Sunday, April 28, 2019

Not a lot got done today

It was a warm day and I just didn't feel like doing much. Yesterday I'd found I had two sets of 3 wire combiners so I decided to tidy up some of my wiring. This was perfectly good and perfectly safe - all soldered and wrapped in shrink wrap insulation. It just didn't look that great.
I'd bought my blue-snap on cable combiners in Radio Shack. Remember Radio Shack - it used to be a great place to buy overpriced electronic components and then it became an electronic toy shop before it lost its way and became an overpriced mobile phone store that didn't shine in any particular way before it went bust. Sad for the staff that worked there but it gave them an opportunity to get better jobs than the soul destroying retail jobs they were doing.
As can be seen, that blue snap-on connector (behind the white wire) is combining the white and the green and connecting to the green wire that's going into the timer. There were no instructions but it seems to be a case of stripping the wire then snapping a metal bar down then closing the plastic cover.
I tried moving my CPU fan and got no better performance out of it. It seems the bigger CPU fans just aren't as good as the smaller ones. I have a smaller one on order now. That could take a couple of weeks. I'm in no great hurry. As a backup plan I ordered a step down voltage converter so I could use one of the original Walmart 3V desktop battery powered fans. Remember those? I still have the remains of a couple of them. My smaller 90mm fans blow way better than the 120mm fan.

I had a look at the solar panels but felt disinclined to work on them. I have to ascertain which way around I need to put my Anderson connectors. Once I have them in place and done correctly I'll be able to use the panels without using those frightful MC4 connectors. Those things might be good for heavy duty setups dismantled rarely but for my setup they're not worthwhile.

I found I was short of a few things for my wiring harness yesterday so I'll have to try to remember to get them tomorrow:

  • Eight, 8-32 one inch countersunk bolts. I have locknuts for them. These will be used to hold both my Anderson sockets in place.
  • A pack of short self-drilling No 8 hex-head bolts. These I use for lots of things.
  • A pack of 1.5-2 inch self-drilling No 8 hex head bolts. These I use under the bus to attach cable hangers.
  • A pack of half or 3/4 cable hangers.
See - all simple stuff. I try not to go anywhere at the weekend in my vehicle because I drive about 200 miles a day or 1,000 miles a week and I quite like the rest from driving. I might even order some of those ready soldered heat-shrink sleeves. Those might make connecting cables faster and easier than those crimp things I've been using.

Well, that's it for another weekend. I didn't get under the bus but I have a feeling next weekend, weather permitting, I might be able to do just that.



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