What You Need To Know About Rugged, Mobile Computers
Rugged, Mobile Computers are specifically designed to be used in or on a vehicle, while on-the-go, while in the field, or in a factory or warehouse environment. They have features like hardened casings, waterproof keyboards, sunlight-readable displays and shock-mounted disk drives.
COMPUTER TYPES (Form Factors)
Non-Rugged, Commercial Plastic Laptops
These are the most common portable computers. Designed to be carried around, but generally kept in an office or home environment and sometimes used for travel. These computers are manufactured and marketed by well-known companies such as Dell, HP/Compaq, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Lenova (ex-IBM), Acer, Gateway, etc. These laptops are mass produced with off-the-shelf components and are generally less expensive than computers designed for in-vehicle or in-field use. Because of their low price, some organizations buy these commercial, plastic laptops and attempt to use them in the field. This can be a mistake since these computers are not intended for in-field or vehicular use. We have heard countless stories about the constant downtime and never ending headaches that organizations experience as a result of not buying the right tool for the job.
Group Mobile Comment: Don't buy a rugged computer if you are just going from office to home, or on an occasional business trip. It would be over-kill. By the same token, don't buy a commercial plastic computer if you are primarily in a vehicle, in the field, outdoors, in a factory or in a repair shop, etc. They are not designed to handle this type (or place) of usage.
Business Rugged Computers
Business Rugged Laptops are designed for road-warriors, but not necessarily for in-field, in-vehicle, or outdoor use. They have shock-mounted hard disk drives and magnesium casings, but are not sealed against the elements and can only handle a drop of 18 inches or less.
Semi-Rugged Computers
These computers are similar to commercial plastic computers with three main exceptions: 1. Semi-rugged computers have a magnesium casing instead of a hard plastic casing. Magnesium is at least ten times stronger than plastic and provides a level of protection against shock (drops). 2. Semi-rugged computers have a shock-mounted hard disk drive. Since the hard disk drive is mounted on shock absorbing materials, it protects against shock and also vibration. 3. This class of computer normally has a water-resistant or water-proof keyboard. This protects against liquid spills such as coffee or soda, which is a fairly common occurrence when computers are used in vehicles.
Some semi-rugged computers also have additional protection such as a shock-mounted display screen and cushioning materials that are strategically placed inside the computer around key components. These additional rugged features are found in the higher-end semi-rugged computers such as the Panasonic Toughbook 74 and the General Dynamics Itronix VR-2. Some semi-rugged laptops also have daylight-viewable display screens, or at least offer daylight-viewable as on option. The primary differentiator between the semi-rugged and the fully-rugged laptops has to do with sealing the computer against the outdoor elements. Semi-rugged laptops are called semi-rugged because they are not sealed.
Fully-Rugged Computers
These computers have all the ruggedization features of the semi-rugged category and then some. In addition to the features listed above, fully-rugged computers are sealed. This sealing is what keeps out the rain, fog, salt spray, wind, dust, sand, humidity, cold and hot ambient temperature, etc. The tricky part is when you seal a computer against the outdoor elements, you also seal the heat generated by the microprocessor inside the computer. Fully-rugged laptops normally have an internal cooling system to mitigate the heat produced by the micro-processor (since they can not have fans or air vents for ventilation). Also, the heat is cleverly channeled throughout the laptop in order to turn the entire machine into a heat sink. Some fully-rugged laptops offer an internal heater to allow the laptop to operate in below zero. All fully-rugged laptops have daylight-viewable display screens or the option to add this feature. The fully-rugged laptops cost more, but they tend to last for years with no appreciable downtime.
Group Mobile Comment: Most fully rugged computers are sealed to an IP54 rating. This means that they can keep out a heavy spray of water from all directions but they are not vacuum sealed. If the computer is submersed in a bucket of water, for example, water would eventually seep in. Return to top.
Non-Rugged, Commercial Plastic Tablet PC’s
A Tablet PC is different from a laptop in two primary ways. One, they do not have a built-in keyboard…they always have a touch-screen display for input and moving the cursor. And secondly, they do not have a built-in media drive such as a floppy, CD or DVD drive. Tablet PCs are designed to be lightweight and carried in one hand. They are thus easier to use and handle than a laptop which normally requires a surface to set the computer down while in use.
Even though Tablets do not have keyboards (the exception is a “convertible tablet”), and do not have a media drive, these items are offered as external devices usually connected through a USB (Universal Serial Bus) port.
These days, the touch screen in a tablet is either a passive, finger-touch activated touch screen or an active, digitizer, stylus-only activated touch screen. The active touch screen tablets allow for saving handwritten notes on a document, signature capture and even handwriting recognition (converting handwritten words and numbers to digital data, i.e. bits and bytes).
Non-Rugged, Commercial Plastic Tablet PC’s are designed for the office worker/corridor warrior who goes from cube-to cube, office-to-office, meeting room-to-meeting room and takes notes. They are able to take the place of a pen and notepad. Group Mobile does not offer commercial, plastic Tablet PCs.
Rugged Tablet PC’s
A rugged tablet has a magnesium case, a shock-mounted hard disk drive and is sealed against the outside elements. There are also other shock-absorbing and vibration-mitigating design features inside the tablet which allow the computer to withstand drops on to hard surfaces and mobile use over bumpy roads or even off-road driving. The sealing allows the computer to be used outdoors and/or in any dusty, dirty, wet, extremely hot or extremely cold environment. Daylight-Viewable display screens either come standard or are available as an upgrade option.
Rugged Convertible Computers
Some of the newer computers can convert from a laptop to a tablet by using a swivel mechanism.
Rugged Handheld Computers
As the name implies, handhelds are meant to be carried in one hand. Some people think of PDA’s as handhelds, but in the rugged, mobile and field-use world, handhelds are slightly larger than a PDA. They have a ¼ display screen….about 25% the size of a full screen computer. They do not have a full alpha keyboard but normally do have a number keypad. Again, in the rugged world, these computers are built tough, are sealed against the elements, protected from vibration and drops, and have daylight-viewable screens. Another key differentiator is the lack of a hard disk drive. They use on-board memory or Flash cards. Also, these small devices do not run full-blown Windows operating systems such as XP or Vista, but rather use a scaled down OS such as Pocket PC or Windows Mobile.
Rugged UMPC’s (Ultra Mobile Personal Computer)
These are the latest and newest type of mobile computer. They generally are used like Tablet PC’s but they are even smaller and lighter. The smallest Tablet PC has an 8.4” display, whereas a UMPC has a 4-5” display. A UMPC differs from a Handheld PC or a PDA because it can run full-blown Windows operating system, not a scaled down version. A rugged UMPC is one that is designed for in-field, outdoor, tough environment or vehicular use.
Rugged Fixed Mount PC’s
A fixed-mount PC is designed to be mounted to something or on something and to stay there. Fixed-mount PC’s do not have internal batteries; therefore they cannot be carried around away from an AC outlet or a vehicle battery. There are two typical applications for a fixed-mounted computer. One is in a factory or industrial environment where the computer is mounted to the wall or to a piece of equipment for monitoring/control. The second typical application is when a computer is needed in or on a vehicle or any mobile conveyance. Examples of this would be cars, trucks, semis, forklifts, tractors, backhoes, ATV’s, cement mixers, aircraft, ships, barges, etc. Fixed-mount PC’s are typically ultra-rugged, totally sealed and designed to run for many years without problems.
RUGGED COMPUTER FEATURES
Rugged Standards and IP Ratings
Rugged Computers are designed to mitigate the following types of environmental conditions and calamities:
1. Drops - computers that are used in a mobile or in-field environment occasionally get dropped. This usually causes damage to a commercial plastic computer, but not to a rugged, mobile computer.
2. Vibrations - computers in motion are subjected to vibrations. Rugged computers are designed to handle these vibrations.
3. Exposure to the Elements - computers used in the field or mounted to an open air vehicle can be exposed to rain, sleet, snow, hail, wind, dust, fog, sand, high heat, extreme cold, salt spray or humidity. Rugged computers are designed to work in these harsh conditions.
4. Liquid Spills - computers that gets used by a mobile worker is more susceptible to water, coffee, soft drink, and other liquid spills. Commercial plastic computers cannot typically handle these calamities; rugged computers can.
5. Electromagnetic Emissions – computers operating in close proximity to radio and power transmission equipment can wreak havoc on non-protected computers.
IP (Ingress Protection) Ratings are set by various government agencies, industry groups and/or independent laboratories and are cited by manufacturers in order to establish a more exact degree of environmental protection and reliability. Click For Details
Display Screen
Outdoor Viewable Screen - If you have ever taken a commercial laptop to the beach or out by the pool, you quickly realized that the screen is almost impossible to read. Daylight-readable displays are much brighter. If you intend to use a computer outdoors or in a mobile environment, daylight-readable or sunlight-readable is a must. Rugged computers either come standard with an outdoor display screen, or offer outdoor viewability as an option. Some rugged computers have a normal display screen but employ an anti-glare, anti-reflective coating. Others have hi-bright and anti-glare or a transflective, sunlight-readable display that uses the ambient light to brighten the screen. Display screens that are "Hi-Bright" are great, but keep in mind that they use significant battery power. So consider the high-capacity battery option or buy spare batteries.
Touch Screen Display - Touchscreens are often a feature or upgrade option on rugged, mobile computers that are not offered on commercial, plastic computers. Basically, a touchscreen is another way to move around in an application other than the keyboard/mouse.
All tablet pc's have a touchscreen since they do not have a keyboard/mouse. In the tablet pc world, touchscreens come in two flavors, the more traditional finger-touch style of touchscreen also called passive or resistive and the newer style digitizer, active touch screen which requires the use of a stylus pen and allows for handwriting or signature capture directly on the screen. Some tablet manufacturers offer models with one or the other type while others offer a dual-mode which provides both types in the same computer. If you have any questions about which is best for your intended usage, please ask one of our sales consultants.
Touchscreens in a computer are often a desirable feature for a computer that is mounted in a vehicle or used in a field environment where typing is difficult. Some organizations develop or purchase field application software that is specifically designed with a touchscreen in mind that will have big touch buttons on the screen (think about an ATM machine or restaurant cash register for example).
Display Screen Size - Screen sizes vary considerably depending on the form factor and even within form factors. Handheld's are typically around 4", UMPC’s are 5”, Tablets are usually 8.4" or 10.4", Laptops can be 12.1", 13.3", 14.1", 15” or even 17” and Fixed-Mounts can be 10.4" all the way up to 15". FYI, the screen size is measured diagonally, not vertically or horizontally.
Display Resolution - The image that is displayed on the screen is composed of thousands (or millions) of small dots; these are called pixels; the word is a contraction of the phrase “picture element”. A pixel represents the smallest piece of the screen that can be controlled individually. Each one can be set to a different color and intensity (brightness). The number of pixels that can be displayed on the screen is referred to as the resolution of the image; this is normally displayed as a pair of numbers, such as 640×480. The first is the number of pixels that can be displayed horizontally on the screen, and the second how many can be displayed vertically. The higher the resolution, the more pixels that can be displayed and therefore the more that can be shown on the monitor at once, however, pixels are smaller at high resolution and detail can be hard to make out on smaller screens. Resolutions generally fall into predefined standard sets; only a few different resolutions are used by most PCs.
VGA: 640 x 480
SVGA: 800 x 600
XGA: 1024 x 768
SXGA: 1280 x 1024
UXGA: 1600 x 1200
WUXGA: 1920 x 1200
Keyboard
Another common optional feature with rugged computers is the backlit keyboard. Basically, each key has a tiny light bulb in it which allows the user to see the keys clearly at night or in poor lighting conditions. In a vehicle environment, most computer users would rather have the backlit keyboard feature than needing to constantly have their vehicle's dome light on. This is particularly true in a police car or other emergency vehicles.
Three Year Warranty
Almost all of the rugged computers come standard with a 3 year warranty, while most commercial, plastic computers come standard with only a 1 year warranty. Not only does this save you a lot of money in case of a failure, but it also speaks to the quality that is built in to a rugged computer. If they were not extremely reliable, the rugged computer manufacturers could not afford to provide a 3 year warranty.
Integrated Wireless
WWAN, which stands for Wireless Wide Area Network, is a form of wireless network. A WWAN differs from a WLAN (wireless LAN) as it uses cellular network technologies to transfer data. These cellular networks are offered regionally, nationwide, or even globally and are provided by wireless service providers such as AT&T/Cingular Wireless, Sprint, Verizon, Alltel or Rogers (Canada) for a monthly usage fee.
WWAN is also known as wireless broadband, mobile broadband or even wireless-anywhere or Internet-anywhere. Basically, data can be transmitted and received anywhere the chosen cellular provider has coverage. The most common uses are to access the “home office” computer, to send and receive emails, and to access the World Wide Web---all from the field or while on the road.
These days, there are two primary and competing technologies utilized by the cellular companies. One is called GSM and the other CDMA. But each technology has progressed through multiple generations. GSM has progressed through GPRS, to EDGE, and now to UMTS/HSDPA. CDMA has progressed through 1xRTT, to 1xEV-DO, and now to 1xEV-DO RevA. The good news is that in each family, the later generations are backwards-compatible with the earlier generations.
It is also important to note that the cell phone towers themselves may or may not have been updated to the later generation. So, you could be driving down the highway and experience GSM, GPRS, EDGE and UMTS/HSPDA, for example, all in the same trip. You will only notice the differences in data transmission speed as sometimes it will seem slow and other times it will seem super fast.
The two most common ways to obtain a WWAN capability in your mobile computer is to buy an integrated (embedded) card or to buy a PC Card (also known as an AirCard) and insert it into the Type II PCMCIA slot on your computer. Today, the integrated card is normally a PCI card and the PC Card is the PCMCIA type. But we are in the middle of a transition to newer-style, smaller form factors. The integrated cards are becoming PCI Express Mini modules and the PCMCIA cards are becoming PC Express Cards. The primary advantage of the PC Card/PCMCIA solution is lower cost.
Since the transmission speeds and the monthly subscription costs are fairly similar from the major carriers, the most important decision criteria is which cellular provider has the best coverage and the fastest (newest generation) in the areas in which you will be traveling. Group Mobile has noticed coverage variability exists by city, by state, by metro versus rural, by Interstate highway versus back roads, etc. We suspect you have noticed the same thing as you converse on your cell phone. Make sure you check out the current coverage maps at the various cellular providers’ websites.
Advantages of an Integrated (inside the computer) Radio Card:
1. It does not stick out of the computer like the PCMCIA card. That means you can’t break it off or bend it. If you were to drop your laptop, there is a likely chance that you that it would land on the card, causing it to break.
2. The integrated card is inside the sealed area of the computer. Using a PCMCIA card solution, in effect, opens the inside of the computer, leaving it vulnerable to outside elements and compromising the sealed integrity of the rugged, mobile computer.
3. An integrated card can be placed as far away from the microprocessor as possible to minimize electronic interference. Integrated cards typically have better performance and fewer drop-offs than PCMCIA cards.
Advantages of a PCMCIA-slot Wireless Radio Card:
The PCMCIA cards are usually a less expensive option. Some of the cellular service providers will sell these cards at a discount when you sign-up for their service.
Docking Stations & Vehicle Mounts
Docking Station - A docking station is a hardware frame and set of electrical connection interfaces that enable a notebook computer to effectively serve as a desktop computer. The interfaces typically allow the notebook to communicate with a local printer, larger storage or backup drives, and possibly other devices that are not usually taken along with a notebook computer. A docking station can also include a network interface card that attaches the notebook to a local area network. Variations include the port replicator, which is an attachment on a notebook computer that expands the number of ports it can use, and the expansion base, which might hold a media drive, a floppy disk drive, and a battery charging station.
Vehicle Cradle - A vehicle cradle is a docking station designed specifically for vehicles. The cradle may or may not provide additional ports, but almost always provides an AC to DC power conversion capability. This enables the computer to utilize the vehicle's battery as the power source while the computer is docked in the cradle. The cradle also provides an easier way to mount the computer in the vehicle.
Vehicle Mount - Mounting gear allows the computer, with or without a vehicle cradle, to be solidly mounted in a vehicle. There is a great deal of diversity and options to consider when choosing the type of mounting equipment; it is dependant on the type of vehicle (car, truck, delivery van, semi tractor-trailer, snowmobile, tractor, forklift, etc.), and the desired position of the mount (floor mount, hump mount, dash mount, etc.). Some mounts are designed for laptops, some for tablets, and others for handhelds. Also, mounts can be purchased that accommodate a computer and a mobile printer, or a computer and a GPS device, for example.
Vehicle mounts are generally specialized around two primary criteria. The first criteria: What vehicle is the computer going to be mounted in or on? This includes specific make, model and year such as "a 1998 Ford F-150 Pick-up Truck" or "a Nissan TNX 35 Forklift". The second criteria: Where in or on the vehicle is the computer to be mounted? For example this could be "on the dashboard" or "on the floorboard" or "on the console between the bucket seats".
Another issue is, of course, quality. A cheap mount can actually cause injury or death if it comes loose in an accident or collision and the computer flies around the cabin like a projectile.
Integrated GPS Receiver
Many ruggedized computers offer integrated GPS as an option. For those in the field, this is really handy and precludes the need to carry around an extra device (an external GPS receiver). Also, the antenna is built-in to the computer and provides the best reception. Keep in mind that even though there are theoretically 12 satellites in view above the horizon at all times; mountains, buildings, trees, etc. are normally present to block the signal. Having a high-quality antenna is important if you want a constant GPS reading.
PRICE vs. COST
The price is what one pays up-front for a computer. The cost is what the computer costs over the life expectancy of the computer. Studies have shown that, when used in a field or vehicle environment, commercial computers cost more than rugged computers. This is primarily a function of lower repair costs and less downtime experienced when using the right tool for the intended job. We have seen studies that show commercial, plastic computers have a one year failure rate of 24% whereas rugged computers have a one year failure rate of less than 5%. If you are like most people, the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is the most important factor when choosing a computer to buy. We have heard of organizations that have experienced 10-20% MONTHLY failure rates when attempting to use commercial, plastic computers in vehicles or in the field.
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