New Equipment - Laptop Trolleys

[BooBoo]

Hi. I am looking to buy a laptop trolley over the next few days and wanted to hear peoples opinions on the make and models they are using.

The two makes that I'm looking at are Bretford and Lapsafe.

 

Many thanks :?

[Geoff]

One of the primary schools locally has a Lapsafe. They are fairly sturdy. I had to reattach the door because the hinge had come unscrewed a few months ago though.

 

On the whole I dislike the idea of laptops/laptop safes. Dedictated IT suites with desktop PCs are much better solution.

[BooBoo]

One of the primary schools locally has a Lapsafe. They are fairly sturdy. I had to reattach the door because the hinge had come unscrewed a few months ago though.

 

On the whole I dislike the idea of laptops/laptop safes. Dedictated IT suites with desktop PCs are much better solution.

 

I completely agree. However this is coming down from above, we just don't have a room to turn into a dedicated suite. So we are having a mobile suite for Science (Place your bets now on how long it is before one 'falls' in a sink or 'I didn't know the tap was on sir!')

 

We have to make us of the wireless network now its in.

[plexer]

Get a lapsafe with integrated charging if you can afford it.

 

The bretford ones are nothing short of tin boxes on solid rubber castors that are horrible to push about fully loaded.

 

The only change they've made since we got out is they now have an electrical system that prevents a surge when plugged in to help prevent trippings breakers.

 

Ben

[ChrisC]

SMT decided we should get 2 RM Notebus units, and already we have had 1 laptop stolen, and the other trolley has had the back mangled up by someone with what appears to be a screwdriver!

 

my initial reaction is AVOID!!

 

As they say on robot chicken, "If you buy things like that, you're funding TERRORISM!"

 

Chris

[Geoff]

I completely agree. However this is coming down from above, we just don't have a room to turn into a dedicated suite. So we are having a mobile suite for Science (Place your bets now on how long it is before one 'falls' in a sink or 'I didn't know the tap was on sir!')

 

We have to make us of the wireless network now its in.

 

I see, so the SMT inisists on learning the hard way rather than listening to thir technical staff. Oh well.

 

BTW, a single access point will not cope with 16 odd laptops running wireless.

[alan-d]

BTW, a single access point will not cope with 16 odd laptops running wireless.

 

You must have duff kit we run 16+ on a single point on a regular basis. Granted it can sometimes be a little slow but once logged in there are no problems

[Geoff]

Buffalo 56g APs. Buffalo 56g PCMCIA wifi cards. Dell d510 laptops. Gets to about 10 and then the collisions on the WiFi make it impossible.

[alan-d]

Same kit as ours but without the Dell laptops. We have Rock and HP laptops. Most are centrino but some of the older ones use a standard buffalo card.

[ChrisC]

A little slow, was that sarcastic alan?

 

We run 2 d-link "wireless routers" (they don't like being called airstations) to link 18 Laptops, both with deperate SSIDs, channels and bands.

 

Chris

[alan-d]

A little slow, was that sarcastic alan?

 

 

Chris

 

Nope - we are removing Ranger this summer which was causing some delay logging on over wireless, but we found that if the students staggered the logon in the classroom to 3 or 4 at a time it worked fine. We are hoping to get 32 on in September May be pushing our luck there but going to try it anyway

[Geoff]

Nope - we are removing Ranger this summer which was causing some delay logging on over wireless, but we found that if the students staggered the logon in the classroom to 3 or 4 at a time it worked fine.

 

Now you see that's the problem. Here, the staff assume that the wifi laptops will work just as fast/well as a desktop machine. If they can't log the entire class in (about 20 odd machines) and get down to work in about 5 minutes they complain quite loudly.

[Dos_Box]

I agree totally with Geoff on this one. Several years ago we tried to run a room of 20 PC's with wireless cards fitted connecting via 2 baseststions (all Buffalo 54g kit). It was a total disaster. AV updates, patch roll outs, software installations and all of the other things that happen in the background which we take for granted chew up any signal you may have had. In short, unless you spend many thousands on a decent bespoke wirless network the wireless will never be a replacement for a classroom LAN. Wireless should be used sparingly and in moderation only by staff in areas where having a LAN connection is inpractical, or by small groups of say 5 or 6 laptops in a light network usage situation.

[ChrisC]

Aren't there murmers of a new wireless standard upto 1Gb (not laser, before someone says). Can't remember where I heard about it, but i'm sure I did....

 

Chris

[BooBoo]

I've installed Cisco Kit, on 802.11a and 802.11g going back to WLSE for verification. Staff use AP's on g and the pupils will be on a. One class of 30 should be within very good to excellent signal strength.

 

The teachers have been warned not to expect micacles, mandatory profiles are down to 750K so that should help as well.

[Geoff]

WiMAX?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WiMAX

 

or perhaps 802.11n?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11#802.11n

 

Of the two, WiMAX is much better.

[ChrisC]

WiMax, that was it, computing.co.uk newsletter/magazine thing had it.

 

Chris

[broc]

Setting aside the arguments about the merits laptops in schools, wireless network issues etc (all of which I agree with) we have 4 Bretford trolleys which each hold a max of 16 laptops. They are not as well engineered as Lapsafes but they are considerably cheaper. We have had no problems with them in over a years use. We decided 30 laptops in any one trolley were too big/heavy for anyone to manouver safely in a busy school.

 

We have ordered another 4 16x units, should be here sometime in the next couple of weeks.

[BooBoo]

To Broc

 

Cheers for bringing it back to the original question.

[alan-d]

I agree totally with Geoff on this one. Several years ago we tried to run a room of 20 PC's with wireless cards fitted connecting via 2 baseststions (all Buffalo 54g kit). It was a total disaster. AV updates, patch roll outs, software installations and all of the other things that happen in the background which we take for granted chew up any signal you may have had. In short, unless you spend many thousands on a decent bespoke wirless network the wireless will never be a replacement for a classroom LAN. Wireless should be used sparingly and in moderation only by staff in areas where having a LAN connection is inpractical, or by small groups of say 5 or 6 laptops in a light network usage situation.

 

The trick is planning and training

 

Updates are done outside classroom hours (mostly ) and after a few tantrums by staff initially they realised that whilst the kids were logging on they had time to do any prep work etc.

 

(Hang on this place is beginning to sound efficient - brb just going to check I'm in the right place :? )

[Geoff]

Unfortunatly I've had trouble distributing windows patches and antivirus updates to laptops that are switched off in a lapsafe alan-d.

 

Also, I notice they tend to never get used as it takes too long to unpack them and set them up from the lapsafe.

[eean]

I'm going to say something I thought I'd never say but: It would appear that, by comparison, our dlink wireless network is quite good.

 

No seriously, we have 15 laptops, all logging on at the same time. They all have dlink cards and it is set to super g (not turbo, just some packet resizing). Only adds about 10-15 seconds to wired logon time. We have enough APs to ensure that windows reports the strength as 'very good'.

(After 20 minutes, they all seem to freeze for a minute while they have a think).

 

Anyway, back to the topic:

We have the RM lapsafe and, yes, it is rubbish. If you are stuck with one, however, it is worth investing the time to velcro the power supplies to the back and use a load of self-adehisive cable ties from maplin so that there is just enough wire. I then stuck photos in each bay, showing how they should be stored, labels on each wire with a number and numbers on each laptop with a sticker saying 'This way up. This side out'.

(After that, I generally resort to bullying the staff - "If my 6 year olds can manage it, why can't you?" etc...)#

 

If you let the power adaptors sit near the laptop, the heat from the charger will warm the battery. Over a year (according to RM) the battery life can be reduced by 70% - that's why mine are glued as far away as possible! But I think the most expensive lapsafe has temperature control.

[ChrisC]

How robust have you found the RM trolley?

 

Someone found that if you bend the front tray down on the slide-out model, you can slide the laptop from the middle out, they broke the weld, which was pants to start with.

 

The model with the door front has had the latch buckled, the back is being held together by the padlock in the middle, where someone has ripped the whole top hinge-down section off nearly.

 

Chris

[Ric_]

I've yet to finish the config and setup of ourse.

 

The 30 unit Lapsafe looks very sturdy (took 4 people to carry it upstairs! - I was noticeably absent during this time ).

 

I will be able to give a review on all the gear October time I think but the Bluesocket APs should be capable of handling up to 30 clients with ease (Bluesocket reckon 64 isn't unreasonable). I also have an overlap of coverage so that the laptops are within range of two APs most of the time. The Bluesocket controller does some joggery pokery and makes sure the best signal wins.

 

If you have to use a trolley setup, I think the extra bit of money on the APs is probably worth it... after all you probably wouldn't spend £30 on a 24-port switch so why spend £30 on a AP for 24 clients?!?!?

[eean]

How robust have you found the RM trolley?

Ours is robust. It's just a bit pants.