Quirky Location Down South

After the recent modifications to the camper trailer it seemed sensible to take it away for a few days to test everything.  I decided to spend the weekend at Preston Lime which is approximately 200km south of Perth. 

Preston Lime is a lime quarry. The location isn’t a designated camping ground, however the owner allows people to camp on his property for a small donation.  You cannot book a site and there are no facilities.

It’s a very interesting place.  The owner is retired and has a passion for collecting cars, aircraft and machinery.  The royalties from the quarry allow him to indulge in his passion. 

Just some of the cars.   Several were ‘runners’ and being driven around

Over the weekend he also drove around in a Rolls Royce convertible and an e-type jaguar.

An ex Royal Navy Wasp helicopter

 

On the hill in front of his house is an ex Ansett DC3

The site also has an unsealed airfield beside the camping area.  Apparently it is regularly used by the nearby Bunbury Aero Club.  Bunbury Airport charges the club for every ‘touch and go’ on their runway.  The Preston Lime owner allows them to use his for free.

Keeping Busy

Jan said to me, “We have room in the laundry.  Do you think you could make some storage shelves?”  I replied, “Shelves aren’t difficult.  But would cupboards be a better option?”

So it was to be cupboards!   Whilst pricing the required materials for the task I noticed the local hardware had a ‘run out’ discount on some 1000mm long two door cupboards in white melamine.  I couldn’t buy the materials for the discounted price of the kitset cupboards.  It took some hunting to find them in the store.  Only three packs left and they were all looking rather battered.  I purchased the best two packs hoping the content were not damaged.

By the time I’d managed to get the packs into my man cave the contents were starting to fall out.

Each pack contained one internal shelf which would be fixed in the middle position.   That seemed rather inflexible.  Jan would probably have jars and other storage containers of varying heights.  She might require more than one shelf. 

I decided to modify the kits to allow adjustable and multiple shelves by drilling rows of vertical holes in the side panels.   To ensure the holes all lined up I made a template from ‘stuff you might need one day’.  The template would then be clamped to each of the four side panels  

The melamine panels are 16mm thick and the holes needed to be 12mm deep as they would need to go through the 4mm thick template and 8mm into the melamine.  If I accidentally went too deep I’d drill through the panel.  To avoid this I made a block that fitted onto the drill bit. 

 

Then I drill two parallel series of holes in all four side panels.

Assembling the kits was relatively easy.  The difficult part was mounting them on the wall.   Too low and banging your head on them was a risk.  Too high and they would be hard to reach.  Once Jan had decided on the height I made two temporary stands from scrap timber to rest the cupboard on and level it.  Once it was level I drilled pilot holes in the back panel to mark where the anchor points on the wall would be located.  The cupboard was removed and the anchor plugs set into the wall.  The cupboard was placed back on the stands and fixed to the wall with screws.  When both cupboards were secured to the wall I fitted and adjusted the doors before adding the internal shelves.

There is a simple principle involved with these cupboards.  “Stuff expands to meet the available space!”   Living on a narrowboat meant the available space couldn’t be expanded and we learned to not accumulate “stuff”.  A house is a different matter.

Bridgetown Trip

I participated in the WD Club trip to Bridgetown this weekend.   Seven member of the club met at a quiet public reserve approximately 20km SE of Bridgetown.  The distance from Perth is about 280km  and took me 3½ hours towing the trailer.

An appointment on Friday morning meant I didn’t depart until 11AM and was the last to arrive at the reserve.  Apart from some slow and heavy traffic on the southern freeway (motorway) it was an easy drive.

The reserve was on the banks of the Blackwood River whose source is hundreds of kilometres further inland.

  

It was a very pleasant location, apart from the ‘March Flies’ who are large, hard to kill and have a bite so strong they can draw blood.

On Saturday morning the Trip Organiser led us on a convoy drive around the local native forests staying mostly on unsealed roads.   Much of this area used to be covered in native Jarrah trees.  A very hard wood.   Over the last 150 years most of it has been logged and I read somewhere that many of the stately homes in London have (had?) Jarrah floorboards.   The land has been left cleared as farmland or replanted with other species of native trees.  I noticed several plantations of Blue Gum.

We had a late mid morning rest stop beside a river where the bridge was a reinforced Bailey Bridge.

The original Double Single Bailey Bridge had been raised and additional large steel H beams added to increase the load carrying capacity.

The day trip took us back to Bridgetown for our last stop.

It’s an attractive town

Art Deco style Town Hall and council chambers

 

Sunday morning I packed up the trailer before saying my goodbye’s to those club members staying and headed home.

Upon reaching home I realised I’d dogged a bullet when I saw the state of the TREG Block trailer hitch.  The poly block had split in half.  I doubt the trailer would have separated from the vehicle as the vertical coupler pin is situated behind the horizontal hinge pin.   Bit it would have been very noisy if the poly block had dropped out.   I probably shouldn’t be surprised as it’s a cheap Chinese articulated coupler.

 

First Test

5PM yesterday Jan exclaimed “We’ve lost the internet!”  This is almost impossible because the politician who selected the technology at the time stated “We have the best in the world” <sarcasm mode off>.  I looked at the light on the security system and immediately noticed it was RED.  No internet connection.  Jan started cooking dinner whilst I went to the main house router to check if the NBN (National Broadband Network) modem was functioning.   It wasn’t.   No internet connection.

Three hours latest Jan notices a message on her phone.   A power outage had occurred in our suburb when a power pole caught fire.  That was rather interesting as all the powerlines in the suburb are underground.  The only above ground electricity is at the southern end of the suburb here there is a large high voltage transmission farm.

Then it dawned on both of us.  The loss of electricity had caused the internet to fail.   We hadn’t noticed the failure because we’re currently “off grid”.  Unlike a number of home battery system ours will work when the grid fails.  During this time we’d been running three air conditioners and Jan had also cooked dinner.   What was the battery state of charge.   Usually it would be around 70-75%.   However it was down to 65%.  Next morning the sun rose and started to rapidly recharge the battery.

Don,

Yes the system can display some comprehensive data.  I haven’t yet activated the Ai function which apparently “learns” our electrical demand requirements.  To date it appears the system is capable of continuously supplying all our current electrical needs.   We actually have to ability to produce more power than we need.  

Another Project and an Interesting Outcome

Trailer Camera

The camper trailer rear view camera wouldn’t connect to the Android Application.  After a number of unsuccessful efforts I declared it a lost cause and returned the camera to the Aliexpress seller and obtained a refund.   Then I searched for another seller and ordered a second camera.   It arrived within a week and I fitted it to the rear of the trailer this morning.

After wiring it into the trailer 12V system I looked for the wifi connection on my phone.  YES! The camera was broadcasting a wifi signal to which I connected my phone.   Would the App now work?

 

Success!   The camera has an additional function which I had been unaware of until I walked behind the trailer only to hear a “beeping” sound from my hearing aids.  The camera senses of there is a pedestrian behind the trailer and broadcast a warning.  

I’m considering mounting the 10” Android tablet on the Isuzu dash in split screen mode.  One screen with the rear view camera picture and the other showing the trailer battery state of charge.

Home Battery

Meanwhile, my thoughts returned to the home battery.   Two days ago I switched the system to “off grid” and we have been successfully coping with power from the solar panels and battery.   Nothing from the Grid.   I’ve also worked out how to display the battery system on the pc browser.  I find it easier to view the data on the pc compared to the phone.

How are things working out?   Actually rather well!

Looking at the data for today I can see a small peak [A] at 5AM when Jan woke and turned on the kettle.  At 5:30 the bore pump started to reticulate the lawns and gardens [B].  Both of these events were powered by the battery.   The solar panels started producing power around 6AM and we stopped using the battery.  There were several peaks [C] where the solar was predominantly recharging the battery.  At 11:35AM the battery was fully charged and as there was no significant demand from the house for electricity the power from the panels reduced [D].  From then onwards the solar only delivered sufficient power to meet the demand from the house.  

Off Grid

Yesterday we received our electricity bill for the two month period Nov-Dec.  This is the first bill we have received for the full period since having the home battery installed.   I was interested to see how the new battery and solar array had changed our bill.

We have been exporting surplus electricity from the solar panels to the Grid.  It’s capped at 1.5kW, however we could send more.  The solar array and battery supplies all our daily electricity.  Most mornings I check the battery state of charge finding it between 68-75%.  The battery is then fully recharged between 10AM and midday. 

Looking at the solar export data from the energy supplier website for the period we appear to be exporting approximately 10kWh daily.

 

This is half of what we were exporting before the battery was installed.   Obviously being capped at 1.5kW is having an effect.  For the previous period (Sep-Oct) we exported 1000kWh and received a rebate of $73.82. 

For this recent period where we were capped we exported 594kWh and received $0.  They take our electricity and pay us zero.

Throughout the billing period we have been exclusively using electricity directly from our solar array or our home battery.   It was therefore interesting to see on the latest bill we had been charged for electricity taken from the Grid.

10.635kWh over 63 days costing $3.13 or $0.17 daily. 

Something doesn’t add up here!

I have deduced two potential conclusions.

1.  The utility company has surplus solar energy and no means to store it so whilst they will accept our exported electricity they won’t pay for it.  No doubt they sell it to our neighbour who doesn’t have solar panels.

2.  We aren’t using any electricity from the Grid but we are paying for the Grid electricity that powers the utility company’s meter on our home power board.

MY ACTION

Within the phone App of our Sigenergy battery system is the ability to “go off grid”.  That is; disconnect us from the Grid and exclusively power the house from the solar panels and battery.  It will be interesting to see what appears on the next utility bill.

Testing the Float Valve

My prototype is in the swimming pool being tested.

If the valve works and cuts off the water I’ll adjust the height of the aluminium mounting bracket.  The plan is to slip the horizontal flat section under the coping paver.

Gosh it’s been hot.  I went for another bike ride returning home around midday very dehydrated.  The air was so hot and dry it felt like I was riding in a blast furnace.  The forecast is for more hot weather with the temperature possibly exceeding 40.   Jan reads narrowboat blog and wishes she was back in an English winter!

Roll the clock forward one day and I’ve made a second attempt with the pool float valve mount.   I couldn’t fit the aluminium plate under the coping paver as it was particularly well glued to the lip of the fibreglass pool.  My new strategy is to drill the vertical face of the cement paver and secure the modified mounting plate with screws and plastic rawl plugs.

It works but the height of the float valve needs to be adjusted.

Meanwhile Jan informs me the pool water is too cold.   Last year she found the sun too hot whilst in the pool which is why we had a new patio installed over the pool.

Obviously the additional shade has been effective.

I needed to check the DIY pool water heating system.  The panels are on the workshop roof.

I can hear the sound of water dripping down the shed drainpipe.  The left panel has sprung a small leak.  However the system is doing its job with the brass fittings on the outlet side if the system too hot to grip.  We’ll be losing a small amount of water but the new float valve should regularly replace it.

A not so successful project is the trailer rear camera. 

 

I have power to it and the camera is broadcasting a wifi signal which I can connect to with both my mobile phone and tablet.   However when I load the App the message ‘No Device’ is displayed on the screen.   I’ve written to the seller but have yet to receive a reply.  I’ll wait two more days and then leave a negative review to see if this initiates some correspondence to resolve the issue.

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