Successes and burned fingers!

The day started with my finally tidying the wiring for the door unlocker. I didn’t feed it through a fresh hole in the heater panel nor did I bore a fresh hole to feed the wire through. I simply used electrical tape on the connections that needed insulation and fed the rest into cable conduit. Then I attached it all in place against other cables with zip ties. It looks a lot tidier.

Puzzling over the charge controllers, I have a problem. I don’t remember which night after I blogged that I switched them over. Anyway, the CMP02 controller was fine but didn’t seem to be charging the batteries properly. It was 20A anyway and I needed 30A. I replaced it with another controller - one of the digital controllers. That seems to handle the battery better but threw a power off every time I switched the extraction fans on. Reading up on that, apparently a 100 microfarad Mylar film capacitor should be used with electric motors to stop power surges. That left me with a problem - Radio Shack went bankrupt and the only things I got were three way switches and a few connectors. I didn’t think I’d be needing any electronics because let’s face it my past record with electronics is hardly stellar.

In my drawer I did find a 0.1 microfarad polyester film capacitor. It’s 1000 times lower than needed but after a great deal of trepidation I connected it between the live side of the two motors and the bus body (which is the ground). Lo and behold the fan started without throwing a power off. That started me on a soldering expedition to connect all the required wires together. In doing that I managed to burn my left ring finger with the soldering iron as I manoevered wires into place then my right thumb and first finger on molten solder as I was trying to adjust something else. That was a whole load of fun, I can tell you!

So, the wiring now looks a load more complicated but the motor now does not trip the failsafe on the charge controller. Well, it doesn’t do it all the time. When there’s an extra lamp on, yes it will. That tells me I’m on the right track and should make haste to order a 100 microfarad capacitor or even two. I truly hate that I have to spend 20 cents on capacitors and $5 on postage. Still, I suppose it beats Radio Shack with their $7 per capacitor. It’s just the sheer convenience of being able to breeze into Radio Shack, pick what I need and breeze out.

Last night I went to the bus to fiddle with something and found that the lamp at the back of the bus would not light. I flipped the switch and nothing happened then I noticed a blown fuse. I replaced the fuse and flipped the switch. The light came on then went out, blowing the fuse as it did. That’s the first failure of my LED lightbulbs in the bus. It’s rather galling since I’ve not actually used those LEDs all that much! For the moment I have a nasty Chinese junk eBay LED in place. I’ll have to pick up another pack of 4W LEDs from Walmart next time I’m there.

Speaking of Walmart I need to go next door to pick up 15 feet of cable. Then I can build the last solar input on the back of the bus. That will complete my last modification. I’ve ordered a switch to turn that solar input off and on. My SAE to cigarette lighter connector is still apparently in the post. I do need to order that capacitor but otherwise to all intents and purposes the bus is completed. I’m way past my original completion date. There’s still some maintainance left to do on the bus side of things as opposed to the house side but that is a totally different kettle of fish!