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Hardware

Durable, Shockproof Computing? 22

Posted by Cliff from the look-ma!-no-moving-parts dept.
trefoil asks: "My friend's father is a farmer who has to tend to his huge wheat fields for most of the day. He is looking for an option to have a full computer system on his tractor, however it bumps and jostles around a lot. He was curious as to what type of options besides pda's does he have, for something that can 'take a beating and keep on ticking'. Specifically what we're looking for is something shockproof, hopefully not to expensive, the less "moving parts" the better. Any ideas out there?" If such a solution does not exist that's exact to the one described here, how close can today's market get to a sturdy computing solution that could handle life on the road...or farm?
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Durable, Shockproof Computing? More

Durable, Shockproof Computing?

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  • I spoke to a long haul truker about a week ago, who in additions to some of his friends, take their computers along with them in their semis. Suprizingly enough they leave them on all the time too(!) A few useful tips I picked up were:

    -Use the older NEC monitors over other brands, supposedly they are a little more forviging and wont degaus every few seconds like others

    -Quantium drives are better about seeking and reading when the drive is moving about, normaly I dont recommend quantium, but from this guys personal experinces with drives going out once a month I would

    On a side note, I might also recommend laptop harddrives in your PC, over in our electronics department we have some laptop->IDE converters, if anyone is interested I can track down where they came from.

    -mikey
  • The police use mounting brackets to protect their laptops against jostling about.

    In my city, they use NEC Versa notebooks with the state wireless network to exchange information with HQ. They don't get damaged too much, although I would definately pick up the extended warranty program from the vendor (NOT a computer store)

    The trick is to protect that screen. If the laptop doesn't physically fall, everything should be ok, at least for a year or two.

    • We don't use laptops per say in the patrol car - there is a touch screen bolted to the dash (in the middle over the a/c vents) and the CPU is bolted inside the glove box. The keyboard is velcroed to the floor unless in use. These systems are called "data911" or at least that's all I can see stamped on the case. Other departments (Brevard County Sheriff) in the county do use laptops on mounting stands but they are ruggedized laptops that seem to cost more and be older technology. You can find ads for these systems in marine publications or police/fire catalogs. Personally I like the method we use because the laptop stand tends get in the way of anyone in the passenger seat (its hard enough to get in and out of the car with the collection of stuff on the belt). With the screen right in the middle of the dash its easy to glance at when your at a stop light or on a call without having to turn sideways.
  • Maybe a CE-based PDA mounted to the dashboard.

    The small touchscreen would be handy and the device is solid-state so shouldn't be affected too badly by all the wobblin' around.

  • Panasonic Toughbook! (Score:3, Informative)

    by c.r.o.c.o ( 123083 ) on Thursday November 01, 2001 @02:20PM (#2508013)
    Definitely, he has to get a Panasonic Toughbook.

    It's the most rugged laptop I've ever heard of (forget those titanium cased G4s, or anything else). When they came out with it, the demo unit was running under a constant stream of water pouring on the keyboard and the display. And by running I mean turned on, booted into Windows and running some demo software.

    It's rated to widthstand a drop of about 3 ft on a hard floor. I don't know if it's operating drop or turned off, but it's still pretty impressive. It has a magnezium case, and the nice touch is the built-in handle. Also, all the components are encased into a special gel, that allows it to be dropped from the aforementioned height.

    I don't know in the US, but here in Toronto (Canada) the Police cruisers are all equipped with Toughbooks.

    So those are the advantages. The drawback is that because their construction they can't really be upgraded. Then again, I'm not sure what kind of performance one needs while driving farm equipment. But I'm guessing Quake3 or RTCF are not among the requirements.

    • The only problem with Toughbooks is that they are still shipping with Pentium I chips, and still cost like $5000

      • Re:Panasonic Toughbook! (Score:2, Informative)

        by Zurk ( 37028 )
        no. mine has a pentium - 3 at 700 MHz or so and i bought it for $1400 off ebay. the only problem is that no repair shop will touch em if some small part fails and you dont have a service contract.
      • duffbear703 wrote:
        The only problem with Toughbooks is that they are still shipping with Pentium I chips, and still cost like $5000

        PIII 600MHz Toughbook, $1700 [comark.com]:

        nb
    • i have a panasonic toughbook. actually its easy to upgrade. once you open up the case its a snap to get at everything other than the floppy drive.
      that said - its got a neomagic video which sucks (no 3D accel), a LCD screen which is completely sealed (which means if the backlight goes, like it did in mine after 8 months - you replace a $800 LCD -- get a COMPREHENSIVE SERVICE CONTRACT and keep it since no repair shop will touch em) and finally the hard drive is a regular fujitsu encase in gel which means it wont stand up to the shocks. A good solution might be a toughbook with one or more flash cards for the OS and files and the hard disk removed..the flash card will fit into the 2 PCMCIA slots in the toughbook. and it takes upto 768MB of RAM.
  • You might try either

    Citadel Computers [citadelcomputer.com] or
    Glacier Computers [glaciercomputer.com]

    These systems are designed to be used in industrial applications, including fork lift mounted. They can be ordered with a flash disk of up to a gig, waterproof, freezer proof, et al. My company has been using them for years. They will live up to just about anything. They are not, however, cheap.

  • 1) Use a LCD screen instead of a CRT
    2) Prefer either laptop drives (decent) or CompactFlash. CompactFlash will require you to run Linux (is that a bad thing? ;) ) unless you want to spend a LOT on storage. Laptop drives are generally rated to work in a bumpy car/truck ride, so they may work. Desktop drives just aren't up for it. CompactFlash will work until you drop the thing hard enough to break it.3) Try to get an AGP card that has a retention mechanism.4) Make sure that everything's properly screwed in.
    5) Filter your airflow, so you don't need to wory about too much dust clogging your fans.

  • Tractor, eh? (Score:3, Informative)

    by technos ( 73414 ) on Thursday November 01, 2001 @05:07PM (#2509230) Homepage Journal
    I don't see why you couldn't just pick up an old laptop.

    1. You have 12v/6v, so you can run an inverter. No more battery life prob.

    2. If you're wanting a damn PC, it's probably a closed cabin or plastic sleeved or similar. It'll be fine, aside from mebbe squeezing some silicone around the inside of the case where it meets the screen (thin, and let it dry first!) and around the case seams. Or a nice thick bit of poly over the keys.

    3. Vibration.. Hmmm.. I've had laptop drives stand months and months in car trunks running. I've seen standard Toshiba laptop makes used for data collection on mining equipment. You'll be fine.
  • Are you looking to buy this system or build it from parts? If you're looking to buy, you might want to check out Dolch [dolch.com].

  • The best bet is something all solid-state, without a fragile hard drive. I don't know much about the different options there, but I can give you a list of some of the popular models that are essentially ruggedized laptops (though some are tablet form, you can attach keyboards). Panasonic Toughbook [google.com], Hammerhead [google.com], Itron [google.com], Psion [google.com], Microslate [google.com], Itronix [google.com].
  • He's probably got a computer back at the farm house or main building or whatever, so as long as the tractor is going to be used only on that farm wouldn't he be better off with something wireless with a screen and keyboard, but leave the hard drive back home? He certainly doesn't need to have the computer with all the farm's records on it out on a tractor with all the attendant risks, he just needs to be able to connect to that computer from the tractor. Unless the tractor computer is going to be used for the latest FPS's and such also :-)
  • This might be a good place for a thin client (you might even try a defunct web appliance). Get a LCD screen, a fanless thin client and some wireless networking equipment.
    You could mount a nice omni antenna on top the tractor and run from the server nice and safe in the office. No dust problems(except wiping the screen). Backup is not an issue.

  • the first question is always what is the goal?

    the next is can the farmer controll the equipment while playing with the compute? this of course depends on the task, Quake is going to be a lot more difficult than if the comtpuer is connected to data collection to get your current yields.

    Most farmers work land close to their house and up to several miles away. What is his case? If all the land is around his house than 802.11(x) with good antennas will reach the tractor. If the latter, than get the neightbors involved if you want networking. In these days I don't think it pays to have a computer without networking.

  • I used to work for a company that sold them, and I must say that they live up to there name. Some of them have built in wireless networking available. Get yourself a nice mount and your in business (or farming as the case may be). If you need a good resource for it drop me a line and I can put you in touch....
  • Is what will the computer be used for?

    Think about it - are you sure it is really necessary to have a computer on the tractor? I am certain it can be done, but is there really anything done while in the tractor that couldn't wait until the end of the day?

    What I am thinking about is a hands free system - something like a compact flash based MP3 voice recorder with a directional mike headset. Speak what you see, or what you need to do later, then at the end of the day, transfer the notes to the main computer. Such a system would be cheap, durable, and reliable, and wouldn't take your focus off the task at hand (which should be driving the tractor, unless you have one of those fancy GPS/automated tractors - which if you did, why are you asking about such a thing here?).

    Not everything needs to be solved with a computer right in front of you, especially when you consider the needs and issues at hand...

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