Rugged Laptops

[Dave]

Ahhh...if I were you, I would talk to a someone at Panasonic before dropping the cash on a Toughbook considering your needs. I'm not sure the Toughbook would be up to the graphic design and photo manipulation work load. Also, you will sacrifice a considerable amount of viewable screen real estate with a Toughbook.

 

[Hanley Noel]

we are taking a Toughbook 51 760 model with us on our adventure. we plan to edit videos, etc. we'll keep everyone posted on the performance.

 

[robert]

Have you thought about just buying a tablet and putting it in an Otterbox case?
http://www.otterbox.com/products/pc_cases/tablet/

Just an idea...

 

[flyingwil]

Here is some more to consider:
http://www.getac.com/pages/home.html
http://www.argonautcomputer.com/1400t_xl.htm
http://www.itronix.com/products/notebooks/gobookiii.asp
http://www.hummerlaptops.com/

 

[cshontz]

I stumbled upon this one on Engadget - sorry if it has already been listed. I see Wil posted a similar link.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/14/itronix-unveils-lightweight-rugged-xr-1-laptop/

 

[flyingwil]

itronix makes some good stuff they also make the Hummer Laptop which is very similar.

 

[preacherman]

Several us gov contractors use these itronix ones

http://www.gd-computing.com/

 

[Robthebrit]

Why not get a semi rugged laptop and a pelican laptop case? They are far more rugged than a panasonic toughbook and you can get anything you like, toughbooks are way behind the curve at the highend and really expensive. You can also remove it from the case when at home so you don't have to sit with a huge brick on your lap.

If you are breaking them while they are in use then this solution may not be for you as the case is obviously open while its in use, but, even when open it has good impact protection but you may be vunerable to water. They have heavier foam than a regular pelican and it fits the lap top as tight as you like, allowing for ventilation. It has little tabs that hold the laptop in should you drop it while it is open.

When its closed your laptop is pretty safe, you can drive over them, throw them in water (they float) and they are completely protected from dust. The auto parking hard disks in toughbooks are nothing special and can be found in Fry's and multiple vendors online.

I guess it really depends on what you are doing with it.

 

[Grim Reaper]

Why not get a semi rugged laptop and a pelican laptop case? They are far more rugged than a panasonic toughbook and you can get anything you like, toughbooks are way behind the curve at the highend and really expensive. You can also remove it from the case when at home so you don't have to sit with a huge brick on your lap.

If you are breaking them while they are in use then this solution may not be for you as the case is obviously open while its in use, but, even when open it has good impact protection but you may be vunerable to water. They have heavier foam than a regular pelican and it fits the lap top as tight as you like, allowing for ventilation. It has little tabs that hold the laptop in should you drop it while it is open.

When its closed your laptop is pretty safe, you can drive over them, throw them in water (they float) and they are completely protected from dust. The auto parking hard disks in toughbooks are nothing special and can be found in Fry's and multiple vendors online.

I guess it really depends on what you are doing with it.

I think where he is seeing the problems is using while rolling. It is pretty rough on the Hard drives.

I am really surprised an affordable storage device is not available without moving parts. Basically a big lump of non volatile ram. They are still quite expensive compared to a conventional hard drive. Make it easily moved so you could take it out plug it into a laptop. In the vehicle have a touch screen mounted up front and wireless keayboard and the processor somewhere else with some A/C ducted to it to keep it cool in the summer.

 

[whitethaiger]

I think where he is seeing the problems is using while rolling. It is pretty rough on the Hard drives.
......

Are there any statistics or at least any anecdotal evidence that this is really a problem?

My regular notebook has over 1000 miles of dirt road travel on it and it's always running OziExplorer, i.e., accessing the disk. I know at least one other person with more miles on theirs.
My older notebook had even more miles on it. The hinges on that one gave up eventually.

 

[Grim Reaper]

Are there any statistics or at least any anecdotal evidence that this is really a problem?

My regular notebook has over 1000 miles of dirt road travel on it and it's always running OziExplorer, i.e., accessing the disk. I know at least one other person with more miles on theirs.
My older notebook had even more miles on it. The hinges on that one gave up eventually.

Well it may not be his problem but that’s a very common problem. The disc spins. The heads bounce on it eventually you either destroy the disc surface or you destroy the heads. That usually shows itself as a sector error.

another killer is moisture causing oxidation on the boards and components.

Yet another problem is temperature cycling causing failures in the solder. Ideally electronics like to live in an environment where it is about 60-65 degrees and dry.

As an example...some idiot in my company decided that their would be big savings if the temperature in our Cell sites was raised to 75 degrees. Sounds harmless doesn't it and huge savings on electric allowing a 5-10 degree increase in temp of a unmanned building. Well that’s fine its 75 degrees at the wall now but the electronics were then running 90-100 degrees instead of 80-90. Amplifiers that had been running for years with no problems started dropping like flies. So at $1500 each on fixed rate repair on just that one unit and their may be as many as 6 in a big site how much did they end up saving? :xxrotflma

Sealing he main board is not hard. Its the processor and the hard drive making heat that need the airflow. The processor is actually and easy fix byt potting it and only having the heat sink and fan exposed. The hard drive is more complicated to seal and then you still have the issue of Vibration.

They are MUCH better then they use to be that’s for sure but there is still big room for improvement on some components.

 

[Robthebrit]

I would like to know if the harddisk really is the problem. I would of thought the general abuse from the environment, dust and dirt cause more problems than bumps. Afterall the initial impact of bumps are somewhat damped by the suspension.

Like I have said before I have a old Sony vaio which has done nearly as many miles in my mog as I have, I have never taken any steps to protect it other than mont it. I even have an external USB harddisk which I used for photo storage when I run out of card space and its not had any problems either.

Rugged drives (instant park on acceleration and impact) are used as OEM equipment in more laptops than you think so check them carefully, try to get the actual drive model and look on the internet. The hard disk in a laptop is easily replaceable so buy a rugged drive and put it in your favorite laptop (do it before you install all your software), they are not expensive, not difficult to find and are used in a lot more places than laptops such as GPS units.

Has anybody had a laptop fail as a direct result of rough driving? Has anybody had mechanical problems such as a screen hinge breaking?

Rob

 

[Grim Reaper]

I would like to know if the harddisk really is the problem. I would of thought the general abuse from the environment, dust and dirt cause more problems than bumps. Afterall the initial impact of bumps are somewhat damped by the suspension.

Like I have said before I have a old Sony vaio which has done nearly as many miles in my mog as I have, I have never taken any steps to protect it other than mont it. I even have an external USB harddisk which I used for photo storage when I run out of card space and its not had any problems either.

Rugged drives (instant park on acceleration and impact) are used as OEM equipment in more laptops than you think so check them carefully, try to get the actual drive model and look on the internet. The hard disk in a laptop is easily replaceable so buy a rugged drive and put it in your favorite laptop (do it before you install all your software), they are not expensive, not difficult to find and are used in a lot more places than laptops such as GPS units.

Has anybody had a laptop fail as a direct result of rough driving? Has anybody had mechanical problems such as a screen hinge breaking?

Rob

I have 53 Field engineers I support and they put a lot of miles on and a lot of them are off road to sites. Some put 20-40k a year on a truck. All have laptops and all have mounts in vehicles because they are used heavily to not only get access to e-mail but to Data log as they drive.

Most are crashing a laptop every 12-24 months. I hear a lot of them say they had to replace the drive as the fix. Most are Compaq or HP’s before they merged and after. The company tries to get 4 years out of them…most rarely make 3. Exact statistics I do not know. How many of these are butter fingers dropping them when out of the vehicle I do not know.

 

[Robthebrit]

That is certainly worth more than my sample of 1!!

Not using them while driving is obviously better but it may not be an option for most.

Rob

 

[whitethaiger]

I have 53 Field engineers I support and they put a lot of miles on and a lot of them are off road to sites. Some put 20-40k a year on a truck. All have laptops and all have mounts in vehicles because they are used heavily to not only get access to e-mail but to Data log as they drive.

Most are crashing a laptop every 12-24 months. I hear a lot of them say they had to replace the drive as the fix. Most are Compaq or HP’s before they merged and after. The company tries to get 4 years out of them…most rarely make 3. Exact statistics I do not know. How many of these are butter fingers dropping them when out of the vehicle I do not know.

That's good info, thanks!

Looks like if one does just a few hundred to 1K miles a year the notebook will last quite a few years.