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.