Playbill
The TV by night. A real desktop computer by day. One screen inside your rig, plugged into everything else TrailCurrent already knows.
What's Inside / Module
A Rig Computer That Doubles as the Entertainment Center
Playbill is a fix-mounted Linux desktop in your cabin. During the day it runs the browser, the editor, the email client, the CAD work. At night, one click in the dock flips the same machine into a fullscreen ten-foot interface for offline media, live TV, FM/AM radio, and live rig telemetry.
Built on the Radxa Dragon Q6A, an 8 GB Qualcomm QCS6490 SBC with NVMe storage and a few-watt idle draw. Powerful enough to feel like a real computer. Quiet enough to disappear into the cabin. Tied into the same MQTT bus as every sensor and switch in your rig.
Why a Rig Computer Belongs in the Cabin Now
RVs, travel trailers, campervans, and overland rigs are not weekend-only anymore. A growing number of full-timers and van lifers work and live from these vehicles. Playbill is sized for how that actually looks day to day.
Tight Space
There is no room for a desktop tower next to a media box next to a streaming stick next to a separate cabinet of remotes. One small board behind the screen replaces all of it.
Conservative Power
A few watts at idle, roughly fifteen under load. That sits comfortably on the same battery and solar setup the rest of the rig already runs on, with margin for the screen. Off-grid is the default, not a corner case.
Work By Day, Unwind By Night
Remote workers do not stop being users when the laptop closes. The same machine that ran the meeting at noon plays the movie at nine. No second device, no second power draw, no second log-in.
That dual identity is the whole point. A locked-down media appliance is dead weight when you need a real machine to get work done. A general-purpose laptop has nothing to say about your rig and nothing useful to do at night with the lights off. Playbill is one box that does both, on small power, and knows it lives inside a TrailCurrent system.
Two Modes, One Machine
A general-purpose computer that becomes the cabin TV when work is done. No second device, no second power draw, no second remote to lose.
A Real Desktop
Ubuntu Noble running GNOME on Wayland, branded TrailCurrent end to end. Browse, write, edit photos, push code from the campsite, pull up a route, run a terminal. Standard Linux software, standard desktop behavior.
- Any desktop app that runs on Linux: browser, office suite, image editor, code editor, terminal, whatever you need
- NVMe-backed home directory with sync to the rest of the network
- HDMI out to any wall-mounted TV or monitor in the rig
- 3.5 mm audio jack and HDMI audio to the cabin speakers
The Ten-Foot Interface
One click on the Playbill icon in the dock and the screen transforms from computer to TV. Fullscreen, dark, arrow-key first, designed for a remote rather than a mouse. Quit it any time and you are back at the desktop.
- Home screen surfacing what's playing and what's around you
- Offline library: movies, TV, music, podcasts, audiobooks
- Live over-the-air ATSC TV via dual tuners
- FM and AM radio with presets
- Rig View: battery, tanks, climate, cameras, security
The Playbill Experience
Designed for the couch, not the desk. Same visual language as the rest of the rig: black canvas, green focus rings, big readable type.
A walk through the current shell: Home, Apps, Offline Library, Live TV, Radio, and Rig View. The same screens you'd hit with arrow keys on the Argon remote.
Home
Status bar across the top: battery, power draw, network, cabin temp, time. Sidebar for navigation. Big tiles for what to do next.
Apps
Featured streaming services and rig tools, launched in the same shell. YouTube is wired now; more clients land as Stage 3 fills in.
Offline Library
Movies, TV shows, music, home videos, and podcasts living on Playbill's own NVMe. No internet, no log-in screen, no phone in hand.
Live TV
Free over-the-air ATSC channels through a USB dual tuner and a small antenna on the roof. Works wherever broadcast TV does.
Radio
A real FM and AM tuner driven by an RTL-SDR dongle. Step, scan, save presets, send the audio to the cabin speakers.
Rig View
Exterior cameras, battery bank state, climate, tank levels, and security all on one screen. The same telemetry the wall display reads, presented for the couch.
One Network. One Experience.
Playbill is not a tablet glued to a wall. It joins the same MQTT bus every other module in the rig speaks, reads the same telemetry, and can act on the same controls.
Live Rig Data
Battery state of charge, solar input, tank levels, climate, security, cameras, all streaming from the bus. The same numbers Milepost shows on the wall and Outbound shows on your phone.
Device Control
If TrailCurrent can switch it, dim it, or set a setpoint on it, Playbill can too. Cabin lights, awning, water pump, thermostat, fans, all from the couch.
Map Tileserver
Pulls offline map tiles from the same Tileserver GL that Headwaters hosts. Explore the area around the campsite from the couch, no cell signal needed.
Contextual Alerts
A movie is playing. Borealis sees a CO spike. Playbill dims the picture, raises the cabin lights through Headwaters, and shows the alert across the bottom of the screen. Same fabric, no separate alarm box.
Routed Audio
Send the audio to the cabin speakers, the patio speakers, or both. Pause the movie when the propane alarm fires. Pick the next track from the bunkroom.
100% Offline-Capable
The library, the radio, the local TV, the rig data, and the maps all work without any external network. Add streaming clients when you have signal, same shell.
Two Remotes, Same Controls
A real physical remote on the couch when that is what you want. The same controls on every phone, tablet, and wall display on the rig WiFi when it isn't.
Argon Remote
A simple, slim infrared remote from Argon Forty. Power, D-pad, OK, Menu, Home, Back, and volume, all mapped to the same actions the Playbill shell expects from arrow keys. No setup beyond pointing it at the IR receiver.
- Infrared, 2 AA batteries
- Buttons mapped to Playbill navigation primitives
- Works whether the rig WiFi is up or not
Overlook Remote
The same controls live in the Overlook PWA, the browser-based dashboard for the rig. No app to install, no pairing dance. Open it on any device on the rig WiFi and the Remote tab is there.
- D-pad, OK, Back, Home, Menu
- Transport: play, pause, skip, scrub
- Volume up, down, and mute
- Keyboard input to any focused field on the TV
- Same controls available from Milepost on the wall
The Hardware
A real computer, not a media stick. Sized to do the daytime work without getting in its own way at night.
Compute
Radxa Dragon Q6A, a Qualcomm QCS6490 SBC with eight Kryo cores, an Adreno 643 GPU, and 8 GB of LPDDR5. A few watts at idle, roughly fifteen under load. Powerful enough for the desktop work, quiet enough for the cabin.
Storage
NVMe SSD sized for the media library. Movies, TV shows, music, podcasts, and audiobooks all live here, on hardware you own, in your cabin. Headwaters runs a separate, smaller drive for the map tileserver and Docker stack.
I/O
HDMI out to the cabin TV, 3.5 mm audio jack, gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 6 to the rig network, USB for an ATSC dual tuner, an RTL-SDR FM/AM dongle, and an IR receiver for the Argon remote. Bluetooth for game controllers and headsets.
Where It Sits in the Stack
Playbill is a second Linux node on the in-vehicle network, sibling to Headwaters. It joins the rig MQTT broker over WiFi or Ethernet, reads the same topics every other module publishes to, and renders that information when it makes sense to.
The ESP32 hardware modules (Bearing, Borealis, Solstice, Reservoir, Picket, Torrent, and the rest) talk CAN to Headwaters, which bridges their frames onto MQTT. Playbill is one of the subscribers. There is no separate “entertainment network.”
View Full ArchitectureWhat Playbill Talks To
- Headwaters MQTT broker (telemetry + commands)
- Tileserver GL on Headwaters (offline maps)
- Overlook PWA (virtual remote on every phone)
- Argon IR remote (physical remote on the couch)
- Cabin TV (HDMI), cabin speakers (HDMI / 3.5 mm)
- USB ATSC tuner (Live TV)
- USB RTL-SDR dongle (FM / AM Radio)
Roadmap
Built in stages, honest about which stage is shipping today and which is next.
Stage 1 · Shell
Reproducible image build. TrailCurrent-branded Ubuntu desktop. The ten-foot shell boots, navigates, and surfaces every section the later stages fill in.
Stage 2 · Offline Library
Music, audiobooks, podcasts, and video stored on Playbill's NVMe. Plays without an internet connection because that is the most common case in the woods.
Stage 3 · Streaming
The streaming clients people actually use, so when you have signal you are not switching devices. Same shell, same remote, same speakers.
Stage 4 · Cross-Device
Pick the next track from the bunkroom. Route audio from the cabin to the campfire speakers. Pause the movie when the propane alarm fires. All of it from anywhere in the rig.
Build Your Own Playbill
The repository is open source, MIT-licensed, and built in the open. If you
have a Radxa Dragon Q6A on your bench, the operator guide is in
docs/SETUP.md and the reproducible image is one
build.sh away.