Swings and roundabouts

Today I was able to file for a refund with eBay on the cordless webcam that failed to arrive. My review on the sellers account was fair and unbiased: “Product never arrived. Seller unresponsive. No tracking number. Suspect fraud”. Meanwhile I have two relays ordered from Amazon that bizarrely seem to be coming on the backs of tortoises from China. Good job I don’t need them immediately! I always thought Amazon was an American operation instead of China Inc.

Meanwhile, my solid state relay arrived. This was my last eBay purchase. I have no more eBay purchases in the system. In fact it’s only the relays to come from Amazon and that’ll be it for online purchases.

It’s a great big thing and the first thing I did was to test it. Putting 12v through the switch control made a red LED come on. Encouraged I connected a 12v battery and a CPU fan to the other side. It worked. The fan went on and off as I switched current on and off to the switch control side of the relay. I’m happy! It might need a geatsink but I have plenty aluminum I can use so no worries there!

Meanwhile I’ve been thinking about updating the toilet to a flush type toilet. I was always impressed by the toilets on Brutush trains that had a flap under the bowl. When the foot button was pushed, the flap dropped down and the toilet contents slid onto the track, flushed with a small amount of water. Talking with a young lady bus driver at work today I mentioned the British Rail toilet and she spoke of an RV toilet she’d seen that had two blades that opened and closed. Very interesting!

My current thought is to weld steel from fridges etc to make a black tank. I’d have to paint it thickly against rust but that’s not a problem! Some form of macerator would seem a good idea though I’d want something manual. I don’t have too much faith in electrical fancy goods. Similarly the toilet could be welded from steel. It is, after all, just a funnel. The flapper would need to mate precisely with the outlet from the toilet pan but I’m sure I can find some way of doing that. As for flapper operation, a rod would do. Flushing had me stumped until I saw hand pumped portable pressure washers. Talk about water saving! That sounds ideal! Actually I’m wondering if a mascerator could be avoided by using an enzyme digesters.

Building a flush toilet would save several hundred dollars over buying one. The same for the black tank. Somebody wrote that using a caddy to carry the waste from their RV to the disposal site eliminated the need for a sewage tube. That makes sense! In fact a sewage tube would only be needed for semi permanent locations such as a mobile home park. Having said that, it’s probably where a flush toilet would be most beneficial. Sewage disposal with my current setup is easy. After the bag in the bucket has had enough put in it, the bag can be placed in a plastic 5 gallon bucket - the type with a lid. Those are $5 from Walmart. That should take several toilet bags. Then simply toss the bucket into a skip.