Low power effective computing?

[dbhost]

I know most folks take the laptop approach, being in a van I figure multi purpose would be a better solution, here is what I am working on.

Raspberry Pi 5, yeah I am a Linux guy... running Ubuntu desktop and all the necessary apps I could want.

Van is an Econoline with the RB11 layout. What I need is some sort of wall mount for a TV that will allow me to basically side the TV over so it is easily viewed from the bed, OR slid over and pivoted so I can use the flip up table at the kitchen cabinet / passengers swivel seat as a desk...

I am looking at a Samsung 32" 4K monitor that ALLEGEDLY runs on 12v DC.

Feeding it will be the Raspberry Pi 5 / Ubuntu unit. Literally no bigger than a deck of cards. Tuner is a Hauppage Win TV USB dongle, and speaker / audio is a bluetooth Bose Jellybean looking thing a ma bob...

So the trick here like I said, and where I am looking for advice is recommendations for a good solid wall mount that will swivel AND extend so I can basically cover the entire mid / back of the van...

Am I making sense and does anyone know of anything that can work?

 

[BrianW.]

Unless I'm missing something, wouldn't just a standard TV mount work? Something like this with standard VESA holes? https://www.harborfreight.com/elect...n-single-stud-full-motion-tv-mount-70199.html


As an aside, do you have a link to that 12v monitor?

 

[dbhost]

Generally speaking yes, but something that will extend further. So you see that arm and I guess you would call it a U hinge... I am thinking about twice that length...

 

[Twoxentrix]

Would something like this be of interest:

https://mount-it.com/products/full-...MIl4iF7IG0hQMV_GZHAR2ngwPQEAQYCCABEgKguPD_BwE

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BPHVG9Q...=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWxfdGhlbWF0aWM&th=1

https://www.amazon.com/NB-North-Bay...MIl4iF7IG0hQMV_GZHAR2ngwPQEAQYFCABEgJlG_D_BwE

https://www.amazon.com/Mount-Lockab...MIl4iF7IG0hQMV_GZHAR2ngwPQEAQYGiABEgJVD_D_BwE

 

[dbhost]

Would something like this be of interest:

...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BPHVG9Q...=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWxfdGhlbWF0aWM&th=1

That second link is exactly what I need! That would get the monitor / TV comfortably anywhere I need it in the van!

 

[dbhost]

And I think I figured out the monitor / TV. Samsung 4K monitor that runs off of 19v DC, simply add a 12v to 19v step up transformer and voila I have it done! Next step, make absolutely certain the WinTV works with Ubuntu / Raspberry Pi...

 

[Scalf77]

I used this 100W Universal Laptop Car Charger for a power adapter. It supports multiple output voltages and has a wide variety of adapter tips. This has worked well with my LG - 27" Class LED Full HD Smart TV with webOS.

 

[SMB123]

When I was looking for a mount for a tv for a motorhome it was very unsatisfactory. The big challenge to solve is not having the thing move while driving. Then you have to have a very solid mounting point - and likely need to back it with some wood for strength. When there's a will there's a way but personally TV while camping became a nuisance and I don't have a TV in my rig.

 

[dbhost]

When I was looking for a mount for a tv for a motorhome it was very unsatisfactory. The big challenge to solve is not having the thing move while driving. Then you have to have a very solid mounting point - and likely need to back it with some wood for strength. When there's a will there's a way but personally TV while camping became a nuisance and I don't have a TV in my rig.

I am not going down this rabbit hole for TV, but rather for a good size display for computing / remote work to allow me to travel and keep on making a living.

TV function would simply be a bonus.

There is one option not mentioned here previously, and that is a protective cover for the monitor in transit, and simply set up / take down the monitor for travel. I need to set up / take down the keyboard and mouse for travel anyway.

And it could be something as simple as wrap it up in a puffer coat and leave the dinette in bed configuration and leave it on the bed...

The more I think about it, the more I think 32" is going to be too big for the space. I currently have a dual 28" 4K monitor setup on my desk @ home. It is a good size that will allow me to do my work quite well, however the ones I have are HP V28 4K and run off of 110v AC power. There is a similar Samsung that uses 19v DC...

There is also some possibility I can stow the monitor in the closet, cushioned by clothes, and since my closet door has an added keeper strap, should be secure even under any off road conditions I am willing to put a van and my of butt through.

HOWEVER, permanently mounted, setup has the advantage of being available NOW when I pull in to camp no setup time almost. What I have seen done on the pivot mounts before is keeper straps on the wall to keep the monitor / TV from flopping about.

Lastly, this is really a thought experiment in how to minimize power usage. I do have a high end laptop with a 17" display, great laptop, good display size FOR A LAPTOP. I just want more screen real estate while working.

 

[SMB123]

I hear you. One other word to the wise - having to look at something cockeyed for any period of time is very tiring. So if using for computer - if monitor not in very ergo position it will blow.

I had a popup camper way back when with a tv which I stowed and mounted on a wall with some nice hangers from Home Depot. The act of getting it in and out of storage was tedious. Having a permanent location is ideal.

All told - my thought was ipad when I saw the original post :n5:

 

[Scalf77]

Could try a laptop screen extender for an extra monitor.

 

[dbhost]

All told - my thought was ipad when I saw the original post :n5:

Nowhere near enough screen real estate. Worst case scenario, I just use the laptop and eat the extra power it uses...

 

[Scalf77]

I used something like this for a TV in my old SMB. This is for a counter top installation, but it would be pretty easy to disconnect and connect if one had to. RAM® Tele-Pole™ with 4" & 5" Poles, Swing Arms & 75x75mm VESA Plate

 

[dhally]

I've done a little vomit in ng in the van. I found cables and cords to be a BIG annoyance. Once everything is hooked up, don't move or get up because it will rip all the cables out...

They make laptops for a reason!

 

[dbhost]

I've done a little vomit in ng in the van. I found cables and cords to be a BIG annoyance. Once everything is hooked up, don't move or get up because it will rip all the cables out...

They make laptops for a reason!

No idea what vonit in ng means, but I totally agree on cables and cords.

So the idea here is thus...

Raspberry Pi 5 which is a system on a chip type computer, about the size of a deck of cards, a bit taller though...

The white cable is the power which is USB type C 27 watts max, and the black / gray cable is the micro HDMI to HDMI cable.

The computer box is no bigger than one of those hinged VESA wall mounts, and where I intend to mount, I have access to install 12V power ports for the high powered USB 3 and USB C power.

So the Pi would be mounted on the back of the monitor, monitor power and Pi power would be routed together along the VESA mount to the wall so never seen. HDMI cable would be run entirely to the monitor and hidden behind it. Going to switch to a 3ft cable instead of the 15footer that is there now.

My keyboard and mouse are Logitech Unifying MK550 and are wireless connecting to the Pi via that Logitech Unifying receiver dongle.

Should there be a reception problem with the USB simply pull the dongle, and install it to a USB A / USB B cable routed to just under the monitor, and again mount it don't just let it dangle. Gorilla tape would be great for this, it's black, so hides well, and bonds REALLY well...

So in the space the human occupies, there would be no cables anywhere in the way, unless of course I opted to not mount it, then it would be power cables from the Pi and monitor to the wall along the countertop during setup / takedown.

The concerns are screen real estate, and power consumption.

As a reminder, I have 600w solar, 40 amp DC to DC charging, and 400 amp hours LiFePo4 battery.

I could just as easily use my laptop. An Asus ROG Strix G17 G713 AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX, a couple of years old, but a top tier laptop for its heyday... 17" screen GeForce graphics, fast Ryzen processor, 16GB RAM, nice machine, but that 17" screen is very limiting. I know LOTS of folks make it work, I am wanting to be comfortable as I work, not just make do. Honestly I could accomplish the same thing with the laptop to an external monitor, but power consumption would shoot way up...

 

[Scalf77]

That will make a neat little system. I think the key is finding a place that you can mount your monitor, so that it accessible for work. My TV/Monitor priority is for watching TV when we want to. I can access it with my lap top or onboard computer if I want to, but it's general position I wouldn't call work friendly.

I use a stick pc as the onboard computer

It connects to a small touchscreen monitor that is used for backup camera, general systems monitor and display. That is really only purpose that I've used it for to date.

I started working on computers back in the mainframe days, it always amazes me the size and power you can get today.

 

[dbhost]

That will make a neat little system. I think the key is finding a place that you can mount your monitor, so that it accessible for work. My TV/Monitor priority is for watching TV when we want to. I can access it with my lap top or onboard computer if I want to, but it's general position I wouldn't call work friendly.

I use a stick pc as the onboard computer

It connects to a small touchscreen monitor that is used for backup camera, general systems monitor and display. That is really only purpose that I've used it for to date.

I started working on computers back in the mainframe days, it always amazes me the size and power you can get today.

my first computer was a TI 99/4/A and it was brand spanking new at the time if that gives you a frame of reference. Hated the chicklet keyboard with a passion. My Dad got me an Atari 800 soon after and I have been hooked since. Glad sizes have come way down...

 

[posplayr]

my first computer was a TI 99/4/A and it was brand spanking new at the time if that gives you a frame of reference. Hated the chicklet keyboard with a passion. My Dad got me an Atari 800 soon after and I have been hooked since. Glad sizes have come way down...

I never heard of the TI 99/4/A

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-99/4A

I graduated with BSEE in Dec 1979 where we worked with the Motorola 6800 in the microprocessor classes and labs. They subjected us to a variety of torture devices including recording hand-assembled programs on audio tape recorders.

At my first job starting Jan 1980 (Raytheon EW Goleta CA), there were a 2 or 3 of the senior engineers in my department who had built Cromemco DIY computers based on the Z-80. I recall using these to burn ROMs for a few Z-80 and Z-8 boards I was designing. I was also using more crude devices to bring up bare board computers in assembler language.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromemco_Z-2

 

[Scalf77]

I never heard of the TI 99/4/A

At my first job starting Jan 1980 (Raytheon EW Goleta CA), there were a 2 or 3 of the senior engineers in my department who had built Cromemco DIY computers based on the Z-80. I recall using these to burn ROMs for a few Z-80 and Z-8 boards I was designing. I was also using more crude devices to bring up bare board computers in assembler language.

[

Small world, I started working at Burroughs (now Unisys) Feb of 1980 right down the street in Goleta, CA). They closed down that plant in 1981, and I moved to Burroughs Mission Viejo Ca. In 1996 I moved to Intel and finished out my career in Oregon. So I started with small mainframes, moved to small/medium mainframes and eventually to servers.

 

[posplayr]

Small world, I started working at Burroughs (now Unisys) Feb of 1980 right down the street in Goleta, CA). They closed down that plant in 1981, and I moved to Burroughs Mission Viejo Ca. In 1996 I moved to Intel and finished out my career in Oregon. So I started with small mainframes, moved to small/medium mainframes and eventually to servers.

Yes, a small world. I think I probably jumped around a bit more although mainly in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. After starting my master's at UCSB, I ran into a manager of the Control systems department at Delco a bit further down the road. At that point, I moved over there for the next few years focusing on control systems in automotive, locomotive, and C-17 stationkeeping among others. I was essentially in the inertial navigation business area which was to see a massive technology change (along with the rest of the computer industry).

Due to a combination of factors, in 1987 I moved down to West Lake CA to work at a commercial missile company where I learned how to do systems engineering. I had weapon-level responsibility at the design phase review and later became the TV seeker/Tracker guru during detailed design and verification.

By about 1991, many people were looking for the next phase in their careers and I ended up starting a garage project building parafoil guidance systems which we eventually sold to the US Army, NASA, and internationally. The NASA work was a multi-year support contract on the X-38 program. Although they would never admit it, I was guiding this big parafoil with our system as an extension to an US Army program that started in late 1993.

In 1997 we moved back to Santa Barbara, but when the parafoil work ended in 2002, I did a short stint back at Raytheon (30 years later than the first time).
It did not work out that well, but that was before finding a dream job consulting at BAE Systems in San Jose on US Army manned ground vehicles. By this time, I was a Modeling and Simulation SME in the Survivability IPT. It is pretty remarkable how I became an SME in only about 3 years because at the time i was managing the M&S efforts at BAE and the simulation became the reference truth for the complex systems. So if you understand the simulation you understand the system better than most anybody else.

After that, in a continuation of other US Army work, I got into vehicle health management systems as a Communications IPT deputy which begged the question of why are we doing all of this? (needing to justify all the data that is being pushed around)? As kind of my own little project, I explored what we should be doing as nobody else had figured it out by then. Even after I left I spent 2-3 years on and off working with the NPS on a comprehensive solution to this as there was no known solution.

Motivated by how screwed up these large military programs are, by about 2015-16, this had led me to do independent research into organizational structures or more specifically optimal solutions to large-scale systems and the associated organizations.

I had earlier found a main result that was so profound that I got into the Set theory, solving P vs NP using a computational model, Model theory. Distinctly different from engineering, the foundations of mathematics are very controversial. So not being trained in pure mathematics and logic (Enginnering is applied mathematics), it is like jumping into a giant abyss. At this point, I have satisfied myself even if nobody else cares.

Sorry for the long diatribe, but it gives some background as to how I jumped around so much.