Date:         Fri, 30 Nov 2001 15:48:26 +0800
Reply-To:     Julian Burden <jburden@CONSULTANT.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Julian Burden <jburden@CONSULTANT.COM>
Subject:      notebook computers, inverters, and Internet access on the road
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

We've just travelled 15,000 Km in our Westy from Vanc - San Fran and then to
Montreal. Soni's a freelance editor and had work to do on the trip. Here is
how we did it:

We needed a cell phone (jsut moved to Canada from Australia, and were
selling our Aust. house while we were on the road). Looked into wireless
Internet, purchased a "Grab and Go" cell phone from Bell Mobility ($180 with
6 months access, 200 minutes per month free) - the phone can be attached to
a notebook computer to gain Internet access. BUT THE CABLE WAS "NOT YET
AVAILABLE".

We already had the digital camera, so that was easy!

The van needed a new battery so we kept the old one and put it under the
drivers seat (tried the "rewiring the relay" by the way, see below) wired
all the camper stuff to run off this battery and used jumper leads to
connect it to the main battery while driving.

Purchased a 300W inverter from London Drugs in Vancouver ($70) and hooked it
up to the 2nd battery.

Had a great trip, never had a problem starting (no surprises, no load on
main battery when not driving). The notebook computer got a lot of use, but
we had to resort to just using Internet cafes because of the lack of the
cable. It would be good to have that cable, will try again before the next
road trip.

If you are running an inverter off the main battery you do need to be careful, but if your engine starts readily it probably wont be a problem - the inverter we have, for example, monitors battery voltage and automatically shuts down before discharging the battery too much. We got about 4 hours running time before this happened to us (on the old "half dead" battery).

If you don't use the computer too much, use the inverter to charge the computer's battery while driving and you'll get your hour or so of use without danger of a flat battery in the morning. (If using the inverter in this manner it can simply plug into the cigarette lighter).

Regarding the rewiring the relay to get the 2nd battery in, I saw
instructions on vanagon.com about an existing relay that can be used as a battery
isolator. The idea is that it is only on when the alternator is providing
charge. I checked the rating of the relay, 30Amps. I was worryed about
excess current going through the relay (think of the 2nd battery being
discarged overnight and then having both the alternator and the main battery
charging it when the relay closes). I deviated from the instructions only
enough to add a 30A fuse between the relay and the 2nd battery - no
surprises, after the first real use of the battery one night the fuse blew
as soon as I started the car the next day.

>
> Date:    Thu, 29 Nov 2001 18:59:47 -0800
> From:    Brian and Carol Megas <bmegas@ISLAND.NET>
> Subject: Re: online in the van
>
> Entity Max wrote:
> "Anybody managed to get online in a mobile way?
> Some wireless service?
> wouldn't it be awesome to be on the road and surf the vanagon archive?"
>
> I, too, have wondered about the possibility of this.  We are hoping to do
> the road/ferry loop from Vancouver Island to Alaska, back through Bella
> Coola to the Island next summer and had thought it would be great to be
able
> to use the digital camera en-route, saving/posting exceptional pictures to
> friends/family and the home computer.  The concern was whether there would
> be problems with the power supply to the laptop or exceptional drain on
the
> battery - obviously I know nothing about how all this works, I just want
> someone to tell me it's possible and how best to go about it.
>
> Anybody thoughts?
>
> Carol
> Brian, Carol, Thea, Deverelle and Kelsey Megas
>    Box 1051, Chemainus, BC,Canada, V0R 1K0
>       bmegas@island.net    http://www.island.net/~bmegas/
>           **to make your dreams come true, you have to stay awake**
>
> ------------------------------


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