A view and comparison of the Toughbook H2 / H1 HDD Caddies

Having acquired a working Panasonic Toughbook H2, without HDD and caddy, had to buy one to use it.

Little did I know I could have avoided wasting $50+ on an H2 caddy.

I searched online for a comparison of Toughbook caddies, with no success. If you find any, please share.

So I ordered one for me. As soon as the caddy arrived, I compared the H1 and H2. To my surprise were pretty similar!!!

The white is from the Toughbook H2, 

the black from the Toughbook H1

There is some difference in size, with the white being half cm, shorter from each side and the protrusions that slot it into place, are L shaped for the Toughbook H2, and rectangular for the toughbook H1. The spacing though is exactly the same.

You see where this is going?

Using a razor thin blade, I cut the rectangular protrusions into L shapes.

and it fitted right in!! Of course something has to be used on the sides to keep the caddy steady, as well as on the top to remain secured inside without wiggling. The data connector alone isn't holding the caddy firmly. 

The H2, booted the H1 windows, obviously without success. But proves the point.

Disappointment on android HDMI sticks / dognles UPDATED (Intel HDMI stick)

I have owned 3 different android hdmi sticks.
If you are not familiar with them, its a small form computer that connects on monitors and can turn the monitor to a PC. Great for work on the go, or for transforming an dumb TV into a smart one.

So initially I got one to watch films on my TV with subtitles, and perhaps do other stuff as well, internet browsing, and android games.
It worked great for the first 5-6 months, until it didn't. At some point it refused to boot. It was eternally frozen to the boot logo screen. I send it back and requested a replacement. The replacement worked also like a charm for a few months, until it also froze on the boot logo.

I never tried to hack any of these two. Did not install 3d party roms, or bootloaders. Only a few applications.

I considered it for a bit and the bit the bullet again and bought a 3d stick. this one was problematic from the first moment, horizontal lines would randomly appear on the screen, and the screen would turn on and off as if the video signal from the stick was interrupted and the screen was "forced" to find the signal again as if it was unplugged from the hdmi port. Thus making it unusable.

Two more I persuaded the guys at work to buy to use with some older TVs, one works ok as far as I know and the other one makes the video stutter and don't show it smoothly.

Over all I have been using them for about a year, and was really nice to have. However I cannot recommend them to anyone after my above experiences.

Also the fact that their userbase is rather small, few people deal with their problems, and mod them which is a real shame.


UPDATE 27/4/15:

Well, I recently figured out how to reinstall the firmware on my non working android stick. I also figured out that the new sticks that didn't work on my TV, oh well, it was most probably a TV problem, rather than an Android stick problem. I am in the works or repairing my TV, (changing some bad capacitors) and will test it again.

So well, after reinstalling a firmware I found floating online, the android stick came back to life. Its quite sad that these sticks, suffer so often getting stuck in the boot screen. I don't know what may contribute to that, but they should come with directions to revive them, and some online address with the original firmware.

Also, I recently read an article on gismodo, I think, about the Intel HDMI stick. The guy there was really disappointed.
Some thoughts.
1. 150$ for that is extremely expensive.
2. Of course it doesnt have a keyboard and a USB hub. what do you think it is? Aladdin's magic lamp? Get a cheap wireless keyboard/mouse and a usb hub from dealextreme or elsewhere and be done with it.
3. Of course it isn't powerful. Personally I don't have Netflix, but I can watch my movies nicely on my android sticks. Even 1080p depending on the TV.
4. You shouldn't expect to replace your laptop or desktop with this stick.
5. It is nice that it can run windows.
6. Atom processors are crap if you ask me.

UPDATE 2:

To upgrade the firmware, I used information that I found on android warehouse.
I downloaded a rom for my own particular CPU model, in my case, a RK3188 for the Ditter V16, followed the instructions with the RockChip Batch tools and managed to restore functionality.

Rockchip devices

To put the firmware via PC on your device is the Rockchip Batch Tool needed. To use this tool, you first need the necessary drivers. When you install any drivers, your PC will not recognize the device. Below are the download links for the drivers and the tool.

Download the file with the drivers.
Put the file in a recognizable folder and unpack it, so you can easily find. It back later
If you follow the steps to flash your android stick / androidbox follows, give your PC that a device is trying to connect.  Go to Control Panel> Hardware and Sound> Devices and Printers.
Between the devices, refer to "Unknown" unknown device or Rockusb Device mode, click it.
In the menu you can 'install drivers'
Now find the appropriate driver in the folder where you have installed the drivers.
When you have selected the correct driver the Rockchip
Batch tool will the next time you open it to recognize the device, and you can follow the steps appropriate for your device.

Rockchip Batch Tool.
This tool is used to in

stall (flash) on your Android Stick / Box containing a Rockchip SoC as the RK3188 RK3066 SoC and SoC firmware.

1. Install Rockchip Batch Tool
2. Open it and locate the firmware in the folder where you stored it.
3. Connect your device, in this case the Minix Neo X7 connected, when successful, a green light button, now click on the Restore button
4. When the update is successful, it will say, restore done succesful.
5. Allow your device now about 5 minutes connected, so that the update can be. Performed correctly Now you are ready


Connect of MK908 (II):

The MK908 (II) has a reset (recovery) button, hold it (with a paperclip) button before closing the drive to your PC. Hold down the button.
Connect the MK908 (II) to your PC using a USB to Micro USB cable. The Micro USB OTG port is in the drive
Release the button only when the number 1 to Connected Devices green.
After the number one green has become, you can have the reset button.
The reset button on the MK908 is at the back. There are two small holes to see which one is the LED hole. If you turn the key to see which hole the LED is and what the reset. Use a paper clip to press the reset button.

second hand computer purchases

I was looking to buy an upgrade cpu for my dated pentium 4 desktop machine. The one I would only give money to since the machine is so old, was the sl7ch. Which used to be the flagship of the P4 range. Looking in Ebay and elsewhere this cpu commanded prices exceeding 200$.
Now I sit and think. Who in their right minds would give so much money for a single old cpu since with the same amount one can buy motherboard, memory and modern cpu with double and triple even quadruple the power of this old P4.
The answer is of course nobody. Which a remote chance that some "collector" would shed all this cash to acquire this old gem. But even that chance is pretty slim.
Even the small brother of sl7ch the sl7aa commands a minimum price of 50£ on Ebay which is freaking crazy considering that the same money can buy a brand new dual core cpu.

So in my search to upgrade my date PC I ended up considering a 200€ expense getting a motherboard, memory, cpu, power supply and cooler while keeping my hard disks, keyboard-mouse, screen, DVD writers and tower.
Why the f@ck pay real money for overrated products anyway in the current economy?

Similar observations stand for other computer equipment such as batteries. I came to own a mobilepro 900 first introduced in 2003 and upgraded in 2004 as 900c. However the battery was half dead. Looking around, I found in Egay an extended battery costing 170$. More than twice than I paid for the 900c and shipping! and I ended up exchanging the battery cells on my own as seen in previous post. I wonder does the company realise that nobody will give so much money for such a dated product? I understand that they probably cannot sell it in lower price than they acquired it for, but still having it in the storage aging and gathering dust, how is it better than selling it even for half or lower price?

The Nec 900 on itself although a great little machine, has been so outdated that has serious issues just connecting to the home network (no WPA or WPA2 support), not to mention lack of support of Flash and other protocols that make it more or less unusable for web-surfing and since development and support of that windows platform has ceased, its up to hobbyists to keep it alive and update it if possible. So why the heck pay 100£ for a new battery when you can spend this money and get a wifi Android Cell phone with more capabilities and modern sofware?

I will be damned if i ever understood how marketeers and sales representatives really work.