Working from Not Home -- review of Jackery 500 & Solar Panel (and WeBoost)

[jhmoore]

I'm just back from my inaugural trip of about 2 weeks working my regular job from out in the wilderness. I'm a software product manager and my job involves being on a computer and/or calls all day, so the two things I had to solve were power and internet. For power, I went with a Jackery 500 and Jackery 100W solar panel, and for internet I went with a WeBoost Drive Reach cell signal booster with add-on bigger antenna. This trip was supposed to start around Labor Day and run until the end of October, but life intervened and I wasn't able to get out of Southern California until late October--making the weather and amount of daylight outside of working hours much more of an issue.

Bottom line, the technology and setup worked. I was able to work from the wilderness and no one noticed. (My boss knew.) I had sun pretty much every day and never got the Jackery battery below 70-some percent. However, the solar panel did get flipped in the wind and damaged. Good news, it still worked fine. Bad news, it's pretty easily damaged and pretty easily blown in the wind. Even better news, I contacted Jackery to ask about a couple things and comment that I was heartbroken that it got damaged on literally the first day of the trip and they were very kind and sent me a replacement. The cable between the solar panel and the battery is too short for my setup and Jackery does not sell an extender, but apparently there are 3rd party extenders--so I need to do a little research.

As to the WeBoost, I had surprisingly good cell service at "office #1," so don't know if it worked there, but at "office #2" I could very much tell the difference and that the WeBoost was doing something.

Video of my setup here:

Two highlights of the trip, with video to follow:
- the guys camped about a 10 minute walk from "office #1" were actually from a band and put on an incredible nighttime concert (acoustic guitar and singing) at their campfire one night
- one morning at "office #2" one of the doors on my 4Runner wouldn't open... turned out that the caked mud had frozen & I ended up having to chip my door open with an axe!

 

[hg1027]

Good video, I liked that you showed all the wires crisscrossing the setup.

I guess that video was primarily about the networking/power, I think I saw you slept in the 4runner and most of the gazebo was office.

What issued would you have had with rain/wind/dust? I saw the windows were open for wires. Maybe if permanent you could come up with a window mount bulkhead. I guess you would also more permanently mount the solar.

I assume all the tech was in the 4runner for weather/theft protection and so you could work from bed/passenger seat.

Will you be looking for winter friendly locations to do this more? Wait for spring?

I've been checking signal at all the campgrounds we've been to, there are a couple good possibilities but my wife can't remote, and cell phone as hotspot seems to struggle with both kids on Zoom meetings and me working at the same time. Some day!

 

[jhmoore]

I guess that video was primarily about the networking/power, I think I saw you slept in the 4runner and most of the gazebo was office.

Yes, I had a bed of 6 inches of memory foam, a winter sleeping bag, and a heavy-weight down comforter in the back of the 4Runner. Office was the gazebo, though everything came out of the gazebo at night except for the table & chair.

What issued would you have had with rain/wind/dust? I saw the windows were open for wires. Maybe if permanent you could come up with a window mount bulkhead. I guess you would also more permanently mount the solar.

No rain on this trip. Wind was a real problem the first couple days. First day was a high of about 35 degrees with winds to 20-30 MPH. It was brutal and I nearly gave up. You can buy velcro side panels for the gazebo to block wind, which I'll probably do. Also just avoid cold & windy places! Dust was also a problem in Southern Utah when it was windy. Mud was a problem in Wyoming because it had been wintery but then was unseasonably warm. Up in Wyoming I ran the extension cord from the top of the gazebo over to the 4Runner roof rack, then along the roof to the window--to keep it out of the mud--but then I left an "extension cord, don't drive away!!" note on my steering wheel! Windows were cracked for the cables, but just slightly and then I had some of those fabric screens pulled over them at least to keep any bugs out. I doubt that I would permanently mount the solar for this setup... need to be able to track the sun during the day without moving the vehicle! A longer cord to the panel would be very helpful, though.

I assume all the tech was in the 4runner for weather/theft protection and so you could work from bed/passenger seat.

Computers, cameras, etc., stayed in the 4Runner for protection unless being used. The solar setup stayed in the 4Runner because WeBoost told me that I couldn't mount that equipment outside--there needs to be the metal of the vehicle between the WeBoost external antenna and its secondary antenna. So since the secondary antenna and the WeBoost box (the controller piece) had to be inside, then the Jackery battery needed to be inside, as did the MiFi device... which needed to be near both the Jackery and the WeBoost secondary antenna. But of course the solar panel had to be outside and the cable isn't that long! So, yeah, the whole system was pretty tight... but worked!

Will you be looking for winter friendly locations to do this more? Wait for spring?

Great question! I was supposed to go for week 3 up near Seattle or the San Juan Islands, but... it was forecast to rain all week this week... which would not be fun working outside in my little gazebo... I haven't decided if I'll do a few more weeks this winter or wait until spring!

I've been checking signal at all the campgrounds we've been to, there are a couple good possibilities but my wife can't remote, and cell phone as hotspot seems to struggle with both kids on Zoom meetings and me working at the same time. Some day!

I suggest running multiple cell signal devices, especially if kids are on Zoom and you're trying to work. Put you on the one with the strongest signal and them on another. It was a little crazy how much cell data I went through in two weeks. Definitely something to keep track of and prepare to spend some money. But, yeah, more than one device on more than one network. My cell phone is AT&T and the MiFi device is Verizon.

Thanks for the interest!

 

[jhmoore]

Here's the video from the trip: