Marine-proofing a Computer

thaddjuice writes: "I'm interested in installing a computer on my sailboat to interface with the ship's navigation and communication systems. What I'm wondering is what needs to be done to a computer to protect it from salty air, potentially damp surroundings, and temperature extremes. What parts are most vulnerable? What about peripherals - can you protect keyboards, mice, and monitors from these conditions? Power is also a concern, it has to run off of boat batteries. Should I start with a laptop, desktop, or rackmount system?"

Comments

waterproof computing

[obtuse]

When I want to read in the bathtub, I just put my palmpilot into a ziplock. IR transparent too.

So, put your entire boat into a big ziplock baggie, and you'll be fine. Everything on board will remain dry.

Re:Go find a shop that specializes in boat compute

[Quizme2000]

Look Here Amazing that a google search for marine computers brings up all the info you need without some smart ass /.'ers to tell use a F**king Search engine in the first place. Sigh... I getting too old for this ..

Not those kinds of Marines? Really?

[ColGraff]

Because you know, that wouldn't really be a bad question at all. Is there any way one could take a basic notebook or desktop, and after-market mod it in such a way that it would ahev a fair chance of surviving ground shocks from high explosives, thermal shock, EMP etc.? It might not be Marine-proof, but it might be interesting.

VAX 11/750

[Anonymous Coward]

I've got a VAX 11/750 you can use... as an anchor.

No such thing (almost)

[shaper]

True defense contractor story: a company thought they had developed a marine-proof computer enclosure for an old PDP-11 type computer. One of the first ones delivered to the fleet, a marine drove a fork-lift fork right through it.

Another true story: my own group developed an off-aircraft enclosure for some MIL-STD-1553 components to connect to a standard PC. The outer structure of the enclosure was constructed of solid milled aircraft aluminum (we were also a limited-scale production facility of MIL-spec parts). The very first engineering demonstrator that we shipped, a Marine dropped an aircraft jet engine on it! It only made a small dent in one corner. The Marines approved it on the spot and ordered a bunch of them.

Oh, wait, you didn't mean Marine as in the branch of the military? Um, never mind.

I know something that might help...

[Emad el-Haraty]

I don't know about rugged computers, but my partner, Sean, who works for Cisco, says that Cisco is working on water-tight routers for people such as yourself. Sean said I could join him for a super weekend testing his equipment for Cisco aboard a luxurious sailboat. I bet this thing would even survive most watersports!

So anyway, I hope that we don't break any equipment or anything, because Cisco gear is so nice. I brought my whole Celine Dion collection to pass the time while Sean does the submersion tests and stuff ^_^.

Re:Go find a shop that specializes in boat compute

[b-side.org]

can someone mod this up to like +85 "please stop posting questions to ask /. that are easily answered with 2 minutes and google?"

thanks!