Kevin,
As I said to you at CM'09, yours is one of the neatest PC mounts I've seen. You say it's got some front-back movement but I had the opportunity to see/touch it first hand and it's really quite rigid IMHO.
It’s pretty good except in heavy washboard, then get some movement going. Adding a link from the back bolt would be an easy fix and make it better.
Tell us more about the ball mount you used. I think you said it was surplus and would be hard to source, but maybe there are some identifying marks on it that would give me hints for my internet searches when trying to find one like it.
The ball mount is cool, compact and very solid. Unfortunately the only marking is what looks like a military nsn, google turns up nothing. Have a contact in military purchasing, need to send it to him and see if he can shed some light. If it comes to it, it’s pretty simple, so machining them wouldn’t be too bad?
My impression is that the portrait orientation of the screen makes a lot of sense, both is terms of minimizing the impact to the passenger's space as well as for viewing maps as you're on the go (i.e. more of the map that's in front of you is displayed at the expense of less map area to the sides). Can you comment on your experience?
What model Stylistic is that? Any comments on using a tablet PC versus a traditional PC in a vehicle?
The screen orientation can be changed by a single button push, so pick your poison, I find portrait the best for mapping in the rig.
For “normal PC work” it’s somewhat a kludge deal, text entry options are; a popup on screen virtual keyboard and a scribble box, works OK for naming files, etc, but wouldn’t want to write a book that way! Have sent a few emails, posted on Mud, etc from the rig, kind of a pain, but that’s not why I got it. When I was setting it up, just plugged in a keyboard/mouse. The rig duties, dragging maps, marking points, etc the touch screen is great, when using it in the rig don’t miss the keyboard/mouse at all.
Mine is a ST4121, didn’t know if I would like it, so bought a cheap one ($130 shipped), it has some screen scratches, etc. The more I use it the more I like it, overall it’s a little slow, 933MHz, 760MB, 40GB HD, but works Topo just fine. If I find a deal, may upgrade to a ST5XXX unit, not so much for the speed, but some have a 12” screen in the same size unit.
Win XP tablet isn’t readily available, so when buying a tablet, it’s best to get one with it loaded. On the Fujitsu tablet the last digit in the model number is screen type, IIRC, 0 = indoor, 1 = daylight viewable Transflective, 2 = daylight viewable Transmissive.
