What do you use toughbooks for?

Now get this straight yes I know that over a decade ago there was a thread but know I’ll just make my own because most of the people (excluding @Toughbook and others) aren’t here on the forum. Also it’s closed so I can only like posts there

Now I have 2 main usage ones 28 MK3 and a 27 MK??. I use my 28 for telecom work and throw in the house or drop on the ground for no reason. I am still going to get a GPS (the stock one) when one shows up. If I could get one for the CF-30 GPS is that compatable? My 27 is just not really used a lot. When I go somewhere I’ll use it but it sits beside my dell that has been outside 2 times. When I opened the box in my garage and going to somewhere but this isn’t the dell forum. If I didn’t get a toughbook the “other guys” laptops would be obliterated
How about you?

 

I use my 30 for chilling on the deck. When I go boating I use some Marine Sat-Nav. I just got a GPS for it and when I go to Assateague Island or Chincoteague VA I would use my 28 for driving and my 30 for boating to Norfolk.

 

Well I use my Toughbooks for everything. My 53 I use for surfing the internet. My 53 has a docking station which sits under my 55" TV. Nothing better than surfing the net with a 55" screen The 19 I use when traveling because the GPS works great and because of the smaller size. The 30 I use in the truck but just around town or down at the cottage watching movies. My W8 I only use as my download machine or if I am stuck in the hospital for a few days. I can tell you that was the best $60.00 I ever spent on a Toughbook. Very nice bright screen, not touchscreen. Working on a T8 now to replace the W8 so I will have a touchscreen. "Caution" most on eBay now have dark screens...stay away from them. And since you mentioned "Dull" I have one of them too that I kick my self for buying . $3200.00 at the time with all the bells and whistles and it just sits in a bag, haven't been turned on for 5 years+.

 

My “dull” isn’t even rugged It’s a E5420 but one of the better “dulls”. I usually will turn down any HPee I get offered unless it’s a casing. Since I’m talking about brands Zonies May have had a rugged laptop. Not sure about that. I recently got a Getac that I will be honest will just sit on a shelving unit until I sell it or just give it away when I do a inventory check. I’m still thinking about running a toughbook selling company but I don’t want to. I might work for a telecom company or start one. It’s just there’s not enough demand for them even though I feel like I need to but I don’t. I just hoard eletronics

 

My CF-31 is my daily personal machine. I used to have a setup for work... Another CF-31 with a floor mount that swung away when I needed room. It was perfect! It just got in the way a little and was difficult when I had company in the truck. (Ford Ranger) Then my company went to requiring us to use their stupid Lenovos... Either that or I need to use my RSA token every time I log in...

Since 2007 I have built hundreds of these, mostly for sale back in the day on eBay. I have been amazed at the stories I have heard from my customers. I have had some sent back that have been crushed but still were able to function with externals. They are amazing machines!

 

My company back in Canada had Lenovo’s back then. Unless you hade one that met a standerd for them. I used a beat up CF-50 with the charger not working depending on what temperature it was outside.

 

I use my CF-20 for real time RTA (time alignment and frequency graph for speaker stacks) and for network (Dante audio over IP) troubleshoot and routing in the live music industry (it is the best i used for that, as its outdoor readable and can resist the weather conditions.
The CF-54 is used for recording audio (also because of the outdoor screen) and general purpose laptop.

Btw, i am audio engineer.

 

I have a few CF-31s. I use them as...

hmmm...a...

Boat anchor.
Wheel stop for a dump truck with bad brakes.
Ballistic armor in a 3A vest.
Counterweight for a tower crane. Have to stack a few, though.
Shot put training. Personally I can't throw them farther than 7 meters.
Then when I'm done I use them to read my emails, Netflix and chill.

 

Our marriage was struggling. My kids were disobedient and my finances were destroyed. We bought a Toughbook and it brought our family together, saved my marriage and restored my finances. Now, we are able to be together outdoors reading posts on NBR.

 

My marriage sucked in the 2nd year (married for 5 years) because when my mortgage was being paid with savings and my kids used my computer and I was almost about to be kicked out of my house and when I moved to a house in Brandon Manitoba things got WAYYY better. Ended up having another kid and thongs got better and I paid my mortgage. Now I also got my kids involved in Toughbooks and now my 2 out of 3 have a toughbook.

 

I have 3 toughbooks currently.

CF-31J i7 is my daily driver. It comes to work in my service van and sits in its dock awaiting my every command. I have a home dock for it as well, but I haven't set it up yet.

CF-53 i5 sits behind me in my home office. I use it for miscellaneous tasks like programming radios or doing computerized battery analysis. I also use it as an internet/radio connection to my favourite 220Mhz repeater. Yes, I am an Amateur Radio Operator.

CF-19 This one currently does nothing. It is pretty slow as it is an early model. It is absolutely beautiful to look at as it only has 200 hours on it. It is brand new!

 

I’m about to see if I can get a FCC license.

 

Good luck. I'm a Canadian and have been a ham for 35 years. Lots of interesting stuff. Always something new too!

 

Where from in Canada. I lived in Brandon 15+ years

 

Currently my CF-19 Mk5 is my main toughbook. I have a 19 Mk4 that I will be setting up soon for gps mapping.

My19 Mk3 that looks like it was hit with a sledge several times and other stuff is my knock around toughbook.

My U1 Mk2.5 is my backup I carry with me.

The CF-30 Mk2 got a fresh load of windows 7, plays music in the shop and is loaded with OBD2 programs to trouble shoot my cars. Also got PCM hammer along with other tuning software.

M34 Mk7 loaded with old first to second gen Holley EFI tuning progams.

CF-29 Mk3 loaded with Holley ECM programs and GPS mapping.

CF-52 Mk1 ATI stays in the camper, it's the DVD player and TV set, lol.

The others get played with from time to time. But not as much as I would like.

 

Born and raised in Vancouver. Currently live in Ladner, BC

 

Another story about mine

A friend of mine had a CF-28 MK1 or 2 idk. He gave it to me to fix but I’m over here fixing a Getac (that I acually dropped and broke). Fast forward 3-6 months and it’s sitting there collecting dust on the workbench (aka a lifetime foldout table) and I got around to fixing it. The thing had 3 major issues. 1st it’s battery had corroded so bad that I just threw it out. 2nd, somehow he lost keys on the chiclet style somehow. 3rd his palmrest was so bad that he stuck memory foam on it. So I fix it and this was 4-5 years ago. He comes back like 3 weeks later with a CF-M34 that he dropped out of a moving car somehow then I fixed that (a screen cracked).


The M34 he recently sold to me and I will be using it to do CB Radio and HAM Radios and this this and that. Luckily I don’t need to buy one and this is still in shipment even though he shipped it out from his house and I’m expecting because he’s from Iceland it’ll be 5-6 months to get here

 

My mk6 CF-19 is mostly used to remote into some radio equipment that i admin about 70km from where i live.

I've put over 14k hours on it in three years. Its running almost 24/7.

 

My CF-29 MK2 (work) is the same way. The way is to just be crazy and leave it on forever like mine. It’s actually hasn’t been turned off in 3+ years. Except the 23,000 Hrs on it is just absurd

 

1. CF-29 runs FreeDOS mostly and is used to tune Holden (Australian General Motors) Delco ECUs.
2. CF-29 will be setup to run a flow bench using Performance Trends Port Flow Analyser software, probably just run Windows XP.
3. CF-29 is my test mule, it literally exists just so I can play with and setup Linux and test various OSs on.
4. CF-31 is to tune cars with HP Tuners, EFI Live, Tuner Studio, NisTune, Hondata, etc etc etc.

I would like a tablet so I can play with setting up Debian so it will "just work".
I would like another one so I can setup an Android dash so I can log engine data for tuning (I currently don't have access to a dyno so I road tune by reading logs and adjust parameters accordingly).
I'd like a phone just because I can, it must have 4G and must be Android compatible so I can run LineageOS or pure Android without the bloat addons.

Having said all that I'd also like the funds to pay for it all.

 

I'm not a toughbook user myself, but what I gathered from your post is these things can take a little bit of oil and keep ticking along.

 

A little bit yes but it's not something I would ordinarily let happen. They are used in workshops because they can handle rough handling, not because they can handle oil.

 

Me too lol

 

Let's put it this way...no other laptop can take the abuse these Toughbooks can take.

 

If I am honest I didn’t think this thread would make it this far! I thought the group of 7-10 people that own toughbooks that are on this forum would post then go unheard of and then me finding the on person on it and finding the one bastion of hopefulness. End of random talk-about-that-and-address-that-stuffp

 

I admin servers and been doing stuff online for quite some time now. When the EeePC 701 came out around 2007 I thought it looked cool to have a laptop that allowed me to do most of my work on the go but with such a small form factor. You could practically shove it down your cargo-pants pockets and it made Ultra Portables at the time look unwieldy. So when I got to the store to check them out, the clerk told me "and it runs Linux", I nearly had a fit. I threw my money in his face and ran out of there immediately trying to mod and customize it. It had a small 7" screen, a functional but cramped keyboard and everything needed to get the job done that didn't require too much processing or memory. It fit nicely in my briefcase with the rest of my documents and didn't require hauling around a Targa satchel. Then I purchased other models like the slightly bigger 901 and stuck a USB 3G modem to them and everything was perfect.

Until I saw a CF-29 for sale at $130 on cheesebay. Now we were talking serious "go-anywhere" power with crazy reliability, guaranteed to work in just about any conditions. I even lugged a CF-19 while horseback riding during winter and still managed to pull in a cell signal on the internal WWAN module under heavy snow in some unusual places.

Once you've done things like that with a laptop it's damned near impossible to use any other brand without feeling the flimsiness and the slight sense of insecurity from handling something that's basically built to be used on a desk.

 

Simply put, I use Toughbooks for everything.

Detailed report: Communication, entertainment, information, education, hacking, cracking, gifting, generating financial relief and peace of mind ( in knowing that whatever tomorrow may bring, my laptop will still be working at the end of the day).

 

Speaking of EePCs I use mine with android x86 8.1. My toughbook is refusing to like my Mustang ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/60s-mustang.829636/).

 

Hey all! I have recently acquired a CF-25 for $65. I think it’s a MK2 but I have a collection of 5 computers now. I am still a person hat can’t get enough of things. Just like @evenflow153

 

At one time I had over 40 Toughbooks and I collected some older models.....just because I could. I left my Panasonic Executive Partner in the US when I moved,look that one up.

 

Damn, that looks awesome!

 

Heavy as hell at 35 lbs,it has a 20mb hard drive and a built in printer. Still works.

 

Ahahaha I thought you were talking about your ex!!!!!

My mistake. Apologizes. No offense meant.

 

Right on Brother.....lol

My girl here with her 19 yr old

 

Right on man.

Off to work. L8R