New Travel Entertainment

So, the past few years when we take long trips in the car, I've setup a small wireless network with attached storage so the boys could stream movies to their tablets.  Each year I did this, I changed how I did it.

One year I had an RPi serving up the content through a wireless router.  Another year I had a Linksys AC1200 with attached storage serving it up.  Both of those solutions required an inverter and a lot of space.

My new solution, thanks to a friend pointng out a router, is to use a HooToo TripMate Nano, attached storage and a USB power pack.  Testing shows that I can run this setup for about 20 hours before a recharge is needed.  And the recharge takes somewhere from 8-12 hours.  But still... it works great.  No more bulky router & inverter... sweet.

One cool thing using a router like this is that if the hotel has wired internet, I can bring my router in and make my own wireless network and not have to join the hotel wireless on each device.

Now if I could only afford a 1tb jump drive it would be even smaller :)

Stuff

So I had a good friend of mine fix my RPi SD slot (he has a good desoldering station) and it works great.

I added some LEDs to the Saucers in my RFM... I don't like the Green, RED is OK going to try Blue.  Also got a saucer for the SOL hole so that should be cool.

Not much else going on.  Just doing a bunch of coding @ werk, a little playing with some toys.  PC puked so I had to get a new one.  Not fun.

Other than that, things are good.

Parts arrived

Ordered tons of different parts.  Working on a mod for my RFM... will try to finish that up tomorrow so I can make a vid for my pal...

Need to figure out a better parts storage :)

More Parts

Just ordered some more parts.

A couple different SD Card slots so I can fix one of my Raspberry PIs.  Got more than one because I wanted a backup solution... especially in case another one breaks.

Bought the PI NOIR camera just for fun.

Bought some connectors to finish customizing my DWP.

Should be fun.

Better Streaming with my Raspberry PIs

I've found a really cool project call MusicBox that has a lot of streaming options for the Raspberry PI and I'm pretty sure that I'm going to toss the Q&D code I wrote in favor of it.

You can check it out here:  http://www.woutervanwijk.nl/pimusicbox/

Aaaaaannnnndddd.... we're back...

Wow.... what a long time to have left this alone.  So much has happened in the last 2 years that I can't even begin to write it all down.

Personal: We got our Black Belts in both Open Hand and Kobudo.  Soon to have our 2nd in Open Hand.  Have been teaching a lot.  Built some shelves for my oldest.  Put in new windows and blinds all around.  Changed hosts and in the process lost the CNAME for this site... forgot to fix that with the new host and finally figured out how to do it.

Work: They got rid of my group, pushed me onto another, and I finally moved to a third of my own free will.  Get to travel to the corp offices soon.  My bud started working with me then left for greener pastures.  Another bud retired.  The company is in the process of being purchased.

All in all a very entertaining 2 years.  The future still looks bright with God and my girl and family by my side.

Lets hope I remember to update this some. :)

Waiting...

Waiting for parts is not at all fun.

Wondering if they will ever get here
Anticipation
Idle projects sitting in the way
Timing is everything
Intense longing
Not remembering where you left off
Getting more and more annoyed as time wears on