Carryon computing

I have an ongoing project to explore options to "travel light", be it by air, road or foot.

Various walking treks have been documented, with experiments carrying light-weight gear, such as these in 2016:
Trek #3: http://bkhome.org/news/201607/field-test-3.html
Trek #4: http://barryk.org/light/field-tests/ft4-camera-gps.htm

This year, 2017, I will be airborne, traveling within Australia and internationally.

The requirement this time is to carry enough computing gear to be able to continue with my Quirky Linux project, apart from normal Internet access.
I will be staying at places that do not have a room safe, so will need to think about security of my gear while away from my room. At times, I might even be in shared rooms.

I own an Asus E200HA baby laptop, and have Quirky Linux installed on it, sharing the internal 32GB solid state drive with Windows 10. Getting Quirky to work reasonably well on this computer has been a saga -- do a search for "E200HA" on my blog.

A Pacsafe Travelsafe 5L security bag is just right, takes my laptop, with room for a few more things, such as camera. I got together everything that I thought I would need, then split them into four categories: laptop+security bag, computer bag, power bag, and miscellaneous bag.
This is what it all looks like:


The all-up weight is 3.3kg. Hmmm, if I want that to be in my carryon bag, which has a limit of 7kg, that leaves 3.7kg including weight of bag.

Looking inside each bag. By the way, those bags are from Kathmandu, Packngo "SX" size. This is what is in the computer bag:
Wi-fi router, USB mouse, bluetooth mouse, bluetooth keyboard, bluetooth speaker, Raspberry Pi3. The striped bag has SD-cards and USB Flash sticks. What got missed out of that photo, but is included, is a 1TB USB3 hard drive. This lot weighs 909gm:


All three bluetooth devices are USB-rechargeable.

Ok, throwing in a photo of the 1TB USB drive. This will work with the laptop and the Pi3, though in the latter case a very beefy power supply is required. Here is the drive:


Powering all of the devices is a problem. Partly because I will be traveling internationally, so will need to plug into various power sockets. Here is a photo of what I put together, weighing 699gm:


There are three different power adaptors in that photo. At the bottom is the charger for my phone, though strictly not required, as the one above has multiple outputs, 1A and 2.1A and international adaptors. On the left is the adaptor for the laptop.

Also included in the bag is a small immersion rod, for boiling up water for cups of tea or coffee, or just to sterilise water when it is a bit dodgy.
There is also a double-adaptor and a couple of extra socket adaptors.

The miscellaneous bag has my camera, torch, and ear-piece. Both the camera and torch are USB-reachargeable. Weight is 280gm:


Not all items listed above are essential, but I do want some leaway to experiment with the gear while traveling. Now thinking beyond, to definitely non-essential, but maybe good-to-have items. My luxury extras bag is 783gm:


It contains a 5V 6A power supply for the Pi3, so as to be able to run the 1TB drive off the Pi3. Also, a USB optical drive, for creating live-CD Quirkies.

For the carryon bag, that extra "luxuries" bag is not going to make it. If I do have some check-in luggage, then yes, it can come.

Anyway, lots of fun getting this gear together!

Tags: light