I’ll be going on an extended five-week trip, hopping from city to city and hotel to hotel, soon, and I’d like to take a computer with me. No serious work to be done, just for browsing the web idly in the evenings, sending and receiving e-mail, that sort of thing.
My idea now is to take a Raspberry Pi instead of a laptop. It would be powered via a mini USB cable, but I’m taking that with me anyway for the ebook reader, so no additional luggage. As an input device I’d use a foldable external Bluetooth or USB cable keyboard with a touchpad; as an output device I’d bring an HDMI cable to hook up the thing to the TV sets in my hotel rooms. Bluetooth and WiFi functionality are onboard equipment which the Raspberry comes with. Compared to a traditional laptop, the whole plan would cut down the luggage I’d be hauling around, as well as the financial risk if anything should happen to my suitcases (theft, damage, whatnot).
Am I missing anything which would make this a really bad idea and which I’m currently not seeing? To me, the only downside to this plan is dependence on the TV sets in the hotel rooms; I wouldn’t bring a screen, so I couldn’t use the computer on planes or trains, and I couldn’t use it at all if the hotel rooms don’t have a TV, or one without an HDMI port. But these are downsides I’m fine taking. Anything other than that which I need to be aware of?
And one more question: Is there anything I need to pay attention to when getting the external keyboard? Can I just use any Bluetooth keyboard, or does it require compatibility with the Raspbian OS which a keyboard designed for Windows or MacOS would be unlikely to have? Woudl I encounter problems hooking up the keyboard to the Raspberry via Bluetooth if I don’t have another input device already hooked up to it to begin with?
The dependence on a TV would be a showstopper for me. I suspect you are going to encounter an awful lot of hotel rooms where[ul][]there is no TV.[]there is a TV with no HDMI port.[]there is a TV with an HDMI port, but it is mounted or otherwise positioned in such a way that makes it difficult or impossible to reach the HDMI port to plug in your Pi.[]there is a TV with an accessible HDMI port, but it is mounted or otherwise positioned in such a way that it would be impossible to use as a monitor without standing, craning your neck, and/or scaling the fonts up to a ridiculous size just to read them.[/ul]In my experience, most hotel rooms will have one of these problems. If you’ll be staying in a lot of different hotel rooms, then you’ll probably eventually get one that will work for your setup; if you don’t mind going for unpredictably long periods without using the computer, then I suppose you’ll be fine.
Do you have a smartphone? If your use case is browsing the web and doing email, then perhaps a phone would be fine? You wouldn’t need a keyboard or extra cables, and your phone charger may well power the e-book reader as well. I guess that you may have discounted this approach for some reason, but just thought I’d mention it.
I’m not clear from your post whether you already have a Pi or not; if not, then you’ll need to budget for a case and a memory card to install the OS to, if you don’t have a suitable one lying around. Raspberry Pis* are quite fussy about power supplies, as well, so check that the one you’re planning to use is compatible.
I’m not sure how Bluetooth keyboard discovery would work - I have used wireless keyboards with the Pi before, but that was via a dedicated USB dongle, so the Pi thought there was a wired keyboard connected. For what it’s worth, that was a normal wireless keyboard sold as PC compatible.
A smart phone or small tablet is fine for web browsing and what not; you can use the keyboard with it if you want and avoid the need of carrying any video cables.
Forgot to add - I’m reminded of the time a colleague and I attended a training course and were told to bring our laptops. The problem was that we were only lowly desk-based creatures, and had not yet had mobile computing bestowed upon us.
We seriously considered mounting our tower PCs in a couple of old suitcases, and gaffa-taping our flat screen monitors to the inside of the lid. Voila - two laptops. Sadly, our proposal was not met with managerial favour, and we had to make do with print-outs.
Where are you going? In the States, many hotels have a computer in the lobby, and most public libraries have them available, although both usually have time limits.
I have one of these little guys - it runs on Android and works pretty well for traveling. The version I have was just under $100, so not a big deal if something happened to it.
When flying and weight/bulk needs to be kept to a minimum I just bring my low end Amazon Fire tablet. I have a keyboard/case since I need to really type and those screen keyboards just don’t do it.
But when driving and it doesn’t hurt to throw something better in, I have my old Nook HD+ tablet with HDMI adapter*. Put a bunch of shows on it, plug it into the hotel TV and I’m watching good stuff. (Also has a keyboard/case.)
Someday even the low end tablets will have a simple USB-C -> HDMI cable and things will be simpler.
I have a bunch of Pis but except for special use Zeros I don’t think of them as “portable”. Either I need a real screen or they are headless.
This adapter also includes a power port so no worries about draining the battery.
I sometimes do “sort of” what you’re thinking, but I use my cell phone (Android 8.1) and a video casting unit I bought on Amazon for about $20. The cast unit is unusual in that it has both HDMI and VGA outputs. I power it from my portable battery pack, or I can use a standard micro-USB power supply. Unlike a FireStick, it does not require a separate wifi network to connect to my cell phone. I also use a BT keyboard/pad. All together, I’m taking just a few extra items (including an HDMI cable).
The biggest advantage for me is that my phone can easily swap from 4G data to wifi, depending on where I am. Plus, it’s already configured with my e-mails and an office suite. Nothing against a Raspberry, but my way seems a lot easier.
Thanks for your thoughts. The trip is to China and Japan; I already have the Raspberry (and an SD card for the OS) - I bought it a few months ago, more out of curiosity than with any particular purpose in mind.
