Cool electronics

[Socal Tom]

I know, many of you like to go completely "off the grid" while out in your TD, but I like to have some access to the electronics while traveling. I have a 7 year old, and if weather goes bad, then we need to have something to keep us entertained.

First, I have discovered the Roku. If you aren't familiar, a Roku is a small device that connects your TV to your wifi network, it allows you to stream video to your TV, if you have netflix or the like you can get those as well. This could be handy when camped in a trailer park with wifi. If you aren't near wifi, some ROKUs also have usb ports. With an external USB hard drive you can watch any recorded shows or movies you have. In my case I had an old 40GB laptop drive. I found a $12 external USB case for it and I put 40GB of my DVDs on it. Now, when my son is complaining about being bored, or its too windy or dark to do much outside, we can watch his shows. The ROKU uses a "wall wart" for power, so it doesn't draw much, I can run it and the small LCD TV on my inverter.

Next, I discovered the virgin mobile overdrivepro. This is a wireless router that connects to 3G and 4G sprint networks. Its currently available for $99 on their website. THERE IS NO CONTRACT REQUIRED. So for 35$ you get 2GB of 3g data and unliminted 4g ( if they have it in your area), and you can connect up to 5 wireless devices. Its a pre-pay deal, send them $35 and you can use it for 1 month, or until you have used up your data. I have an wifi ipad, now I can use it anywhere. If you don't use it within a year, they deactivate your device and you have to reactivate it again, but otherwise there is no minimum purchase. oh yeah its battery powered, rechargable by USB cable, so also a low power device.

So what cool electronic gadget do you have for your TD?

Tom

[_Ryan_]

A tablet would do a lot to replace all the other entertainment gadgets. It has wifi, it's own battery, charges of 12 volt, a great screen, and is relatively cheap compared to buying a dvd player/TV.

[Engineer Guy]

Pre-early Retirement, I did a couple of Corp. years in the Cellular Biz, and I like my Tech Toys. I generally Boondock, but I can chime in, based on ~3 experiences staying at RV Parks.

While staying a high end Indian Casino RV Park in SoCal, the initial mid-week WiFi connection was smokin'. However, as the Big Rigs showed up and/or Folks tried to stay in touch - with some Blogging and/or running their mobile lives from their RVs - the state-of-the-art WiFi connection speed w/multiple Antennas around the Park REALLY dropped off. And, this was when I was only trying to watch short Vid Clips someone had sent me, etc.. At the end of the day, WiFi Bandwidth is finite. So, splitting that fixed capacity Bandwidth between more Users inevitably slows down the connection speed of any individual. The RV Park was only ever 1/2 to 2/3rds full at weekend maximum; it was not peak season.

If possible, you might want to try a test case of Video Streaming first and see if it's going to work as envisioned. Check connection speeds here:

DSL Reports.com Speed Test

[Shadow Catcher]

I will second the in RV parks WiFi may not work well or at all. We stayed at one KOA in Cody Wyoming and I was having difficulty even doing email and talked to the gal in the office and she said "we often have problems when the wind blows" and I said, "when doesn't it blow here".
My oldest son works for a company that does installs on WiFi networks for motels, hotels and companies. They can be made to work well and if they are not it is the fault of the camp ground!
We have a TV/DVD that can be hooked up to one of the satellite receivers from home (but has not yet) XM radio. We now have both the laptop and a new iPad, but mostly for entertainment, we take lots of books and we read!

[bdosborn]

I got tired of my DVDs getting scratched up in the camper and ripped them all to NAS hard drives. Now we have a video on-demand system over our home network. I use a similar box to the Roku in the trailer - the WD TV Live. What I like about the WD is it allows you to network an attached USB hard drive as if it were network attached storage. I have a CAT 5 cable out to the trailer that allows me to update the movie library while sitting on the couch. The WD has wifi connection as well but the CAT5 is much faster as transferring movies is a pretty big file transfer. l use Handbrake (free) to compress the videos down to about 1/4 the size although the 2 TB USB drive holds a bunch of movies in regular VOB format. The WD will run off of 12V battery power and only draws about 5 watts.

Bruce

[48Rob]

Bruce,

I have an older WD and an external hard drive we use to watch movies.
I never looked to see if it was 12 volts, thanks for the tip!
Are external hard drives 12 volts too?

Rob

[bdosborn]

Are external hard drives 12 volts too?

I don't know, I never looked. I'll look at my NAS and see what voltage it runs at. I use a USB drive powered off the WD as I know it supplies regulated 5 volts to the hard drive. The USB drives typically use less power than a regular external hard drive as they are designed for use with laptops. Remember that the voltage in a trailer can swing from 12 to 14+ volts so its always a risk that you might brick the hard drive if the voltage is too high. I crossed my fingers and plugged the WD into the trailer's 12v system; so far no smoke has come out. I plug it into the wall wart when I'm at home, just in case the trailer power is stressing the WD.
Bruce

[GuitarPhotog]

Bruce,


Are external hard drives 12 volts too?

Rob

Some newer ones are. Many older ones require +5VDC and +12VDC. The smaller ones, meant to be powered from USB (typically 2.5" drives) run from 5VDC only. One of my 3.5" drives requires a dual voltage power supply (5 and 12) and the other requires only 12 VDC.

YMMV

<Chas>

[Socal Tom]

I have several external hard drive enclosures that take 12V wall warts for power. I'm using a Laptop HD with my Roku so its powered by the Roku.
I've got a similar NAS/streaming set up at home. It runs off of a hacked pogoplug running Archlinux. Its got a built in 12V power supply. I haven't found a reason to put it in the TD yet. It pulls 15 to 25 watts depending on the load.
Tom

[48Rob]

Thanks for the thoughts guys.

When I built the trailer 7 years ago, I thought I had the latest technology...expensive 12 volt television, 12 volt DVD player, etc...
Since my son put together the hard drive and WD I've simply used them when we have shore power. I did use an inverter once, but it killed my battery in just one day, so I gave up on that thought.
Being able to run the hard drive and WD on the house battery would be nice.
The voltage variation is a concern though, my "smart" charger does push it pretty high.

Rob

[bdosborn]

When I built the trailer 7 years ago, I thought I had the latest technology...expensive 12 volt television, 12 volt DVD player, etc...

I feel the same way, I started building mine in 2007 and none of this cool stuff was around. I would have designed the trailer differently if it had been. My latest cool electronic toy is a short throw LCD projector, which gives me a 60" screen in trailer. Overkill is the thrill! It runs off the WD too but it's definitely an after thought and it looks that way too with the way I have to drape wires across the cabin. I pay a 1 amp penalty using it over the flip down LCD monitor but it sure is fun.





Bruce

[bdosborn]

BTW, I have an older WD MyBook World edition external hard drive and the power supply is 12V at 3 amps.

[_Ryan_]

My latest cool electronic toy is a short throw LCD projector, which gives me a 60" screen in trailer. Overkill is the thrill!

Haha! Oh man I lost it, that's over the top cool Bruce! You also got me wondering if anyone has ever wired their trailer with cat6 or cat5e with your other previous comment.

OK, so I'm going to give more reasons why a tablet is a great choice. 7 to 10 inch screen, wifi for internet and Netflix at campgrounds, 16 to 64 GB of storage which is enough for dozens of movies ripped from DVDs, slim, you can buy an articulating adjustable mount, takes the place of TV/DVD player/Roku, charges from 12 volt socket at 2 amps and has 8 hours of battery life, and if its an android tablet you can hook it up to either a flash drive or portable HD drive for extra storage. Whew!

Keep them coming!

[Epbowen]

Hey Bruce, what brand is that projector? Does it access the drive directly?

Thanks!

[48Rob]

Nice!
I wouldn't even need glasses to see that...
Now, if someone would make a window that transformed into a television screen, I would have wall space for a nice picture.

Rob