Essential Hardware
Posted on Oct 10, 2007 - 4:45am by Wayne Weisser in Technology
Now that your computer has the software to make it the Ultimate Trucking Laptop, we need to make the picture complete with a portable printer and a scanner. But what happens when you drop you laptop or your hard drive crashes or a myriad of other things that happen to computers and all of that data you spent hours inputting is gone?
Everyone has heard it a hundred times and it’s one of those things everyone means to do, but no one ever gets around to doing it, until it’s too late – Backup, Backup, Backup!
Extra Drive
USB flash drives are cheap. There’s no excuse for not having a backup of your essential data. Drivers Daily Log has a backup function to easily backup your log files to a USB drive. Nautilus In Cab doesn’t have a built in function, but the procedure is on their website here.
I’m not sure about other MP3 players, but iPods can be used as an external drive. Check the “Enable Disk Use” in your iPod setup and presto! You’ve got an external drive to hookup and carry around your important backups. It will show up as an ordinary disk drive on Explorer and you can copy files and directories just like a normal drive.
SyncBack
SyncBack is a completely free program available here (click downloads and freeware) that will make backing up to a USB drive or any external drive you happen to have extremely easy. Setup a profile to backup your logs and Nautilus database, save it and a backup is only a click away.
Upgrade to the SE version (with a 30 day free trail) and schedule a backup by time or events like turning on or off your computer or if a file has changed or when your flash drive is inserted.
Online Backup
To keep your data really safe from a disaster, there are a couple of options. Google “online backup” and you’ll get enough to confuse the issue. I’ve used Xdrive before and it works by giving you an X drive in explorer so you can copy or backup files using a drive letter or you can use their own software for backups and file management. 5gb free is enough for a few important files backed up once a week or even once a month. Or you can zip a few files and email them to yourself. Gmail gives you about 3gb and Yahoo Mail is 1gb for its free option.
Not just your data but what about your pictures that you’ve taken and downloaded to your laptop? Pictures are irreplaceable and need to be taken care of. I’ve been uploading all my pictures to Flickr, but for those that keep them on your laptop, you need to keep them safe until you get home.
Printer
There are a couple of printers that are portable enough to place in a truck. I’ve used the Canon i70 and now the ip90 color ink jet printers. HP also has a portable in their 460 Deskjet series of models.
You have to print your logs to be DOT complaint. You still have to have the previous 7 days on paper and really only allowed the current day on the computer.
Print blank or even filled in Bills of Lading or any other required forms and maps may be easier to read and make notes on when they’re printed are only a few things that may need to be printed in the truck.
Scanner
A Scanner may not be essential, but it comes in very handy for making copies and for faxing signed documents using efax bypassing the truck stop fax machine. Most companies require an original signed copy for the Bill of Lading, but when one is lost, not if, but when, you’ll be glad you had a copy in your computer you can fax or print again.
Personally I haven’t had very good luck with scanners that are listed as portable and require you to feed the original into the scanner. The rollers have a tendency to wear, get slick and slip, not reading the original very well. I finally went to a flat page scanner. Lift the lid, lay the original, close the lid, all the moving parts are on the inside. Most are flat enough to be able to find a place in the truck to store it. You’re probably not going to need it every day, but when you need it, it’s good to know it will work.
Conclusion
That’s my list of hardware. I’m still looking for a better way to hookup the printer that’s makes it easier to print everyday. The shelf next to the bunk is small and I have to run the power cord to an inverter and hookup the computer each time I want to print.
I don’t have a laptop stand yet, I haven’t been sure I really need one.
What other types of hardware do you use in the truck? What else would you want that you don’t have?
How to Rescue Truck Stop Wi-Fi
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How about a blue tooth printer? You don’t need any wires other than the power to the printer. The data is sent to the spool by blue tooth signal. Most come with encription so you data is not just out there so anyone in the truck stop can snag it. Put the printer wherever you want, its just like sending the data to a network printer down the hall. As for the backup? I went to radio shack while I was passing through Arizona and bought a 160 gig external plug and play hard drive for around $75. I would back up my hard drive once a week while I was sleeping, then put that drive away so it couldn’t be corrupted! There are cheaper external drives but I stored a lot of pictures so I wanted the bigger drive.
The hard drive in my two year old laptop died catastrophically (spelling?), and I think it was because of the vibration it got sitting on the passenger seat. I was all set to get one of those ‘truckers workstation’ things that attach to the seat, but my newest company truck has an upholstered “lawn chair” bolted to the deck with not adjustment, much less airride… sigh…
I’m putting in a plug for the online backup service MOZY.COM. $5 a month for unlimited backup space and easy restores. It saved my bacon and let me recover almost 13 GB of pictures, music and such that would have otherwise have been totally lost. And it backs up your system ‘while you sleep.’