May I ask what is recommended for a lap top specification for 2 and 4 channel automotive `scopes? Not necessarily the ultimate, just a reasonable spec' to give totally adequate performance. Am I right in thinking using a PCMCIA USB2 card on an older lap top with only USB1 ports may not successfully work, in so far as it may not power the `scope up?
Any laptop that can comfortably run Windows XP or above will be OK provided its USB2.0.
Any laptop with only USB1.1 is likely to be very old and to be honest a $200 netbook with USB2.0 will probably be a better use of your time and money than trying to upgrade.
My personal advice for workshop use is to either go cheap so you dont get too upset if it gets dropped on a concrete floor or go expensive and buy something like a panasonic toughbook so that it bounces when dropped. If shopping on a budget for a toughbook, keep an eye on ebay for CF-18 and CF-28 (older) or CF-19, CF-29 (newer). They work best with XP or Win 7 so try to avoid Vista or Win 2000.
Joining recommendations from alan I want to pay attention to one important point at a laptop choice. If you have a requirement for use of the laptop out of garage, for example during test a drive it is necessary to pay attention to possibilities of the screen of the laptop to display the information at on solar (day) light. In this case toughbook cf-19 or cf 30 has the considerable superiority.
Thanks for the advice, I think a Toughbook may be the way to go, I'll have a look on Ebay and see what they are going for and decide which model I can afford. Much appreciated!
We recommend a PC with a duo core processor in the GHz range, minimum 2 gigs of RAM (more is better), and of course USB 2.0 is required. This is what you will need as a PicoScope power user.
Very capable laptops these days are fairly inexpensive. You can get half a dozen of them for the price of a Toughbook.
If you need to use the laptop outside, as I do, my biggest problem is screen brightness, in anything other than dull conditions reading the screen is tricky. If you are lab based it's probably not an issue. I work in the motor sport field, and the latest digital dashboard displays from the likes of GEMS (www.gems.co.uk) are OLED displays. You would swear, even in direct sunlight, the displays were stuck on vinyl fakes, such is the sharpness, brightness and clarity. I am told OLED is already available in some high end Netbooks, I look forward to it appearing on laptops at a reasonable price, one day.
I am curious as to the implications of USB3 and USB scopes, is there any? Will there ever come a time when the data flow is fast enough not to have to rely on the scopes internal buffer, but instead the data streams in real time to the display and hard drive? I may be asking for the impossible, forgive me if the question is naive.
Any advice on laptops guys? I've been looking at 2ghz as a min spec with 3-4 gb of ram (because it's cheap to buy). Single processor or a dual core one?
The scope will be soon on it's way and I can't make my mind up on a laptop