Yesterday I fell on the bike and the shock knocked my SD hard enough that I had to reseat it even though it didn’t come disconnected. I’ve come to know that I just have to pop out the SD card, put it back in, then start the Jetson Nano again to correct the problem. I’ve heard RationalIRL say that the reason for this is because the extension that my Waveshare case provides just moves around too much to be reliable. I have to agree at this point. Yesterday was at least the 10th time I have had to do that very thing. Sometimes all I do is set the bag down slightly too hard. In fact, if I were not immobile on the bike I’m quite sure this would not be sustainable long-term. I need something better, but there are almost no cases on the market, except for those custom rigs ordered from RationalIRL himself, the one-man company keeping all of OutdoorIRL alive (and out of the hands of LiveU).
I just learned (while writing this) that there is a new effort to enable the Orange Pi and it looks very promising https://belabox.net/rk3588/. This will completely revolutionize OutdoorIRL if it works.
This will allow me to remove the battery from another Verizon modem so I can power it from USB preventing it from ever overheating. The wifi will still allow reusing local wifi when available.
This particular rig will probably allow me to use my GoPro as intended to stream RTMP from the paddleboard without any issues. If and when the GoPro gets too hot I just put it into the water to cool off.
I could even dual stream from two different sources.
Looking back over two full years of IRL streaming I realize these earlier conclusions led to my current IRL rig, which is by far the most stable, cost-effective, versatile, and small:
💡 Lock your phone in 4G! Disable Wifi and Bluetooth.
After more than three weeks researching IRL streaming approaches and kits I’ve concluded on the following based on what I plan to do:
For longer trips:
All the shit people do with LiveU and Belabox is completely and totally unnecessary. Hitch even said so with a bit of edge in his voice once when asked saying, “The LiveU is just a big power drain.” Most of Hitch’s streams are with a single Netgear Nighthawk 4G hotspot that is “unteamed” with anything else and he pushes 1080 at 30 fps.
Watching Hitch has made me realize the single most annoying thing on the road (besides finding a good signal) is battery life. Anything that burns battery without being needed is a waste. In fact, there is a mount for bicycle handlebars that holds the OSMO 4/5 so that you can read the screen while still getting all the unparalleled stabilization without lost of picture quality. All the digital stabilizers really slam image quality, yes even the GoPro. Plus, disabling the stabilization makes your compression faster on your phone (which is basically a wash when you consider the battery feeding your gimbal). The important thing is that your phone is worth far less. It doesn’t have to superheat to find a non-existent 5G signal before it bails. It doesn’t have to talk to anything on Bluetooth or wifi. All it has to do is capture and send the video feed to Twitch. Simplifying everything makes batteries last longer and everything consumes less bandwidth.
Looking back now I see how completely stupid the idea of using a GoPro is. I would never have known that without going through all of this. The ultimate test will come when I run the Turkey Trot with my OSMO 4 holding it to my chest. I already know people are using the OSMO for cycling and the type of biking I would be doing falls within that category.
In fact, the only thing I won’t be able to do is use both my hands for anything. I had planned on picking up garbage during my walks and that could get hard, but I’m still going to try it, one arm will be using the trash picker, the other holding the gimbal. I suppose that tanks my wife’s ideas for POV porn as well, damn. (We’ll get over it.)
Strangely, just using a phone is actually totally fine for paddle boarding provided I get a mount. The Pixel 6 is 100% waterproof to something like three meters. I would not submerge it, but it is apparently fine for splashes and stuff. If and when I do any really serious water sports, I won’t be streaming them. For that a GoPro makes a lot of sense.
I did discover something else that I really want to include in my life streaming activities: live music sessions. I’ll be taking all that obscene amount of money I would have spend on everything else and getting a zoom to plugin to my mac or phone. I really want to live capture great busking music when possible.
Tags:
#twitch #kits #irl #til