'Can a notebook be mounted in a car?'

Please let me resume the contents of this earlier thread at

http://forum.notebookreview.com/what-notebook-should-i-buy/133412-can-notebook-mounted-car.html

and furnish the following detailed how-to description proven in practice.

There is a catch, however, due to more recent mysterious industry (political?) product decisions, and I am looking for ways to get around their negative effect. If this subject interests you, please take a few minutes of your time, it will probably be worth it. I am presently travelling and will attempt to monitor this thread - if it develops into one - as regularly as possible.


----------


A notebook in your car is realistically feasible. I have had one for years in my Audi A4, set up according to my own ideas, and I have never regretted the investment.

Basically, what you need to do is this:

You should have a second battery in parallel, for your notebook and other extras (like car stereo). Regarding discharging, you ought to add a separator *relay* that makes sure the additional consumers (notebook & co) can only draw from the second battery. This way, the car's default electric balance will be maintained. (Don't use a separator
*diode*, they are too likely to die from heat.) Regarding charging, you ought to replace your alternator by the most powerful type available - like a 120 A type instead of a 90 A. For situations where you don't drive much but use your extras a lot, a separate powerful charger (that can deliver a current 20 % the size of the battery's capacity - like 16 A for an 80 Ah battery) is useful, if you have access to an electric powerpoint. Also useful would be an instrument to monitor the second battery's state of charge. This part, I haven't put into practice yet.

Then you get yourself a docking station for the notebook and put it into the trunk (details with regard to the mechanical part in the next chapter). The power you get through a fx Kensington 33196. Exchange the cigarette lighter plug through one of the Nato type, they are more contact-secure. Near your steering wheel, you place a monitor (fx Xenarc), mouse and keyboard. I wouldn't go for touch-sensitive monitors - on a 7" monitor, you would need a toothpick to make your choices. The mouse's pointer is more convenient.

According to my experience, the harddisk is not really sensitive to the movements appearing during regular driving. What is sensitive, though, are the many tiny contacts between the notebook and the docking station. In order to protect them, you want to prevent movements, vertical ones (mainly shocks and vibrations) as well as horizontal ones (chiefly the rotary type during sharp curve driving, where your notebook wants to turn around the docking station). You can do it by taking a square plank a little larger than your notebook on the docking station, put a layer of foam rubber on it, screw a one-hooked elastic fastener belt (known from fx cycles) to one of its sides (not far from the docking station, and 'parallel' to it) and an eye on the opposite side. When you have put your notebook onto the docking station, you span the fastener belt across the notebook on the docking station and hook it into the eye, thus pressing the notebook against the docking station. This way, the ensemble is largely immobilised and shockproof. Obviously, you could also invest more thought and actions into general crash security. So far, I have postponed this part of the venture.

From now on, you can use all the features of your notebook in your car. (We'll talk about the internet in the remaining chapters.) Fx, you can connect its audio output to your car stereo's auxiliary input and will enjoy your own 128 bps music in FM quality. (In some cases, you may need a module, see pie.net.) You also can connect a GPS antenna and software and use your monitor as a GPS system. (You can even install a video-recording system and have the video shown on the monitor, just like a police car.)

Now comes the part which used to be easy until 2G, but has been made impossible since 3G - god knows why the powers-that-be (economy, politics?!) have chosen to remove an essential part from the market. I'm talking about the connection to the internet. Up to 2G, the formula was this: Best is to have a handheld cellphone and have its carkit properly mounted, including an external antenna. If you then also connected your notebook to the carkit's central unit, it didn't take much time to make it communicate with the cellphone's modem. The only drawback was that up to 2G, there was nothing but the GPRS transmission standard - and that was way too slow.

So you think 3G would bring the solution? In a way - data speeds have gone up considerably, cellphones (maybe not all types) have an HSPA modem. The problem is (what I say now is based on my degree of understanding - if you detect an error, please advise me): Today's wireless bluetooth carkits called SAP (SIM access profile) only support interaction with your phone's SIM card and the audio periphery (mic/speaker), not however the HSPA modem. So you cannot use it. What remains is to buy a separate Huawei modem, but then you won't use your external antenna, and you also need to swap SIM cards with your cellphone (unless you pay extra for 'duo SIM cards').

And this is where I would ask you to become active. Please talk to company's like Kensington, Jotto Desk, Diversified Products, but also potential newcomer businesses and schools educating electronic professionals, and draw their attention to this missing link. Here in semi-totalitarian Europe, I have used all my possibilities and have ultimately gotten nowhere. Is America still the 'can-do country'?

This is an open message in this sense: You may spread it for purposes that may be appropriate to promote my own intentions.

 

I always use my toughbooks in my truck... I just set it on the monsterous table in the middle of it (I have a RAM 1500).

w00t!

 

I believe you may have posted this in the wrong forum. Lots of us have Toughbooks mounted in our vehicles, boats, airplanes, even motorcycles. There is nothing hard about this, it isn't even particularly expensive. There are many fewer options for non-rugged laptops, but there are some solutions commercially available.
CAP
Being nice, really!

 

NO. It cannot be done. If you mount a laptop in your car, it will cause a temporal rift which may very well unravel all of space and time; here's why.

As we all know, modern computers have already run afoul of Moore's law; multi-gigahert CPUs already push the limits of how fast signal can be processed. At these speeds, great care must be taken in the design of circuit boards to allow for even the limitations of the speed of light. As we break the nanosecond barrier (during which timespan light or electrons can travel approximately 11 inches unimpeded), the distance across a motherboard does in fact become a consideration and we must then account for Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity.

As long as a computer remains stationary everything remains status quo, even operating at these speeds; set the computer in motion however, and we upset that delicate balance. As electrons zip back and forth across the data bus in that machine operating at the verge of transluminary velocity, all one has to do is exceed the tachycentric covalent velocity threshold (latest calculations have it at approximately 87 MPH in this scenario) and your data could arrive back at the big end of the 128-bit bus before it departed!

This of course presents a real and present danger of temporal causality incursion or (shudder) Tachystoichiometric implosion; and I don't have to tell you how many Kirk Units of damage THAT could cause!

So NO, sir... you CANNOT... you MUST NOT... mount your notebook computer in a car. THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!! THINK OF THE FUTURE!!! THINK OF THE FUTURE WITHOUT ANY CHILDREN BECAUSE YOU UNDID ALL OF HUMAN HISTORY!!!

mnem
186,000 miles per second. It's not just a good idea, it's THE LAW!!!

 

ROTFL..
How many children can safely ride in that 128 bit bus?

 

So if I keep my Jeep in low range with the windshield down (what if the light gets reflected?) I'll be o.k?

 

ram it hard

 

Wow, everone thought I was cool when I did this for the first time in a patrol car, but that was 1995...

 

This is much better explanation of my loss of time or gain of time while traveling late at night checking. I though this whole time I might of been victim of the little grey guys. As long as I keep it under 87mph I should be ok?

 

I struggle to remember reading something so hilariously wrong...

 

Still ROTFL.................

 

That depends. Are they big-endian or little-endian or mixed?

In theory. Just pay attention; if the headlights fall out, you may be approaching the tachycentric covalent velocity threshold. Or you may have hit a really big bump; you'll have to ask your backside for a technical consultation on that.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you ARE the victim of the little grey guys; they'll be along shortly to give you an adjustment. I suggest you keep your flux capacitor charged just in case you need to make a quick getaway...

I struggled very hard to keep a straight face while writing it so wrong. Is it wrong to write this, or should I try to right that wrong with a metaphorical left turn?

Still wrong. er. er.

mnem
Tachytriptychal.

 

capt.dogfish:

'I believe you may have posted this in the wrong forum':

Which would have been the right forum?


Pinecone:

'I struggle to remember reading something so hilariously wrong...':

What *exactly* was wrong? I would love to know it. Or are you actually referring to my english capability, which is certainly below that of native speakers?


And then - lest we forgot in this apparent sea of 'humour' created by the correspondents to this thread: The real problem was 'How do we solve the internet access issue' - i e accessing the internet through the 3G phone's HSPA modem + the outside antenna, because this part (in contrast to 2G) is no longer available, due to incomprehensible industry decisions ?! Your are not going to try and sell me toys like an Ipad and stuff like that as an alternative ?!


And if you occasionally could explain why you would think that a technical scheme presented in less than perfect english from outside the US from the outset disqualifies the author that you would have to pour verbal cess out over him? True, I'm not a professional technician. But my system works perfectly well, apart from the internet flaw just mentioned again - which, also again, is just not my fault.


Is it proverbial 'american arrogance with regard to european products'? Why? Aren't you aware just how many of our products dominate the world market? Haven't you digested that mobile telephony has become a worldwide european domain since the advent of GSM? Is it the market share Boeing has lost to Airbus? Haven't you digested that you are going to buy european high-speed trains technology? To mention just a few better-known examples. Or is it that you're so pathetic that you just can't stand the thought not to be 'on top of everything'? A very problematic attitude, that also repels Russia - a country we all need a lot, and you too, whiz kids.


Oh, and I would suggest to keep it to the matter, when replying. I'm neither so familiar with your language nor your situation nor forum habits etc that I would comprehend all the subtleties. And it wouldn't be really 'fair' or useful to make incomprehensible 'fun' of an outsider, would it ?! By the way, your behaviour here could be an answer to the question often heard 'Why do they hate us'. I certainly won't declare myself solidary with mohammedan madmen and similar creatures and their primitive hate. But your reactions certainly don't 'win yourselves friends' (an allusion to a famous american book title...).


So aren't there any reasonable guys here who now feel they might wish to save the situation? .)

 

My point is that on this forum we discuss modifying the factory antenna passthroughs in the myriad different vehicle mounts available to us, cheap on eBay, depending on our desired use, wlan, wwan, gps, or whatever. Your post was a rather long winded treatise on pretty much mundane everyday stuff. I suggested that you might be on the wrong forum as almost all of the members here are into rugged laptops which are the choice of virtually all industry, government, and military users when they mount laptops in vehicles. If there was a question in your post, I missed it, not because your English is bad, its not, quite the contrary. To be sure I'm not being rude I will answer the question posed in your title "Can a notebook be mounted in a car?".
YES.
CAP
Still behaving but watchout!

 

Toughbook in my car
(usually I have Xplore IX104C2AV on this place, but can install my CF-19 if needed)
of course all wires are hidden now
rotation all sides

 

same with xplore

 

What about DIY mounts? I found one thread, the guy with an astro van and he got a STEAL of a deal on the aluminum from the scrap yard. Ive found some PVC ideas from google but a metal laptop being held in place by plastic pipe?! HAHAHAHAHAHA

The couple ideas I saw with black steel gas pipe were OK EXCEPT that the "tray" was ZIP TIED to the pipe, and there was no adjustment. I want to be able to swing the thing closer to me when stopped, and out of the way while driving since I have a 5speed truck, the throw on the shifter is quite long. And the ability for the passanger to play and/or navigate is also a plus....BUT im NOT going to pay more for the mount than I did the computer!

I dont mind drilling holes in the floor, nor do i mind using the seat bolts also.

lets see your ideas and MOAR PIKTARS!

 

my mount's price is USD 35 for my clients
plus USD 50 for Omnimount WM3-S factory LCD mount if it's needed
my part is 100% steel, omnimount is not so bad too
my car does see offroad very often and everything is ok

 

sap+

First off - sorry for taking the cheap shot here; I simply couldn't resist. Your post is an example of what we call "Taking coals to Newcastle"; in other words, we already know about installing laptops in a vehicle; we in this forum are in fact fans of the laptop originally DESIGNED for this use: the ToughBook.

The bottom line is this; laptop use in a moving vehicle is no longer even a question, it is an everyday occurrence and has moved quite solidly into the mainstream culture. As a result, it struck many of us as odd (not just the class clown, yours truly) that you would spend so much time writing such a complex dissertation on how to do something that is the subject of a dozen wikis and kits are readily available from literally hundreds of online retailers.

This of course does not even make mention of the most accomplished segment of vehicular computing; the modern car customizer. THERE is a field which places even our established and intensive expertise to shame; there are customizers installing PCs in cars to control everything from the dashboard to the engine and performance to suspension, lighting, music and communications, GPS and internet and it is ALL BUILT INTO THE CAR such that it looks like part of the car (actually, in many cases it looks more like a starship) and not just an accessory. These people are the ones whose work I am jealous of; both the time and money to invest are beyond this father of 2 small children. I WISH I could still get away and do that kind of work.

In regards your response to Cap'n Dogfish:

One of the most important things to consider when posting is how appropriate the post is to the forum you wish to post it in; Your post is a long, theoretical discussion of guidelines of how to start doing something most of the core members here already have done and actually have hands-on experience. It does in fact come off a bit condescending; as if none of us had ever considered the possibility of putting a computer in a car.

This fact does kind of make us wonder if you had even bothered to read any of the posts in the forum, or at least one of the many FAQs stickied to the top of the first page; if you had, you would already know we were old hands at vehicular computing. The "issue" of internet access is no longer an issue; see here:

Clear Spot | Personal Mobile Internet Hotspot | Clear.com

Newegg.com - CradlePoint MBR900 Most Affordable 'N' Mobile Broadband Router (3G/4G Ready, WiPipe Powered)

There are literally hundreds of online vendors selling this type of hardware designed SPECIFICALLY for the use you suggest; in fact, they act as a mobile WiFi hotspot so you don't even need to add anything to your notebook to make it work. There are similar devices which are compatible with any data carrier on the planet.

In regards your response to Pinecone:

He was in fact talking to me; admonishing me for taking the cheap shot and laughing at my post in spite of himself. He meant you no disrespect.

mnem
It's a sad day when I'm the voice of reason.

 

I still miss someone recognising and addressing MY POINT, for all the fun you're having. Could it be that you haven't comprehended my point, simply because such products never were available in your country, so you don't know them?

Mind you, I am not attempting to denigrate the USA - why on earth should I. What I'm trying to say is this: Next to other sojourns, I spent there several months when GSM was being introduced there, and found it striking to see how different your overall trade situation was to ours - store-wise, products-wise, workshop-wise etc. I e I couldn't get what and where I was used to get it from Europe, and if I finaly still got it (and if I had to import it) I couldn't find someone to mount it.

So once more, and without irony, sarcasm & co: If you haven't quite comprehended the internet connection issue of a trunk-located notebook (yet 'steering-wheel controlled') via a handheld phone supplemented by a carkit (2G: wired; 3G: bluetooth - which thus becomes equal to a real carphone), then ask me to explain it to you with the necessary details. Not that I would prefer to be asked first, but because it would require some effort to make it short yet comprehensive - and, most of all, comprehensible (I hope).

Again, my motive is to hopefully produce gradual momentum, in order to 'force' the industry to change its evil ways and (re-) introduce COMPLETE carkits that make a carphone of your handheld phone the moment you place it in its receptacle - or rather nowadays, the moment the bluetooth connection is established. Only then can you connect your trunk-based, 'steering-wheel controlled' notebook through the handheld phone's HSPA modem and the carkit's roof antenna to the internet. Which, again, means: You can then work over your roof antenna, and you don't have to swap SIM cards - compared to the existing alternative, which is the Huawei modem.

And again, leave me a little time responding, I don't have regular internet access at this time.

 

Thanks for the explanation. Still we are talking past each other:

You are talking about 'taking the mobile notebook to the 22th century'.

I say, in terms of fast internet connection via your 3G phone with HSPA modem (handheld, but converted into carphone through carkit), we haven't even reached the 21th - because of a dubious, obscure and unexplained industry decision that removed the ability to access the phone's modem through the contempo carkits.

Please read my post sent a few minutes ago. If you wish that detailed carkit-feature (of a carkit type possibly unknown on your market, due to cultural differences) description offered, then I will break my head on how to best achieve it.

 

I haven't had this much fun since the pigs ate my little brother.

sap... I think the point is that we do this stuff every day. You are asking questions about stuff we've done years ago. We hack and mod these things (Toughbooks) all the time.

You can easily setup a Toughbook to do exactly what you want it to do. As far as "Forcing the industry" to make a kit... I would think with a little digging around you could complete one... By yur IP it look like you are in NZ... They have a TON of Toughbooks down there (At least in OZ they do.) You may want to spend a little time reading our forum here to see what we have already done.

And I run my Toughbook through my 3G cell phone whenever I am on the road... With no problemo.

EDIT - I think the suggestion was made that you may have posted in the wrong forum because the thread you refer to in your original post came from the "What laptop should I buy" thread.... We already know that... A Toughbook of course.

Please forgive the gentle ribbing. As I said... If you read a little bit in and around our forum... You'll see why...

 

Ok, fun boy. Then tell me what 3G handheld phone you use and the type of bluetooth carkit for making it a carphone.

And of course, it has an HSPA modem, and you can reach the modem from your computer which stands a few feet away, and that you control from next to your steering wheel?

I didn't hear you gulping, did I? .)

 

The reason for that "dubious" decision is quite obvious; as are all the hundreds (like MP3, Custom Ringtones, and SMS text which was originally a "free" paging service with analog cellular) of other features that manufacturers have designed into mobile phones and phone carriers have immediately disabled to further their own profit: Why would they permit you to buy hardware to do something and pay for the feature once, when they can disable or castrate that feature and make you pay for it over and over again as a "service"?

There are dozens of GSM-capable phones on the market which have tethering enabled; take your pick. I know the phone carriers don't make it cheap or easy(I have been iPwned since 2007) but that is a fact of life in this age; the big corporations have the money, they buy the laws.

For most of us, tethering our laptop is just a pain in the tuckus we'd rather avoid, so we pay the data plan separately from the phone we keep in our pocket (Except for those of us with a phone that has a WiFi hotspot built in); this makes your point moot. Whether the device is USB, Built-in, or one of those little pucks I linked to... we just don't want to be unplugging our phone from stuff everytime we get in or out of a vehicle.

Vehicle mounts are available for nearly all popular makes and models of laptop computer; there are companies all over the internet which do nothing but make it easy to mount things in a car. Google LOVES to take us to them.

Again... we know what you're talking about... we're all over it. We just did it a while ago and moved onto the exciting stuff, like Netflix and Youtube. :wink:

mnem
Connected.

 

Being from the sticks here in missouri up until a few years ago you would have to pick up the phone and make sure the neighbors were not using the party line so you could call out. Heck I still have a phone on the wall that has a hand crank on it. For the life of me what is netflix and you tube.

 

mnementh:


Ok, now you're making me think again. Although you haven't quite convinced me yet because I'm still not certain that we aspire the same, that you're not already content with a formula where I wouldn't be. Again, apart from the linguistic issue involved in this discussion, the offers on our markets appear partially different, although they gradually may converge.

Our specialist dealers with workshop (thus not talking about some cheap chain) can't all be bad, can they?! If I show them my existing construction, explaining its features, and tell them I wish to convert from 2G to 3G, but retain my abilities to

- make the handheld phone a carphone by putting it into a carkit's wired cradle - or today, a bluetoothed infrastructure;

- connect this carkit to my roof antenna, because I don't want the *watt radiation* inside my car (I don't mind bluetooth's *MILLIwatt radiation*);

- use the phone's HSPA modem from the trunk-based notebook controlled from the steering wheel, in order to access the internet,

and they are unable to tell me (attempting to reproduce the gist of what you said, if comprpehended correctly): 'This is no longer the way things are done today, but we have an equal or even better formula for you, consisting of...' - then are they all yokels? I just cannot believe it.

So to hopefully get this to a soon and good end, couldn't you just tell me in terms of makes and their precise types what I would need to get the 3G formula (and its features described above !!) desired by me?

 

Yup. There is a better solution.

Google Cradlepoint. They make a dozen devices that are designed to operate on 3G hardware; again, you won't be able to use your cellphone, but it REALLY is a better solution. They are designed to act as a mobile Gateway for ANY USB-type Wireless Broadband dongle; they also have models that are designed to provide an external antenna connection to that dongle.

From there, you can connect either via hardline 10/100 ethernet or Wireless G/Wireless N WiFi.

I understand the desire to make it work with your existing cellphone; but 2G and 3G don't even process the radio signal the same way. 2G is digital signal adapted to infrastructure designed for analog; 3G is designed from the ground up to be digital. THIS is why you see QUALCOMM's name in virtually every bit of modern cellular phone licensure; they own the patents that make it all possible.

What type of control do you hope to be able to have from your steering wheel to interface with the internet? Don't be silly; you need a touchscreen to make a carputer that is anything more than a novelty. Otherwise, you might as well just get a Bluetooth-enabled TomTom and have done with it.

Mine will connect to any phone that has data enabled and allow me access to the internet via WAP; it of course also has voice-command and Bluetooth audio. And MP3 Player with FM transmitter to my car stereo. And it shows picture slideshow of the wife and little dragonlets.

My point is this:
What you are trying to do is really neat... for about 6 years ago. Over-the-counter technology has surpassed what you're talking about.

Take a look at my post here and think about how much easier everything you want to do would be with THIS:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/533119-ot-ecost-heads-up-ot.html

mnem
EASY button.

 

tries something

 

I guess I am left to wonder why I would want to control my phone or computer with my steering wheel.

Presently I use the Motorola Droid with Verizon. I use my voice and it does what I want it to do. If I need to use my 3G on my cell phone it can connect via tethered cable or BT.... Why would I want to go back to the 90s with steering wheel controls when I can do it with my voice?

I STILL think instead of trying to argue your point that you should read a little more in this forum about what it is we do here and with what. You may find some answers...

I am also still wondering why you would dig up a 4+ year old thread from a different section of this website and continue it in this section.

 

Boo Boo... Please resize that picture to forum specs... .WAY smaller please.

Nice mount by the way!

 

i used the forum tool to post it. how am i suppose to make it smaller?

 

BooBoo -

Save a copy of the original under a different name, then resize the image on ImageShack. Either that, or upload a resized version that is smaller than 585KB directly to the forum via the advanced button & manage attachments popup; the forum will post a thumb and all will be shiny & bright.

mnem
Whee!

 

---> I have been confronting this problem for years, and my desperation over so much felt madness is growing. So I am ready to try basically anything to get where I want to go. What was suggesting itself more than entering 'in-car notebook' at Google? What came up among the top-10 was this forum post.

 

Thanks for investing the effort, but I would have to see it to believe it.

As I said in a reply to another poster, a few minutes ago:

A foreign system in enforced upon us that no-one has comprehended (is my impression). It appears inferior to us, quality-wise (it may not be), but it would need explanation and DEMONSTRTATION - things that we apparently don't get.

At the danger of repeating myself, and again - no offence meant: We feel as someone were attempting to sneakingly replace the Mercedes formula of making cars by the Chrysler formula.

 

Whatever, for someone that has come here for help trying comprehend common consumer level technology, you sure seem to make a lot of statements that require the caveat, "no offense meant."

However, I assure you that I am not, it is really hard to take offense from someone on a technological issue that thinks what you have posed here is some kind of unsolvable mystery.

Anyway, good luck to you and your countrymen in one day achieving 1990's technology (no offense meant).

 

I don't know how much more I can do for you; I've shown you two different (three, if you count the TomTom) solutions which are superior in nearly every way to what you are trying to reverse-engineer; I've even given you links to my personal favorites. Any more grief you heap upon yourself is... on yourself.

And seeing as Daimler (The parent company of Mercedes-Benz) is a majority stockholder in Chrysler, I'd venture to say you have things precisely reversed - I see Mercedes sneakingly trying to replace the Chrysler vision of how to make a modern car with their own. :wink:

Daimler made the decision to pull the plug on the PT Cruiser and the Prowler; two of Chrysler's most distinctive and popular vehicles. And LOOK at what they did to the Viper; it's no longer a musclecar, now it's just another lame AMG clone.

You wanna see a REAL no-holds-barred, hold onto your nuggets and howl at the moon sports car? Scope THIS OUT:

Kirkham Motorsports Billet Cobra Frame

The Art of Engineering

mnem
I'm sick of all of them... Euro-sedans and wannabes... they all look like electric shavers. Mercedes can eat my wet noodle. Or my rigatoni...

 

And that is EXACTLY what Chrysler has done!

But back to your original issue. (I think)

Yes... In the USA (on some carriers and/or cellphones) you may tether your laptop and connect via 3G speed. I do this when needed and it works like a charm. I can do it in a car, I can do it in a house, I can do it in a bar, I can even use a mouse. (Or voice)

I guess I still don't see what the big deal is that you want to do since I can do it with no issues with my current (or any) PC, my present cell phone (Motorola Droid) and current cell provider (Verizon)... I don't think I would want to reverse engineer a slower more unwieldy system or process. I am sorry you apparently do not have access to this technology, cell phone or carrier. Your mileage may vary, offer may not be good world-wide.... Apparently.

 

Thanks Mnem... I felt bad enough... Now I see Larry Ellison's new car.... MAN... THAT is A LOT of Coke cans being recycled!

Rick
<Have a Choke and a smile!>

 

Sap+:

I'm not sure whether you are from Europe (as you have implied a couple of times), or from NZ as someone reported your IP as being from but:

- There is nothing to stop most 3G phones being Bluetooth paired with a computer for internet access in Europe (internet tethering)
- A lot of phones won't do internet tethering due to restriction by the networks in order to profiteer from you having 2 contracts. This is nothing to do with the phone manufacturer, who is after all, only doing what their primary customers want.
- You've posted this in the Toughbook forum as many people have noted, and every Toughbook currently available from Panasonic (and almost all previous models) can have 3G embedded in the unit. Yes this means you need a second SIM (and probably another package), but the ease of use and signal are much better then internet tethering I find. As to the price, it depends on your exact location.
-Lind specifically do DC/DC car chargers for Toughbooks that are approved by Panasonic, which means you don't need a second battery as you noted in your first post, but also means you don't run the risk of voiding the warranty by using a non-approved power supply.
-And lastly, I'm from the UK...in Europe. There are plenty of solutions in Europe for 3G on your laptop, and in the UK, a second subscription and SIM will cost you around £10-£15 (and even give you a 3G USB dongle for free). So cheap. In Europe, the mobile phone/3G market is a lot more open then in the US (ie. the carriers are forced to work with each other, and devices are rarely SIM locked any more).

You appear to of made a *massive* mountain out of a molehill. And with that, I'm off to work

 

Wish it was that cheap!

 

Vodafone UK will do a £15 per month subscription, which gets you 3gb/month (pretty decent!) and they'll give you a free 3G USB dongle!

 

It appears to be a RAM Mounts unit with a non- Panasonic Toughbook-specific (aka "Universal" ) Laptop Mount.

 

or Orange in the uk do a monthly plan, if you pay through Quidco it works out at £12 but no dongle

 

mnementh:

===> There comes an automatic message that tells me to lengthen my message to at least 10 characters. Don't know what that means. Is it long enough now?

 

I'll give this a try.

Here is a link to a remote monitor and keyboard for a Panasonic Toughbook.
PDRC

Here is a catalog of vehicle docks with antenna ports built in to them. These are for attaching the roof top antenna directly to the laptop. The reason for this is explained in the next link.
http://www.kodiakmobile.com/datasheets/Kodiak%20Panasonic%20Prod%20-%20A.pdf

Here is a link to a Toughbook with the wireless 3g built into the laptop. There is no need for the cellphone or carkit. Just connect the antenna to laptop in the above dock and it will access the internet. Please read Wireless under the details heading. Built in GOBI broadband access
CF 30


Gobi™ mobile broadband
Gobi™ Mobile Broadband With new Gobi™ mobile broadband technology from Qualcomm, Panasonic Toughbook® mobile computer users can connect globally using Panasonic's next-generation wireless computers. Users can take advantage of high-speed 3G mobile internet networks to increase productivity and reduce downtime, while securing a reliable connection virtually anywhere a cell phone can be used. And, with the Panasonic Carrier Selection Application (CSA) software platform, users are able to select or change to the best carrier for any geographic area.

 

a jeep this cf 29 is at the helm of a 80000 lbs missile i keep my lid down wile in travel

 

deere 245:


You - apparently all of you - refuse to recognise my point, right? It must be something psychologic. The repeated mentioning of your loser business Qualcomm seems to underline my supposition. GSM is a european development. The only part worth mentioning where Qualcomm technology was used is its successor, UMTS, which is based on WCDMA (in contrast to GSM that used TDMA), a further development of Qualcomm's CDMA.

Back to the issue: A complete carkit that converts your handheld phone into a full-fledged carphone - something you on the american market have NEVER HAD (!!), so don't know it - cannot be beaten. So you can't comprehend when I tell you how much superior it is. You would have to see it (in function) to believe it.

What you offer me as a replacement is trash. Open your eyes to reality, face the facts and demand your supplying industry - like Kensington - that they develop (in fact copy from companies like Ericsson or Nokia) their former carkits. Then, your handheld phone converts into a carphone, it will be connected to the roof antenna, and you will be able to run your notebooks - be they in the trunk or afore - over the phone's HSPA modem.

I do not categorically exclude it, but at this stage I have major problems to see which configuration could beat this formula of gold. And I still don't see why our industry has given it up. It's (again) like Mercedes (or BMW, Porsche, Volvo, ... - you name 'em) give up their success formulas and then attempt to conquer the american market.

The european telecom industry is - what end user equipment is concerned - so pathetic that you wonder if they can go even lower. Why would they voluntarily exchange the gold they had against the scrap they now have - and with them we ourselves ?!?

Here's another formular: 'Qualität is not the same like quality'... .)

 

I guess I cannot feel your pain. Since I have switched to Verizon... There has been no need for a roof antenna. (Something I gave up with "The Bag Phone" back in the 90s.) In my area.... There is a chicken in every pot and a cell tower on ever corner.... So no need for the external antenna.

As to the car-kits... Yes they did and still do sell them. It's usually people that have spotty cell coverage that buy them. I USED to have AT&T. I didn't know how bad they truly sucked in my area (and others) until I bought an iPhone... I loved the phone.... But if you keep dropping calls and/or cannot connect... What's the point? Now you may argue that the car-kit would then enable you to connect... As I recall... The cell phones were/are .6 watts while the car kit will run you up to 3 watts. I'd call BS on that because I'd want to have the luxury of stepping out of my car and STILL be able to carry on the conversation and not be held hostage by my car-kit.

So again... Perhaps it is just nme... But I still do not feel the need to seek out a car kit as my setup (from what I am understanding here) already does what you want it to do... I know it certainly does more than I need it to do.

Again... Perhaps if you posted this into the same exact forum area that you took the original link from... You may have had better luck.

I guess we just don't feel the need or understand your dilemma

 

sap+

WE DO GET YOUR POINT. I owned a dozen different car-kit models that let me do all kinds of cool stuff with my portable phone. They were GREAT... back in the old millennium.

What we are telling you is that technology has outpaced what you desire; you are asking manufacturers to go back to horse-and-buggy days because YOU want to not have to pay for a separate data plan for... your data.

It's not going to happen. NO MANUFACTURER cares if you don't like it; they're going to continue making what sells them product and the carriers are going to keep providing what sells them new service plans every 2 years.

Suck it up, get with the program, and step into the 21st century. Better yet, go look at what's installed in the dash of a NEW Mercedes-Benz; then you'll understand why you can't get any help building this tinkertoy bunge you're trying to cobble together.

In other words, PLEASE STOP ASKING US TO HELP YOU BUILD A MODEL T. FROM SCRATCH.

We'll gladly help you do something fruitful; but you really can't expect people to happily volunteer to waste their time for your benefit.

mnem
No mas.

 

Come on, you exaggerate, I know the coverage situation over there.

And what about radiation protection without an outside antenna?!?

And that you don't comprehend is what I suspected from the beginning. This is one of your strongest point, as is well known.

You ought to learn languages and travel, so you open your eyes, minds and learn something. And I'm not talking about south-of-the-border.

They always say that germans have the tendency to oscillate between extremes. They are right. But what about yourselves? Is there no reasonable way between your incumbent far-left office-holder and his radical far-right opponents that - if they come to power - again will frighten Russia away, a country we all dearly need to closely cooperate with against most of all Mohammedanistan? Yes, 'we' includes the USA too.