Good Ideas
Sometimes we run across some really good ideas, or we stumble across them by accident or trying a bad idea first. So I thought that I would share some of them on the site and hopefully, it may save others time and money.
StreamSmartBlue Pro
As we were planning to get on the road full time we were looking into all the different ways that we could watch TV. Plan number one. Change our home base Dish Satelite to one mounted on the RV. After a long conversation with the parts guy at Camping World, we would need the top of the line dish to get what we had been getting at home. After installation costs, it was going to set us back just over $2,000, plus $80/month for a minimum of two years.
Our second plan was to live stream Direct TV. Since we use AT&T and Direct TV is now owned by them, we could get the dish, DVR, and service set up at my sister's house. That way we could live stream TV to our phones for no extra cost or data usage and then mirror our phones to the TV in the RV. We could even use the DVR remotely with our phones. This would eliminate the need for a dish mounted on the RV and my sister could have free satellite in her home! But once it was all set up and we gave it a try, we found that Direct TV had built in software to prevent their live stream from being mirrored to a larger screen. I guess their thought was that no one really watches TV on their phones much. We canceled the service. All through the process, we were told that is was no problem to mirror their stream.
Our third plan was StreamSmart. This was something that I had never heard of before. We were at the Portland RV Show and we stopped at a booth that was selling these small blue boxes. You simply connect them to the Internet hardwired or wireless and then to a TV or a monitor with an HDMI cable. The box gives you the ability to stream anything that is on the Internet directly to your phone. You can stream everything from U-tube, to Netflix, to Hulu, to networks like HBO, CBS, etc., to websites, to live TV, to live sports, to movies that are still in the theaters. If you purchase the box through them and not a third party like Amazon, you receive regular updates and free help with any issues you might have. The price of the box varies a bit depending different things, it is usually in the $400 neighborhood. Once you purchase the box, you never pay another cent.
We bought one there at the show and have been using it for several months. We've been able to watch everything from live morning news to all six seasons of Game of Thrones on HBO. AT&T has unlimited data plans now so we use a wifi hotspot for our Internet. Unlimited Internet from AT&T means they may slow you down after 22 gigabits, but that's per device. Last month when we passed 54 gigs, we weren't able to stream, so for $10 a month, I added a second hotspot and the problem was solved. It is a bit tricky to figure out how everything works and how to find what you're looking for, but once you figure out how to save things as "favorites" then it's very quick and easy to watch your shows.
To find the device go to https://www.streamsmartblue.com/ I was so impressed with the device when Jacob (the gentleman I purchased it from) was back in the Portland area at another show, I found his booth and asked how I could help promote the device. He set me up with a discount code that people I show the device to can use to take $50 off of whatever the internet price is currently at. Just type in Rick6210 at the checkout page. Contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you want to contact Jacob personally. He can answer every question you might have. When my friend Tom contacted him, he actually was able to come to Tom's RV and show him how it all worked. I can't say enough good things about Jacobs knowledge and professionalism.
Senses Drinking Fountain
After having mice chew through more than a half a dozen water lines, an air line, and even a fuel line we decided to get a cat. Like a lot of fixed male cats, Abbott has a urinary problem. Mainly he wasn't drinking enough water. So under the suggestion of our vet, we found a fountain with a constant flow of water. The fountain was fairly inexpensive on Amazon and it worked surprisingly well. The fountain has a small submersible pump that is suction-cupped to the bottom of the bowl and is powered with a USB plug so we can run it while we're driving the motorhome down the road. When there is enough water, the fountain is silent, but as the water level goes down you can hear it gurgle a little, so we know to add water. There is a filter that the water flows through that needs to be rinsed every so often. Bottom line is, the cat is drinking a lot more water and hasn't had any issues since and the dogs love it as well.
RV Side Mount Video Camera & Monitor
Before we purchased our motorhome I test drove a new Tiffen class A. Not having much experience in driving a large motorhome I was a bit apprehensive about driving in traffic and safely switching lanes. One of the things that eased my mind a bit was that there were built-in side-mounted cameras and when I turned the turn signal on the GPS monitor switched to the appropriate side camera located just below the side mirrors and gave me a clear view of my blind spot. How cool was that? I was tempted to buy the motorhome for that one feature. A couple of years later when we were trading in our fifth-wheel for a 40' class A, imagine my disappointment when I saw that it didn't have these cameras. So I went on Amazon to see what side cameras would cost and I was quite surprised by my findings. For $179 I found a video system with two side cameras, two bracketed camera (one for facing front, the other for the rear), a 9" monitor, a remote, four 50' lengths of video cable, and associated hardware. All the camera have infrared LED lights for night vision, and the monitor has options to view any combination of split screen or full-screen views utilizing all four camera channels. It even connected to my turn signal to automatically switch to full screen on each side camera. Wiring it up was quite simple as well, even though the turn signal wire has pulsating voltage on it caused by the blinker, the camera isn't affected by it. Since my coach has a built-in rear-view camera with its own built-in monitor to watch my dinghy follow me down the road, I used that camera and mounted it under the front TV to view into the cabin when things fall. Each camera has a mirror option so you don't get confused looking at the rear view without turning around. I've been using the cameras for a couple of years now without a glitch. (knock on wood) The scariest part of the whole system was mounting them on the side of the coach. I believed I search RV camera systems on Amazon and found exactly what I was looking for. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.