Waterproof external monitor for laptop

If you go on eBay and do a search for '7 VGA monitor', you will come up with
many 7" monitors that may suit you. These are not waterproof, but they are
touchscreen which allows for remote control of laptop and could perhaps be
protected with a plastic cover in bad weather. They are relatively
inexpensive. Here is one typical auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Lilliput-7-Touch-Screen-Touchscreen-XGA-VGA-Mo...or_W0QQ

I had been thinking about doing this myself, but now use my iPaq PPC with
Fugawi - It works well both on the boat and in the car and in bad weather I
just drop a ziploc bag over it.

A new product should be on the market soon - The so-called Ultra Mobile -
Samsung, Asus and others will have them. These units are bigger than an iPaq
but smaller than a laptop and ideal for mobile computing and GPS display.
Again, they won't be weatherproof, but as with the iPaq, should be easily
protected in bad weather with plastic cover or just put it down below or on
a bracket?

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/umpc/hardware.mspx

Good Luck!

GBM

"DPFresh" wrote in message

> Hi all, different topic. SO in setting up my nav center - Dell laptop
> with
> SeaClear software... I want to keep the laptop in the cabin so as to
> avoid
> exposing it to elements... So I was thinking I could find some sort of
> waterproof external monitor to run from the laptop to outside the boat
> near
> the tiller.... Does anyone know of such a monitor for this purpose?
>
> Thanks,
> David
>
 >> Stay informed about: Waterproof external monitor for laptop 

DPFresh wrote:
> Hi all, different topic. SO in setting up my nav center - Dell laptop
> with
> SeaClear software... I want to keep the laptop in the cabin so as to
> avoid
> exposing it to elements... So I was thinking I could find some sort of
> waterproof external monitor to run from the laptop to outside the boat
> near
> the tiller.... Does anyone know of such a monitor for this purpose?
>
> Thanks,
> David

Waterproof daylight-viewable TFT monitors were available some years ago at
around $4000 US. You will not be able to see a "normal" TFT monitor until it
gets pretty dark, hence the advice not to use laptops out of doors.

Dennis.
 >> Stay informed about: Waterproof external monitor for laptop 

"Dennis Pogson" wrote in
$Y6.585@newsfe3-win.ntli.net:

> hence the advice not to use laptops out of doors

The other problem is that EVERY laptop you can buy has a glossy, flat
mirror protecting the LCD display. If you sit anywhere in bright light,
like outdoors or near a bright window indoors, the damned thing lets you
see YOURSELF or your surroundings smack dab in the middle of the picture.
It's like watching a movie through a mirror.....and really aggravating.

There's gotta be a better way....
 >> Stay informed about: Waterproof external monitor for laptop 

On 20 Apr 2006 13:09:02 -0700, "DPFresh"
wrote:

>Hi all, different topic. SO in setting up my nav center - Dell laptop
>with
>SeaClear software... I want to keep the laptop in the cabin so as to
>avoid
>exposing it to elements... So I was thinking I could find some sort of
>waterproof external monitor to run from the laptop to outside the boat
>near
>the tiller.... Does anyone know of such a monitor for this purpose?

http://www.myelectronics.nl/index.html?lang=en-us&target=d164.html

Select waterproof displays.

Don't know the thing.

Cheers!


Remco
 >> Stay informed about: Waterproof external monitor for laptop 

"Steve Lusardi" wrote in message

> David,
> There are several issues that make PC screens unsuitable for marine use.
> There are considerations for power, protection from the harsh enrinment
> etc., but a real driver that few people are aware of is night viewing. It
is
> imperitive that the display dims to black. PC monitors will not.

Steve,

For night viewing, a special monitor is not needed, because software can
compensate. For example, Fugawi, one of the popular Nav programs has this
feature. To quote from their feature list:

"Dusk and Night vision display with color shifts designed to international
maritime standards."

We use this program on our boat and our car nav program 'iGuidance' has the
same feature whether I am using the laptop or iPaq.

GBM
 >> Stay informed about: Waterproof external monitor for laptop 

David,
There are several issues that make PC screens unsuitable for marine use.
There are considerations for power, protection from the harsh enrinment
etc., but a real driver that few people are aware of is night viewing. It is
imperitive that the display dims to black. PC monitors will not. Marine
grade monitors are more money for two reasons. One is certification tests
and the other is durability. Please check out this site.
http://www.hatteland.com/ They make a large majority of the available marine
screens relabled under different brands. If you avoid the commercial
certified screens and go with the yacht screens, you will end up with the
marine performance sans certification costs.

Please also be aware that when interfacing things like black box radars, be
aware of aspect ratio, not just screen size. If the screen size does not
physically match the resolution to be used, circles appear as ovals and that
really looks horrible.
Steve

"DPFresh" wrote in message

> Hi all, different topic. SO in setting up my nav center - Dell laptop
> with
> SeaClear software... I want to keep the laptop in the cabin so as to
> avoid
> exposing it to elements... So I was thinking I could find some sort of
> waterproof external monitor to run from the laptop to outside the boat
> near
> the tiller.... Does anyone know of such a monitor for this purpose?
>
> Thanks,
> David
>
 >> Stay informed about: Waterproof external monitor for laptop 

At only 350 to 600 nits those exterior displays don't seem to be daylight
viewable.

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

"Steve Lusardi" wrote in message

> David,
> There are several issues that make PC screens unsuitable for marine use.
> There are considerations for power, protection from the harsh enrinment
> etc., but a real driver that few people are aware of is night viewing. It
> is imperitive that the display dims to black. PC monitors will not. Marine
> grade monitors are more money for two reasons. One is certification tests
> and the other is durability. Please check out this site.
> http://www.hatteland.com/ They make a large majority of the available
> marine screens relabled under different brands. If you avoid the
> commercial certified screens and go with the yacht screens, you will end
> up with the marine performance sans certification costs.
>
> Please also be aware that when interfacing things like black box radars,
> be aware of aspect ratio, not just screen size. If the screen size does
> not physically match the resolution to be used, circles appear as ovals
> and that really looks horrible.
> Steve
>
> "DPFresh" wrote in message
>
>> Hi all, different topic. SO in setting up my nav center - Dell laptop
>> with
>> SeaClear software... I want to keep the laptop in the cabin so as to
>> avoid
>> exposing it to elements... So I was thinking I could find some sort of
>> waterproof external monitor to run from the laptop to outside the boat
>> near
>> the tiller.... Does anyone know of such a monitor for this purpose?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> David
>>
>
>
 >> Stay informed about: Waterproof external monitor for laptop 

Glenn,
To be honest, I don't know if they are, but an email to them would sort it
out. I do know that they are very good and not too bad in price.
Steve

"Glenn Ashmore" wrote in message

> At only 350 to 600 nits those exterior displays don't seem to be daylight
> viewable.
>
> --
> Glenn Ashmore
>
> I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
> there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
> Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com
>
> "Steve Lusardi" wrote in message
>
>> David,
>> There are several issues that make PC screens unsuitable for marine use.
>> There are considerations for power, protection from the harsh enrinment
>> etc., but a real driver that few people are aware of is night viewing. It
>> is imperitive that the display dims to black. PC monitors will not.
>> Marine grade monitors are more money for two reasons. One is
>> certification tests and the other is durability. Please check out this
>> site. http://www.hatteland.com/ They make a large majority of the
>> available marine screens relabled under different brands. If you avoid
>> the commercial certified screens and go with the yacht screens, you will
>> end up with the marine performance sans certification costs.
>>
>> Please also be aware that when interfacing things like black box radars,
>> be aware of aspect ratio, not just screen size. If the screen size does
>> not physically match the resolution to be used, circles appear as ovals
>> and that really looks horrible.
>> Steve
>>
>> "DPFresh" wrote in message
>>
>>> Hi all, different topic. SO in setting up my nav center - Dell laptop
>>> with
>>> SeaClear software... I want to keep the laptop in the cabin so as to
>>> avoid
>>> exposing it to elements... So I was thinking I could find some sort of
>>> waterproof external monitor to run from the laptop to outside the boat
>>> near
>>> the tiller.... Does anyone know of such a monitor for this purpose?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> David
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
 >> Stay informed about: Waterproof external monitor for laptop 

GBM,
I'm not speaking about the dimming of just the displayed data. I'm talking
about the back glow of the powered up screen itself. The back glow on some
of these PC screens will light up the whole cockpit ruining your night
vision. No software fixes that.
Steve

"GBM" wrote in message

>
> "Steve Lusardi" wrote in message
>
>> David,
>> There are several issues that make PC screens unsuitable for marine use.
>> There are considerations for power, protection from the harsh enrinment
>> etc., but a real driver that few people are aware of is night viewing. It
> is
>> imperitive that the display dims to black. PC monitors will not.
>
> Steve,
>
> For night viewing, a special monitor is not needed, because software can
> compensate. For example, Fugawi, one of the popular Nav programs has this
> feature. To quote from their feature list:
>
> "Dusk and Night vision display with color shifts designed to international
> maritime standards."
>
> We use this program on our boat and our car nav program 'iGuidance' has
> the
> same feature whether I am using the laptop or iPaq.
>
> GBM
>
>
 >> Stay informed about: Waterproof external monitor for laptop 

"Steve Lusardi" wrote in message

> GBM,
> I'm not speaking about the dimming of just the displayed data. I'm talking
> about the back glow of the powered up screen itself. The back glow on some
> of these PC screens will light up the whole cockpit ruining your night
> vision. No software fixes that.
> Steve

Steve,

Perhaps some laptops may do that, but we have sailed with a conventional
laptop sitting on cabin top, under bimini day and night and not found it to
be a problem.

We also use our iPaq day and night with the software compensating for
day/night conditions and it works perfectly - even in car where any glare
would be distracting. The iPaq has adjustable backlighting (as do most
laptops) but I don't find any need to adjust it - it's mainly a power saving
feature.

Do the low cost chartplotters by Garmin and others have any special nightime
visibility built into their displays? I seem to recall that they too have
software that changes colours for day/night use and perhaps they too have
adjustable backlighting like the iPaq.

I am sure that the commercial displays are better, but for us at least, we
see no problems using standard low cost computer hardware for recreational
navigation purposes.

GBM
 >> Stay informed about: Waterproof external monitor for laptop 

DPFresh wrote:
> Hi all, different topic. SO in setting up my nav center - Dell laptop
> with
> SeaClear software... I want to keep the laptop in the cabin so as to
> avoid
> exposing it to elements... So I was thinking I could find some sort of
> waterproof external monitor to run from the laptop to outside the boat
> near
> the tiller.... Does anyone know of such a monitor for this purpose?
>
> Thanks,
> David

personally i think it's better to think "big picture" on this. what is
the goal ? to see your charts and other information out in the cockpit
near the tiller from now until the cows come home. you want it to work
in all conditions, have high reliability, be difficult to steal, etc.

one solution to that is to get a marine monitor which is going to set
you back about 4k$us. has high brightness and is made for the
environment, that's it's high point, it's the "perfect solution" or as
close as there is to one. bad points include things such as ... well,
it's expensive, you'll worry about someone taking it, you'll worry
about it being damaged and you might turn into one of those annoying
"don't touch that" people, chances are it's going to get scratched or
broken by your man over board pole or when you're loading supplies or
during that unexpected storm that drops giant hail stones or something.
a marine monitor is going to be a princess and will want to be treated
as such, it's just a very expensive piece of deck equipment, one that's
exposed to the same sort of abuse that any deck equipment is.

OR, you can just get a couple of cheap monitors and shield them from
the sun. tons of choices and they are coming down in price all the
time. even better you can get used laptops off of ebay for 100$us or
200$us and have some sort of mount made for them. disadvantages are
obvious, it's not the perfect display, harder to see if you don't have
some kind of sun shield, not as fancy as your perfect marine monitor
maybe though i'm sure you could make just as nice a mount for it, etc,
etc, i'm sure there are some other disadvantages as well. advantages,
price .. since it costs a few hundred $us you can buy TEN of them
instead of one marine monitor. in the "big picture" that's better
because then you won't worry about it so much, you won't be a "don't
touch that" person, you won't care so much that it's getting salt
encrusted on it, you won't care so much that it's sitting in the sun
all the time. if someone gets onboard and steals it, who cares, you've
got another one, and if someone accidentally scratches the face of it
with deck equipment it doesn't matter either. true peace of mind, if
it breaks, you install another one, just like anything else on deck, it
becomes a tool that can break and that you can have spares for,
something you can rely on.

your significant other has really already proven the point, you've got
an expensive Dell laptop you don't want to expose to the elements. if
you had a couple of 200$us ebay laptops you wouldn't care, and you'd
have spares.

just a thought.

(i realize fully that there are people for which 4k$us is pocket change
and they can afford to swap out 4k$us monitors all day long ... but
that's not me! lol)
 >> Stay informed about: Waterproof external monitor for laptop 

DPFresh wrote:

> Hi all, different topic. SO in setting up my nav center - Dell laptop
> with
> SeaClear software... I want to keep the laptop in the cabin so as to
> avoid
> exposing it to elements... So I was thinking I could find some sort of
> waterproof external monitor to run from the laptop to outside the boat
> near
> the tiller.... Does anyone know of such a monitor for this purpose?
>

The Panasonic Toughbook line has some interesting stuff. The line
includes a tablet model (MDWD) that could be mounted in the cockpit to
provide a wireless data mobile display (with full I/O) for programs
running on a nearby laptop.

All of the fully ruggedized pieces (they are also some less ruggedized
models in the line) in that hardware line look to be pretty well
qualified for marine use.

Check the models out here, http://tinyurl.com/bwrnk

The stuff on the trailing edge is available at fair to good prices on
eBay and through a number of online houses specializing in
medical/industrial needs.

The prices might create a little sticker shock but I suspect that in the
long run, the toughness and survivability will offset the initial costs.

Jack


--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA - jackerbes at adelphia dot net
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine.com)
 >> Stay informed about: Waterproof external monitor for laptop 

Doesn't most nav software allow only a limited number of usages (like
2?)? So what happens when your cheap ebay laptop crashes? Isn't your
software history also?
Just wondering
Gordon

"purple_stars" wrote in message

> DPFresh wrote:
> > Hi all, different topic. SO in setting up my nav center - Dell laptop
> > with
> > SeaClear software... I want to keep the laptop in the cabin so as to
> > avoid
> > exposing it to elements... So I was thinking I could find some sort of
> > waterproof external monitor to run from the laptop to outside the boat
> > near
> > the tiller.... Does anyone know of such a monitor for this purpose?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > David
>
> personally i think it's better to think "big picture" on this. what is
> the goal ? to see your charts and other information out in the cockpit
> near the tiller from now until the cows come home. you want it to work
> in all conditions, have high reliability, be difficult to steal, etc.
>
> one solution to that is to get a marine monitor which is going to set
> you back about 4k$us. has high brightness and is made for the
> environment, that's it's high point, it's the "perfect solution" or as
> close as there is to one. bad points include things such as ... well,
> it's expensive, you'll worry about someone taking it, you'll worry
> about it being damaged and you might turn into one of those annoying
> "don't touch that" people, chances are it's going to get scratched or
> broken by your man over board pole or when you're loading supplies or
> during that unexpected storm that drops giant hail stones or something.
> a marine monitor is going to be a princess and will want to be treated
> as such, it's just a very expensive piece of deck equipment, one that's
> exposed to the same sort of abuse that any deck equipment is.
>
> OR, you can just get a couple of cheap monitors and shield them from
> the sun. tons of choices and they are coming down in price all the
> time. even better you can get used laptops off of ebay for 100$us or
> 200$us and have some sort of mount made for them. disadvantages are
> obvious, it's not the perfect display, harder to see if you don't have
> some kind of sun shield, not as fancy as your perfect marine monitor
> maybe though i'm sure you could make just as nice a mount for it, etc,
> etc, i'm sure there are some other disadvantages as well. advantages,
> price .. since it costs a few hundred $us you can buy TEN of them
> instead of one marine monitor. in the "big picture" that's better
> because then you won't worry about it so much, you won't be a "don't
> touch that" person, you won't care so much that it's getting salt
> encrusted on it, you won't care so much that it's sitting in the sun
> all the time. if someone gets onboard and steals it, who cares, you've
> got another one, and if someone accidentally scratches the face of it
> with deck equipment it doesn't matter either. true peace of mind, if
> it breaks, you install another one, just like anything else on deck, it
> becomes a tool that can break and that you can have spares for,
> something you can rely on.
>
> your significant other has really already proven the point, you've got
> an expensive Dell laptop you don't want to expose to the elements. if
> you had a couple of 200$us ebay laptops you wouldn't care, and you'd
> have spares.
>
> just a thought.
>
> (i realize fully that there are people for which 4k$us is pocket change
> and they can afford to swap out 4k$us monitors all day long ... but
> that's not me! lol)
>
 >> Stay informed about: Waterproof external monitor for laptop