Two walks and a project

This morning Jan and I walked to Range, Maplin and Tesco.  The purchase from Maplin was a small plastic box for a planned project.  Range supplied a number of household items and whilst Jan was wandering around I bumped into Angie & Dave the crew of nb Lady Esther.  Angie is the clever lady who crochets mooring pin covers from Sainsbury’s plastic shopping bags.  A great way to recycle them.  We have two of her mooring pin covers and always use them when moored on pins.  After a brief chat (toilets not discussed) I had to dash off to look for the chief financial controller.  Hopefully we’ll catch up with Dave & Angie before leaving the area.

On the way back to Waiouru we stopped at Tesco for the bulk supplies.  A box of milk and several of cola (both on special).  I’m not sure how long this cheap shopping trolley is going to last with the amount of weight she has to carry back to the boat.  The wheels are starting to get slightly wobbly!

In the afternoon I walked up to the Aldi at Central Park for the items we like, but only they stock.

Back at Waiouru I rummaged through the storage lockers looking for components to use on the latest project.  Two years ago I made a 12V power supply for the laptop.  It converted 12V to 19.2V which enabled me to recharge the laptop without running the inverter.  When we purchased the 28” TV I ensured it had an external power converter.  The TV has a 240V AC input but actually runs on 14V DC.  So I modified the laptop converter and used it to run the TV.  Now I need another voltage converter for the laptop.  You can purchase them for approximately £30+ but I want to do it cheaper.

The plastic box from Maplin cost £4 and will contain the circuit board and electronic components.  I’m going to use the 12V extension lead we had previously purchased to operate the map gps on the back of the boat.  It’s now surplus because I fitted a 12V water resistant socket in the semi trad area.  I also have a surplus lead and power plug for the laptop.

£4 of components

I could make the converter but it’s actually cheaper to purchase one off eBay.  The manufacturer in China can sell them for approx £2.50 including free postage.  Unfortunately we don’t have a postal address.  However youngest son came to my rescue pointing out eBay has a “click & collect” option where the purchased item can be collected from Argos.

This is the DC – DC converter which we are now waiting to be received by Argos.

When it arrives I’ll probably write a short description on how I assembled the converter.