GL: Computer as Chart Plotter

[Ralph Yost (home)]

Phil:
I have just completed a market survey of laptops for outdoor use at work.We 
will be using them in the cockpit of aircraft. This is a very bright 
environment.

I also posted a thread on the Passagemaker message board on the same subject 
under the ELECTRONICS category. The primary factor you need to look for is 
the amount of NITS able to be emitted by the monitor. NITS is a measure of 
the ability of the screen to emit light, which is needed to overcome the 
brightness of the surrounding environment.

The problem I found in my market survey is some laptop manuf. tell you their 
screen is "outdoor" readable but are unable to give you the # of NITs it 
emits. This leaves you with the inability to make a direct and fair 
comparison to other products that do provide the NITS specification.
Another very important feature of laptops is the size and feel of the 
keyboard to your hands. Some of the new smaller ones may not feel right to 
you and allow you to type normally. I found this out the hard way when we 
purchased the Panasonic Toughbook PC a few years ago. The keyboard is so 
small it aggravates me every time I use it.

For outdoor viewing, I looked seriously at the Fujitsu, Toshiba and Dell 
laptops. I concluded by choosing the DELL Latitude D630 ATG. The screen is 
14.1 inch 500 nit Outdoor-viewable LCD Panel. (go to the DELL site, select 
Small/Medium Business, Business Class Latitude, then Specialty Laptops).
You have to realize that you CANNOT get a good outdoor viewable display in a 
CHEAP laptop. The technology for good outdoor viewable is relatively new in 
the laptop market space and therefore the price is notable. As with all 
laptops, screen selection is a significant drive of total cost.

My Dell Latitude ATG laptop was ordered last week. I havent received it yet 
but can share the results with you after I get it.

Note also that DIRECT sunlight is the most difficult to overcome. The screen 
has to emit more NITS than the direct sunlight in order for you to see what 
is on the screen. In the shade on the fly bridge is substantially easier to 
accomplish. I did personally see a Fujitsu TABLET laptop that worked 
impressively well in DIRECT sunlight. I didnt choose this one because this 
screen only comes in the tablet model that does not include a keyboard. I 
couldnt accept that tradeoff. But I have colleagues who use this Fujitsu 
tablet in the cockpit of aircraft very well and they like its readability. I 
could not believe how well it displayed in direct sunlight when I was in 
Oklahoma one summer day. I would have bought a Fujitsu laptop with this 
screen if they had made it available on their other models of 
laptops/tablets.

Note also that some companies only offer the outdoor readable screens on 
TABLET PCs which is a more expensive variation of the laptop. The tablet 
allows you to turn and then close the screen, latch it down across the 
keyboard and use a special tablet pen to make entries. The screen view is 
converted from LANDSCAPE to PORTRAIT. The tablet PC also uses a variant of 
the Microsoft operating system called Windows XP Tablet. Its identical to XP 
Pro except that it accommodates the pen and rotation of the screen and has 
some other applications that accommodate the pen. For the boat environment, 
you will never need or use the tablet this way. Its more difficult to enter 
text this way and requires the user to learn how to do it properly. Not good 
for bouncing around. (I have been using a tablet PC for about 4 years now).

R.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phil Bolin" <pwbolin at earthlink.net>

> I'm planning to add a laptop with maptech software to the boat as a backup
> chartplotter.
>
> I would appreciate any recommendations on inexpensive laptops with easy to
> see screens; and any comments on the best software to use with the laptop.
> The salesmen I've talked to don't seem to understand the need to be able 
> to
> see the screen from the bridge.