Yesterday freegeographytools.com (a great resource if you’re interested in mapping, GPS, and GIS applications – they offer a lot of insights and opinions on various free software) wrote the first article in a series on building an inexpensive GeoPad. They are defining a GeoPad as a small touchscreen computer, field ready, loaded with built-in GPS tracking, navigation, and data collection software, as well as GIS utilities. It’s a great idea, and while there are products on the market designed specifically for this, they are quite pricey. The point is to find and build something for under $1000.
Their series focuses on applications designed for professionals and hobbyists looking for a field workstation. But I see the application extend to the expedition traveler – a lot of similar needs, along with a few others. Let’s talk about finding the right laptop – the core of the system.
The Specifications: What an Expedition Laptop Needs
While the field professional needs things like a durable computer, no cables, and long battery life, the overland traveler has a few other uses for an expedition laptop – email, blogging, costing spreadsheets, photo storage, video storage, and maybe even video editing. It’s something you want to mount in a car or at least have easily accessible when driving. You want to take it to the internet cafe, update your emails at the campfire, transfer photos from your camera by bluetooth, drag it on a canoe with you up the Amazon river…it’s got to be durable, and rugged, and reliable.
So combining the features of a GeoPad and an Expedition class laptop I get
- rugged, waterproof, dustproof, drop proof
- touchscreen (digitizer style – read this post on the difference)
- convertible tablet/clamshell style
- WIFI
- built-in GPS (no annoying cables)
- long battery life
- at least 120 GB hard drive (for you photos and videos)
The Panasonic Toughbook CF-18
The Panasonic Toughbook is listed as the first choice on the Free Geography Tools post, but quickly dismissed due to it’s prohibitive cost (a new tablet Toughbook CF-19 starts around $3000, and then you add the options like integrated GPS). But I disagree. If you lowered your standards just a bit, you can find a the previous Toughbook tablet computer model, the CF-18 on eBay for around $600 USD.
It would come with a touchscreen and WIFI, and be in pretty decent condition. Many of the models have upgraded hard drives (they came stock with 60 GB back in the day) and if you look hard enough you’ll find one with Bluetooth and if you’re really lucky, built-in GPS.
But don’t spend too much time trying to find all of that in one computer. Instead get a model in good condition with an upgraded hard drive. There are lots of those available. Then jump over to CustomToughbooks.com and buy one of their GPS/bluetooth upgrade kits for $175 USD and install it. You’ll get a modern GPS module, much better than the stock ones that came with the CF-18, and you’ll get the bluetooth as well. The downside is you’ll need a bit of handywork to install the GPS module, but the installation documentation is available on the CustomToughbooks website and it looks fairly straight-forward.
The CF-18 is slow: Will it work?
It’s a valid point. The CF-18 came with a 900 to 1.2 Mhz Pentium M processor, quite slow by today’s standards. It will be happy running Windows XP, but don’t try running Vista. I’m not sure how well Windows 7 will work but my guess is it would be too much for it. And you’ll have to forget video editing. Well, not forget it, but expect to take a long time waiting for your scenes to render. Large photo editing would be a problem too, but storing and viewing photos and basic tasks available in standard photo album software should be no problem.
For emailing, working with spreadsheets and blogging – no problem. Mapping and GIS? Also a snap especially for field work. Data collection, mapping, and navigation don’t need much processor speed.
Other Ideas?
Feedback, experiences, questions – always welcome! If you’ve got something to say, do so in the comments section below. In the meantime, take a look at some current eBay auction listings fro CF-18 Toughbooks. If you’re keen on buying one, take a look at our article on Buying Used Panasonic Toughbooks. It gives you some good pointers on what to look for, especially from eBay auctions.
Was this article useful? Rate it below!
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...