New Comanche Club Warstation.

[Automan2164]

Finally the surplus auction came back around this year, and I had a chance to update (kinda) the ol' garage computer. Last year I had picked up a Panasonic toughbook, CF-28. It had the smaller screen, and a really low resolution, but came in handy running the '92 FSM on it, surfing CC in the garage, and being able to keep it in the hot/cold/damp garage without worrying too much. The rubber keyboard kept the grease, oil, and dust out of the inside, and easy to clean after a day of wrenching/cc'ing. It was great to hook up some CPU speakers, and rock some Yahoo music rather than the static filled junk FM radio. But, the resolution kept me from running my diagnostic programs at home and work...

 

This years county auction came through well. Ended up with another CF-28, with the bigger 13.3" screen, a night-light LED strip for the keys/screen, and all the normal toughbook goodies (Backlit rubber keyboard, touch screen, magnesium case, steel doors, ultra durable... etc)... I picked it up for $45, and was lucky enough to get one without a supervisory password still installed from the town it came from. I ripped apart the old TB for the WIFI card and factory antenna (which I bought off ebay and installed on the old one), and tossed it on the new one. Boy is the inside of a laptop a cramped mess. Within an hour, I was surfing CC. Its got a 30GB hard drive, 800Mhz PIII, and some pitiful amount of RAM. Does well on CC and farting around though.

 

Pics:

 

Taking the old and new apart:

 

Finished Product:

 

 

Backlit keys:

 

Closed unit:

 

I should have bought the lot of about 4-5 of them, but I had a few buddies there, and I didn't want to hoard all the goodies. :D I think the actual county police auction is coming up in the spring, and I might just have to go to see if they have any more there. They are such nice units for the garage.

 

Rob L. 8)

[Pete M]

ooooooo... backlit keys.... very nice.... :bowdown:

 

 

:drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool:

[teckman02]

always loved the toughbook's i have a cf-29 with a 1.4 pentium M 1.5 gigs of ram. i love the thing but it needs a new harddrive cage and harddrive

[Sir Sam]

ooooooo... backlit keys.... very nice.... :bowdown:

 

 

:drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool:

 

My macbook has em, I basically never use them, in full to moderate light they actually make it harder to see, and in darkness there is almost always enough light from the screen to see the keys.

 

Course I also don't hunt and poke, and the homerow nubs are enough for me most of the time.

[terrawombat]

Backlit keys would come in VERY handy on my netbook carPC. Sometimes have to pop on the interior lights just to see what the heck I'm typing.

 

Nice score on the Toughbook. You got that at a very decent price. Before I found the custom metal case for my netbook, I was searching e-bay on a daily basis to try and score a CF-29, but they'd always close at $175-$250, which was about $100 more than I was willing to spend.