The XO Computer for Navigation

[Jim St.Pierre]

Hi again Paul, I am a bit confused, hahahahaha you mentioned the "Alfa 500mW USB wireless-G Wifi adapter" also the "Engenius 2408 omni antenna" are these both antennas??? do I need both of them.??? Also, what if the computer has built in wifi, do I or can I disable it, or do I need to... Sorry for these questions but I really have no idea and need a pros help, such as your experence in this matter.....Thanks again..

[phiggins]

Jim St.Pierre,

The "Alfa 500mW is a little USB adapter that plugs into a USB port and gives you wireless. You can use it on its own with the antenna that comes with ii but works so much better with the large Engenius 2408 omni antenna. You also will need the connector cable between the two which they refer to in the other thread as a pigtail. Here it is:

CompuNation - External Product Link: STARTECH, NRPSMA1MM

And beacuse this cable is so short, it really helps to have an USB extension cable of about 10 feet so you can mount the antenna as high as possible. I got the Enfenius, the pigtail and the usb extension cable at :

Shark Systems - Computer Hardware and Electronics Superstore

At I got the Alpha 500 on ebAY.

I you have an internal Wifi you can run it at the same time as the Alpha but I usually switch it off. You just have to select which wifi you are using if you have both.

[Jim St.Pierre]

Hi Paul, Thank YOU Very much, I will order them this week and let you know how I made out. I disslike doing something blindly, usually ends up costing me lots more. Thanks for all you help Paul.......Jim

[phiggins]

Well I hate to say this but I've gone back to the dark side....

I happened to aquire an Acer Aspire 8.9" Intel Atom N270 Netbook computer running XP home edition. After I checked it out, I think its a much better computer than the XO at least as far as running the applications that I have like SeaClear and openCPN. It has 1Gig memory plus a 160Gig hard drive. It cost $250 from FutureShop. The screen is very readble and it has really nice keyboard. It has 3 USB ports and VGA output so I can connect it to the TV to watch movies.

So I replaced my XO at the navigation station with the Acer. I'm going to keep the XO at the helm because I think its a much more rugged than the Acer and better sunlight viewable.

C'est La Vie

[Maren]

Originally Posted by phiggins

So I replaced my XO at the navigation station with the Acer. I'm going to keep the XO at the helm because I think its a much more rugged than the Acer and better sunlight viewable.

How is its power consumption compared to the XO?

[idpnd]

I'm mildly disgusted phiggins! Linux is always an option though..

[phiggins]

idpnd, I know its terrible, I feel so bad, but its really better. I knew I'd disgust a lot of linux lovers.

Maren, That's something I've been trying to find out. When I try to measure the current its using connected to an inverter its always zero as I guess its running off its battery. I could wait until it charges the battery but that wouldn't be a fair measurement of what it uses normally. I looked at its documentation but it doesn't specify how much it uses.

Well in one week I'm sailing south with the XO at the helm and the Acer at the nav so when this trip is over I'll let you know more on which is better...God willing..

Cheers,

[barnakiel]

Hi,

I have posted this as a separate thread, but the message clearly relates to our discussion here:

".....

Samsung has announced they will make and sell laptops with OLED sceens within a year. According to the release: "...OLED has several advantages over conventional LCD screens, including higher brightness and contrast, better color representation and lower power consumption..."

Following LG's decision to deliver 15 inch OLED screens later this year we might hope the new technology will be promptly adopted into many boat's nav and entertainment systems.

Samsung says OLED notebooks due in one year | Electronista

Cheers,
b.

..."

[Jim St.Pierre]

Hello Paul, Update here on the computer and wifi. I have received the Omni 5 mile antenna, I have tracked my computer (UPS) should be here 09/11/09. I can't wait to get it on board and try it out. I wll keep everyone informed of my progress/sucess.... Thanks for all you help... Jim

[phiggins]

I just took my boat out and anchored about 1 mile away from the wifi at the marina and the antenna worked great. Even the Magic Jack worked and I made a telephone call on it.

[phiggins]

Just an update: I sailed my 35' sailboat from Toronto to Cuba. I had the XO computer at the helm running Linux and Seaclear under Wine. At the navigation station I had the Acer notebook running XP and SeaClear. Both have seperate BU-353 GPSs but share an AIS input from an SR-161.

I found that the XO would often lockup and needed to be rebooted. Sometimes it wouldn't reboot and and I had to go to the backup XO and later recopy the complete system back onto the SD card of the failed XO . Later I decided to use the linux version of openCPN instead of SeaClear and found it to be much more stable. It would very occassionally just disappear but started right back again.

We had a very rough crossing from Marathon to Varadero Cuba acoss the gulfstream and I forgot to stow the XO. We were getting waves breaking through the cockpit and the XO got soaked. After drying it out later, it started working again but only briefly. Now it won't even come on. So now I only have the spare XO.

I plan to leave for Mexico from Cuba soon and then south to Belize and Guatemala. I don't have BSB charts for this area only paper charts that I have scanned into SeacLear and also Google Earth pictures calibrated on SeaClear so I'll have to try SeaClear again on the XO.

The Acer notebook has worked flawlessly at the navigation table. Sometimes I run concurrently multiple nav programs, SeaClear, Fugawi and openCPN on it and works fine.

[Maren]

Originally Posted by phiggins

Just an update: I sailed my 35' sailboat from Toronto to Cuba. I had the XO computer at the helm running Linux and Seaclear under Wine. At the navigation station I had the Acer notebook running XP and SeaClear. Both have seperate BU-353 GPSs but share an AIS input from an SR-161.

We had a very rough crossing from Marathon to Varadero Cuba acoss the gulfstream and I forgot to stow the XO. We were getting waves breaking through the cockpit and the XO got soaked. After drying it out later, it started working again but only briefly. Now it won't even come on. So now I only have the spare XO.

Thanks for the update, Paul. If you don't mind, how much memory do you need for linux, maps and OpenCPN on the XO?

[SoonerSailor]

When an electronic device gets soaked like that, you stand a better chance of saving it if you immediately remove power and dunk it in the most de-ionized water you have, preferably in a partially disassembled state. Some would follow that with a dunking in vodka or rubbing alcohol for faster drying, but the last step would be to put it someplace pretty warm but not hot, like the engine room. Then wait until you are as sure as you can be that it is really dry and power it back up. I've saved an SLR camera and a cell phone that way, but nothing is sure!

[phiggins]

Maren,
If I recall correctly, my XO has 256M of RAM and a 1G flash drive where the Sugar operating sytem resides. I installed Linux on a 8G SDHC card. Also on the SD card are all the programs like SeaClear and openCPN and all the charts over 1000. It also has a 500Meg swap space.

I've heard that new XOs which are suppose to be available soon have much more memory and flash drive and can boot either Linux or XP.
================================================== ===
SoonerSailor, thanks for the advise I'll try that if I ever have such a problem again.

[Beausoleil]

Originally Posted by phiggins

We had a very rough crossing from Marathon to Varadero Cuba acoss the gulfstream and I forgot to stow the XO.

Paul,

How long were you in Marathon? We got there on November 26, and left December 13 to spend the winter in Key West. Sorry to have missed you - it would have been nice to see your setup. As soon as I get the time, I want to get my mini-ATX system upgraded from Fedora 10 to F12 or Ubuntu 9.10, and try out OpenCPN...