PC in a tractor for Gatekeeper

[l'ordinary bonville]

I'm fed up with the half baked Greenlight Grower and coming to the realisation that Gatekeeper is the only capable program out there. But it's lack of cloud means it needs to be installed on a windows pc. Since I spend my time split between home office, farm office, tractor, car, combine I am considering installing gatekeeper on a tablet or laptop pc that can be mounted in a vehicle using ram mounts and is therefore rugged by design or in a decent mountable cover.

Am I approaching this the right way? A small tablet pc can always be linked to a larger screen/keyboard in the office.

I believe it would have to be windows rather than android

I'm told Gatekeeper is at least 2 years from being cloud based

 

[Ian01]

Panasonic fz-g1 is what u want

 

[Shutesy]

I'm fed up with the half baked Greenlight Grower and coming to the realisation that Gatekeeper is the only capable program out there. But it's lack of cloud means it needs to be installed on a windows pc. Since I spend my time split between home office, farm office, tractor, car, combine I am considering installing gatekeeper on a tablet or laptop pc that can be mounted in a vehicle using ram mounts and is therefore rugged by design or in a decent mountable cover.

Am I approaching this the right way? A small tablet pc can always be linked to a larger screen/keyboard in the office.

I believe it would have to be windows rather than android

I'm told Gatekeeper is at least 2 years from being cloud based

Gatekeeper has an app that you install on a phone or tablet for in the cab and syncs with the main program on your pc back in the comfort of the office.

 

[l'ordinary bonville]

I want to be able to see and work on the desktop version while I'm out and about, in a tractor/car or at home as well as in the main office. The phone app, if anything like the GLGM one, won't give near enough functionality. For example issue a job/plan while I am in a field.
It all falls flat if I have to return to a single PC in the farm office to do any of this. We have 4 sites, 2 of which have an office, plus I sometimes go to one site directly from home.

Gatekeeper has an app that you install on a phone or tablet for in the cab and syncs with the main program on your pc back in the comfort of the office.

 

[l'ordinary bonville]

Greenlight Grower is good in that I can access the main version from any PC or Mac anywhere with an internet connection.
It's just a shame that it's only half developed and bloody useless

 

[Shutesy]

I want to be able to see and work on the desktop version while I'm out and about, in a tractor/car or at home as well as in the main office. The phone app, if anything like the GLGM one, won't give near enough functionality. For example issue a job/plan while I am in a field.
It all falls flat if I have to return to a single PC in the farm office to do any of this. We have 4 sites, 2 of which have an office, plus I sometimes go to one site directly from home.

I'm pretty certain you can create and issue plans via the web app version and it has most of the information the pc version has on it if you want. You might need a tablet with a sim card in rather than just a wifi version for full functionality but a phone would work.

 

[l'ordinary bonville]

I'm pretty certain you can create and issue plans via the web app version and it has most of the information the pc version has on it if you want. You might need a tablet with a sim card in rather than just a wifi version for full functionality but a phone would work.

If it does that it might just be enough to swing it

 

[deleted user 837354]

Panasonic fz-g1 is what u want

That looks pukka AF.

 

[Banana Bar]

Panasonic fz-g1 is what u want

£2k

 

[An Gof]

I want to be able to see and work on the desktop version while I'm out and about, in a tractor/car or at home as well as in the main office. The phone app, if anything like the GLGM one, won't give near enough functionality. For example issue a job/plan while I am in a field.
It all falls flat if I have to return to a single PC in the farm office to do any of this. We have 4 sites, 2 of which have an office, plus I sometimes go to one site directly from home.

can you not do that on GLGM that you run on an iPad with SIM card in it? Or by tethering to a phone?

 

[l'ordinary bonville]

can you not do that on GLGM that you run on an iPad with SIM card in it? Or by tethering to a phone?

Yes you can.

Trying to move away from GLGM though

 

[Badshot]

You can do field recording on the web app.
It's brilliant for spray records, a tablet won't run gatekeeper desktop, I just had to upgrade my laptop because it had lost functionality.
They'd let you try it I expect to see what it does.
You do need to synchronise the two versions or loss of phone means loss of data

 

[Cowabunga]

Acer Switch5 [£670+VAT] or the cheaper SurfaceGo for £500+VAT plus keyboard cover. You can get cab mounts for this kind of thing from RAM Mounts.
I presume, but don't know for sure, that you can use these with any bluetooth wireless keyboard for more general use. Best check though.

 

[Wheatseeker]

I'm fed up with the half baked Greenlight Grower and coming to the realisation that Gatekeeper is the only capable program out there. But it's lack of cloud means it needs to be installed on a windows pc. Since I spend my time split between home office, farm office, tractor, car, combine I am considering installing gatekeeper on a tablet or laptop pc that can be mounted in a vehicle using ram mounts and is therefore rugged by design or in a decent mountable cover.

Am I approaching this the right way? A small tablet pc can always be linked to a larger screen/keyboard in the office.

I believe it would have to be windows rather than android

I'm told Gatekeeper is at least 2 years from being cloud based

You will need to have good eyesight !

 

[Ian01]

£2k

Can pick up on ebay for not alot of money, are brilliant, powerfull as alot of desktops, bright screen that can be seen in daylight, rugged, used to dual mine up as a guidance screen using a gps reciever connected using nmea via serial port. Full version of gatekeeper at your fingetips whilst spraying or wherever i are is mega handy

 

[Badshot]

Panasonic fz-g1 is what u want

Can you get that with enough ram?
Gatekeeper reckon 8gb min now to work properly.

Does look jolly good though.

 

[Cowabunga]

Can you get that with enough ram?
Gatekeeper reckon 8gb min now to work properly.

Does look jolly good though.

WTF does it do that requires 8GB RAM? That's an absolutely ridiculous amount for a record keeping and management program for which, traditionally, 2GB RAM has been more than adequate. A Rassberry Pi or any single board computer [SBC] should run this kind of thing for goodness' sake.

 

[Ian01]

Can you get that with enough ram?
Gatekeeper reckon 8gb min now to work properly.

Does look jolly good though.

Im not sure on the ram on mine, i think it was 4gb, not sure if that was expandable? had no issues running gatekeeper at the time though, i no longer have it as it burnt out in a machine which caught light, but i am going to buy another, it was a brilliant piece of kit. I had a ram mount holder for it and a 12v power lead, although it had a good battery life anyways, you can get docking stations for them to connect in office to monitors, printers, keyboard etc, but they are expensive.

 

[Badshot]

WTF does it do that requires 8GB RAM? That's an absolutely ridiculous amount for a record keeping and management program for which, traditionally, 2GB RAM has been more than adequate. A Rassberry Pi or any single board computer [SBC] should run this kind of thing for goodness' sake.

It has a lot in it.
Mapping etc.
All I know is my laptop was struggling and I think that was 4gb, the helpline told me to get it off that machine and recommend min 8gb.

 

[l'ordinary bonville]

Im not sure on the ram on mine, i think it was 4gb, not sure if that was expandable? had no issues running gatekeeper at the time though, i no longer have it as it burnt out in a machine which caught light, but i am going to buy another, it was a brilliant piece of kit. I had a ram mount holder for it and a 12v power lead, although it had a good battery life anyways, you can get docking stations for them to connect in office to monitors, printers, keyboard etc, but they are expensive.

That sounds like the daddy!

Did you also have another gatekeeper install in the office?

How much of the program can you or would you need to use while out and about? It sounds ideal to me as my office is a tractor or combine for half the year.

Any pics of how you mounted it??