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Durable, Shockproof Computing?
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?
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.
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.
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- Tractors give off the usual battery power, just like cars, so power isn't much of an issue.
- Tractors don't have suspension, the suspension is put in the seat instead. Unless you suspend the computer it may be subject to some large shocks!! (although a wheat field wouldn't be too bad).
- Most larger tractors and most combines have plenty of room for computers but most smaller tractors definitly don't have the room. Since the poster said the fields are "huge", I'll assume we are talking about larger equipment for the most part.
- Dust shouldn't be too big of an issue provided the tractor is cabbed and you keep the windows closed. If it doesn't have a cab, then you get into other issues like rain. But again, we are talking large fields and large equipment, almost all large equipment have cabs on them.
Computers are increasingly being used in farm equipment now. New tractors almost all have computerized instrument panels, transmissions, etc. Many people add GPS units to thier combines. I've even seen tractors that can totally control themselves without an operator! New farm equipment is very dependant on computer systems.Now as to what the computer is used for, I can't answer you that. I'm guessing he wants it for e-mail, scheduling, those sorts of tasks since the PDA idea was brought up.
I would recommend industrial PCs for this application. They can better take the rough conditions than regular PC equipment. Industrial PCs are usually quite small too which would be nice for use in machines. Get a nice small board with a Disk-on-Chip (solid state) hard drive and a LCD screen (try to keep it out of sunlight!) for the display. I don't think your run of the mill Windows, or even Linux operating systems will be ideal in this environment since the operator will be busy trying to keep an eye on what is going on around him. An application with large fonts, and can be easily controlled (touch-screen maybe?) is a must.
Computers in the tractor is a great idea, I've often thought of doing something like this myself, but it's not as easy as just dropping in a laptop or PC to do the task, it will have to be more specialized.