The DisFort's Chit Chat Cafe

[jbrostek]

@bama_ed - It is one versatile router for sure though might have found a better performing model (though this newer one leverages on my IT skills running a non packaged version of OpenWRT.) The sim card research led me down another rabbit hole of information from a lot of savvy full timers. I even found a way to get unlimited 4G for about 33 a month. That really sounds tempting for this part timer, though I think I will invest in the router first as I decide what do to next.

I looked up how to get the chromebook keys mapped and found this useful tidbit. https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-change-the-linux-mint-cinnamon-keyboard-shortcuts-4064754

There is also some more complex stuff to load a custom keyboard profile someone created a few years back to get your hot keys mapped like chrome had them.

 

[bama_ed]

Thanks James but that is for Cinnamon which is the full-featured version of Linux Mint. I installed a thinner, smaller version called MATE (MAH-tay) which is less common maybe but there sure is not much MATE-specific instructions out there. I can live without it maybe or keep after it myself. As FYI the thinnest and lightest version of LM is the XFCE version.

 

[FtW Mike]

To all my Brothers and Sisters Happy Vietnam Veterans Day. To all WELCOME HOME

 

[PaHunter]

Well it is closing in on Thursday. This weekend was down with a reaction to drugs, not fun at all. First day probably drank 6 gallons of fluid, just could not stop, Second day was not as bad. Monday found me feeling better.
They took me off the last med, peeling skin is slowing and going away as are the tremors. Since the motorhome came back the weather has been cold and windy, so have gotten nothing done there.. She is ready to roll once we load her up. Another month until our first trip.

 

[jbrostek]

I had to turn on the heat last night to keep her from freezing up. We where 22 this morning felt like 14.......brrrrr.

Hope the reactions calm quickly for you and we get some warmth for you to get out there and tinker. We leave Friday for Devils Backbone Camp in Rosedale, VA. Looking forward to the break.

On the RV internet site, I got the GL.iNet router and testing wifi client repeater. It does well, latching onto my 2Ghz guest SSID I was pulling a solid 60Mb/s through it. About what I would expect from it. I have not tested tethering yet or the build in LTE modem, those tests will come soon. I am thinking I might connect it to battery power or a small battery backup. If I go with the full time LTE modem route (most likely) I am thinking of investing in the RV Wisper system. It is compatible with my Hughes WatchDog and include other monitors which means I could monitor temp and power when we are away from the RV and the dogs are there. Some pictures to come as I do more testing and integration on this making my RV a little smarter.....

 

[PaHunter]

I had to turn on the heat last night to keep her from freezing up. We where 22 this morning felt like 14.......brrrrr.

Hope the reactions calk quickly for you and we get some warmth for you to get out there and tinker. We leave Friday for Devils Backbone Camp in Rosedale, VA. Looking forward to the break.

On the RV internet site, I got the GL.iNet router and testing wifi client repeater. It does well, latching onto my 2Ghz guest SSID I was pulling a solid 60Mb/s through it. About what I would expect from it. I have not tested tethering yet or the build in LTE modem, those tests will come soon. I am thinking I might connect it to battery power or a small battery backup. If I go with the full time LTE modem route (most likely) I am thinking of investing in the RV Wisper system. It is compatible with my Hughes WatchDog and include other monitors which means I could monitor temp and power when we are away from the RV and the dogs are there. Some pictures to come as I do more testing and integration on this making my RV a little smarter.....

That would make my RV way smarter than me.

 

[Teamubr]

That would make my RV way smarter than me.

I got a lighted license plate holder for the trailer. That's about as smart as it goes around here.

j

 

[Sjm9911]

That would make my RV way smarter than me.

I put a calculator in mine, its way smarter then me now.

 

[jbrostek]

LOL good ones guys. The smart side of things developed out of a conversation I had with other RVers about pets at the RV specifically in a power outage situation if you are not nearby. This started the road of looking into a devices that would alert us like the Marcel or a Nimble/Waggle. Both require a monthly service with ATT or VZW. Couple that together with my want for better internet to WFH and if I can combine the too for only a limited increase in cost, why not. Well once you have permanent internet for the RV, then you can leverage IOT things. So in looking at a IOT style monitor for power/temp I found the RV Wisper which fits my needs and then some.

So then I started to think, maybe its worth investing and having some useful info on the RV which might even later integrate with other systems if possible since I will have an IoT BT gateway in addition to wifi.

Melissa did find the dad joke in my choice of SSID name of "Copper Crick". We are DVC members with Copper Creek as our home resort and Melissa has been decorating it in that Wilderness Lodge/Fort Wilderness style.



So it was fitting in my mind....eye rolling for everyone else. I thought about channeling the Emperors Groove of "no touchy", yet, maybe later....

After work I did get out there and sanitize the water system, or start the process. I made up the bleach solution, pumped it into the tank (really love this ability, thanks Grand Design), and fill the tank to run all the outlets till the solution ran for a good minute or two. Later today I will run each faucet again for 2 minutes before I dump the fresh tank completely and refill it to flush the solution out of the lines. Usually do this after dewinterizing and seems to hold out all season since I use it often enough.

Next up is more of that work and some packing of the RV... only 2.5 days till noon departure...

 

[PaHunter]

LOL good ones guys. The smart side of things developed out of a conversation I had with other RVers about pets at the RV specifically in a power outage situation if you are not nearby. This started the road of looking into a devices that would alert us like the Marcel or a Nimble/Waggle. Both require a monthly service with ATT or VZW. Couple that together with my want for better internet to WFH and if I can combine the too for only a limited increase in cost, why not. Well once you have permanent internet for the RV, then you can leverage IOT things. So in looking at a IOT style monitor for power/temp I found the RV Wisper which fits my needs and then some.

So then I started to think, maybe its worth investing and having some useful info on the RV which might even later integrate with other systems if possible since I will have an IoT BT gateway in addition to wifi.

Melissa did find the dad joke in my choice of SSID name of "Copper Crick". We are DVC members with Copper Creek as our home resort and Melissa has been decorating it in that Wilderness Lodge/Fort Wilderness style.

View attachment 658624

So it was fitting in my mind....eye rolling for everyone else. I thought about channeling the Emperors Groove of "no touchy", yet, maybe later....

After work I did get out there and sanitize the water system, or start the process. I made up the bleach solution, pumped it into the tank (really love this ability, thanks Grand Design), and fill the tank to run all the outlets till the solution ran for a good minute or two. Later today I will run each faucet again for 2 minutes before I dump the fresh tank completely and refill it to flush the solution out of the lines. Usually do this after dewinterizing and seems to hold out all season since I use it often enough.

Next up is more of that work and some packing of the RV... only 2.5 days till noon departure...

You had me right up until pets, then I got lost. Is there like networking for dummies ? oh yea have to do fresh water tank, shock is in RV. Throw some in the hose and shoot it in to tank. Still have some time

 

[team bradfield]

just cancelled May 9th thru the 17th at Zion River Resort if anyone is interested, tough to get a spot there.

 

[jbrostek]

You had me right up until pets, then I got lost. Is there like networking for dummies ? oh yea have to do fresh water tank, shock is in RV. Throw some in the hose and shoot it in to tank. Still have some time

Marcell and Waggle is a unique product for RVers, they are a cellular connected monitoring device the can notify you if the RV is getting too hot, too cold, or if you loose power. They use cell service from ATT or Verizon to accomplish that.

https://www.meetmarcell.com/https://mywaggle.com/
Both require monthly plans for service ranging from 12-20 a month, Marcell lets you pause for free, Waggle charges for stop/start. The peace of mind when away from the RV is worth it to some. I continually think about when the 400 loop lost power for hours mid summer in 2016 and thankfully due to the shade and Disney being fast with a solution we where repowered before it got over 78 in the RV. Had that happen elsewhere it could have been bad.

So with paying extra per month for just this service, and wanting some reliable internet on the road (not all campground Wi-Fi is created equally) I would need to Hotspot off my phone (creating a mini Wi-Fi network) or use a dedicated hotspot device like this one:



They are useful and portable, they require an extra charge/plan and I can get more into that later. The are however, low powered devices and only do Wi-Fi to cellular. Their Wi-Fi abilities are limited, most claim up to 16 Wi-Fi clients and my experience is after 2-3 they have performance issues. In addition they cannot be used to repeat park Wi-Fi and are only good if they get a cell signal.

The router I am testing is not the fastest out there for this, but its WAY more powerful then the MiFi, it will start to see a performance hit at about 15-20 clients and max out closer to 30-40. Now I do not plan to have that many clients attached to this device. However, its also powerful enough to repeat park Wi-Fi into the RV. So usually my house Wi-Fi is pretty weak in the RV, I can use it but its slow. Right now this little router is connected to my house Wi-Fi using its better antenna and radio then my phone and sending a strong signal in the RV. I used to get 4-8Mb/s on wifi in the RV, now I get 40-60Mb/s.




So what does all this mean. Well it means that if I can get a good park Wi-Fi connection maybe it will be usable for streaming Disney Plus on a rainy day, or allowing me to VPN into work so I can work on the road. This router also has a 4g cellular radio in it, so I can add a plan for it so it can use 4G data and those big external antenna to get a good signal to get on the internet if park Wi-Fi is slow or non existent. Again I will get into plans later, I am still learning what is out there for best bang for the buck when it comes to 4G or even 5G hotspot data. The last thing this can do is also USB connect to my iPhone and 'tether' over the USB connection to use the 60G of hotspot data that comes with my phone plan. Tethering is just using USB instead of Wi-Fi to use data off your phone.

So if I have dedicated internet, what does it get me? Well now I can use my TV to stream, my laptop to work, have an Alexa speaker in the RV, and even use RV Wisper.

https://hughesautoformers.com/rv-whisperhttps://rvwhisper.com/
RV Wisper is an IoT (Internet of Things) gateway allowing you to monitor things in the RV like Temperature, 120V power, 12v Power, even propane levels. It does this though bluetooth enabled/compatible devices that talk to the gateway and send the data to a server on the internet (AKA the cloud.) From there you have a phone app that you can use to check on things and even set thresholds of when the server should send a notification (temp, power, etc.) Basically the same thing the Marcell/Waggle can do and much much more.

I am an IT guy by trade, and I love the idea of all this stuff. But thats only if its in a reasonable budget. I am finding some very interesting ways to get unlimited or close to it 4G (enough data anyway) for around 30 a month. I have not tested them yet but one is T-Mobile based and one is Verizon based. Once I do some testing, I will report and explain all that too.

That help some?

 

[Part-Time Paradise]

Bought little man a bag of sticks last week. He farted around in the yard a little bit, but the weather broke enough to get out to the driving range. He hit almost 2 buckets of balls and got a little better as he went. I think he's hooked.

 

[bama_ed]

Bought little man a bag of sticks last week. He farted around in the yard a little bit, but the weather broke enough to get out to the driving range. He hit almost 2 buckets of balls and got a little better as he went. I think he's hooked.
View attachment 659391

View attachment 659392

He might be interested in watching some of The Masters on tv next weekend, PTP. The back 9 on Sunday afternoon can be pretty exciting even for people who aren't big golf fans.

ED

 

[Part-Time Paradise]

He might be interested in watching some of The Masters on tv next weekend, PTP. The back 9 on Sunday afternoon can be pretty exciting even for people who aren't big golf fans.

ED

Yes, he's starting to watch stuff on YT. I played a ton of golf as a kid. Haven't really since I left for college. Just haven't made the time. Now that I have a buddy though, might get out there again.

 

[tiggerdad]

That is one thing I was so bad at I realized real quick it wasn't worth the money to try. At that time we were newly married and our new mobile home had metal siding. DW was not pleased about the few elongated dents on it.

Sad really, I wasn't aiming anywhere near it...

 

[Teamubr]

I was right with you Michael. I had a nice set of clubs I won with some contest at work. I was pretty good in the fairway and an average putter, but I couldn't hit off a tee for anything. I eventually put a baseball bat in my bag and batted off the tee.
At that point, greens fees were going up and I decided I didn't need that kind of frustration in my life.

j

 

[team bradfield]

Yes, he's starting to watch stuff on YT. I played a ton of golf as a kid. Haven't really since I left for college. Just haven't made the time. Now that I have a buddy though, might get out there again.

Golfing with family is a blast, 5 out of 6 of our kids have clubs, we had a nice 9 hole, 3 par nearby that we got them started on, DW, DD3 and I go to the big course as often as possible, now gotta figure out how to tow the GS along, we have walking carts, good exercise

 

[Part-Time Paradise]

I almost exclusively walked as a kid. I was dropped off at the course with 2 or 3 buddies. We usually played 36 holes. Sometimes more. Sometimes we'd hit the pool if it was too hot. Sometimes we'd hit all the woods and spots that would gobble balls to refill our bags. It was a good couple of summers.

Golfing with DS will be nice. I'll be happy if he turns into a golf course bum too.

 

[jbrostek]

Just finished our weekend at Devils Backbone Camp and I can say I would do it again. The campground is level with huge sites, solid power, and Wi-Fi strong enough to work from if you needed to. The tasting rooms/restaurant is pretty good food and the staff is super friendly. There are lots of other options nearby for food or adult drink and a nice couple of well laid out trails nearby. The trails at Devils Backbone could use some better marking, we tried to follow one and ended up off trail more then once and gave up and backtracked. All in All we had a great time and could see going back and exploring more of the other offerings in the area as far as wineries and cideries.

On the internet side of things, latching onto their Wi-Fi though my router and repeating the signal as perfect. Though the signal was pretty strong so that was a plus it was great to just be able to connect my iPad and laptop to one SSID. Next test will be at the track in 2 weeks, and in the mean time I will likely have a few data sims to test out too.