Mermaid and more odd jobs

Earlier in the week we had a mermaid in our backyard.  I’m usually not up early enough to see one.  Fortunately they don’t make much of a mess and are actually quite friendly, but shy, when approached.  Mostly seen on hot days!

And now to some more mundane subjects

The damned rotary lawn mower has been doing a very bad job of throwing cut grass into the catcher.  The grass piles up at the front of the catcher which results in it having to be removed and cleared.  Initially I thought we would need a new mower.  This one is nine years old and I started researching battery powered lawn mowers.  Then I decided to examine the blades.  The mower has four and they were all sharp.  So nothing was stopping the blades cutting the grass.

However they did look worn

Upon carefully examining one of the blades I identified the rear of the blade was badly worn.  Originally there was a vertical lip on the back of the blade and it was mostly gone.  It wasn’t easy finding replacement blades at a price I was prepared to pay.   eBay was my friend.  After fitting the new blades the mower is far more successful in ejecting grass cutting into the catcher.   Then I read the blades should be replaced annually.   I won’t be doing that but now I know what to do next time the problem reoccurs.

There is a large tree on the neighbours side of the corner where their property joins ours.  It’s been growing over our boundary fence and shading the electrical and water solar panels on the workshop shed roof.  This is affecting the swimming pool water heater system.

I’m now to old (and sensible) to climb a tall ladder to prune the branches on our side of the boundary.   A pole saw is required and none of my relatives own one.  There is only one tree to prune so I didn’t want an expensive saw.   The price of hiring a saw for the day was almost the same as purchasing a cheap battery powered saw.  In the end I bought an Ozito 3 metres battery powered pole saw without the battery.  Having standardised my battery power tools on DeWalt I didn’t want to pay more money for an orphan Ozito battery.  AliExpress came to my rescue with an adapter plate costing around $6.  Much cheaper than the Ozito battery.  The adapter fits between the Ozito pole saw and a DeWalt battery.  

It works and I’ve given the tree an initial haircut.

Loose Ends

The controller cable on the ebike linking the controller and the display had started to concern me.  There is a considerable amount of tension on it which suggested something might cause it to fail; probably at the joint. 

I found an extension cable from an online seller

Which solved the potential problem

Next problem was the head torch.  I bought one online for $6.  The specifications stated it was powerful.  And it was!

Unfortunately it only took 30 seconds before the light started to dim.  Looking at it I suspect the battery was a single Li-ion 3.7V 18650 cell.  After dismantling the torch my assumption proved correct.  A single 18650 cell with no plastic shield.  It would be hard to look much cheaper.  Using the iMax battery condition I tested the cell which revealed it had a capacity of 13mAh.   A good 18650 cell has a capacity of 2400 – 3500mAh.  Obviously the one from the torch was a cheap dud.

    

Rummaging through my boxes of ‘stuff’ I found a spare cell which I soldered and fitted to the torch before reassembly.

Now I have a head torch which illuminates for more than 30 seconds.

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.