The price of aluminium!

I went to Home Depot the other day. 8' lengths of 2" x 1/8 aluminium is $30. That seems high so I'll try my usual metal supplier. Working it out carefully - if I get everything just right, I can cover all the windows that are in use on the bus with 9 pieces of 8' aluminium. At $30 each though that's $270 plus tax so not much change from $300.

Today I didn't feel like doing an awful lot so I finished the painting in the bedroom. I'd inserted plywood in the gap I'd left in the OSB cladding on the inside of the bus. That gap had been to allow access to half-windows. Well having nearly put my elbow through a window when I camped in the bus last time I'd covered the window on the inside with plywood. Outside I've rivetted aluminium over the windows that aren't used. I'd put the wood in place after painting it and had then caulked all the way around it with paintable caulk. Now I've painted and touched up a few places in the bedroom. I'll have to see how it all looks when the paint is dry. Right now it's a shade lighter but it seems to darken when it's dry.

Meanwhile, a few days ago I bought a mouse. This will work with my Raspberry Pi. Inside the Skoolie I decided many of my computing needs can be carried out on a simple $35 Raspberry Pi. To that I added a $10 bluetooth keyboard (which is a bit small), a $12 optical bluetooth mouse and a $30 Chinese screen. The big benefit is it all runs off two 5v connections. 

The people on my Raspberry Pi group were adamant the Pi would absolutely not work off a 1A 5V supply and yet here we are, running off a 1A 5V supply. The monitor is working off a 2A 5V supply. That about sums up most online groups - full of people that broadcast nonsense they read on some other online group instead of referring to facts. The fact is that - according to the Pi foundation - the Pi 3B uses 980ma maximum. At idle, it's 350ma.

So, I've got the computing requirements set up. Truth be told the Pi is part of another project in drone development. I do have another cheap laptop though whether it'll charge on the bus is unknown yet. I did try out a Chromebook but it wouldn't work without an internet connection, couldn't be used as a straight Linux laptop and then the operating system got corrupted. Needless to say, it ended its life on the rifle range as my most expensive target.

I looked into putting a solar panel on the roof, secured by magnetic tape. So far I'm having difficulty finding decent magnetic tape. That's something I could put up and take down at will. I decided against having a permanent solar connection near the roofline. Instead I'll just trail a cord down the side of the bus when needed. 

Remaining to be done - big projects...

1. Brake lines at the rear.

2. One brake line under the hood.

3. Right wiper mount.

4. Tyres

Small projects....

1. Replace access panels on the front and rear.

2. Bars over windows

3. Install fuse box in console.

4. Replace voltmeter on kitchen console.

5. Add extra solar input sockets.

Most of the work is done. The four big projects are not that big. The small projects are pretty easy projects. The fuse box will take about a day. The voltmeter will take about a day. The small jobs will all take about a day though the panels won't take but a few minutes and the bars might take several days.

The big projects - the brake lines are several days of work. The wiper mount could be a multi-day thing as I'll be fabricating. The tyres - I'd like to do myself. I know how to do it myself. I just have no experience of doing it. That I might just leave to somebody else stronger and more experienced.