eBay is overwhelmig... Whom to trust?

I hate being a newb in a forum.

Having researched a bit, I've decided to go down this pathway, Cf-29. I've done a fair amount of browsing on eBay first. I call it market research to some extent. Looking at what different sellers offer is a quick education about the different options, and you can see trends as well.

This is to be a fairly dedicated unit that will see some relatively harsh duty in automobiles, partially on the racetrack. Needs for memory and very large hard drive are secondary to a large extent to excellent touch screen, back-lighting, CD/DVD and a very good wifi. It will be used for data acquisition and tuning of standalone engine management. I will absolutely be using the serial port.

I have a side business building harnesses and kits for motor sports to run the engines. I would like to even offer my customers the option to get a Toughbook from me that is pre-loaded with the software we use as part of the package. It would be a nice way to start with my supplying latest firmware, newest editing version of software, and known functionality. With that in mind, although volume may be low, I would love to team up with someone as a supplier. (may only be 5-6 a yeah to be honest)

Questions:

The software throws up 3-D wire graphs that a touch screen would be excellent for manipulating.

1) Among the different versions, is there a particular model or year I should seek as a bare minimum to get he best image and resolution on the screen for the data manipulation graphically?

2) It seems logical to get as modern a unit as possible in general, but in trying to keep this affordable as well, there is a drive to get a 1.3 vs say a 1.6 unit. It is very difficult to know in advance if this is much of a limiting factor with the earlier processors, or, a good way to lower the cost.

3) Rubber back lit vs emissive. If the emissive is still basically casually water resistant, and has multilevel brightness, it seems a better tactile choice. If the emissive gets splashed or left open in the rain, am I SOL?

4) Is having a new HD installed with increased capacity a waste if I don't need a large drive, or, good insurance for longevity vs an original one?

5) WiFi: how on earth to sort out the different wifi options? Is there a bare minimum so to say? Any to avoid?

Having read many threads in here, it seems that quite a few of the very experienced contributors refurbish these and have an ongoing small industry (possibly it is all they do?) but I also see a common thread of no overt advertising.

I hate to take a random chance on eBay, when I feel fairly certain some of the guys on here could steer me right, and supply me with sales and service reliably.

Any favorites to deal with here? Can people perhaps pm me in private with advice on whom to avoid on eBay, or whom to choose within the forum?

Made contact with someone local to me in Chicago a few months ago, but lost that info.

TIA,

Alex Lipowich

 

Rubber keyboard is for Willow Springs, Chuckwalla, etc. Sand. Casual water is not an issue.

 

To the OP: It was me that you contacted. I am in Lombard, IL

If you need to contact me my info is below:

Robert
Proton Computers Inc.
720 S. Main Street
Lombard, IL 60148

(630)-627-7623

Thanks

 

Willow Springs and Chuckwalla tracks are particularly bad for rain/sand? I'm primarily in the Midwest. Mid-Ohio seems to be non-stop rain when I used to go there, otherwise, we don't get much of the rain. Sandy at Gingerman in Michigan to be sure, but not too bad. Pumpkin Race at Mid-O, more likely snow than rain in past.

I will contact you again shortly. Still welcome other opinions too on some of the questions, but will re-establish contact, thanks.

(slightly embarrassing, sure enough, have Rob on my Cell)

Guessing everyone will be intimidated from responding now!

 

Forget ebay check out bst in this forum and Toughbooktalk.

 

^ Man's got a point, mate. These blokes wont screw you over, and if you have questions or need help with something, lets just say that some of these blokes are living, breathing service manuals.

 

You’ve obviously done your initial research based upon your post, so I’ll offer my limited 2-cents.

I spent a few years shooting racing at tracks mainly in the south-east, Homestead to Road Atlanta and only made the trip to mid-Ohio once to shoot the SCCA runoffs; but I really liked that track, second on my list just behind Barber. Now that my Toughbook sickness has taken me in another direction, I rarely make it to the track, but it always made for some fun weekends.

One observation, the teams that I shot for, who used laptops for one application or another, always seemed to have trouble with them after a short while. Looking back, and knowing what I know now, I have to believe it was less about the laptop, and more about how they used it.

Most either tried to balance it on the roof, on near the cockpit on open wheels, or sitting on the scales next to the car, and often with the engine running. Now I have to wonder if the vibrations translated back into the spinning hard drive, caused more problems than weather or conditions.

I recently spoke to a friend who had been frustrated for several years that he couldn’t get a good life span on the laptops he used on their police Harleys. After much expense, and some expensive tries, they ended up using relatively inexpensive netbooks, but with good quality SSD drives, and haven’t had a failure since. Vibration be dammed.

So given what you’re wishing to due, especially if you’re planning on selling a client a whole package, Toughbook and software, you might want to add to your list of questions for the Toughbook geniuses here (of which im not one of) the added value of using a good SSD drive over a high capacity standard PATA drive. If not, your product sales may suffer through no fault of their own.

Sam

 

Definitely agree with that statement. I would trust these people more so than on eBay.

 

Now that's a good one :laugh: and yes that's true

 

Hardly ever rains, but the wind blows constantly and the sand piles up in drifts. Rubber KB might make sense.

 

I have a rubber keyboard on my CF-18 but when you have it mounted on the front rack of a ATV 4X4 you need it but I only use it to set up my USB GPS. If I had to do any amount of typing I would replace it with a regular one.

 

Rather limited selection.

Anyone else seem to have an opinion on ruggedness of the two HD choices mentioned above?

It seems emissive is the way to go, occasional typing is likely.

May have to get a very early processor, skip cd/dvd to stay in budget off eBay.

This not so hot as kids would benefit from watch DVD in car or planes occasionally....

 

Then place a WTB in the buy and sell section

 

It sounds like your looking for the answer to a Maiden's Prayer & on a limited budget to boot.

This is a forum, so everybody expresses an opinion based on their own circumstances, which may or may NOT meet your particular needs & wants.

You could do this the easy way, go for a CF-30mk2. You can get a good low hour, touch screen, sata interface, multi-tasking processor, capable graphics unit & emissive keyboard for between US$800 - 900. Add the latest generation MLC SSD & your all done for $1,000 - $1100. Good enough spec, easy to obtain & fits all the needs & wants of some.

An alternative is, you can go back to the forum main page & look in the top right or bottom right corner of the page, you should realise that your on page 1 of 251 pages. Start at page 251 & work your way back & in doing so, noting the answer to every question you will ever need to ask concerning CF-29's.

If the limited graphics of the early CF-29's fit your application then you can achieve your objectives on a tight budget. We are all human?? & we all make mistakes, that's part of the learning process, it's often said, knowing what NOT to do is sometimes more important than knowing WHAT to do. The benefit you'll gain from knowing what's what is that you'll be able to acquire the right tool for the task at hand & make your decisions & recommendations based on YOUR knowledge & experience.

If your offering customers the same set-up your going to be using, you need to offer the whole package & not just support for the parts your more familiar with. The, here's the guy's number, call him, could turn out to have a detrimental effect on your prime product, so if that's the way you go, choose that support function with some thought.

In an average month I probably have more accidents that most people have in an average year, we do say accidents don't just happen they are caused, so causing accidents at CF-29mk 1 or 2 prices is easier to live with than at CF-30 prices.

Have you got the answer your looking for??

o.g. << gaining knowledge from accidents>>

 

Excellent idea, though, likely to disappoint Rob vs just trusting him and going local. The problem lies in being seduced by anon eBay sales. If a private party has one of these that they say works well, and, they are rugged as everyone agrees on..it should be relatively low risk. I suspect that many people in the forum here have bought cheap on eBay, added on, upgraded over time, but may be telling me now to do differently than they themselves did out of (appropriate and due) respect to the OGs in here.

There is no way I can convince the majority of customers in the pond I'm fishing in that they should spend $500+ for a laptop with serial and touchscreen if it didn't have cd, lit keyboard etc.... Which brings up next point:

ABSOLUTELY. Champagne taste on a Beer Budget is the phrase I'd employ.

Been doing just that. Finding that swapping in an emissive keyboard is not difficult. Some online vendors willing to do that for very little money even. Several keyboards out there for sale as well. That aspect of my needs means there are relatively few out there "as is" for sale meeting my minimum spec. Having said that, if I can find an older one with optics, I now know what it would take to add the keyboard.

I have not seen reference to how the graphics differ on the earlier versions.
If you referring to the speed at which a game might run, that is not a concern at all.

Or higher prices for other decked out or later CF-29 versions for that matter.
This is a valid point. Thank you.

And now for something slightly different:

So when a vendor tells me this,

Does that mean "I picked a nice one to photograph, yours will look like crap?"

(mostly kidding, I understand volume etc, this comment to me was actually in context for an ad claiming backlit rubber keyboard, but photo showing otherwise.)

Does that mean the same as "Touchscreen broken"

Appreciate all the input, will continue reading, and learning. Thank you.



My favorite has got to be the ads saying, "Touch screen might not work after shipping".

Come on, are these Toughbooks or not?

 

That's just the ones that are listed. It may be the seller has other options but it would require a PM to find out.

 

No matter what the price is I would NEVER buy anything if the seller does not show the item.
Touchscreen, yes it's gone 99.9% of the time.

 

Have you got any idea how many other people are looking for the same deal, & more importantly for you, they are in the que, & well ahead of you!

Here's an example of what you can get;

CF-29mk5, Non-Touch Screen, Stock HDD & Caddy, Standard Key Board, OEM Power Supply, High Capacity Yellow Tab Battery(41 cycles), DVD-CD RW. 2770 hours in the system bios clock.

If I said it was FIRST CLASS Condition I'm talking 9.9 out of a possible 10 marks. With 2770 hours on the clock, it's not new (build date june 2006) but if I take into account the purchase price, remove the parts I can easily sell tomorrow, then the first class - looks like it was built yesterday bare bones mk5 cost me nothing!!!!

I'm not saying this to impress you, I'm saying it to impress UPON YOU, whats available if your "Switched On & Ready For Action". What you need to take account of is your current knowledge & understanding of what meets your needs, if it takes you five seconds longer to decide that, then I've already hit the buy it now button.

You need to go back to my other post & extract the relevant information. There is an indication in there that I've made mistakes on the way, your application is different so you'll probably make different mistakes for different reasons.

No amount of asking questions can substitute the using one for it's intended purpose. It sounds like you've already had two offers, both from respected forum members, you could do a lot worse than buy an honest unit at an honest price & try it out.

o.g. << I'm cheap, so is most of my kit>>

 

You won't be disappointed dealing with Rob
I've yet to see one of his customers that wasn't well taken care of

 

I second that, I got my CF-30 from Rob

 

Rob is very easy to get along with I have purchased several parts from him.

 

Wow! I really appreciate the kind words guys! It does mean a lot to me as I truly am offering my dream! I don't just sell Toughbooks, it's a passion of mine to provide the BEST support, quality and satisfaction to ALL of my customers. It really makes me smile to see so many happy people from my doing's.

Last but not least, if there is anything more I can do, let me know, and I'll do it!

Thanks again guys

 

We like, who am i kidding, we LOVE to pick on Rob. But he is TOPS when it comes to his knowledge, his quality, and his service. He definitely will not steer you wrong and is more interested in getting you in the toughbook that will suit your needs than he is on paying his rent. Almost a literal statement!!

Now, just don't go telling him i said this or his EGO will EXPLODE!!

Oh, and as for your comment on us steering you away from ebay even though that's what we basically did in the beginning. Let me just say this, when we all started with ours, the greedy uniformed, unintelligent bunch, wasn't flooding ebay with big words and small products! Too many people "refurbish" these units now, and don't do it right, and actually make it worse. There are some VERY reputable ebayers we have here (Toughbook, Ohlip, Rob, to name a few) that still put out quality products, at reasonable prices. We are passionate about toughbooks and don't want anyone to get inferior product; hence our caution on some of your current ebayers out there.

 

I tried really hard, but didn't follow this too well George. I think what you're saying is YOU (like many others here) can find something like a diamond in the rough on ebay, buy it quickly, part it out, and have something of value left over, but its not something you can use persay "as is" (once stripped), other than to spend money and fill it with what you want to...and then...use it? or sell it? The former building custom what you want...affordably I assume, or the latter, making money.

Either way, I didn't quite get your point on that, other than perhaps that great values don't last long on ebay because so many people are hunting...

Anyway, more to the point, thanks to everyone for pitching in.

I'm getting much closer to defining what I want, what I'm willing to pay for it, and frankly, also, reaching a point where I don't want to learn more, because some options opened up that are affordable, and will "fill the bill"

Can't wait to join the club. I plan on posting some of the more humorous responses I got from one particular ebay vendor, I clearly unintentionally pissed him off.....

One of the things that is intrinsically obvious to all of you, but I only gathered after doing more and more reading is that while its easy to do a quick upgrade and bring a TB up to a new XP version, or load it on...it may not be easy to get the drivers to work right, even if the TScreen was fine before the upgrade etc.... one guy blew a headgasket over my questions on this.

Didn't realize he was in the red before I asked him.

 

I must give you credit that you are asking questions first before you buy , most new members buy first then ask questions...that's when they find out they made a big mistake. One thing for sure if you buy from one of the members here you are going to get great service after the sale...try getting that on fleabay .
On drivers, well if you own a toughbook you must have the restore disk, ones that don't have them are the one's that are having driver problems 90% of the time.

 

Thanks for the credit. I know from experience that almost any project taken on outside your primary profession and training is likely to morph over time, and version 1 is almost always surpassed by version 2, 3 and 4.

However, that having been said, I hate making easily avoidable mistakes. As a very active forum member in several BMW related forums, I've learned the value of not just googling in general to learn about a subject, not just doing market research on ebay, but to search out dedicated forums and do some reading. I actually did read quite a bit before posting, before after and during the ebay searches.

The information shared here and on Rob's forum is really helpful, and makes it much easier to decide on what one wants to tackle on their own, but also more importantly to decide the relative value of what people offer. I could EASILY see getting addicted to buying upgrading, selling, trading etc, but need another hobby like..well, yet another hole in the head.

I love the diversity of the forum especially, who'd have thunk that a Saddle Craftsman would end up selling laptops to an ObGyn who runs a BMW Motorsport side business!

abloriginalparts.com - Home

I will most probably be spreading the Gospel according to Toughbook very shortly via my website as well as some posts in one of the dedicated forums to the engine tuning Standalone's that I use. Can't wait to get my hands on these. Have one going to a customer, one for me, and one for the next customer going on the shelf.

Will be lurking....contributing? Less likely given the accumulated wisdom, but I will certainly have needs to be filled I suspect in the future!

Thanks, appreciate the insights, and really appreciate the depth of DIY threads and people chipping in to help...

Way cool, and FAR more civil than some of the automotive based forums!

Alex.

 

it is rare to see the extent of help and advice people are giving on this forum..