i need a laptop

is there anyone who has a laptop they don,t need
my company is too cheap to buy me a laptop
they said they'll let me program if i can provide my own laptop

http://www.ebay.com offers some decent laptops at affordable prices.
BUT
My suggestion to you is get them to give you a desktop (any Pentium class) and put it on a rolling cart. Use it for the programming/troubleshooting needs. Alot of us didnt have the advantage (in some cases disadvantage) of having a laptop when learning this stuff. Take what you can get, usually they have some older PC's laying around that will work well with PLC programming software.

IF you develop skills with computers/plc's, the mechanics, and troubleshooting then you will not have a problem obtaining what you want.

Yep!! I would go with the "Rolling Cart". I have been dragging one around since 1995... That was until last year. I bought a Toshiba Sattelite Pro P100 mhz for $100.00 at ebay. it is a junker but I can still load Mitsubishi, AB Rslogix, Pico software and more....
So do not waste your money on a "High End" laptop when any Pentium Class rig will do. Just do your homework.
Scooter

You don't need anything new and fancy to run most of the PLC software. As rsdoran suggests look around your work area for an old discarded PC. typically something capable of Windows 95 is all you need.

I see several laptops on eBay going for $50. Heck buy it yourself. It's an investment in you after all. Here is an example:

eBay auction for IBM notebook

DISCLAIMER: This is not my auction. Nor is this seller in any way known by me or related to me. Just an auction I happened to have been following out of curiousity.

There have to be hundreds more just like this on eBay. Snoop around a bit and I'm sure you can come up with a good buy.

Good Luck

OG

One customer of ours had a cart that was about 4 feet long. They had monitor under a piece of plexiglas. You could set your schematics and printouts right next to it and look down on both of them.

I do a lot of trainning with customers and one of the first technicians EXCUSES for not having learned this stuff is the fact that they did not have a laptop.

To those guys, when they are provided with one, shurely, the next thing that happens is the laptop disapearance...

Get a desktop on a cart. They tend to last longer.

Start learning.

For less than $50, you can get pretty descent simulators. There is no excuses.

thank you

I wanted to say thank you for all your help guys and gals about the laptop/desktop suggestions...

Never thought of using a desktop on a cart til now VERY good suggestion and that does make sense about the worrying with the laptop thing and people stealing it....
B.T.W.--I trained on a osciliscope-looking "thing" that looked like a boat anchor. LOL..

thanks again,

Another real-life they-can't-pocket-it example: I visited our local Pepsi bottler to examine their new SLC-500 and DeviceNet sensors/drives system on a new water bottling line. I was talking to the senior maintenance guy and asked him if he had a CD drive in his maintenance laptop so I could load a demo copy of our network configuration software.

He laughed and led me to the end of the hallway, where, under a tarp, was a small library book cart outfitted with their monitor, PC, power strips, and tool boxes.

It works fine for them; it's a small facility in one building and this will roll anywhere they need (well, except the mezannine they put the SLC-5/04 on. So they ran DH+ down the wall into a junction box !). The PC is an unremarkable 500 MHz model but you can get those for a song now.

As an addendum to my first post: I have my own laptop (an IBM 300 MHZ) and a new company furnished Compaq 933mhz that I have had some issues with.

The pc old days were simpler, I had the software at home on my pc and used a tape drive to sychronize them. I was able to use a program Closeup) to dial in to the plc back then and monitor, edit, transfer files etc all I wanted.

Laptops are a necessity in some cases (traveling service/business etc) but not always needed. What happens is you end up carrying around an awesome amount of accessories also. As a service person I use to have to have a hand truck (in a sense) to carry all the paraphenelia involved.

Do what is needed to get started no matter how simple it may seem. What may seem simple now can be the beginning of an awesome career.

I just wanted to thank you all again. I finally won a laptop on E-bay.
I have been trying to find a cheap laptop for about a year now.
my company doesnt't pay me alot