"Whats the perfect laptop for programming?"

Im not totally unfamiliar with PLCs and ladder logic but Im by no means a programmer, lets just say a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Im currently striving to change that and get more intimate with PLC programming than I have in the past (Ive dealt with several manufacturers products and used the ladder logic to trouble shoot machinery, as well as taken some seminars from AB). I will most likely be dealing with several makes and models of PLCs in my current position so I dont need brand specific answers to my question.

Now for my question:

I plan to purchase a laptop for programming/trouble shooting and have no idea what exactly I need. I would like to know what ports are necessary, processor speed, hard drive space requirements, ram requirements etc..

From a stance of money is no object to the bare minimum required what would the expert opinion of "Whats the perfect laptop for programming?"

Thank you in advance for any helpful information you can send my way.

ShadP

I would say there is no perfect laptop to use, I have had several and they all worked well. I currently use a Dell Latitude (this is my 3rd) they are expensive but seem to hold up well. One of my colleagues had a Dell Inspirion and it was no where near as rugged as the Latitude. I always look for something near the top of line as far as CPU speed and memory. Remember you are buying a slice in time so I prefer to get a top end system as within 3-4 months it’s near the middle or bottom! Also make sure you have a serial port, as well as at least one PC card slot. Be careful if you plan to use a USB adapter to Serial although I have never tried one a friend told me his was nothing but trouble and he finally gave up.
Finally one last thing the laptop I just bought is great it’s a Dell Latitude with something like a 15” screen, only problem is the new digital screens only work well at a preset resolution. Mine is 1600x1200. If you try a lower resolution then everything is fuzzy. You can play games with DPI settings and stuff but I would prefer to have had something like 1280x1024.

Good luck
Rich

The one thing I can tell you that is absolutely critical, is a serial port. Most newer laptops come with no serial port, but they have two USB adapters instead. Yes you can purchase a USB to serial adapter, or even a card adapter, but why go through all the head aches. You can see from many of the recent posts on this site alone, USB to serial interfaces do not always work when it comes to communicating with a PLC.
Many older PLC systems have DOS based software, so sometimes you may need to run DOS. I have had good luck purchasing refurbished Dell laptops on eBay. I dont like spending lots of cash, because when you travel and visit customer facilities your laptop tends to get beat up. I currently use a Dell Latitude, with a Pentium 2 450MZ, 128MB of RAM, and an 8 GIG hard drive. I have it set up to boot either to Windows 98, or Windows NT. I find this covers all the needs I have.

Good Luck,


Alex

Thanks for the info guys, I was aware that I needed a serial port but not that they werent as common on the newer laptops. I also tend to go for the bigger processors, lots of ram and bigger hard drives since the slower/smaller ones tend to get irritating very quickly after you get a few programs on them.

Hi, I find the newer models have the advantage of inbuilt modem (on site to download manuals help files etc) and inbuilt Ethernet (connect to client network to upload download files & controllogix connections). Frees up your PCMCIA slot for other cards.
CDR/W is always handy for leaving copies of the completed program with a client. Large screen with good resolution (15.4 & 1920 x 1200 is my latest favourite).
A relaxed attitude about your new toy getting dirty is also needed at some of the sites you have to visit. Regards Alan Case

I would buy 512MB Ram

Even for the sales guys. The NT, 2K or XP take up 128 MB alone. You may be able to get by with 256 MB now, but ram is cheap and it reduces swaping to the harddrive and spinning those things up uses the battery.

As mentioned above, a serial port is a must. USB to serial port adapters are very slow compared to running straight serial. Many laptops come with embedded Ethernet. This keeps my PCMCIA slots open for field bus cards and the compact flash cards.


Another must is the UXGA screen. 1600x1200 pixel may cost more but is save a lot of time(money) when you don't need to scroll the screen as much.

I like Ken's idea of the dual boot system. I have done this yet and I should as I like windows 98 for doing embedded development. Also my TiSoft and Modsoft under Windows 98 and they don't under NT. This requires a bigger hard drive, but they are cheap too. The last few laptops we have bought have been Dells.

Who needs a floppy drive? I would except those darn activation disks that the PLC manufacturers required. I don't remember have a key disk for my RS-Logix 5000 but I know I have one for the RS-Logix 500.

Has anyone bought a laptop without a floppy drive and later found they made a mistake because they couldn't activate their PLC programming software? Inquiring minds want to know.

I will probably end up buying the laptop on the company dime so getting it dirty is the least of my concerns, so long as it is rugged enough to take some abuse.

One of the colegues just bought a laptop without floppy drive
and serial port. The first problem was not big deal.
We installed RSLogix on his laptop as usual and then we
installed activation on some desktop PC laying around.
Then connected the two PCs and shared the harddrives to allow
moving it (activation) from one drive to another.
Sure it could be a step less but who installs activation
once a day? I've upgraded my RSLogix distributions number of times
without need to touch the activation.
The lack of serial ports is bigger problem. There are those
USB to serial converters. They do work for 99% of things and
I use them all the time. One thing I've never seen from such
adapter is working Autoconfigure in RSLinx. You can still
set it up manually if you know what is the port setting
but lack of ability to autoconfigure is serious drawback.
If you ask me, programmers laptop should have:
built-in Ethernet port (don't they all have it nowdays?),
minimum two USB ports, DVD-CDRW combo, plenty of RAM,
modem and a COM port. For floppy-less system, get a flashcard
reader with USB port and flash card you can afford.
USB is better because you can share files with any modern PC
including desktops. PCMCIA readers are usually not usable on
desktop machines (they are not very common).
Beware of some cheap batery-less models that are nowdays
available. You don't want to loose your work just because
someone trips over your cables. The wireless LAN is great
feature specially for maintenance guy who has to walk from
machine to machine, but many places I've been working in
are not allowing this anymore.

i hope this helps,

panic mode

Dell, Toschiba and previous HP are what I trust, I have bad memorys with 2 Compaq lap-top. Some models seems that don't bring me to mill.
Serial port is helpfull and necessary with DOS-based softwares for old PLCs and thatswhy 2 separate hard-disk for DOS and for Y2K/XP could be good idea.
There are 250 GBytes portable hard-disk for USB-2 in the marked. Here they are over 300 € and with Y2K that is enough for 'everything', no cd-roms and floppys anymore please.
Someone told before that 256 MBytes of ram needed and display must be as good as possible. 1600 is too much for 15" display (for my eyes), but 1280 could be suitable.
Modem and Ethernet are matter of course today ?

I have had great success with HP laptops. I tend to stay right away from Compaq. A bit difficult now that HP have taken over Compaq.
As have most, I have had problems with USB/serial converters so a serial port is essential.
Yes, go for 512 RAM and a large hard drive.
The biggest problem I find is that the XP software that comes with the laptop is usually a manufacturer OEM specific version. It also, quite often, will only restore the hard drive to factory standard. You finish up with a hard disk loaded with XP that is also NTFS. You can boot the PC from a DOS floppy but cannot read the hard drive.
You then need to buy partitioning software so that you can have a FAT16 partition for DOS.
Going great guns here and then you find that there is no DOS driver available for your USB/serial converter. &@#?+*$.
I find that 1024 x 768 is fine for me provided it is a good screen.
By the way, the latest laptop I purchased is an NEC Versa Pro. Quite good but definately slower than the HP it replaces. The NEC has a 2 Gig PIII and the HP had a 1.4Gig PIII. Both run XP Home.

my two cents

First of all, the perfect laptop is one so cheap that you can
afford to buy two at once, and not cry if one ends up in a
tank or pit. And, one so light, you can carry two into the
field. I'd currently be looking for a 500MHZ with 128MB of ram
on eBay, and, you know, you could buy two for under 800USD.

The last place to need laptop replacement parts is on a field job.

All that considered, I'd say the perfect laptop has the capability
to have its internal hard drive removed, say, in a caddy, and replaced
with another. In fact, all major components should be easily
changable.

I currently carry three DELL Inspiron 3000's, and have spare parts
at the ready.

Nobody's mentioned a locking accessory. Sometimes you need to leave
the control room to crawl around on the machine, and, WHOOPS! there
goes the project!

no 'touch pad' mouse

If you use a DOS based PLC editor, the touchpad on the
front is really useless.

If you use 'dot commands' in RSLogix, the touchpad on the
front is really a pain.

Of course, there's not usually a place on the bottom of an
overturned bucket for a mouse pad, so, I don't really have
a good alternative to this problem.

Let me go find my hammer

I agree with jdbrandt and have said the same before.

Second hand laptops are plentiful and cheap. I go to computer fairs and buy 3 or 4 for the price of one top-range new one.


If you have ever dropped a laptop and smashed it (I have) then the cheap ones are better and no problems with aging software.

Plus, if you work out in the field a lot (I do) there are too many envious eyes viewing your pride and joy.

The top range laptops are for people that only go to the office and home with it. I have a very good laptop - but it never goes on site with me.

Must be different where I work Goody, usually the back blocks of nowhere. I can and do leave a notebook plugged in while I have to do other things. I just make sure I cover it (stops the sparks from fitters welding and grinding destroying it). For I mouse I only use an optical, can be used on anything, even your leg. But I do carry an older notebook as a spare or to use in real dirty environments. Regards Alan Case

Dude get an IBM

I use an IBM, built in ethernet, 800mhz processor, serial port, very light, 15inch screen, and tough as nails, also a bay for swapping a cd/rw/dvd drive to a floppy and vice versa. I dropped mine from about six feet the third day i got it it landed flat. picked it up repowered up, and it didnt miss a lick. I run windows 98 se so i can run all the software that I need, I would keep away from the windows xp fisher price software. This one i currently have is refurbished, got it for around 600 bucks not bad for such a great machine
adios
Dallas