Marine Computers

[sneuman]

I picked up an old Panasonic Toughbook (CF-38) on Ebay without RAM, HDD or OS. The idea was to use this in the cockpit, but I jumped in at the last minute and didn't get the part about the missing parts I mentioned above. I was wondering if there's anyway to a) slave it to another laptop down below or b) install HDD, RAM and Windows XP for a reasonable price.

I got it cheaply, so if it was just a bonehead move on my part, I can eat it.

[Chipg]

The best SSD's can withstand 1,500 G's of shock / vibration, others 600+ G's. One of my laptops was in 6" of water for hours, it was toast but the SSD worked after dryng out, no data loss. I have lost many hard drives from dropping laptops and in extreme conditions, never lost a SSD drive.

It just comes down to how important your data is and how much reliability you want. Regular hard drives are fine for most people who are carefull with them but why not eliminate the weak link if you can for another $100.

[Not Sure]

Originally Posted by sneuman

I picked up an old Panasonic Toughbook (CF-38) on Ebay without RAM, HDD or OS. The idea was to use this in the cockpit, but I jumped in at the last minute and didn't get the part about the missing parts I mentioned above. I was wondering if there's anyway to a) slave it to another laptop down below or b) install HDD, RAM and Windows XP for a reasonable price.

I got it cheaply, so if it was just a bonehead move on my part, I can eat it.

Why not just retrofit it with an SSD drive, some RAM, and an OS? (Assuming that the rest of the toughbook hasn't already been beaten to death.) Panasonic Toughbooks are able to use regular harddrives because they use proprietary designs to cushion and shock-protect the drives inside, much like they did back in the day with the first portable/lugable 286's. Anyone remember the Compaq 286 lugable computers? LOL!

[colemj]

Originally Posted by sneuman

I picked up an old Panasonic Toughbook (CF-38) on Ebay without RAM, HDD or OS. The idea was to use this in the cockpit, but I jumped in at the last minute and didn't get the part about the missing parts I mentioned above. I was wondering if there's anyway to a) slave it to another laptop down below or b) install HDD, RAM and Windows XP for a reasonable price.

I got it cheaply, so if it was just a bonehead move on my part, I can eat it.

If you can get an inexpensive copy of Windows CE, you could use remote desktop to connect to a computer below wirelessly. The computer below is then completely controllable and displayed from above. That is what we do with our Panasonic CF-08 tablet. You will need the "professional" version of Windows on the below deck computer, as this is the only version with remote desktop control.

Mark