The Future At Your Fingertips

HALSEMA BY MOTORHOME-WORLD

- Dennis Bouwers

When Motorhome-World (WH-W) first had the opportunity to create the project we call “Halsema”, we also wanted to do something special with the electronics.

MH-W has always been at the forefront of motorhome-building techniques and other technology in our industry. With the Halsema project, we incorporated some of the trends from the European sector, moving to touch screens to control items installed in the motorhomes, or just to get information.

But we wanted to go a step further. We wanted the tablet to do almost everything.

WIRELESS CONTROL

One of the first items that our team was quite enthusiastic about, and that quickly became a “must-have,” was that the tablet must be used for driving functions like radio and GPS; it also had to be removable to be used outside whilst setting up camp.

We then had to find out how to have the tablet talk to the motorhome systems. We did quite extensive research to ultimately find a solution that could withstand the conditions that our clients would find themselves in. We ended up in the USA, where we found a company that specialises in manufacturing wireless-control devices.

The next step was to decide on the type of wireless connection that we needed. This was a crucial step in the process. We needed to think about redundancies in the system, and what could fail, and how the client would overcome the failures.

An app-based system – whether Bluetooth of Wifi – could prove to be an issue out in the bush. With a Bluetooth connection, if the tablet failed, you would have to pair the devices and download the app. We liked the WiFi connection, but again, the app was going to become an issue.