Help me pick a cf19 please

Hi all newbie here getting ready to own my first cf19 but have some questions after research.
Firstly my intended use for this shall be using it for my vehicle diagnostics hub. Main reason I started looking at the 19 was most of my diagnostics hardware and software seemed to be used on these alot as an upgrade pakage. Heavy equipment and specialized Land clearing equipment mostly but also my tech 2 for my truck and my MB star for my toy.

I have been looking into these for awhile and came up with several questions I was hoping you fine people might be able to answer for me.
1. If I want 4G service is should stick with a mk5 or 6 that already has wwan correct?

2. A mk 5 or 6 will be able to accept 1tb hd and 16 gigs of ram correct? (Multiple sensors poling quickly on real time diagnostics split screening with the manual of what all that junk means, possibly recording all the above while running a port sniffer to see what modules are sending and receiving)

3. If I purchase a non dual touch 5 or 6 can the dual touch be retrofitted later? (Soldering or whatever would be acceptable)

4. What options can be added later? (I'm a tinker who can't leave well enough alone)

5. I'm not trying to skirt the rules or anything and I would pay the 300 needed to the proper company if it is needed but the bios lock thing is it really a deal breaker? Is it needed to upgrade anything like ram or hd? (Ie I see mk 6 cf 19s bios locked for way cheaper and I'm wondering if it's worthwhile to get the cheaper one that's locked and send it off [400 for 19 300 to unlock] then pay more for one that is unlocked already that meet my requirements)

So far a mk 5 or 6 ram and HD don't matter since they would be upgraded with GPS and 4G sound correct? So what numbers would work for me?

 

1. No, can install later. All cables and antennas are there anyway.
2. Yes.
3. No.
4. You can change side covers and almost every component, paint the case etc )
5. Don't buy it with locked bios if you are an enthusiast, not a common user.

 

Thank you. So if I think I may like the dual touch that's what I should base it off of since everything else is able to be retrofitted later? Are the dual touch models of the 5 and 6 more rare then the others because I don't see it listed on most that I'm looking at?

 

Yes, I think they are very rare because only a small pecentage of buyers need that second digitizer layer. I had dual touch MK6 and never used it's digitizer.
Want to try MK7 with multi-touch

 

you mention split screen as a usecase.
be aware that the cf19 only has 1024x768 pixels on a 10.1" panel
external monitor support is only vga with 1920x1200 on good days

remember to factor in roughly 80% performance tax for cf19s when deciding between mk5/6/7
passmark comparison for i5-3320m/16ram/500ssd of thinkpad x230t and toughbook cf19mk6 http://toughbooktalk.com/download/file.php?id=1902

 

So a dual touch isn't the end all be all of the 19? I had been thinking of it more as a requirement, is just the touch good enough? Yeah I know the resolution is going to be a draw back of split screening but I may rig up a small second monitor hooked into a docking station. Is the 80% because of the passive cooling? Haven't really seen too many mk7 in my search and all of them have been costly. I have 700 to do this with so those are put of my range

 

yes, the roughly 80% cpu throttle and sata throttle are due to cooling/longlevity

it really depends on the recommended system requirements of your targeted applications.
do you really need 4 cores at 2.6ghz or are 4 cores at 2.08ghz good enough?

i recommend to choose mk5 over mk6 and spend money on batteries or features... IF you can get away with it ...



I'm usually running 8 fully encrypted vms in parallel on my mk6, with cpu pinned to lowest setting ... no fuzz
heck, even a mk3 can run win8 smoothly and still has quite some resources left over

also: the standard touch version comes with a stylus, which is pixel-accurate. which is not that hard to implement for a 1024x768 resolution... so probably no need for the dual touch / digitizer version

 

Pardon me but why do you say chose the mk5 over the 6 if I can? The mk5 Is above the recommendation of all the test equipment so far. It was all running on a much slower Toshiba at one point before it crashed and I stuffed it in a running tree chipper. I was just looking at the 6 over the 5 for the usb 3.0 and better blutooth

 

you seem to have a budget of about 700 currency units
i personally think it's better to invest in an mk5 and some cool features (gps,external usb backup,batteries,dock,whatever) than just a bare mk6 without thrills

if, usb3,0 and better bluetooth happen to be your features ... well, then the mk6 it is


btw, I would not stuff that cf19 into the tree chipper ... the poor chipper might hurt itself ;-)

 

Ah I see what you mean I thought there was something I missed lol. Seems like most of the faqs and wikis only deal with 1-5 and never mention 6-8. A vehicle dock or home dock would definitely be in its future especially if some way I could integrate a optical drive into one. GPS is one of the definite options I feel I need along with spare batteries so you may have a point. I was just thinking to get the best base hardware I could get at the moment and add onto from there next paycheck

 

i believe 1-3 and 4-(8)? are the major base hardware revisions, e.g. screen size 10.3->10.1
only chips, esp. processors seem to change in between 1-3 and 4-(8?)

so, what you read on mk5s should mostly hold true for a mk6/7
mk6 only added the ambient light sensor and refreshed the processor incl. integrated intel gpu/wifi/bluetooth/usb

shawn, jeff, rob, cwb32, barrmaley, and other veterans will be able (and happy) to correct me on this ;-)

 

Personally, I prefer the digitizer on a dual touch. The digitizer is much more precise. That makes a difference if you do any sketching or photo manipulation//editing.
For basic navigation in software packages, a touchscreen works fine.
Look at this page for a CF 19 comparison for all the mks.
http://www.mruggedmobile.com/panasonic-toughbook-cf-19-model-comparison-snapshot.aspx

Major differences between a mk5 and mk6 as follows
Mk 6 has USB 3 //Bluetooth 4.0 //3rd gen i5 cpu
Mk 5 has USB 2 //Bluetooth 2.1 //2nd gen i5 cpu
Both are 6000 nit Led backlit screens
Both list 8gb ram max.
Both have 1.5gb video ram

Do some research on all automotive diagnostic packages you plan on running. Some require USB 3.

I have added digitizers to touch only models. The easiest method is to swap the entire top LCD half. Otherwise you need the digitizer, the dual touch PCB and the LCD/dual touch cable assembly.

 

Wow thank you all for the knowledge. None of my currently in use tools use the usb 3.0 but if I wished to upgrade in the future the new gm tool does use 3.0. Thankfully the main diagnostics tool I use is some old proprietary junk that was state of the art in 1990 and is now run in a vme. So you can swap up to dual touch from just touch? That's great because I was looking at slim pickings on ebay right now. Is there a place to just but the top half and if u don't mind how much did it cost you? Btw Karl the chipper wouldn't even slow down a bit 1000hp cummins 18 liter don't slow down for much

 

Intel 6235 is awful like all Intel Wi-Fi cards and it was possible to upgrade Wi-Fi card in MK5 to Atheros or Broadcom and still have bluetooth radio. This is not possible in MK6 and MK7. It really hurts me. Intel, I hate your so called engineers.
MK6 has SATA-2 and MK5 had SATA-3 (strange decision).
Both support 16GB RAM.
And yes, USB 3.0 is cool. And brightness sensor is cool too )
Trade-offs...

It's too expensive with MK5 up to buy additional screens. Better forget it.

 

Wait the 6 really went back to sata 2? I had read that somewhere and thought that was transposed. So a mk5 could be upgraded to the higher speeds bluetooth?

 

Parts could be bought through a Toughbook dealer like Heartlands.
Or like me, I bought a entire parts CF 19 on Ebay just to get the dual touch top half.
Dual touches can be difficult to find. They always cost more if the seller knows it is a dual touch.

I have had good luck with Intel cards.
Has anyone tried a Atheros or Broadcom combo WIFI/Bluetooth card in a mk6 or mk7 CF 19?

 

Yes. That's true.

It was me )
I have Azurewave AW-CE123H - Broadcom BCM4352. It's the best wi-fi module I've ever had. It works in MK6/MK7, except of bluetooth. Both Wi-Fi and bluetooth parts hidden in BIOS, but Wi-Fi works.
Intel 7260HMW (802.11ac+BT) - same problem, but slower Wi-Fi.
Intel 6250 (WiMAX) is visible in BIOS (just for a test, it's not a good or stable module).
Intel 6235 (native panasonic module) disconnects every few hours and I have to switch to mobile for 3-5 minutes. Then it reconnects and works.

I really would like to retrofit old MK's bluetooth into MK6/MK7, but don't want to install additional antenna cable (there is no separate bluetooth antenna cable in these mk's). Have to think about it. Using bluetooth for audio and mouse.

 

@BaRRmaley
Was Bluetooth enabled in BIOS before you swapped in the Atheros/Broadcom WIFI//BT cards?

I have a couple of the AW-CE123H modules here.
I am currently working on one in a CF 31. This is a learning experiment to get OS X working on a CF 31.
I am trying to remember what I did on the CF 31 that uses the same Intel WIFI//BT combo card as the CF19 mk6.
I know the CE123H runs on the mk2 that has a separate BT card. I think I already tried it on the mk3 that has an Intel combo WIFI/BT card. I can't recall the results. I will look for my old posts. I do not use BT so lack of BT does not really matter to me.

I probably tried the old style BT module in the 31 mk3 already. There was some issue with doing that. Once again, I need to find my old posts.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/cf-30-cf-31-wifi-thread.792639/page-2#post-10283973

If I recall, my results with the CF31 were the same as BarrMaleys on the CF19. The BT4.0 on the combo card would not work.

 

Yes, bluetooth was enabled.
I've tried old bluetooth module in mk6 too. There is no way to install that module without another wwan board - bluetooth connector is absent on mk6's wwan board. But I've tried wwan board taken from MK5 (MK4) and bluetooth works (and is present in BIOS). But no antenna
Also MK3's wwan board doesn't work there - MK6 doesn't turn on

P.S. Pins taping doesn't help. Nothing changes.

 

I'm using a mk4 digitizer (hardly ever use the pen / touch) with a partitioned 1tb Samsung evo ssd and 8gb ram for vehicle diagnostics and it's perfect.
I use the GM MDI 2 with it + other manufacturers OEM vci's and the speed is fantastic

 

I agree, MK4 in this config is nice too )

 

Liteace how does the mdi compare to the old tech 2? What other diagnostics tools do you have running off of the mk4? I thought the mdi used usb 3.0?

 

It will use the speed of 3.0 if it's there but backward compatible so it'll coms with 2.0 but slightly slower, for me speed is very important when viewing multiple pids in live data, but it does it no problem, the MDI 2 also uses wireless

Most of the OEM diag equipment has only just finished support for the CF-18 so any early 19 will do the job

Think we better stick to toughbooks rather than change course, we can pm for other vehicle interface/s and tech 2 info

 

Thank you this is the info that really helps. The laptop this will be replacing was I think a 1.3 processor with 2 gigs of ram and it lagged pretty badly with some of the things I asked it to do that's why this time I am going overkill. Is the faster processor, usb 3.0 but slower hd worth the 200 or so dollars more then a mk5? I see more mk5 dual touches are out there it seems

 

For me, dual touch is all I would consider. So I would go mk5 dual touch and make sure it has a solid state drive in it. Maybe an extra battery or a AC DC charger for home and in vehicle charging. Bump it to 8gb ram. Just what I would do.

 

I've got 3 batteries for mine, 2 blue tabs and a yellow tab, the blue tabs last a little longer, they're all good so get about 3 to 5 hours depending on what tool the USB is powering.

With the 3 batteries, I always make sure there fully charged, I can use the laptop, if I need to all day + I've got a lind or lint car charger

 

That's what I'm starting to lean towards is a mk5 dual touch since I now have confirmation thay it will run what i need well. They seem to be priced well enough to snag one and a couple batteries. Should I be looking for a dock too?

 

I was thinking about doc for mine but have no real need for it, it's just more to carry around

My main work is mobile diag work so the less and smaller the better that's why I do like the CF-19 but sometimes could do with a bigger screen

 

I'm as semi mobile as I can be, we cut roads back to well pads and do industrial Land clearing so most of the stuff I drag out has to be brought in via back pack or bucket. I was thinking the dock may be nice in my service truck to keep it charged and out of the way somewhat. Is there a way to charge a spare in truck without having it in the laptop?

 

Is that what I need? Part # pls?

 

The part number is CF-VCBTB1 . You will still need to use your other charger too. it will plug into the one I linked to.
http://m.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=CF-VCBTB1&_sop=15

 

Ah I see. So I should pick up 2 DC chargers and 2 ac chargers then. I have a couple bids in on mk5s and one bios locked dual touch mk6. Only reason I bid on the locked 6 is it's dual touch for 200 bucks so far so it could even be a parts machine

 

There are combined wall+car chargers.

 

You can pick them up for under $20.00 IBM COMPO CHARGER. Sorry I don't have a link to one.

 

Well so far didn't win any of them. Trying again lol but this time all mk5s dual touch

 

Ok so quick question a mk6 with the x = wireless ready in its serial number? Would I just have to call heartland and get the card and update bios correct?

 

You can decode your "x" here
http://business.panasonic.com/toughbook/order-toughbook-computers.html

 

That's the link i was using, the x is actually the identifier in that position. Didn't win that one anyways lol.
I did win a nice mk6 though, cf-191hyag1m for 250 bucks. It's not dual touch but at least it's something to play with while I keep searching and parts for when I find it.
Anything special to know about the ram on these? Just ddr3l right with a max of 16?