drivers_station_purchase_guidelines.txt

Update: Steve Peterson, FTA from MN, has put together a great Driver's Station Best Practices located here: https://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/3452

This includes some of the info below. We will leave the info below for quick reference, but realize the requirements below are for a long term and overly qualified Driver's Station Laptop that should last your team many years as well as provide multi purpose usage. Please note though, that a Driver's Station is best when it's used solely for driving duties.

Below are some guidelines for picking out a new laptop for use as the Driver’s Station.

In general you will want the following things from a Driver’s Station laptop.

	⁃	SSD - Fast boot / reboot times are essential.
	⁃	
	⁃	8GB RAM minimum - For speed, need to keep everything in ram.
	⁃	
	⁃	Wifi 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz capable - nearly anything current will have this already.
	⁃	
	⁃	13” screen minimum - You will want to be able to see the dashboard / shuffleboard easily.
	⁃	
	⁃	Reliability - Spend a little more for a laptop with fewer features if it means you will get a more reliable laptop - You don’t want to be stuck with a broken Drivers Station during competition.
	⁃	
	⁃	Research / Sourcing - Read reviews thoroughly, ensure the laptop you are about to purchase is well reviewed and purchased from a reputable outlet. - AKA 4+ star minimum for product and reseller. 50+ reviews of both.
	⁃	
	⁃	Isolate function - Keep the Driver’s Station software / function separated at least at the account level if not at the laptop level - minimize the possibility of having one function interfere with another.
	⁃	
	⁃	Backup laptop - keep old working laptops on standby and current at the OS and drivers stations software layers. Just in case your primary driver’s station goes down.
	⁃	
	⁃	2+ USB 3 ports - These can be USB C provided you have dongles for it.
	⁃	
	⁃	Ethernet port or quality ethernet dongle with additional USB ports - The driver’s station requires a wired ethernet connection during competition. An ethernet dongle is fine, just make sure you have enough USB ports for it. Remember that the additional USB ports on a USB ethernet dongle are NOT powered. So if a USB device you are using requires a lot of power, do NOT use it with the ethernet dongle. Connect high power drain USB devices directly to the laptop. Most joysticks and controllers are just fine connected to an ethernet dongle with additional USB ports.
	⁃	
	⁃	No additional software - this goes with the isolate function, but extends it to the management level. Do NOT install school management software or firewall software. This will almost certainly interfere with the driver’s station.

Hopefully that helps! Please let us know if you have any further questions.
First MN CSA