How do people use laptops outdoors?

[Bart]

Hello All,

Just wondered how do people use their laptops outdoors. I'm thinking flight cases etc but I'd love to see what you folks use. I'd love to bring the laptop out but I'd be afraid of dew etc.

Any suggestions?

Bart

[Stevie816]

Sorry,

but I just take mine outside.

Occasionally get a bit of dew on it but never a problem.

I sometimes have a hair drier with me, but not often

Regards

Steve

[Bart]

thanks Steve,

do take it out even in the COLD?

Barry

[Foggymike]

I just sit mine on the ground and have never had any problem. I'd stop short of wet grass though! Cold has been fine but I've not tried below freezing as my gloves would be too thick to hit the keys

[sgazer]

I used to just put mine on a wooden table, was fine even down to about -16C IIRC. Just watch for puddles of dew under it and anything significant forming on it which might drip inside when you wipe it. Maybe blot it with a paper towel. It'll be kept above the dew point internally by it's own heat. It'll get more due on when you bring it inside into a warm humid room, but I never had any issues with various laptops.

[James]

I happily take mine out in the cold etc. I have a small flight case I put it in the depths of winter and/or if the dew is particularly bad.

I think the problem is bringing it back inside though - a very cold computer hitting the warm air in the house is just asking for trouble so I just cheat a little and run Stellarium for about 5 minutes before hand which on my laptop maxes out the CPU cycles and rapidly heats up the laptop...

[Bart]

Thanks very much Gents, much appreciated.

[Draco61]

Just a thought Bart,

If you're worried about condensation when you bring it back in from the cold.

Take a black bin liner with you & put the laptop in it before you go indoors. This traps a layer of air between the warmth in the room & the cold laptop preventing condensation while the temperatures slowly equalise. Just don't take it out of the bag for about an hour or 2.

It's a bit inconvenient but worth it to save from damage.

I've used this method for photography for years & it's not let me down yet.

P.S. Good for eyepieces too.

Hope this helps.

Tim.

[Naemeth]

In fact, a better method if you are worried about it may be to turn off your laptop, wrap it in your coat and bring it in, so it will warm up rather slowly, although to be honest, if you use any CPU heavy program like Stellarium, it will pretty much eliminate condensation .

[Bart]

Tim, great, thanks. I'll try that

Bart

[umadog]

You might also want to look into sheets of Rubylith to dim down the display.

[ollypenrice]

thanks Steve,

do take it out even in the COLD?

Barry

...sometimes minus seventeen C in my case. I recently bought some puppy warming trays (not kidding!) to put under them but this is not because I'd had a problem. I put a towel over them to keep the dew off.

Olly

[ianaiken]

I've got a butchered flight case that I keep it in. When it's left running I just shut the lid of the case a bit, its the lid that captures all the condensation. When I bring it inside its still powered on. Never had a problem with moisture on it. If I shut the lid completely temps can get very very high and will dry anything off, and maybe cook an egg.

[Parus major]

When I bring mine it I start up a game of Flight Sim, nothing makes it blow hot air out like that game.

Get a programme for core and GPU temps if you can, no way is dew going to form when your cpu is doing 40°C

[mallorcasaint]

At the NLO we all use those polythene storage boxes you get at home stores for a few quid. Stick it on it's side and you have a nice enclosure for a lappy. http://www.therange.co.uk/30l-clever-storage-box//the-range/fcp-product/50341

[Bart]

that's great folks, thanks for that, it'll be great having CdC at my fingertips in the garden! Those fuzzies have no chance of hiding now.

Bart

[eriss]

hi

i put a bobble hat over mine and a scarf and on very cold nights a hot water botttle, oh no, wait a mo, thats me!

i just put mine on a table on a piece of cardboard, no problems so far

[brantuk]

You can pick up a small "day tent" for £50 or so and use it in there. All laptops will run better in the cold - the tent will keep the dew off. Alternatively a picnic table with a crisp box if you don't fancy the tent idea.

[jgs001]

I've got a plastic box with an interlocking lid... the laptop and power supplies live in there... The laptop gets a towel wrapped around the display...the only bit that gets cold whilst APT, PHD and EQMod are running, to keep the condensation off... although before I thought about that trick, I'd had a very misty LCD and it never came to any harm.

What I often do when it comes in, is run a heavy cpu/disk io program (virus scan for instance) as that keeps it all rather toasty inside.

[Parus major]

I've got a plastic box with an interlocking lid... the laptop and power supplies live in there... The laptop gets a towel wrapped around the display...the only bit that gets cold whilst APT, PHD and EQMod are running, to keep the condensation off... although before I thought about that trick, I'd had a very misty LCD and it never came to any harm.

What I often do when it comes in, is run a heavy cpu/disk io program (virus scan for instance) as that keeps it all rather toasty inside.

If you have a zip up laptop sleeve you can hang that over the screen.

[acey]

There are two ways to prevent dewing: heat, or physically shielding the object from the sky. With a laptop, heat does the trick, though if a switched-off laptop were left on a table for long enough then its lid would dew. Covering it (with anything) would prevent any dewing.

Books will dew if left exposed, so I always keep them closed/covered when not in use. Any paper surface that needs to be exposed for a long time (e.g. map) is best kept vertical since dew forms mainly on horizontal surfaces.

Same goes for telescope mirrors: either warm them with a dew heater or else minimise their exposure to the sky by using a dewshield, and keep the telescope horizontal when not in use for extended periods. Then the only bit that dews is the top of the scope tube.

[Yoddha]

Once I used a small cardboard box to put the laptop in. It kept it completely dry in a hard condition when the scope looked like that...

The bottom of the box was parallel to the screen and gave nice access to the screen and keyboard

[x6gas]

I just use mine on a wooden table which has a slatted top.

It's an old laptop so I was prepared to take the risk. The screen gets very dewey at times - litterally running with condensation - but no problems with faults developing; I guess the bits that are sensitive to moisture keep warm enough...