The “Mobile Office” is Ready to Go!

Finally, the get-ready-for-season project is done. Been working most of the past two weeks to get it accomplished, and finally had everything in the van today and could take some photos.

Of course, the major expense, as it has been the past two years, was getting the van itself ready. This year it was:

• brakes on all 4 corners
• new alternator
• transmission flush
• cooling system flush
• oil change (usually do 2-3 a season)
• rotate tires (replace 1)
• wipers, a good vacuuming, and cleaning out the various trash nobody had bothered to take to the can.

I fought for a long time with the wireless networking between the two computers, and finally gave in — bought a router and wired it in to the Dimension 8400. The advantage that gives is more range — now when I leave the van running outside a place (say, the Subway on I-35 S of Blackwell, OK), I can tote the laptop inside and still communicate with the van just fine.

On to the photos!

The former “antenna farm” on top of the van has been condensed down…the cell phone booster (white antenna) has eliminated three mag-mount hard-wire antennas; the cell data card and EVDO service has eliminated the external antenna for Wi-Fi access…just don’t need the Wi-Fi anymore.

The other antennas are: black mag-mount for the scanner (center front, to the right of the garage eave in the photo) and the GPS puck (left side, just above the seam of the sliding door).

I like the idea that the vehicle won’t be so obvious…and although the installations are still such that I can move things from car to car if needed, the wires are tucked in behind trim panels and so forth, so they are in place for the season. It cuts setup time down from nearly 90 minutes to about 15-20, as well!

The Cyfre booster is tucked next to the rear bench seat on the floor. The interior puck is up front, under the passenger seat. The 12V power for the booster Y’s off the lighter plug that powers the smaller inverter, which is up by the middle bench seat. The tub is my vehicle-related stuff — brake fluid, jumper cables, antifreeze, etc.

The “gets everything” shot…starting from lower right…

• Dimension 8400 PC (under the trash bag, seat belted in place next to the bench seat)
  – handles GPS input, distributing it to other devices via GPSGate,
  – handles video encoding/streaming
• rear floor mat is hiding FireWire cable to the front, USB cable to the bluetooth dongle (which is under the driver’s seat), and USB cable to the hub next to the driver’s seat.
• by the driver’s seat: chargers & hub (more detail below)
• at 9:00, on the windshield mount: StormHawk — used mostly for situational awareness display of the driver
• at 10:00, cameras/tripod (more detail below)
• laptop & stand (now running with no wires except the charge cord)
• far windshield (beyond the camera), BlackBerry and scanner
• the tub on the bench seat contains map books, camera bags, extra tapes, binoculars, a high-power spotlight, lens and electronics cleaning wipes, and is where the scanner and some other items are stored when not on their mounts.
• the linksys wi-fi router is next to the tub, held down by the bungee cord that holds the tub in place (I was able to run that using the LATCH hooks where the car seat used to be)
• on the floor you see the white power squid — one of two in the vehicle. Both go to the smaller inverter, which is under the bench seat behind the PC. The other squid is under the driver’s seat. Both are used for the varous small electronics.

Detail of the bench seat. The PC is wrapped in the plastic bag for waterproofing, though that door shouldn’t be opened much in the active portion of a chase, if at all. You can see the network wire (blue) running to the router and the router power coming form the squid. That squid will also have the charger for our AA and AAA batteries, and it will be where any riders can hook up phone chargers, etc.

Front seat detail. Next to the seat on the floor, you see the quick-disconnect for the high-wattage inverter (which is under the seat). That inverter runs the PC and the laptop only.

To the left there are two Panasonic chargers — the back one is connected to the power cable to the camera, so that battery is there only for storage — the charger will not charge and power the camera at the same time. The front charger is the one being used to charge a battery. The batteries are used in the hand-held camera — the one on the tripod never leaves the van.

Further left is the USB hub. It’s there mostly to extend the USB cable to the StormHawk, but will also be used if needed to hook up the still camera or the hand-held camcorder to transfer video to the PC and upload. The FireWire cable to the camera is snaking through the middle of it all.

“Center Column” detail. Bottom to top:

The tripod is held in place by a bungie cord wrapped around the center housing. It’s positioned to clear both drink holders — first time ever that both have been clear in-season <grin>.

The Motorola cell phone clipped to the tripod is the one the PC uses to stream over. It’s connected via BlueTooth (to the dongle a couple of feet away under the driver’s seat). Alltel service, currently getting EVDO about 50% of the time.

The laptop stand is bolted to the floor next to the passenger seat. Right under the top knob, you’ll notice the bracket has been polished. That bracket is why I wanted to replace the stand — in the three years the stand has been in the van, the holes have gradually ovalled, meaning the laptop was dropping almost 6″ from where it should have been when the arm was extended. I disassembled the bracket and took it ot a machine shop, where they welded the holes shut and re-drilled them. So, the new laptop stand becomes a purchase for a future year — $40 to do the repair this year vs. the cost of the new Ram Mount…

The laptop is fairly new this year — went on the last couple of chases last year. It’s a Vostro 1500.

The camera on the tripod is new last year, a Panasonic PV-GS320.

The camera on the dash is 4 years old, a Panasonic PV-GS19. It’s the one that goes hand-held. (BTW: I’m shooting these photos with my still camera bought for chasing, a Sony DHC-H1.

From the other side: you can see the bungee cord a bit better. The yellow splash just under the tripod and near the laptop mount is the newest item, an inexpensive handheld anemometer. Don’t remember the brand name now, but I’m thinking I should have sprung for a Kestrel.

Closeup of the scanner and BlackBerry, which is in a charging mount. Actually, I split the mount off the horrible windshield suction cup it came with and attached it to one of the others I already have, that have much better cups.

All the stuff on the windshield, as seen from the bench seat.

Full view of everything up front.

The way it’s set up, breaking down in the evening at a hotel is easy. Put the cameras away, collapse the tripod, pack up the laptop, and stow the equipment on the windshield mounts. Takes about 5 minutes, and everything can fit in the tub and go into the hotel room, if I feel that’s necessary.

…and with that, back to normal activities…and SDS.

Click to see larger photos