TV Cabinet Updating & Bedroom TV!

Our Nash came with a 32″ 12v TV in the main living area, however we realized that a second TV would be nice to have in the main bedroom.

There was also an issue that a lot of the devices that I wanted to connect to the TV would sit out in the open with cords draped all over, and this drove me nuts. I really wanted a “clean” installation with as much hidden as possible.

This lead me to drill a few 2″ holes in our TV cabinet (along the left-side, for reference) and fish some cables through. I ran power to the top cabinet, along with HDMI, 12v DC, and some other cables for future use.

I then used industrial velcro to mount everything inside the top cabinet. I was able to mount the power injector for our satellite, the Dish Receiver box & Hard-Drive (DVR), and an IO Gear Wireless HDMI Box up in the cabinet. We also have a Lightning to HDMI adapter for our iPhones, if we want to watch a saved movie or stream something to the TV.

The end result is everything is neat, tidy, and out of the way. When the cabinet is closed, you can’t see any of the wires. All of the equipment mounted in the cabinet use RF for their remotes, so line-of-sight is not needed.

The IO Gear wireless HDMI system is really nice and we’re really happy with it. I picked up a second TV (exact same model and specs as what came with our trailer) and mounted it in our bedroom using a designated area (by Northwood) for the TV mount.

I used an articulating arm for the installation, however I am going to imagine that 99% of our use will be with it locked in place. I did use some felt pads to “snug” up the TV when it’s locked in position, to keep it from vibrating against the wall. I connected the TV to the built-in antenna for the trailer and not the satellite dish. Frankly, I didn’t want to purchase a second Walley and pay another fee from dish, this is where the wireless HDMI system really comes into play.

Using the IO Gear wireless HDMI transmitter, I can mirror both TVs to each other. While this doesn’t help us if we want to watch something on one TV and something else on the other, the main desire for this system was so that the wife and I can watch TV while our son sleeps on the fold-out couch. In this situation, we just turn the TV off in the living room and watch TV in the bedroom if we want. Since the remote for the Dish receiver is RF and not IR, it works through walls/doors.

Currently, the IO Gear system runs off of AC power, however I noticed that the transformers on the power adapters step down to DC5V. I plan on using some voltage step-down regulators to power them off the 12v system in the trailer (stepping down to 12v with proper amperage for the devices) so that we can run them on battery/solar power. When I’m done with that project, I’ll post some information on the conversion.

Update:
I picked up a 12v to Mini USB (#ad) converter for use on the bedroom TV. I have a 12v to 5v converter (#ad) for use on the transmitter box (living room), however it uses a plug that I haven’t been able to find a duplicate of to splice with – I hate cutting original power cords, I always like to have a backup plan.

I zip-tied it to the coaxial cable to keep it from bouncing around.
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