Imaging laptop

[mickw]

I've just finished repairing an old Systemax laptop (just to see if I could)
Pentium 3 @ 1g running XP home
20g HD - (16 free so far - expansion not a problem)
Massive 248meg memory     Don't know how much I can upgrade to - assume twice the largest stick (whatever that is)
3 x USB 1 and 1 x Firewire plus a PCMCIA slot (so assume USB2 not a problem)

Question is - Would this be suitable for use as an image capture and initial processing device.
I'd like to keep web access on it as well for updates etc.
What upgrades should I consider ?

The first one that says a Sony Vaio gets a broken nose   

If it's "just no good" I'll find another use for it 

[Tony G]

Question is - Would this be suitable for use as an image capture and initial processing device.
I'd like to keep web access on it as well for updates etc.
What upgrades should I consider ?

The first one that says a Sony Vaio gets a broken nose   

If it's "just no good" I'll find another use for it 

I personally would use a camera of somekind. 

Tony G

[mickw]

I'll get you Gaynor 


AND LEAVE THE KNITTING CLUB ALONE

[Mike]

Yes it will be fine. You don't need lots of power to run imaging software. You might run out of HD space quick though.

[Simon E]

My spec on my laptop is

Pentium m 1,600mhz 512mb of ram 37gb hard disk partitioned to 27.4gb + 9.76gb.

I have got all my imaging software on it as well as well as AGE OF EMPIRES 3, AGE OF MYTHOLOGY, AGE OF EMPIRES 2, THE CONQUERS EXPANSION and it still runs fine.

Imaging software is Imageplus 3.80/ camera control 2 for the dslr
AMCap for the celestron web cam
Photostitch,Registax, Cannon remote capture,Paintshop pro 9 and Photoshop 2

si

[MarkS]

I think that will be OK Mick.

Mine has a 1.1 GHz processor, 512 Mbyte RAM,  40 Gbyte hard drive, 2 USB ports (I use a USB hub to get more ports).  It really does the business for guiding and DSLR camera control/image download.

Mark

[mickw]

Thanks chaps,
A new hard drive it is then and perhaps some more memory - can only add another 128m 

[RobertM]

I agree with Mark though 512Mb may be a bit low (depending what other c**p) you put on it.  I very much doubt 256Mb would be enough, after bootup (XP Pro) I have over 350Mb of memory used.  My imaging laptop is an old IBM T40 (1.6GHz/1Mb/40Mb/2xUSB2) which can be found quite cheaply on ebay.  We have them at the place I work and they never go wrong.  It also has two advantages for imaging - the cd-rom can be replaced with a second battery giving over 4.5hrs battery life (not playing Age of Empires though) and a light built into the top of the screen to illuminate the keyboard (so no torch!).  As far as I know no other PC laptop has either an illuminated keyboard or lit keypad (ignoring Apple Macs that is).

Also think about what your LT has in the way of USB ports - you really need 2 x USB2 high speed for webcams.

Hope that helps.
Robert

[Ian]

Mick, you might find processing on it a chore though

Also think about what your LT has in the way of USB ports - you really need 2 x USB2 high speed for webcams

IIRC, Toucams are USB1. You should give it a root hub of it's own, though. A little bit of digging in the device manager will help. Not all laptops are built with a root hub per port unfortunately.

[mickw]

Hmm, I've only got one memory slot and can only stick 256m in - it's got 128 onboard taking it up to 384  

However the intention is to just use it for imaging so it will only have XP (stripped down) and capture/control software.
I think the USB2 issue can be sorted by using a cardbus adapter.

I have previously used it with mapping and GPS to find my way around the US, can't remember what other crap was on it as I've just formatted the drive  

If I ever manage to capture an image, I'll transfer the files to a sensible PC

[Ian]

don't forget you've got other OS options too. Windows 2000 or Linux might be a better bet on that hardware...

[mickw]

other OS options too

Agreed but does capture and control software work under Linux or 2000 ?

[Ian]

depends what capture and control software. I'm reasonably confident that any software that runs under XP will run on Win2000.

Linux is a little more complex but not necessarily impossible.

[Simon E]

As in previous email

http://www.mlunsold.com/ILImageProcess.html

This runs on 2000

Good guide for you, pc spec to do the below, via this software.

System Requirements for processing a group of 50 or more 4064 x 2704 16-bit color TIFF, FITS, or larger images.
Any 32 or 64 bit Windows operating system. Windows 2000, XP Professional, Vista x32, or Vista x64 preferred.
Highly multi-threaed to take full advantage of dual core, quad core, and multiple processor computers.
Screen resolution of at least 1024x768 is recommended
Minimum of 256-512 MB of RAM
Minimum Pentium 3 or 4 processor
Mouse is required
True color (24 bit) or better

Don't forget this is the processing part. I have just got the capture part, so can easily be run on Windows 2k

si

[Simon E]

I can always give you a demo of camera,scope,laptop and software working, in me backgarden.

si