Alright, so I've started a company and found that I need to install a desktop in a pickup truck. I have some pretty hardcore processing that has to be done in the field to meet deadlines and no laptop has enough power without getting well the hell out my budget. And it's in a truck because I'm frequently off-road/on really terribly maintained gravel roads.
I'm pretty sure I've a good design for an enclosure that does a solid job of protecting the components from dust and heat, but what I'm most curious about is how do protect against jarring and vibration? I'm referring both to the various plugs and cards plugged into the mobo like video cards as well as if there's such thing as a liquid cooling system that can stand up to such?
Why not buy servers off-site and get a fast wireless connection? That way you can connect from anywhere.
William Jackson
Just use SSDs. So long as you have the budget it'll solve your problem since nothing else is particularly sensitive to vibration. It'll also make work faster so that's a plus. For extreme vibrations you'll want to throw in supports for the heatsinks. Bodge jobs with zipties and such will do, so long as the weight is supported.
Also get a higher budget.
Grayson Davis
Liquid cooling would be a bad plan. A dislodged fan could be plugged back in, if liquid leaks you're fucked.
Andrew Smith
4G card + AWS nigger, putting a highly performant system in a jerking and jarring field vehicle is retarded. If you absolutely must have local processing power, you're going to need a totally custom installation with gyros and shock absorbers galore. It's going to cost you a fucking fortune.
David Martinez
put pic related betwen pc. and truck it will absor the vibrations, also very cheap.
Zachary Anderson
If you're good on the enclosure, then just make sure your fans are securely mounted and use an SSD instead of a HDD. You should be fine, but if you're really worried then you could install some sort of extra GPU support. I'd avoid liquid cooling just because it seems like it would rattle apart if it wasn't maintained pretty constantly
Luis Flores
It's just an F150 Sport. Highly rural area of operations -- only way to ensure data connectivity is to have satellite, which would kill the benefit of me being able to have processing going while I'm gathering more data to crunch. Budget's being spent in better instrumentation. Better computer upgrades will have to wait around a year. Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of, but aren't there nonconductive liquids that have a decent specific heat out there?
Aaron Howard
don't use mechanical HDDs in a truck, jesus
spare some storage space you don't need the best-ever SSD just get something that you're not going to break
Christian Thomas
if you put a HDD in it, it's going to break and if you post about it asking for advice everyone's going to laugh at you for taking a delicate magnetic platter with needles pointing at it off-roading
Angel Adams
Yeah, wasn't planning on using HDDs.
Oh and here's the truck since one of you seem to care.
Jason Reed
Oh, I see y'all were thinking I was replying to the bit about SSDs in that post. Nah, just the last bit about getting a bigger budget.
SSDs have always been a part of the design because read/write times are huge for what I'm dealing with.
David Taylor
oh then yeah, you might even be able to get away with 3d printing some stand-offs/cradles/supports for cooling components to keep the gpu (I assume you're using a GPU) inside its pcie slot and unsnapped
Dominic Gray
dot worry for use HDD if you isolated the case from vibrationos. elastic materails ar your freinds (noot good loking but it do the job)
Kevin Foster
>inside its pcie slot and unsnapped Dual 1070s. This and the motherboard itself cracking are the two things that I'm worried the most about. The knuckleheads they have grading the roads have no clue how to actually do it so when they do bother, they washboard the hell out of them. I'm going to have a ton of little plastic standoffs to try to hold things relatively still and use various shockmounts (mainly rubber grommets) to try to isolate the case from some of the vehicle's movements. All joints except for air intake and discharge air tight, HEPA filters on intake and discharge. Stupidly high cfm fan both to push and pull air through with baffling that doubles as supports to guide flow.
Should be fun to put together.
Dylan Gutierrez
Performant relative to what?
Julian Hughes
Unplug the whole thing and store it in a foam lined pelican case. Take it out and plug it in when you get on site.
What's the job?
Xavier Bennett
liquid cooling is a meme. ubless you're building a custom loop that invludes the gpu too there is no point. it's hardly more efficient than large air coolers but costs twice as much while being less reliable.
Ryder Smith
>Unplug the whole thing and store it in a foam lined pelican case. Take it out and plug it in when you get on site. I move too much for that to be an option. >What's the job? Oilfield LiDAR/thermo photometrics
Basically, fly the drone, get data from the drone, shove in program, generate report/3D view/whatever client wants, then get to client. Bottleneck is the generating the site mapping. With my current setup, it takes around 40 minutes to crunch each site and I do around 35 sites a day. If I wait until the end of the day to start crunching, it'll lengthen out my delivery time which won't make clients super happy since part of why they have me do this is to find gas leaks which can get them fined to hell and back.
Jacob Barnes
>flying laser drones for money and building exotic computers living the Sup Forums dream
Owen Cox
are you in areas where aircards would give you decent service? might be cheaper and easier to pipe everything back to a desktop for easy processing
Tyler Wood
Now's literally the time to get into it. There's only like 8 other 107'd pilots in my state. It's a seller's market, especially if you have even a tiny bit of industrial or o&g experience. Hell, even the farmers up here are starting to buy in so you don't even have to lean on the oilfield. Depending on where you're at, it's a seasonal thing (I do very little flying in the winter because well, drones don't do well with -20 degrees F and 30 mph winds)...only down side is having to be in the frozen north which sucks ass, but there are definitely other highly underserved areas elsewhere.
I wish. I even have a yagi-antenna active booster and often have no signal. Shitty part about operating in the Badlands.
Adam Young
where would I start learning about this?
Jackson Reyes
Care to elaborate what youre doing out there?
Also for gods sake be careful with the "12V" line. With the engine running it goes up to 14.4V and also likes to spike around when starting the engine. Theres specific car power supplies that handle this for you, use them unless you wanna blow up your system.
Nicholas Hughes
Use a desktop case, not a tower - this will put much less stress on the mainboard. Macgyver some brackets to hold shit that might sway, like long GPUs. Secure any connector that doesn't have a locking latch with hot glue (no not THAT "hot glue"). Make a foam cushion for the case; it's the small, harsh jerking that's the most dangerous.
Jose Hughes
This, got damn son. This some cool shit.
Jack Ortiz
If you can, try to build it that mobo is in flat position. Forces on PCI cards will be much smaller. Also you can check PCI cables so the connection between mobo&pci card can be flexible and put them in custom mounts.
Lucas Bennett
Start googling up "drone inspection" "part 107" and the like. There's also generally a ton of good drone groups on facebook, but everyone is super secretive about clients and how they get them (which I find hilarious: if you think you're good enough to take my clients, give it a go. That way when they come back to me, I can charge them more).
The more saturated part is doing stuff like real estate photos, but you can also do stuff like cut/fill surveys pretty easily (which gravel pits have to pay out the ass to get a surveyor to do so they can manage inventory) with something as simple as a Mavic or one of the Phantoms.
For the most part, just flying sites and taking non-visual spectrum imagery of them. Sometimes, visual spectrum as well for simple site mapping. Otherwise, looking for things like gas leaks (BLM has a huge hardon for gas leaks right now) and once winter gets good and going, I'll be able to find freezes for them if I can fly. Can't afford the explosive proof Flir camera yet. One client had me do a full survey of a location (elevation to 3"). The computer intensive part of this is converting still images into whatever mid-file or final file the client wants.
>Theres specific car power supplies that handle this for you, use them unless you wanna blow up your system. I use a clean generator anyway (have to keep batteries charging/warm the entire time, so it made sense just to run a parallel electrical system instead of off my inverter/12v systems). Thanks
Parker Brown
>flat That shouldn't be a problem. I can just stick it in the rear floorboard. It'll take a bit more thought to make it weight bearing too, but that positioning would be best too since it's close to the center of rotation for the vehicle.
Daniel Walker
Last time I checked a HDD with a parked head was rated for accelerations that turn bones in to powder and liquefy brain tissue.
Chase Ward
Relative to the semi-mass-produced "milspec," hardware that's industry standard for field deployment.
Jace Torres
I ment you can put cards in custom mounts not cables of course. Pic related.
Hunter Butler
SWEET!
That post by itself made this thread worthwhile user. Thanks!
Jacob Carter
OP, listen here. 1. Get mITX case with dual card support = PCIE risers, that will exclude slot cracks. 2. Get low-profile cooler = no MB cracks 3. SSD for sure 4. If you leave equipment at truck for a night, thick about water condensation, put some silica gel aka DO NOT EATs in case. 5. USE FUCKING DUST FILTERS or you will collect dust+bugs. 6. Think about cloud backups using cellular 7. Use only silicon wires for external stuff. 8. Fill unused MB ports with hot glue or order rubber dummies
Isaiah Sullivan
>most curious about is how do protect against jarring and vibration?
use an SSD, but desktop parts are NOT made to take that kind of stress what is so demanding that a high end business grade laptop couldn't do?
Brody Baker
You say you have like 35 clients a day but you say you can't afford a laptop? God people are fucking retarded.
Dylan Reed
You're welcome. Those are high quality advices user.
Luis Allen
>unshielded cables enjoy your data corruption. you do realize that if you don't buy chinkshit cables they actually make shielded ones.
Carter Lewis
Install a desktop computer in the vehicle with as much power as you need. Surround it with tons of foam. Maybe do some research on making the desktop more vibration resistant.
The desktop should then connect to your laptop via Bluetooth, or if speed is an issue a 1/10gb Wi-Fi cable. Remote in and offload the data.
Carson Cox
Thermaltake Core V21
Make a custom screw in mount for GPU support and make sure they're parallel with the direction of travel. 3" of memory foam type rubber foam on the bottom. I seriously doubt that the components will be able to inherit enough inertia for them to be or do damage. Since you're living in the great white north I suggest setting up a system that's easily removable since the cold could possibly damage the components. A portable monitor and wireless KM combo from logitech seems like a good option with a slight sacrifice of productivity.
Colton Taylor
Some good stuff. Thanks! Had I the budget for one, nothing. I do however already have a kick ass desktop that I can build a custom case for a couple of hundred versus the almost $4k for a suitable laptop.
Budget is different from afford.
Noah Sanchez
Anyways you retards here are some cables which will actually work. There is a reason why they're $90 and made by a company you've actually heard of and sold by a actual electronics distributor rather than a literally who webstore
Also: Put the PC as close to the middle of the car as possible (ie equidistant to the wheels). This makes *a lot* of difference for vibration.
Ryder Reed
>74% 1 star reviews saying it doesn't work at all >using ribbon cable rather than twinax good job proving how retarded you are
Ayden Cruz
You feel better user?
Brody Jackson
OP are you using a GPU in your compute? The main thing you have to worry about is linear accelerations translating in to torque. Torque allows forces to be amplified through the lever effect. You end up with a fulcrum in the connector somewhere and forces applied to the top of a card caused by acceleration will get amplified at the connector. I can imagine the same would happen to a tall heatsink in a tower configuration.
I see a few strategies for reducing the stress. The easiest is orienting your computer so that cards and heatsinks are perpendicular to the ground. Since the largest accelerations you face will be oriented up and down from bumps this orientation leads to less of a torque force and more of a push that pushes the card or heatsink towards the motherboard. The connectors on your motherboard are already designed for this type of force. It's insertion force.
Another idea is bracing. Look up GPU sag for large cards and see how they brace the cards. Bracing reduces the torque exerted on the socket/pci connector.
Other ideas may require you to sacrifice performance. You can also choose components that are less heavy or less tall. If you're not using GPU in your computations go with some sort of integrated graphics. A smaller heatsink with a fan that runs faster will be louder but result in less force. A wider heatsink is better than a tall one.
Ultimately I would go with a combination of the bracing and perpendicular orientation of cards. I can't see a braced and properly oriented system of any sort being damaged by events that occur during safe operation of the vehicle. I'd just accept that if you get in a collision or roll over that you'll have a good chance of damage to the computer. Considering the cost of those events you won't be complaining about your PC.
Tyler Moore
Just JB weld everything in place fam
Blake Cooper
see you butthurt retard
Anthony Parker
I kinda want to epoxy resin everything in place, then go in and drill out channels for some heat transfer medium to be pumped through, and call it a day.
Benjamin Long
That's not feasible. Epoxy resin has abysmal thermal conductivity, so you'll have to drill channels to every VRM chip. And if anything fails, you'll have to rebuild it all from scratch.
Nathaniel Taylor
It is doable if you heatsink everything, then only cover the components in resin. You'd still need a serious heat transfer system though, likely on the order of refrigeration of the sinks themselves...which yeah, would be a pain in the ass to get right.
Chase Thomas
Thats a retarded idea, JB Weld has iron particles in it
OP, you might be overthinking it. I moved dozens of computers in the back of my shitty van over pothole-ridden roads protected by nothing but an extra layer of carpet underneath, and nothing ever broke. I just made sure to put them horizontally with the mainboard on the bottom, and secure them with rubber straps. You don't have to go all Rube Goldberg on it, just cushion your case better and make sure everything inside is properly secured.
Benjamin White
>Various plugs They're going to stay in place >Video cards Get PCI extension ribbons and mount them separately, that way they won't be reliant on the motherboard and some screws to stay in place. >Hard drives Solid state >Liquid cooling Don't
Christopher Butler
Computers are made of plastic mostly, so it should be okay.
Jayden Turner
private what do you think your doing
Camden Cook
Noted. Although I tend to make a living off of overthinking things.
Making money?
Lincoln Ross
Why don't you just build your system in the """cloud""" and connect wireless from a tablet or phone?
Robert Green
Explained many times above
Dominic Sanders
Answered a few times already: I can't guarantee connectivity.
Bentley Ramirez
why don't you explain the >pretty hardcore processing that has to be done in the field to meet deadlines what type of computing is it? is your input data from the field? why does it have to be done in the field?
if you are not larping and have an actual business need for this then just buy a rugged laptop.
Jeremiah Cook
Explained above
Are you literally retarded?
Levi Hall
Not him but based on the posts above >what type of computing is it >is your input data from the field? Drone gathers data from sensors. Laptop turns it in to 3d models n shiet. >why does it have to be done in the field? His clients have incentives to get the desired processed data quickly. Having to take his raw data back to somewhere with servers or an internet connection would cost time. That time can result in more gas leakage or whatever and the amount of gas leakage determines the fine. Time therefore becomes money.
>if you are not larping and have an actual business need for this then just buy a rugged laptop. Going to laptop form factor increases the cost of a given amount of computing power. A rugged solution also increases the cost. Why OP business can't handle this one time expense god only knows.
Joseph Reed
Dude, computers are tougher than you think. I had a desktop in a vehicle for 7 years. Drove hundreds of thousands of miles all over the US. Didn't do jack shit about vibrations even with a spinning rust HDD. Never had a single problem. Just use lower mass parts and go solid state for shit like mass storage and you're good. Worse case, put the whole thing on a cushion. Oh and enjoy your journeys. I had the best times of my life.
Asher Ramirez
I deal with systems in sewer trucks that have to deal with underground sensing and mapping. How much processing do you need? Need GPU? Feeding power con become problematic if you don't plan properly. Obviously keep things as solid-state and fanless as can be given your circumstances. Maybe a passive chassis with a big fan outside for easier maintenance. Get a power cleaner in there, alternators are dirty. Do need an internet connection?
Gavin Edwards
I'm There are solutions for that too, my workplace has begun hosting solutions like this but we don't do Sup Forums people (im sure you're fine though) here's a non-affiliated example though. mushroomnetworks.com/portabella/
Xavier King
>Why OP business can't handle this one time expense god only knows. Because for the next three months I have to be stingy as fuck with the cash flow because basically the clients shifted requirements on me right after I dropped $40k on some new sensors and software suite. They're upping the pay, but I won't see that for around another six months. Gotta make sure I can keep all of my bills paid in the interim. And, I kinda just want to mount a full pc in my truck just because... >Oh and enjoy your journeys. I had the best times of my life. I have been. I love travel, so this is great. Thinking about moving operations down to Colorado, but unsure what the market looks like there.
I'll power it with my generator (eu7000is), so power quality shouldn't be a problem.
I wish I could get away with something like that, but a good half of the locations I go to have zero signal. I run a -70dB booster with a yagi antenna that automatically orients to the nearest cell tower (even manually pointing it doesn't help) and I still get jack shit. That and I'd typically need to transfer somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 gigs per location, so we're back to losing what I'm intending on saving: time.
Samuel Smith
>consult for me for free Sup Forums
Fuck off
Jordan Lee
Is it just CPU number crunching? No need for a GPU? Easiest option would be a mini-ITX setup with SSDs with a fanless HSF.
No moving parts = way less susceptible to jarring and vibration.
If you need a GPU, you could try an external GPU? All the high end GPUs would need fans, and with an external card you could insulate the card better.
Logan Adams
>so we're back to losing what I'm intending on saving: time. good point.
I would ask your software vendors if they have tested all the new ryzen and intel i gen 8 gear yet and see if they have any recommendations. Same with GPU if the sw is using that.
Jaxon Ramirez
that's not how Sup Forums works go fap to desktop screencaps and smart phones in the relevant thread you reject
Jack Martinez
Alright well give your knowledge and experience away for free then you cuck
Ian Lee
>implying i dont like talking through issues and scenarios
close yourself into a box and die a lonely worklife then neerdowell, there are loads of idgaf indians waiting to take your place.
whats the point of using the internet if people are not freely interacting.
what a sob
Adam Gonzalez
Loads of pajeets like you giving shitty advice destroying our profession
Sebastian Johnson
If free advice on an internet board is harming your employability, you seriously need to get better.
Jose Richardson
see these people are here trying to improve their understanding and lives, not engineering the next big world-breaker
some people are just irreparably butthurt
Dominic James
>Start googling up "drone inspection" "part 107" and the like thanks user
Jacob Miller
You're looking for a Getac B300, and the matching vehicle mount. It's good enough for cops, so it'll be more than enough for you.
Lincoln Adams
Np. Let me tell you this: You can get away with doing it without dotting all your t's and crossing your i's, but it's a very bad idea. You don't want to be the next example case. Also, getting legal is simple enough and becomes a selling point if you're wanting to do work with larger companies. If you're only in ok-ish shape financially, you'll have some problems getting an MSA with larger companies. Keep plugging away at the smaller stuff and keep an eye out for natural disasters like tornados and hurricanes for a quick hit of a lot of cash doing inspections for insurance companies. Once you get enough money up to get a good sized bond, then you'll be in great position to do work with larger companies. For stuff with larger companies, generally bid out jobs assuming that you'll have a second person there (and actually have a second person there to act as a spotter). The market values the fuck out of safety...not necessarily "real" safety, but corporate safety where OSHA is worshiped and everything is always documented in a dozen and a half places by people who've sat through some stupidly long class that teaches them practically nothing.
Nathaniel Kelly
And you somehow think you have too much raw data to efficiently send over 4g? Do you understand how processing works? I mean you were considering building an liquid cooled HDD based desktop in a truck so I assume you don't understand anything
Ayden Young
>converting still images >satellite networking and off-site processing is out of the question
William Green
>refrigeration Wow you really are entirely clueless about this stuff
Levi Ross
Sure thing, 4g that DOESN'T EXIST where I'm working can handle 450 gigs a day. Gotcha.
>I mean you were considering building an liquid cooled HDD based desktop in a truck so I assume you don't understand anything At no point was I ever considering using HDDs, and with my prior experience, I could make liquid cooling work without leaking. Hell, the most efficient thing would be to submerge the entire thing in nonconductive liquid and pump that over a heat exchanger, but that would be a serious pain in the ass to set up. Do you have any clue how expensive bandwidth is on a satellite? Fuck, I could build a server rack and microcell in a trailer and tow that around for cheaper than using satellite for a year. Sure thing bub. Go ahead, prove me wrong because you're dicking around with the part of this that actually is my expertise.
Gabriel Flores
>manually pointing it >15GB in 40 minutes bro I can't use sattelite Just get fired already jesus
Jason Jones
>expertise >put stick-on heatsinks all over motherboard and dunk in epoxy >refrigeration
Andrew Myers
post the camera rig and i will help you
also, stop living in north dakota, its not worth it
Jackson Anderson
>40 minutes to crunch 35 times a day (40*35)/60=23.3
So you sleep for how long? And you teleport to each client?
Samuel Wilson
Great argument.
Sorry, but it's branded. Here's my old Inspire though.
Wow, it's like you're starting to comprehend the problem!
Carson Murphy
branded? that makes no difference in whether you can post it or not.
Nolan Carter
I just got into this thread, but you being a real dindu. Use a newer Mobo with an m.2 drive and an onboard GPU, slap an old xeon on it, and use a 2u heatsink with a server fan that's not attached to the board, done. Nothing is heavy enough in the board to be affected by vibrations, and everything is accounted for.
Brody Perez
There are companies that make CPU/GPU boards for automotive environments. The type in pic related is primarily designed for ADAS systems - lots of image processing capability. They're completely solid state, and have basic Ethernet and USB which you can use to link it to a laptop. Of course, building your software to target the specific firmware of the board might be more of a hassle than it's worth (or even impossible, depending on what software you're using), but it is something that exists.
Brandon Nelson
Oh and in case you come back with something about the things plugged into it falling out, use a wireless keyboard and mouse, and maybe WiFi in your truck, and a VGA cable that's screwed in place tight enough to hold.
Julian Lopez
Note: the board pictured here would plug into this board, which has the USB ports, etc.
Kayden James
Don't like making things too easy for shitheads. I don't mix well with idiots. It's pretty clear that my turnaround is greater than 1 day because otherwise it's impossible to do without splitting things up. That said, being able to save a half day in post-processing would make things to where I don't have to sweat deadlines quite as hard. >or even impossible, depending on what software you're using That's the part that worries me because most of the photometric stuff on the market isn't widely optimized for hardware support. I'll dig into it more deeply. Thanks for the option!
Carson Hill
Dunno if it's been suggested or not yet, but I advise getting PCIe cable extensions to minimize stress on your PC slots. An AIO liquid cooler is probably your best bet as well, since having the mass of the a heatsink on the board would be very bad. I would hang the motherboard (with the socket facing the ground) and position the cooler below it somewhere so any leaks, if they happen, won't damage the board. Do those things and I don't see why you'd have any real problems.
Ryan Cox
I used to be a welder before switching to a sysadmin, you remind me of the shithead's I used to work with. If you want this to work, use the specs I posted that you completely ignored. Also consider the fact that you're not always the smartest person in the room. Your question has been answered more than once in this thread, so kindly go fuck yourself since you're ignoring all of it. Your truck sucks, your PC sucks, and your job sucks, kys.
Robert Campbell
>doesn't get YOU >spergs out Here's your (You).
Nicholas Baker
Every post I've made in this thread has had a (you), nice backpedaling though
