Starting work, I decided to use my plastic box rather than the metal box for my USB charger and voltmeter on the basis that it was ready cut and as it was raining outside, going out to cut the metal box would have been just nasty. I still had to make holes for the switch and the push button though as well as mount the box to the wall.
It was pretty gloomy inside due to the rain so I grabbed some wires and made a connection to the unused lighting circuit so that I had a temporary wire set up for the new light. Though it was low brightness, I used my 1.5watt bulb which allegedly produces as much light as a 10w incandescent bulb. I used that for the entire time I was in the bus. The interesting thing there was that the battery voltage barely dropped and picked up very quickly when the clouds thinned a bit. I’m on the right track with that light bulb and I’m only using 20 of my 35 watts of solar power too!
The first problem was as I set the light up, I blew a 1A fuse and had to replace it. When that blew I rectified the problem and noticed there was sufficient low voltage passing through to illuminate my light bulb dimly. I wasn’t aware the bulb was dimmable.
After that I found my box, with the holes cut and the USB charger installed would not close with the spade connectors attached to the USB charger. They made it too long. Now the real answer would have been to go to the store for some right-angled connectors but was I going to drive on a Sunday having driven about 200 miles a day for the past 5 working days and then some on Saturday? Err, no. I was staying in the bus! Thus I whipped out my soldering iron and soldered it all. Testing it I found I’d reversed my blue and white wires. Easily done so the wires coming into the box are white meeting blue and blue meeting white.
Until now the color scheme of my wiring had been mostly white for ground and other colors for other things. I do have a black ground in the cockpit but wasn’t too bothered about changing that. I ran out of white today so yellow is the new ground color for some of the wiring.
So, the box was completed and tested. It seems to work or at least, the correct lights come on. It still needs to be connected to the circuits.
After that I lost a lot of time. I’d got a small aluminum box that I was planning to use as a switch box. I’d spent ages trying to paint it. Initially I’d painted it purple to use in the galley but after I put a different box in the galley as a switch box I painted it pink in order to use it in the bedroom. Anyway, I drilled a couple of holes for switches and encountered the first problem. There were rails on the inside of the box that made making the switch sit level was very hard indeed.
Well, the problem was solved by making very sure the switches were manovered perfectly into place before tightening their retaining nuts. Then along came another problem. As with the previous box, the spade connectors stopped the switches from being mounted correctly.
At that point though, I was utterly fed up with working on this tiny little box and of trying to turn it into a TARDIS. I put it to one side and pulled out two switches that I’d bought some weeks ago. I used one for the bedroom light and how nice it was to be able to flip a switch to turn the light off and on! Even though the wiring was but of a temporary nature, it was wonderful. While I was at it, I used my second switch for the bedroom circulation fan. That was so nice in the summer.
Of course, having used both switches, I had no switch to use for the bathroom light. Now I really can’t see the brown smelly stuff! I plugged on with wiring and putting wires into conduit while securing the conduit. I needed a hole in the bathroom wall for the conduit and so I drilled one. In fact the hole had to be redrilled several times as each time it was slightly bigger than the last but not quite big enough. Finally I managed though and passed the conduit through.
Eventually those wires will be connected to a switch. That won’t happen until next weekend though as the extra switches ordered today won’t actually arrive until probably next weekend. They’re coming from the USA so they will not take long. Stuff from China always seems to take forever! I’ve quit ordering stuff from there.
I continued with the cable conduit. The light and the fan both need to be connected to the wires in the conduit and the wires for the light need to be extended as they’re too short. I quit after I made an error and taped the two conduits together to merge them into a bigger conduit without realizing my light wires ended at the end of the smaller conduit. It just seemed the ideal time to quit.
Remaining to do in the bedroom - extend the short wires. I’ll probably use yellow to extend the white and I believe I have enough blue to extend the blue to the right length. Then to connect the wires to the light and the fan. Finally I’ll secure and connect the conduit under the desk.
Having completed the immediate electrics, the next thing to do will be to add switches into the system so that the solar supply can be switched on or off and so that the battery can be switched on or off. I have a switch on the way that’ll do the solar. The battery switch I have yet to obatain. Having said that, the solar system needs to be connected so that the front and rear panels work together.
I’ve already mentioned my plan to add an entry point for an external solar panel or even a wind generator. What I’ve not mentioned is a further idea which is to use a charge controller already connected at the front of the bus to keep the bus batteries fresh when the bus is parked up.
Eventually I’ll add a circuit to power a shower but that’s on the back burner until I’ve completed all the projects currently on the go. There are so many of them!
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