Teamviewer and minus temperatures

[AlistairW]

Hello,

I have not used Teamviewer as I use USB repeaters, but I want to experiment with Teamviewer. I have a pier, and the temperature last night was -5C. If I was simply to stick a laptop outside near the pier, then I am sure a combination of cold and moisture condensing would have eventually blown the laptop up. Anyone got any good solutions to this (apart from build an obsy :-))

Thanks

Alistair

[cjdawson]

Stick an upside down bucket over the laptop.

I'm not exactly kidding.    The idea is that the laptop will heat the air inside the bucket.  Also the plastic will protect the laptop from dew which will settle on the outside of the cover.

 

IF you want something more elaborate, you can make a dew shroud for your laptop out of corrugated plastic.  This will have the same effect.  You'll still be able to use the laptop with this in place.   It would be great at a star party from upsetting people at a star party

[bottletopburly]

I put my laptop in the shed which has a powerline adapter  then usb to the scope in the garden ,sat in the house on another laptop connected via team viewer ,really simple or you could put laptop in a small tent 

[Tim]

Any sort of cover, even a cardboard box will help. Don't forget the fans from the laptop will keep the dew out of the enclosure.

[D4N]

Mine sits in a plastic box with the lid closed and a desiccant sack inside.

[Martin-Devon]

Yep, as above a plastic box with lid, placed on it's side so the lid goes on/off at the front. I use this even in my observatory since there's so much moisture & condensation now that it's essential to keep the laptop inside this. I've drilled a hole in the other side (actually bottom of the plastic box) and fed the cables through this, it's now very well insulated from the elements and Teamviewer runs all night long like this.

Martin 

[dyfiastro]

Any kind of plastic box will do. If forgot to this the other night and ended up with a layer of ice on the lid.
If you set up the power options you can also keep the lid closed without it sleeping etc... which will cut down on stray light if you box is see though at all.

I use team viewer but even with a decent wifi connection I found it a little slow at times.
I have just put together a network cable long enough to run out to the laptop along with the power cable and that has really speeded things up (Gigabit  connection).

[Ibbo!]

My toughbook thumbs its nose at the cold, damp etc.

The other night the screen froze - literally and still carried on working.

[Chris Murray]

hia, i use a fishing brolly, its big enough to have a small table or stool for the lapy and got room for a chair to do all the setting up, then close the lid and go indoors, it keeps dew and frost off and is comfortable when checking every thing, cheers

[Waldemar]

Not cheap, but it works really well:  Icron Ranger: http://www.icron.com/products/icron-brand/usb-extenders/cat5/usb-2-0-ranger-2204/
I have two camera's , a filterwheel, mount and focuscontrol running over it and control things from inside the warm house without any problems whatsoever.
No USB problems, no wifi problems, no failing teamviewer and 100 meters range...

To prevent moisture problems I use Nano Protech spray for electronics on all my equipment: http://www.nanoprotech.co/

 

[AlistairW]

Thanks for the suggestions - would like one of those ranger units - but will try Teamviewer over WiFi initially - and sort out some sort over cover for the laptop.

[Uranium235]

I found WiFi to be a bit iffy in regard to transfer rates. My garden slopes away from the house so the signal has a lot of brick and earth to travel through (or not travel at all, which was the case!)

What I do is to pop the mount/camera PSU, imaging netbook, 4 gang extension reel in a crockbox (can be gotten from tesco for a few quid), then use powerline networking to control it all from the PC in the house.... no need for USB repeaters and the connection is rock solid all night. The heat from the PSU and netbook keeps everything in the box nice and dry all night long:

Its an old photo since I dont use a dewshield on the Star71 anymore (now using a dewstrip).

[SonnyE]

We have these plastic storage bins here that I use. Stow away the lid, invert the bin and Wa-La! A Plastic Observatory!

I can keep the Laptop open, put a brick beside my base I have it on for ventilation, and it can sit there WiFi'ing to the inside tower computer. All night if need be.

 

I use to use Teamviewer, but grew tired of the nagging to buy it. So I sought out a different WiFi control and came to Tight Vnc. It doesn't transfer my picture files inside like TeamViewer would, but I use a USB thumb drive in my powered USB hub outside to store my fit files, or jpg's. (Saving my Laptops bulging hard drive)