Good low cost laptop for embedded work?

Hello All,

JTAG programming requires a little laptop for the lab. Nothing fancy, just a small machine that can dump code into an MSP430 or similar. I don't write much firmware so processor performance for compile runs is no issue. A text editor and maybe schematic entry, too, but that doesn't require a lot of processing power either. Ideally it should have a long battery life.

I know that even Walmart sells some for around $600 but with a very short battery life. Is there anything out there that you could recommend?

Reason I ask is that most laptops these days are total overkill. The processors run at 1-2GHz and much of that is used as a space heater when the fan comes on. I still have an old Compaq that used to haul five hours on an old NiCd, and this was the standard issue battery that came with it. Unfortunately this little machine can't run stuff like the IAR compiler anymore, otherwise it would have been perfect. Also, from all the lab work its case starts to crumble ;-)

Regards, Joerg

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Reply to
Joerg
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I'd recommend a ThinkPad 240 series (preferably 240X, or 240Z if you can find one - they were Japan only IIRC). This is an ultralight. The fastest 240X they made was a 500MHz PIII. I had one with two extended batteries, each of which gave me about four hours of life. Very small and light. More importantly, it had serial and parallel ports (as well as USB). Should be able to pick one up in the $200 ballpark on eBay.

10.4" 800x600 LCD, by the way.
Reply to
Lewin A.R.W. Edwards

Whichever one you choose, be sure to check it has a serial interface. Many laptops these days no longer have one.

Ian

--
Ian Bell
Reply to
Ian Bell

A laptop or just something small and easy to move around?

Your lab lacks AC outlets?

Sounds like you want something ruggedized.

Reply to
Guy Macon

I am not sure what it is your after. You want long battery life, rugged case that doesn't crumble (ruggedized?), doesn't need a lot of CPU power. Was this a laptop or a ultra compact model? Were you wanting a long battery life for use outside your lab? Battery life nowadays, means you can't use a 14 ot 15 inch LCD screen on the laptop. Most of the battery power goes into maintaining the LCD panel. None of the laptops really have a decent battery run with the LCD panel lit up the entire time. If you were to be able to check the maptop battery run specs and data, you would see the long battery life runs were done with the LCD panel and other I/O devices doing into sleep mode for ost of the test.

For me the last good laptop I got a year ago was a Compaq Laptop for $999 at Sam's Club. It had a 15" LCD panel, 2.5ghz AMD chip, and most important of all was it still had a "real" RS232 port and a real "Parallel" port. Thus all my MCU software ran on it no problem. Plus I could use the USB ports for new MCU software too. Battery life was still not all that great, only a hour or so at best. But then you can carry an extra battery pack, and make more use of the AC adapter too. Some laptops work with a 12v Auto adapter or airplane seat adapter too. The problem is the 15" LCD takes a lot of power to run, especially with the backlight. Thus you can't watch a DVD movie on it running off of battery power alone.

The $545 Walmart laptopn isn't bad, but the 14" LCD sucks a lot of power, and it doesn't have a RS232 port. Some MCU programming software has trouble with the USB to serial adapters. You might have to buy several USB to serial adapters to get all the MCU software to work OK. Not all USB to Serial adpaters are equal. If you add a $100 to the price then this laptop

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would be a lot better, as it has a larger battery pack to give some longer battery run times. This Tatung laptop might be a better choice
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It has a small LCD, thus it uses less power to run the LCD panel. It runs

3-4 hours off the battery with the 12" LCD. Some of the Averatec ultra small laptops are maybe good choices like this one
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But ultra small or ultra thin means the battery pack is correspndingly small too.
Reply to
Earl Bollinger

No, no, it IS very bad indeed. Besides the fact that Wal-Mart was (until I came along - see comp.sys.laptops) falsely advertising it with a different CPU than that actually fitted (and the BIOS is hacked to report fraudulent CPU info, by the way), it really isn't a machine I could recommend to anyone. Even with the 8-cell battery, it only gets 80 minutes of runtime. Have a look at my review, - it has a summary of the Wal-Mart debacle.

Reply to
Lewin A.R.W. Edwards

My apologies, I stand corrected, I had no idea somebody would propagate such a fraud on everyone. Especially coming from such a big seller too.

Reply to
Earl Bollinger

IBM Thinkpad: great battery life and build quality. Plenty of second hand ones around. Panasonic Toughbook is another option if it's going to see a lot of a abuse, but I don't know what their battery life is like.

-- Mat.

Reply to
Mathew Hendry

For me, the lab is the penultimate stopping place for desktops before they become one with the landfill -- why use a laptop at all?

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Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
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Reply to
Tim Wescott

I've never had any problem with the $20 USB->serial interfaces under Linux. Windows support for them isn't great...

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Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow!  I'm having an
                                  at               emotional outburst!!
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Reply to
Grant Edwards

If your lab is in a constant state of being reconfigured, it's a royal PITA to keep shuffling desktop machines around from one bench to another.

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Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow!  .. Everything
                                  at               is....FLIPPING AROUND!!
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Reply to
Grant Edwards

|| The $545 Walmart laptopn isn't bad, but the 14" LCD sucks a lot of power, | | No, no, it IS very bad indeed. Besides the fact that Wal-Mart was (until | I came along - see comp.sys.laptops) falsely advertising it with a | different CPU than that actually fitted (and the BIOS is hacked to report | fraudulent CPU info, by the way), it really isn't a machine I could | recommend to anyone. Even with the 8-cell battery, it only gets 80 minutes | of runtime. Have a look at my review, | - it has a summary of the | Wal-Mart debacle.

From your review:

"Overall it is a good value. If you don't need to do games or video editing, this is a competent laptop and the price is just right. Given its design limitations, I'd give this product four and a half stars out of five. It loses the half-star solely because of the flimsy touchpad buttons."

If that isn't a recommendation I don't know what is.

--
MT

To reply directly, please take "your dick" out of my address.
Reply to
mark thomas

[...]

Rewarding deceit with 4-1/2 stars??? How about 0.

Reply to
Bryan Hackney

Yes.

Depending on what you're working on, there may be some advantage to having the ports isolated from earth if you're doing ISP kind of stuff on prototypes etc. Otherwise you may be one error away from disaster rather than two.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it's the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
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Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

Hmm yes. It is in reverse chronological order, of course. For the last few months I have only been working on the top. I guess I better edit that.

Reply to
Lewin A.R.W. Edwards

Which particular ones are you using? All the devices I've used either don't work with the evbs I need to use, or cause kernel panics sometimes (I can't work out the exact circumstances).

I just recently got a box of those tiny "all the electronics in the DB9 molding" types, based on the Cypress "M8" reference platform, and besides needing to upgrade to 2.6.10rc3 (which meant some quick hand-patching of my WLAN card driver!), I find that these devices don't work with the STK500 :((((((( Very sad. So it's back to the Keyspan, which doesn't like to be inserted on boot ("Badness in...") and chokes occasionally.

Reply to
Lewin A.R.W. Edwards

I've used a couple different no-name "brands" but they were all based on prolific chips.

The one that I've got handy right now says "micro innovations" on the DB-9 end. It's the style w/o the lump in the middle. I've also got another prolific one with a lump in the middle that plugs into my cell phone. There's one at work with a different brand that's identical to the "micro innovations" one.

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Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow!  Yes, Private
                                  at               DOBERMAN!!
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Reply to
Grant Edwards

Hi Guy,

Something light and easy to move around.

No. But when you go to a customer all you usually have is a small corner and it is more practical to be untethered. Often you have to move from one prototype to another on the spur of a moment.

Ideally, yes. But I don't have the budget of a defense department ;-)

Regards, Joerg

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Reply to
Joerg

Hi Earl,

It is a Compaq Contura 410 (not the smaller Aero). 12" or so B/W screen which is all I really ever need. The case cracked all around the perimeter and it can't run any newer Windows for lack of memory capacity. Battery life is not the #1 priority but helpful because in debugging you have to move around quite a bit. And the power outlets are usually behind a clutter of other gear and tons of cabling.

Just got a flier from Dell for a $599 deal on the Inspiron 1000. Couldn't find that on the web site but maybe that works as a laptop. However, battery life ain't great and no RS232 :-(

Regards, Joerg

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Reply to
Joerg

Hi Tim,

Yes, if it were just my lab. But then comes the time where things have to be tried out at the customer or sometimes in the field. The real field where the next power pole could be a couple miles behind the Klondike. Also, you have to fit it all into your carry-on, along with the nice slacks, shirt and tie for the final presentation to the big guys.

Totally OT: Is there a version of your PID article that has the figures inside the text? I think that paper is just the ticket to show someone how feedback works in daily life. Seems they don't learn much of that at college nowadays.

Regards, Joerg

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Reply to
Joerg

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