Converting netbook to rugged tablet

[jason41987]

hey everyone.. i have a 10.2" netbook, and i was thinking of using the hardware within this netbook, such as the screen, motherboard, etc to build a tablet, which would include adding a multi-touch overlay to the screen.. however, id like to make it very durable... waterproof, shock resistant, and i was looking for some advice on doing that

to make it shock resistant, the mounting points of the motherboard would have to be on rubber washers, or even on springs which shouldnt be hard to do.. and to make it waterproof i would have to design a shell for it that could be sealed in with some sort of gasket around the screen, and where the pieces of the shell itself meet as well as around any external ports...

so what would be the likeliness of making it work, and the tough part is how do i get this to work properly with the touchscreen?..how would one make a touch screen more able to take a beating?.... waterproofing doesnt have to be to any reasonable depth, just the occasional rain, and splashed, but id like it to be pretty drop-proof which should also include removing the magnetic HDD for an SDD...

the shell itself i was planning on using a homemade composite material that would be similar to fiberglass or carbon fiber, using more commonly found materials... so i can mould this shell to whatever size and shape i need

so.. this is what im looking for advice on.. also im thinking of adding a quad-band GSM antenna to use it with 4G wireless internet, as well as replacing my cell phone...

so yeah, all advice and ideas are welcome...

 

[COLGeek]

So, how much money do you plan to spend on this effort? While I applaud your intent, you are going to find this a daunting task.

Transferring the guts of the netbook into a custom case (that you build) should present the least of your worries as long as you don't break anything in the transfer process.

Have you considered buying a traditional tablet PC and "toughening" that into somthing like an Otter Box for additional protection?

 

[jason41987]

thats a possibility as well, i already have a netbook that isnt seeing much use though, which is why i was considering using this.. however, it doesnt seem windows is all that fantastic on these small notebooks, so if i was going to buy a tablet to toughen, id probably go with an android tablet

 

[COLGeek]

Agreed on looking at Android (or Linux if using the converted netbook).

BTW, if you googled "rugged tablet computer", you would get a pile of good hits. Like this one:

http://buy.advantech.com/Product/System.aspx?ProductID=20022&gclid=CLmjgLPHvLACFYgERQodFV-lqg