[aklug] Re: Itense yet fit

On Tue, May 1, 2012 at 1:11 PM, Christopher Howard
<christopher.howard@frigidcode.com> wrote:
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> On 05/01/2012 11:27 AM, Tim Johnson wrote:
>> http://www.fit-pc.com/web/ any comments? reviews?
>>
>
> Nothing especially impressive here. $275 for the cheapest model (1.1
> Ghz atom.) You can get a miniature PC of this size and specs from
> other manufacturers for about the same price. Though, it has more
> ports than what I have bought in the past.
>
> I'd be impressed with:
>
> * same specs, but <=$200.
>
> * same price, but with a 64-bit processor with a full amd64
> instruction set.
>

I'm looking at these for car computers. We've explored the world of
MiniITX (I was pretty heavy into MiniITX use for a few years) and have
recently landed on the concept of just plain using netbooks for car
computers. They are roughly the same size and USB is ultimately
usable for most expansion.

The major problem with using a computer like this one was the lack of
a battery or method to turn it on with the ignition cleanly and
quickly as well as have it wake up via RTC to report location, etc..

The major problem with a netbook was just plain getting it to wake up
if the battery died. This is sort of simple to solve by sending an
ethernet wake on lan event... however that requires more dang
hardware.

I've sort of landed on using an arduino network device.. a low power
hub.. and a netbook. If anybody knows of a much better solution I'd
be up for knowing.

Key requirements:

  USB
  Battery Backup (long run duration plzkthx)
  Autostart/wake with ignition
  Low power
  Netbook cost budget

- Shane
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Received on Tue May 1 14:46:10 2012