How do I get online in my van?

Warning! This is a long article, so put the kettle on. But if you persevere you should get a full understanding of mobile internet, with minimum jargon.
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Nothing seems to generate more confusion and questions than getting internet in a vehicle.

So here at last is what I hope is the definite answer, in simple language.

There are two methods to get online while out and about - WiFi hotspots, or through the mobile networks - Orange Vodafone etc.

But first we have to deal with terminology - the use of the word "WiFi". Many people now use the word WiFi to mean the internet in general, and most of the time we know what they mean. "Is there any Wifi?" generally means "is there any internet?".

But the true definition is that WiFi is just a delivery system - it is not actually the internet. But because WiFi is everywhere it's easy to see why it has become a generic word. Just about every home computer, gaming console and hand held device nowadays connects to the internet via WiFi. 

Access via public WiFi

In order for WiFi to work, it has to be broadcast by a router, and that router must be connected to the internet. Most of us are familiar with this because at home, we have a broadband connection that delivers internet down the phone line to the router, and the router broadcasts WiFi so that all our devices can connect to the internet. We also know that if you go too far away from the router, the signal becomes weak and eventually fails.

As well as your home WiFi, there is also public WiFi at bars, restaurants and airports etc. This works in exactly the same way as at home in that somewhere in the business building there is a router that is connected to the internet (usually via broadband over a phone line) and it broadcasts a WiFi signal for customers to log on to - sometimes with a password which is provided by the business, sometimes no password is needed. McDonalds is quite famous for offering free WiFi in its restaurants, and this often extends into the car park which sometimes enables you to sit in your vehicle and use their WiFi.

There are thousands and thousands of these WiFi "hotspots" as they are known, all over the country, all over the EU, all over the world. They are very popular. The advantages of WiFi hotspots is that they are usually free and are not limited to how much data you can use. However the disadvantage is that they can get very busy and are often quite slow as a result. It is similar to the situation at home with a big family - if everybody is online at the same time, the speed will often be slower, because a fixed line speed is being shared by several users - it's the same with public WiFi. Many people will be familiar with the internet being really slow or unusable when using a busy public hotspot.

So using Wifi to access public hotspots is one way of getting online, and if you are in a vehicle, and your vehicle is in range of the hotspot then you can also get online from inside your vehicle this way. However you can often be frustrated because you may not be able to get close enough to get a reliable signal. It is the same on campsites that offer WiFi - if you are too far away from the router then you either get a slow patchy connection compared with somebody who is closer - or maybe no signal at all.

The reason for this is that routers only broadcast the WiFi signals with so much power, and this power is limited by the regulations. It is designed as a short range service, so that many routers can broadcast on the same frequencies without interfering with each other. Generally speaking, the power is designed to be just enough to cover the average house. But as many will know, this isn't always the case. Radio waves don't like travelling through brick walls or metal, so you often get a situation where one room has a weak or no signal, or that the signal will just cover outside the house, but won't extend to the bottom of the garden. Every situation is different. The other reason why this is so is that although the router usually has a decent sized aerial on it, the receiving devices - phones and tablets etc, usually have much smaller built in aerials - aerials that you can't even see because they are built in to the device - usually round the edge of the screen.

So it follows from this that if you had a bigger aerial, then you could receive WiFi further away from the router. But it is impossible to fit a bigger aerial to a phone or tablet, so the tech world came up with the concept of the WiFi extender. This is a device that looks similar to a router, almost identical in fact. It has one or two aerials on it - nice big ones! This device, also called a repeater, receives the original signal from the router and then re-transmits it through its bigger aerial, with the result that devices now have a stronger signal to connect to. So for example, if your original router was in the living room at the front of your house, but could not be received down on the patio at the back of the garden, installing an extender/repeater in the back bedroom window would probably be enough to extend the signal down the garden. As long as the extender/repeater is within range of the main router it can the rebroadcast the WiFi signal over a wider area and everybody is happy. The extender/repeaters can even be daisy chained together so that a large building can be covered quite easily. 

The same thing applies to a vehicle. WiFi reception in a vehicle is a particular problem because most vehicles have metal bodies, and metal is a terrible material for radio waves to travel through. In fact the only way radio signals can get inside a metal vehicle is through the windows. This is why things often seem to work better near windows. Many people in vehicles, in particular motorhomes and campervans, can benefit from using a WiFi extender/repeater in their van. In this situation the extender would use it's bigger aerial to pull in the WiFi signal from, say, a restaurant or bar, and then rebroadcast it inside the van so that all the van occupants can use it. You still have the same problems as you would have if you were sat inside the bar or restaurant - if it's slow and busy in the restaurant it will be no better in the van.

You can improve things even better in terms of distance by using an even bigger aerial than the one supplied with the repeater/extender by buying a roof mounted aerial and connecting it to the box by coax cable. This is known as an external aerial. The golden rule of all radio aerials is that they need to be as high as possible and as big as possible. Radio waves travel in straight lines, so being up in the air is a huge advantage. A bigger aerial like the ones that attach to the back of a router or extender is at least 10 times more efficient than the little one built into a phone or tablet - and an aerial on the roof will perform better still.

So that is my description of the first method of getting online through public WiFi hotspots. The basic rules are that you have to find one, know the password, and be close enough to it for it to work. Plus you have no control over how fast or reliable it is - you have to make do with what you are given. If you are too far away, you can use an extender/repeater, but this will only increase the distance at which you can access, it won't improve the quality.

Access via the mobile phone network

The second method for accessing the internet from a vehicle or while you are out and about is through the mobile networks. As well as enabling you to make calls and send SMS messages, modern smartphones can also access the internet as well. Today this is known as 3G, 4G and soon 5G will be along as well. As you would expect 5G is faster than 4G is faster than 3G. Before 3G there was 2G also known as GPRS, but this is now all but obsolete. Most people with either a contract or pay as you go - PAYG - will have a data allowance included. This is measured in gigabytes - Gb, and you will usually have a set monthly allowance of Gbs of data as part of your deal.

The main thing to remember about mobile data is that unlike home broadband which is usually unlimited data, with mobile data you have a set allowance and once you have used it, you either have to wait until your monthly allowance resets, or you have to pay for more. There are a also few mobile contracts that allow unlimited data, but not many. 

So if you have a smartphone like an Iphone or Android, you can access the internet via 3G or 4G on your phone very easily. You also know that your smartphone can access the internet via WiFi as well. The way you can tell the difference is by looking at the little symbols on the top of your phone display - it will either say 3G or 4G if you are connected to the mobile network, or it will display the little fan shaped icon if you are connected to a WiFi hotspot - the one at your home for example. Most people have their smartphones set so that they access the internet through WiFi if it is available, or if not the phone switches to 3G or 4G automatically.

Modern smartphones also have what is known as a personal hotspot feature. This allows the phone to receive internet over 3G and 4G and then rebroadcasts it via WiFi, using the tiny WiFi aerial built into the phone. Smartphones have 2 aerials - one for receiving and transmitting 3G and 4G, and another for receiving and transmitting Wifi. In effect, modern smartphones have a built-in router. 

So in a vehicle for example, if your phone has a decent 3G or 4G signal, you can use it to re-broadcast the internet it gets from 3G and 4G via WiFi so that your other devices can access the internet through your phone's hotspot service. These devices can be anything that has Wifi - tablets, laptops, smart TVs etc. and the internet data they consume will come out of the same data allowance you have on your phone. It is important to remember what is going on here - your devices connect to your phone using WiFi, and your phone connects to the internet over 3G/4G.

However you have the same constraints with the mobile networks that you have with public WiFi hotspots - if you are too far away from the nearest mobile cell tower - ie no signal - then you will have no access. So it follows from this that if you have a bigger aerial then you have a bigger chance of getting a signal - especially if you are out and about in rural areas. Modern mobile coverage is pretty good, but as we all know sometimes you get "no service".

So how do you get a bigger aerial? You achieve this by using an additional device that has the facility to use a much bigger aerial. This is called a mobile router. A mobile router is a small box that is basically a mobile phone, but can't make calls - it has no keyboard or speaker or microphone. But it takes a sim card that only handles 3G and 4G data - usually called a "data only sim". All the mobile networks offer data only sims, either on contract or PAYG. A mobile router takes a data only sim card, connects to 3G or 4G and then rebroadcasts it as a WiFi hotspot - just the same as using a personal hotspot on your phone, but because it has a bigger aerial it will still have a signal in a weak area when your phone has none. A mobile router will usually have a bigger aerial sticking out of the back of it, quite often more than one aerial - as many as three, depending on the model. In fact it looks very similar to a typical WiFi extender/repeater that I described before, so it is easy to confuse the two, but they are quite different, and this is what causes people confusion. A Wifi extender/repeater connects to an existing WiFi hotspot (say McDonalds) and repeats it. A mobile router connects to the mobile 3G 4G networks from Orange, Vodafone O2 etc and then repeats it locally as Wifi. So both devices offer WiFi to your devices, but they get at the internet by different methods. To put it another way, one is WiFi to WiFi, the other is 3G/4G to WiFi.

MiFi

So what is a MiFi? Some clever guy a few years ago came up with this term, but has caused endless confusion! A MiFi is a small mobile router like I have just described. It takes a data only sim, and rebroadcasts the internet locally via Wifi. The reason they are popular is because they are small and cheap and battery operated. They allow you to set up a personal hotspot just like a smartphone, but without having to tie up the phone itself. If you use a smartphone as a personal hotspot then quite often this can be inconvenient - if the phone rings it can slow down the data connection, or indeed if the owner of the phone wants to go somewhere and take the phone with them, then the hotspot goes with them, and anybody left behind no longer has internet. So MiFis were introduced to get round this and are popular with travellers. But MiFis still suffer from the same constraints as smartphones - they only have a tiny built in aerial which is nowhere near as good as a full sized aerial. However a small number of MiFis do have tiny aerial sockets to which you can connect external aerials and as a result these particular models, mainly from Huawei, are very popular for use in campervans and motorhomes.

So a MiFi is exactly the same as a mobile router - it is just another name for the same thing. However although they do the same thing, there are subtle differences. A MiFi is a small device that is usually battery powered and is charged up by USB whereas a mobile router is generally a bigger device that has bigger aerials and proper aerial sockets to which you can easily connect external aerials. A full sized mobile router will also be usually directly powered by 12v and have no battery. This is an advantage because MiFi devices that have an internal battery when plugged permanently into a USB power source are effectively "permanently on charge" and in hot weather they can get quite hot and the batteries can expand. So the best technical solution for a motorhome is generally to use a 12v mobile router that is designed for permanent connection to 12v.

A mobile router with either a big aerial plugged into the back of it and sited near a window, or with a roof mounted aerial connected to it via coax cable, will pull in a mobile signal at least 10 times better than a phone or MiFi aerial.

So which is best?

So which should you use - public Wifi or 3G/4G? It's horses for courses. If you only want to check email and browse the news and keep up with Facebook, and not being able to access the internet occasionally doesn't bother you, then public Wifi should do you OK. But if you need to have a fast reliable connection available all the time, for work perhaps, then 3G/4G is the way to go and if you tend to travel a lot to out of the way places where mobile phone signals may well be weak then a mobile router with a big aerial will give you the maximum chance of getting online. The only time you will not be online is if you are in a location that has no mobile signal, no matter how big your aerial is. I have been travelling in a van for a very long time and nowadays I find it a very rare occurrence that I have no mobile signal with an external aerial, but it does occasionally happen.

Personally, I very rarely use public WiFi - for me it is just too unreliable, but I am online constantly and demand a lot from my connection. However I do possess an WiFi extender/repeater for occasional use. I have found campsite WiFi to be either expensive or slow, but occasionally I find that in the off season there are not many vans on site and the WiFi is fast - and if I am a bit too far away from the reception office where the router is, then that's when I get out my extender. It is also useful when I am parked outside friend's houses and their home WiFi isn't quite strong enough to penetrate inside the van. But mainly I am on 3G/4G home and abroad. I have a professional quality mobile router and a MIMO dome aerial on the van roof. This provides data to 2 phones, 2 tablets, the satnav, the smart TV and the laptop. I have a UK contract data sim which roams, and in addition while abroad I buy local PAYG data sims as needed. On average I probably pay about £50 a month for data. It sounds a lot but I regard it as an essential utility like electricity and water. I get electricity for free in the van, so it balances out.

Which data sim?

This is a complicated subject and the mobile networks are always coming up with new offers. The basic choice is contract or PAYG. You tend to get more Gb per pound on contract, but PAYG is of course better for occasional use. Then there is the matter of roaming abroad, which is a complex subject in itself, especially with Brexit looming at the time of writing.

Generally speaking, in 2019, and having travelled in many countries, the price of data has come down a lot in the last few years. In most countries now you can buy data for around 50p per Gb or less. How much data you need is entirely up to you. The biggest consumer of data is video - Netflix, Iplayer etc. Most people who have unlimited broadband at home and are used to watching video on demand as much as they want can get a shock when they try to do the same thing on the road via the mobile networks. So you have to shop around. As a general rule of thumb 1Gb will give you about 2 hours of online (not HD) TV. At the time of writing the Three network offers a "Go Binge" option which allows you unlimited video from Netflix or Iplayer and a few others, and is popular. They are also still offering, at the time of writing, an unlimited data package, they are the only UK network to do so to my knowledge. (Go Binge is limited to 10Gb when roaming)

The best approach is to buy a few PAYG sims and see how you go. Once you know what your average usage is you can then start to shop around for a good deal. Right now in March 2019 I am reading that Vodafone have a new deal offering 200Gb a month for £20 on a 12 month contract, and that it will work while roaming. I will believe it when I see it (the roaming!), but it is a sign of the way the market is going. When 5G comes out it is going to be fantastic for watching video - I can see a situation where mobile satellite TV systems costing several thousand pounds become obsolete when you can get HD video over 5G very cheaply. We can but dream.

What is a VPN?

It gets a bit complicated, but in simple terms a VPN is a service that prevents people from knowing which country you are in. Many people know that BBC Iplayer won't work when you are roaming abroad. To get round this you can use a VPN service. It costs a few pounds a month. However if you are using a UK sim, roaming in the EU, then you may find that Iplayer works without a VPN, so it pays to check first.

I hope this helps - please ask questions in the comments below and if you like my blog, please subscribe.

Battery management for camper vans - No excuse not to!

Battery management is about knowing how much capacity your battery has left in real time - similar to how a fuel gauge works on a fuel tank. It is very useful and informative to know just how much charge is flowing into and out of your battery, and how much power is left in the battery. 

To do this you need a gadget that measures all the current going into and out of a battery and uses these measurements to calculate the state of charge of the battery. Such a gadget is called a battery management system. Another name is a battery monitor.

A battery manager consists of 2 main components - the sensor, and the display. The sensor measures the current and the display gives you the information.

Technical alert! Don't worry if you don't understand this paragraph! The sensor device that enables these measurements and calculations to be made is called a shunt. In simple terms, a shunt is a lump of copper through which all current in and out of the battery must pass. The shunt is actually a carefully designed piece of copper that has a precise resistance which can be measured as a tiny voltage - and these tiny voltage are directly proportional to the current. By sampling these voltages many times a second, a simple computer on a chip can calculate and store these values, and if it already knows the capacity of the battery, then it can calculate how much power is left in the battery. Not only that, it can calculate how much longer the battery will last under the current load, and in a charge situation, how much longer the battery will take to get fully charged for a given amount of charge.

For the non technical, all you need to know is that a shunt measures the power in and out of your battery.

In terms of our beloved Classic Hymers, they actually do include a shunt, which is buried inside the back of the fuse box, but this was long before cheap chip computers were available, so all that was possible back then is to use the shunt to drive a meter - the famous "Strom" meter on the panel, Strom being german for power. If the battery is receiving charge, the the meter would deflect into the green, if the battery is giving power, then it goes the other way into the red. The Strom meter is also calibrated in amps - plus or minus 25 or 30, but because of the technology of the time and the tolerances of the shunt, this is only a rough indication.

But nowadays you can do so much better!

So how do you fit a battery management system (BM) to a Classic? It is a lot easier than you would think.

As already mentioned a BM consists of 2 main components - the shunt, and the display. The shunt goes on or near the battery, and the display goes wherever is convenient.

Although the original Hymer shunt is fitted in the positive side of the battery system, and buried inside the fusebox, the modern convention is to fit a shunt on the negative side of the battery, and the easiest way to do that is to simply fit it directly to the negative post of the battery. You just take all the connections that were on the neg of the battery, attach them to one end of the shunt, and then attach the other end of the shunt to the battery neg. It's that easy. Some shunt designs are now so clever that they attach directly, and can be fitted in a couple of minutes. This means that it is easy to fit a shunt to a Classic Hymer.

The other component is a display, and this is also much easier to install than in the past because it doesn't need any additional wiring between it and the sensor because it communicates to the sensor wirelessly - via radio. All it needs is a 12v supply from the nearest convenient point. 

The display contains a small computer chip which does all the calculations - all you have to do is to program it with the total capacity of your battery in amp hours (ah). It needs a few charge cycles to settle down and make its calculations, then after that it is quite accurate.

Here are 2 typical displays (there are many others) - you get an accurate display of system voltage in this case 12.29v. Below that is the number of amps - in this case the battery is discharging 2amps. If it was being charged, the number would be preceded by a + sign. To the left there is a simple battery meter which is showing less than half full - the exact figure is shown below 33%. There are other numbers that represent amp hours and watt hours, as well as a clock and battery temperature gauge.

Recent developments have seen a whole new raft of products come on to the market. One of these is Bluetooth. You can now use your phone or tablet to display the information, and the data is sent from a shunt that has Bluetooth - also known, strangely enough, as a Bluetooth shunt! These are very popular, but you should think about it carefully before you buy one. The main thing is that in order to see the state of the battery, you have to get out your phone or tablet and launch the app - not always convenient. So you might prefer to have a permanent display, so all you have to do is glance at it, in which case you get a BM that has a dedicated display. However some folk are having the best of both worlds by dedicating an old phone, or cheap tablet, to be a permanent van display. This can also be used for many other things - limited only by your imagination.

Once installed and working, you then have access to a whole new world of information about your battery system. There is quite a lot of information on the display, but the three most important values are voltage, amps and a percentage bar graph that tells you the state of your battery - similar to a fuel gauge. 

Here are some examples.

Every time you switch something on in the van, the display changes and tells you exactly how much power that item is using. You can then, if necessary, modify your behaviour to suit how much power you have left. For example, if you switch on your TV or computer, you will be able to see just how many hours of use you will be able to get from the power available. 

If you have solar panels then you can tell how much solar power is going into your battery, less any power that you are using. At a glance you can tell how long it will take for the battery to reach 100%. This is particularly useful when there is not much sunshine about. Many solar controllers have power displays already, but they only tell you how much power your panels are generating - they don't tell you the overall state of charge of your battery - ie how full it is.

While driving, the display will tell you how much charge is going into the battery from the van engine. You can then work out how much driving you need to do before your battery is fully charged.

When on hookup, you can tell how much power your mains charger is delivering.

Power management in a van is important, especially if you spend a lot of time in the van, and more especially if you use quite a lot of power - using a laptop or watching TV are usually the main consumers of battery power. It is very useful to be able to tell at a glance how much power you have left, and also what you need to do in order to get power back into the battery - either from solar, engine or hookup. It is particularly useful with solar, because after a few weeks or months of use, you will get a feeling for just how much power you can expect from solar in any given weather situation. Solar gives you much less power in winter and it is very useful to know exactly how much you can expect from solar, and modify your plans accordingly.

Another great advantage of a battery monitor is that it enables you to avoid abusing your battery, which can shorten its life. Most people know that a lead acid battery should not be discharged below 12v, which is roughly half of its rated capacity. This means in theory that a 100ah battery should give you 50ah of usable power before it drops below 12v. In practice this is almost impossible know without a battery monitor. With an accurate battery monitor you can see the voltage and capacity of your battery on the display, and you can tell exactly how much power you have left. This enables you to make decisions about reducing your power usage to get the best out of what you have left, and ultimately, to switch everything off and go to bed. 

Once you get used to the information at your disposal you can then plan your activity accordingly. If you need to work on your computer for a few hours, or watch a movie tonight, you can tell at a glance whether you have enough power to do so. If it has been a cloudy weekend, wildcamping, and you want to stay put, then you will know how much battery you have left, and ration out the power - ie read a book instead of watch TV.

It may sound a bit daft, but 12v battery systems are not simple mechanical devices that are either on or off, with a fixed capacity. They have character! Battery systems perform differently according to conditions - how much charge, how fast, the temperature ... and they also change as they age. Only with a battery monitor can you get intimate with your battery!

So who would benefit most from a battery monitor? The simple answer is - anybody to who battery power is or has been an issue. If you have ever run out of power unexpectedly or wondered how much power you have left, then you will benefit. The only people who don't need a battery monitor are those who always have enough power for their activities, and never run out. Many people don't run TVs or laptops and only need power for lighting and reading. If you always use EHU then you don't - if you always wildcamp - you do!

Other options - more technical stuff that you can skip!

There is another way of measuring current that doesn't use a copper shunt. This involves using a sensor known as a "Hall effect" sensor, named after the man who discovered it. This works by sensing the magnetic field generated by DC current flowing in a wire. It is the same effect as used in those test multimeters you can buy known as "DC Clamp meters". A hall effect sensor works by having the negative cable passing through it.

These have only become available recently - mostly from China. I have used one, and found it to be very good, but slightly more temperamental than a copper shunt. They also have to be located carefully, as they are easily damaged by knocks etc - we want things to last for years not months.

Another recent development is that fixed displays can now be fed from the shunt by radio - which means no wiring. This makes installation easier. You may ask what is the difference between this and a Bluetooth shunt? Good question - the answer is not much - one used a dedicated display but with no wires - the other is a phone app.

A typical Hall sensor - the negative wire goes through the hole

So what should you buy?

Here is a list of the battery management systems that I know about

Victron - Victron now do a SmartShunt - a snazzy bluetooth shunt that drives their phone app - it is reasonably priced. 

Victron SmartShunt and the App

If you want a dedicated display, then Victron do several - they are called the BMV battery monitors, and there are several in the range.

Victron BMV - you get the full kit with Victron

NASA - NASA is a manufacturer of yacht instruments - not space rockets - and they have produced a very reliable and quality shunt/display BM for years - I have used one myself for 5 years and it is still going strong. They produce the BM1 and the BM1 Compact - the compact has a smaller display.

Nasa BM1, BM1 Compact, and the NASA shunt

NASA have also just brought out a Bluetooth shunt and app.

The new NASA Bluetooth unit

BMPRO - BMPRO are an Australian outfit that produce quality gear - and their latest product is called the Batterycheck. This is a very simple design that blots directly to the battery, and displays on a phone app. They also have some other really fab products, and I believe they are just starting to get UK distribution.

Lovely product ... just bolt one side to the battery, and everything else to the other side! Google "BMPRO" for their other stuff.

China - China has a bewildering array of products available. The reason for this is that BMs are not just for motorhomes. They are used in electric bikes and electric vehicles and in off grid power setups - the principles are all the same - counting amps and calculating capacities. These are available on Ebay, Amazon and Ali Express. I can't possibly review them all. Some use shunts, some use Hall effect sensors. Most cost between $20 and $50 - that's US dollars. Anything cheaper will be no good. The problem is the specifications - the english is always bad. You want something that has a shunt, is for measuring DC and looks like these pictures here. If in doubt get in touch with me. Not all these products are crap - if money is tight, then no reason why not. At these prices you can just play! Most are unbranded, but Juntek seems to have a decent reputation.

Here is a selection of Chinese products - these are the main ones - my personal favourite, which I have used, is the bottom one, often labelled Juntek - available in several versions - including copper shunt, Hall effect sensor, hard wired, non wired (radio).

Finally - a note about Lithium. Lithium batteries are not like normal lead acid batteries. A lithium battery ALWAYS has an electronic battery management system, also called a BM or a BMS. Do not get these confused with what I am talking about here. This article is about BM systems for lead acid batteries.

If you want more information on this subject message me, or contact me on "Classic Hymers Technical" Facebook group. I also offer a fitting service.https://www.facebook.com/groups/297054424534823/