Laptop for Divers

Dave Sutton

Gents,

Just wanted to pass on a very satisfactory transaction I just participated in, and to point anyone else in need of a super nice laptop for diving/marine/heavy-duty use in the right direction. As many of you know, I live on a boat more or less full time, and am often found writing these posts and doing other stuff from the flying bridge with a laptop using wifi from the marina. Sometimes I look up and realize I'm working in the rain..... when you live in a bathing suit it's so normal to be wet that I hardly notice sometimes. Sometimes I'm anchored out in strange harbors, and when I am, I try to wardrive a little to find free wifi so I can stay in contact with the world. I use the laptop for runing deco software, and am often doing that with wet hands dripping salt water on the thing. I use GPS based charting software on the thing as a secondary navigation tool. We've recently added a towfish sidescan sonar to EXPLORER, and that runs on a laptop as well (and needs the GPS too). The bottom line is that I use a laptop a LOT and I beat the piss out of them. In the last three years, I went thru no less than *4* laptops, each suffering fatal damage from the marine environment.

And.... I got sick of it. So.... I did a lot of research and ended up with what I think is a great system. I wanted a BULLETPROOF system with built-in high power wifi (for running to a high gain antenna for long distance use while at anchor), a waterproof keyboard so I can drip on the thing, and built in GPS so I can use it as a plotter (and in the car as well). The search lead me to the MILSPEC Panasonic Toughbook "CF" series, but when I looked at the prices... YOWIE!! $5-6K and they still didn't have the feature set I wanted.

Man..... I was bummed and figured I was slated to destroy yet another 'laptop a season'.... ad nauseum.

Then an Ebay ad caught my attention. It was from a guy who claimed to have reinvented the Toshiba CF-28 laptop using all of the goodies. The unique thing he did was to integrate an internal GPS into the system, something that nobody else has seemed to have been able to do well. Yeah, Toshiba offers an internal GPS, but it SUCKS and everyone who has used one agrees. I was suspicious, so I Googled "Toughbook CF-28 Internal GPS" (try it yourself) and lo and behold I found a forum group (just like this one... hosted using the same software), and found that the Moderator "Toughbook" seemed to be the guy with the internal GPS expertise. Yup... turns out that the Ebay seller and he were one and the same. So we emailed and we chatted and we talked a lot on the phone, and he turns out to be a VERY good guy, and enthusiast, a tinkerer, and a guy who makes top of the line stuff. Answers the phone, answers questions with a smile, offered to customize, etc. Bottom line is that I hemmed and hawed for a month, finally bit the bullet, sent him $1600 more or less, and got a box in the mail yesterday.

All I can say is *I'm Happy!*... This thing rocks. Have the Cochran software on it, Nautilus, GAP, and the rest of the utilities. GPS lock is instant and solid. Wifi *rocks*. External antenna connected and I'm hitting an internet cafe a half mile away that I never saw on the list of points before. The thing is solid, O-Ring sealed, and was flawless. It's everything the seller promised it to be. If anyone is looking for an expedition-grade solution to the laptop issue, BUY ONE of these. O-Ring sealed and fully waterproof, rubberized (and backlighted) keyboard, touch-screen (man, it works nice with Nautilus...), 800 MHZ, fast DVD & CD R/W, 600 MW wifi with both internal antenna and external antenna jack, excellent GPS system built in, 100 GB hard drive, internal Bluetooth, the works.

To see a similar unit, plug in this Ebay ad number: 200188088760

The vendor is not a diver, but is a good guy. His name is Rick Kirby and his email is rickkirby@aol.com and he's located in Baltimore. He'll sell outside of Ebay, and is worth a note if you are in the market.


Usual disclaimers apply: I have no interest in these, got no discount, paid my money and took my chances, and just wanted to pass the word. I am VERY PLEASED with my new toy, and the price was right. He has no idea I posted this, it's just such a cool computer I needed to share. Anyone aboard EXPLORER is welcome to play with it.



Best,

Dave

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"Silent Diving with No Bubbles and No Politics".... www.nobubblediving.com

jepuskar

I don't know Dave..you sure you like it?

Dave Sutton

I'm not enthused by much... but this thing reminds me of a Mark-15... it reeks of milspec quality and heavy-duty everything. The Army uses the chassis for lots of stuff... but not with these specs. Plus, we can use it as an anchor in an emergency... it's not light.

Dave

__________________
"Silent Diving with No Bubbles and No Politics".... www.nobubblediving.com

RonMicjan

I have a toughbook that I picked up on ebay also, I wired in an external garmin GPS and use my verizon wireless card on it for internet and email while Im working on the bar, only good for about 8 miles offshore though. Garmin Bluechart and the laptop backs up the Raymarine chartplotter.

Panasonic makes a NICE laptop, but it is a BRICK, not good for travelling, I use the IBM/Lenovo T60 for travelling.

good find Dave

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Dave Sutton

No disagreement... my Lenovo Z61 is my briefcase setup and is top quality from a mechanical standpoint. But.... they last about a year in a salt water environment. How many busted ones would you like?

The CF-28's that Rich is building really only use a small portion of the original Toughbook internal hardware. DVD R/W, internal GPS with an active helix antenna monted on the computer, Bluetooth., 600 mw wifi (about 5 times more power than the baseline wifi setup), external wifi antenna connector, etc., are all things not available 'off the shelf' even in a new one. Look all you like, there is nothing else like it from any other vendor that I've found. I'm working with GAP right now on the thing, and the neatest part of this is inputting the dives using a stylus on the touch-screen. Very Cool......

My thing was that I didn't want the cable-snarl of an external GPS. And I wanted high power wifi with an external antenna input. Internal Bluetooth: Yep, the cellphone laid next to the thing gets me online too, even offshore at reasonable distance. Life is good!



Dave

__________________
"Silent Diving with No Bubbles and No Politics".... www.nobubblediving.com