Those damn hillbillies!

Today I looked beside my interior sub panel and discovered I have 9 inches of space between the panel and the woodwork. That gives me ample space to install my main breaker. This means that I now do not need an underbody compartment. The socket box can simply be affixed to the inside of the skirt and a hole made for the plug to pass through.
Had I realised this many moons ago, I could have simply riveted the old hillbilly compartment door over the hole after taking out their nasty compartment. I would have saved several months as I taught myself to weld and built two compartments that I ended up not using. The first compartment (bottom - in grey and brown) was simply way too heavy for my liking. The second compartment (top) is better but is unnecessary extra weight.
In the end, I could have saved all that time and effort by ignoring what the hillbillies had done. Every time I tried to make use of whatever disaster they concocted, I found I wasted time and just had to fix their attempts before doing it my way.

Originally, I'd wanted to have an entirely solar-powered bus. I've since discovered that solar power produces electricity of such an inconsequential amount that it realy is just a stupid dream. In fact, unless it's done on an industrial scale I'd call solar power rather much of a scam. For the price of two solar panels that might or might not make much power I could buy a generator. For the price of the batteries needed to store power I could save a lot of weight and buy several years worth of fuel for the generator. Were I doing the bus again from the beginning, I'd use many of the lessons learned and rather than putting in a 120v system, I'd put a small underbody 4.25lb gas cylinder and no 120v supply. 

Just for laughs, today I bought a solar battery charger from Harbor Freight. I really don't expect much from this but if it recharges my AA NiMh cells then it will work on D cells too. I almost went for the suitcase solar panel on the basis I could probably rig that to charge either the LIon battery packs that'll recharge my tablet and phone or AA/D cells. Now the panel on the side of the box wasn't all that promising, to be honest but I thought I'd give it a shot.
I got it home and found it was somewhat of a challenge rather akin to the act of passing a camel through the proverbial needle to put AA batteries in the holders. Getting them out after might pose a significant challenge! I did not intend it for use with AA batteries but rather for D cells. If it works for AA batteries then it might be worth getting D cells because my LED lantern and my shower unit both use D cells.

12.5 hours for a single D cell looks pretty forbidding. That could mean several days given the fact I'm not likely to have optimal (middle of the Sahara) light. Given the size of the solar panel, I think this is more of a gimmick than something genuine. It's designed to catch the pennies of the curious rather than to provide worthwhile power.

Given that the battery holders are not that great and have a serious problem with gravity, I don't forsee a long life for this unit. Stripping it down to copy it, however, could be interesting. It should be possible to identify all the components in order to build a bigger, better charger that I could use to charge a realistic number of batteries. I have no problem with using NiMh cells as a power source!
As can be seen - this is the underside of the charger. How they expect the flimsy (I had to fix one already) contacts to hold batteries up, inside the unit remains to be seen. I rather expect that the contacts will snap fairly soon.

Meanwhile I relocated my butane torch and my butane refill cylinder. The torch would not take a butane charge. I suspect that the valve might have frozen. Given that I haven't used this in 5 years, it would seem likely. I pulled it out because I thought I might be able to use it to do some light brazing but sadly it appears this is not to be. It's not worth buying another - not at the current price of $18. When it was $10, it was fine. While I was thinking about it, I almost bought another main breaker box out of sheer laziness rather than cut and rivet steel plate over the holes I'd already made in it to situate it underneath the bus. I thought more of my money however.

Diesel is now $1.69 a gallon. I really need to get that 120v system sorted out before the price rises. I can probably put another 30 gallons of diesel in the tank. I need to be able to move the bus before I can do that though and with the main breaker attached by a cable to the bus and dangling on the ground, that's not currently possible unless there was a way to tie the whole affair up so it didn't drag on the ground.

It's colder than a witches tit today!

It has been below freezing for several days in a row. It's highly likely that I won't be doing any welding tomorrow. Today was just plain miserable most of the day. It was made even more miserable by a stomach thing that fortunately cleared up by 4pm.

Thus, at 4pm I headed out to Walmart, being slightly surprised that my car battery actually started the car. It didn't want to but it did start. So, while the mechanics at Walmart changed my battery (which was free), I went shoppng and got 4 more blinds and 4 mounts for my blinds. The cheapest blind at walmart was $3.95 but these were $4.95 roller blinds. For the other windows - in the shower - I suppose I could use the $3.95 blinds but I haven't given that much thought. I'm thinking more in terms of how to attach shower curtains to the ceiling.

Looking around Walmart, I saw some very interesting things but my mission today was explicit - blinds and battery. If I don't stick to my list then it's likely that I'll spend too much. Income is not unlimited and the last paycheck I was given has to have special consideration as it was printed incorrectly. Apparently it'll be OK with the issuing bank because they know of the error. My bank might be another matter entirely though!

Of interest were another D cell lantern for $20 - mine works very well though with just one, lighting is limited to a small area. For the potential battery I looked at the EverStart Lawn and Garden battery for $20. It was interesting but did not state its capacity at all. Given that all I would need to power would be fans and phone/tablet chargers I really don't need much power. I could probably get away with a 20ah standard battery and use only 2-3 ah out of it. Indeed, I could probably - if the USB connectors would handle voltages that low - use a 6v battery. That could even be a DIY battery made of NiMh AA cells. Now that would be definitely worthwhile. I have a pile of NiMh AA cells that I don't use.

As it's perishing cold right now, I was looking at alternate heat sources for my bus and chanced upon a Coleman gas heater. The one of immediate interest seems hard to obtain. It's called the Coleman SportCat but nobody seems to stock it. It takes a different size of gas cartridge and offers 14 hours of continuous heat per cartridge. That's definitely doable.

I'm not too keen on having multiple standards of gas cartridge or indeed multiple standards of anything but sometimes it is necessitated by cost and availability. Apollo 13 discovered to their cost why different standards are a very bad idea when their spaceship had a mishap. It turned out that the lunar lander air filters had a different fitting from the command module filters. Thus they had to rig up a solution in order to make the wrong filters work in the command module just to survive.

Clearly I need to add some more fire extinguishers but that was always the plan anyway. I did wonder whether I should build a bay under the bus to hold a couple of 20lb gas cylinders. Plumbing for gas needn't be expensive or hard and is very possible. The gas cooktop could be installed above where the fridge or cooler will be situated. Indeed, I looked at coolers today and saw one that would do that was $22.

In mind today were the schoolbus flashers. The plan is eventally to intergrate them into the turn signal and braking light systems. The existing reversing horn needs to be tested and connected to a switch on the control console. That way I can switch it on when reversing and off when not which would also give the option of having it sound when necessary and not when it's not or not when it's dark and would unnecessarily cause noise. There's a lot of systems work that could be done.

The aim right now is to get the blinds and shower curtains up. That will get the bus pretty much ready inside. I would like to have the battery/cable compartment refitted but this is not essential right now. I think with the blinds and curtains in place, I will be able to reregister the bus as a motorhome. I will want to put a couple of extractor fans - one over the cooking area and one in the bedroom but those can wait a little while.

If it's a nice day tomorrow (which it should be) the plan is to install the blinds and possibly get started on replacing the battery/cable compartment. The compartment will take a while. I need to experiment welding very thin sheet steel because the aperture under the bus created by the hillbillies is way too big for the new breaker box compartment. The new battery compartment will be quite small as it doesn't now have to carry a battery big enough to power the cooking systems.

It's always a toss-up which way to head with design and one person's error could be another person's salvation. I don't like gas - never have and probably never will. On the other hand the cost of a battery setup capable of powering a microwave would need a battery capacity costing $500 while my electrical system will cost maybe $50. A small battery such as the one planned could be charged from a smaller solar panel. Indeed, solar in this instance would work. This is even cheaper than the generator system I had planned earlier.

The only issue I am likely to have with tomorrow's welding is that the bus is probably beyond the reach of just a single one of my two 20A cables. One cable has Nema 5-20 connectors at each end but the other has a Nema 6-30 on one end which won't connect to anything other than the planned connector on the bus. The solution there will be to start the bus engine for the first time in 3 months or so!

I can honestly say that I am looking very much forward to getting the bus completed and ready for action. I want to see if I can get it ready and reregistered in time for the Battle of Aiken so I can take it for the whole Battle of Aiken weekend.

I got me some sugar!

Yup - after spending a rather unproductive time using soda as a blasting medium with my Harbor Freight air blasting tool, I located a small container of sugar that I poured into the blasting head. The difference was immense. I could bring the paint down to bare metal when I needed and managed to roughen the surface of existing paint. 

It is indeed regular cane sugar. The traditional thing to use is sand or preferably silica free sand. Given that sugar is a substance broken down easily by the human body, I'm not too bothered about inhaling minuscule quantities though I hold my breath while I'm blasting. Sand contains silica which causes silicosis - a really nasty and frequently terminal lung ailment. The best thing is sugar is available just about everywhere. A 20lb bag is cheap in Walmart while for sand I'd have to go further and pay more.

Lacking time to paint properly as it was getting close to dusk, I pulled out the first spray can I could locate. Meanwhile, I have been wondering whether I should change the paint scheme. On one hand, I can get grey fairly readily. On the other, I could paint the bus a more interesting color. I'll probably stick with grey on the basis that most of the paint is probably not going to peel. If necessary I can use a steel brush or sandpaper for occasions when the compressor is unavailable. 

One of worries is whether my welds are good enough. I'm going to have to find a real welder and ask his opinion. I think my battery compartment is going to be strong enough. Mind, I've just measured it against a nearby car battery. It seems that the door the hillbillies put on is not large enough to allow a full sized battery. Thus, my plan of using gas seems to be much more of a thing. I can build a smaller cage to hold a small gas container. No need for a huge one as far as I can see. I can get away with a smaller battery because it's not going to be used for powering mains equipment. I'm thinking small electronics such as my tablet and my phone etc.

Speaking of welds, I welded some scrap steel together. This is so that m'lady's niece's boyfriend can his destructive streak and try to destroy it. If he can then I'll have to look harder at my existing welds.
Looking at my bus batteries, they were down to 50% so I put them on charge to bring them back up to 100%. The bus has been sitting idle for months. That's not good for the batteries but one day I'll get around to installing my solar panel. That should keep the battery topped up.

The solar panel I have should keep the bus batteries topped up. I suspect a similar sized panel might be sufficient to provide for my daily electrical needs unless, of course, I decide to install a fridge that runs off 12v. As I've mentioned, I'm experimenting with Peltier elements and these form the basis of 12v fridges. Now a single Peltier would use around 60w or 120ah. To make a freezer, 4 Peltier elements would be needed, using 480ah. That's way in excess of what I'll set up to do. I figure 10-15ah is all I'll likely need if I use gas. Indeed, since my microwave is close to being deceased, it's not too much of a stretch to put a gas hob where the microwave used to be. indeed, I suspect that I might have been better off not installing the 120v setup at all but rather, installing 12v and gas. Having said that, I have what I have. It'll all probably work out for the best. The goal was to have all electric and while that is possible, it's not of immediate financial practicality.

Progressing again

Now that work has put up the shutters for the next two weeks, I can apply myself fully to working on the bus. Yesterday though I made a slight detour on my way to work to Walmart as my new tablet has arrived. Honestly, only one word sums this budget tablet up - fantastic! Sure, it won't let me run a couple of the apps I used to but it's thus far way faster than my Nexus 7, cost just about half the price and came with a keyboard case. The color even matches the galley in my bus.
  
Unlike my Nexus, it takes a SD card which means I won't lose locally saved files unlike my Nexus. It charges from the same micro USB charging port which I consider to be a great step backwards. Pin power connecters are far more robust. 

Speaking of my Nexus, when out shopping at 2am yesterday I noticed a company called "Digital Doc" in my local Walmart. Sadly it was closed but today I visited it. Given that such computer, tablet and phone repair places spring up quickly, flourish for a while then vanish suddenly - usually with a sack load of other people's equipment - I figured I'd best use it as quickly as possible before it vanishes. 

Arriving at the desk this morning, I asked about reflashing my Nexus and was told by the minimum wage yokel working there that they didn't do this. Now that's really strange since their website indicates that they do. Given then I had to stand in front of her and attract her attention from her mobile phone in order to talk to her and how after telling me the business didn't actually do what they claim to do and since she then failed to answer me with a suggestion as to an alternative business (or to acknowledge the question at all) I followed my golden rule. If somebody in the company with a geekish business is useless then they all are, and allowed my feet to give them a vote of confidence by allowing my feet to carry me out of their store. I don't see a long future for that outfit!

Returning to the bus, I had another go at welding. I'm not highly satisfied with what I did but then the weather was so cold I really didn't want to stay out welding. In fact, I didn't really want to start! I definitely need to get the compressor out and try to clean up the bits I need to weld with soda blasts. Now that I've worked on the blasting head, it might work better. For a bit of fun I welded two pieces of scrap steel together. M`lady's sister's daughter's boyfriend has threatened to test some of my welds to destruction so I figured I could safely let him loose on that!

Looking at the hillbilly cable compartment, it seems I have indeed correctly measured the size of the box I'm building. The next step after completing the welding will be to install the new compartment. Unlike the hillbilly compartment, my compartment will have a floor that will allow drainage. Indeed, I might even use a steel mesh rather than a solid floor.

I have various ideas about the battery power setup. Initially, since my power budget is minimal, I'll probably just have a small battery. All it has to operate is fans, lights and chargers. In fact, my 5A solar panel could end up mounted on the roof to charge the battery. That might provide 2.5A for 5 hours a day or about 15AH so the battery could be really small.

The goal at the moment is to get the bus ready to be examined in the reregistration process. 

Invaders from Mars arrived today.

Or perhaps that's what m'lady and her dogs thought when they ran, screaming, for the hills when they saw me in my welding outfit.

Today my welding was much better. Indeed it looked a lot closer to what a professional would do.


On the whole, I was happier with today's welding. Unlike last week I sprayed my welds with rust killing paint because welds are more prone to rust. I'm not sure how much more welding I should do but as I'd become tired, it was time for a break. After that the sun went and hid itself below the horizon. Talk about inconvenient!

I don't know what that website I was reading yesterday was on about but I find welding easiest at about a 45° angle. I suspect like everything else, most of these websites are set up by self taught welders each of whom uses a different technique that they swear is the one and only correct way of welding.

During today's welding I was getting on so well that I exceeded the welder's duty cycle and it shut down to cool off. I was getting some lovely thick welds. It seems a welding rod is good for about 4 - 5 inches. I even managed to build up to fill a 1/8 inch thick gap where I oopsied in my construction. On the whole, this is pretty confidence building.

I'm reasonably confident that today's welding will hold up to the test of use. My next task will be to remove the old hillbilly cable compartment and door then to install my own. Before I do that, I'll probably cut sides and a base for it that can be attached when its in situ. Those will probably be riveted into place.

Meanwhile, I put more silicone caulk on one of the roof seams while standing on a stepladder. I suspect I might need to add more. There's definitely a minuscule leak there.

While I welded, I connected my Peltier setup to my solar panel. Every now and then I'd go back to it and feel to see whether one side was warm and the other, cold. By the end of the day I'd not noticed any difference. This does not surprise me in the slightest. My luck with electronics is never high. Things that should work or are reported to work rarely do. In fact, it used to be 50/50 whether purchased ready made electronics would actually function. These days the percentage of DOA electronics is lower but they still exist. Electronics always seems such an absurdly hit and miss area.

I was reminded of a website I saw before I tried my Peltier setup. The Useless World of tge Peltier Effect Dehumidifier https://secretscotland.wordpress.com/2013/09/13/the-useless-world-of-the-peltier-effect-dehumidifier/ in which was documented one fellow's miserable experience of Peltier equipment. Drawing only 60 W and claiming only 600 ml collection per day (conventional claimed 300 W and 5 litres per day) the numbers seemed reasonable.

Sad to say, the reality has not been anywhere close.

In fact, having run the new dehum under various ambient temperatures and humidity levels, it barely manages to fill its little 600 ml tank in a week, let alone a day.
I really wasn't expecting anything spectacular from the Peltier unit but was hoping for more than *nothing*. Still, I can experiment. It could be that my 5W solar panel wasn't producing enough to tickle a 60W element - which is the most likely reason.

So, over the next week or two I intend to finish installing my cable compartment. Having done that, I'll be in a position to file to have my bus reregistered as a motorhome.