Anton Olsen . com

Stompbox - Howto #5 - Future Plans

USB

My very next step is a PCMCIA USB adapter. Fortunately these things aren't too expensive if you're patient on ebay. I may even build a small 5V power supply that taps off the 12V in to allow more devices. From this point on any other peripherals will have to be USB or RS-232. The obvious advantage of USB is that the device can be powered by the port.

GPS

Now what good is a mobile router if it doesn't know where itself is? The original stompbox image supports gpsd and I plan to get one of the small "gps mice" that are on ebay for $50-60. Once we know where we are and export that information with gpsd we can use a wide range of scripts or apps to access it. A laptop running linux in the car can get gps data over the wifi, we can send the data off to a web server for real-time vehicle tracking and we can also log to a local disk for some war driving logs.

WebCam

I've already got a couple small USB webcams that would make an interesting addition to the stompbox. I'm considering mounting one on the dash of the van to record my location and provide auto geo-tagged pictures to a flickr account.

HD

There is just barely enough room in the case for a 2.5" 9.5mm high laptop drive. I suspect the heat in my car will be a bit too much for a drive, especially here in south Texas, but it's something to consider. It would be fun to have 80GB of music in the glove box and anyone in range can stream from mt-daapd.

Battery

The stompbox needs 12V at less than 1A (depending on peripherals). There are a number of suppliers of 12V external laptop battery packs on ebay that sell for around $40. I haven't taken any real world measurements but I expect the stompbox would run for 3-4 hours on one. I do plan to eventually add a batter pack and charger to another metal case and velcro the two together for a truely mobile internet.

More

Let your imagination run wild and if you do anything cool with your stompbox, please let me know.