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Rugged Laptops
redbeard writes
"The NYTimes
(requires free login) has an interesting write up on
"ruggedized" laptops, these things can withstand
tornados, being run over by trucks and being submerged in
water, among other things.
Panasonic is
planing on a scaled-down
line for consumer use, kind of like the Hummer vs.
HUMVEE." If it lasts more than 6 mos in my hands, I
consider it rugged...
Topic says it all.....
L/P: cypherpunk
It's here in the form of rule-of-the-masses; if a moderator unjustly scores something, then other moderators will reverse it. This only applies if most moderators are fair, but it seems to have worked fairly well so far IMO.
a gel or foam insulation between the outer casing and interior casing. This would distribute and dissipate the kinetic energy from a fall or impact. If you used an insulating foam or gel it would also help the interior survive heat and cold much better. If I were gonna build one of these I would use a magnesium alloy case with gel insulation between the case and the interior case and I would also put a large guage plastic sheet behind and in front of the LCD display. This would prevent one of the worst forms of damage to your laptop, death of the LCD. The thick plastic would been the LCD mechanism secure between the sheets-the damage occurs when the LCD is bent-and would also keep people from pushing too hard on the screen and making you slap their hands. BTW, the being run over with a HUMVEE isnt THAT spectacular, the weight is distributed over most of the area of the case. I'm more impressed when they drop it onto concrete with no damage.
You want rugged? How about a 40 pound steel monster made by our friends at Northgate. Yeaaaaaaaaaah.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
...back when I was in IS at a local public utility company. The survey engineers would take the things out with them, run over them with trucks, drop them from telephone poles, and just generally pound the crap out of them.
We only ever had one fail, and that was because it got hit straight on by a pickaxe. Went right through one side of the case and out the other. The casing does great against distributed pressure, but it don't do to good against impaling attacks...
InThane
Thiers a company near me (like a 5 min drive) that makes rugged laptops. Arbor Systems, they have pictures of coustomers driving trucks on to the laptops. I was going to check them out when i get some money for a new laptop, maby being weather restistant it might last.
-magister-
Since then, GRiD has continued making ruggedized laptops, including Tempest models for the military. There are other manufacturers out there as well, including the Rocky and Terradat laptops.
Personally, I plan to put a GRiD Convertible (identical to the AST PenExec) to work as the navigation and journal-keeping system in my 1959 Land Rover 109". It's not ultra-rugged, but it will do until I can afford a truly rugged machine.
P.S., that trick of driving over something isn't as impressive as it looks -- you get about 1/4 the vehicle's weight, which is evenly distributed over the entire area of the tire meeting the ground -- say 40 or so square inches (6" x 7"), so even my Rover, fully loaded, would only put about 25 pounds per square inch of pressure on the laptop.
Stupid people will be persecuted to the fullest extent allowed by law.
Several posts mention the "old" rugged laptops which have been used by certain military servicemen for years. But they were usually off-the-shelf laptops retrofitted to meet various durability standards and resold to the military. However, this article points to a relatively new trend: a MAJOR VENDOR has a line of laptops specifically designed for harsh environments that is available to the general public.
The technology, materials and manufacturing processes used by these laptops will eventually filter through the channel to other vendors (who will copy them once they see the demand --- and smell money to be made) and then down to slightly less expensive models.
Of course, I don't really think that these rugged electronic lunchboxes will ever be needed by the "general public." If you are stupid enough to drive your Hummer over your laptop (warranty or not), you should not be allowed to roam around in public. And if you can afford a Hummer, you probably won't be worried about a notebook's price or the loss of data!
What's the going rate: 3 heavy-duty laptops = 2 Hummer wiper blades = 1/2 tank of Hummer-grade gas?
But I must admit: dropping a laptop 6 feet and using it afterwards is COOL!
I have seen these at a Government convention they were dropping them about 4 feet. Then having 200 pounds guys stand and jumb on them. The screen got a little screwed up sometimes but that was it. I would love to have one of these babys.
The Air Force has some ruggedized Sun workstations they use. (The components are bought by a third company from Sun, repackaged, and then sold the to military.) The quote from my buddie in the armed services is that "It could be dropped from an airplane and keep on going."
I have to wonder how many packets per meters/second it generated.
Excellent comparison, read on.
This time 4 years ago I was working on a US Army vehicle maintenance project, using the Panasonic CF-44.
All hardware was off-the-shelf. The idea to use the CF-44 was from their use by geologists and in the oil industry (BP was already using them, as I recall).
The model we used was an i486-66, 8meg(?) RAM, forgot HDD size, 2 PC slots, hot-swappable battery/floppy bay, plus a 2x CD tucked under the flip up keyboard. Had a kewell trackball pointer and a titanium top (the bottom of case was plastic).
These machines were issued to mechanics in Army motorpools, along with barand new "electronic technical manuals", i.e., maintenance manuals on CD. The computer was the vehicle to bring the new manual format into the motorpool.
The first major indication that we had picked the correct hardware was... a mechanic knocked a running Panasonic off the hood of a HUMMWV and it lived, no damage.
However, they were not Officer proof. Later a Lt. dropped a power supply into a lake, he had to buy a new one.
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
The article's over at Ogrady's.
Too bad they didn't mention this one in the NY Times article.