37 replies to this topic

[Jeeves]

Hi Guys,

I'll be looking at purchasing a netbook or similar with the intention that it's primary use will be as a GCS display out in the field.
My budget isn't brilliant, so keeping that in mind - what would you recommend in regards to size, CPU and Memory?
Any particular brand I should stick with? Or are they all pretty much the same these days?

TIA

[michel pet]

accer.  aspire one d255

[Berkely]

I was personally thinking more about something like this. Asus Eee Pad I think Reddog linked to this particular one & I love the netbook/keyboard functionality! It wouldn't be for the GCS alone of course.

[Reddog]

The only negative I could work out in regards to the ASUS was the non existant USB ports when its removed from the keyboard. This is a show stopper for me. If it had a USB port on it then I would buy it right now and get the GCS installed on it. Lots of Android tablets are getting so close but still not quite there.

Edited by Reddog, 27 June 2011 - 08:21 AM.

[dankers]

Reddog, on 27 June 2011 - 08:12 AM, said:

The only negative I could work out in regards to the ASUS was the non existant USB ports when its removed from the keyboard.

Nuts, that is a show stopper and I was thinking it was just about perfect as tablets are ideal but not being about to connect a PipX modem via USB is not good.

[Malx]

Sorry to say but I havn't found any suitable touchpads yet.
Asus ee pad goes away for (up to) three reasons:

1. Android, no fully working GCS right now. (That may be changed however, so maybe not a showstopper)
2. No usb port (Actually not a showstopper either since I expect it possible to have a bluetooth connection to a "ground station" with pipX)
3. Not usable in sunlight. This IS a showstopper, all tablets with reasonable prices have shiny screens for the moment rendering them more or less worthless outside. (And ASUS have had really bad reviews in that particular area)

[D-Lite]

Jeeves, on 26 June 2011 - 10:16 PM, said:

I'll be looking at purchasing a netbook or similar with the intention that it's primary use will be as a GCS display out in the field.

I like my MSI Wind Netbook. It has a nice bright LED backlight. But even with this, you cannot see much in direct sunlight. I don't think there's any "standard" netbook or notebook that is fun to use in sunlight. There are special outdoor notebook which I suppose to have brighter displays, but they are not cheap. Hardware hacker's choice for a dedicated GCS device: get a cheap netbook, throw out the hard drive and install LINUX + GCS on a bootable USB stick. Ripp of the backlight and replace with some ultra bright LEDs. Could be installed in an aluminum briefcase or something for outdoor usage.

[jes1111]

CheBuzz was talking recently about a new breed of sun-friendly screens. Does anyone know of a Win7 pad with one of these new screens coming any time soon?

[CheBuzz]

There are a few coming up that I have heard of, but the only one that I know of currently available to buy would be the Pixel Qi, and they only work on a handful of machines.

[Reddog]

Is it possible to compile the full GCS on Android yet? I checked the wiki and there is no information there about it.

[jes1111]

I got all excited about the Dell Inspiron Duo - great price, everything needed for GCS, including USB, etc. - until I read that you can't see a thing on its shiny display in the sunlight. Ah, well - continue the search. There's some great little "commercial/industrial" tablet PCs but... the prices!

Apparently you can already buy the Pixel Qi screens on their own and retrofit them to certain notebooks - see http://forums.makezi...nID=6562&page=1

[3rdeyepro]

I have been eyeing this one http://www.amazon.co...d=3CN5TV69JK9BJ

[joecnc2006]

3rdeyepro, on 02 July 2011 - 04:51 PM, said:

I have been eyeing this one http://www.amazon.co...d=3CN5TV69JK9BJ

Usually a 10.1" screen netbook should run around 250.00 new. with same intel atom processor that one has.

examples.
http://www.bestbuy.c...es&nrp=15&iht=n

[3rdeyepro]

joecnc2006, on 02 July 2011 - 08:10 PM, said:

Usually a 10.1" screen netbook should run around 250.00 new. with same intel atom processor that one has.

examples.
http://www.bestbuy.c...es&nrp=15&iht=n

As an example, the $250 Asus Eee doesn't have the dual-core, lower resolution screen and much shorter battery life. I think it is worth the extra $100 for the difference in specs.

[joecnc2006]

3rdeyepro, on 04 July 2011 - 03:58 PM, said:

As an example, the $250 Asus Eee doesn't have the dual-core, lower resolution screen and much shorter battery life. I think it is worth the extra $100 for the difference in specs.

Ok, point well taken.

[ichi]

What about an ipad GCS app?

[muralha]

Quote

What about an ipad GCS app?

Any iOS developers up for this?


Personally, I think the best solution is a laptop which handles everything (comms, antenna tracking, etc) and the user only uses the tablet (wirelessly) to plot the flight plan, watch the live feed, etc.

Don't forget that tablets shine more than the grand majority of laptops and netbooks in sunlight, so add a sunlight cover to the ground station setup like this:


or this

[JanHenning]

Hi,

I have a Fujitsu Q550 with Windows 7. The screen is very good, and most office type applications runs okay. Only problem I have found, apart from the obvious "Windows 7 on a tablet", is that the disk performance is below my expectations for a modern SSD. Build quality is good.

Tonight I discovered  that it will not run OpenPilot GCS. I get the Visual C++ runtime error at startup, right after the message about missing config file. I have to find a way around that. Tips are most welcome

Edit: I have read that the runtime error might be related to my Intel graphics.

Edited by JanHenning, 20 August 2011 - 11:19 PM.

[3rdeyepro]

I have been using this for the past few months both out in the garage when working on copters and for tuning over bluetooth at the field. I had to buy a small usb BT dongle. I love this little laptop. I am mostly a mac guy but this netbook has been awesome. I also upgraded the ram to 4gb for $25. Looks like this netbook is now $100 more than what I paid (was $280).

http://www.amazon.co...s00_i00_details

[D-Lite]

3rdeyepro, on 04 January 2012 - 07:58 PM, said:

I have been using this for the past few months both out in the garage when working on copters and for tuning over bluetooth at the field.

How are you satisfied with performance? It only has a 1GHz CPU and my MSI Wind with 1.6GHz already seems a bit slow to me for running the GCS. But it's an Intel Atom, not AMD and I run OSX (installed from a legally purchased media of course). Someday I'll probably give WinXP or Linux (or even FreeBSD) a try to see how it compares.