August 4th, 2005
How to be Your Own WiFi HotSpot With the Junxion Box
By Alice Hill
RealTechNews
All I can say is: NERD ALERT. But if you have been longing for constant WiFi no matter where you are, why not turn yourself into a WiFi hotspot. Thankfully the gang at Popular Science have all the steps figured out using the new EV-DO cellular network and a clever open source device called the Junxion Box. Now your backpack can weigh even more. (I think mine is up to 40lbs as is.)
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By Mike Outmesguine
Popular Science
I love the fact that more and more devices are sporting built-in Wi-Fi—the Sony PSP, smartphones, even Kodak’s EasyShare-One digital camera. The lone hitch: Wi-Fi is useless without a hotspot. Sure, thousands of spots are available, but few are free, and coverage is far from ubiquitous. What if you could marry the short-range power of Wi-Fi with the huge coverage areas of high-speed cellular services such as EV-DO to create a portable hotspot? You could use any Wi-Fi-enabled gadget anywhere you’ve got a cell signal. Play multiplayer games with friends in the park, or blog an event in real-time. Since EV-DO works at freeway speeds, you could even give Internet access to an entire road-trip caravan.
Those are exactly the kinds of things you can do with the backpack below. Its secret ingredient: the Junxion Box. Plug a cellular-network card into the book-size open-source-based device, and voila—instant Wi-Fi hotspot, with speeds averaging around 700 kilobits per second. To power the box, I wired it to a 1.2-amp-hour battery and dropped both into the Voltaic Systems backpack, which has a built-in solar charger. Now I can surf for as long as three hours without being tethered to anything but a cell signal. The project isn’t cheap, but prices for the components and service are sure to come down in the next year or so. In the meantime, you can find me in the hills around Southern California. I’ll be the one surrounded by PSP-packing hikers.
Parts List
• Junxion Box wireless gateway $700; junxionbox.com
• Verizon Wireless EV-DO PCMCIA card $100; verizonwireless.com
• Voltaic Systems solar-charging backpack $230; voltaicsystems.com
These parts are available at any electronics store:
• 12-volt battery with spade terminals, 1.2 or higher amp-hour $15
• Male DC power plug, size M $5
• 18-gauge wire, black and red $5
• Female insulated quick-disconnect connectors, crimp-type, sized for battery spade terminals $3
• In-line fuse holder $7
• 20-amp fuse 50 cents
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Our Take: Pretty pricey, but if you absolutely have to have WiFi in your life all the time no matter where, then we say, this is pretty great stuff. Email us if you decide to build one and we’ll post a pitcure of you walking around with your hotspot on.
Read the Complete Article Here Source: Popular Science via Geek Blue
David 2 says:
Cool, but his looks like an excellent way to get yourself shot by police in London. No, seriously, don’t take a backpack with boxes and wires anywhere near UK public transport just right now…
August 5th, 2005 at 5:08 am
John says:
Seriously, David! I just read Schneier’s latest post on the shoot-to-kill policy, and that was my first thought, looking at that diagram:
‘The police organization’s behavioral profile says such a person might exhibit “multiple anomalies,” including… carrying a briefcase, duffel bag or backpack with protrusions or visible wires.’
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/08/shoot-to-kill_r.html
Yikes!
August 5th, 2005 at 6:09 am
David Johnston says:
Very cool, but way too expensive for me.
August 5th, 2005 at 6:29 am
Mikey says:
Yeppers, that puppy’ll get your butt locked up in a cage real quick in MTA territory. Not that they’d need a reason to suspect you, it’s just all those wires and battery packs look like something else. Something that calls for a disposal team with a BIG FRICKEN explosion proof container mounted on it. And after the squad “safes” it, you are probably gonna have about $700-$800 worth of little plastic bits. A whole sackful of granulated charcoaled bits. mmmmmmmm tasty.
August 5th, 2005 at 8:58 am
Lockergnome's Tech News Watch says:
How to be Your Own WiFi HotSpot and Possibly Get Shot Entering a Subway Station
We covered this very detailed piece on how to set up your own WiFi hotspot that used solar panels, the EV-DO cellular network that is pretty fast at 700kbps and widely available, and an open source device called the Junxion box. But then our readers po…
August 5th, 2005 at 10:29 am
Pablo Rosenberg says:
Why don’t you throw in a flux capasitor and I’ll take it.
Not.
August 5th, 2005 at 11:04 am
Aidle says:
Innovative but too bulky, but sure if you carry that piece around the subway you sure will become a limelight of a terrorist suspect.
But don’t get yourself kill for a price of about $1000+
August 6th, 2005 at 5:04 am