waterproof(ish)ing a laptop

[ReefEnabler]

Hey guys,

Here I am with yet more questions about questionable things

I am placing an AsusEEE laptop in my fishcloset so I can use it to program my profilux, and to supply the wifi network (the laptop costs about the same as the ghl wifi card ; ).

Its going to be placed as far from water as possible obviously, but there will be a dosing pump somewhat near.

I am wondering if it would be a good precaution to fill in the unused ports with silicon, like the audio jacks and extra USB ports that I won't be using.

could this cause heat issues or anything I'm not forseeing? It would just be to prevent any drops from getting inside.


Ryan

 

[Altpers0na]

i doubt covering your connector ports will make it run any hotter.

i would just use tape, myself.

you might consider using a separate keyboard/mouse/screen to keep exposed and enclose or otherwise further isolate the laptop..

 

[ReefEnabler]

hehe I would do that, but the reason I went with this laptop is because its really tiny. space is a premium in my 'fishcloset' lol

thanks, I will give it a shot and let you guys know soon.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Why not use a mini-itx box and a small wall mounted LCD?

 

[ReefEnabler]

cost and ease. i was able to get my EEE for 280.
i still just might mount it outside the room well see.

 

[BeanAnimal]

http://www.mini-box.com/site/index.html
http://www.e-itx.com/via-artigo-pico-itx-system.html
http://www.bwi.com/category/833
etc

min-itx, nano-itx, pico-itx

 

[Altpers0na]

on ebay you can get a 'thin client'

this is a small, very limited pc. also, very cheap..

the ones i have are about the size of a Wii

ps2 connections/ usb / video / serial / parallel ports

mine dont have internal storage, but they do have an IDE connector.

i run mine from a usb thumb drive w/ linux, but it can be done with windows also (lots of effort) (linux on a thumb drive is very easy)

 

[ReefEnabler]

Bean im not sure what advantage that offers over what I did

the laptop is way smaller than any of that. and way cheaper.

the EEE cannot be beat for smallness and cheapness IMO.

 

[BeanAnimal]

There have been a lot of problem with the EEE, thats all. The itx stuff runs plain jane windows

 

[ReefEnabler]

oh really? I hadn't heard anything. what do I need to look out for?

are you talking about the limited read/write life of the storage or anything?

 

[BeanAnimal]

Quality control issues, driver and peripheral comparability issues. Neat units though.

 

[ReefEnabler]

so far ive only experience one issue, and its because I installed a user-modified version of the video drivers that does 800x600 scaling (whereas the default asus drivers use a panning mode for that resolution - the native res is 800x480 which is too small to see the whole profiluxcontrol window).

the issue is that when the thing goes into sleep mode, it doesn't come back without a reboot. i'm 100% certain its the user modified drivers. but I already disabled automatic sleep mode since I don't plan to use it. just a screensaver. even so I hope I can find a better video driver that does what I want.


installing windows XP was a bit of a challenge since I have the 2GB model. Had to use nLite to burn a custom install with slipstreamed SP2 (xp wont install without sp2 since sp1 will fail to install from a USB cdrom). But I was able to get a final SP2 XP installation to under 500 megs

other than that, no problems and Ive been using it a fair amount.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Sounds good

I would not worry about sealing up the ports... lotta trouble for little gain!

 

[stugray]

Ryan,

Why did you feel it was necessary to install XP over a perfectly good install of Linux?

If I were to get one of those, I would either leave the native linux on or do a custom install of debian or ubuntu. My reef controller was going to be linux based on either the NSLUG2 or an old XBOX. Now I might go with one of these. Do you have access to another EEE? You can get them on ebay, but they jack the price up.

As for the ports, I would cover them all with some tape. I would use Kapton, flourlon, or Teflon ( or ESD tape if you can get some ). If you dont have access to any of those, I could send you a few feet.

Stu

 

[ReefEnabler]

Stu I am using a profilux as my main controller. so far profiluxcontrol only runs on windows. and if I could get it to emulatein linux the drivers wouldn't work.

I never really intended to turn my rabbit into a full scale controller for the pH and electrical switching, even though I still think it would be fun to mess with it more.

nope I dont have another EEE. But I was able to find them for 280 on the google price search when I got it about a month ago.

 

[BeanAnimal]

stu made a funny

"perfectly good install of Linux"

 

[Altpers0na]

i dont get it?

 

[ReefEnabler]

hes saying that theres no such thing as a good install of linux and that any assertion to the contrary would be funny.


however, i dont think we need a linux vs windows thread lol. different strokes for different folks.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Yes, I was making a funny also! There is certainly no need for a windows vs linux conversation

 

[Donw]

May be just as easy to buld a little acrylic box to sit over the top of it. Maybe install a 12v or usb powered fan. I did this in my shop for the cnc computer and it worked great.

Don