New math

I decided in the end to mount the USB and 12V connectors on the galley-driving compartment partition and to have solely the CPU fan in the bedroom. This makes connections a lot simpler though when I run my cables under the bus I might well add extras in case I change my mind later (a possibility).

Looking at my two Chinese connector panels, I removed 3 of the voltmeters and replaced two with Chinese USB connectors and one 12V connector. That should fit nicely on the aluminum box that'll soon be arriving.

Now the maths works out something like this. There are two 2.1A USB sockets plus two 5v 1.2A sockets. Add to that a 2.5A fan and two 0.5A fans. That all comes to 11.1A. The cigarette lighter socket is nominally rated at 12A and the documentation on my combination dual USB and cigarette lighter socket recommends a 14A fuse. That adds up to 23.1A. Add in the one piece unit I purchased the other day and we're up to 27.1A.

If you turn your head upside down, you'll notice my charge controller tops out at 20A. That doesn't overly worry me because I'm highly unlikely to have all the devices running at the same time. Having said that, there's a big case there for putting in a resettable breaker just to make sure I don't go over 20A. Of course I could spend a ton of money on buying a massive new charge controller but until my existing 5 charge controllers, each of which can handle 20A die then there's just zero point in bothering. I cannot possibly imagine any circumstances in which I would use such a massive amount of power.

My fuse array is set up for four fuses. Those will be fan 1, fan2, fan3 and sockets. The sockets need a 6.6v fuse for the USB, an unknown quantity for the voltage meter and something for the 12v socket. I only have two devices that run off a 12V socket and to be honest I do not know their amperage. One is a battery charger for AA batteries (it also runs off 120V) and the other is a 120v inverter that produces 200W. Neither of those, I actually use.

Thus, replacing the 12V cigarette lighter socket with another USB charger socket sounds much more practical. That'll have to be ordered but I think it'll work out far better value. That would take the total power from the USB cluster to 9.9A plus say 0.1A for the voltage meter or a 10A fuse. Combined with the fans totaling 3.5A, I'm now under the maximum limit of the charge controller.

Another issue is that my 4 fuse holders have no interconnection. It seems for that I need something called a piggyback spade connector. I went to one of the multitude of car spares shops. I think it was Advance Auto and could find no piggyback connectors. In the end I hunted online and found a pack of 3 for some awful price then Walmart had a pack of 25 for some ludicrous price. Finally, eBay had a pack of 25 for under $5 including shipping. Though it'll take a few days, they should be here next week. I hate all these delays in my plans.

As far as the other USB connector is concerned, I'll have to order it and wait - that's coming from China. Eventually I might use the dual connector I purchased the other day but not in the currrent iteration.

By the time I want a 12v cigarette lighter socket, I'll probably have upgraded my battery from 35AH and will probably have added extra power input. I did email somebody the other day that makes tiny gas engines for bicycles. They're quite inexpensive and at about 45cc would do well turning a car or motorbike alternation to develop power for a 12v battery independent of solar power. Solar is fine for a wide variety of things but the power produced while it will handle my small demands, won't handle much more. I certainly doubt all the online claims I've seen of being able to run air conditioning and fridges off solar.

Meanwhile, the subject of my mysterious battery drain came up at work and one old fellow that used to work as a bus mechanic then as a driver but who now works solely as an aide piped up saying that he would suspect the alternator. I tend to agree. Reading up on alternators online, it seems this kind of thing happens when the bridge rectifier built in begins to fail. There could be other reasons too but if I can get somebody to test the alternator then I might be closer to a solution. Otherwise I'll have to wait until I can get underneath the bus again.

Choices, choice, choices

After an unexpectedly early release from work, I retreated to the bus cum motorhome to work. Work today was centered solely around deciding what to do with my accessory sockets. I have two kinds of accessory socket - the one I bought the other day that's self-contained and the pair I bought on eBay.

The unit on the left has a voltmeter and twin USB connections, one of USB 1.1 and one of USB 2.0. The one on the right has a cigarette lighter socket and two USB 2.0 connections. Interestingly, I discovered that drilled carefully with my 1.5 inch hole saw, a piece of 2x4 could readily house the unit on the left. Now that unit has the advantage in requiring only a 3.5A fuse and lighter wiring than the other unit. The other because of the 12v socket requires a 14A wire and fuse because the socket is rated at 12A. I really don't want nor need massive amperages in the bedroom nor do I actually have any great need for a 12v socket, in the bedroom.

As I already have the circulation fan functioning in the galley, It's a straightforward matter to put in a USB and power socket. That's the theory! The problem is finding that ideal site. Ideally, my 12V stuff  could run much of the same route as my circulation fan. The only problem, I glued the 12v fan wires in place and the higher amperage cable was better put through a conduit. With a conduit, putting the lighter wire through also made sense. Doing it this way also means a 12V and USB socket could be operational today.

Meanwhile, I looked at my extraction fan. I'd already noticed the T section end had a tendency to wobble about. While stationary, that's not a problem. In motion though I fear it could break the mounts for my extraction fan. That could prove expensive. Thus I resolved to add a bracket each side and to support it with a stout zip tie. The zip tie does not have to support any great weight, rather it has to dampen vibration. That should work quite well!

My requirement for fuses now includes 14A, 0.5A and 3.5A for my assorted sockets and fans. It would make sense when I mount the underbus battery to put an overly large fuse on it so that it will be protected absolutely in the case of a short circuit but then to have an overall fuse for it totaling the maximum amperage likely to be used so that I'm protected from drawing too much current. In the unlikely event too much current is drawn, the easily accessible fuse will blow while the underbus fuse will not.

I'm still awaiting two items from eBay. One is my timer for my fan at the back of the bus. Once that's in place I can set it to a 10 minute run time every hour and set the charge controller to work correctly rather than using it as a fan controller. The other is a remote camera I ordered. This apparently has remote pan and tilt controls and is accessible via wifi. A very useful gizmo to have! The problem is I don't think I'm going to receive it. Hours after I purchased it, eBay sent me a memo stating that the item had been deleted but not to worry as it should arrive soon and that if it didn't I should contact the resolution center.

Not only did they delete the item, they also deleted the seller. Thus, I have to wait for the item not to arrive before I get my refund which looks like being September. This is absolutely ridiculous and smacks to me of eBay being a shade dishonest. What they're actually saying is: "We've deleted the seller and we're going to hang onto your money until you can prove the seller never provided the goods". As far as I know, as soon as the seller was deleted, their account was killed off and they have no access to the data files as to where to send my stuff, assuming of course that it wasn't a scam in the first place.

Despite being insanely tired having been wide awake at 3am - a full two hours before my 5am alarm, I managed somehow during today's meeting to remain awake - something 12 others did not manage! Even more amazingly I managed actually to do something on the bus rather than just blogging about what I might do and studying things. I installed my extra zip tie support for my T section.

As it's possible to see, things are supported at the T end. The other end already has plenty damping and support. With luck that will mean there won't be any fractures taking place. In the unlikely event the thing does fall apart then I probably won't replace the bilge fan. I'll probably put Y adaptors on each of the vent tubes and put a pair of CPU fans of about 3 inches diameter onto each of the open legs of the Y. That should provide 2A of extraction fan that will run much quieter. My bilge fan is pretty loud!

Siting my 12V + USB power connector proved particularly challenging. As there was an overhang under the back of the unit that critters could theoretically use to hide, siting was limited. In the end, lateral thinking was used such that the unit was cockpit mounted. Having studied the other units carefully and found a 1.5" hole saw and a piece of 2x4 was all that was needed for a mount, it was decided that was how they were to be mounted. That raised my available USB sockets to 6 running from battery power. It had an unforeseen consequence that I will have to add extra fuses and an extra couple of fuse positions.

Well, that was my decision until I'd put connectors on the device and discovered that there just wasn't the available real estate amidst all my wiring etc to put my connector. That put the project on hold for today which given how tired I was, was probably a good thing. Mistakes are costly as the Vicar's wife discovered when she found her opponent was not bluffing and strip poker meant just that!

I am definitely feeling the lack of a Radio Shack type place in Lexington. There's just nowhere to browse electrical components for possible solutions to issues nor a place to buy electrical components. Lowes (hiss, spit) has a good 120v section but their low voltage and 12v section is pathetic. As for the car parts stores - they have most of it but the prices are outrageous.

Having discovered I can just drill holes in a block of wood to mount my USB connectors and volt meters, I might just do that. Have twin USB connectors with a voltmeter. Having said that though, more USB charging ports is definitely better. That raises the amperage to 6.6A for a dual dual. That's definitely something I could mount on the partition between driving compartment and galley. On the other hand, with Chinese stuff it might be better to mount it in a non-flammable steel box just in case of fire. Something to think about tonight!

''Twas a bright and sunny day

And I skipped off happily to work for it was the beginning of the school bus driving season and I did not have to heft palates and boxes for the maintainence people any longer. Today was a simple course on handling difficult children.

So, having elected to go home rather than do extra work for maintainence, I drove to Walmart to get my photos for the retitling process. Let's just say that Walmart would not have to do any worse with their photo quality! Still, it's reasonably recognizable and will do for retitling. It doesn't have to be perfectly printed though those that saw the images commented how bad the pictures were, meaning the prints. Needless to say, on the way, I picked up a rather fetching 1/4 inch screw and listened to it going tappety tap as I drove to Walmart. Fortunately they had a tyre repairman so while he set to work, I went shopping.

Thinking exclusively about retitling, I bought some purple paint to put on the old fridge that came from the original conversion. It's a nasty little fridge and I certainly wouldn't like to put food in it having not known whether it has been used to store turds or used as a rat's nest. I suspect the latter for there was plenty sign of rat activity in the original conversion.

Walmart also had a USB and 12v socket which looked ideal to put in the bedroom area. The truth is I really would have preferred solely USB but I have a 12v voltmeter plugin that's currently at the front of the bus but which could be used quite happily in the cigarette lighter socket. Yes, I do know they're called accessory sockets these days but I'm on old codger who was brought up with it being solely the cigarette lighter socket or in fact the colloquial term in Britain was the fag lighter socket. That was an era when smoke free zones were an oddity and an adult that didn't smoke was viewed with suspicion.

So, I bought my cigarette lighter and USB socket. If you remember, I bought some on eBay that were panel mounted. That would be nice but I wasn't prepared since my plans changed to buy a box to panel mount them onto. I could have but for the price various sellers wanted, it was cheaper just to buy a USB/cigarette lighter socket ready to mount.

While I was out I also got some purple paint that doesn't really match the color of my kitchen but it's pretty close. Looking at the sky, it was bright and sunny so I sprayed the fridge on each side, the top and the back, purple. Now it looks much more the part.. Having said that, brand new that fridge is $60 in Walmart right now. I didn't buy one but it was a pretty close thing!

 The end result looked pretty decent. As soon as the paint was mostly dry though, down came the rain. Fortunately that fridge only has to look good. It doesn't have to be used. When it's dry, I'll probably give it a thorough wipe out inside with Clorox and then spray the exposed working areas with Raid to kill any remaining critters.

While in Walmart I saw another thing that would add to the credibility of my motorhome conversion, namely a $30 microwave. I've only ever seen them at that price once before. Needless to say, one made it home. It's a no name brand and is 700W so cooking anything will take forever. I have experience of a Rival microwave. That cost me $50 and after 2 years light use was pretty well rested to bits. I expect no less of this one but it cost me only 3/5 of the price!

The goal is to prove beyond reasonable doubt that I can cook, bathe, sleep and live in my motorhome. That should mean retitling is pretty straightforward. There are already plenty facilities. All I have to do is to say I left my generator at home or just borrow a Harbor Freight generator. They might comment on the lack of hot water or the lack of a water inlet but I have workarounds for both. Pretty much the same goes for the toilet. Dry toilets are fine. I'd love a cassette toilet that could be plumbed in as needed. I don't think cassette toilets have become popular in America unlike in Europe where cassette toilets rule.

I had another go with the pretty average cleaner. I set it to go on the floor in the cockpit and it didn't seem to do too much to paint that had dripped on the rubber floor. That was pretty much to be expected - the easy jobs, it does reasonably well. The more challenging jobs that it would be awesome if it did, it won't touch.

While in Walmart I had a look at the lanterns. I see GE now has a slightly bigger and more powerful LED lantern that has a metal loop as opposed to the crappy plastic loop that broke on me. Nice but I already have more than enough underpowered lanterns. There was one lantern with adequate power (well, close enough to adequate to call adequate) it was 1,000 lumens. I'd say "adequate" was the same as a 100W light bulb or 1,200 lumens. Below that and you're just groping around in the dark like a savage. I can see how many divorces must start when two couples go camping and kiss under the light of a (popular) 200 lumen lantern where the husband kisses his wife and finds out that it's the other woman's husband. No, seriously - the vast majority of those LED lanterns really are no better than putting a glow fly in a glass jar!

As many of you know, I have a Walmart Straight Talk MiFi pad. I love it because it means I can access the internet from my tablet while sitting in my bus. As I have a somewhat tedious meeting to attend tomorrow I thought I'd put money on my MiFi pad only to find I can't get into the account. Looking at the Walmart site, it seems these MiFi pads have become a real rip off now. I can pay $40 for 4GB of data or $15 for 1GB. If I had a Straight Talk phone then I could get 8GB for $45. The problem is I don't ever need that much data. I never used 5GB when I had a straight talk phone. I'm going to say that Walmart has become too expensive. At $45 for 8GB, $15 should get me at least 2GB. But I think they're secretly trying to coerce people into dropping MiFi in favor of their pricy cellphone plans and their pricey cellphones. When I had a smartphone, I used it often as a MiFi pad. I just don't need that much data. When I used my MiFi pad daily, I barely used 4GB in two months!

Indeed, as those familiar with my progress know, I dumped smartphones because they don't last very long and are ridiculously expensive. Soon, I reaped the financial rewards of using a flip phone to the tune of paying a third of what I had been. Last month proved me so right since out of my 300 allotted minutes I used just one. Since I dumped smartphones and went flip phone I reckon I've saved $300. By not buying a new smartphone (my old one was $300) I think I must be into $600 savings by now.

Wifi is nice to have but as several of my friends have noticed, public wifi is so widespread that it's possible to be online in many areas without even purchasing a connection. In the old days, I'd write my emails and make a connection every other day to upload them. I believe the reason people are so much in debt is because they're addicted to the little, expensive,  valueless things like having your own connection available 24x7. Freedom is so nice. Maybe I should name my bus, Freedom?

The French Maid

Today brought out the French Maid in me. Somewhat dubiously, I'd bought a bottle of some urine-colored cleaning spray in a dollar store that called itself "Awesome". Now normally I would just bypass anything with such a stupendously silly name. I figure that if something has to call itself "the best" or "better than anything else" then it has to be complete and utter garbage and the name and possibly a pretty packet are there to lure the guillable into parting with their money. It had been recommended by somebody I knew so I thought I'd give it a shot.

So, in the best tradition of French Maids, clad in their delectable white apron and their black minidress, heels and fishnets, I rolled up my sleeves and began scrubbing away. Had I actually worn a French Maid's outfit, I'd imagine I'd have looked like Brenda in the Plenty advert! (Brenda & Audrey - Bounty/Plenty paper towels advert.) In all truth though, the French are slightly less clean than my bus before I cleaned it. Back in 2001 I took a night train from Oostende in Belgium to Berlin. The French carriages were added to the train at Dijon. I was already having to sleep on the floor in the corridor because the train was overcrowded. The French when they got on, used the toilet and left the door open and didn't bother flushing nor washing their hands. One at least used the connecting corridor as a urinal. At least one pulled the window down and tried to stick their backside out in order to take a poo!

Well, the good news is it did actually clean some of the grime from the inside of the cockpit though not all of it. Stuff that looked caked on, came off easily but that looked more like tobacco residue than anything else. Need I mention this school bus came from Louisiana? Anyway, it cleaned the easier grime and residue fairly swiftly. The downside was that it didn't clear the stuff I wanted to clear - just the stuff I didn't much care about. It also had me choking on the fumes. Nowhere on the bottle does it say "use a respirator" or at least, if it does, the text is so small as to be worthless. The other downside is it removed some of the paint from my first aid box.

To be honest, this stuff does not deserve a name such as "Awesome". It should have a label that says "Average". If It had said "Average" then I might not have walked past it so much. The really stupid thing is while it removed the painted label from my first aid box, it did not remove dripped paint off my stainless steel handbasin.

My decision to use the bus body as the negative connection for the battery side of my power system seems to be good. I connected the front fan to my new fuse set up. I had hoped to use blade fuses but they don't seem to be available in values as low as 0.5A which for a 0.5A fan with fine wires is rather important. Radio Shack's bankruptcy sale helped out with fuse holders. As I said, I picked out things that would be useful like switches, fuse holders etc. I dodn't bother with the rubbish like relays, resistors, transistors, capacities etc. They're all well and good but by the time you've bought all the bits and got your device to work, I've bought something that does the job and was cheaper and been using it for a few weeks.

The bedroom fan I connected to one of my 7ah batteries (which was fully charged) and it does a wonderful job. I really do need to get under the bus as soon as practical to get the underbus wiring done. Somebody suggested spraying the area with some form of insecticide but I'm not sure I'd get all the hostiles in one go. The only way of doing it would be to drive North and spend a while in sub zero temperatures or just wait for winter and do everything that's doable inside until then.

I tried the unfortunately misnamed cleaner on my PVC planking floor in the bathroom. It didn't do a bad job though it's not perfect. I think it's just going to take time and elbow grease. I'm constantly amazed at the quantity of sand that gets into the bus. I swept the floor beforehand and though it's not been long since I last swept, a lot of sand was present.

Today I had all three fans going at the same time. The recorded temperature was 95F inside when I started but though I hadn't had the front fan going long, it was noticeable that the bedroom where I sat was hot and muggy while the galley was cooler. When the system is working fully, I think I might have something!

Meanwhile, in an email discussion with my dad, I mentioned that I seemed to have encountered a brick wall with heat; that I'd painted the roof white but that I figured I was into diminuishing returns without splurging on air conditioning. He mentioned that the flat rooves in Britain are usually painted with a silver reflective paint. That had me looking online for similar products. The only one I could see that was fairly similar was a $25 pot of Black Jack elastometric reflective roof coating. That has a silicone base so I never can put anything on top of it and expect it to stay on. That seems to be the one everybody is putting on RV rooves. There is a tar-based coating that people also use. I think I might try the Black Jack. A 3.6 quart can should do my entire roof. I recall using about half a gallon of white Rustoleum last time. This time I will get better masking tape. The last stuff I used looked like masking tape but was the Devil to get off as it probably wasn't.

That's how my fuse panel looks now. The fuse is actually 8A but I'll order some 0.5A fuses and some 2.5A fuses. I'll also have to order fuses for other things like my USB charging panel. That needs a box to mount it in too unless I just go and buy a USB charging panel that I can just screw into place. That wouldn't have the benefit of a voltmeter built in but that's not strictly essential. There are some very nice USB sockets that connect to 12V sold in the car stores for not that much money.

I went to the shed and found some wood with the idea of making a mount for the USB socket/voltage meter gizmo I ordered from China. After marking it out and getting tired of the mosquitoes outside, I went for a cup of tea. Returning, I found my hole saw needed adjustment so I completed the adjustments just in time for a torrential downpour.

I'd been thinking while I was indoors about whether I should install USB power sockets and whether perhaps I should install straight 12v power sockets instead. The pro of a straight 12v power socket is that I can use a great many other 12v things such as my 12v to 120v inverter. Sure, it only produces at most 200W but it might be good for something though quite what I'm not sure. Perhaps running a 120v lamp? The downside of a 12V socket is that if a spider crept in and caused a short circuit there could be a fire. I'd also have to get 12V to USB adaptors to instal in my 12v sockets. Equally, I could get a 12V USB dual socket and install more USB if I needed to. In the end, I think convenience wins and despite already having the stuff I bought from China, it looks like a better idea to install a read made dual or quad USB socket that has a mounting built into it - something I don't have to build into a panel. When I bought the stuff I did, I did so because the plan was to build them into my ammunition box battery packs.

I'm all for simplicity. I generally start with the most fiendishly complicated ideas and designs then end up building things far less complicated and lavish. Now that I took out the other two charge controllers, that looks a lot better! The wiring is clearer too.

When I first started the bus project, the first thing I installed was a 12V power socket and a USB socket. This was because I use GPS navigation and liked to keep my cellphone charged. It also now powers my GPS speedometer.

While these are most definitely not the prettiest objects in the galaxy, they are practical. With straight forward USB sockets, if I had 4 sockets at 2.1A each then I'd be able to say I'd need an 8.5A fuse though in all likelihood, I could get away with just an 8A fuse as not all would be in use simultaneously. I could mount those sockets on a cross beam, aimed down to keep dust and debris out. That looks quite promising!

One of the things I hate is not using stuff that I've bought. The problem is, for me, because I buy stuff on ebay it can't be returned. I don't return things just because I change my mind about using them either because to be frank, that's not the seller's fault.

My afternoon's work was curtailed by a sudden thunderstorm. I'd been out to put the now wet wood back in the shed when thunder began to roll and I heard the crackle of lightning. Thus I decided to sit out the storm in the nearest shelter which happened to be my bus. Knowing how South Carolina storms like to rumble on for hours, despite it being only 5pm, I called it a day.

I'd have liked to dash out to get a pair or more under dash USB connectors but given the storm and the fact I have to go on a training course tomorrow (which means I'll be out of the house anyway), I decided to save the fuel and wait until tomorrow. I have to hassle Walmart about my prints too - I've not heard a word about those yet despite the fact they were supposed to be in Walmart on Friday.

Real air conditioning and running water?

Last night as I read one of those internet groups that I so rarely participate in, there was a discussion about poertable AC units being ideal for bus conversions. Thus, intreagued, I read up on them. It seems that they pump the hot air out via a fairly substantial hose and also have a hose to release collected water. Looking at the sizes I became quite excited. They seem to be between 12 and 14 inches wide, about 16 inches deep and have a height of 27 inches.

Inside my motorhome I have a cupboard that measures 13 x 16 x 29. Whether that would be suitable remains to be seen but the possibility exists and that's what's interesting. Also interesting is the possibility of putting in a vent for a portable AC unit that can be closed off and the unit put away somewhere. I'd have to do some rearranging of my loose storage but I was going to rearrange that anyway.

That leads on to the fact that if I was going to lay in a power line for an AC unit then I'd also put in a power line for an instant water heater. That heater could easily fit under the handbasin and have a secondary line running to the shower. Needless to say, it would only function when water was supplied via a pipe. It's an interesting thought though.

Thinking about the problem of the overheated CPU fan, I realized I need local switches on all my electrical devices. I remembered I have a pile of switches from Radio Shack's going out of business sale. Most aren't suitable as they need to be put into an enclosure but I have some open knife switches that would work. They're only really designed for 0.5A 12v DC but I don't think my CPU fans are any more powerful than that.

Having had the one fuse do it's duty and blow, protecting my battery, I realized I need more fuses in my 12v house system. I need more than just one on the battery. I need one by each device and one on each power line from my charge controller. I should also put some directly between each solar panel and it's connection to my electrical system. Fortunately... I bought a ton of fuse holders in Radio Shack's going out of business sale. The fuse holders even have useful spade terminals. How fortuitous. It looks like my going nuts and buying a ton of stuff wasn't so nuts after all.

The project to add a switch began and I can honestly say that adding a switch into an existing circuit where the wires are glued down and where there's not much space was a little challenging. After tinning the ends of the very fine CPU fan wire, it just would not be gripped by the minuscule screws of the knife switch. I then tried the smallest eyehole red connectors and crimped them on the wires then screwed them to the switch, dropping the minuscule screws many times in the process before resorting to pipe glue to hold them to the screwdriver. Then the knife switch wouldn't close as the eyehole was blocking them. In the end I cut the eyeholes off, removed the screws and soldered the thing together. Now that I could have done on the desk in comparative ease!

While I'm sure you'll agree, that knife switch looks as ugly as sin as does the terminal block, it's an extra safety feature. I'll add the other safety feature of a block of fuses on the device side of the charge controller next. As when I fused my sockets on my 120v system, each socket had an individual fuse. It will be thus on my 12v system. I'll have three fans and one or maybe two USB charging setups. That'll be five separate lines and five separate fuses. I'll also have that timer on the extraction fan, limiting operation to 15 minutes of each hour.

I removed two of my charge controllers today. They were completely redundant and quite frankly added little to the system. My electrics are going to be negative grounded to the bus body in order to eliminate a few potential problems. I'll probably stick with the charge controller from the back of the bus but for the moment the front is using a PMT C02 controller that is specifically built for lead-acid batteries. That's currently charging my fan battery. Eventually, both solar arrays wil be connected into a single charge controller and the bigger battery. I'll probably have to drag my welder out to build a cage for the battery when the weather cools enough for me to get underneath the bus to measure everything.

Meanwhile, today there are no photos of my bus from Walmart. I sent off an online order and had an order confirmation, confirming I'd paid my $1.90 and that the prints would be ready today. Thus far I have had no text message confirming arrival. Indeed, I went to Walmart earlier on another mission. There was an experiment in progress on ordering groceries online, paying for them online and driving there to pick them up. Taking the opportunity, I went into the store and went to ask about my photos at the pickup desk.  Nobody was there. I pressed their little button thingy that had a sign that said "If nobody is here, press the button". Nobody came. Then a Walmart employee asked if anybody was seeing to my needs. I told him no and he radioed. Somebody said they'd come and never did. Several other employees walked past without a word. In the end, I walked away. The next stop was the bank but the line was ludicrous. So, I went to pick up my groceries. I gather the lady before me had been waiting 30 minutes. Anyway, her order arrived, shortly followed by mine. That worked. The next trick is to try Wamart's home delivery service! I guess I'll have to wait to see what happens about my prints. I can see the photos I sent off online but can't see my order - all very strange! Perhaps they spent my $1.90 on crack? Well, perhaps not - I suspect crack might be more expensive. They might get to sniff the crack of a down-at-heel hooker for that much though!

It seems that if I want to use my Chinese USB converters and voltmeters with my desktop powerpoints then I need to mount them in 30mm holes since they're panel mounting. That had me puzzling for a moment on how to get a drill bit of such an obscure size. Then I realized that I could probably use one of Harbor Freight's step bits for that. I already have two differently sized, smaller step bits and I can see myself getting a third.

The one place I need to charge phones etc is the bedroom. I'd wanted a portable charger rather than having to have loads of underbody wiring but since I seem to have underbody wiring anyway (and it wasn't nearly as unpleasant as I'd thought - despite the black widow bite), I might as well put a bit more. The one place that will be challenging is the kneehole desk side of the bus because as that's above the fuel tank, I'm somewhat limited in what I can do. Perhaps I'll stick with just one area for USB charging - unless I add a socket at the front or perhaps use a charge controller that offers USB charging.

Anyway, after my Walmart trip, I installed a second switch but this is for the bedroom fan. Now I can switch them on and off at will. That must surely save some battery power. I've already decided that the extraction fan will be on a timer. That's going to save even more power. If I put the USB charger and the volt meter into a small project box mounted on the desk or on the wall, I can add a switch so that I can switch it off in order to prevent those silly LEDs manufacturers like adding to things from burning up power or keeping me awake.

I'm sure you'll agree, that knife switch looks like an ugly cockroach climbing the wall. Having said that, it was the only switch I have that does not need to be built into an enclosure. I have several from Radio Shack's bankruptcy sale. In fact I made sure to get all the useful stuff - switches, connectors, fuse holders etc. I didn't waste my time on the electronic gizmos because Lord knows, I have enough problem with half-assed ready made electronics. I definitely don't need to be adding my own home built electronics into the mix. Electrics I can understand. Electronics I kinda-sorta understand but would have a better grasp of had the electronics teachers in school and the electronics whizz kids in school and in college/university not have rejected all my attempts to further my knowledge.

Before I finished for the day, I installed my fuse bank. I've not wired any of the fuse positions up yet nor have I inserted any fuses. In fact all my fuses are 8 amp which means they won't stop overloads - just short circuits. I'm fine with that for the moment but I do need to build up a supply of fuses for all the things I'm using. It would be nice to standardize on one kind of fuse but I have whatever fuse holders I can find at the time. I could do with a couple of fuse panels for full size blade fuses but I'm stumped as to where to get them.

As you can see, the other charge controllers are now gone - consigned to the old cardboard box. I have a diode set up protecting my solar panel though I desperately need a fuse in there too. The blue and yellow connectors lead to my CPU fan. Eventually they will go to the CPU fan via the fuse panel.

When I put the battery under the bus, that will also have a fuse fitted. The fuse will be right beside the battery unless I can put a little fuse access on the side of the bus. I won't be putting a battery compartment door. I'll likely just put the battery in an open cage, protected from spray by the waste barrel on one side and the battery compartment on the other and probably coat the terminals in spray on insulation. After all, the battery is waterproof or it'd leak acid!

I must admit, I like my little motorhome. It's turning out to be quite nice, even though some people would probably run screaming, calling it more basic than a tent in the middle of a field. I think this motorhome construction might look good on a resume even!

Fannying around today.

Lets face it's: 88F and 54% humidity inside my motorhome isn't very comfortable but it's better than the 104 it was a couple of weeks ago. As my extraction fan isn't doing the job I hoped it would, I'm continuing to work on circulation fans. As I write this blog (using an elderly tablet and a Bluetooth keyboard), I am cooled by my current desktop fan. It is one of the bunch of O2Cool fans I bought in Walmart a year or so ago when I first started experimenting with ventilation. In fact, it's the only one of the four that I didn't dismantle. One was used as an induction fan, sucking cool air in from under the bus. That didn't really work all that well. The other two were used as exhaust fans which were then replaced by more powerful CPU fans and then by my current bilge blower. Meanwhile the two O2Cool fans that were used as exhaust fans got recycled into a powered window unit.

Today I'm trying to complete tasks as yet not completed. The stifling heat is really not helping too much. Somebody needs to drag South Carolina a few hundred miles further North into an acceptable climate zone! So, the things I wanted to complete today:

• Complete construction of my bedroom CPU circulation fan and install it.
• Complete gluing the wire for the galley CPU fan.
• Charge both of my 7AH batteries.
• Turn the 5AH battery over to running the CPU fan (as it did before)
• Work on turning the 50 cal ammunition box into a carrier for my two 7AH batteries, including twin voltmeters and twin USB charging connections. That will be my version of a power bank.

Speaking of power banks, I saw one in Batteries Plus a few days ago. I think it was something ridiculous like 20AH. Had I not already got my bits and pieces for my own portable power bank, I'd probably have bought that. My mission there was not however to buy big batteries. I just wanted a watch battery. When I picked myself up off the floor after I heard the price, it was 50/50 over whether to just buy another watch instead. I paid something like $6.50 for my watch in a sale in Walmart something like a year ago. The battery was $5. I'd looked at watches in Walmart and found the selection they had was not easy to read in low light without pressing the light button. As I need to check the time when I'm at the helm of a bus full of screaming children at 6:30am or way before dawn, that wouldn't have worked. Thus I paid my five pounds of flesh and got a battery. While I was there I did have a good look at the batteries. I must say I was impressed by the size and weight of the lithium bombs. Having said that, if I were to go to lithium batteries, I'd want them in a pod behind the back wheels that could be quickly jettisoned in case of explosion or fire.

I'd like to claim that construction of my second circulation fan assembly went easily but I still could not find my aluminum rivets and ended up accidentally using a steel rivet. My Harbor Freight long handled riveter of course, didn't want to work. Thus I had to use a hand riveter which was quite a challenge with a steel rivet. In the end I had to press the riveter closed with all my force and use the bus floor to support the other handle.

Having done that I noticed my extraction fan gave only 6 minutes of extraction today as opposed to 15 to 20 yesterday. I suspect that is rather more to do with the overcast day than with a global plot against my solar setup though I cannot rule out global plots. In fact, I'm toying with the idea of getting a tee-shirt made that says "Area 51 Crash Survivor". I figure you lot are all bizarre enough that I have to be on the wrong planet!

My next task was to make some battery connectors. The first went together very nicely. The second fell apart. It must be that kind of day I figured. Sure enough. I connected the output of my solar panel to a second charge controller and hey presto... Nothing happened. Then I realized, the second charge countroller might be faulty. That was the one that had a bashed screen. I reconnected the wires and still though there is power flowing, the solar sign is not illuminating.

If you look carefully at the photo above at high resolution you'll see the solar panel symbol displayed at the bottom left of the LCD screen on the top charge controller but not on the bottom model. Disconnecting the battery displays an incorrect voltage from the solar panel. In the end I figured I have a duff charge controller. That didn't surprise me given the bashed screen. Without wasting further time on it, I removed it and eventually noticed I'd wired the solar panels to the output and the output to the battery. There was no harm done even though I blew the protective fuse in my battery pack (thank heavens for the fuse) and overheated my CPU fan, which fortunately still works. It also reminded me of exactly why I have several fire extinguishers aboard.

Going back to what I said yesterday, I'm giving the charge controllers and batteries that have been pretty well poo-poohed by Eric a good go. I have a 35AH battery to hand but if these can keep me going until winter when I can get under the bus to configure a single battery system then its great.

Interestingly, I noticed with two charge controllers connected to the same solar panel but to different batteries, the voltages displayed as battery voltages are identical despite the batteries being of very different voltages. I have very much a feeling that one has to use one charge controller and just combine the output of the solar panels. My controllers all claim 20A or 30A output. We'll see about that though. I am still not really convinced that these all in one gadgets such as solar controllers are really worthwhile.

I did manage to install my second CPU circulation fan. That's now mounted above the bedroom desk. As the fan is wider than the 2x4 that supports it, I had to go for a different design than the one I used for the mount on the other fan.

As can be seen, I had to offset one of the supports into empty space. That'll probably help with circulation. I'll just have to see how many arachnids think it's a clever idea to build a home behind it!

So, today I didn't get all my tasks completed. I did have to rethink my idea of charging extra batteries off a second charge controller attached to a single solar panel. In fact it's looking like the multiple battery idea just isn't going to work. I think I'm better off with the single 35AH battery, putting a timer on my ventilation fan so that it goes for just 15 minutes at a time with 45 minutes between runs. The door lock will for the moment remain as an AA powered device. I can't recall when I last charged those batteries save for that it must have been months ago. The CPU fans need individual on-off switches - more as a safety measure than anything else. I need to install a pair of USB charging hubs - one in the bedroom and one in the galley. As for total power usage, my extraction fan is 2.5A, my CPU fans are 0.5A each and the USB hubs (assuming both have two 2.1A sockets) will total 8.4A for a grand total of around 12A. I'm not too worried about the charge controller getting overloaded. I can easily use the controller output to power a relay to connect devices directly to the battery. That has the advantage that I can bypass the limitations of the relay while maintaining a safe environment.

The 50 cal box will remain a holder for my 35AH battery. That battery won't be used until I can get my solar panels linked and get down to a single charge controller. The redundant charge controllers will just have to go into a box. You might be correct for thinking I don't know what I'm doing. The fact is, I'm finding out as I go along by trial and error. If I build another motorhome then I will most likely do it completely differently, using the knowledge gleaned from this one to achieve Nirvana with the next.

So, aside from putting wiring down the beam for the new fan, I'm pretty much done. I'd like to install switches for safety so I can just cut the fans off individually if there's an overheating issue again. Other than that, my fans can remain using the 10AH and 5AH batteries. I won't put USB charging in place until I can get my single battery and wiring installed.

Are solar charge controllers a load of baloney?

You're probably already aware of my miserable experiences thus far with solar power. I have a pile of those all in one solar charge controllers and don't believe any of them is worth as much as a fart in an elevator.

According to what I've read, a 12v battery tops out at 12.8V and is discharged to 40% of its capacity by 11.9V. Going below that 40% apparently risks damaging the battery and thus shortening its life. My two latest charge controllers will not let me protect my battery. Their cut off cannot be raised to 11.9V. Their cut off can be set only between 9V and 11.3V. A battery is 100% depleted by 10.5V. Those Chinese charge controllers are designed to destroy batteries - probably so the Chinese can sell more batteries!

There they are. Totally useless as charge controllers. $20 blown on Chinese junk that I'll never get back. Chairman Mao is probably spending my money right now on snorting coke or on kinky whores.

The purpose of a charge controller is fourfold.

• It protects the battery from overcharge (an overvoltage cutoff switch)
• It protects the battery from overuse (a low voltage cutoff switch)
• It provides for a threshold voltage that cuts power back on.
• It protects the solar panels from the battery (a diode)

All my solar charge controllers claim to have "different charging algorithms" for different kinds of battery. Those claims are totally vacuous in my opinion. Electricity is often compared to water in most electrical textbooks and my question is... how many different ways are there to fill a bucket with water? Water goes in, reaches the top. Done!

I can honestly say I am distinctly unimpressed by the claims of these charge controllers. I'm thinking very much of just ditching charge controllers and going over to a simpler system. All my solar panels are double diode protected. They really should be fuse protected too. That eliminates one part of the charge controller system.

There are undervoltage cut off switches,  voltage trigger switches, over voltage cut off switches and diodes. Individually these are probably more costly and take up more space but they might be the way to go, considering these Chinese charge controllers are just so bloody hopeless. So many of these Chinese products are built as though they're middle school science projects, slapped into a pretty case and given Google auto translated instructions that are printed in minuscule text on paper everybody else would wrap around fish and chips.

Looking around I see exactly the same charge controllers - same form factor, different colors being sold by different companies at wildly different prices. I've seen the same thing going on eBay for $10 that has been in Walmart for $20, Home Depot for $50 and Harbor Freight for $80. Then I see charge controllers being sold for upwards of $1,000 in other places. Add in to that the fact you never really know the background of anything and it becomes almost impossible to know whether you're buying a Chinese lemon or an American star. I dare say it took the Chinese 50 years after everybody else to develop a space program because of their lousy attitude to quality.

So, thinking forward, if the charge controller that's supposed to arrive from California on Friday actually works, my next purchase will be a timer. That way I can set my extraction fan to go for precisely 15 minutes every hour. I already have a thermal switch on it so that it won't run in under 25C (77F). I might further add a low voltage cutout switch.

In fact, with the low voltage cutout, a timer and an over voltage cutout, aside from diodes on the solar panels, there would seem no point whatsoever in having a charge controller. Timers seem to go for about $10, low voltage cutouts for about $40 and over voltage cutouts for about the same. For my purposes, with my diode protected panels, all I really need is to protect the batteries from low voltage and put a timer of my extraction fan. Over voltage with 35W of solar power and (when I get my CPU fans wired into the curcuits) 10W of ventilation plus 30W of extraction fan is most likely not going to be a problem. Having said that, it's always worth putting in overvoltage protection.

Meanwhile, I set to and adjusted my charge controller settings on the extraction fan. I figured that the battery was probably already gone so dropping the cutoff voltage from 11.9 to 11.5v wouldn't do any more damage. I'd read on one of those authoritative battery websites that one should never discharge a battery below 11.9v as it would damage the battery. Discharged to 10.5v and the battery would be dead instantly. Not expecting much from it, I initially connected to my 7ah battery and found the extraction fan worked for quite a while before cutting off and recharging after which it worked for quite a while again. Mystified I disconnected the 7ah battery and reconnected my 10ah and left it going. It charged and discharged a couple of times with impressively long fan operation times. I'll have to see how long it keeps going like that.

Then I got on and glued more of my lightweight cable from my circulation fan to the wall and then joined it to a heavier cable that leads to my front charge controller. The fine cable was flimsy enough that a terminal block connection didn't work. The wire snapped off as soon as the screws were tightened. Thus I soldered the connection and put shrink on insulation sleeves. How I wish I'd discovered those 40 years ago! The cable was glued into place and passed through a hole in the partition. I connected it to the charge controller using spade terminals.

Setting the fan going took a few minutes and I had to read the charge controller manual. It was in the usual Chinese gibberish. Alas that charge controller is set to 11.3v cutoff voltage. Now it could be that the website that I obtained my charge level information was written by some joker that had a hidden agenda or he could have been a complete cretin. Equally, he could have been dead right. Only time will tell. I neglected to include a thermal sensor in my fan setup. I will have to add that later.

I'm hoping and praying that my small batteries last a while like this. Not least because if they die, I'll have to replace all my charge controllers. I do intend to switch over to my bigger battery but the plans I have for that also involve adding an external solar or wind power input, putting the battery (which is fairly bulky) under the bus in a custom built cradle. For that I'll probably have to get my welder out of storage and (carefully) weld some of the leftover steel angle to form a cage that can be bolted to the C section members underneath the bus. At the same time I'll put an extra cable from front to back to carry the solar charge to the front where it will be shared between all my devices and a cable from the extraction fan to the front. I'll also include a connection for a fan above my bedroom desk. Then I might include some USB power ports. Needless to say, having the extraction fan on for more than 10-15 minutes is costly in electricity and most likely entirely unnecessary. One complete change of air every hour should be plenty! For that I might need to obtain a timer.

Despite the fact I come across unforeseen issues and problems, I do master them. This bus project has been a series of problems, solutions, frustrations, frequent cursing and I am eternally glad that I have been able to do it. My dad brought me up around tools and showed me how to use many. I wish that my woodwork was better. My dad, of course, was brought up by a multi-skilled father whose claim to fame was that he was a ship's carpenter for some of his life. Sadly, he passed away before I arrived on the scene. I can well imagine his tut-tutting over my carpentry skills! I'm keen to try my bus out on a short camping trip. I'll probably do that after it's retitled and the new insurance is sorted out.

At the moment I'm waiting on Walmart to provide the prints I ordered. They should come in on Friday. Those prints will go together with my $15 dollars and my completed application to retitle my bus as a motorhome pretty quickly. It took the DMV a month to respond last time. This time, I hope they're far speedier. Mind, this time I'm surer of my situation. The bus has been improved substantially and I have a bus driving license now as well as more driving confidence as a consequence.

It seems the biggest thing I did in order to reduce the heat in the bus was to paint the roof white. I have a feeling my CPU fans though slower were probably better value as extraction fans than my big bilge blower. I have a feeling my idea of having CPU fans as circulation fans is probably a good idea.  The $5 window screen from Lowes (hiss, spit) isn't as good as the powered screen I built but stays in the windows earlier and wedging the window onto the screen with a 1 inch nut was a stroke of genius. School bus windows were not built to be very adjustable! There's no way, without air conditioning that I'm going to be able to get the temperature inside the bus much lower. Sure, there are elastometric coatings one can paint on the roof - the best example being Kool Seal which they put on the rooves of mobile homes. It's quite expensive and doesn't make enough difference over a gallon of ordinary white paint to be, in my opinion, worthwhile. The best defense against heat is to park in the shade.

Returning to my door alarm, I managed to put it in place so that it operates. From the front of the bus with both the fans going, I can't hear it but it'll surely scare the socks off any bad guy that tries to break in. The side door is more of a challenge as it has a wide rubber gasket.

At work I spoke with a painter whose comment about the paint peeling in patches on the bus was to scrape it off where it peeled then to do pretty much what I am. Where it peels I'm cleaning it and spraying with a self-etching primer then spraying with my usual paint. It means a little work every now and then but that's not a problem.

The latest on my extraction fan is I lowered the maximum charge to 12.9v as for some reason it wasn't reaching 13v and raised the minimum charge to 11.6v as the fan had been running for about 20 minutes. That's quite acceptable. As I said though, I feel CPU fans were a better choice as they ran pretty well constantly in the summer. They were very quiet and though they didn't shift quite as much air, I find that removing hot air doesn't help all that much. I thought it would. The fan setup doesn't half look impressive though!

At the end of the day I was thwarted. I'd started to build another fan assembley like the one in the galley but due to the partition in the bedroom being a different design, the fan assembley needed some extra tweaks. I used a 5/16 rivet on one end of one cross bar. That was fine - the other end and where the cross bar joins will be screwed to the woodwork. My problem was that though I know I have a full packet of 5/16 aluminum rivets I could not find them. Mind, having sweltered for most of the day in 93F while I both blogged and worked on the bus, I was in no mood by 7PM to go to hunt for them. That's a job for tomorrow. Once the next cross bar is secured, the new cross bar can be trimmed with my angle grinder and the overly long bottom bars of my fan holder can also be trimmed. Then it'll be a case of putting it up and waiting for cold weather to install the underbody wiring and to pass the wires through the floor to the new wire run.

I did have a crazy thought based along the lines of putting an LED rope light down the center of the aisle, attached to the ceiling. That could hide extra wires! Then I realized how crazy that idea was because my experience of LED lighting has been poor. This is precisely why I went for replaceable lanterns for my lighting.

Well, today has been one of rapidly changing opinions. I'd been totally dissatisfied with the Chinese battery control units and the batteries I'd bought. Then suddenly it all started to work. I end the day with reservations as to how long that setup will work but the prof of the pudding being the eating, I'll have to wait and see. I was very impressed by my USB circulation fan. I believe I will be equally impressed by the one in the bedroom when I get it installed and working. Once that is done, aside from the underbody stuff and making the battery cradle, I'm pretty much done. Or rather, done until I get another idea...