I had two experiences this year that inspired a simple little winter project that I like.

In June, I was fishing in Canada and we had trolling motor problems. It was stuck in the water and would come up. Miles from the dock. We both knew there was a way to manually stow the motor, but couldn’t remember the process. Phone worked, but data was unusable. Finally called someone who looked on the internet and told us how to do it.

This fall, camping in a remote area, we wanted to listen to music. Soundbar has an odd interface, and we never did figure out how to pair it with a phone until we got home.

So I started think about a way I could take something with me with manuals and other info that didn’t require internet access. Figured I could go one further and get rid of the paper manuals in the trailer I was hauling around too.

I thought of a DVD, but we don’t always take a laptop, so I looked into a way I could take something that would let me view all of the manuals on my phone or tablet.

Looked into a Raspberry Pi NAS with Open WRT, but it seemed like overkill, though I’m still considering a video server.

Then I came across this:



It’s a travel router. It has multiple functions. It will connect a wired or wireless connection and create its own wireless network which can be handy in places that limit device connections. And it allows you to plug in a USB drive which is accessible over the device’s wireless network whether or not internet is available. Cheap and simple. A USB flash drive holds everything I could imagine needing.