Let’s see if I can keep this relatively short:
I’m a woodworker, I do my design work in FreeCAD and then I print out my drawings on paper to carry out to the shop with me. It would be nicer if I had a shop-proof device to run FreeCAD in the shop with me because over the past year I found myself saying the following things in the shop a lot:
- “Wait, let’s go in and look at the 3D model.”
- “Ah dang I forgot to note this particular dimension on the drawing, let me go fix that.”
- “I’ll measure this part up then go in and do some drawing.”
So what does “shop proof” mean exactly?
-
Wood shop be dusty. Last year I hauled 250 gallons of sawdust to the dump. To me this means that a physical keyboard needs to be able to function if it’s been packed with dust and/or needs to be vacuum cleaner proof. I also think cooling fans are probably a bad idea; a passively cooled device is probably preferable.
-
Not many outlets in the shop, so it needs a good battery life. I actually don’t need a tremendous amount of performance, I’ve used a Raspberry Pi 3 for the kind of CAD work I do.
-
FreeCAD does not ship an APK so Android is no bueno, it’s gotta be GNU/Linux.
-
It needs decent usable Wi-Fi because I envision using Syncthing to keep my woodworking projects folder synced between my desktop and this device. It doesn’t necessarily need to get signal out in the shop (my phone barely does; I lose signal if I stand behind the drill press) but it does have to connect to my Wi-Fi when I carry it into the house.
I think this means I’m looking for an ARM tablet that can competently run Linux. Is there such a thing?
ADDENDUM:
Thanks to everyone who commented, I think I do have a plan of action: I’m gonna buy a used Lenovo!
To answer the question I posed, no it doesn’t seem that a Linux ARM tablet is really a thing yet. Commercial offerings that run Android or Windows on ARM are often so locked down that switching OS isn’t a thing, the few attempts at a purpose built ARM tablet for Linux like the PineTab just are not ready for prime time.
In the x86 world, it basically came down to 10 year old Toughbook tablets or 4 year old low-end 2-in-1s, and I think the latter won out just because of mileage and condition. A lot of the toughbooks out there will have 10 year old batteries in them, and they’ve been treated like a Toughbook for some or all of that time. The few Lenovo’s I’ve looked at are barely used, probably because of how Windows “runs” on them.
I’ll eventually check back in with progress on this front. Would it be better to add to this thread or create another?
The Panasonic Toughbook has always been the go-to line for rugged laptops.
You may not need such a ruggedised device for workshop use though. I use an older ThinkPad as a secondary laptop for grubbier jobs and environments. It’s taken a real beating and still works fine, and has survived having all sorts spilled and sprinkled over it, hoovers clean with no issues. Easy to service and replace parts too when necessary.
Linux compatibility is also great, which might be more challenging for some of the exotic or specialist portable computer options out there.
You could also try some remote desktop thing like VNC or teamviewer with your phone or an android tablet, and put a router closer/inside the shop.
This is great advice actually. Even if you might need to sit down and actually do some work; all the horsepower (and supporting systems) are on the far end; safe in another room (or across town, or in the cloud!) and you just need a decent connection (consistent 10mbit bidirectional is plenty) and a device capable enough to connect and display, which isn’t gonna be much.
There are a lot more security and configuration/maintenance factors to consider, but it’s certainly a lot cheaper than trying to shop-proof an expensive rig
I’m pretty sure my Wi-Fi connection out there isn’t reliable enough for that, and there’s not really much I can do about it.
Why does it have to be ARM? You are going to have a much easier time installing whatever you want on an x86 ruggedized/waterproof tablet or Toughbook. ARM devices tend to run Android and have locked bootloaders and other challenges to installing the custom OS you want.
And does it have to be a tablet? Because if not, what you’re looking for is an “industrial computer,” and while these are shockingly expensive to buy new, you can often find outdated ones used on eBay and similar for not much money. They’re designed for use in factories. These are generally sealed, dustproof, and waterproof.
There are two ways to go, you can get a sealed fanless PC box and attach your own monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Or you can get a panel mount machine which will obviously have to be mounted somewhere, but as a woodworker I’m sure you can find a way to build a stand or otherwise attach one to something. These usually have horrible rubber or membrane keyboards if they come with a keyboard at all but can be literally hosed down, vacuumed, knocked, baked, and otherwise abused. Most are touch screens, although they are usually single point resistive ones rather than multi-touch like a consumer tablet.
Fully sealed waterproof rubber membrane keyboards are not hard to find, but I will warn you that the typing experience on them is horrible.
Why does it have to be ARM?
Not an absolute requirement but as I said I’m looking for very good battery life, which isn’t x86, I’m looking for passively cooled/fanless/ventless that will survive and thrive in 100° summer heat, which also isn’t x86, and I’m looking for “end user ready” so AFAIK that rules out RISC-V at present. So that pretty much leaves ARM.
And does it have to be a tablet?
A tablet or small laptop yes. 100% must be portable and battery powered. It’s a small shop with few outlets, so a desktop box with an external monitor and keyboard is pretty much out of the question, just no space. Plus it would be nice to be able to easily carry it with me to my various workbenches and tools as I do with paper plans. A toughbook might be a possibility but they tend to be thick, heavy and cumbersome. I want to be able to grab the thing by a corner to move it from one workbench to another without wearing out my wrist.
All of that makes sense, but I think you’re selling the battery capabilities of current x86 mobile devices a bit short. I have a GPD Win Max 2 gaming laptop that if I keep it in flatland all day (i.e. don’t fire up them GPU cores…) it will easily last 10-11 hours on a battery charge. The current Toughbook 40 is rated for 18 hours (!) on a single battery and a used older model with a new battery slapped into it shouldn’t fall much short of that. I would definitely give the Toughbooks a second look. Handle one in person if you can – they’re smaller than they appear in pictures. I have one lying around someplace and I can dig it out to show you later. I use mine for a similar application, i.e. I leave it in my shop (automotive, or rather motorcycle) where my issues are grease and metal shavings.
The major issue you’re going to have is that there are few to no ARM based fully integrated machines – that is, an assembled ready-to-use tablet or clamshell laptop – that are designed to have the user install their own OS. Certainly not that I’ve ever seen. They’re all going to show up with some flavor of Android in the ROM, probably an outdated one at that, and they will not be “end user ready.” You’re going to be cracking bootloaders, hunting down proprietary SoC driver blobs, etc., and there’s still no guarantee of success.
Here’s a left field plan C: Consider building a Raspberry Pi based enclosure with a screen + keyboard + battery? You could probably put together something like unto the CutiePi but with a more bodacious casing. That’d probably be a DIY job, but what you wind up with would be hardware well and truly under your control and you can, of course, install your own OS on it. Making it work would be the easy part, making it durable and dustproof enough for your purposes would be where the effort goes.
(i.e. don’t fire up them GPU cores…) Yeah I plan to have the thing sitting in the shop with a 3D CAD program on with screen dimming/suspend set to “never.” I’m looking at the $200 price range, which is somewhere around “pretty good Android tablet” to “Used Toughbook.”
If I go the used Wintel route, I’d probably go with a Toughbook if I can find a fairly compact one. A lot of the ones on eBay in my price range are of approximate vintage to my existing laptop, but dustproof. But, “no charger included.” “Tablet only.” “No charger or battery.” etc.
Honestly I think the PineTab 2 or similar products would do…if their business model included “ever finish a product and bring a retail version to market.” A lot of the word on the street is “It’s pretty okay especially for the price, but the Wi-Fi will never work because for some reason we’re using chips that just don’t and won’t have Linux drivers.”
Yeah I plan to have the thing sitting in the shop with a 3D CAD program on with screen dimming/suspend set to “never.”
BTW, FreeCAD is a zero (or near enough to it, see my other comment) workload for your GPU. It does not use GPU acceleration at all internally. You said you were using FreeCAD in your original post.
I’m reasonably certain most/all of the consumer Android tablets will not be able to handle your kind of workload. Certainly not any of the very few Linuxable ones. (Credit to @jesta there for posting a few that I was not aware of). Battery life is going to be your issue, there. You’re looking at a 3-5 hour screen on time from one of those at best. And none of those are ruggedized. I think you’ve painted yourself into a corner by making your base requirements impossible for your budget. I’m not saying that to argue; I’m just saying how it is.
…Huh.
You wanna hear something wild? For years, the only reason I ever booted my Inspiron into Windows was to use Fusion360, which IS GPU accelerated, there’s a whole menu about it.
FreeCAD running in Linux on that same machine always outperformed Fusion360, and you’re telling me FreeCAD runs in software rendering? I’ve long suspected the discrete GPU on that laptop wasn’t working properly, this might just confirm it.
https://forum.freecad.org/viewtopic.php?style=4&t=65717
FreeCAD of course “uses” the GPU in the same way that any graphical application must do, in order to put pixels or polygons into the screen buffer, within the graphics driver for whatever your video card is. The Coin3D modelling engine behind the scenes technically uses OpenGL for the final render to screen but none of the model geometry calculation or tessellation uses the GPU in any capacity whatsoever. FreeCAD’s workload is therefore almost entirely in software on the CPU.
That I knew because you can run FreeCAD without it’s GUI, you can import it as a module into any random Python script if you really want to.
I wonder if the raytracing workbench can run on the GPU? And I’ve got like three other things I should be concentrating on that I’m not going to look it up.
There’s nothing rugged enough out there. Over a long enough time it will die. My two cents would be to minimize physical connectors or makes covers to protect them.
My shop (not wood) uses an old, obsolete and honestly useless Microsoft Surface tablet, since
A it has no fan just a hinge
B 2 charging ports with usb c and the magnetic charger
C Bluetooth which u can get a cheap membrane something that will work, and a Bluetooth mouse.
D has a touch screen as a fallback.
Linux is pretty good on it with a gnome based distro and it has enough Horsepower to run FreeCAD.
That said even if u don’t like Microsoft I believe Walmart or something similar offers 2 in 1 windows laptops that have the same or worse specs. That’ll do.
May I interest you with a Thinkpad X230 with an extended (9-cell) battery?
Maybe on a different day but…is that any better than my Dell Inspiron re sawdust in the cooling fans?
I’d recommend something fanless, but I don’t knownif it would handle all the CAD.
Yeah that’s the idea.
On Amazon, there are a couple of industrial machines with the KINGDEL brand/label that I’ve used in my soils lab that have held up pretty well. They’re fairly inexpensive for what they are, would probably work with Linux, much more than windows 11 since they’re not exactly running the latest generation CPU’s Honestly, I think I would be looking for a keyboard used in the medical industry or an industrial keyboard that is membrane based. If you’re getting a nicer one be prepared for a little bit of sticker shock. Ditto for the mouse.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but if you can find a cheap MacBook m1 (I have one for work and I hate it) might be OK for this. Get a stick on key cover for it. The only thing that is great about it is battery life, like 2 days with moderate/heavy use. Set up an remote client to connect to your machine and use it that way. Screen is great, only openings on it are usb-c ports and the keyboard.
I specifically had Apple in mind when talking about keyboard dust problems because IIRC their butterfly switch keyboards could not survive even slight dust contamination.
If ypu can get hold of an old point of sale system, these might do the trick. Modern ones are usually solid-state all-in-one devices, often with no fans or moving parts, and an aluminium alloy chassis that doubles as heat sink. They normally have good IPxx rating for moisture and dust ingress protection.
Removed by mod
I just use an old -2012- dell mid tower. I have jank dust collection if I even run it. It’s survived for 5yr and wasn’t cleaned out after it’s first life in an office for 7yr. Saw dust is easy to deal with in a desktop. It’s oily substances that are more problematic.
What about building or buying a cheap tower, and placing it outside the shop while running peripherals into the shop?
Maybe get a silicone keyboard cover? https://www.amazon.com/Silicone-Keyboard-Protector-Compatible-Keyboards/dp/B07N115MZZ There are plenty that wrap around and should protect it all, and are rather inexpensive.
A Surface might be an alright option. Last time I checked, the i5 and below models were fanless. With a good case it should be relatively rugged. Linux on Surfaces is fairly decent; I put Zorin on a Surface Go 2, and everything seems to work apart from the IR for face recognition. Battery life has been much better than in Windows, which is a plus.
