Laptop for PLC/SCADA Programmers??

[504bloke]

During commissioning a plant few years back, I rested a very expensive Compaq laptop on the flat top of a vibratory hopper. It was a very noisy environment and working nearby I didn't hear the hopper start and promptly deposit my laptop 2m onto the walkway (doh), where it was then trodden on by a huge clumsy mechanical fitter.

By the time I retrieved it, it was a sorry state indeed (and I was vastly out of pocket)....since then I will use nothing for site work except Panasonic Toughbooks.

I have twin laptops, a dell 820 and an ibm thinkpad as a backup. Both are kept in Peli cases and only come out and rest in the bottom of control panels now, I dropped my last acer laptop from a platform above an extruder a few years back and it landed in the water bath 3 meters below along with hot glass mixed polymer !

 

[danw]

I have to use Dells because of "purchasing policy" in the company. I've had Latitudes and Inspirons and they all have the same critical failure mode: the keyboard pointer

allows the cursor to wander or drift.

I've found that removing the pointer altogether solves the problem, but it's a hassle to remove the keyboard and mess with it.

Dan

 

[_Woody_]

By the time I retrieved it, it was a sorry state indeed (and I was vastly out of pocket)....since then I will use nothing for site work except Panasonic Toughbooks.

WOW !! Where do you find the cash for these !!!

Personally IBM Thinkpad (T series) but this is mainly because I don't like touch pad's & IBM or Dell seem to be the only ones available with the little knob in the keyboard to use as a mouse ( and the Dell knobs are not reliable)

 

[JesperMP]

danw, I had a very similar problem with the touchpad on an HP (I think that HP is not to blame, it was so reliable in other respects that I had it for so long time that dirt collected on the underside of the touchpad). I didnt have to open up the laptop. There was a Windows Device manager setting to completely disable the touchpad.

Personally IBM Thinkpad (T series) but this is mainly because I don't like touch pad's & IBM or Dell seem to be the only ones available with the little knob in the keyboard to use as a mouse ( and the Dell knobs are not reliable)

Yes. IBM's laptops were the best to my opinion. But they do not exist anymore. Is Lenovo just as good as IBM, or not ?

 

[_Woody_]

Yes. IBM's laptops were the best to my opinion. But they do not exist anymore. Is Lenovo just as good as IBM, or not ?

Not sure - I've just ordered a new T61 so I guess I will find out in a couple of weeks. I hope so.

 

[allscott]

I've got a lenovo T60 and think its great. The look and feel seems to be the same to the IBM's.

I'm also a pointer guy and the pointer on this one has worked great fo 1.5 years now in some nasty environments.

 

[kolyur]

Is Lenovo just as good as IBM, or not ?

My employer, being somewhat old-fashioned, has always required those three magic letters to be on all of our computer equipment. But since IBM sold off its laptop division, my current PC is a Lenovo T60. As far as I can tell, there is absolutely no decrease in quality with the Lenovo models. They still have the same look, feel, and style as when IBM made them.

I have used other brands (HP, Dell) but the Thinkpads remain my favorite. They just seem to have a level of build quality that I don't see in most other brands. To me, that's more important than having a built-in serial port. (I installed a PCMCIA serial card on day 1 and have never regretted it.)

 

[rlmts]

.... To me, that's more important than having a built-in serial port. (I installed a PCMCIA serial card on day 1 and have never regretted it.)

Ok, I hear what you are all saying about general quality, and this is obviously important, but please don't loose track of one very important issue if you intend that your laptop talks to various industrial serial ports or serial connected PLC interfaces....

Like I said previously...
Before 'dumping' the REAL serial port it may pay to read through this post.
http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showth...79&page=1&pp=15

Not all PCMCIA-RS232 or USB-RS232 adaptors appear to work correctly with all industrial systems. For newer/current control systems you can probably purchase a USB version of the COM1 interface (eg. Siemens USB-MPI. or Rockwells PCMCIA interface for PLC2/5 and SLC500 etc) but this is an extra expense that you must figure in your expenditure (perhaps £900 in the AB example)
For older systems, COM1 on your laptop may be the only method of connecting successfully.

There are technical reasons for RS232 convertors not working as expected, see the above link to other posts where these reasons are discussed with some possible 'work arounds' in some cases.

Rich

 

[bkottaras]

I can vouch for the Dell also!
Rich

Another vote for the Dell.
(D820 & D830)

 

[panic mode]

...everyone will have their favourite model. there are different needs and different expectations.

i still use Dell D800, and I'm thinking about upgrade to D830...

Dell's are no perfect by any means but they do good job with Latitude for what I use it for. This is what I can say about my current machine:


Good:
- you get to choose OS (for me WinXP Pro, Win2K is also ok),
- you get galore of ports and communication optios inluding real serial port - serial is not a must but for what I do, going for machine without it would not be smart move,
- battery life of my current machine is absolutely excellent - after more than three years of heavy use and hundreds of projects, i still get just over 4 hours on battery (and I mean heavy use - programming, copying files etc. while the brightness is up). not sure if I just happen to be lucky owner of one exceptional battery or not but - no previous laptop could do half of that when they were new (tried HP, IBM, Toshiba, Compaq, Sony etc.). this is one hell of a feature once you are on site, hours away from office and you find your AC adapter is not with you or it has failed.
- cheap power supplies (after paying over $400 for Sony, $40 is a bargain, now I keep one extra in my car)
- you get choice of high res display (some people are happy with 1280x800, i am not one of them - i am far more comfortable with 1920x1200) with really bright and vivid colors
- you get choice of real graphic card insted of some on-board el-cheapo chip that drags the performance down
- decent size and quite comfortable keyboard with right layout
- this was the first latop i came accross that had speakers that can be used for what they are supposed to do, all previous laptops sounded like the avatus internal speaker from my old 8086 desktop (time before sound cards in PC).
- service, any time there was a need to address something, it was done next day in my office. i just called Dell because my display would flicker on occasion when display was swung back and fourth, specially when after spending winter night in the trunk. they replaced little cable (I'm glad I wasn't changing it myself). not big deal but then I mentioned there are two dead pixels on the bottom of the screens (hard to see since on the edge of the task bar). they changed it as well.


Not so good:
- when i got this machine, it came with DVD+RW that had old firmware and there is still no upgrade from Dell (could not use 16x DVD+R media, could not properly burn audio CDs - most of them produced hissing on some players like in my car and burning DVD+DL took much too long). fortunately it was easy to get unofficial version which not only resolved initial problems but also made it region free and added support for minus formats
- I use keyboard a lot and I'm not too gentle but it could be a bit more sturdy
- they only offer it with smaller HDDs (for new one I would like to go with new Samsung HDDs - large ad fast)
- 3 USB are enough but i would prefer more than one to be on side (better access)
- could have more than one PCMCIA slot

 

[robertmee]

I used an HP N3150 for 8 years before it gave up the ghost. It started as a win98 machine, then nt4.0 and finally win2000 and the drivers were always available (another important feature) for each OS. It had missing keys but I loved that machine. Even if it forced me to be creative in app installation since the firmware limited it to a 4GB HD. But, it was one of the few that still worked in sub-zero temperatures.

I 'upgraded' (I never buy new) to a Dell 810 and it's been a solid machine as well. The one thing I appreciate now with the HP that the Dell doesn't have is a permanent floppy and CD. I'm forever having to swap between the two on the Dell. For those of us still carrying around a flap full of key discs in our laptop case, you'll appreciate the nicety of having both a floppy and CD without having to swap.

 

[geniusintraining]

Nothing but Dells here....

I have a 1 D630 (4USB's and a real serial) and extended battery, 1 D610 and 1 D600 also a eMachine desktop

As far as the 'real serial' port, I need it for some old dos programs the I run in DOS BOX, but other then that I use a Keyspan adapter and I have not found an application that it did not work on, I have used it with everything from Siemens to AB.
But to each his own....

 

[surferb]

Nice! I've been looking at a bunch of Pelican cases online. Unfortunately, whenever I start looking at that stuff I go nuts. They have all sorts of attachments, padded dividers, etc. I start looking for computer gear then get ideas for boating, SCUBA gear, then this case that fits 10-12 weapons,...sign...

www.opticsplanet.com
www.tactical-store.com

Both are kept in Peli cases and only come out and rest in the bottom of control panels now

 

[Jeebs]

Yes. IBM's laptops were the best to my opinion. But they do not exist anymore. Is Lenovo just as good as IBM, or not ?

Have a ThinkCentre labeled as IBM, but on boot it says: Created by Lenovo.
Same with some of the laptops here.
Don't think there is any difference yet.

 

[timbo_uk]

For heavy programming work, I have a stationary PC with a good screen. The laptop is "merely" for onsite work. I would hate to lug a huge laptop around because it has to be powerful enough to be everything to me. Those who get a powerful laptop, or worse - a Siemens "Field PG", usually have to live with the beast for many more years because it is so expensive.

[\QUOTE]

Are you talking the old white PG? I have the newer PG-M unit. Very robust and powerfull unit. I got the upper spec version. High res (1400x1050)screen, 1gig ram (will take 2G), windows XP pro, all ports I need built in, massive battery life, and DVD re-writer. The 7200rpm SATA drive can be swapped in 2 minutes for a different configuration etc. Got it about 2 years ago It was not cheap, but bought with a step5/7 upgrade license. This actually made cost similar to a Panasonic toughbook with licenses from scratch.