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Ask Slashdot: Suggestions For Taking a Business Out Into the Forest?
An anonymous reader writes: I'm a huge fan of primitive survival reality TV. I am also self-employed in web troubleshooting and hosting services. I have to be available 24/7, but a lot of my work is just being online for a few minutes at a time. I often think about taking my business 'outdoors', camping, 3-7 days or so at a time — but staying online. Has anyone had experience with this? How did you do it, in terms of internet connectivity and portable power? Satellite internet or long distance Wi-Fi antennaes and a very tall pole? I've looked at some portable power stations with solar attachments, but the idea of hand-cranking to recharge if it's overcast isn't fun, after all, the point is to relax. But I'm willing to manually recharge if it's realistic (would prefer pedaling though!) I happen to have a Toughbook CF-52 (I just thought it was cool) but I may need to replace that with a more eco-friendly laptop as well. Thanks!
Level everything in sight, run fiber lines, ???, profit!
I go camping to get away from that shit.
Depends on your location and camping requirements. When I camp on the AT I get fine cell service. I put my phone on ultra-low power mode and it lasts for a few days. If a keyboard is needed I'd go with an low-power solution like a windows convertible tablet and keep it sleeping in airplane mode most of the time.
If you are car camping its as easy as idling the car for an hour every day to charge everything up. If you are serious about making a semi-permanent camp, a generator trailer towed by an ATV is a good solution.
Camping is artificial rules... make them up to suite your enjoyment.
A lot of areas are covered by cellphone data service. So if you go to such areas you would likely only need a cellphone with tethering, laptop with as long run time as possible and a solar charger.
Basically you would charge our phone with the solar charger and have your laptop off until needed.
Please don't be one of those damn people with generators in a rustic campground (those without electrical hookups).
Wireless internet is not reliable. Radio internet, 3G/4G/LTE, wifi, all suffer speed reductions or outright cutoffs in poor weather. If 24/7 connectivity is a requirement you'd only be able to do this when there is good weather.
These guys did it:
http://www.engadget.com/2013/0...
They're in Boston now, I talked to them about it for a while and they're two very awesome people. There are many other articles out there about their time living in the woods while developing their projects.
How deep into the wilderness is your ideal environment? What is the typical season/climate you'll be experiencing?
For me, weight/volume would be one of the largest factors in selecting equipment; I need enough room in my pack for my usual relaxation catalyst (beer).
Less hand cranking=more batteries IMO.
This solar generator isn't too large, 12lbs though.
http://www.rei.com/product/862517/goal-zero-yeti-150-solar-generator
If you go hiking for a few days at a time that is different than finding a campsite and putting an RV on it for a few days.
Say you have a vehicle (such as an RV, a van or even a 4-wheeler), then satellite internet is probably the cheapest and easiest route to go. You use an auxiliary battery and if it drains, you start the vehicle for a little bit. You could even outfit a van/RV to have a 'command center' with a good display, keyboard, mouse and everything else you need to work comfortably.
If you go hiking, then you're looking for a portable dish, receiver hardware, power, laptop etc. not to forget your own survival needs (several kg of water, food etc) things get heavy and I wouldn't recommend it unless you also take along an army platoon with a designated comms carrier.
High-power wifi from your camp site etc. is possible but may also be illegal unless you have the licenses to do so everywhere you go and even then reception won't be great if at all possible 30-60 min. into your hike (trees, hills etc absorb the signal greatly)
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
The idea of trekking out into the wilderness with an extra 20 lbs of tech gear just so you can fix client issues IF they come up doesn't sound very appealing. It also sounds highly risky from a business perspective. One your tech could get busted easily, falling rocks from cliff sides, dropped in a stream where the waterproof bag is then punctured by a stick, you just get separated from your gear for a day as a bear trashes your stuff looking for food, the satellite network could go down, etc. Also, YOU can get busted easily in the busy, you could break a finger or two, hypothermia from falling in the water, broken leg, etc. All those business risks could be avoided if you just get a business partner to whom you hand off operations while you're out in the bush. This would mean that your clients should have a much better chance of getting their issues fixed in a timely manner you'll keep them as clients.
If you're dead set on working from a mountain top, having a partner to serve as a back up would also be a good idea. This would allow you to test out different tech setups in the bush while your partner watches the shop while you're away.
a couple deep-cycle batteries will run all your gear for -days-
Unless you're bringing an air conditioner... then youll need like 6 of them.
And what? Shoot it?
I spent 3 winters living on a motorcycle, camping in the deserts of CA, NV, AZ, and UT, and working from there. A USB LTE aircard with Verizon (they really do have the widest coverage) and a small external antenna did the trick, even in some VERY remote places (Find Escalante, UT on a map and follow the Hole in the Rock Rd 30 miles south to the turn-off for Peek-a-Boo Gulch. Yup, I worked from there for a few days). I had an iPhone app that showed where I could find service and which G it would be (aptly named "Coverage").
Can't help you with charging because I had an inverter plugged into the bike. I suppose you could accomplish the same with a very small generator if you plan on getting somewhere and then staying stationary. It's hard to beat the energy density of fossil fuels.
Depending on what part of the country you're in you can get out to some pretty remote places deep in National Forests and on BLM land with a vehicle. They also usually allow "dispersed camping" just about anywhere you please for a few weeks at a time. It's not the same as heading out on foot with nothing but a backpack but I would do that on the weekends, launching from wherever I happened to end up with the bike on a Friday.
Regardless of what you figure out for charging, a smaller laptop with less moving parts will be much less power-hungry. I used a Macbook Air.
Most laptops are pretty power hungry (7-10W). Can you work web and iOS app-only? The iPad air sucks less than 3W when running. Which means you can work pretty long without needing to recharge. Obviuosly a macbook air if you need a laptop or a MS Surface is fairly power-efficient if you need a windows machine, and they'll burn closer to 5-6W. Grab a solar charger (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G6CDTGS) and a Biolite stove (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BQHET9O/) for recharge and cloudy-weather just-in-case charging.
If you're close enough to civilization for mobile/cell data, that's your best bet (and where the iPad would really shine, tho the Surface 3 has an LTE version). If not, there's more costly solutions like Iridium Go! (http://www.bluecosmo.com/iridium-go/rate-plans $125/mo for unlimited data, but at 2.4kbps rates...you're just telnetting, right?), but still fully portable.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
There's an outfit on amazon/ebay that sells 18v "Allpower" solar panels with an array of adapters to use with whatever brand laptop you have for reasonable prices. They just unfold, and then plug right in to your laptop. On a modern laptop, you could probably get away with running/charging a laptop on a 21w array for $90, but they make up to a 28w array for $130. Modern Haswell/Broadwell laptops run at about 15w with the display at full brightness. There's a 14w array too for $60, but if you're seriously considering buying a device like this you probably want the ability to run and charge at the same time, and it's unlikely you'll find a place that allows you to put the panel in full sun and comfortably work on the laptop. With 18v, you'll never fully charge the battery (you need 19-19.5v to do that) but it'll satisfactorily charge your laptop to about 93% very reliably.
Of course, if you're stuck in a rainstorm for three or four days and you wear down your laptop battery, you might have trouble getting it charged back up until the sun comes back out. But with modern 15 hour batteries in laptops you should be able to squeak by for a day or two of normal office work.
moox. for a new generation.
I pointed a high-gain antenna at my desired source, and didn't get nearly the range I was hoping for.
That that is is that that that that is not is not.
OP:
If you want internet and the outdoors, you have simpler options:
1. Work in your backyard.
2. Knock out a wall in your home office, exposing it to the elements.
3. Redecorate part of your home to synergize with nature.
Aren't you simply moving your stress outdoors, when working to stay connected and available 24/7 while "relaxing" in the woods? I sympathize with your desire to work and simultaneously to relax. I personally work in a separate building on the same property as our home, but with a different address and facing the main drag with a customer entrance. I can relax in my home and work in the shop as needed. There are no vacations for us, just breaks from work that need to be taken advantage of. If you can achieve a greater degree of relaxation outdoors, successfully and affordably, I salute you.
I can relate, as this is something that I have done in the past. I was a telecommuter and wanted the freedom to work from wherever I wanted to work from. Usually, my home base was my car. I had a fairly large tent, a tarp, a camp table and comfortable camp chair. The tent was big enough that I could bring the table and chair into when the weather got bad (without having to shuffle the bed around). The tarp kept the sun off of me and my laptop when it was nice out. Other things that made camp life doable for a week at a time was a Yeti cooler (keeps ice frozen for days) and a solar shower.
Technology-wise, I always scouted out areas I wanted to go to on the weekends to make sure sure there was at least a couple bars of 3G that I could connect to reliably. You would be amazed at how far out that can get you. For power, I relied on Goal Zero's Yeti 400 Kit and a spare Sherpa 100 power pack. This was not enough to keep me running all day if it was cloudy for days, but I could work for a few hours every day. Only one time did I have to go into town for the night and get a hotel (you can recharge the goal zero batteries from an outlet in addition to solar power). On sunny days, I could work all day, no problem.
If you're single, in technology, and love the outdoors, this really is the life. Don't listen to the "I leave the technology at home" haters. Bringing the technology with you allows you to stay out way longer than they'll ever know, and the longer you're out, the more exploring you can do. All we have on this earth is time, make the most of it.
Your question is bizarre. You talk about being really into the whole survivalist thing, but the infrastructure necessary to hold down a tech job while in the deep wilderness living off your wits is a complete non-starter. (Pedaling for power? Seriously?)
Simply put, your biggest problem is power. (You'll need a LOT less power if you can figure out how to work with a tablet and bluetooth keyboard instead of a full laptop.) That means you are going to need a "base camp". That base camp will need supplies of food and fuel, and a large sunny clearing to collect power whether you are there or not. You can periodically return to swap out batteries/machines and pick up fresh supplies of food and fuel.
You'll need to (obviously) work within an area with cell phone coverage. But there are plenty of fairly remote places that fit that bill, so it's not a big problem.
Discard any idea of hunting for food or cooking with a fire... if you are hungry and in the middle of hunting something or gathering much-needed wood, you are going to get even hungrier when, inevitably, your phone starts to ring with a new problem. You can certainly go several days without seeing another soul, but "living off the land" is just not going to work.
Also consider what you are going to do in bad weather. I'm guessing that once your phone rings, it means something is broken. You'll need to start working pretty quickly, and likely will not have time to make camp if you were in transit at the time. (Please don't say it's realistic to work outside in the middle of a rainstorm, no matter how tough your gear is.) Do you really want to be holed up in a tent (or lean-to, cave, whatever) for days on end when the weather is bad? No, you don't; that's boring as $hit.
Really, if I were in your place, I'd have a base camp (at a regular campground) with a pop-up camper and small and quiet generator (and secure locks!) and go on hikes of one or two days (those small lithium power packs and an iPad would work great!) when the weather looked good. It ain't "roughing it", but trying to get work done in lousy weather when you are hungry and tired is just silly; your work will inevitably suffer as a result.
Wow... you are heading right into a Upright Citizens Brigade skit. http://www.cc.com/video-clips/...
I have an off-grid cabin on a mountaintop in the middle of nowhere. It's not a survival campsite, but it's quite remote. I can work from there if I need to, and I sometimes do. I have rainwater collection, solar power with plenty of storage, and line of sight to a cell tower on another peak several miles away. Full 4G data from all providers - but only once you're up on the peak, not on the way in. This is a reliable and comfortable way to work from a wilderness location. But this kind of system does not work for survival camping, especially moving between locations. Reliability requires a fixed location with line of sight data service, and a fixed solar installation. If your priority is primitive camping, I don't think this can be achieved effectively. But if your priority is to experience isolated wilderness while definitely staying connected, a small cabin (even a primitively constructed shelter) at a carefully chosen location can work just fine.
I am a geek attorney, but not your geek attorney unless you've already retained me. This is not legal advice.
I get that you're not on-line for long. But, when you are on-line, what sort of bandwidth do you need? A few years ago, I looked into working from the family cottage on a quasi-permanent basis, but there was nothing really available that met my needs.
Satellite tends to be okay on the download, but, even if you can do upload via satellite (when I was looking, upload was by land line - ick), it's really slow.
If you can get cellular data with tethering, that's not too bad, but you'd want to check on reliability and the actual limits imposed by the provider.
WiFi might do, but possible issues include reliability (what happens when it goes down), access (how many people share the connection, and does the provider really want to have you working through the connection), and security (shared WiFi?).
There are some rural providers that provide wireless connections to individual customers (the antennae look like small microwave antennae). That may be a possibility for you, but I"ve no idea on the cost.
I'd love to be able to work that remotely. Totally not possible with my current job. Sigh
linquendum tondere
nothing worse than doing business in the woods and then having nothing to wipe.
But, most people just go to 7-11 and get hard copy porn for camping, I mean, how far are you going to carry on this charade? Web hosting and troubleshooting.... ha!
"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid." - Epictetus
I've done what you're looking to do. Camping to relax is all well and good on your vacation time, but I prefer to be outdoors more than in, so I sometimes head into the woods for weeks on end, bringing work with me.
First, power:
I've found that there's a trade off between reliability and portability. You can haul a lightweight solar panel and small battery in your pack but it's heavy and the stress of trying to keep a charge will probably outweigh the benefits of being mobile.
You could instead choose to have a base camp with a vehicle. If you have a four wheel drive you will be surprised how remote you can get with it. Haul an extra battery, a true sine inverter, and a folding table and chair. You will be much more comfortable, less stressed, and you can still go hiking with a charged battery in your laptop.
Internet:
You can easily get either a packable, or vehicle mount satellite setup but you will probably hate it. The lag is brutal even in a terminal aND the data
I have multiple batteries for my laptop and cell phone. Typically, what I'll do is bring as many batteries as is feasible (usually three for my laptop and four for my phone) and fish while writing software. Fishing requires very little active concentration, and it's nice to be able to write code while outside. Most of my trips are not very far from my car though.
Occasionally I'll go on backpacking trips that aren't car-accessible. I have not yet tried to work from one of these trips. I've been looking into the Goal Zero Voltage Inverter and their lightweight solar panels. If I do go this route, I'll likely start out with the solar panel + phone recharger, see how that works, and then get the more expensive voltage inverter and battery. I think it really depends on if you'll have a car available or not. If you have your car, you already have a power generator and the ability to haul heavy stuff.
I own my own software company, so as long as I'm decently responsive I can work from wherever. I kind of agree that for most people going out into nature is a way to not have to focus on those types of concerns. For me, I like being able to work from wherever in the event that I have to pack up and get out quickly.
I think I will get a portable solar cell phone charger, so I can charge my phone from wherever. I live in New Mexico, and the sun in always shining here. There are times when I forget to charge my phone enough, and I'm sitting in my car with the car running so my phone would charge. It would be nice to throw up my solar dash mat, run a wire into my glove box, and put my phone in there while I go inside someplace to do errands.
I'm a huge fan of primitive survival reality TV.
I need some context. I cannot tell from your post whether you are an experienced outdoors-person or just someone who thinks it looks fun while watching it on TV.
I would say if you have limited experience doing survival camping (or just plain camping in general) that you get very comfortable with that in and of itself before you start attempting to add in additional work. I assure you that for the majority of people in developed countries, just camping / surviving in the wilderness provides all of the work they can handle.
But again, it's hard to gather what your experience is. You talk about bringing a lot of gear and "poles" and what not. I assume you will not be carrying all of this on your person. i.e. you will only be going as far as your (motorized) transportation can go. In that case, being "outdoors" is easier because you can haul a lot of creature comforts (and most importantly -- food) with you in your vehicle.
Either way, practice the camping first, add the extra curricular stuff later.
I haven't done what the OP is suggesting, but I used to (including in a much lamer age of data coverage) take off hiking while vaguely babysitting database builds - every time I'd hit a ridge or a peak I'd check for connectivity, and if I had it, I'd check to make sure nothing had broken too terribly. (And if I was feeling bratty, snap a picture and send it to my labmates.) But this was up in the Cascades - the terrain matters.
Another of my rules of thumb - more generally than just with the above excursions - was to do as much as possible on my phone (which was much easier to recharge via solar.) The solar sets ups have gotten better, and computer batteries have gotten better - I'm less stingy these days, but still. (But OTOH, the OP is describing activities where much of the time various checks might be able to be done via phone, saving the computer battery.)
---WHERE on the globe you live and want to camp.
The whole Scandinavia is covered by Net1 4G over 450 MHz which means that you in fact can be almost anywhere in Denmark, Sweden and Norway and have a decent internet connection, I have camped in Sweden 100 km from the nearest city in the woods and watched Netflix. Denmark has also 99% coverage on 3G... ...and get a MacBook Air so you can get real 6~8 hours work between charging.
If you want to be connected in the wilderness then Scandinavia is the right place for you...
When you are on camping are you on foot, bike, quad or car ? I've got an inverter in my car and can get 1000W @220V when the engine is running.
The point of survival camping is to challenge yourself and be uncomfortable. If your trying to get around the challenges, you're missing the point. As far as bringing tech with you, you're going to use it as an excuse to quit the first chance you get. So don't do it. Find someone to cover for you when you're out, or else just accept that sitting on your couch watching those shows is a lot easier than going out and doing it, and it might just not be for you. Don't spend a lot of time and money trying to put together a solution for something you're only going to try once.
"I want to do this thing. Please help."
"Don't do that thing because I wouldn't."
Not very helpful, and it also isn't in the spirit of Ask Slashdot.
You might be surprised to find that camping or 'outdoors' in general is nothing like those TV shows.
I used to have great cell phone connectivity from my favorite backwoods site "so far into the forest you're coming out the other side" -- with the old tall analog towers.
Then they switched to many small digital cells -- and those have a timing setting built in using the speed of light to measure how far your phone is from the tower. If it's farther than X, the cell won't let you make a call, assuming some other cell must be closer.
So if you're farther away than that setting, you get bars on the screen but no connection.
That's progress.
You can take the business out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the business.
I've done this but it is a bit like peeing into the wind, especially if you are camping with friends or family.
Given that you want to get away but it is not doable to let go, I have two suggestions:
1. Make a plan to partner with someone so you can cover for each other. Life happens. You cannot be on call 7x24x365 forever. You won't like it and eventually your customers won't either. Certainly the significant people in your life will hate it. Get involved with a consulting partnership or form one yourself. If you like this way of working then make it work long term.
that said:
2. On call camping is all about planning and setting expectations. What is your on-call response time? 15 min means you can find a campground with some kind of connectivity coverage and stay there. Enjoy sleeping and eating and hanging out in a semi-isolated location. If you just have to check in every 24 hrs then you have a lot of flexibility and you probably won't have to bring much special with you.
Choices:
Low end: Just bring your cell and data plan, or scout out local wifi. Most park/camping/resort areas will have a small town nearby with various wifi options. Coin laundries have excellent wifi connectivity in my experience though usually not free.
High end: eh, under $1000 investment. Wilson cell boosters. Omni and directional cell antennas. 3g tends speed tends to be distance dependent and will slow down even with good signal. LTE is much better. I have made connections as far away as 80 miles. Horizon gets in the way usually but it helps if the tower is on a mountain top or if you are. Portability is a challenge but you can set up a backpack unit fairly easily with, say, 5Kg of extra booster, battery, charger weight. Or go wifi: ALFA wireless units with 1 or 2 watts and a good directional antenna can get you wifi at amazing distances but are limited because most access points are not set up with antennas outside a building. 8-> They tend to be low power and indoors. Portability is again an issue but doable. Climb to the top of Pyramid in Jasper and camp there. Line of sight will not be an issue but nail your tent down.
Higher high end: $2000 to $10,000. Satellite internet with a portable gps enabled self tracking dish in a fiberglass dome. You will probably want a portable generator. Also need a data plan at about 50 to 100 per month. You could carry a dish and transponder on a hike which would be awkward but could be quite fun. Tends to tie you down and prevent straying far from where you set up your base camp. Speeds can be quite good for streaming but ping times are in the 1000s of milliseconds. Usually have to pay a premium if you go over a couple of GB per month. Oh and usually a 1, 2, or 3 year contract. Um, and mountains can be an issue if they block the satellite view. Choose a North/South valley.
Ridiculously expensive high end: $100K or more. Bring your own tower and cellular repeater site. Get a trailer with a 40m telescoping tower, hydraulic stabilizer legs, and a mini network center. You should be able to get LTE almost anywhere with the correct setup. Add in the satellite transponder as backup. Camp near a fast moving mountain stream and setup a hydro electric supply. Plan where you are going to hike and run your own repeater with directed coverage to the area you will be traversing. Put a booster in your pack and attach a 2 meter buggy whip so you have continuous coverage. A blinking light on the top will aid rescuers when you get lost. Check regularly with your doctor for radiation induced growths in various locations on your body. Be aware that national park wardens take a dim view of this sort of setup.
I handled on call with a Wilson cellular booster in my truck and a portable wifi router with a 4g dongle. As long as you can get one bar on a cell results should be very good. I stuck around the campsite, drank coffee, cooked food, and read books. Nice but not full on hiking/camping.
Again, the best choice is leave it all behind. The most complex issue to deal with when camping should be how to make a banana boat on a campfire.
The submitter is in the wrong forum, as Slashdot is for (basement dwelling) nerds, but he should be asking the military / CIA guys for advice.
They are the ones who carry breakdown kit Iridium/Inmarsat/classified sat comms dishes and man-portable power sources, etc. into the wild, to be able to downlink and beam drone assasination videos straight to the White House, where the president and entourage masturbate to said videos.
If all you are doing is checking in every once in awhile, would it not be better to have a remote automated service do it for you? Code up a solution and if it needs your attention send an SMS.
Text communication requires far less connectivity and all it would take is a quick bootup instead of wasting precious battery life going through all the motions yourself every time.
Parent post had a dumb typo in the subject line.
That that is is that that that that is not is not.
I hope someone got this guy's name. I think DHS might want to work up a profile. Just in case, you know?
You are welcome on my lawn.
I live on a boat and work full time online. There are many of us. We're in the same situation, even though it seems different. There are heaps of resources online. Looking at the quality of the responses here I would encourage you to just go and see what people on boats have been doing. Far too much to cover in a single reply.
However...
- LTE/4g with a high gain antenna is by far your best bet. USB or ethernet, not a hotspot. Don't waste power on local wifi
- Long range WiFi is a pain in the neck
- Forget about satellite. I have it because I have to. It's terrible and obscenely expensive.
You don't have to worry about a bunch of other stuff sailors have to deal with like desalinating water and non-cell based comms. You'll find it really not a problem to pull off what you're trying to do. And you can get really remote with a carbon fibre poll and high gain antenna. Make sure you put the USB modem at the top of the poll so the RF cable to the antenna is short and the USB cable is long.
And as for power generation - spend 95% of your effort trying to reduce power consumption. That means not just what hardware you choose but changing your behaviour and how software is configured. And get a Honda eu1000 generator + lithium battery, with a high efficiency solar panel and MPPT controller. Don't use an inverter to power the power supply for your laptop. Get a DC/DC converter to go from the main storage battery to your computer. Personally i'd not worry about solar if you're only going for a week. The gasoline to run you for a week will be like half a gallon or a gallon.
Oh, and go to a sailors swap-meet. You'll find old charge controllers, solar panels, generators, inverters etc. Also pick up some blocks and rope while you're there, it'll be useful for rigging up your site.
Good luck, I hope you go for it.
Your problem isn't internet or phone connectivity while away from work; it's taking work with you.
If you want to go on holiday for a week or so hire someone who can cover for you for that time, don't try and take the requirements of work with you because you get into this exact situation where what you do or where you go is dictated by power requirements and internet connectivity.
You don't have a lot of time on this planet, for christ's sake don't spend it working.
See Burning Man WPA
Look at biolite stove, it generates a bit of power and supplies a USB jack.
Just turn the other way when you hear the banjos play and the pig squeeling.
güzel bir makale bence
http://www.seflerinmutfagi.net
I spent two years in a mountain cabin living off grid, and working as a software consultant. I used Hughesnet for satellite service, but this was in a remote cabin at 10,000 feet, and a 12 mile snowmobile in. Hughesnet is laggy, but works for basic stuff that you need to do day to day. Solar is completely doable, but you have to not just connect a panel to your laptop and call it good. Then I got a girlfriend and moved back to the city (still keeping and visiting the cabin), so now I do lots of long weekend things. For that, I have a mobile hotspot with a cellphone extender and a yagi antenna I can put up on a pole if needed. Let's me spend a couple extra days out there, then take the weekend off and shut down. I use a solar panel permantly mounted on the truck, and two extra ones I can stand up on the ground. That charges two large 6v Trojan batteries in series to make 12v. I have 12v chargers for everything, and an inverter for those odd things you can't get 12v for. I have an ARB cooler that runs on 12v, so no ice required and cold for as long as you want. Also have ham radio equipment to send emails from those really remote places where all else fails. You can see pictures of my various setups as it relates to ham radio at: https://www.qrz.com/lookup/k7j... It is all very doable if you plan ahead and have big enough batteries to get you through the lulls in sun. I figure with my current setup I could stay out almost indefinitely, especially since I can take warm beer in bulk, and feed it into the cooler as I go since it is all electric and no ice.
OP here.
Why so combative sir?
I should have been clearer - it's not like I'm webserving off my laptop from the wild and a few minutes offline is going to tank my business. I just meant I need to be reachable for communication in general and within reason as expected for a self employed person. My response time depends if emergency or not - emergency it is essentially ASAP and preferably within 15-30 minutes, such as an outage situation. For non-emergencies my response time may be hours, maybe more depending on the request. Every business is different.
How do I expect to maintain 24/7 connectivity? That's why I submitted the question, obviously. But I just meant being generally reachable and being able to Skype without it going offline for more than 2-3% of each hour I'm out there at worst.
.. and swap.. I consult and have the same issues. Work with someone .. give them an email for your place of business and they do the same. forward your email to them when you are on vacation and have them do the same. In your out of office supply there phone number.. etc.
I had a manager back in 1990 who was an avid mountain climber. He was also our lead technical guy. When he went mountain climbing, he took a phone with him (I think it was a satellite phone) so that we could reach him in an emergency. If something came up, he would talk us through whatever needed to be done to fix the problem well enough for us to keep going until he returned.
If you had a flunky who knew the system well enough to follow concise instructions, you might not need anything more than a cell phone. It's probably easier to get voice service working in remote locations than data services, and all you would have to carry is a cell phone (and probably a picket-sized backup battery).
The advantage of this, aside from not having to carry lots of electronics and big batteries/solar panels/generators, is that you would be training your "flunkie" to fix things himself, and protecting your customers from the day when you kill yourself by tripping over a root or something.
The disadvantage, of course, is that you will gradually become less necessary (if you pick a good "flunkie"), and your customers might decide to put their faith in the flunkie (who doesn't care about "getting away from everything" when they need support).
Come camping and hiking in Norway or Iceland. You'd be hard pressed to find places not covered by affordable cell phone data networks. Probably in Denmark too, don't know about Sweden or Finland.
I live full time in the woods, own power, satellite internet, 3g repeater balanced in just the right spot, water pumped from our own spring. It is right people are saying not to do it. I make use of remoting to a fibre connection at work and a handful of VPS to soften the hassle but trying to maintain an IT and design business even on a go-slow (i need less money, i work less) is arduous at best. It's not survival Bear Grylls style, it's just modern life somewhere awkward where you're in charge of every little thing. There's a lot of ways to get through each problem but you spend time on that rather than getting paid. I'll never the learning and experience but the /. crowd are right on this on
Also clients don't give a shit if your bad connection is due to some head trip you're on, they'll go elsewhere or assume you're not fit for the job
By way of disclosure, I tried in 2009/2010 and wasn't able to do it at any reasonable cost. Our compromise was living in a campground and getting cable service. That worked surprisingly well.
While most campgrounds have wifi, not all campground wifi is reliable enough to run a business. During the season it will bog down during peak demand, some of the smaller campgrounds have time outs and bandwidth limiters.
Out in the twigs even wireless wasn't reliable enough to make work.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Your constraints are not narrow enough. I've seen people do similar, with solar panels and equipment chosen for low-power usage. But 24/7 is nearly impossible. The people I've dealt with have had power for 8 hours a day, running a satellite connection, tablet or low-powered laptop (though my HTPC is about 1/2 the power of my laptop, but my PC doesn't include a monitor, and the laptop isn't the best possible eco choice).
If you want 24/7, you'll have to be in cell coverage. Get an old Nokia, and keep that around for your "emergency calls", running on AA batteries, recharged if you have the energy budget. Keeping Skype online 24/7 is impractical in this case. Unless "camping" includes a few thousand pounds of generators, panels, fuel and such.
Learn to love Alaska
While I have no affiliation with these guys, I think they might be useful for the power replenishment side of your camping problem :
http://powerpractical.com/coll...
PS I don't camp either, but I have used their Power Practical (http://powerpractical.com/collections/know-power) accessories for 'city boy' use cases :-)
Forget about backpacking with all the equipment you will need. It cannot be done yet. The technology is not that advanced.
Invest in a smaller 4WD or AWD vehicle with high ground clearance (critical!) and a 12 volt system. And a good power inverter-- although more and more now you can find electronics that will run directly off 12 V DC. You want a car that is small enough that you've got a good range without draining the bank account to keep the gas tank full-- plus something small can get you past tight spots where behemoth monster trucks cannot go.
While this approach will limit the places you can go, car camping can still get you as far from the madding crowd as you can get, and stay within reasonable Internet connectivity. You can day hike from base camp for delving deeper into the wilderness. You can carry more with you, such as coolers, stoves with more burners, decent dutch ovens. And you can be more mobile-- such as planning much longer trips with occasional stops at towns with grocery stores, showers, and the like.
Believe me, I have thought this through. However I ended up retiring before I figured out all the business angles. I wish you the best of luck.
Will
http://www.thingiverse.com/sea... Projects still need work, print it up, throw it in a river with insulated cabling, voila, effortless power. Cheers, D
It blows me away how many people think they're entitled to be paid for not working, that they don't need to attend meetings, that they don't need to appear at the office, that their job is just an "irritant" that should get out of the way of their personal wants.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
You'll have a solar charger. Buy a big one and hang a lot of crap off it.
Get a Arm-based chromebook for your basic needs. They're cheap and not power hungry. Use that whenever you can, rather than the laptop for photoshop.
Look around for a laptop which gives you good power/performance, not one which gives your "toughness". If your laptop dies, GO HOME. Get a new one. Just buy cheap stuff.
Buy a good-sized UPS with lithium ion batteries. When you have extended rainy days, truck the thing over to anywhere you can find AC. Just put it in a garbage bag.
Just over-do it on the solar and the extra electron-storage and you'll be fine.
When you're not fine, GO HOME AND REGROUP.
This is not rocket science.
Sorry that nobody on Slashdot is actually answering your question. I've done this in the past and I just use an immarsat modem. Worldwide satellite coverage and can be used for voice or data. Relatively inexpensive. It's not very fast but it should do the job unless you're trying to stream netflix.
Hughesnet is the ONLY choice for high speed and yous lowest ping is 3000ms. yes 3 freaking seconds is the Shortest ping you will ever get.
Also the bandwidth you pay for it really cloudy. they cant explain why my data transfer counters don't match theirs some months they are higher than me by 2gb.
So in order to make sure you don't go over you have to pay for the highest bandwidth plan they have. Which if you can't swallow a $299 a month internet bill, then it's game over for your at home business.
Also remote access screen control via hughesnet is insanely painful, I do it regularly, but everything takes 10X more time.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
If you just want to camp out of your car and go hiking on the weekends, then bringing up survivalist TV shows was more than a bit confusing, because car camping is the opposite of wilderness survival. Buy whatever living facilities you want, park them in an area with cell access, and you are all set. A small generator if you have a pop-up, or just your car if you don't, is fine for juice.
Here are the tricks of the trade I've found:
1) Take time to pick your location carefully. If you're going to a developed campsite, don't show up on Friday or Saturday. Your options will be limited. Understand that reception make suck at the site at ground level, but just by hoisting a cell phone 10 feet, you'll get good reception. Have a bluetooth ear piece to help facilitate this.
2) Pick your laptops *carefully*. I use an Asus T100 for backpacking because has a long battery life and it charges off of standard USB and is relatively lightweight. When developed camping, I use an Asus UX-305.
3) Solar backpacking equipment is more or less useless, as is the reactor hydrogen fuel cell. The solar cells are too small to produce a meaningful voltage. Your best bet is to bring charged batteries.
Car camping? Sure! RV? No problem! Live-aboard size boat? Why not?
Engine+battery means near unlimited power. If you are within range of cellular then a cellular booster on the roof (not cheap) will get you pretty good range. Basically makes 1 unreliable bar into a usable signal.
Not cheap at $600 for a Shakespeare cellular booster, but not any more than any other nice piece of technology. Less expensive than a nice laptop or tablet. Check Westmarine.com
Going a little farther with the RV or boat? HAM it up with your radio license. Packet radio is real, and useful. I have only information handed to me from others who use it, there is a lot of information available.
Hiking? Well Ham Radio sets are now quite portable. There are portable handsets that weigh less than a pound capable of packet radio.
Hiking in an area with cell signal? There are a lot of these kind of areas around. Pack some lightweight Lipo batteries, such as from model aircraft, and a power converter to USB, available for about $10. (check Hobby King USB charging adapter)
With old cell phones external high gain antennas were a real thing. Aiming a nice directional antenna at a tower on the horizon (5-10 mile away) would make a phone go from no signal to full signal as long as the aim was held. I am unsure if this type of thing exists for modern phones.
Don't discount modem over satellite phone. Yea, I wouldn't want to go there either.
So having to walk with equipment for making these calls and having internet access? I wouldn't want to though it can be done. Camping with a car, boat or RV, not a problem
Phil
Laugh, it's good for you!
I'm a writer.
As such, there are times when I really need to get away from everyone and everything so I can totally immerse myself in just writing. Doing this while camping is wonderful. Or, sometimes just jumping on the bike with the computer in a daypack so I can park my butt in some shady spot in a park forest is good enough.
While writing and programming share the same mental processes, they have different demands on a computer. Programming is going to be much more demanding on a computer than writing prose. The MacBook Air is certainly at the top of the heap when it comes to low power consumption, but if you are programming some pretty heavy stuff that could drain the battery faster than the work I am doing now. That could greatly reduce your working time if you are completely off grid in the woods. That could be enough to impair your productivity and nix your project.
Power comes first. Without power, nothing else will work. As mentioned above, those big, portable solar panels are a very good idea. Free energy when there is enough sunlight. On any mostly sunny day, one panel should easily be enough to keep a MacBook Air chugging away all day. Even on a mostly cloudy day, the larger panels might be able to provide enough juice to keep you going. But this will also dictate your location. You need clear access to the sun. If you are in deep forest, it won't work. This means camping in a meadow or on the shore of a lake. A plus side here is when the sun goes down, you will have a wonderful view of the starry sky above. (Great for recharging your batteries!) If you are on a lake and are inclined to fishing, there you go.
Connectivity is important to you. It is for me, too, as a writer because often I need to jump online to reference various subjects. This means, you won't really be doing any "deep forest" camping, where you are truly away from all aspects of civilization. A lot of family and national forest campgrounds now supply power to campsites. That solves the power issue. One extension cord and surge protector power strip and you are ready to get everything done while you sit by the fire. Some of these campgrounds really suck. They are overrun and poorly maintained. But there are others that are truly gems! Sure there are other people around, but I find that kind of adds to the ambience. I do enjoy hearing the soft voices echoing in the trees. The sound of distant laughter. The smell of campfire smoke wafting on the wind. The campsites in the older campgrounds are well surrounded by trees and shrubs, so you really can't see one site from the next. This guarantees your privacy and isolation if you need it. You have to hunt for these gems. When you find them, you may find them quite enjoyable. The added services do make life a lot more pleasant while camping, and you can maintain your full technical capacity without hinderance.
You can set up your smart phone briefly as a hotspot for your online sessions. If you are only on for short periods during the day, this shouldn't press your data plan limits. For those who have very heavy data needs, it would probably be cheaper to buy a cellular modem and connect to that than it would to tether to your phone.
Another mention above was to use an RV. You can use a small trailer, too. Much more economical. With a larger trailer called a "Toy Box", you could also pack a motorcycle in along to use as your get around vehicle when you want to get away from the campsite for a change of scenery. A trailer or RV offers protection from the elements. I'm convinced I am the incarnation of a rain god, as the moment I pitch a tent, the rain starts falling. It also allows for better security for your equipment. Sure, a crowbar could get past a locked camper door, but most of the losers who skulk around campsites to steal things are looking for easy pickings and don't want to work for their booty.
You'll notice that my suggestions start with deep woods camping and move closer to civilization. But how you implement things depends on how yo
Whew! This water sure is cold!
I've looked at some portable power stations with solar attachments, but the idea of hand-cranking to recharge if it's overcast isn't fun, after all, the point is to relax.
You'll be able to relax in style with a single NuScale Power Module (NPM) small modular reactor at your command. Camping is funnest near a mid-sized lake --- and that's exactly where you'll want to submerge this puppy. The NPM is a compact vertical package that includes the passively cooled reactor vessel, steam generators, pressurizer and containment in an integral package that eliminates reactor coolant pumps and large bore piping. Each NPM can supply 50 megawatts electric, which should be enough for a small camp with perimeter energy defenses. They are supplied factory-built for easy transport and installation. Every couple of years the whole family can participate in refueling remotely using underwater waldoes and flange stud tensioning/detensioning tools operated from a small fishing dinghy. Assemblies of <5% enriched UO2 fuel are available from most "Up 'N Atom" bait/uranium shops.
A nearby abandoned salt mine would make the perfect place to run small piping and control cables into, stockpile weapons and supplies, a few diesels and tank storage for black-starting the nuclear plant, hot showers and an underground aquaculture greenhouse... with 50MW of power you can take the sun underground with you. Even used inductive tuned circuits to deliver several kilowatts of power wirelessly the short distance to your surface camp, Tesla style.
Satellite internet or long distance Wi-Fi antennas and a very tall pole?
Satellite you'll be paying through the nose every month for chump bits and WiFi doesn't handle the miles so well. Your best bet is to co-locate at the nearest telco point of presence and run something like a Ubiquity 5Ghz AF-5 and 24Ghz AF-24 unit in tandem. Don't bother with the AF-24HD, its 2Gbps rate is probably overkill and you'll want to bridge the 5 and 24Ghz units at the lower rate so you'll have the aggregate ~2Gbps anyway when the weather's fine. When the raindrops come 24Ghz will fade but the 5Ghz should stay solid. Of course your camp will not be able to directly see the telco building, but a couple of passively connected dishes on a facing hill, surreptitiously placed and suitably camouflaged, would do the trick.
This setup would definitely optimize your prospect of running your business from camp, but having 50 megawatts would also make some fun outdoor activities possible, like panning for gold with electrolysis, zap-fishing, laser mountain and cloud painting, and industrial scale atmospheric CO2 sequestration.
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
There was a kickstarter campaign some time back for Kraft fuel cells
https://www.kickstarter.com/pr...
All you need is camping gas. You can work on this idea to get something which can work with your laptop or something.
My Aurora : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o91ZsGwJYyg
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Why don't you find a camping spot with a good 3G or 4G singal and use a solar power solution. You can tether your phone by enabling the hotspost feature. You can also charge your devices or even run off AC by picking up a solar panel kit. For a few hundred dollars at Harbor Freight, you can by a two panel solar kit with inverter and a compatible 12V battery to store it. If you plan on hiking in, you can also get a small portable charging system with USB which you can use to charge your phone and a small Windows tablet, which you can make as useful as a laptop with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.
For cellphone you will need at least letter page sized solar panel for the laptop "probably" ten times of letter page solar cell area and good sun.
My laptop holds about a 9 hour battery charge while in use (if I set the display brightness all the way down). My cell lasts about 7 days on moderate use, but if I turn on the tethering, it drops down to about 4 hours. I carry a few of those small USB batteries which usually make the cell last for my trip.
I'm able to travel and have connectivity if the poop hits the oscillator if I need it, provided I'm within data service of Verizon (likely) or TMO (less likely). It's best to check with the carriers first to make sure they have something in that area.
I'm lucky my co-workers can handle about 90% of any situations that can arise. And 50% of those that they can't can usually wait. Unfortunately, being understaffed in an IT role means that you do need connectivity sometimes. You may want to find out if you can form a partnership so you have some backup for those emergencies... Forming a partnership just for coverage isn't bad -- and I'm sure there are people you've learned to trust that can help you out.
+1 for Trolling :-D
As a search & rescue member, I'm constantly getting into heated discussions with software developers that insist on the need for constant internet access particularly for mapping applications. Sorry, but the bulk of the world exists outside a major metropolitan area where cellular coverage is spotty at best. If you can't be bothered to cache your maps so I can use them offline, I won't be considering your mapping application no matter how fancy it is. Even if an aircard works, the monthly fees are expensive for an all-volunteer search & rescue group without two nickels to rub together and the goal of not taking on recurring expenses.
Plenty of sage advice already posted here for picking a good ridge-top site (75% of your battle). But if one has no choice but to select a canyon or valley campsite (I canoe a lot, and that's where the water is!), I've wondered about packing a small tank of helium to inflate a meteorology-grade balloon and send up a phone to collect/send messages. I never thought about this for a "wilderness cubicle," but more for emergency purposes, e.g. post an SOS text msg and hoist the "flag." Wouldn't be feasible for something like backpacking, but that's why I like a canoe: I can pack like a car camper while avoiding the loud-talking meshbacks in campgrounds.
It depends. If he can get 3G, or even 4G, Skype would only require a smartphone which uses minimal power, so a small panel to charge a battery you use to charge the phone would be enough. The laptop only needs to be turned on when remoting a system or when a real screen is needed, not 24/7. In fact, many times a tablet or even a cell phone can be used for remote desktop activities.
I am not sure what the power budget for a sat uplink is though, that might be difficult, but with enough batteries and solar panels, you can pretty much run anything.
I posted some information about some of the gear I use to keep my cell, tablet, and laptop running in the woods:
http://ask.slashdot.org/commen...
It can be done, you just have to realize that running a laptop 24/7 is a bit extreme and not needed.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
comprehension is good to. try again
I don't think you can call sitting in a huge RV on a site with electricity, flushing toilets and so on "camping" in any meaningful sense of the word.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
I have no experience camping, so I'll not comment on the ease of working out in the wilderness like this, but I have recently been involved in a project to have a rechargeable cart using a pair of marine batteries to power a laptop (a Toughbook, in fact) and document scanner. Some posters suggested using car batteries and an inverter, but the batteries are a DC power source, and your Toughbook's power input is also DC. Your laptop's power brick converts the AC current from your wall outlet or an inverter into DC, meaning you'd be converting from 12 VDC to 120VAC to ~15.6VDC (with the attendant changes in Amperage) again. This process consumes additional Watts of power above what is needed to run the laptop. Wiring a 12 Volt "cigarette lighter" socket to the battery, and using a car adapter for your laptop would be much more efficient because it removes the middle step, so I'd avoid an inverter unless you need to run other equipment on it.