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What the laptop is going to be used for.

The biggest requirement is that it’ll be used for the ground station, so it needs to have a bright screen, long battery life, and be durable.

Use case

Subteam

Software

Ground station

All

  • Mission Planner

  • IMACS 2.0

  • Pathing

Electrical development

Electrical

Altium

Mechanical development

Mechanical

Solidworks

Groundside compute

Autonomy

  • Airside system

...

Property

Requirement

Reason

Operating System

  • OS can be installed separately from the manufacturer (in fact, recommended to do so to avoid bloatware)

Windows

Mission Planner is Windows only.

CPU

Good enough to run ground station software, more performance is better if possible.

Additional flexibility for usage beyond ground station.

GPU

None.

Not mandatory.

RAM

  • Additional memory can be installed separately if it is non soldered

>=16GB, more is better if possible.

8GB is not enough, additional flexibility for usage beyond ground station.

Storage

IO

TODO:

  • Additional storage can be installed separately

>=256GB, more is better.

Additional flexibility for usage beyond ground station.

IO

Multiple USB-A , USB-C, HDMI, Ethernet, SD card, microSD card???at minimum, more is better.

You remembered to bring the dongle, right? No? Crap.

WARG has SD card and HDMI adapters to USB-A, not sure about USB-A to USB-C.

Screen brightness

>=TODO 350 nits, more is better.

Ground station is outside, potentially in the sun.

  • Reference:

    • Stood outside with a 350 nit laptop, somewhat visible when not in direct sunlight

    • M2 Air is 500 nits and it’s really bright

Screen size

>=13 inches, larger is better.

Surface area to see information.

Touch Screen

None.

Not mandatory.

Battery life

  • Please note that a manufacturer’s advertized battery life is a lie, so divide their number by 3 when comparing to this requirement

  • Most of the other requirements trade off with battery life (e.g. more powerful GPU will drain it faster, brighter screen will drain it faster)

>= TODO 3 hours, longer is better.

  • This requirement can be dropped if a large external battery is purchased

Ground station may not have access to power during flight tests.

Flight tests rarely go longer than 2 hours and competition flight windows (even stretched) is max 1 hour.

  • Competition also has power on ground.

Weight

None, lighter is better if possible.

Not being carried for long distances.

Durability

Survive regular transportation to non city indoor environments.

Ground station is outside.

Expected lifespan

>=3 years, longer is better.

3-5 years is standard for a laptop (we’ll probably end up using it for longer).