you refer to an "open network" do you mean you just boot up and let the laptop "snoop" the airwaves for an open network connection that does not require a key or password?


thanx

I use a G4 Ti powerbook, 2002 and still running fine, latest 0S Tiger.

Don't have an internet account anymore but never had a problem finding an open network

 

[Loren Beach]

Open, i.e. not password protected

Like any sort of RF radiation... the low wattage signal from a WiFi (aka Airport) network transceiver can be picked up by anyone with an antenna in or attached to their personal computer.

When I turn on my iBook, it will show any local networks it is receiving a readable signal from, and then whether or not those networks are "open" for anyone else to use or are protected by a password.

Nowadays it is not uncommon to have 1 to 3 such networks show up when we stop in any little riverside town with our boat.

Even if the connection is weak, I can usually check my email. Surfing the web and thereby loading pictures takes a reasonably strong connection.

Loren

 

[Howard Keiper]

If the water that dripped on your keyboard is, in fact condensation, it's probably not destroyed or even impaired. It's not a common thing to do, but keyboards can actually be run through a dishwasher and, if thoroughly rinsed and dried, will function as though nothing ever happened...except that they'll be clean. That implies of course, that the keyboard is separate from the computer.
Howard Keiper
Sea Quest
Berkeley

 

[Ericson27]

Like any sort of RF radiation... the low wattage signal from a WiFi (aka Airport) network transceiver can be picked up by anyone with an antenna in or attached to their personal computer.

When I turn on my iBook, it will show any local networks it is receiving a readable signal from, and then whether or not those networks are "open" for anyone else to use or are protected by a password.

Nowadays it is not uncommon to have 1 to 3 such networks show up when we stop in any little riverside town with our boat.

Even if the connection is weak, I can usually check my email. Surfing the web and thereby loading pictures takes a reasonably strong connection.

Loren

Exactly, thanks

Also some hotels offer free internet without being pass word protected, one near me I can get a good signal in the parking lot:nerd:

 

[gareth harris]

Another option:

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-VGN-UX380N-Laptop-Processor-Business/dp/B000MJ01LW

I have been watching these awhile, the new models are astronomic when they first come out, but drop to about $1000 after they are superceded.

I bought one for work, with a roll up keyboard, and have found it extremely useful. It does everything a regular computer does, and is an awful lot easier to carry around; in fact it keeps me in touch with the world much of the time when carrying anything larger would be impossible. The batteries last a couple of hours in use. It takes about 5 minutes to turn on with Vista from cold, but if you set it to hibernate it comes on in a few seconds seconds, and the batteries last OK using it that way through the course of a day.

It is something you could carry in the cockpit, unlike most laptops, for hectic navigation, although would be infuriatingly small for any detailed planning. I have not had the chance to try it yet on the boat, those of you who have followed my boat story for a few years will know why, but I plan to set up an outlet for an inverter in the cockpit, and find a suitable waterproof case.

The drawback is that the screen size is only suitable for those with good eyesight.

So far Sony have shown good service for it, although I have not had to contact them much as it has worked perfectly thus far (as most of you know, I have no affiliation... just a Sony short wave radio and a computer, both of which are nicely designed and work well.)

I previously used a regular Dell laptop, which worked pretty well, nothing flashy but sound enough for planning in the cabin. I bought a Pelican case for it. It had some reliability issues, but they were taken care of with the extended service agreement. Dell were not efficient, but they were at least honest. Unlike....

I will never buy anything made by HP ever again, after the way they treated me as a customer. In summary, their phone salesman lied about specs and ultimate price, they threw all sorts of unnecessary red tape into shipping things out and setting up the contract support, the computer broke after a year, their customer service needed things to be faxed to them up to four times before not losing it, their tech help told me after reloading some software 'by the way, this is wiping everything off your hard drive', and their rebate centre stole frome me, in my last conversation basically saying 'we know we were supposed to send you a rebate, but we didn't, and we won't, sorry....'
You will hear me repeat this again, and again, whenever I mention computers - the only way I can gain retribution. It is a shame, since it was otherwise a very nice computer.

Gareth
Freyja E35 #241 1972

 

[Captron]

Laptop

We use a $400 Acer Aspire 3500 running Windows Xp ... it's worked fine for almost three years now. 60 gig hard drive, Celeron 750 meg processor. We run Maptech Ocean Navigator, sat phone with Ocens (for email) keep all our photos on it, play games, watch DVDs, I have installed a Genus USB wifi antenna and card as the Atheros card in the pc doesn't have much range. In the Bahamas this season we were able to use wifi networks up to 2 miles away.

The screen isn't bright enough to use in the cockpit in daylight and the battery is weak but no matter since we keep it plugged in at the nav station anyway. We have a Garmin GPS 76 connected to it via a USB adapter and not connected to the cockpit or autopilot. Our old Gamin cockpit GPS is interfaced to the radar but not the autopilot. Works for us but my nav station is a tangle of wires behind the pc.

I have a velcro strap rigged up to keep the pc on the desk. It's oriented such that the screen can be seen from the main hatch.

 

[FredW]

On board Laptop

I'm using a Dell Inspiron wide screen, mostly because it's good for evening movie watching. I have downloaded the free SeaClear nav software and tried it out on a trip up the West Coast of Vancouver Island last summer. Worked great! I run the laptop using a small inverter, and find it draws about 3.5 amps when running. I wired in a serial port on the nav station and connected my external GPS antenna to it, then to the laptop with a serial/USB cable.
Fred.