Jack Erbes wrote:

Wayne.B wrote:

Every once in awhile something interesting shows up in my inbox buried
under all of the other advertisements. Yesterday I received this one:

http://tinyurl.com/yrl8bb

It purports to be a wireless, waterproof, touch sensitive screen for
remote control and display of a PC. It looks like it might be
particularly useful for the cockpit of sailboats or on small power
boats. Apparently it is battery operated.

Anyone have any experience with something like this?

I have no connection with the product or vendor.



I don't have any experience with that one but it looks like it may have
something in common with the Panasonic Toughbook Wireless Displays. You
can see one of those he

http://www.panasonic.com/business/to...-computers.asp

That shows a 10.4" model and says it is rated at 460 NIT for daylight
use and will dim down to 5 NIT for nighttime use. I've heard that they
work very well with direct sunlight on the display but have not actually
seen on in action.

I think the Toughbook Wireless Displays used to be offered in a 8.2"
model, maybe that is what MapTech is selling as a branded product. I
don't see any links for more info or detailed specs from the MapTech page.

If the specs on display on the MapTech offering were not of comparable
brightness and range to that of the Toughbook, I probably wouldn't even
consider it.

Jack

My VHF radios are rated waterproof - to 10 feet for 30 minutes.
This is rated...

• Moisture- and dust-resistant LCD, keyboard and touchpad

On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 18:52:37 -0400, Wayne.B wrote:


That's part of it no doubt, but it really is difficult to make a piece
of electronics like that both waterproof and somewhat shock proof. I
don't view the price as a big obstacle if it actually works. Compare it
to the price of a Furuno 10 inch display.

Have you considered a tablet PC? Some of them are mil-spec.

On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 21:25:52 -0400, Jack Erbes
wrote:

I don't have any experience with that one but it looks like it may have
something in common with the Panasonic Toughbook Wireless Displays.

Yes, I think that's it:

http://tinyurl.com/ycqf99

I already have an older Panasonic Toughbook laptop and it's a good
unit, surviving several salt water showers and one 3 ft drop. With a
remote display I could leave the laptop down below in a safer
environment or even run a more powerful desktop box.

On Sun, 23 Mar 2008 03:58:07 -0000, wrote:

That's part of it no doubt, but it really is difficult to make a piece
of electronics like that both waterproof and somewhat shock proof. I
don't view the price as a big obstacle if it actually works. Compare it
to the price of a Furuno 10 inch display.

Have you considered a tablet PC? Some of them are mil-spec.

Don't know much about them, any that you'd recommend ?

On Sun, 23 Mar 2008 01:20:05 -0400, Wayne.B wrote:

On Sun, 23 Mar 2008 03:58:07 -0000, wrote:

That's part of it no doubt, but it really is difficult to make a piece
of electronics like that both waterproof and somewhat shock proof. I
don't view the price as a big obstacle if it actually works. Compare
it to the price of a Furuno 10 inch display.

Have you considered a tablet PC? Some of them are mil-spec.

Don't know much about them, any that you'd recommend ?

Sorry, no recommendations. I just found the remote LCD interesting. So,
I did a little Googling. There seem to be quite a few weather resistant,
or mil-spec Point of Sale, touch screens, but I couldn't find any
wireless ones. This site has submersible and mil-spec touch screens that
might give you some ideas.

http://www.vartechsystems.com/produc...technology.asp

The table PC just came from the searching. It would have all the
capabilities of a display, plus would be, in itself, a PC. There are mil-
spec or weather resistant ones, and wireless capability is common.

Wayne.B wrote:
On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 21:25:52 -0400, Jack Erbes
wrote:


I don't have any experience with that one but it looks like it may have
something in common with the Panasonic Toughbook Wireless Displays.


Yes, I think that's it:

http://tinyurl.com/ycqf99

I already have an older Panasonic Toughbook laptop and it's a good
unit, surviving several salt water showers and one 3 ft drop. With a
remote display I could leave the laptop down below in a safer
environment or even run a more powerful desktop box.


Big enough to see, and bright enough to read, that looks like a much
better choice, there are still a couple of gotchas involved.

1 it's still only rated moisture resistant. Maybe it will survive
spray - maybe not.

AND 10 hours on a set of batteries.

wrote:
On Sun, 23 Mar 2008 01:20:05 -0400, Wayne.B wrote:


On Sun, 23 Mar 2008 03:58:07 -0000, wrote:


That's part of it no doubt, but it really is difficult to make a piece
of electronics like that both waterproof and somewhat shock proof. I
don't view the price as a big obstacle if it actually works. Compare
it to the price of a Furuno 10 inch display.

Have you considered a tablet PC? Some of them are mil-spec.

Don't know much about them, any that you'd recommend ?


Sorry, no recommendations. I just found the remote LCD interesting. So,
I did a little Googling. There seem to be quite a few weather resistant,
or mil-spec Point of Sale, touch screens, but I couldn't find any
wireless ones. This site has submersible and mil-spec touch screens that
might give you some ideas.

http://www.vartechsystems.com/produc...technology.asp

The table PC just came from the searching. It would have all the
capabilities of a display, plus would be, in itself, a PC. There are mil-
spec or weather resistant ones, and wireless capability is common.



Now that's more like ot!
http://www.vartechsystems.com/produc...s-monitors.asp

So run wires.
What's the big deal.
It's going to be mounted on the steering station where it can do some good.

On Sun, 23 Mar 2008 03:07:48 -0600, cavelamb himself
wrote:

http://www.vartechsystems.com/produc...technology.asp

The table PC just came from the searching. It would have all the
capabilities of a display, plus would be, in itself, a PC. There are mil-
spec or weather resistant ones, and wireless capability is common.


On of the features of the Panasonic wireless touch screen that looks
valuable is the ability to dim the screen to a low level. That is
really important at night and I have yet to find a laptop display with
sufficient dimming capability. I have to keep the laptop cover closed
much of the time to preserve night vision.

On Mon, 24 Mar 2008 08:34:04 -0400, Jack Erbes
wrote:

When you tot up the cost of a Toughbook laptop and one of the wireless
displays, you are getting into the cost range of one of the better
marine grade systems like the Raymarines.

Yes. I already have a pretty good Furuno system integrated into a 10
inch display with excellent daytime brightness and good night time
dimming. I use a laptop PC as a back up chart plotter because I
prefer the look of raster charts when in unfamiliar areas, and also
because the Maptech software has superior route planning and tracking.
A remote, portable, weather proof display would allow me to keep the
laptop in a dry secure location at the lower helm, and also might be
useful on a small runabout.

On Mon, 24 Mar 2008 08:34:04 -0400, Jack Erbes
wrote:

you'll find that those will intrude on your
night vision some even at the dimmest settings that lets them be useful.

Has next to nothing to do with night vision. Same thing is true in
broad daylight. When you have a relatively bright light shining
directly into your eyes it is more difficult to see dimmer objects.
Regardless of the actual ammount of light involved. It takes as much
as 45 minutes in close to complete darkness to get full night vision.
Ask any astronomer.

Casady