[Discussion] Garage Tech Setup - Anyone else hardwiring their diagnostic rigs?

[vonaton738]

Hi everyone, hope you’ve all been enjoying the rare dry spells lately and getting the cars out on some decent roads. I’ve spent the last couple of weekends cooped up in the garage doing a bit of preventative maintenance and finally trying to make sense of some track day data logs from my last outing.

One thing that’s been driving me mad is the connectivity in my garage. My Wi-Fi signal is basically non-existent through the thick brick walls, and trying to download workshop manuals or upload logs to the cloud was taking forever. I finally gave in and ran a long Cat6 cable from the house. Since my modern laptop is too "thin" to actually have a physical LAN port, I had to grab a basic 1-port network adapter just to get it connected. It's a simple single-port USB-C to Ethernet setup, but the difference in stability is massive.

The specific point I was struggling with was the lag when trying to live-stream some diagnostic data—it kept hanging on the Wi-Fi. Now that it’s hardwired, the refresh rate for the sensor readings is actually usable. It’s a small tech upgrade, but it makes the whole "garage life" experience so much less frustrating when you aren’t waiting for a signal bar to appear while your hands are covered in grease. I’ve always found that when you're doing something sensitive like a firmware update or a deep scan, you really don't want to rely on a spotty wireless signal.

I’m curious if anyone else has gone to the trouble of properly "networking" their garage for their Lotus projects? Or do most of you just stick to a paper manual and a cup of tea? I'd love to hear if anyone has a better solution for a stable connection while working on the car.

[_W_]

I mean I’d love to have a garage… 🤣

I’ve used power line adaptors to get internet to more difficult locations (attic), sometimes then to an additional WiFi router (broadcasting up the garden).

https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/powerline/

[Guido]

I get a good WiFi signal in my garage. As Wain has said, Powerline adaptors are your best bet as they usually work really well. 

[LotusPanelRepair]

Powerline from the house to the garage and then a wifi access point in the garage to keep the same network as the house. 

With all the diagnostic kit I've had over the years it's only the jaguar stuff that needs an internet connection. The Elise for my kit anyway doesn't need internet to function, the access point just means I can check torque specs quickly rather than having to have a hard copy of everything. 

[collieek]

I just print out relevant info and keep it in files in the garage.

I find it easier than looking through PDFs all the time.

I have a large white board as well which is helpful when you need to remember which way shims etc need to be replaced.