There is a website that has plans for building a box that protects your laptop when using it outdoors. As I remember, it included fans, for cooling. Does anyone have that site bookmarked? My laptop fried and died and I'm getting a new one, but I want to protect it when using it outdoors. Thanks in advance for your help.

Larry Alvarez, who posts his amazing solar photos here, has plans for what he calls his "micro observatory" that is very much like what you describe. He sold one of them on Astromart recently, if I remember correctly.

What I use is a portable voting booth. My wife made me a cover for it using drapery black-out material. It's white, but very opaque. I put a 9" box fan behind the laptop inside the booth. I just recently bought a 12" box fan that runs on 12V but haven't tried that yet. I will build a plywood cover for the voting booth and mount the fan in the top.

You can find these on eBay routinely for between $20 and $50, depending on the model. Mine is an aluminum case that folds to about 4" thick and has a nice carrying handle. It has folding legs that slip into sockets on the underside of the case, so you can use it standing up -- or without the legs on the tailgate of a truck or on a folding table. I'll see if I can find a photo online and link to it here.

You'd be better off with 2 smaller fans in the lower back corners.  This would draw in air across the laptop supplying air to the internal fan and drawing off the hot air that is exhausted out the bottom

The larger fan in the top of the enclosure would draw most of it's air from the large open space above the PC and give short shrift to the PC heat.

Well, looks like the glut of used voting booths is all used up. I couldn't find a single one on eBay last night. Pity, as these are mighty handy especially if you need portability. Still, you could follow Larry's design and use hinged panels to make one that folds pretty flat for carrying.

The laptop I'm using (belongs to 3RF) is an Alienware Area 51 model. It has four fans underneath. I have one of those raised platforms that has two thin-line muffin fans built into it and I set the laptop on that. The main thing this provides is additional space for air to move under the laptop. I use that even indoors.

The voting booth I have includes the voting machine itself, which comes out (so you can empty the chad and change the ballot) and when it's out it leaves a hole about 8.5 x 11 in size and from 2 to four inches deep. This allows a lot of air to move underneath the laptop and the bottom side of the laptop is where the heat exchanger is. So the main problem seems to be getting enough air moving through the "box" formed by the voting booth when it's covered.

It might be more efficient to have two smaller fans built in to the case of the voting booth. I'll have to figure that out. I like the idea of bringing air in through the bottom of the case and exhausting out through where you sit or stand to use the computer.

Next time I set it up I'll make some photos. Meanwhile, I'll go to Larry's site and provide a link here to his plans online.

Here 'tis: (click here)

And the finished article looks like this:

Ahhh, thanks Jeff! Thats the one I was looking for. The voting booth sounds interesting too. I may even check out one of those. Thanks to Larry too, for providing the plans, and for those great solar pics he always shares.