More issues and more solutions

Those with longer memories than the standard short-term memory human will recall I purchased from Walmart an angle adapter for a screwdriver that also worked well for drills. Needless to say after having done the couple of holes that needed doing, it stopped working. Today I tried forcing it and yes it would still go all the way around but was very stiff at certain points.

Being clearly no further use for what I wanted to do, I carefully cut the casing off using my angle grinder. I found exactly what I expected inside, namely two crown wheels and the problem was exactly what I thought it would be. Look carefully at the crown wheel inside the casing on the left and at the crown wheel in the middle of the picture. There are teeth missing from the crown wheels. That will cause the stiffness and jamming I experienced. The only thing that will cause that is imperfections in the steel. Given that all steel is recycled, I would hazard a guess that some contaminant was in the steel that caused those two crownwheels to be a little too brittle. Hence teeth sheared off, jamming the mechanism.

I put the voltage controller into a box that I purchased secondhand via eBay. Cutting the hole was easy enough using the angle grinder. I did get it crooked. Oh well - it's not the only crookedly built thing in the bus. I'd sprayed it purple since I had no white spray paint. Well, actually I do but it won't come out of the can. There's a blockage inside the valve stem of the can which is really annoying as it's an unused spray can.

With the adjustments I had to make to make room for the clip attachments on the sides of the unit, I accidentally scraped the paint on the ends of the box. Needless to say I'd run out of purple spray paint by then. Not entirely welcome but I will install it as is when I get the switches I need.

In order to complete the unit I had to order two switches - both double pole. One is two way and the other is two way with a central off position. The aim is to put the two way switch so that the extraction fans can be run directly from solar power or from battery power via the timer controller I have already installed. The other switch will control the solar panel. It will either supply power directly to the other switch, add power to the general solar power supply side or be in the off position, isolating the external solar input.

When I was under the bus the other day, I put the strap over the battery that's not strapped down but found that my turnbuckles were way too big. I'll have to get some smaller ones. Clearly I'd forgotten that I'd used a smaller size when I built the other battery strap and cage.

It's irksome having to order so much stuff from eBay but it seems just about all the local electrical and electronic suppliers went out of business. That's largely due to the oversales of warranties - people buy the extended warranty then when the warranty expires they sell the item and buy new. They never have to think about fixing it hence the parts are not available. When was the last time you saw a TV repair shop?

As I have a redundant phone, I downloaded a webcam viewing app. I couldnt' get the thing to work though as it needed a login etc and I really didn't have the slightest inclination toward registering on some website or other for something that should just work right off the bat. The aim was to see what I could see on my front webcam. I guess I'm just going to have to shoot video and watch the video on my computer after transferring it from the memory card.

I stuffed the side vent on the bus with plastic bags a few days ago. After the torrential rain of last night there's still water entering and dripping inside. I'm baffled as to where exactly that is coming from since I've sealed everything I can think of. There's probably some moisture coming from the roof vent so I'll have to set to and replace that. That can wait a few weeks though. I am officially off work for the summer on June 5th. That's approaching rapidly. Three weeks and two days is all that's left. I'll be honest - I want to do something different next year. I loved driving schoolbusses for the three years I've done it but it's time to move on to something else. I achieved my goal of learning how to drive my own bus.

Harbor Freight has a battery for my cordless drill for $13. A new drill with a battery is $20. I'm almost minded to see what Walmart has since they're so much closer. Harbor Freight is a good place but the distance means that any saving has to be more than the $5 in gas it would cost to get there and back. For many single items, it's just not worthwhile. And looking at the site, for $19 they have just that - a rechargeable drill with a new battery. My $13 battery would cost me $5 in gas so that would be $18 and that's only a single dollar advantage. It's just not worth it in time alone.