Poll

What type of computer do you use for your weather station?

Standard Desktop or Tower
96 (54.5%)
Mini Desktop or Tower
23 (13.1%)
Laptop
22 (12.5%)
Netbook
14 (8%)
Other
21 (11.9%)

Total Members Voted: 174

Author Topic: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?  (Read 42657 times)

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Offline Garth Bock

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #25 on: May 04, 2009, 11:10:38 AM »
Hey Mark, don't forget that both lightning and webcams can work on USB which the Netbooks/mincros have.  :)  Add a hub for 10-15 bucks and you can add all the devices you want.

The maximum number of devices on a USB 2.0 port is 127. Devices are rated in unit loads with one unit load rated at 100 mA. A maximum of 5 unit loads may be drawn from a USB port. Devices use a minimum of 1 unit load initially at connection and then can switch from low power to high power mode if the device requires it and can use the maximum units. A powered hub (not to be confused with Powered USB designed by NCR and IBM) utilizes only 1 unit load. So you can hook more devices up to a USB port with the hub supplying power for the devices connected to it. I believe that the limit is 5 hubs (???) and total cable lengths are factored in. However, power is not the only problem, communication is. While USB 2.0 is rated at 480 MB/s most hi-speed devices operate at an average of 10-20 MB/s. The maximum cable length allowed is around 15 feet or 5 meters because of the maximum delay in communications that is allowed is 1500 ns. When adding up the USB device response time, delays from using the maximum number of hubs, and delays from the connecting cables, the maximum acceptable delay per cable turns out to be 26 ns. So if you have a usb web cam, and are writing constantly to usb hard drives and have other usb devices transmitting, communications can slow down. This is USB standards and mileage can and will vary in the real world.

Offline Bushman

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #26 on: May 04, 2009, 11:15:58 AM »
Technically correct, BUT... get a  USB extender and 50 -100 meters is no prob at all for a webcam.  BTDT.  :)
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Offline Garth Bock

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #27 on: May 04, 2009, 02:33:51 PM »
Yes an extender gets you over the length limit BUT there is still a limit because of response time and communication timers. I worked with a DJ who had 2 USB Hubs with one chained off the other and had 3 hard drives connected to them and a couple of pen drives. She couldn't understand why there was a delay in cue'ing songs compared to my system that used no hubs. 

Offline Bushman

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #28 on: May 04, 2009, 04:33:03 PM »
All I can tell you is that a Sabrent USB extender (USB 1.1) will reliably stream full motion video over 50 meters of cat5e cable.  YMMV
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Offline Bushman

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #29 on: May 05, 2009, 05:39:57 PM »
Killer deal on SSHD Netbook:  http://www.computertrends.com/product-zoom.asp?productId=877&categoryid=26  What's that $140 US?
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Offline DanS

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #30 on: May 05, 2009, 05:50:28 PM »
Killer deal on SSHD Netbook:  http://www.computertrends.com/product-zoom.asp?productId=877&categoryid=26  What's that $140 US?

Yeah that does look like a good deal. I wonder what the catch is. I'm curious if the 20Gb online storage (trial) is a catch where you'd have to join or subscribe to a plan and they get the money from you there. Kind of similar to the "Free Cell Phone (with a year subscription of $299 blah blah"). That's $199 and the store is from Alaska so I guess it's U.S. dollars.  :-k
« Last Edit: May 05, 2009, 05:57:28 PM by DanS »

Offline Bushman

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #31 on: May 05, 2009, 07:02:40 PM »
Actually, that is a chain of Canadian PC stores.  So that is $199 CAD (or about $169 US at today's rates).  The deal on the online storage is via Asus - you don't have to sign up for anything unless you want to extend your online storage.
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Offline Garth Bock

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #32 on: May 06, 2009, 02:59:47 PM »
I have a Dell Mini 9 and have gone from Ubuntu to WinXPPro and kicked up the memory to 1gb and changed out the 8gb ssd to 16gb. This Asus is very much like the Mini 9 but has a better keyboard. Don't expect it to run like a rabbit. The Atom processor is good but not that great. The price is really good but I would order upgrades to memory and replace the SSD to make it fly better. The price plus the cost of the upgrades would make it less expensive than the Dell. Couldn't find on the website if you could order online. One thing to think of though....it has to come across the border and would have some tariffs tacked on which could kill the savings.

Offline Garth Bock

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #33 on: May 06, 2009, 03:04:21 PM »
Actually, that is a chain of Canadian PC stores.  So that is $199 CAD (or about $169 US at today's rates).  The deal on the online storage is via Asus - you don't have to sign up for anything unless you want to extend your online storage.

While the free storage is offered....would you want to put your data on a strangers server ???? I bought a 500gb usb powered hard drive at Worst Buy and it is good fit next to the Mini 9.

Offline Bushman

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #34 on: May 06, 2009, 04:54:26 PM »
No tariffs involved; MFN and all that.  I think that netbook actually comes with 1 BG memory; no real need to up it to 2 GM (20 bucks if you want to though).  4 GB  is enough for XP Pro (nLited), MS Ooffice and all the weather SW you could want.
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Offline Mark / Ohio

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #35 on: May 11, 2009, 12:19:43 AM »
... So far it has run now little over 5 days with no reboot and no problems.  (Knocking on wood.   :mrgreen:)  So either I fixed it or I torqued a hairline connection crack that will return to haunt me again on it's own time.  One or the other.   8-[ 

It's back.  All I did was click the 'X' to close task manager after checking the memory usage and POOF!  Blue screen.   #-o  Back to the drawing board.  The error shown lead to a number of possibilities.  The event viewer gives no clues.  Today I set it to record a mini dump log.  Provided I can figure out how to read it and it actually gives a clue, maybe that will lead to something.  Also still need to run a RAM test on it when I have time.  Gotta love random, intermittent, non-re creatable problems.  Like I don't see enough of them at my day job.   :lol:

This did start after running Boinc for a few days.  For some reason it took a couple of tries and reboots to get it to run.  Can't help but wonder if something flubbered during that in the graphics setup.  (That was the first program I removed to see if it was the cause.)  One of these days I swear I'm going to start logging time and date of every install, update, and setting change I make as a troubleshooting reference for issues like this that popup later down the road.  Sure would make it easier for backtracking to troubleshoot provided it is software rather then a hardware problem then relying on my aging memory.    :roll:
« Last Edit: May 11, 2009, 12:21:34 AM by Mark / Ohio »
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Offline DanS

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #36 on: May 11, 2009, 01:26:57 AM »
"Gotta love random, intermittent, non-re creatable problems.  Like I don't see enough of them at my day job."

Definately the hardest to locate but if it were a recurring, localized type of problem there would be no challenge for your troubleshooting abilities. :roll: (yeah like that makes you feel better).

Guess you tried reseating all the boards and relocating the RAM SIMMS to see if the problem changes in it's nature.?
Check the power supply voltages as well?
Not much help but thought I'd ask anyway. Man, good luck if it does turn out to be a hairline fracture or a cold solder joint.
Dan
   

« Last Edit: May 11, 2009, 01:30:21 AM by DanS »

Offline Mark / Ohio

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #37 on: May 11, 2009, 10:08:57 PM »
...Guess you tried reseating all the boards and relocating the RAM SIMMS to see if the problem changes in it's nature.?
Check the power supply voltages as well?....

Yep, tried reseating the RAM SIMMS but have not measured the power supply voltages or took it to work to scope them for noise.  I'm still leaning toward either the hard drive or a bad stick of RAM.  From the errors I've seen it appears to be a data corruption issue either in writing or reading files.  Probably next pull one stick at a time and wait to see what happens.  Generally I've found in switch mode supplies of TV's and VCRs if caps start going out of tolerance or other parts are breaking down they tend to be worse about it on cold startup rather then once up running and warm.  Thus a crash on bootup or shortly after when the supply would be under heavier load rather then after running for several days on end would make more sense.  But with electronics you never know until it's fixed.   ;)
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Offline DanS

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #38 on: May 11, 2009, 10:56:28 PM »
"I'm still leaning toward either the hard drive or a bad stick of RAM."

Wouldn't either of these possibilities give different results? That is the RAM stick give an indication while booting during the earlier BIOS reading stage vs. the hard disk giving indications after all the BIOS reading is done and it goes on loading the OS?  :?:  Of course being intermittent in nature I guess it can "blue screen" you any time it feels like it, huh.
« Last Edit: May 12, 2009, 03:38:21 AM by DanS »

Offline Mark / Ohio

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #39 on: May 13, 2009, 12:39:44 AM »
...Wouldn't either of these possibilities give different results? That is the RAM stick give an indication while booting during the earlier BIOS reading stage vs. the hard disk giving indications after all the BIOS reading is done and it goes on loading the OS?  :?: 

Beats me.   :lol:  Bootup would be the most stressful for more then just the  power suplly looking at it that way.  Thinking back I did twice get an error on a corrupted registry file on boot up and it automatically reverted back to a saved file.  That was right after I uninstalled Boinc.  I run the registry cleaner in CCleaner and that one went away.  At the time I passed it off since I had trouble installing Boinc to start with as something related to the bad installs.  But it all may be very well related to the BSODs.

 
Of course being intermittent in nature I guess it can "blue screen" you any time it feels like it, huh.

That would seem to be the case.   :lol:  Two days, 13 hours up time and all's well for now again.  I even logged in from work this afternoon on it.  That pretty much maxes out the CPU usage enough to the point I can cause StartWatch to begin shutting down and restarting some of the software as they appear to it to be hung from the slow response time.  Still no blue screen even doing that.  Changed a couple settings in VWS, logged back out, StartWatch brought all the software back up without issue.  Oh well, once it took me the better part of a year to figure out why it would not boot into safe mode.  Stupid little VGA mode setting of some sort I finally found solved that.   :roll:  This issue is looking like it might turn into another long termer.  Better then totally dead and needing immediate attention I guess.  At least for now it works most of the time.   ;)


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Offline DanS

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #40 on: May 13, 2009, 01:36:22 AM »
Glad it's working (for now anyway). For me personally I think I'd prefer it totally dead and needing immediate attention. That way you could do the repairs, knowing what's wrong at least, and feel more confident with it when it's restored.
« Last Edit: May 13, 2009, 01:41:29 AM by DanS »

Offline W3DRM

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #41 on: May 13, 2009, 01:53:58 AM »
I am beginning to set up my new Acer 10.1" netbook as my main weather pc. It should be on-line in the next couple of weeks barring any major interruptions. Will post the results once I am fully operational. This particular netbook has 1GB of Memory and a 120GB hard drive.

I'll be installing Virtual VP, VPLive, Image Salse, Movie Salsa, VWS, WeatherLink, WeatherDisplay and some other miscellaneous programs on it. My Davis VP2 (serial port) will be hooked up via a USB-Serial adapter and hopefully it will be stable without hang-ups.

The new Acer 10.1" Netbook is a pretty nice little unit. Easy access to the memory and hard disk unlike the older 8.9" model. I'm tempted to get another one for casual use around the house. The battery life on this thing is well in excess of 6-hours. The only thing that has taken some time to get used to is the smaller keyboard and the tempermental mouse-pad (it does strange things every once in a while and I don't understand why - probably just me or some obscure setup setting I haven't found yet).

Once I get this thing up and running, I'll change my vote from Desktop to Netbook...
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Offline Bushman

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #42 on: May 13, 2009, 09:19:18 AM »
Just got an Aspire in (for someone else) and it is nice.  I prefer my Asus FWIW, but it is nice.  Screen is gorgeous!  You are right about the touchpad - but you can go into the control panel for the touchpad and adjust its sensitivity.
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Offline Mark / Ohio

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #43 on: July 14, 2009, 12:58:04 AM »
Bump for any of the newer members that might want to participate in this poll.   :grin:
Mark 
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Offline Cienega32

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #44 on: July 15, 2009, 03:55:01 AM »
Mark - how did you make out with that problem you had with BSODs?

If that Boinc is anything like Folding@Home, I went thru 6 or 7 months of hair pulling with that on mine. Seemed every now and then it would get allergic to the accelerated mode in an ATI graphics card I had. More so the drivers than the card. Went back to an old version until an update came out. No more problems.

I started running the Wx on my now 4 year old HP DV1000 laptop that I had bought for roads trips/out of town house hunting. After I started "publishing" my Wx data and then realizing that the Wx was interfering with the 5 or 6 open windows during Football Sundays and finally getting rid of that FAH conflict with the ATI card on the other machine, I moved it over to the 775 type P4 3G with a meg of ram that I built about 5 or 6 years ago or so. 5 years for me is way overdue for upgrades/rebuilds but the house seems to suck me dry with projects. I did manage to replace all my drives with SATA units from Western Digital - those 'green power' units. One machine (for audio/video edit/burn) had 5 drives and I would swear the street lites dimmed when I powered it up.

But the box with the Wx stuff is the daily driver and I'm slowly using it for more and more Wx related stuff so it might be time to build a new box and push this one down the line. I still want one of those low power laptops! It's amazing how much more energy conscious one gets when they own the joint...

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Offline Mark / Ohio

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #45 on: July 16, 2009, 09:50:52 PM »
Mark - how did you make out with that problem you had with BSODs?....

My old 1999 466MHz steam engine is still plugging along.   At this time it has run 26 days without a reboot. StartWatch has rebooted the weather software a couple of times since the last system reboot due to the internet connection momentarily dropping out.  Setting StartWatch to monitor access to my website a year or so ago pretty well cured any FTP issues the software was having.  I still don't know what was going on with it.  Maybe I was just pushing it too hard for it's age.  The last changes I made to it was to discontinue running Cumulus on it for now and dropped back on my realtime uploads to 5-10 seconds instead of 2-3.  That brought the average CPU load back below 60%.

Otherwise while she's working I'm trying to avoid fixing it.   ;)
Mark 
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Offline kanewolf

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #46 on: July 17, 2009, 12:03:15 PM »
I guess I would call my setup "other".  I think the Shuttle "lunchbox" computers make excellent appliances. My weather station is run on a Shuttle with an AMD low power dual core CPU.  I am one of the oddballs which uses Linux for my weather station.  This was a replacement for an NSLU2 which was just too slow for webcam work.  But by choosing a laptop hard drive, low power CPU and integrated graphics, my box runs at about 40 watts.  It is on 24/7 and is impossible to hear even in the quietest moments.  By choosing Linux, I have a local NTP server, a DDNS updater, IP webcam uploader/gif maker, etc.

Offline Garth Bock

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #47 on: July 17, 2009, 02:44:20 PM »
Quote
My old 1999 466MHz steam engine is still plugging along

Steam ??? oh thats right the 386 was hamster powered.... :lol:

I have been look at the MSI Wind Nettop for something smaller. Yeah they are using the Atom N series but with enough memory and XP they should have enough power for a weather site. Low wattage, low heat, fanless....sounds pretty good. One version of the box has onboard N wifi. I have seen the basic one sell for around $139 w\o SATA drive.

Offline ryan hothersall

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #48 on: July 18, 2009, 06:56:35 AM »
For my weather station I use a HP DC 7700 that I got from an auction.

Specs are 1.8 Ghz dual core, 1 GB Ram, 80 GB HDD and onboard video etc. I run Vista Home Premium on it and will put windows 7 on when it comes out.

All that runs on it is Weatherlink, internet radio, page that shows what is coming and going at the airport and planeplotter.
When I shut everything down at night the weatherlinkIP keeps sending updates.


Offline Sigdigit

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #49 on: August 20, 2009, 06:55:07 PM »
My little Acer Aspire One netbook sits quietly doing it's thing hidden behind my Davis Vantage Pro console.  When I got it early in the year for 299 bucks, I figured even if it only lasts a few years running 24/7, for that price I can just buy a new one.