Rugged all-in-one vehicle mount computer
(by Conrad H. Blickenstorfer)

Founded in 1990 and located in Winchester, Virginia, Datalux Corporation is a privately-owned designer and manufacturer of specialized computer products for demanding environments. The company's proprietary designs are used in mobile computing environments, including point-of-sales, public safety and in the healthcare industry. Datalux offers a product lineup that includes SpaceSaver keyboards, ruggedized LCD monitors, all-in-one computers and the Tracer mobile data system shown here.

The Datalux Tracer is a rugged all-in-one panel computer primarily designed for use in vehicles (police, fire, EMS, etc.). It has an outdoor-viewable 12.1-inch XGA (1024 x 768 pixel) display with a 5-wire resistive touchscreen. The machine is powered by a 1.6GHz low voltage Intel Core 2 Duo processor, comes with up to 2GB of DDR2 SDRAM, and a shock-mounted, removable 80GB hard disk.

The Tracer's fanless case, which measures 11.95 x 9.75 x 1.67 inches and weighs just six pounds, is sealed and uses a thermal piping system to dissipate heat, cutting down on noise and potentially unreliable cooling fans. If things get too hot, the machine initiates an orderly shutdown. Extreme low temperatures can be handled with an optional severe-duty hard disk drive.

All connectivity is located at the back of the machine, facing down. There are no fewer than five USB 2.0 ports total, an RS232 serial port, gigabit LAN, a digital video DVI-I video port, audio in and out, and a speaker. The machine also has a PC Card Type I/II slot and an ExpressCard slot that can accommodate both 54mm and 34mm cards. An internal PCI-e slot can accommodate factory-installed opions.

For Tracer can be ordered with integrated 802.11a/b/g/draft n WiFi and Bluetooth v.2 + EDR. There are a variety of mounting options. The universal mount fits a wide variety of vehicles and rotates the panel on a vertical axis for easy access to the dashboard and easy positioning. The backlit (red LED) keyboard is designed specially for vehicle use. Both the machine and the keyboard are fully dimmable.

The Tracer is designed and built at the Datalux manufacturing plant in Winchester, Virginia.