Planned 12v electrics and so on

Today was the day set aside to work on the 12v electrics. They’re now far nearer completion than before though with some surprising hiccups too. Having looked into putting spade connectors on the electrical equipment end of my cables in the bedroom, I remembered what an issue that was in the galley and just soldered my connections instead. That made the whole thing a lot neater.

The one perplexing thing though was that after everything had been connected (and connected underneath), the voltmeter on my USB charger box didn’t have a reading. The USB charger didn’t come on either. Thus, I opened it and switched the wires around. As normal, one of the spades came off the cable and I had to put a new spade. Closing the box I was still perplexed. The USB charger lit up and the voltmeter read 8V not 13.8 or 14.2v which the display on the charge controller was reading. Looking at the fuse panel with the USB charger switched on gave me the answer. A red light was showing beside an empty fuse position on the panel. Clearly I’d found my answer. Inserting the requisite fuse. I put a 5A fuse though I suspect a 4A fuse would have been better (I don’t have one even though they make them) and the voltage at the meter immediately rose to 13.8v.

One of the things that had me a bit worried was the problem I’d had with a spade connector that kept sliding undone. I’d resolved that by simply using vinyl tape and taping the two connectors together. Working under the desk was not in the slightest bit comfortable. It was the thought of tidying the desk that had me under there rather than removing the top of the desk and leaning in like a civilized human.

After connecting all the live wires and then all the neutrals I did slip some cable wrap over the loose wires. Thinking on that one again, I think next time rather than spade connectors I’d have been better with a screw-down terminal strip. 

I’d made up a lovely cable to go from all the electrical gizmos to the power line coming from the underbody cabling. I’d made it a bit longer than needed just in case. It’s always best to have more because lengthening stuff while possible isn’t always that easy. So I had a bit that I trimmed off that I think you’ll enjoy seeing.

There are 8 cables in that bundle - most of them 16 gauge with a pair of 12 gauge cables also. The 16 gauge are used for the lighting and the fan. The 12 gauge is used for the USB charger. It’s all way heavier than I need but who says I’m not going to upgrade anything at some point?

While I was at it, I built up a cable for the shower. I had thought of putting a USB charger and a fan as well as a light in the galley on the diagonally opposite corner from the existing fan, light and USB charger. In the end what scuppered that idea was lack of wires. I’m not going to buy more wires now unless I absolutely must. Thus I put the remains of my 12 gauge cable into conduit together with my two 16 gauge cables. That will allow me to both power a 12V shower pump. I’ll have a cigarette lighter socket in the shower room ready for a 12V shower I might buy instead of using my existing D cell powered shower. It’ll eliminate my requirement for D cells.

My white 12 gauge cable was not very long and nor was my black 12 gauge cable so I soldered them together to make a longer cable. As the distance was longer than 14 feet from where the cable would enter in the back of the bus to where it would enter in the bathroom, I’ve used two 1/4 inch cable wraps connected together. My 12 gauge cable ran out somewhere close to the end so I continued on with the rest of the two 30 foot spools of 16 gauge wire. That should allow me to have a 12v socket for the shower and two lights. I’m not definitely going to put a second light in the shower but it would make some sense. I’m putting that cable in, just in case. The other cable will be for a light on the diagonally opposite side of the galley from the existing light - just over the desk/eating area. I’ll put another light in the bedroom over the end of the bed where it’ll illuminate the closet.

My attention turned to my solar setup. I’d bought a bridge rectifier on eBay that came from China. Testing it with my multimeter proved it’s a half-assed affair. It will not rectify AC into DC but rather it allows half of the AC through. It’s a half-wave bridge-rectifier. That, for my usage is totally worthless. Needless to say I didn’t proceed further with anything to do with the solar setup for the moment.

Speaking of Chinese trash, these are the 4.5W LED lights I bought from China via eBay. I’ve had an entertaining series of correspondence with the seller. I’d given the seller a neutral rating because the light output of these 4.5W unidirectional LED lights is far less than that of my 2.5W Walmart LED lights. At one point he offered me $5 to revise my review. Then he offered $2 then he offered $4. I’m just refusing point blank. It’s my own fault for hanging onto them for a month or so before trying them. There is $10 worth of trash. That crazy half-assed bridge rectifier was $10 too. I doubt I’ll get any money back from either of those pieces of junk.

I did buy some stuff from Amazon. I thought it was coming from the USA but Amazon seems to be drop shipping now with their stuff being posted straight from China. In fact I must say that I’m very disappointed with Amazon and eBay. One of the things I ordered a week or so back was supposed to have been here on the first. It’s still in the system and wasn’t even shipped until yesterday. That’s coming from Florida and is a pair of switches. One was for the bathroom light and one was for something else but then I changed my mind so the other will now be for the other galley light. Had it arrived in time, I’d have got my existing bathroom light wired into the circuit today.

For a bit of fun, I tried the plastic bulb shape from one of those cheap closet lights. I remember various people buying them because they looked like a bulb and everybody I know who had one used it a few times and found it ate batteries. universally everybody that had one, threw it out. Thus it was with this one. I rescued the plastic bulb thing but while it fits on my light assembley very nicely, aesthetically the plastic lantern assembley from the $2 garden lights looks far better. 

In order to install my next cable setup and a light on the other end of the bedroom, I’ll need to get myself another fuse box. I’ll probably get exactly the same kind I have already. I’ll use one of the extra connections to run power to my keypad door unlocker. I’m hesitant about powering the keyed unlocker from the same battery though as I’d be overly reliant upon one power source. It’s quite easy to turn the power off and forget it’s off and that would just plain lock me out. Perhaps there’s a use for one of my spare charge controllers and one of my smaller sealed lead acid batteries? I could use the 10Ah battery for the digital door lock and run the keyed lock from the 35ah battery.

It might be worth adding a 3rd charge controller to keep the driving batteries topped up when the bus is standing idle. As for the external solar power input, I’m back at square one again. I need to put in a proper bridge rectifier. That’s clearly going to mean I’m going to have to build my own. That’s not a problem. I have diodes. I just don’t have a small project box nor usable terminals nor any circuit board. I can, however, join the front solar panel to the rear solar panel with some very careful wiring at each end.

My main power switch arrived the other day. I’ve not yet got around to installing that. In fact I had a task working out how to attach it. It has holes on one side but not on the other which means I’ll have to drill them. Needless to say, it came from China even though it was shipped from Florida!

To be quite honest, I’m beginning to wonder whether stuff from China is all that great. I have so much unusable stuff versus usable and barely usable that I sometimes wonder whether buying from somewhere else might be better. The trouble is wherever you go - it’s all made in China. The rather decent LED bulbs I bought, sold by Walmart, are not American but Chinese. It sounds crazy but they actually ship live chickens to China and have the Chinese to slaughter and fillet them in disgustingly unhygienic factories before shipping them back.

Even the stuff labelled as made in the USA is often just assembled in the USA from components made in China. Look at the vast number of Free Trade Zones around the country. That’s where stuff made in China is imported and assembled so that it can be labelled as USA made but in fact it’s all Chinese aside from a little light assembley.