12v Sockets

The day started with the last of the ventilation grills fitted to the forward cupboard under the spare bed.  Then it was time to head to the workshop to borrow a hole drill bit from Richard so I could cut a circular hole in three of the ‘playbus’ blank plates for the 12v power sockets which had arrived yesterday.  Once the holes were cut it was possible to fit the 12v cigarette sockets into the plate.  Then the wires had to have female spade terminals connected to each end before the modular socket was reassembled.
The 12v and 240v sockets at the workstation were working and I plugged the mobile phone into the 12v socket.  It makes more sense to recharge the phone directly from the 12v supply rather than convert 12v to 240 and then back to 12v through the charger.

It might be hard to see the LED on the mobile phone charger so here is a close up.

The second modular socket is in the bedroom.

This time the socket wasn’t live.  No 12v????  For 30 minutes I was ‘stumped’!  First I pulled the socket apart and tested it with the multi-meter.  No 12v!  Then I traced the wiring back to the Empirbus node.  No 12v!  Perhaps the multi-meter was faulty?  After testing it on a 12v battery in the workshop it proved to be functioning.  <Duh!!!!!……>  Then I realised it was possible that the power supply wasn’t configured in the Empirbus system to activate on start-up.  After plugging the laptop into the system I was able to confirm my suspicion. Two keystrokes and the problem was rectified.  The plug worked after the system was updated.
The 3rd socket is located at the rear of the back cabin and hasn’t yet been installed.
The nights are getting colder and we don’t have a rear sliding hatch cover.  However Richard did make and glue the oak liner to it yesterday so I asked Darren if he would help lift it onto the back of Waiouru and assist me fit it.  The hatch cover was already heavy but it’s even heavier now it’s lined.  I struggled to lift it above my waist but Darren rescued me by reaching down from the rear deck and grabbing it.  Fitting the hatch had an immediate impact on warmth inside Waiouru.  We don’t have a working central heating system and the Refleks diesel stove can’t be started whilst we are inside the paint tent.  However, despite this, Waiouru is still quite warm.  It will be interesting to see how efficient the insulation is once the tent is taken off!
The last task for the day was to make two busbars from part of the brass strip left over after fitting the rear sliding hatch.

I had noticed the pos & neg terminals on the domestic battery bank have so many cables connected to them that access to the electrolyte caps are obscured.  Whilst attempting to check the level of the electrolyte I accidentally detached one of the lesser cables.
The main cables (alternator & inverter) will still connect directly to the terminals.  However the lesser cables will be replaced by a busbar which will be positioned horizontally.  All the secondary cables will connect to the busbar.  This will remove them from the immediate proximity of the battery terminal thereby eliminating the congestion.  Well that’s the plan!
Tomorrow should see Nick working on the last of the central heating system and (perhaps) the testing of the Hurricane heater.