Two words: Salt Water.
I live aboard a trimaran in New Zealand. I need a small, low power
device which can record positional data from GPS and various
electronic components including control of solar panels and battery
charge states, wind instruments, windvane, monitor the engine, fuel
reserves and rate of consumption. The device must be able to process
all of this input data as well as control outputs like the autohelm,
autotrimmer, and rate of battery discharge. Of course don't forget it
needs to act as a file server for media and documents when in port!
Most importantly, it needs to do this in one of the most corrosive
environments on Earth: the ocean. Besides facing constant motion and
vibration as well as sweeping variety of temperature conditions (from
a running engine room running on hot summery days to winter sailing by
night), there runs risk of electrolysis from lack of proper grounding
and despite no direct exposure to salt water itself, it is inevitably
present in the air. I know that Linux "Will Work" but the question is
will the OpenMicroServer?
Two words: Oh, no! To be honest, this sounds probably too tough. The electrolysis problem sounds bad. Our OpenServers do not have any special waterproofing for power, so this is probably one fatal weak point. Direct exposure to salt water is bad, too. How wet would the server itself get? What do you use currently?
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Two words: Oh, no! To be honest, this sounds probably too tough. The electrolysis problem sounds bad. Our OpenServers do not have any special waterproofing for power, so this is probably one fatal weak point. Direct exposure to salt water is bad, too. How wet would the server itself get? What do you use currently?
Currently I have my day-to-day laptop for work, a "navigation" laptop driving all the GPS and underway monitoring (course plotting, solar, engine, and so on), and a Shuttle XPC acting as my server. One of these would have no problem replacing the Shuttle for file serving and network access purposes (I use an iPod Video as USB-powered and battery-backed-up file storage and the CF slot would be ideal for key files when that is removed), and ideally I'd like to ditch the "navigation" laptop as well - or rather, reduce it to a backup device and installing a permanent screen in the cockpit.
The biggest use I could see here is I could drop 75-100 watts of power usage by replacing the Shuttle with the OpenMicroServer, and as ethernet is already run to midship I could swap across no problem. PoE would be a huge boon in power savings and convenience when underway (where power is critical).
I'm using an old USB-connected mobile for my data connection when underway or at anchor away from land, but could just as easily hook in the USB Wifi adapter (with cantenna) when at the marina (at anchor you swing too much for the cantenna to point the right direction). The Shuttle also provides NAS to the other systems but of course I see no problem there.
Regards the salt water, perhaps I'm overstating the "tough" angle a bit - there's a sacrificial zinc diode on the outer hull which is meant to prevent the electrolysis and like I said there's never any direct exposure to salt or fresh water - its just "in the air" much like any beach house. Its still a rough environment, but considering the rest of the gear has survived going on two years now I think it would too!
BTW, here's an example of the inside. What's I'm proposing isn't as far-fetched as you might think. (c:
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