Re: "Waterproofing" the small electronics.

For the past five (?) years,  I've been touring with my notebook in a
plastic grocery bag. The bag was mostly to make it easier to get the
computer out of the sleeve on my Nashbar backpack pannier, but it also
provided some water protection since that pannier was not waterproof.
I improvised a rain cover for the pannier and had no issues with the
computer getting wet even toruing in all day rain.

I don't think I be using that pannier this summer so I'll probably go
back to using a zipped neoprene  cover on my notebook and keeping it
in waterproof pannier.

Computers, even durable ones, need a lot more protection than compact
digital cameras.

             Mark



On Sat, Feb 12, 2011 at 10:29 AM, Robert Leone <[email protected]> wrote:
> Dear tourists:
>
> Here are my experiences. Your mileage may vary.
>
> After a rainy, rainy brevet in 2008 where my cell phone got flooded out, I
> took to putting it in a plastic sandwich bag. It didn't flood out again,
> just died one day.
>
> Even thought they come with "professional sort of gear" looking black nylon
> zippered cases, I frequently use sealing plastic bags around the cases of my
> glucose meters. This caused all sorts of nasty language at some airport with
> the TSA right when the whole pint sized sandwich bag for the three one ounce
> fluid rule came out. The TSA person thought the quart bag was in and of
> itself a no-no, and adding a vial of liquid (I had the usual little tiny
> vial of glucose control solution for checking meter accuracy in there,
> somewhere) made me person most likely to be strip-searched. I don't recall
> ever flooding out a glucose meter, though I might have.
>
> NOTE: I don't blame the TSA person -- they had EXCEPTIONALLY BAD training
> materials (third generation photocopies of ungrammatical text with
> uninformative illustrations) on this, and the staff itself, supervisors and
> all, was divided on what the stuff really meant.
>
> There are gasket-sealed plastic boxes available from several manufacturers
> (Pelican is one that is often seen). For specific items, such as cameras,
> I'd see what those in that trade have to offer. Please note the issues with
> waterproof/waterresisting use differ from those of waterproof/resistant
> storage.
>
> I was once caught in a rainstorm while walking -- and my Alphasmart note
> taker stayed dry enough inside its neoprene sleeve. Please note the
> Alphasmarts were/are pretty tough, and designed to be user-serviceable to
> some extent (hey, they even printed a smiley face on the "motherboard!").
> The same may  not happen with a small conventional laptop or "netbook."
>
> Robert Leone
> _______________________________________________
> Touring mailing list
> [email protected]
> Browse and search the archives: http://search.bikelist.org
> Unsubscribe or list settings:
> http://www.phred.org/mailman/options/touring
>