More Projects

Two deliveries this morning for a couple of projects I’m working on.

A float valve for the swimming pool.

I’ve become tired of constantly adding water to Jan’s swimming pool with the garden hose.  The heat at this time of the year means it’s a almost a daily task.  Pool shops sell a “Swimming Pool Automatic Water Leveller”, but at a price exceeding $100.  That seems excessive, so I’ve been reluctant to buy one.   Searching online I found what appeared to be a suitable float valve (above) for slightly less than $5.   I just need to make a mounting bracket from “stuff that will be useful one day”.

The second delivery was a 12V wifi camera which I intend to fit to the rear of the camper trailer.  I’ve already made a mount bracket from “stuff that will be useful one day” and installed some wiring.  Jan has order a switch from Aliexpress as I want to be able to isolate the camera from the battery when it’s not required.  The plan is to wifi connect the camera to the head unit in the 4WD.  Alternatively,  I could connect the camera to Jan’s old Android tablet which I previously repurposed as my off road satnav.

 

Parcel Delivery

The Aliexpress deliveries arrived on Christmas Eve.  One contained the jig for milling timber and the other some cable and a circuit breaker for the trailer.

The weather forecast for Christmas Day is very hot which meant I needed to complete any work in the ‘man cave’ early.

The jig was well packaged

After assembling the jig I fitted the router to the sled and then installed the milling bit purchased earlier.  Next, I used the router and jig to mill both sides of the offcut from my earlier cutting board project

Above: Before starting the milling

 

Above: After milling both surfaces

The jig didn’t have sufficient width to mill the surface of the timber in one pass.  This was caused by the width of the router sled.  If I had used the router without the sled then the milling would be achieved in one pass.  I might look at fitting the jig with longer rails which would enable me to mill wider surfaces.   The surface on both sides was flattened so the jig/router/sled/bit combination works.

The second package contained cable and a 80A 12V circuit breaker.

My 2025 combined birthday/Christmas present was a second 12V 120Ah lithium battery for the camper trailer and I want to parallel connect the two batteries to give 240Ah of capacity.

There is a right and wrong way to parallel connect two batteries.   Do it like the left side in the diagram below and you risk damaging or reducing the capacity of the batteries as more power may be taken from the lower battery causing an imbalance.   The right side wiring diagram is better.

 

I’ve made a battery box for the second battery from scrap plywood and must now fit the box and wire in the battery.   The 80A circuit breaker will be fitted into the red cable between the two batteries.  This will enable me to isolate the 2nd battery and protect it against overload/fault.  

These next two photos show the completed wiring

2nd Battery Box fitted behind the timber partition

A – Isolation switch for the first battery

B – DC-DC Charger and solar controller

C – Negative cable on the first battery now goes to the second battery and new cable goes from the second battery to the shunt

I’m leaving the two batteries connected together for 24 hours without being on charge or on load.  This should allow the state of charge of the two batteries to balance (equalize).  I’ll then connect the solar panel and fully charge both batteries.  I’ll also need to change the settings in the  Junctek Battery Monitor from 120Ah to 240Ah.

Gosh it’s hot outside.  The thermometer is displaying 41°C.  The solar array had recharged the house battery by 10AM and is now producing 7.1kW.  6.08kW is being self-consumed.  We have two air conditioners running along with the dishwasher.  Another 1kW is being exported to the Grid.  I’m so pleased we replaced the ducted evaporative air conditioning system with three split refrigerated systems.  Evaporative systems are only capable of reducing the ambient temperature by 13° which means inside the house it would be 28° rather than the current 20°.

Brian I’m prepared to send you 15°.  Please provide Harnser’s postal address

A Bird in the Hand is worth Two in the Bush

We are experiencing some very hot weather.  Tomorrow is Christmas Day and the forecast is for 41°.  I’m rather glad we have solar panels, a home battery and three air conditioning units.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to our Reader. 

Our sympathy to a small number of narrowboaters who have been seriously affected by the breach of an embankment at Whitchurch.  What a way to experience Christmas!  My assumption is the cause is 200 year old infrastructure combined with a very dry summer.   Looking at both Google Maps and a satellite view it appears a small stream runs through the base of the embankment at the point of collapse.  A similar scenario to last year’s breach on the Bridgewater Canal.  Another huge expense for CRT, who are already grappling with a shortage of funding.

Yesterday I went for a bike ride (some might say foolishly went for a ride) in the hot and dry wind.   On my return home I dragged the ebike battery charger down from it’s storage spot under the rear patio only to notice some grass a twigs came with it.

Jan then mentioned a pigeon had started to build a nest using the charger cables as a part of the build.  It’s mid summer and only a pigeon brain would attempt to build a nest now.  However it did result in a discussion about birds around the house.   For several months the spiders have been out in force resulting in me having to use the broom to clear the cobwebs from the fence and under the eves.  Jan mentioned the small “Willie Wagtails” had been flying under the patio and doing their bit to remove the spiders and other insects.   Maybe we should build them a home in the backyard?

I rummaged through the plywood offcuts and recycled timber from the latest trailer modification then spent a couple of hours knocking together a birdbox which I mounted on one of the patio corner posts 

 

It now remains to be seen if Willie Wagtail will make it a home and contribute towards resolving our spider problem.

Sometimes there are disadvantages

We are currently experiencing a week of high temperatures reaching 40°C.  It doesn’t impact us inside the house as the rooftop solar panels produce more than enough electricity to run the three air conditioning units and recharge the battery. 

One potential disadvantage is bushfires.  These can be initiated by the weather or arsonists.  Regrettably in the last few days some homes have been lost.  Fortunately our home isn’t close to any potential bushfire area.

The greatest disadvantage we are experiencing is flies!   Last winter inland regions experienced significant rainfall which resulted in plenty of food for the cattle.  With so much lush green grass consumed the sloppy residue that exited their digestive systems overwhelmed the capacity of the dung beetles to consume it.  Consequentially there has been an explosion in the fly population.  Then winds from the NE carried the flies to Perth where they have become a disadvantage when outside.

The heat and the flies makes one reluctant to leave the house.

Looking for something to do inside I decided to make a temporary stand for our eldest grandson’s boat autopilot project.  Having the components scattered over my desk has cluttering the area.  The first step was to make a mounting bracket that would enable me to secure all the components to the rear of the small screen.   After looking at all the ‘stuff that might be useful one day’ I used a surplus piece of acrylic panel from Jan’s pantry splashback and some Perspex from a railway carriage window my brother gave me 30 years ago.  Using scraps of plywood I then made a stand.

Nothing special as it will be discarded when the project is complete.

Two mounting brackets made of Perspex secure the acrylic plate to the rear of the screen .  The project components were then mounted on the acrylic plate.

Key

A.  IMU (compass and 9 axis gimbal)

B.  BME280 weather module (temperature, pressure, humidity)

C.  Arduino (motor Controller

D.  Raspberry Pi5 (computer)

E.  Breakout board to test wiring

F.  H-Bridge Relay (controls polarity to the boat tiller)

The computer has two display ports.  I want to see if I can configure the system to show gauges on the small screen and the chart on the larger.

 

But before I get to that I need to ensure the autopilot is correctly configured and works.

A good project for a hot day.

Meanwhile have you heard that FEDEX and UPS are to amalgamate.  The new company is to be known as FEDUP