New Laptop

[tushar.matrix 1]

Hi All, I am very much new to Mrplc forum. I need to buy new laptop for PLC SCADA aplications. Please suggest me the sutable one model or brand. I have heard abaot new models not coming with Serial port and VISTA not suitable for Automation? Also What is PCMCIA? Please let me get your valuable Guidance................ Regards Tushar

[jimdi4 2]

I have heard abaot new models not coming with Serial port and VISTA not suitable for Automation? Also What is PCMCIA? http://www.pcmcia.org/

[tushar.matrix 1]

Thanks imdi4 your giudline helped me very well. can you guide with more information regrding vista and real serial port in nowdays laptops regarding automation appications. so that i can take decision . Thanks & regards 2shar

[BobLfoot 302]

I know that HP and Dell still make a couple of laptops with true serial ports. IMHO - "As far as the piece of junk operating system" Microsoft calls Vista stay away from it. Many of the DLL's and common toys that have been in windows since 3.11 for Workgroups have been "reengineered for Security" and are no longer backwards compatible. Yes I recently bought a Vista Desktop for my son's gaming platform. His lastest game purchases required it. And games designed for Vista do fine, but games written for XP and 2K need some TLC to stand up and get going. Not to mention that Vista has this "quirk" that if it detectes hardware not on it's approved list it refuses to communicate. For example my Linksys BEFSR41 Router was deemed not Vista compatible. Had been doing me just fine with 95, 98, 2K and XP. But even though Vista could ask for and receive an IP from it. Once it identified the router as not on the "approved" lsit it stopped communicating. IT Friend of mine claims that XP SP3 will be faster and more secure than Vista once Uncle Bill Gates is trready to eat crow and release it.

[Clay B. 1]

Serial port is not as big a deal as it used to be. I have a Keyspan USB to serial converter that works really well. Vista is pretty much a boat anchor right now when it comes to Automation programing. Seems nothing runs on it and everything you try to connect to gets shut down. Good News: I recently bought a Dell that runs XP Pro SP 2. Laptop has a serial port and a PCMA slot. Bad News: It cost me extra for these items. Due to what I work on currently I prefer this setup. I have alot of legacey (polite name for obsolite) equipment that I have to work on so I my needs may not be the same as yours. Suggestion: Look at what you will be working on, that will tell you what you really need. Also where you will be working at plays a part. Will you be able to plug in power to the Laptop easily or will you mostly be working off battery power. One other thing to consider is networking. Where I am at we have wireless though out the plant. That is how I connect to my company network so my laptop also has wireless built in. What I use: Dell Latitude D531 Hope this helps.

[gravitar 3]

Two words: Panasonic Toughbook

[tushar.matrix 1]

[jimdi4 2]

I am at the panasonic website http://www.buytough.com/7-Series.asp and there are several models available...What model did you get?

[bikerdude 0]

This is the Toughbook we got during the summer of '07. "CF-52AJCBDBM" I like it much better that the IBM ThinkPad I used to have. The only problem is the screen resoulition is way too high. That makes the text so small it's hard to read. The high screen resolution is an option that I didn't notice on the CDW web site. I should have ordered the other model with WXGA (1280 x 800) instead of WUXGA (1920 x 1200) both are 15.4" screens. Good luck P.S. the Serial, Ethernet & PCMCIA ports on the Toughbook are working well for AB comunications on XP Pro. BD TB_52_ss.pdf

[panic mode 246]

how is high resolution problem? things look too small? i use WUXGA for past three years and love it if you have trouble with things appearing too small, just change DPI setting and you can make it look as large as on 640x480 display - but much sharper. i'e just recently actually seen panasonic tough book first hand. it was business tough how they call it, very slick and light, but: - the display resolution was only 1024x768 which for me is not usable, i need two full pages side by side so I'm only looking for my 15" WUXGA . - HDD was only 60Gb (ok I know it's shock proof etc but honestly I have to draw the line, this is too small. rugged is nice but i need at least 120-160Gb to start with and - I still carry external 2.5" HDD) - it could only read DVDs and burn CDs, I need to burn DVDs all the time and sometimes DLs - CPU was dual core but only 1.6GHz i know they have more models and some are more powerfull but i like to see and touch before I buy and as said, this is the first one I came accross... the checked mentioned model 52 and looks much more like it, DVD burner, heaps or RAM (extra $100 for 4Gb), XP Pro, decent display, Gigabit LAN, wireless etc. and still under $3k (thats 40% less than what my current Dell used to cost), I need to figure out way to sway my boss, maybe holiday spirit can help...