This is on topic as I want to put an old PIII machine in the 101 to use for navigation software and also when parked up to use a TV card through to allow viewing of Satelite reception save carrying yet more bulky tv stuff with me (note therefore it won't be viewable on the move)
How do I work out what size inverter to fit? When parked up we will be running off the mains on site or from a generator when in the field...literally.
I'm keen to keep costs down so not interested in a 12 volt power supply, I also understand inverters help stabalise the power spikes from the alternator etc.
Only other expense should be... re-radiating gps antenna and a tft screen. The other kits ready to go...
Am i correct in assuming that you are not planning on using the nav software on the go? I can assure you that your HDD will not survive long if you are.
Most PSU are typically around 300watts for a PC so that should give you a good point to start from.
If you open up the case on your pc and look on the power supply it will tell you what wattage it is. Use this as a maximum figure. Usually they are somewhere between 250 and 350 though you can get higher (and lower) Realistically, the machine will not be using the full wattage available from the PSU. If you look at the manual for the motherboard that will probably tell you how much power it consumes. I'd guess it will be getting on for 100 or so just for the motherboard and CPU.
Other stuff in the PC will increase that number - so allow more available wattage for things like the expansion cards (such as graphics and sound). Hard disks and CD drives will also use some more. Probably 25W or so each, and more when they have to spin up.
From this you can work out what sort of wattage you will need to supply to the PC, and then select the right sort of inverter.
this may help you work it out:
formatting link
You may find it easier to build yourself a PC specifically to work better with less available power, or just use a laptop! There are some nice 12v mini motherboards around. I just built myself a little pc based on a ready made box. That has a 230w psu, and runs quite happily off my 300W inverter on a knackered battery.
Aim to find a tft screen that runs straight off 12V - it will make your life a lot easier! (many screens do run from 12v, and just come with a tranformer to let you run them off the mains)
The other "trick" is to get an adaptor which allows a Compact Flash card to look like an IDE drive.
I am not sure that all this will work well with Windows software. You really need to run a RAM-disk for writing data, and Windows is a bit slapdash about where in the system it needs to write to.
I think I'm right in saying that the Nav software works without reference to the HDD once the maps and route has been calculated if I recall correctly. Only other time I've noticed any momentary lag is when it recalculates the route when I get lost.
Given that the 101 Ambulance is actually smoother than the Rangie when it comes to suspension I'm not too worried. The laptop managed 1700 miles last summer. That said I dare say the HDD drive on the laptop is designed with greater tolerances.
Been here... It's reasonalby easy to keep the o/s on an eprom chip (or memory that can be made bootable). Given some of these USB memory stick jobbies are now available for around a 100 quid for 2gig - you could easily have something you could remove from the vehicle without too much hassle for security reasons too.
I like this idea.. whats more I can move the planned routes and points of interest too with minimal faffing between the 101comp and laptop etc etc. I'll follow that up. Looking at Infomaps specs it 3,7 gb hdd space but thats for all the maps (whole of Europe). As I'm unlikely to be able to afford to cover them all in one day then 2 gig should eat it.
I take it these usb drives just mimic a HDD or what have you?
You can fit laptop drives into normal PC's if you like. Theyre a little bit more expensive, and you need an adaptor to plug em in with (costs a few quid from maplins).
On or around Tue, 26 Oct 2004 05:53:18 +1000, JD enlightened us thusly:
if you've enough resources on the machine, you could use VMware. Virtual machine, you install windows on the virtual one and then you can always exit to the linux shell and terminate it when it hangs :-)
I've just sold a piece of kit on ebay that would do fine - it had had a laptop HDD in it and would be fine even for mild off roading. 2.5" HDD's are a hell of a lot more robust than you think, the I-pod's got a 20GB in it and that can take a bashing.
Check out
formatting link
This is the stuff I had along with a Lilliput 7" widescreen touchscreen and a USB mouse running Destinator mapping SW -
There's usually a load of SH stuff for sale at
formatting link
If it's cheap sat nav ure after and u dont need it to work on the top of snowdon ( roads only) then the TomTom go unit is amazing value and works a treat.
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