Forward Operating Base In-a-Can

So Isaac-1 I did go back to the HDT Heater Catalog and I see that while the SHC/MHT35 is "just right" for a 305, the SHC/MHT60 is too - it's only 130lbs (65lbs/person, two person lift) and double the output, while still being self-powered.

I'll look into those heaters for the 305s, but I think I'll pick up a 35 for the 203. That should be about 155,000 btu/hr of total heat for all three shelters (a little more than what a gallon of #2 is measured at). If it's too cold inside the shelter with those running full blast, I imagine I'll ask my guests to treat the situation like the frigid reality it is and dress accordingly:

Last of the four ToughBooks has arrived, another check box . Ebay has great deals on these, each was less than $100 shipped.



They are CF-30 MkII with a sun-light readable touchscreen+stylus and a DVD-rom/CD-burner, these will be built up a bit. Each will have 8GB ram, A/B/G/N/AC WiFi, 1TB hybrid HDD (8GB flash for boot speed), LED backlight conversion, and GPS when I'm done - OS is Ubuntu Desktop 14.04 LTS. I run one of these in this configuration daily at home, it's a slick little machine.

The Mark 2 is not quite as fast as the Mark 3 version (or the current CF-31 model that replaced these), but the bonus of this version is that it gets 90% of the perks of the CF-31/CF-30Mk3 but without needing a cooling fan. Panasonic makes a big deal about how tolerant their cooling fan is, but having run many other fan-cooled notebooks over the years - I will always believe it's a weak spot. Take this video for example:


Can you imagine how that mud would jam up the fan if actually allowed to sit until dry? I don't even want to begin thinking about how much of a pain in the back-side that would be to maintain...

Cant wait to see your complete setup. You get those toughbooks with the no OS/HD?

Yes. No OS, no HDD, no optical drive, 1-2GB ram, some not touch or sunlight readable (<500nit), parts missing, parts broken...

All but one are running properly now, one has an overheat issue - but also a leaking heat-pipe (obvious, simple fix under $30). I just this evening received the 4 DVD/CDROMs, memory is ordered and on its way, I have the hard drives and caddies (with cables/heaters), missing wifi/bluetooth parts, replacement LCD displays, doors, screws, etc... I also have four replacement batteries and power supplies on the way. Basically each machine will be worth about $250 just in good working parts when I'm done, everything functional and matching. I am going to repaint the scratched silver magnesium case with Krylon Fusion Camouflage Ultra Flat "Sand". It should match the color-scheme for this project

This one here is my "daily driver" in 2400lumens of direct light with the sunlight-readable screen at 75% - it has the full described configuration, and was my test platform for the configuration:


I'm also making sure I match the rubberized back-lit keyboard - this with the 1000nit sunlight readable screen turned all the way down is really easy to work on in the dark:


One more ToughBook is coming for my S-250 Shelter/Camper project - that's what the vehicle port replicator at the bottom of that stack is for

These for running gps and stuff with each other? Im trying to justify getting one lol...

Well, no...

There will be GPS as a tool, but mostly these will either sit on a table wired into the shelter's network switch, or they will work as mesh nodes. If used in the shelter, they can be used as web terminals or call-center-controllers/dispatch-kiosks, or other work producing station tasks. If used outside the shelter, they have long range wifi cards that gives them about 600feet of range from each other and the base camp - in a pinch they could be strapped to a tree at roughly 500ft intevals to create a mesh network that can reach about a mile from the shelter (I'm also planning to get my HAM license, and will build higher-power/longer-reach mesh nodes, on the order of miles per hop).

In a disaster, I can provide basic network service if needed... but probably not to the general public.

srodocker said:

These for running gps and stuff with each other? Im trying to justify getting one lol...

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If you have to justify it you're making it harder - it's a hobby, it's supposed to cost money and take space!

The first 305 tent is officially on its way from Virginia, it should be here in CA early next week - then I just need to go pick it up at the depot...

Also, it's raining ToughBooks here...


I have enough now to do the 4x I wanted for the FOBIC general workstations, 1x which will end up being the machine running in the 9U rack - more than enough processing power to do what I want, I'll add a single slot expansion chassis for an additional graphics card - this will be the content generator/source for the two projectors, as well as the management terminal for the network and phones. I spent some time replacing parts that were missing or damaged (you may notice a difference in the last picture above) - all of these are now WiFi + Bluetooth + touchscreen + LED back light - I'm short 2x of the rubberized back-lit keyboards, and three hard drive cages. All of them were treated to brand new fully-charged batteries (larger 85.5W/hr), new 3M anti-glare touch screen protectors, and a good cleaning. Just a little more work to be done.

The remaining 1x will be for the S250 shelter project, and I actually have one more on the way which will likely end up as a front passenger data-terminal in the XM1027 project. And literally, to top it off, I have the one I use an my "daily driver" at home. Is it at all obvious I love the h3ck out of these machines?


I just watched Lone Survivor this week, at the beginning they are using what looks like CF-31's (slightly newer model) in the base for personal use/recreation.

Ive always liked how cops have them in their cars. I used to build computers but im so outdated now. Can you order those parts from one of the many computer sites?

srodocker said:

Ive always liked how cops have them in their cars. I used to build computers but im so outdated now. Can you order those parts from one of the many computer sites?

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Components are all still the same though, right?

I mean other than Moore's Law halving the size of the transistor boards every two years, the game is still the same (+/-), isn't that right?

srodocker said:

Ive always liked how cops have them in their cars. I used to build computers but I'm so outdated now. Can you order those parts from one of the many computer sites?

Another Ahab said:

Components are all still the same though, right?

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

The CF-30 (Core 2 Duo) I have a bunch of in the pictures is now replaced by the CF-31 (Core i5). This makes "new" parts harder to get from resellers (not your BestBuy, Fry's Eletronics, NewEgg, CDW, etc...). In general what you are finding now is resellers who supported Government contracts are liquidating their inventories of CF-30 parts (most of it ends up on eBay), so new parts are actually available. That said, there are some basic standards that all laptops follow (even Panasonic): Memory is usually a "SODIMM" very easy to find as long as your chipset supports the capacity you require, Hard drives are usually a "2.5-inch SATA", wireless cards are usually a "Mini-PCIe Full length", displays are either LVDS or the newer Embedded-DisplayPort - then there is the same familiar USB, Ethernet, etc...

My dad taught me nearly everything I know about computers - he worked for the likes of TRW, and Unisys in the 80's on mind boggling projects - he defers to me now because most of the stuff the "old-timers" were familiar with is buried behind sexy UI's and much more code. Did you know you can nearly completely run Windows 7 and 8.1 from the command line still? Just about anything that you can do with a mouse click has a command-line function (it's how Microsoft starts with an OS, then they make it sexy before selling it ). Linux is the same way, anything can be done from the command line, then they build a nice GUI on top of it to make it easier for the general users - the main difference I've seen with Windows and Linux is that Windows is more worried about protecting their IP (since they sell it) so the bare code is harder to decipher (obfuscation), while Linux usually has stuff in plain-text.

Another Ahab said:

...I mean other than Moore's Law halving the size of the transistor boards every two years, the game is still the same (+/-), isn't that right?...

Click to expand...

They haven't been able to do that in a while (almost a decade), steps went 90, 60(60%), 45(75%), 32(71%), 28(88%), 20(72%), 14(70%), and next might be 10(71%). The transistor counts aren't necessarily doubling any more either (what the "law" states) - the company I work for (please read my disclaimer) released a chip with 3.54billion transistors followed later by a chip with 5.2billion transistors in the same process (28nm) but the design uses roughly 1/2 the power to do about 150% of the work of the older generation. It's extremely fascinating work.

Moore's Law in my opinion is not exactly accurate any more, as with almost every other facet of life, we are getting better at using what we have more wisely. It just makes engineers lazy when they can rely on physical/process changes rather than getting their architecture tuned to be maximally efficient.

First tent has arrived, and I already have a line on the second 305 (with the required stove fitting!!).

Dang that was a big box for a tent (30-50% air in the top):


And it'll make getting into my storage unit a bit more interesting:


All of the accessories were included, the repair kit with extra poles and material, the complete stakes and mallet, and wind lines. I unrolled the liner to check and confirm that it does in fact have the four power harnesses inside (also it needed to be re-rolled, it wasn't strapped tight in the crate). The big bag is the tent, the "small" bag is the liner - lots of fun to unload and move around without a dolly and by myself. I'm glad I'm specifying this camp as a minimum two-person deal .

Wait till you put one up or take it down, 2 person is a no go, three is hard, four not so bad, eight is a breeze and if you sense any binding, stop and figure out what is stuck before you do anything. The way they are designed it won't just break one part but several.

Maybe I got a good one? I was able to expand the tent myself and get one half of the outer shell up myself in the storage unit parking lot (no pics, I was blocking the driveway so time was a factor). Yes, 350lbs is a b!+c# to manhandle yourself for sure, but I'm certain two able bodied "soldiers" of >=5'8" height in decent shape could erect it without aid. I do understand on the breaking part, there is a lot of weight and until you secure the hubs there is little if any structure - 6061-T6 aluminum tube is strong, but I'm not sure a 1"x 0.120wall tube is going to lift 175lbs, especially if it's twisting...

[EDIT:] I should clarify - I expanded the tent by myself, by hooking one of the corner legs onto my hitch ball as an anchor and pulling out the other corners... before anyone has the gall to call BS [/EDIT]

[EDIT2:] The shell/frame of the tent is spec'd at 365lbs - round that up to 375, divide by two people and the lift of the packed shell is roughly 190lbs - a difficult vertical lift, and this can be accommodated with a hand truck. If standing the shell/frame up from laying on its side, you get roughly half that weight at the initial part of the lift (the ground + gravity is dealing with the other end), making it about 95lbs per person. Similarly when setting up the tent, you lift one side at a time, so you're only ever dealing with half of the specified weights - the inner liner is about 210 lbs, but you don't lift the floor during erection - so you can roughly subtract 1/6th of the weight and divide the remainder by 2, taking it back to about 180lbs-ish per "solider" for liner + shell/frame. [/EDIT2]

I also already have a side-to-end boot kit (NOS, unissued), and I'm working with another party to complete a side-to-side boot kit (used). This should give me options with orientation and setup. I still need to get an open-end to open-end connector kit, I have not seen these around much so I may have to drop the coin ($550 list) for one of those. Still I'm ahead quite a bit, the 305 (60305TN) lists for $14,120 each, the 203 (60203TN) lists for $9,110 each, the end-to-side boot (61BO03TN) lists for $500 (paid $225), the side-to-side boot (61BO02TN) lists for $570 (should be around $180 when I'm done with the deal).

If I bought all of this new at retail, just the HDT parts would run me north of $38K - if all goes to plan with sourcing, I should pull the HDT shelters off while staying under $5K + heaters inside of $10K + ToughBooks inside of $12K. If I can keep the whole thing under $20K I'll be consider this exercise a success, if I can keep it under $15K the wife won't kill me .

MWMULES said:

...and if you sense any binding, stop and figure out what is stuck before you do anything. The way they are designed it won't just break one part but several.

Click to expand...

I get the feeling you might have seen the training videos...

Setup:

Strike:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTbMkxV0yjQ&feature=youtu.be

Liner stowage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkiWvPtVg4E&feature=youtu.be

Leg repair:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pIU_7_V-sA&feature=youtu.be

I tied off the other half of the side-to-side boot kit purchase today, and managed to find the liner portion of the open-end-to-open-end kit on e-place. I picked that up too. I'll put a feeler out in the classifieds for the outer shell of the open-end-to-open-end kit. Another step closer and still moving forward

The boot parts came, in good shape. Just need the outer skin of the open end coupler/boot... and two more tents