Avia Virtual Instruments for Windows PCs

[DaveJ]

I brought a Asus EEPC as they use solid state HD's, small in Gig's, but you can always increase with SD cards (they make 32 gig ones now). With solid state HD, they basically resistant to every thing but a hammer.

[DaveJ]

Oh, i forgot the mention, i have just the bare bones system on the internal HD, put oziexplorer and the maps on one SD card, and seaclearII and its maps on another SD card. Have velcro pads on the bottom EEPC, with matching velcro pads on my 4WD and when i use use it in the boat, just swap SD card to sea clear II.

[TerryKing]

Davej, that sounds like a workable approach for marine use. Couple questions:

- Does the SD card appear as D: or some removable drive?
- What is the SD interface? Can you have more than one SD card active?

- What OS version are you running? How did you "Strip it down"?? (I have seen scripts that will strip XP down to different degrees depending on what functionality you want to leave.)

- How much do you actively control OziExplorer underway? Zoom, etc? Driving as both pilot and navigator doesn't leave much mouse capability :-)

Does the EEpc have any external display capability? I'm looking at what needs to be done to have a waterproof at-the-helm capability...

..lots of stuff to consider!

It's an amazing era. My Nokia phone has GPS and the free Nokia maps of Saudi Arabia have every little alley in Jeddah. Walking in 105 F 'weather' it was nice not to get lost...

[mark775]

Maretron N2KView, http://www.maretron.com/products/N2KView.php , is down to under $500. Is what you guys are talking about as capable?

[DaveJ]

TerryKing: The SD card appears as a removable drive, but is always call D:, you install the software to that drive, just make sure that the correct SD card is in the drive for the piece of software you want to run, otherwise it just complains it can't find it. the version of EEPC that i have which is the 7" can be obtained with windows XP or Linux, i run the XP version, thinking i should have got the linux version (XP version is slightly dearer).

The sc card slot will take the SDHC cards so up to 32 gig, it also has 3 USB ports, eithernet 100, and 54mhz wifi. It has the standard vga port for a second monitor but due to the limited capablility of the device it only supports 800x600 res. the battery life is 3.5 hrs but does have a DC input, and it all weights 1kg.

In my 4WD i use a mouse ontop of the dash to help with navagating, but the end goal is to use a touch screen monitor and that will be the method of inferface for the boat, that i haven't got yet, but thinking ahead.

[TerryKing]

Thanks, DaveJ..

The 800x600 should be OK for at-the-helm. Maybe actually better for underway visibility.

I don't think OziExplorer runs on Linux??

[DaveJ]

Fonts becomes a issue with higher resolutions, so with you that 800x600 is fine navagating with.

[farjoe]

Originally Posted by DaveJ

TerryKing: The SD card appears as a removable drive, but is always call D:, you install the software to that drive, just make sure that the correct SD card is in the drive for the piece of software you want to run, otherwise it just complains it can't find it. the version of EEPC that i have which is the 7" can be obtained with windows XP or Linux, i run the XP version, thinking i should have got the linux version (XP version is slightly dearer).

The sc card slot will take the SDHC cards so up to 32 gig, it also has 3 USB ports, eithernet 100, and 54mhz wifi. It has the standard vga port for a second monitor but due to the limited capablility of the device it only supports 800x600 res. the battery life is 3.5 hrs but does have a DC input, and it all weights 1kg.

In my 4WD i use a mouse ontop of the dash to help with navagating, but the end goal is to use a touch screen monitor and that will be the method of inferface for the boat, that i haven't got yet, but thinking ahead.

A friend of mine just brought over for me an MSI netbook from Singapore for use on the boat. It has XP, 2gb and a 160Gb hard drive and a 10" screen all for 280Euros.

Together with a Haicom USB GPS (30Euro), a 12V adaptor ( 10Euro) I have installed Garmin mobilePC for land use and SeaClear for sailing. When weekending I can still use the netbook for playing and if a hotspot is available I can surf the net. An SSD drive for robustnesss is in the pipeline.

Compare that to a standard wind instrument at about 250euro at least.

I'm made up!!!

[DaveJ]

There are afew different companies making these sort of notebooks, they are light, compact yet powerfull. My choice in the Asus was based on the fact they where the only ones that where manufacturing (about 1/2 year ago) such a small device with a solid state HD, i feel with all the twisting, bumping and jarring in my 4WD while moving over harsh terrain will damage normal HD.