Thread: Dooputer?

Originally Posted by kevinlekiller

7. Subwoofer

HAHAHAHH id like to see that one done. However, by the time all of this stuff is installed, you will need to add pontoons to keep it afoat, add a bigger engine to move it .... well by the end you would have a boat!

Originally Posted by sama

SNIP

6. that will be a right pain to do. hard drives are just not made for that environment. perhaps using an arrary of compact flash cards? however if you must do it, then maybe have a mini water bed

Other than the water issue.... HDs are remarkably durable

and actually they are usually sealed well, so a few drops wont kill the drive...submerging it on the otherhand...

i'd say rip apart an old toughbook (some had waterproof touchscreens) and/or use a button press interface rather than a full out touchscreen and what not.

For headphones, E2C's. If you can hear the outside world, you installed them wrong. hehe, no, but still, they're really good and high quality stuff. However, if you fly off...
Two options i would suggest:
Better and more expensive:
If you ride hard, a good idea would be to use an SBC (single board computer). They'll run full pentuims and what not and everything woudl be okay. Use a compact flash card as yoru HDD (a 4-8gb will do the trick). Sure, loading will be a but longer, but what you lose in loading, you'll gain in rugged reliability. Waterseal a USB 2.0 enclosure for external digs or even use a USB 2.0 card reader with a second CF card for media. I mean, i doubt you'll be watching Deep Blue Sea while out on the boat, but other than iguidance (love to see you plan a route on this thing), music, and SOME video, how many hours are you going to spend on this thing serious? Just take the tunes and vids you want with you on the boat, and change things around when you're done.

Less expensive, still pretty good option:
Newer Pocket PC. Touch screen, decent spead, plays what you wnat, when you want it, and short of PC gaming, it's everything you need in a small package that you can mold and waterproof with ease (use a hiighquality screen protector for the glass por just cover the whole thing with a waterproof film. It should still register the taps). Include a 4-8gb CF card. The best part is on the way to the beach, you can transfer the files you want via activesync using wifi, BT, or a USB cable. Just over the USB port when you're done. If you get a good one, and a bluetooth headset or something, you can use voice control to do a good job cycling through your media. If you want, at some points, using TSC or VNC, you can actually have and control your whole desktop on your PPC screen from your carputer if you're in Wfi range, or map your computer's HDD to it, so if you forget to send over a song or have a vid you want to stream ...

Haha.. PC iin a Waverunner.. That I gotta see.. If you decide to start carving up the seat area to fit a pc inside please post some pictures for our amusement.. lol..

I also like the idea of installing subwoofers.. haha

Make or buy a cheap g-meter. I think you can get pretty cheap ones that just tell you if you exceeded say 30g or whatever the one is rated for. they are just glass tubes in a sticker and the tube breaks after so many g's. Look at the G rating for the hard drive you intend to use and make sure you don't exceed it. I would be willing to bet that if you mount the hard drive rigidly to the wave runner that you won't have problems with it. Check out this hdd.

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/5k100/5k100.htm

300/160G operating shock rating. No way your experiencing 300g when your riding. You might get up to around 40 or so if you hit really really hard. I'd go with a laptop HDD.

By mounting your hard drive rigidly to the waverunner you're allowing the drive to take on all the momentum of the waverunner. G force is caused by acceleration and deceleration. Momentum is the ability of an object to resist these accelerations and decelerations. If your drive has a lot of momentum, it will be more difficult for it to experience a lot of G-force.

Drop a car from 5 ft and it experiences maybe 20 - 25g's. drop a hard drive from 5 ft and it experiences say 400g's. Mount the hard drive rigidly in the car and it will experience the same force as the car. Same principle with a waverunner. Water gives a little, allowing a relatively slow deceleration of the waverunner and everything attached to it.

The only other issue is vibration. That could really screw a drive. If you think it's going to be a problem, mount the HDD with firm rubber between the mounts.

mounting with stiff rubber is about the best you can do with a hard drive.

I just don't under stand why anyone would want to put a computer on a jetski........do you plan to ride around on it or accualy use it.....becouse it you use it i would sejest gettin a waterproof mp3 player.... my 2cents