A rainy day

Today was a rainy day - not fit weather for a duck - as they say. Having little else to do I got on with a job inside the bus this sounds simpler that it really was. The voltmeter on my USB power box in the galley had burned out. I have two voltmeters there and what would happen was that the battery voltmeter would come on when I run the USB power source. I'd run the USB power sources exensively for days at a time, powering a security camera. That had burned out the middle digit of the voltmeter so I'd got all the bits to fix it. I'd just not done anything about it yet. Having little else to do on a wet day, I went into the bus and fixed that little issue.

Needless to say it didn't go smoothly. I had elected to change out the single pole pushbutton switch at the same time. This was so that if I press the button I get readings for both battery voltage and solar voltage simulteneously. When I'm not pressing the button the voltmeter is not on - not even if the USB power supply is turned on. That'll save me from burning out a second voltmeter. While I was at it - the original meter had a blue light. The new one matches the other and is red.

The problems I had - I'd crimp a connector onto the wire and it would fall off. Some of those connectors are a bit weird. I got it all in the end save for one pair of wires. Those I use a wire nut to fasten. Not my normal repetoire. I'd looked for another pair of spade connectors and didn't find any that were insulated. I looked for a screw-down wire connector and couldn't find one. I looked for a crimp straight connector and couldn't find one. I couldn't find my insulating tape either. 

In the end I succeeded and though I still need to turn the USB sockets on before pressing the button if I want to measure battery voltage, pressing the button will show both battery and solar voltages. That's exactly what I want.

While I was in the bus, I noticed the bottom switch in this power box is broken. It works as a switch but the plastic coller that has a plastic nut which secures the switch has broken. I'll have to replace that switch. I'll have to try to get a metal replacement. These cheap plastic switches from the car parts stores just do not last. Radio Shack had way better quality switches but they went the way of the dodo.

Inside the bus - apart from this switch the only electrical thing needed to do is to put a fuse box inside the console and to remove the back door buzzer unit. 

Under the bus - which I feel safer about now - I have the brake lines to replace, the solar charger to driving battery connection to make and second solar power inputs to install front and rear (just doubling up what I have). I'd like to clean the brake pistons too but I don't know how to access them. Other than that there's the wiper mount to adjust but that needs a dry day.

Other than all this, the bus is complete though I'd still like to put bars over the windows and perhaps some more reflective tape.

I have to say, looking at the bus now that it has 295/75R22.5 tyres, the bus is now level. When it had 11R22.5 on the back and 10R22.5 on the front it was decidedly tilted.

Getting things done...

Well, the original place I'd emailed still hadn't responded and I rang them about getting tyres. They could only get 295/75R22.5 though I'd probably have been a shade better with 295/55R22.5 although the speedo would still have been out but this time, over by a hair. Now instead of being 5mph under my real speed I will likely be 2 or 3mph under. This is a relief and an improvement. It seems tyres are getting harder to find at the moment. Since my first enquiry in June the price went up a few times. The place didn't have staff to do the tyres and couldn't come out to do them. They wanted me to call them back in a couple of days. I've heard that one before! It usually ends up with me wasting my time, waiting for something that'll never happen.

So, yesterday I rang a different tyre place. This time they quoted me a price and kept to it. The workmen cleaned up their mess and did the job quickly and efficiently. It was interesting to see they used Harbor Freight air jacks. The had a bit of trouble as the ground is too soft to lift more than one wheel at a time. The total cost for 4 Ironman Hercules drive tyres and two Ironman steer tyres was $3,740 which was not at all bad. They're Vietnamese made tyres, made for Ironman from Ohio. I'm happy with the price and what was done - so far. They didn't balance any of the wheels and were taken by surprise when they found I had Dayton hubs despite my telling the shop over the phone and assuring the owner when he asked that I do not have split rims.

The only thing I have to do with the wheels now is to dispose of the old tyres. The company wanted $15 per tyre to dispose of them. That's another $90. I'm not going to pay that when I can take them to the local dump and dispose of all 6 (plus some smaller tyres) for $1.50 each. They are heavy at 60lbs but it won't be too hard to get them into the pickup! I can probably do it all in one trip.

The new tyres look pretty good. I was, quite honestly, nervous about getting under the bus to do stuff with the old tyres since thwy were 11 or 12 years old. I certainly didn't want to drive on them. Not even a short disance to the shop. 

The next thing done was to replace the crossview mirrors. This is the fourth set! The originals were so etched by dirt and dust that they were unusable. The next pair were not fisheye enough. The next pair were great but the mirroring fell off on the inside leaving large white patches. Cue the current set which arrived yesterday and were put on today. These are Mirror-Lite. I can't recall the brand on the previous pair.

Concurrent with all that I had a need for my old batteries. If you recall, a long time ago, I used a battery box made of an old ammunition can that held a 5am and a 10ah battery. That was before I upgraded to lead-acid lawnmower sized batteries before I upgraded again to lithiun. They'd been lying idle as had a couple of PWM charge controllers. Today I put both batteries on charge. I'd had one on charge yesterday and had achieved nothing.  They both could be landfill by now. I'll try to charge them and see what happens. If they can't be revived then I'll pitch them and use the box to house lithum batteries, a lithiun charge controller and various outputs. That should be useful and since I already have everything, easy.

 

Today also I completed painting the bedroom ceiling and had just a little paint left over to do a bit more to one wall. I'd only bought the paint to cover the patch I put in to cover the window that I covered also from the outside. There was enough though to do a better job on the poorly painted ceiling.

Before the fellows came to change my tyres I had to straighten the front wheels so I started the engine. In so doing I found I'd already put the wires in the battery compartment to connect to the wires under the bus which connect to the charge conroller at the front.  The next task completed will likely be to connect the wires. After that I'll likely work on the brake lines. The brake lines and the wiper pivot are the only two major jobs to complete that I know of. The brake pistons might need work too but glancing at the brake assembley there were no clear screws anywhere on the thing. 

There are minor jobs such as the wiring I just mentioned and changing out a couple of things in the USB box above the microwave but largely the bus is completed. I'd like to put a second fuse box in the console too. Bars over the remaining windows are something I'd like to do also.

 

Progress and failure

Today was a series of small things done that in themselves represented nothing major. What they were, however was a series of projects that were finally completed.

The big failure of the day was the Chinese 5W water pump. This was purchased new on eBay and took until this week for me to try it. It was purchased on December 20, 2020 at 11:56am. It arrived on December 27. Today I heated the end of my plastic tube so that it could be expanded to fit the plastic pipe on the pump. When it cooled it would not slide off so there was a pretty good seal.

Trying the pump with just my fingers, it didn't seem to produce all that much air pressure. I tried it with the inlet in water and while it would pump water if the tube was full of water and barely above the water level, it didn't have the power to pump it, even when powered directly from a battery capable of providing 14v at 60A. It seems somewhat of a disappointment.

One of the other small jobs was to put the panel back over the electrics inside the bulkhead. That went on easily enough. It was just something that had been waiting to be done for a long time. While I was at it, I fastened the top screw of the wood panel that went over the window on the right of the door. I saw no need to do away with that even though I now have steel over that window. I looked at the back door and wondered about replacing the glass in the top window that has steel on the outside with thin steel or perhaps aluminium on the inside. I knew I threw away that thin steel from the old fridges too quickly. I'd taken it off, cleaned it up and painted it about 4 years ago and threw it away last year because I couldn't see that I'd ever use it. But that's a couple of jobs done.

The last job was to remove the old vent bottom inside the cab. I replaced it with my new vent bottom that came with my new vent. That's the vent I bought 4 years ago and installed earlier this year.

The new vent cover looks pretty good. I sprayed it white although I suspect it might be stainless. Around the edges the original bare steel of the bus can be seen - the vent cover had been installed before Carpenter painted the bus. I put the old vent in the car and next time I'm in a paint store I'll try to get paint the same colour. With that I can brush paint on that's the right colour. It's not worth using a spray for that particular site.

The major jobs still to be done are tyres, brake lines and the right wiper mount. The small jobs waiting to be done are doubling up the solar inputs, replacing a couple of switches and a voltmeter inside and wiring the solar charger to keep the driving batteries topped up. The only other thing is bars over the remaining side windows to make the bus more secure. That's really about all that's left to do.

As far as the tyres are concerned, I asked if crossply tyres were available. After that I heard no more from the tyre place. I guess I'll just have to go there after Christmas. As generations have found, the only thing that really gets business done is a personal meeting. I have never had any success from online job applications nor mailed in job applications. The only way to get jobs is by meeting the guy that actually does the hiring. When you're pawned off to HR or computers or bits of paper they're just yanking your chain. It goes the other way too - several emails and no sale means they probably think I'm yanking their chain.

Ouch!

Back in June I asked a local supplier with a reputation for being inexpensive about the cost of new tyres for the bus. Back then I had a quote that looked like this....

STEERS COST $382.81 THE DRIVES COST403.10 THE TOTAL TURN KEY JOB INCLUDING SERVICE CALL MOUNTS TAX AND SCRAP DISPOSAL WILL BE $3116.90 AND TIRES ARE IN STOCK.

The other day I came to the conclusion that I really should get the tyres as soon as possible. It seems that 10R22.5 are not currently available but 275/75R22.5 are available. Now there is a difference. The 10R22.5 tyres are 3100mm outer diameter and make 519.14 revolutions per mile. The 295/75R22.5 are 3186mm outer diameter and make 505.13 revolutions per mile. Doing the mathematics it seems that there's going to be a disparity between wheel speed and speedometer reading, leading to 1mph faster than indicated travel. That is way better than the 5mph faster than indicated travel of the 11R22.5s that somebody put on before I bought the bus.

The current tyres are 11 years old and in dire need of replacement - so much so that I will not drive on them. I don't consider them remotely safe. I'm not feeling too safe going underneath to do the work required to complete the brake lines either.

The latest quote I have for tyres is based on the new size of 275/75R22.5 and is thus:

Yes you are correct a 29575225 size will bring your speedometer back close and they are in stock. a tire cost 439.95 plus tax mount bal out the door will cost a total $3345.64.... it will cost $380.00 EXTRA TO COME TO *******. AND WE HAVE MEANS TO FULLY BALANCE TIRES IN THE SHOP WITH A 6401 COATS BALANCER.

An intriguing addendum to the emails is this:

the price has changed about every 5 weeks or so since mr Biden went in office. The tires now cost me more than I was going to charge you. thay have gone up about 35% so we will need to revisit a new quote and tire if we can find them,

So the original quote all in was for 3345.64 but the new cost will be 3725. That seems to be an increase of $609 since June or 20%. This is a scary increase!

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.

Testing aluminium welding...

Today, after improving my mold for making my aluminium "welds" I had a go at joining two pieces of 2" aluminium bar. I was hampered by being unable to locate my other G clamp and had to clamp one piece of aluminium down using a brick - which wasn't ideal as I couldn't get it close enough.

The welding wasn't actually "welding" I just melted some Harbor Freight "Aluweld" into the gap between the two pieces of aluminium. I'd cut the pieces and then chamfered one side on both pieces in order to maximise the surface area.

Checking both sides afterwards, the one piece that I couldn't get perfectly flat due to not being able to find my G clamp had allowed some aluminium underneath it. In general though it seems to have worked passably well.

The welds do have faults and there is a lot of spillover on one side. That was because the work wasn't perfectly level and I used too much of the solder. I call it solder because it's really solder, not welding rod. A few minutes with an angle grinder would clean up the spillover on the back if this wasn't just a practice piece. 

As far as this weld goes, there are gaps because it was fairly rushed and I had never used my mold nor tried butt-welding flat bar stock before. It was hampered by the lack of a second G clamp but on the whole I am very satisfied. The welds seem solid. When I flexed the bar, the welds did not break. The bar does appear to be straight but curiously there's a step with one bar being slightly out of line. Given that one of the sides of the trough on my mold disintegrated prior to welding I'm not surprised. I'll just need to work more on the mold. Perhaps I need a longer mold. That's doable - I have plenty steel angle I can weld into a former and plenty of the mysterious white gypsum-like powder.

At the moment things are looking fairly positive for making 3 welds like this. I would have to attend to the spill on the front of the test weld as there would be a rivet half way along. Two rivets will secure the bar to the bus body - one on each tongue with the weld stabilizing the join. Needless to say there would be other rivets at other points. 

If the metals suppliers would get their acts together and provide 10 foot lengths instead of 8 foot lengths then I wouldn't have to buy two six foot lengths and muck about joining them. I see 10 foot lengths online but the local people won't supply that length. It's a bit like those bargain tyres advertised online. Sure - they're a bargain price but once shipping is paid they're more expensive than buying an ultra-expensive tyre locally.

Patched a small hole. Very exciting stuff!

Today I did a small project. In the old incarnation of the upper backup camera, the camera cable was quite a way below the camera mount. Thus when I put the new camera in with the cable going through the tube it's mounted on. The mounting plate wasn't big enough to cover both sets of holes. Today I put a plate over the last remaining hole and riveted it in place.

The steel plate was a cutoff from when I put the steel sheet over the outside of the bottom window of the door. That was where I had to make room for the hinge. I had to cut that cutoff in two to get a piece the right size. That, of course, shows you why you store your cutoffs from everything. You never know when it'll come in handy. That steel plate must have been done a year or so back. 

Once the plate was in place - I did put Dynotron caulk behind the plate and underneath each rivet, I sprayed it white to match the bus except there's enough dirt on the bus now that it's more grey than white. Before I go anywhere in it, I'll have to give consideration to washing it. That'll take about an hour by hand with a manual pressure sprayer with 2 gallons of water in the bucket, some soap and a mop.

The Dynotron caulk was at its end. No more would come out when I removed the seal from the nozzle and pulled the trigger. The plunger was right at the end of its travel. I did not have to open a new tube however - cutting the tube open allowed access to more caulk than I really needed for today's project.  A good slathering went over the back side of the steel plate, onto the backs of the rivets and around the edges of the steel plate. Finally I put some over the ends of the rivets just to make sure it's all sealed. 

This time around I used aluminium rivets. Steel seemed a bit of a waste. I'd have had to get the big riveter out and this was just a light hand job. The steel plate will have no pressure on it and four aluminium rivets are strong enough to stand up to holding an ounce of steel plate. I'm not expecting anything to press on that plate either. 

So we end a long dry patch in which I have done little to nothing with the bus. Remaining to be done as far as I can think right now...

• Brake lines to finish
• Tyres to replace
• Right wiper mount to re-rebuild.
• Some fiddling with the USB socket over the microwave
• Adding a fuse box inside the front console.
• Complete the solar charging setup for the driving batteries.

That was all on my old list. I've taken off the list a cable to the driving battery compartment. I am pretty sure that the lithium batteries will not like the cold weather and will simply shut down on cold days. That does not worry me. I might add a second battery connection on the kill switch and have that feed to a socket on the side of the bus that allows me to plug in a lead-acid battery that can sit on the ground outside. I can probably still get some power out of the old lead-acid deep-cycle batteries - enough to power lights etc if not the extraction fans.

The cross-view mirrors I bought seem to have reacted poorly to the plastic bags I had protecting them when I was painting the bus. They seem to have gone white which is strange as it's clearly not paint. They'll need to be replaced. This is probably the 3rd set I'm buying. The first was not curved enough. The second was right but something happened to them. The third is coming as soon as I order them.

The new list adds:

• Two extra external solar connectors, one at the front and one at the back
• External connector for extra batteries
• Replace cross-view mirrors

The list is now down to single digits again. I can confirm that the new vent that I installed seems to be coping with the recent heavy rain. I have a paper towel underneath it supported by a plastic sheet that's held up by very feeble magnets. If water collects, the towel gets heavy and falls. I'll give that a few days of really heavy rain to see what happens.

Not much of anything

Today was one of those days where more could have got done had I not been exhausted by five 12-hour days plus a busy Saturday.

The first thing that was done was to pour more of the white powder mix into the mold with a sample aluminium plate in place. I did test the white stuff with a blowtorch and while it glowed, it did not change colour. It is definitely soft so I'll have to see what exactly it does with the aluminium when I try to weld.

Having poured the mix over the aluminium in the mold it did cure as stated in about an hour but it was a couple of hours later when I scraped the white stuff back to reveal the aluminium plate. I did try to move the aluminium but the white stuff started to come up too. Perhaps I should have sprayed it with some kind of mold oil? I left the aluminium in place and put the whole lot in the bus. Maybe some heating/cooling cycles will have the desired effect. If not, I can pry the aluminium out and see how good the mold is.

Next, I pulled out the metal I had painted last time and cut it to size to fit over the cable hole above the current camera mount. I'll have to drill rivet holes later as I still need to fit it more precisely.

Finally, above the bed, in the bedroom, I caulked the edges of the board inserted where I did have accessible windows and removed the four roller blind mounts. That'll make a big difference. When I slept in the bus last time I was in danger of clonking my head on those things. Being pointy, metal and sharp there was a risk of hitting an eye on one of those. Definitely not safe. Now they're gone.

I'll have to slap some pink paint on the edges - and a couple of places where the paint isn't so good and then I'll say that area is completed.

As far as the metal cover over the cable hole is concerned, that will be done another day. It's not a big job but I just didn't feel like hefting the stepladder nor climbing it today. As for the aluminium, I'll probably get to that next weekend. I need to do a test weld first. This is all experimental so far. If the test weld turns out OK then I'll buy some longer pieces of aluminium that I can join for real and see how that works out. The aim, as ever, is to cover all of the windows with three wide aluminium bars painted white. That way the bus will look ever more like a prison bus.

Two steps forward

Today I welded ends on the mold I made for the plaster that will form the basis for my aluminium casting/welding. That went OK but I did have the amperage up a little high for the 1/16th rods I'd pulled out. This resulted in one turning into a sparkler. I turned the amperage down from 70 to about 45. That worked and I completed welding the two ends on.

Following the welding, when everything had cooled, I mixed some plaster-like stuff that I bough a bag of in Lowes. I have no idea what exactly it is. It seems somewhat soft so it could be gypsum. Needless to say there was just a brand name I'd never heard of before on the sack and no description of the contents. It was a white powder so it could be plaster. On the other hand it could be a lot of things but somehow I doubt I have a sack of Heroin. 

After the "plaster" had seemingly set, I scraped it level pretty easily using a piece of metal. That was a huge clue that it wasn't really plaster. I'll have to see how it goes when I play a blow torch on it next weekend. For the moment I shall put it in my car so it can bake dry in the heat.

After the debacle of the Chromebook, I went and bought a cheap laptop. This actually works and I've now installed Linux Mint. Windows never got a look in. As soon as I switched on, I pressed F2 and got the bootloader. 

I really wanted to load Raspbian but it didn't seem to want to run on my new Asus. Instead I put Linux Mint which will do pretty much what I need. The wifi driver didn't like the built-in wifi board so I had to use an external wifi dongle but that was fine. There won't be wifi where I'm going to be using it.

Meanwhile I had a response from HP that indicated that they didn't think an awful lot of their Chromebooks. In fact one representative pretty well called it a cheap android tablet with a keyboard. Well, if HP thinks it's trash then it must be.

As for the Chromebook, HP said they'd escalated to a higher level of help and they'd be in touch in a few days. I told them the Chromebook was waiting to go to the shooting range as a target. Interestingly a friend from Britain tried a Chromebook and called it a false economy. They couldn't do anything worthwhile with it either. I at least tried to put Linux on it.

A product warning!

A few weeks ago I was researching cheaper laptops that would charge off USB or 12v. Well, I found a Chromebook. It ticked all the right boxes. It charged off a 120v USB 3 charger that could likely be replaced by a 12v to USB 3 charger. It was $140 from Best Buy and even better there were instructions online how to delete the God-Awful ChromeOS and install Linux.

So, I bought the Chromebook and it arrived. That was where the problems started...

The instructions for installing Linux and running it never worked. Somehow on the initial startup I did get Linux to run but only from USB and it never ran again.

Since that I have been scouring every website and every set of instructions available to get the blessed thing to work with Linux. Everything has been a miserable failure. At this point I should just quietly have returned it but I found a YouTube video where a guy took the back off and unscrewed one screw that was apparently a physical firmware lock. Then he could run Linux.

I duly undid the screws and pried up the edges of the plastic insert. There was something holding it fast in the center that was clearly not a screw. Looking further, it did not look remotely like the circuit-board shown on YouTube. I quietly clipped it all back together and checked whether it all still worked. 

As I don't really want to spend weeks trying this twiddle and that twiddle in order to try to make it work with Linux, I'll just have to throw it in the closet. I suspect in about 6 months I'll pull it out of the closet, find it's still not possible to get Linux to run on it and end up throwing it on the back of the pickup for a one-way trip to the dump with the rest of the household refuse.

Do yourselves a favor - don't buy a Chromebook aka Junkbook. It's just a prison that keeps you locked into a Google system and restricts what you can do. Judging from the fact the only apps available are Android, there's be no working software for it either. It really is a totally unusable piece of junk and to cap that off, it can't even be used offline.

My aims are...

• A laptop.
• Runs off USB/12v
• Takes Linux
• Can be used offline

Well, the HP Chromebook, according to online data checks all of those boxes. The reality is though that it does not take Linux and hence cannot be used offline.

As I have now got pry marks around the insert, I can't return it. It appears I was gravely misled by the lying buffoons online. Sometimes online information is good, sometimes it is bad. There's no knowing until something is tried.

As for the cost, it just annoys me that I have to write off a $140 mistake. There's nobody to blame but myself for believing online technical information. My existing laptop is an Asus that came with Windows 10 but which now runs Linux. The new laptop was intended for a specific project and something cheap I could leave in the car while I am at work. Something I could have all the non-personal information - something that I would never use for email, web browsing etc, where no passwords would ever be stored.

No cement yet but two projects were worked on.

Project one for work today was to go over the windshields with a paint scraper. I have to say that they're probably cleaner on the outside than they are inside now. The first thing was to spray lightly with paint remover just to soften the paint then it was a case of scraping followed by wiping down with paper towels. 

The end result is that the windows look better but there's probably another session to be done. It won't be long before that glass is up for renewal anyway. There are chips galore and the edges are clearly delaminating.

As I was up on the roof, I peeled the tape off the newly installed roof vent. Then I emptied a watering can down it and made a right old mess inside. Fortunately it's hot so it all dried in a couple of hours. 

I had been expecting seepage since the water was flooding out of the weep holes in the vent. My thought is that the weep holes might be too small. I'll have to wait and see. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are supposed to be rainy days. I'll put a funnel under the vent inside the bus and a length of tube from that to a 2 liter bottle. If it rains heavily and water accumulates in the bottle then I'll know I need to put a roof over the vent or perhaps change the vent out.

Meanwhile the two high-dome convex mirrors I bought have not fared well. It's not spray paint on them. It's some kind of reaction with the grey Walmart bags that I had covering them for a few weeks while I was painting the bus. This is rather disappointing to be honest.

In other news I did discover an actual computer that will charge off the power from a USB socket. It has to be a 3A USB3 socket but it will charge. The only problem is that the computers concerned are Chromebooks. They're great if all you want to do is send email, browse the web etc but for anything else, they're horrible. Great for couch surfers but not practical in the real world. I'm currently investigating how to remove ChromeOS from them and replace it with a standard Linux operating system. They have possibilities.

Nothing exciting here, move along now!

Yesterday I quickly made up a pair of cables with jumper connectors on them and put them in the battery compartment. The aim there is to connect to the second solar controller with the eventual aim of keeping the driving batteries topped up via a small solar panel hung in the windshield. That really does not need a huge panel as all it'll be doing is stopping self-discharge.

Today I welded together two pieces of steel angle. The next step will be to fill that with concrete. After the concrete has set it'll be smoothed with cement and a piece of aluminium bar pressed into the cement to act as a mold for when I weld aluminium bars to go over the windows on the one side of the bus. That way there will be limited aluminium runoff, the two bars will be lined correctly and heat will be concentrated rather than wasted.

The intent had been to go under the bus to do the brake lines, to connect the solar connection I made up and to switch out the connectors on the batteries. None of that happened largely because Saturday and Sunday I was unwell. Definitely not Covid. Today I was just exhausted. 

 

Producing gas for cooking

Today was one of those days when I was so exhausted from the work week that though there were big plans to go under the bus and work on brake lines, nothing major really got done. Instead it was a series of side projects and side-side projects. 

As some of my readers know, I have an interest in robotics. For a long time I have thought about getting a screen to run off a Raspberry Pi for occasions when a network is not available. It would be possible to configure the Pi to run as a hotspot but most of the time it runs off the house network. To change that, it is possible but I would need a screen as a backup in case something went amiss. Thus today I took delivery of a cable that can connect the Pi to a backup camera screen that I have spare. It's a microscopic screen but should be OK for configuration if need be and it runs off 12v. I have been asked if I ran the bus off a Pi but the answer is no. The Pi is for other things.

One of the other side projects involves producing hydrogen gas. To this end I have two dollar-store stainless steel knives set up in a bath of salt water with a cap over the cathode designed to collect hydrogen. In this case, the hydrogen might have chlorine gas mixed with it but the point is just to produce hydrogen via solar power. So far the experiment has been running just over a month and has produced some very small bubbles. I do not expect to produce a meaningful quantity of hydrogen in the experiment. 

It seems that producing two mols of hydrogen (about the quantity needed to fill a garment bag) takes two full days at 1 amp. I can pretty well guarantee I'm not getting that much. Mostly the experiment has been running off a 15W solar panel placed in a non-ideal location. The fact there are gas bubbles is encouraging but it might take many months to generate anything meaningful.

Another project today was to put handles on two of my hinged solar panel pairs. This makes them much easier to carry - like a suitcase. There is no latch as yet to keep them latched together. That might come in time but as Lowes (hiss, spit) had no worthwhile latches, it might take a while.

With hydrogen production, salt produces chlorine gas - not ideal and in fact quite dangerous. For an experiment however, that's fine. If the gasses from both anode and cathode were mixed and it was just pure water then I would produce Brown's gas which is an explosive mix of hydrogen and oxygen. This would work well for cooking but isn't the safest thing to use.

To put it simply, this is a fun experiment but won't likely yield enough hydrogen to cook anything with in a reasonable amount of time. 

Today I broke a rule and answered somebody's post on social media. Every now and then I want to contribute and I always get my head snapped off for bothering. Somebody posted that they were going to buy a school bus and didn't know where they were going to park it. They said they'd asked their boss about parking in the company car park and he was not happy. Well, that's a no then. My suggestion was that if it was not possible to locate a parking space before purchasing the bus it would be better not to purchase the bus. That was shouted down as being rude and negative which is pretty much all that happens to real suggestions on social media. All people go there for is positive affirmation of their own ideas. Putting it bluntly, it encourages conversations like this.

• Hey, y'all, I had this great idea about jumping off a bridge onto a  busy road. 
• Yeah, why not do it. Just think, you could get a day off work.
• My aunty jumped off a bridge into traffic and won $10,000
• No. Don't do it - that could kill you.
• Don't be such a nasty person. She has a perfect right to jump off a bridge!
• You're horrible - your should leave this group immediately and see a psychiatrist.
• I'd be banned if I told you what I really think of you and your dog stinks.

It's all about the poster getting positive affirmation of the poster's own ideas. Nothing about honest discussion or honest opinions. Nothing that advances the person or their personal development. In fact, because the poster can block everybody that disagrees with them, it leads to really dangerous situations where dangerous ideas cannot be countered. One example from the bus would would be poorly secured large or heavy items in a bus such as cast iron woodstoves which in themselves are a whole new level of danger and stupidity. 

As far as social media is concerned, the problems are vast. The person giving advice might know what they're talking about but might also just be copying (with errors) what they have read elsewhere. Indeed they might not even own the equipment they're discussing and might just be yet another unemployed individual posting about the way they think things should work. So many people, for example, were nasty about my welding. The fact that I can beat my welds with a sledgehammer and they don't fall apart never changes their attitudes. Put together a weak weld that looks pretty and they'd be full of praise.

Basically, I'm not big into social media. Here's the thing - if somebody is always on social media or has a huge number of posts over a short period then perhaps that's all they do. There are always more talkers than doers.

Worked on the leak

Today was a hot day and the week had been exhausting. Working from 6 til 4:30 with about 3 hours of breaks during which I have to sit and nap in a hot car is not refreshing. Due to the Covid situation, the work breakroom with its delicious air conditioning is closed. 

So today I did get to the bus. The first thing I did was to set out my hinged solar panels and run the twin extraction fans. Those 5 panels produce 50W between them and are aimed squarely at the sun. The other 80W of solar panels are not aimed directly at the sun but pick up plenty power.

Turning the twin extraction fans on, there was ample power from the panels. Strangely though over the 30 minutes the fans were running, the battery level went down from 100% to 90%. Within 10 seconds of turning the fans off, the batteries were back at 100%. I'm not sure why that's happening when there's surplus solar power and nothing is being overloaded.

I regard my hinged solar panels as a great success and the next project will be to hinge the two 20W panels. That should give me 90W of hinged panels plus two separate 30W panels, two flexible 10-12W panels, an epoxy 5w panel and the 15W Harbor Freight panel.

Following all this, I attended to the leaking light fixture. Today I smoothed some of the caulk that I've been using around the edges of the mount. If there's a leak in the mounting caulk, that'll sort it out. If it's leaking elsewhere then I'll attend to that in due course.

Meanwhile I also had another go at caulking around the sheet of plywood installed over the two windows I blocked off. I need to apply more caulk but needed the stuff installed to cure first. Then I can see where I need to put more. The last stage will be painting it.

The solar panels I've been using are pretty darned heavy which is why I'm really glad I'm using small panels. For panels that can just be set outside and taken in at night or in bad weather, those light epoxy panels seem ideal. The flexible panels are just horribly expensive.

The 5W epoxy panels are available on eBay and are very light, having no frame. If they were available in bigger than 5W or 10W I'd have bought several just to put up inside the windshield and to place outside as required. This is a market that the solar industry seems to ignore. Perhaps making cheaper panels without those heavy aluminium mounts just makes the panels sell for too little money? I like the flexible panels - not for the flex but for the lightness. Imagine one screwed down to a lightweight plastic or wooden frame. It'd make life so much more pleasant.

How to find a leak!

Three problems were resolved today, all within an afternoon. How about that for progress?

The first problem - now that the control console can be opened and closed properly, having put rivnuts in place of the widening sheet metal screw holes - was to eliminate the buzzer. As per the circuit diagram there was a wire (in this case two wires) coming from a master plug. Those wires disappeared through a hole under the console so like as not they're going to come out in front of the heater fans. It really wasn't worthwhile looking for a way to remove those wires so I just capped them.

Having put a little red cap on the wires I traced the video cable. There was a problem in that I was not getting video from the new camera. It had been working but tracing the video cables proved fruitless. Everything in the console looked good so I just closed the console and left it at taking the buzzer out of the circuit. 

But wait, there's more. While I was in the console, I removed the horn switch that I had installed and the wiring that both I and the hillbillies had used because the horn actually works through the steering wheel button. That was a task well done.

The next step was to check to see if the video cable was disconnected at the back. Indeed, it was. Now it is reconnected so there should be no more issues.

While I was working in the bus it began to rain. Within a few minutes water began to come down, dripping in two places off the head protector above the back door. 

Earlier in the day I'd looked using an endoscopic camera inside the back of the bus and found no evidence of leaks but had discovered some rusty spot welds. Nothing I can do about those! Not having my endoscope, I put my finger up and felt around. I felt wetness.

There was a line of wet coming from the wire to my door side top marker light. That's the leak likely identified. None of the others appeared to be leaking. I'll have to go back up there and squirt some form of sealant up there just to seal around the wire. With luck, that will be all the leaks dealt with.  The front marker lights need to be checked for leaks too. That can be done another day though.

Beep beep'm beep beep yeah

"Baby, you can drive my car
Yes, I'm gonna be a star
Baby, you can drive my car
And maybe I'll love you"

So sang the Beatles back in 1965, a full 29 years before the bus was even built. Today the horn worked though the horn button. Interestingly the brake booster didn't whir until my foot was on the brake so that's two things resolved or is it more?

Today I went inside the big black box on the right. That's where all the cables join. Having already fitted spade connectors to the separated horn wire and connected the red wire to the line that led to the actual horn, I found that the two horn ends will just clip together nicely using the spade connectors. Clearly not much wire was missing.

Starting the bus it was surprising not to hear the brake booster. Perhaps the air that was in the line is now not in the line? It did work when the ignition was off, which was good. So, the horn was connected properly and seemed to work so perhaps prematurely removing the red wire was  next. The only problem will be if the horn button is bad and the horn sounds randomly while driving. 

It was intended that I'd get to the disconnected video cable and the buzzer, using the space occupied by the buzzer for a new fuse panel. It was just a bit much sitting inside a hot cockpit though. It was 98.5F in the shade and I wasn't in the shade.

A few weeks ago, I hinged a pair of 10W solar panels and a trio of 10W solar panels. Today I changed some of the connectors and added connectors so it will be possible to connect one or all on each hinged set in order to generate power. I've used the standard SAE connector on one panel - that will connect into the solar system. The other connectors are some cheap low amperage connectors found on eBay a year or two back. They're not that good and certainly can't take water bad weather but they're fine for fold-out panels that are just placed in the sun, on the ground for a little temporary extra power. 

Adding up my solar, I have...

1. Two flexible mystery panels that have great claims but actually produce somewhere around 10-12W so we'll say two 10W flexible panels giving a total of 20W
2. Two 10W panels hinged together producing a total of 20W
3. Three 10W panels hinged together producing a total of  30W
4. Two 20W panels completely separate producing a total of 40W
5. Two 30W panels completely separate producing a total of 60W
6. A single 15W panel producing a total of 15W
7. A single 5W panel producing 5W
8. Two 10W panels mounted permanently on the bus producing a grand total of 20W

So, the grand total of power potentially available is around 210W of which with everything running all at the same time is going to exceed demand tremendously.

And finally, my tires are all around the same age. DOT 0210 means the 2nd week of 2010. Thus they're all 11 years old and undrivable so I'll have to get somebody in to change them. 

As of today, things that I know that need to be done...

1. Remounting the one sidelight above the side door and using rivnuts instead of self-drillers.
2. Replacing the push button switch and a voltmeter above the microwave.
3. Remove the buzzer in the console.
4. Clean paint off the windscreen
5. Complete replacing the brake lines.
6. Put the solar power wire to the driving battery compartment so the batteries can be kept topped up.
7. Rework the right wiper mount.
8. Replace the tyres

There might be more to do but those are the main things. I would like to put bars over the windows so we can call that point 8. I have to test the roof vent and if it fails, put a hood over it.

Well, things do seem to be coming along well. In that lot there's one big job - the brake lines and that's really about it. I put a temporary fix on one of the batteries but it seems to be holding so I might or might not rework that. As a friend says "there's nothing so permanent as a temporary fix".

A leak stopped?

Leaks are no good whatsoever and the leak at the back had been leaking for quite a while. Today, from the vantage point of a stepladder it became evident that the leaks were due to some poor seam sealing whoever had done the sealing ten years ago had done. 

It was slow work with a nylon brush in the pistol drill but better doing that than using the cupped steel brush in the angle grinder and getting shrapnel everywhere. The debris field was narrow enough to be swept with a hand brush from the step ladder. Once that was done, the shiny metal was sprayed with the first spray can that came to hand, bearing in mind there was no rust and it had been bone dry for days.

Once the painted seam had dried, Dynatron Seam Sealant was used. It was a previously used tube. The key to keeping opened tubes is to cut a small hole in the nozzle then to fill that with a screw when done for the day. Keeping that tube in an air-conditioned building also ensures it keeps. 

Applying the caulk was a case of squiring a bead as far as the arm could reach then smoothing/spreading it with an old blister packet from a pack of screws. That worked really well, was cheap and disposable. On the Dynatron website it's mentioned that the caulk can be put on with a brush. That would be the end of the brush though.

Aside from the very back seam, the only place now that water could be coming in would be the previous seam. That looked OK on the last visit to the roof. It's unlikely to be seepage from the lights as when my hand was up inside the roof cavity, the damp was above the lights. Similarly the rivets at the backs of the solar panels seem pretty leak-proof. It is now a case of waiting for the next rainstorm.

While the caulk gun was out, I switched caulk tubes and completed caulking around the wooden panel in the bedroom above the bed. That is now ready for paint. One day I'll get to that. I probably need to touch up the whole bedroom. That was painted in haste and not very well.

Speaking of other things, the horn button and horn relay seem to work. When the horn was connected to the horn button and the engine was off, the horn was almost imperceptible. I'd assumed that the horn relay was bad. Wiring the horn back to the hillbilly wire had the same result. When the engine was on, the hillbilly horn wire made the horn sound loudly. I suspect that the same result will happen when the original horn wire and button is used. That makes me suspect the hillbillies couldn't hear the horn with the engine off and just rewired it. 

A lot of people rush in to do things without thinking and without questioning why things are as they are. A very popular thing is to remove the vent from the roof that keeps the insulation dry. Not smart! The horn looks like another example. I could go on about masks and the Covid virus too. People whining about and refusing to wear masks while claiming Covid is non-existent without realizing a mask is a sensible backup should their opinion be wrong and scientific evidence be right. 

So, the back seam is done. The horn will probably be working next time I work on the bus. If the horn button works then the hillbilly wire might as well be removed. It would be entertaining to rig it to a train horn but extra loud horns are actually illegal. An entertaining idea but not worth pursing. There is no reason as far as I can tell to have an extra wire in the engine bay so I might as well retire it.

When running the engine the other day, the Hydromax kept running. When the engine was off, it only ran when I put my foot on the brake. Having researched hydraulic brake boosters there are likely two solutions. Either it is the air in the back brake line or it is the pressure switch at the top of the brake booster. The latter is the most likely. 

Things remaining to be done....

• Back brake lines
• Switching the horn over
• Reworking the right wiper mechanism
• Testing the new roof vent and putting a hood over it if needed
• Removing the buzzer from the console
• Small internal electrical fixes
• Bars over the windows. Measuring, it seems 3 bars will be sufficient though it would be possible also to use a perforated sheet. Bars look more prison like, however.

A sub-job completed

 
Today started with thinking about the horn circuitry. It dawned on me that I have not seen a horn relay anywhere. Looking around online didn't reveal any information whatsoever about a horn relay for a 1994 Carpenter 3800 with an International/Navistar chassis. Looking at the wire from the horn switch, it seemed very light for 15A horn units. Perhaps that's why the hillbillies put a thick, direct wire in place? The fuse for the horn is 15A and that's to the right of the steering wheel. The puzzling thing is what remains of the wiring goes straight to the horns. I shall have to ask the work mechanic if he has encountered any busses with horns wired direct to the button, without any relays.

Meanwhile I felt like working on the screws that hold down the top of the control console. Originally it was held down by sheet metal screws that had become so worn and loose that they didn't have very much effect. I'd replaced them with self-drillers but even some of those were now loose. 

Rather than using my Harbor Freight hand rivnut tool I used the older method of two wrenches, a bolt and a washer. That worked quite well.

The process is pretty straightforward. A nut is put on a bolt followed by a washer or two then the rivnut. The whole lot is put into the hole and the bolt held firmly so it cannot turn. The nut is then unscrewed. The rivnut then expands and clamps itself into the hole.

When the rivnut is in place it provides a much better way of securing things than a simple sheetmetal screw binding on thin sheetmetal. That works the first few times but eventually gives out as the hole becomes bigger. Then it's a race to use ever bigger screws.

Once the rivnuts were all in place it was really easy to fasten the top of the control panel down. That will now not shake nor rattle as it has in the past, leading to a much quieter ride.

This was not a task high on my to-do list but it was something that had been niggling me for a while. I can honestly say I detest unnecessary noise when I'm driving.

Having got this far I looked under the hood at the horn wiring. Taking off the wire nut and electrical tape the hillbillies had put on, I put spade connectors on the wire plus an extra bit of wire so that it was possible to connect the original two horn wires. That's when I realised neither of those wires came from the horn button. They headed in different directions.

I'm nowhere nearer working out what the disconnected wire is and to be honest that does not immediately interest me. I'll find that out in due course. While I was in there, I hosed out the inside of the cover over the cable junction to free it of nasty rat debris.

Connecting the two bits of grey wire and pressing the horn button, the horn relay clicked loudly but the horn sounded feebly. It sounds more like a bad horn relay to be honest. Temporarily I reconnected the red wire - so much simpler when I use the correct spade connectors! Tomorrow, weather permitting, I'll trace the wire from the inside of the bus. I'm pretty sure now that leads to a horn relay. If need be, I can use my endoscope to locate the relays but I'll bet when I find them they'll be in an obvious place!

There's no hope of asking the bus maker since Carrpenter went bus in 2001. That's 20 years ago. I doubt anybody working there even remembers that they worked there.