We sent a couple in and got them replaced. Blue one works just fine
but the red one needs a zip tie for the cat5 (again).
Josh Luthman
Office: 937-552-2340
Direct: 937-552-2343
1100 Wayne St
Suite 1337
Troy, OH 45373
On Wed, May 23, 2018 at 8:17 AM, David Coudron
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>
wrote:
Yep, we use the Powerlink for installs as well. With that, the
entire install process can be done from the phone, which makes
things very portable and quick. We use the mAP for tower tech
work. The only issue we have with the Powerlinks is that they can
be a little fragile, we really have to protect the Ethernet ports
or they break.
Regards,
David Coudron
*From:* Af <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>
*On Behalf Of *Josh Luthman
*Sent:* Tuesday, May 22, 2018 2:21 PM
*To:* [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Looking for a new Truck/field Laptop
We love the bigger Powerlink (wouldn't waste time on the smaller one)
Work trucks have Toughbooks. There are some holes in them and all
kinds of dropped on concrete scuffs. They still work. We'll
replace them when they get super slow/battery doesn't last a work day.
Josh Luthman
Office: 937-552-2340
Direct: 937-552-2343
1100 Wayne St
<https://maps.google.com/?q=1100+Wayne+St+%0D%0ASuite+1337+%0D%0ATroy,+OH+45373&entry=gmail&source=g>
Suite 1337
Troy, OH 45373
On Tue, May 22, 2018 at 3:16 PM, Jeremy <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
+1 we also use Powerlink, and they are amazing.
On Tue, May 22, 2018 at 1:02 PM, Dave <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
We started using the Powerlink from link technologies.
So far our guys love em. The POE and wireless are built in.
a full charge will last them the whole day.
On 05/21/2018 01:10 PM, David Coudron wrote:
Very true. However, we found that if we have to
carry the USB dongle anyway, that carrying the mAP
instead gave us much more freedom and reliability (the
USB dongles seemed a little flaky, if they got pulled
sideways in the port, they didn’t work). We could
even sit in the truck and work on the equipment
without having to run a cable to cabinet, etc. Or have
two techs connected to the cabinet at the same time.
However, there are lots of ways to skin this cat as
you mention 😊 Probably the biggest thing is that you
can connect to the network using a phone rather than
just an ethernet port based device like a laptop.
Regards,
David Coudron
**
**
**
*From:* Af <[email protected]>
<mailto:[email protected]> *On Behalf Of *Dave
*Sent:* Monday, May 21, 2018 11:55 AM
*To:* [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Looking for a new Truck/field
Laptop
USB ethernet fixes that :)
On 05/21/2018 09:12 AM, David Coudron wrote:
We have been using the Mikrotik mAP in the same
fashion as Steve mentions with some pretty good
results. Put IP addresses on the one interface as
needed and then connect wirelessly. We were
killing EIthernet ports too often due to the
stiffer shielded patch cables and cable runs on
our tower sites. They just put too much pressure
on kinds of Ethernet ports many laptops have.
Now, it is getting tougher to find a decently thin
laptop with an Ethernet port anyway.
Additionally the techs are doing everything they
can from their phones these days. Normal Mimosa
installs are entirely phone based. Our main tech
avoids the laptop like the plague. We can
firmware update the client radios, configure the
radio, make the customer active in Powercode, etc
all from the phone. We really only use the
laptop and mAP for tower work now, and much of
that has moved to the phones too.
Regards,
David Coudron
*From:* Af <[email protected]>
<mailto:[email protected]> *On Behalf Of *Nate
Burke
*Sent:* Monday, May 21, 2018 9:06 AM
*To:* [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Looking for a new
Truck/field Laptop
I've thought about the air-router approach, but
probably 90% of my mikrotik work is with
MAC-Winbox, setting up new routers.
I just found the Acer Travelmate Spin B1. $330.
Might pick one of those up and see how it works.
On 5/21/2018 8:53 AM, Steve Jones wrote:
I paid 1500 for my Toshiba tecra (not
toughbook) like 6 or 7 years ago, it's been
through he'll in the field, roofs, grain
elevators, rain, drops, left running in the
bag and getting hot. It's on its 3rd battery,
fourth keyboard, but runs strong and never
fails, even has serial port. Price could have
been less but I wanted the biggest processor
because at the time I was running multiple VMs.
Lenovo are decent, the antiglare is still
visiblish in the sun. The keys fall off and
batteries don't last, Ether net is
questionable, but God only knows what the
techs stuck into it or settings they jacked up.
Other than the need for wireshark
occasionally, a cheap air router to connect to
the device with a ton of ip aliases has
allowed me to do 99 percent from my phone now.
Onedrive syncs our base config to dump in, we
can test, allocate and finalize a customers
installation directly from the top of their tower.
On Mon, May 21, 2018, 8:38 AM Nate Burke
<[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
The Netbook I've been using for a the last
couple years bit the dust on
an install last week. Acer Aspire E11.
It was working fine one minute,
then the Ethernet adapter was not detected
by windows anymore. Of
course now-a-days nothing comes with a
built in Ethernet adapter, I'd
really hate having to remember to carry an
Ethernet dongle everywhere.
Looking for a small form factor ~11" so I
can throw it in a canvas bag
for a hike out to a tower site. SSD and
several-hour battery life are
very nice as well.
It doesn't need any mighty CPU or Video,
the only thing that it does is
program Radios/Mikrotiks, and RDP into
another machine.
The only new machines I've found so far
that fits this bill are the
Lenovo Thinkpad line. It looks like a
current gen 11" Thinkpad is
~$700. More than the $170 I paid for the
Acer 5 years ago. I also
don't like that all the connections are on
the sides of machines now,
instead of the back. When it's sitting on
the truck console with things
connected, that makes it a lot wider. The
Thinkpads also specify that
they have an 'Anti-glare' Screen. Would
that make it easier or harder
to see outside?
Is there a brand or Type that I missed?
$700 for a field laptop is a
little more than I'd like to spend for
something that has to survive
field work. Although the $170 unit has
worked just fine in these
conditions for several years.
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