Laptop suggestions

User topics relating to software that logs data from ECUs

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Laptop suggestions

Postby qoncept » Tue Oct 25, 2005 5:57 am

I'm planning on getting a laptop which I'll connect to a 7" LCD touchscreen in my car and was looking for some suggestions. I want to use it for mp3s of course, but I'll also use the laptop's main display for datalogging and eventually tuning, and to reflash the ECU. From what I've seen datalogging and especially graphical realtime displays are a lot more processor intensive than I'd imagined -- especially in Java, which is what I'd planned on writing my own software in. I was hoping to get by with something like a 700mhz Pentium 3, but will that be fast enough? How much memory am I going to need? 256mb seems to be pretty normal in the pricerange I was looking at, but it's cheap enough to upgrade.
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Re: Laptop suggestions

Postby ahains » Tue Oct 25, 2005 6:38 am

qoncept wrote:I'm planning on getting a laptop which I'll connect to a 7" LCD touchscreen in my car and was looking for some suggestions. I want to use it for mp3s of course, but I'll also use the laptop's main display for datalogging and eventually tuning, and to reflash the ECU. From what I've seen datalogging and especially graphical realtime displays are a lot more processor intensive than I'd imagined -- especially in Java, which is what I'd planned on writing my own software in. I was hoping to get by with something like a 700mhz Pentium 3, but will that be fast enough? How much memory am I going to need? 256mb seems to be pretty normal in the pricerange I was looking at, but it's cheap enough to upgrade.


Personally I have some alerts setup on fatwallet.com for "laptop" and "notebook", looking for something in the $500 range.
The specs I desire are in the viscinity of:
15" display
40gb HD
256+ ram (DDR form factor is a plus, since I have a 512MB I could swap in)
<7.5lbs or so
Processor around "3000+" Sempron (1.8ghz), or 1.6-1.8ghz Intel.

I think if you are patient, you can find a machine like this for $450-$500. Especially likely if you are willing to brave the 3am line-up for black friday deals. I'm hoping instead just for some end of quarter deals from Dell :)

-Adrian
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Postby qoncept » Tue Oct 25, 2005 6:59 am

Ah.. we have some different priorities. :) The display size and weight aren't important to me, and I was planning on getting an external hard drive anyway (but bigger is always better). Unfortunately it's different in building your own pc in that when you get a faster one, it generally comes with everything else upgraded to the same level. Will 1ghz be fast enough? I had a buddy with a 900mhz he'll give me for about 450.
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Postby ahains » Tue Oct 25, 2005 7:05 am

One thing I have observed with laptops is that IMHO it is not worth it to buy used unless you are buying VERY old technology.

Why would you pay $450 for a used (P3?) 1ghz, when you can pay $450-$500 for a new Dell with 1.8ghz (Pentium or Celeron M, or AMD Sempron) that comes with a 1 year warranty?

You risk being underpowered for some unforeseen need (that really awesome visualization for mp3 playback that you just GOTTA have :D) without saving any money.
If you can get a sufficient laptop for like $200 I could see the draw, but I don't get the point of buying a lesser laptop for essentially the same price.

HTH! :)
-Adrian
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Postby qoncept » Tue Oct 25, 2005 7:23 am

Yeah.. I was really hoping to get something around $300 (computergeeks has a 700mhz around that price I think) but that might be a little less than I need to spend. The mp3 player isn't really all that important, and I don't need visualization at all (I'd rather look at what's playing than viz :) ), so if that'd be fast enough for the logging and real time display of gauges, I'll go for it. I also don't mind not being able to listen to music while I'm logging, so it'd be getting most of the processor time to itself.
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Postby richip » Tue Oct 25, 2005 10:19 am

Not a laptop, but some people might want to consider car PCs such as the VoomPC. I certainly will for my next project.undefined
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Postby qoncept » Tue Oct 25, 2005 10:38 am

I have a Shuttle MiniPC that I was originally planning on using. There are a bunch of problems with it though. First, I wanted to find a way to get it to boot faster. I figured Linux would be my best bet, but I remembered when I started tinkering with it that I don't have a clue in Linux, and my touchscreen doesn't have Linux drivers anyway. Shutdown would also be a problem since I don't want to do it manually and then wait for it to finish before shutting the car off. It'd also use more power than I'd like, BUT.. a laptop solves all the issues.

The batter backup means I could shut the car off, have Windows set to go to hibernate or suspend when it switches to battery power, and then quickly come back to the state I left it at when I come back to it, rather than waiting 5 minutes for it to boot. It'd also be nice to have the larger display when I actually want to do some tuning or logging rather than being limited to the 7" LCD. And it'd be using less power with a 12v adapter made for it rather than a transformer connected to the battery. I really can't see any reason to use a PC over a laptop other than wanting to show off. :)

Now, I have read (very little) about ways around the battery backup of a laptop -- "intelligent" powersource that'll kind of do the same thing. My concern is that the PC may use more power even in hibernate and drain my battery, say if I don't start the car for a few days or a week. I also can't see spending the money on these things when I could spend the same amount on just putting a laptop in, but if I could I'd definately go for it, since I already have the MiniPC. I haven't done a lot of research on it because mp3car.com is blocked here at work (where I'm usually pretty busy anyway) and once I get home after 11 hours of work (on a computer all day) and a couple hours of class, I don't feel like using a computer and don't really have the time to anyway. If I'm way off and the MiniPC would work just as well, let me know! That'd be great!
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Well... Money...

Postby bofh » Mon Oct 31, 2005 2:14 pm

The biggest reason is cost. You can get a VIA EPIA system for $250 total. This will run windows fine, and many cases have a 12v input. You then make a relay box with constant 12v and switched 12v. With a lost of switched 12v, you do a single press of the power to initiate a shutdown. And have it do the same for power up. All done in hardware, so supports everything.
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Postby Zepp » Wed Dec 07, 2005 6:16 pm

Ever considered a Mac Mini (optional linux distro) ? If most of the gear wriiten here is using Qt, Macs handle it with no problems. Also, Macs run java as a first class citizen so your java apps will run sweet.

18-volt power supply is easily fed with standard 12-volt auto power.

Mac OS X has voice recognition built in, the mini can be controlled hands free with a bit of tinkering and little programming effort.

Will just fit into most consoles and still leave room for an LCD display. Would only need a power switch mod as the sucker sits on the back of the unit.

Just a thought


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Postby qoncept » Thu Dec 29, 2005 11:22 am

Wow, I forgot about this thread. Zepp, a Mac briefly crossed my mind, but some of the software I want to run (ie, Centrafuse for media) won't work, and in general I'm just much more familiar with a Windows environment. I ended up getting a bottom of the line Dell right after Thanksgiving for $400.
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Postby Thrawl » Mon Aug 14, 2006 1:51 pm

I just picked up a dell c600 850mhz with 256mb of ram 20gig Hd ($200 on ebay) that I plan to use just for Data logging. I might want/need to increase the ram to 512 but this should be enough. If you want your laptop to run Mp3 ontop of datalogging and other things you will want at least a 2ghz w/512.
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