SimBa

I doubt anyone would choose a chromebook specifically for tuning. I certainly didn’t, but when I got my ECU my only laptop was a Chromebook so I figured I’d try to use what I had available. I’m sure there are others out there in a similar situation, and I figured I’d post up my experiences for anyone who’s curious. This is specific to Tuner Studio, and while I run a Speeduino, I imagine it's all relevant to Megasquirt as well.

First off, it’s completely possible to run Tuner Studio on a chromebook. I’ve tuned my car twice now, solely via CB. The way that I’m doing this is using the Linux container on the CB to install the Linux version of tuner studio. This does of course assume your computer has enough hard drive space to house ChromeOS and Linux. Some CBs have very little hard drive space, which could cause some issues, although I think you can run the Linux container with around 10 GB of storage, possibly less.

One of the strange things ChromeOS does is prevent the Linux container from using Bluetooth. This means you can’t tune over bluetooth, which is a big downside for me. Specific to Speeduino, if you use a USB cable to tune the car, the ECU will lose power when the laptop is disconnected. If that happens when you’re driving, then your car shuts down.

That’s only happened to me a time or two, before I realized what was going on. Now I make sure the USB cable is secured before driving with the laptop connected. Bluetooth would alleviate this.

A small gripe, but worth noting, is that when a USB device is connected to a CB, a popup window asks if you’d like to allow Android or Linux to use that USB device. You have to do this every time your ECU connects, which is a bit annoying.

A big downside of the CB for me, is that Virtual Dyno only supports Windows. There is an android app, which a CB could run, but I haven’t explored that option. I’ve used Wine to emulate windows and run Virtual Dyno that way, but it’s convoluted and moving logs around can be a bit annoying. At this point I just move datalogs to my Windows desktop and run VD there when I need to.

I’m probably forgetting some things, but those are my main points for now. Overall, it’s pretty usable, but there are some annoyances that you wouldn’t see on a Windows machine. I wouldn’t recommend buying a chromebook specifically to use for tuning, but if you have one lying around and are somewhat comfortable with Linux then it’s perfectly usable. If you're on a Chromebook I'd be interested to hear what your experience has been.

Lokiel

I think you're just causing yourself grief continuing with the Chromebook.

I recommend buying a 2nd hand Lenovo ThinkPad with a resolution of 1280x1024 and replace the drive with a SSD.
They're cheap and rugged (built to a MIL-standard, not THE most rugged but much higher than what many commercial laptops are so it CAN handle the abuse it'll cop when used in your car).
You don't need much grunt or memory at all to run TS; a Core i3 with 8GB of memory is OK but you can find a 2nd hand Core i5 for similar $$$ (an extra 8GB is nice for other stuff but NOT required for TS)

Be wary of other brands that have weak/flimsy hinges.
DON'T buy a gaming laptop, they're expensive and chew through batteries fast.

SimBa

You make a good point about the battery, and I would actually list that as a big pro for my Chromebook. The battery on it is really solid, but I didn't list it because that's not a Chromebook specific characteristic. Having said that, I would bet most chromebooks have good battery life due to their lightweight hardware and software.

Funny you mention a Core i3 and 8 GB of RAM, as that's the exact hardware in my Chromebook.

I've thought about buying another laptop, and have seen Thinkpads recommended pretty highly. I guess at this point I've learned to work around the issues I have with it, which aren't annoying enough to make me buy something else.