Now What?

This will be my first post here. It is the end of and the beginning of my journey into the strange world of the Toughbook. I am a police officer in a small department with decent grant funding. I decided to try to convince the powers that be to use toughbooks for in car systems. When I told them the cost, stunned silence was basically followed by rolling around on the floor laughing. Oh well, Rome was not built in a day right? I soon learned that I could not win the argument on paper because, the truth is, we could spend $800.00 on a Dell and get better graphics and more speed than we could with a $4,000.00 Toughbook. WTF! I thought perhaps if I put a Toughbook in the hands of the individuals who controlled the pursestrings there would be some movement. Great idea. I will buy a used one out of my own pocket. Won't be expensive. Last gen computers are a dime a dozen. Not!
I have seen single core 512Meg 40G HD machines going for over a grand. In the world of computer performance, this is a doorstop! What is going on? In researching this whole issue, I found this site. The information has been outstanding. As a result, after lurking, learning and searching, I bought a new CF-30. I know that there is going to be an "I gotcha" to this purchase since the pricing is under $2000.00 with a one year Panasonic warranty. This system does not have some of the more interesting options such as GPS or cell card. I used the Panasonic config site but other than tell me what is or is not in the machine, it has no other input. The full model number string is as follows; CF-30F3SAZAM. Does anyone have any input on this model? The posters here have provided a tremendous amount of insight pertaining to this problem. Thanks.

 

Iceman... Welcome to the forums. The "Gotcha" is that you have no touchscreen and have a 500nit screen. All Police Depts that I have seen always use a touchscreen.

The difference between a Dell and a Toughbook is like night and day when considering durablity... Something I would think the Police Dept has an interest in. Again... Most PDs that I have seen that have used Dells only used them until they could get funding for Toughbooks. Better graphics? What are they doing???? Watching movies? The Toughbook was pretty much made for you guys!

What would you like to know? I think you aid a fair price for the Toughbook. You can, of course, upgrade it but unless you do all the work yourself it will work out to be much more expensive than if you would have bought the Toughbook with what you wanted on it in the first place. The CF-28s and 29s that I buy from PDs are almost exactly like yours with the exception of the touchscreen. Yes it can be added to yours and is not too hard to swap if you see one come up on ebay.

So... What would you like to know?

Rick

 

Rick,
Thanks for the quick reply. Interesting that you noted the 500 NIT screen. It was described as having a 1000 NIT.
The touchscreen absence is not a problem for my purposes. I would have preferred an illuminated keyboard. (not the rubber). I think that the big problem if you noted in the specs was no optical drive. The internal phone card would have been nice. I assume since there is no internal card that there is no built in antenna. I also appreciate the welcome. I am just up the road from you in the Commonwealth of indicted Politicians.

 

HA! Well... I'd email the seller about the screen. If they sell a lot of them they should know better!

The keyboard is the easiest modification there is. The CD/DVD drive is easy as well... You just slide it in. You can pick them up on ebay for anywhere from $90 to $250 depending on what type you want. CD Roms are the cheapest... DVD MultiDrives are the most expensive.

Correct... If you have no WWAN installed you will not have the antenna for it either. That is not as easy to add yourself but it is doable. The kits run around $350 - $400 so most go for the cheaper PCMCIA WWAN cards.

This place is a gold mine of info... If you don't see anything... Just ask!

 

Well, not movies but suspect photos, video from car cameras plus the huge NCIC database and in PA we have J-Net. There are a lot more demands on the system then previously. i went looking for an emissive keyboard on e-bay but none popped up. It appears that this particular cf30 model is being dumped by Panasonic. I am seeing several locales where they are being sold. The CF30 should arrive tomorrow. I will pass on my impressions.

 

Some units are wwan ready which means they have the antenna and sled frame (since those are the toughest for an individual to install) but still need a sled and modem. It's pretty obvious when they do have the antenna though.

You're right, it's not terribly popular. As an FYI though, you don't have to get the 30 emissive keyboard; a 29 emissive will work just fine.

 

I am touching base with TBtech on some of these issues. I have not had a lot of time to play with or look at my new tb. It looks as if I can put a phone card in the pcmia slot and close the cover. The lack of an optical drive is a problem for immediate solution. Do the 29 optical drives also interchange?
This is a good forum, I am looking forward to spending time here.

 

My model is a perfect example of a WWAN Ready model (CF-30CQQAXBM) The X signifies this.

Remember to check http://config.toughbook.com from Internet Explorer (stupid crappy site doesn't work with Firefox or Safari ) for specs on model numbers

 

That Panasonic config site was one of the first things that I learned while I was still lurking. It cleared up a lot of questions. I sort of knew what I was buying and I had to choose between all of the bells and whistles and a better processor. By the way, has anybody noticed that when you type in toughbook on Google, the first hit is to the Dell XBR site.
Maybe a trademark issue here. If not, pretty clever of Dell.

 

Zero... You are correct. (Of course!) I just got in 3 WWAN ready CF-29s... Pretty cool since I plan on using the pop-out for the antenna to mount the GPS antena. (It works VERY well too! MUCH more sturdy than the CF-28 GPS antenna mount! Thanks for the correction.

 

Lol, that's what I do best!

 

Well, time has gone by and thanks to TB Tech and Zero Flight I am at home with my TB30. My only complaint so far is that I never have to mod anything or change anything, just boot up and go. I am going to have to get a 29 so I have more reasons to post.