Building a travel tech pack

Diddums

Diddums

Diddums

Caporegime
Joined
24 Oct 2012
Posts
25,693
Location
Godalming
We travel a fair amount and occasionally get caught out in the tech department so I'm building a pack with some goodies:

Usb c to hdmi adapter
Hdmi lead
Fire stick / Chromecast
Battery bank
2x chargers
2x multi-cables
Usb sticks with films
Travel adapters


The aim is to never run out of juice, and if we do, charge quickly, and also never have to watch telly in Turkish / Czech / French / German / whatever as most hotels / resorts only have rubbish English telly, in Prague we literally had some Chinese news channel :eek:

This won't be upgraded for quite some time so I need decent stuff. It'll be dedicated to travelling only so no need to use any of it at home.

If anyone has any suggestions or bits worth adding in please do, I'm looking to make this a good little kit.
 
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Maybe useful, I’ve found it easier to use an “adapted” 4 way UK plug with USB easier than taking multiple adapters, i.e. you only need a single adapted socket for all your UK plugs, you’ll be amazed how many expensive hotel rooms don’t have enough plugs!

Also I’d add in an Asus ROG Flow X13 and a 3080 XG mobile add on, but that’s just me.
 
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My top recommendations:

INIU Power Bank, 100W 25000mAh - Comes up regularly for about £30.
BANGE Travel Backpacks,Weekender Carry On Backpack, Waterproof Men's Business Laptop Backpack - £60. Almost an exact copy of the £250 Gomatic Travel Pack.

Besides that, a decent (Manta, for example) sleep mask and earplug that are comfy to sleep in!
 
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Similar carry bag here although rather than carry films on USB I've now got a Raspberry Pi 5 with a 4TB SSD which I run an emby server and NAS from so I can just stream stuff to my tablet/phone or Chromecast if I desire.
 
On Holiday said:
My top recommendations:

INIU Power Bank, 100W 25000mAh - Comes up regularly for about £30.
BANGE Travel Backpacks,Weekender Carry On Backpack, Waterproof Men's Business Laptop Backpack - £60. Almost an exact copy of the £250 Gomatic Travel Pack.

Besides that, a decent (Manta, for example) sleep mask and earplug that are comfy to sleep in!
Click to expand...

Looks a cracking bag, I'm looking for a decent work bag for my IT kit / laptop / tablet, etc and that may well do the trick.
 
Diddums said:
We travel a fair amount and occasionally get caught out in the tech department so I'm building a pack with some goodies:

Usb c to hdmi adapter
Hdmi lead
Fire stick / Chromecast
Battery bank
2x chargers
2x multi-cables
Usb sticks with films
Travel adapters


The aim is to never run out of juice, and if we do, charge quickly, and also never have to watch telly in Turkish / Czech / French / German / whatever as most hotels / resorts only have rubbish English telly, in Prague we literally had some Chinese news channel :eek:

This won't be upgraded for quite some time so I need decent stuff. It'll be dedicated to travelling only so no need to use any of it at home.

If anyone has any suggestions or bits worth adding in please do, I'm looking to make this a good little kit.
Click to expand...

Funny you started this thread, I am off for 3 weeks later this year and 1 of those I have to work on location and have put together something similar.

So far I have:-

Chromcast
USB-C to USB-C cable x 2
USB-A to USB-C cable x 2
USB-C to Lightning (can't wait to get rid of this)
65W Travel adaptor with 2x USB-C and 2x USB-A ports
65W UK adaptor with 2x USB-C port. (will provide 65w if only 1 device is plugged in, so will be my MBP power supply)
2TB SSD
USB dongle for MBP
MBP
iPad Air (so I can work dual screen)
10,00mha Battery bank
(Also have a Sharge 170 power bank but it is quite heavy and not sure I will need it)

One thing I worry is that some hotel's wifi you log in through a web portal, they don't give you a wifi password, how do you get around those? Since the Chromcast with Google TV need the Wifi passport in the settings bit.

I don't think I will need an HDMI lead since the chromcast has it built in.
 
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Raymond Lin said:
Funny you started this thread, I am off for 3 weeks later this year and 1 of those I have to work on location and have put together something similar.

So far I have:-

Chromcast
USB-C to USB-C cable x 2
USB-A to USB-C cable x 2
USB-C to Lightning (can't wait to get rid of this)
65W Travel adaptor with 2x USB-C and 2x USB-A ports
65W UK adaptor with 2x USB-C port. (will provide 65w if only 1 device is plugged in, so will be my MBP power supply)
2TB SSD
USB dongle for MBP
MBP
iPad Air (so I can work dual screen)
10,00mha Battery bank
(Also have a Sharge 170 power bank but it is quite heavy and not sure I will need it)

One thing I worry is that some hotel's wifi you log in through a web portal, they don't give you a wifi password, how do you get around those? Since the Chromcast with Google TV need the Wifi passport in the settings bit.

I don't think I will need an HDMI lead since the chromcast has it built in.
Click to expand...
You can get mini routers designed for exactly this:
 
dlockers said:
You can get mini routers designed for exactly this:
Click to expand...

How would this work? plug into the hotel's NIC port with it and create my own wifi spot?

I have an old Apple Express (remember those?), won't that do the same thing?
 
Raymond Lin said:
How would this work? plug into the hotel's NIC port with it and create my own wifi spot?

I have an old Apple Express (remember those?), won't that do the same thing?
Click to expand...
I can't personally vouch for them, but I've heard great things. It has OpenWRT on it (if you remember the old days of putting tomato on the WRT-54G Linksys). An Apple Express may work but it wouldn't let you connect to the hotel WiFi, it wouldn't allow you to connect if a Captive Portal was in place (the login web page) etc.
 
dlockers said:
I can't personally vouch for them, but I've heard great things. It has OpenWRT on it (if you remember the old days of putting tomato on the WRT-54G Linksys). An Apple Express may work but it wouldn't let you connect to the hotel WiFi, it wouldn't allow you to connect if a Captive Portal was in place (the login web page) etc.
Click to expand...

Ah I see, looks good. I just wonder how would I put in the hotel portal details into that thing, especially if there isn't a NIC port in the room...that also mean I need to bring a NIC cable, ideally a short one.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Ah I see, looks good. I just wonder how would I put in the hotel portal details into that thing, especially if there isn't a NIC port in the room...that also mean I need to bring a NIC cable, ideally a short one.
Click to expand...
Yeah I'm not sure how it works with a captive portal but I am told it does. The NIC isn't required all the time. There are lots of YT videos including an LTT Short Circuit.
 
dlockers said:
Yeah I'm not sure how it works with a captive portal but I am told it does. The NIC isn't required all the time. There are lots of YT videos including an LTT Short Circuit.
Click to expand...

I need to do some research, cheers.

I know you can do wifi hotspot repeat ont Andriod but not on iPhone (mobile data only).

edit - just putting this page here as a reminder how I can do it...

Connect to Captive Portal - GL.iNet Router Docs 3

Documentation for GL.iNet Router Productions
docs.gl-inet.com docs.gl-inet.com
 
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I have one of these.
It'll Charge my Surface book and everything else.
They do 100w ones if you need that.
VVj9BBl.jpeg


I also have a power bank with same charging spec that'll charge all my stuff.

Everything I own is usbc now except my electric toothbrush charger which is usb-a.
But everything else is C.. No micro. That was a nasty connector

Power bank is iniu.
I like the 25k ones. Because if you're away from a socket for a while it makes a difference. And especially useful for laptops
38L3azg.jpeg
 
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