Look at what arrived in the post today!

Now that is three items. On the left together with a redundant wire is my cigarette lighter socket. That goes through a small hole in the bus skirt. Wires go from that through the floor of the bus to the big box in the middle. That’s a bridge rectifier. From the bridge rectifier a wire goes to the solar controller. I do need to put a switch in between the solar panel and the bridge rectifier, however. Just so I can eliminate the chance of somebody doing something silly with excess voltages.

On the right are two 14 gauge Hopkins connectors. Those are, under current plans, redundant but as with everything redundant I usually find a need for them.

As I said, yesterday, I tidied up some wiring. I didn’t do a darned thing today but then when the temperature is close to 100, it’s hard to do anything more than the essentials and to relax. This is why everybody in South Carolina becomes a lard arse - including myself.

I realised I need a couple of things in order to complete my solar setup - two 12v cigarette lighter sockets (not like the one that’s just arrived), some wire and something to put a switch into. I have plenty spaces for switches - I just lack a box to put my switch. I used my last remaining usable box a few days ago. I have one or maybe two other boxes but they’re not suitable. During one of my previous designs of my solar system, I put too many holes in the one box for it to be usable. Still, I suppose I can try. I can do a lot with expanding foam.

Heaven alone knows where the lid has got to though I’m pretty sure I might be able to find it. The screws that hold it together might be more elusive and it might need to be glued permanently.

The two cigarette lighter sockets are a shopping trip. I have plenty spare wire. I just need to find an extra length of cable wrap. I might have some. It’s not worth a trip to Harbor Freight just for wrap though.

Once the remaining things left to be done are done it’ll be one massive tidyup operation. I’ll need somewhere to put all the tools and oh boy, I’ve really collected tools. Had I known that I could have welded using a pair of car batteries then I might just have bought car batteries rather than a welder and been thus able to use thicker welding rods. That would also have allowed me to weld aluminum which I can’t with my AC arc welder (well, I could but it’d probably spatter badly).

Remaining to do:

• Tidy the wiring for the digital door controller. 
• Install the two extra cigarette lighter sockets. One goes to the news switch in the cockpit. The other connects directly to the charge controller at the front,
• Two wires from under the bus that are not used. Both go to the charge controller. The other end goes into the battery compartment and a pair of alligator clips. When the battery is not in use the alligator clips connect and a solar panel connects to the charge controller so that the batteries can be topped up or kept fresh using solar power.
• The new cigarette lighter socket, wire and bridge rectifier feed into the charge controller at the back, giving extra power. A switch is needed for this circuit.
• The CB coax needs to be reconnected to the coaxial connector. 
• There’s a buzzing relay in the control console that needs attention.
• I’d like to lower the brake pedal some but I’m not sure that it’s possible without removing the hydromax. 
• There’s a bit of paint in the bedroom that needs touching up. I have half a gallon left.
• I need to put the tools in a shed and my surplus supplies also.
• The boxes of stuff that haven’t seen daylight in ten years need to be sorted through.
• Things need to be put in drawers
• I need to go through my clothing fairly ruthlessly. I remember why I kept some items of worn out clothing but the memories they held are not important to me any more.  
• Testing. I need to test the water input and do a test camping session in the bus.

So, plenty to do and I didn’t do anything today! Well, I thought, and thinking is important. Thinking is what separates us from the animals and the less intelligent humans that we encounter on a daily basis.