Our old programming laptop burned up (quite literally. A fan broke) and now one of our sponsors is donating a new one to us. I have most of the stuff figured out that we need on the new one (USB ports, wireless card, coffee dispenser, etc) but I’m unsure about what kind of CPU and RAM would be good to run the FIRST software. Any suggestions would be appreciated
Using Windriver C++ and occasionally LabVIEW
One more question primarily directed at NI/FIRST: How do the development tools run on Vista/7 and are there plans to make 7 the officially supported OS in the near future?
I wouldn’t ever try any serious programming on a netbook like the Classmate. You’ll want to kill yourself during build season with it, I assure you.
For a programming dedicated laptop, I’d recommend something with a good screen size, but nothing huge so that it’s not easy to take to the pits to work with. Something around 15" should do well. Also, you don’t need anything extremely powerful, because most programming environments aren’t too taxing. The standard 4gb of RAM and a decent dual core processor should do just fine for a newer machine. Intel’s new mobile i5 chips are very nice, especially because of their power and efficiency, giving you quite a bit more battery life in a pinch.
You can code C++ on just about anything.
Same with LabVIEW. It even runs on that little Atom in the Classmate (it runs quite well, although the screen is too small to fit the splash screen)
I use a Dell with a dual-core CORE2, somewhere around 2ghz per core, with 2gb RAM and a nVidia GeForce GO 7900, but that is powerful enough to do CAD and play 3d games. I also have a very old laptop I used to use for IFI Dashboard, because it had a serial port, and it was from like 1999 and had like a 400mhz processor, I made it run XP, it ran IFI Loader and IFI Dashboard. I always developed on my normal laptop, so I never tried MPLAB.
The point is that any modern laptop can handle coding. Actually, just about any laptop that still is in decent condition will handle C++, and almost
Edit: 2 others beat me to it.
Also, I have a 17" 1920x1200 screen, it really comes in handy with large VI’s. It unfortunately does not fit in the designated space for the programming laptop on our robot cart, but I just set it under the robot or on top of the robot or carry it if it must go out with the robot, which isn’t often.
If you are budget minded, a pentium m that you’ll find in any number of given Dells on ebay coming back from corporate leases works just fine. You’ll pay about $200.
I program other things, like PLCs, Smart Servos, HMIs, Vision Systems, and robot controllers, etc…
And one thing looking BEYOND “FIRST” you may consider is having a laptop with a serial port. I have only found a few laptops right now that can be purchased with a serial port, but even so more a problem is a laptop with a decent OS like Windows XP. I did find one recently that I just bought. Has Windows XP Pro and a Serial Port. I am pretty happy with it so far. I don’t like the d-pad mouse buttons, but I run an external mouse always with a laptop anyways.
I would also recommend the Dell Precision series. Like an M4300 or so. The problem with those now are they too as well are starting to be preloaded with Windows 7 which doesn’t normally play nice when trying to write code in ladder logic DOS software or some other compilers like even IFI loader. Windows XP seems to play nice with all the development software packages I have played with.
Dell Outlet has some great deals on some Dell Precision laptops that still have Windows XP loaded.
You may not find a serial port on these machines anymore, but for what you want to program now, you won’t need it. But if your a hard core junky like me that plays with all different types of hardware, having a native serial port is a blessing.
From experience, a netbook will work for programming (for both LabVIEW and C++). You need to be careful of a few things when looking into a netbook. When programming LabVIEW on my ASUS Netbook (10.1 in. screen) I have to scale up the resolution to get the vision assistant up, and the window doesn’t fit well into the screen. I haven’t done any C++ on it (since I don’t program C++), but when I program Python or other languages, I notice that my hands are VERY awkward on the small keyboard. Especially when reaching for something like a shift key.
With that in mind, I would recommend a regular size laptop. You’ll pay less for a laptop for the same specs your netbook would have. Our programmer programmed on a very jank laptop this year. It wouldn’t turn on unless you lifted up the keyboard frame of the laptop and pressed the power button, the charger didn’t fit in right, and the specs were very low. However, he was able to do all our programming on it.
So, in the end, I recommend going with a laptop over a netbook.
One thing, do not modify the class mate at all, we installed an antivirus, it messed up the whole boot up commands and stuff, we had to reformat and install the OS again… and trust me you never want to go through with it, the processor is too $@#$@#$@#$@# slow
Just curious, have you had issues using USB to serial converters? I have had to program a variety of things that have serial interfaces (PLCs, Controllers for Robot Arms, various micros) but have never had problems using my ThinkPad with a USB to Serial adapter.
Back to the thread topic. As said before any new computer will run the programming software. I would recommend buying something fairly portable (14 or 15 inch screen) with pretty goods battery life. I know that at competition it can some times be difficult to find a place to plug in. Other than that just make sure it is comfortable to type on. Some computers that are designed for entertainment tend to squish the keyboard so they can fit additional controls for media.