Podcast Gear

Focusrite Scarlet 2i2

This is the Focusrite Scarlet 2i2. This is a USB interface device that allows us to plug in up to two XLR microphones. This interface will accept microphones that require 48V phantom power, as well as microphones which do not need phantom power. The device offers direct monitoring and more.

Find out more about the Focusrite Scarlet here: https://us.focusrite.com/products/scarlett-2i2-3rd-gen

Microphones

As we previously mentioned, there are a LOT of microphones on the market. Even after reducing the options to XLR the field is still very large. After reading reviews and researching for what seemed like a very long time, we made the decision to purchase the following microphones:

Condenser Mics

NEEWER NW-800

This is a great little mic that won’t break the budget. XLR interface and supports phantom power. We have two of these microphones in our podcast gear. They work very well and we have no complaints.

NEEWER Uni-directional (Shotgun) Microphone

This shotgun microphone works well. When in uni-directional mode sound only comes from one direction. Noise from the other directions is minimal, if detected at all.

NB: 48V phantom power is required in order for this microphone to operate in unidirectional mode. As of this writing the NEWER shotgun mic is unavailable, but the link will take you to the same mic under a different brand.

Movo VXR10-PRO External Microphone

While not directly part of our podcast gear, we purchased this microphone for better audio recording outside the studio, such as filming with a cell phone. This mic provides much better sound recording than the built in microphone on any phone. With USB-C and 1/8″ cables provided, this microphone should interface to all (or at least most) of your devices.

MOVO Lapel Microphone

We received this lapel mic as part of a special offer when we purchased the MOVO external mic above. It’s a great bit of podcast gear for those lapel mic moments.

Other Helpful Items

These items aren’t required podcast gear, but might be helpful.

Cable Matters XLR Cables

The XLR cables that come with these microphones may or may not work when you get them. They may or may not work a month later. Better quality XLR cables are probably in your future. We like these from Cable Matters.

Xvive Phantom Power Injector

This device injects phantom power into a microphone which requires it. The function that this device provides is fulfilled by the Scarlet in our setup, but would be useful in a setup which does not include an external DAC. For example, this will allow an XLR mic to be plugged directly into a computer’s sound card using the appropriate cable or converter (XLR -> 1/8″).

MAONO USB Microphone

If all of this talk of DACs, XLR and phantom power is over your head, or if you just want to get started right away, you could do worse than this microphone. This microphone supports USB-C as well as XLR interfaces with phantom power. This might be a good starter microphone to get started without springing for the whole XLR setup up front.

Conclusion

If the question is “What gear should I buy to start a podcast?” our answer would have to be “It depends”.

As we said, we have multiple uses in mind for this equipment that are not directly related to a podcast. Sam specifically wanted to be able to move the entire recording setup between computers by only swapping one cable. This setup accomplishes that goal and more, and we are very happy with this podcast gear.

Good luck on your podcast!

The post By Request: Podcast Gear appeared first on Metaphysical Family.

We are pleased to announce that we have partnered with COLETTI to give you a chance to win a COLETTI Bozeman 12 Cup Coffee Percolator for FREE!

That’s right, no strings attached. You too could have your very own COLETTI Bozeman 12 Cup Coffee Percolator as recently featured on our Facebook page, and here on our blog.

You can watch our Facebook reel here: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1596880684085130

Contest Rules

To be eligible to win this COLETTI Bozeman 12 Cup Coffee Percolator all entrants must complete the following.

• Like our Facebook Page
• Share the giveaway post on Facebook
• Enter the contest form below

Winner will be drawn at random on on Saturday, February 20th, at 11:59pm. Winner will be notified by email. Winning entrant must follow all contest rules and have confirmed their email to be eligible to win.

The post COLETTI Bozeman Coffee Percolator Giveaway! appeared first on Metaphysical Family.

In our previous post around RV move day checklists we presented a modified boilerplate checklist that we had found online. Since that time we have changed and consolidated the lists from four checklists down to two checklists.

RV Move Day Checklist – Day Before Moving

RV Move Day Checklist – Move Day

Download your copy today

We are making our RV move day checklists available to our readers for free. If you don’t have a move day checklist, you probably should. Just fill out the form below to download your copies of the RV move day checklists right away!

The post RV Move Day Checklists Revisited appeared first on Metaphysical Family.

Hotspot “Prep”

The first thing we underestimated about the Lippert OneControl Hotspot was exactly what made the RV “prepped”. The pre-wiring consists of the following items:

1. A plate in the ceiling of the mid-bunk loft. This plate sports two SMA connections and one 12V barrel plug.
2. An antenna mount on the roof of the RV. NOT an antenna, but a place to mount one.
3. Two short cables with SMA ends between these two components

That’s it.

The rest of the components necessary to have a working hotspot must be purchased from Lippert.

The Lippert Hotspot Kit

We were excited at the prospect of a turn-key solution for internet. Since the internet travels with us, we should never be bothered by congested or weak campground interent service. As long as we can get a good signal (and the tower isn’t overloaded), we should have internet wherever we go.

Lippert ships these units with a 4G SIM card on AT&T’s network pre-installed. Included with the router is a “claim code” which is to used at a Lippert website to claim the router that you have purchased. During this process you must also choose a data plan.

And this is where things go sideways.

Claim Codes

The first issue we had with this device was in claiming it. When we received the unit we went to the Lippert website to claim our device. We logged in, accepted the long (and intrusive) terms of service, and entered our claim code. The website responded that our claim code had already been claimed and to have the owner “un-claim” the device.

As this was a new device, we were a bit confused.

A phone call to Lippert customer support led to a ticket being created for “the back office” personnel to look into our issue. This was on a Tuesday. Friday afternoon we received an email stating that the problem had been resolved, and requested us to try the registration process again.

On returning to the Lippert website we found that the claim code had been tied to our account, and that we had a device registered. It was now time to choose a data plan.

Data Plan Options

By “time to choose a data plan”, we mean that you must choose a data plan to proceed.

While there is a button labeled “No Plan”, the website will not allow you to proceed by using it. Clicking the “No Plan” button only results in a modal window with a submit button that doesn’t do anything. It did not matter which browser we used, only the cancel button worked.

So after a week of having a non-functional door-stop because of the claim code issue, now we have a non-functional door stop because I don’t want to choose one of Lippert’s service offerings today.

I’m only trying to get access to the router. The router will not accept a local login until it has been claimed and service set up.

There must be a better way…

Enter the Internet

It turns out that the Lippert OneControl Hotspot is actually a rebranded ZBT WiFlyer WE826.

When not purchased from in Lippert branding this device runs something called “OpenWRT” — an open source router project from way back. This is good news! It means that we should be able to flash OpenWRT onto the device.

Why would we do such a thing?

Because we paid for the hardware, and want to use it how we see fit.

Lippert’s data plan choices are poor at best. Why would we pay $65/month for 10GB of data with AT&T from Lippert when we can buy 50GB of data from T-Mobile for $50, or 100GB of data from AT&T for $55?

Flashing the Router

So we head over to OpenWRT’s forums where we find that the folks at the ROOter project have cooked up a firmware image for the WE826. The ROOter project is a fork of OpenWRT which is especially aimed at routers with cellular modems installed, or on a USB interface. The ROOter project provides an interface to enter AT commands to the modem, which proved invaluable during the nightmare before us.

The WE826 has a recovery feature in case of a bad firmware installation. Using this interface to overwrite the Lippert installed firmware will absolutely void your warranty with Lippert. Do this _ONLY_ if you are capable of running this device yourself.

To enter emergency flash mode simply hold down the reset button while plugging in the power to the router. The router will turn on and start the emergency recovery console. Plug a network cable into one of the LAN ports on the router and connect to http://192.168.1.1/

_{Note – the router will not start a DHCP service in emergency recovery. You must manually set the IP address of your device to something in 192.168.1.0/24. 192.168.1.20 should work fine.}

We were able to get the router flashed using the interface to upload the firmware image downloaded from the ROOter site.

Confident that the “better way” was within reach, we went to AT&T for a prepaid data-only sim — 100GB for $50/month. For reasons known only to AT&T, these SIMs can not be purchased online.

Your IMEI and You

To understand what happened next, a person needs to be familiar with the IMEI.

Wireless modems, cell phones, etc, all have what is known as an IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number. It’s basically a serial number for the radio. The Lippert OneControl Hotspot has an IMEI as well – the IMEI of the wireless modem inside the device.

We were never able to get the AT&T data-only sim to work in the router. We do not know why because AT&T won’t tell us. What AT&T did tell us is that prepaid data-only SIMs are non-refundable.

What we suspect happened is this:

1. We installed the SIM into the Lippert device with the IMEI from the “Lippert” radio already registered on AT&T’s network.
2. AT&T’s network monitoring software detected that the modem was being used with an unapproved SIM and promptly blacklisted the SIM and the IMEI.

We suspect this because …

Replacing the Modem

The modem inside the WE826 is a Quectel EC25 on a replaceable mini PCI-e card.

Deciding that the issue must be due to the IMEI on the device belonging to the Lippert/OneControl device, we decided to purchase a different modem. The Sierra Wireless MC7400 seemed like a good fit.

Changing the modem was a challenge. Someone – Lippert or ZBT – applied epoxy all over the antenna connections on the card. We were able to remove the epoxy by poking at it gently with a hot metal pick. We (somehow) managed to remove the epoxy without damaging the antenna leads.

DHT Electronics 2PCS 20CM SMA Female to U.FL IPX IPEX WiFi Cable for U.FL Mini PCI Card These pigtails are suitable for replacing the 4G radio pigtails that come in the WE826.

Unfortunately, after installing the replacement modem and hooking everything back up, the hotspot _still_ doesn’t connect to get an IP address on the AT&T network.

Disgusted, but Determined

At this point I am completely disgusted with the whole project.

AT&T swore to us that the SIM was activated and that they could find no reason why it wouldn’t be working. Our ticket with the “engineering department” (#000000304157209) was equally pointless.

It’s seeming more and more likely that we had just spent $400 to fill the antenna shaped hole on the roof, and that we would be replacing the Hotspot.

T-Mobile To The Rescue!

I used the very last bit of motivation for this project to go to a T-Mobile store and purchase one of their 2GB data-only SIMs. At least if it doesn’t work the lesson will be less expensive.

Can you guess what happened?

It worked!

This is why we believe our SIM/IMEI numbers were blacklisted by AT&T. The same hardware and software connects to T-Mobile’s network without any issues. The ONLY reasons that the AT&T SIM wouldn’t work are within AT&T’s network.

In the end I paid $75 to learn that AT&T doesn’t seem to care too much about supporting prepaid customers.

Our Recommendation

“RV Internet” options are limited and expensive. What is important to understand is that all “RV internet” offerings are cellular internet from AT&T, T-Moble, Sprint or Verizon being resold to you at a profit.

If your RV is prepped for the Lippert OneControl Hotspot you can purchase the kit and use it with one of Lippert’s data plan offerings. The hardware is not great and the service is expensive, but it will probably suffice for weekenders who don’t stream their entertainment.

If your RV is prepped for the Lippert OneControl Hotspot and you do not want to be bound by Lippert’s service offerings you can still buy the kit, but accept that you are spending $400 on the antenna. Whether you replace the modem or the entire unit, you will be upgrading the router, one way or another.

Update

After living with this router for a a few months, it is really pretty terrible.

It reboots at least every few days, and sometimes several times on the same day, and always at the least opportune times. We will be replacing it.

Maybe we will let the Raspberry Pi act as the router…

Mini PCI-E to USB Adapter with SIM Card Slot for WWAN LTE Module with SIM 6 Pin 8 Pin Card Connector Turn a mini PCI-e modem into a USB modem

The post Taming the Lippert OneControl Hotspot appeared first on Metaphysical Family.

UPDATE: After this post was published we established a relationship with RVAirFlow to offer you a discount! Use code METAPHYSICAL.FAMILY at checkout to receive 15% off your order.

Anyone who has lived in an RV has spent time and money trying to improve the cooling efficiency of their air conditioners. Most of these efficiency upgrades come in the form of air flow modifications.

If asked to give an opinion of the installation of the air conditioning units in our RV, I would have to say that it was not completed as well as it could have been. I would not go so far as to call it poor work, but it certainly wasn’t great work.

The roof of our RV is constructed in layers. The ducting for the air conditioning vents runs within these layers of the roof. They start (or end, depending on perspective) within the large box at the rear of the RV, run down both sides of the rig, and all the way to the front air conditioning unit in the master bedroom in theand first set of registers front.

The 36BHQ features two 15,000BTU Coleman Mach 15 air conditioning units

Seal the Ducting

Where these ducts terminate into the air conditioning charge chambers is a well known trouble spot in the RV world. RVs sometimes end up assembled with poorly taped up joints at the ducting. This can allow conditioned air to be blown into the ceiling space instead of the ducting where it belongs.

Forest River actually did make an attempt to tape up the joints at the factory. They had used aluminium tape to seal the gaps between the air chamber and the roofing structure of the RV pretty well. Unfortunately, the ducting had been taped up in a way that greatly restricted the air conditioning. The tape covered the duct openings, and the ducts themselves were pinched nearly closed.

Fixing the tape situation helped the system breath much better than before. We noticed a perceptible difference in the air coming out of the registers near the running unit. We were also able to detect airflow at the opposite end of the vents from the running unit. There had been no detectable airflow at the opposite end of the ducting prior to the re-taping of the vents.

Dumping the Dump Plates

The Coleman Mach 15 air conditioners that service our unit came installed with what the RV world calls “dump valves”. The intention is that this valve can be opened to dump conditioned air directly into the compartment. Some air still enters the duct work, but most of the air is dumped directly below the unit.

Many RVers choose to change how this works in order to get more air into the duct work. The DIY approach involves sealing the cold side of the air conditioner with foam board insulation. This approach is certainly an improvement over the factory configuration, but there is a still better way.

Enter RVAirFlow

For those that would like a little more fit and finish for their RV Air Conditioning system there is RV AirFlow.

The RV AirFlow offering does what the DIY approach above intends to do. The difference is that the RV AirFlow was designed by a person with an understanding of fluid dynamics and 30 years experience in this area. In fact, the RV AirFlow works so well that Grand Design now includes them in their RVs from the factory.

Installation

Installation of the RVAirFlow unit is fairly straightforward. Instructions are included with some RVAirFlow units, but not all. We ordered two as our RV has two AC units. The first RVAirFlow we opened to install did not include instructions. We got it installed, but it would have gone faster with the instructions we found the following day when we opened the second box.

Installation steps for the 2022 Forest River Sabre 36BHQ are as follows:

1. Remove the four screws holding the outer cover.
2. Remove the inner plastic cover.
3. Place both covers somewhere out of the way.
4. Remove the foam partition board installed at the factory.
5. Use aluminum tape to seal any gaps between the air box and the ducting properly
6. Remove the four long bolts holding the AC unit to the roof. Be sure to support the large metal plate that the bolts pass through.
7. Place the provided foam weather stripping around the protrusion on the plastic pieces that go into the vents.
8. Place the plastic pieces into the vents.
9. Now gently maneuver the RVAirFlow unit into position in the air box. A helper is beneficial at this step to either push the large foam piece into place, or hold the plastic duct spreaders out of the way.
10. Reinstall the metal plate and the four long bolts holding the AC unit to the roof. There is a large gasket between the AC unit and the roof. Do not over-tighten.
11. Reinstall plastic pieces and filters.
12. Enjoy your greatly improved air conditioning performance!

Is RVAirFlow worth it?

Maximizing the efficiency of your RV’s air conditioning system is critical to a comfortable RV experience in warmer weather. While some manufacturers don’t apply as much attention to detail in this area as they should, RVAirFlow being installed on some makes and models of RV at the factory may indicate a positive change.

There is no question that the RVAirFlow improved the efficiency of our RV’s AC units. Before RVAirFlow the AC ran nearly constantly on a warm (not even hot!) day. And they were LOUD. The bedroom unit made it hard to sleep, and the living room unit would drown out the TV. After RVAirFlow the AC is off more than it is on, and they are much quieter when they are on — still far from silent, but better than before.

We are very pleased with our purchase of the RVAirFlow system for our Sabre 36BHQ’s two AC units. We can certainly see why these would be installed at the factory going forward.

If you are looking for a way to get more cooling out of your RV’s air conditioner, consider an RVAirFlow (after taping up the ducting!). Don’t forget to use discount code METAPHYSICAL.FAMILY at checkout to receive 15% off!

The post RV Air Conditioning Upgrade: RVAirFlow appeared first on Metaphysical Family.