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I'm curious why you didn't mount the panels closer to the outside top of the bus? Going through a tree canopy in a campground will almost always have a lower clearance on the sides of the road. Looks good. I never seen a vise mounted brake. Very cool idea for smaller material.
Are you drilling the aluminum and steel dry? It helps if you add a little cutting fluid and watch your drill speed in steel.
Well the desire was to get as many solar panels as possible on the top of the bus and reduce the effect of shading that would take panels out of production when a panel is partially shaded.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gil_J
Then as I went along I considered the effect of heat from the air conditioners on solar production as well.
I might consider fairing in the sides and a treatment on the front to transition the air flow, but hey the first step is basic functionality.
Yes I was drilling it dry and I did try some cutting fluid, but it made a horrible mess. Yes I did learn to slow down the drilling speed in the steel portion. But sharp bit's made each hole a breeze to do.Quote:
Originally Posted by PrevostNewbie
I hear you the oil can be messy if the use is not targeted. What i do is put a little cutting fluid in a small shallow dish, something heavy so it won't flip over move around easily. Only let the fluid get about 1/16" deep. When you are ready to drill, just touch the end of the drill in the fluid, it doesn't take much and this is the only place you want the fluid (on the drill point), if you feel the drill is drying out, just touch the drill in the fluid again. If you do this, most of the fluid will dry up in the drilling operation which is what you want. Shop vac and a paper towel should be all you need to clean up.
Things are starting to cascade towards getting finished with the first phase!!!
Anyway the next item on my wish list was a better shower.
https://www.crystalpoint.com/cpdownl.../NewShower.jpg
This was quite the install process as it didn't fit where the old shower head was. The layout of my bus in this area is:
https://www.crystalpoint.com/cpdownl...owerLayout.jpg
The refrigerator/freezer has been sitting in the aisle for sometime because I have been running my solar panel and network wiring on the rear wall. This space is a vertical column of the house battery bay, refrigerator/freezer and roof vent. The refrigerator/freezer is being converted from propane/electric to a simple DC compressor setup to eliminate propane in the bus and use 1/6 the electrical power.
Anyway I had to cut through the wall of the cabinet that holds the refrigerator/freezer to get through the pocket door and then to the back of the shower to mount the new shower head.
https://www.crystalpoint.com/cpdownl...owerAccess.jpg
This is very tight space, so visited a number of hardware stores until I found some 72 inch stainless steel hoses so I wouldn't have a connection that I couldn't reach.
Also because of the sliding pocket door I had to be careful in routing these hoses so they wouldn't interfere with the pocket door.
https://www.crystalpoint.com/cpdownl...oseRouting.jpg
Afterwards I filled my access cutout back in. Hey I am not a master carpenter and it's a very hidden sin LOL!!!!
https://www.crystalpoint.com/cpdownl...ssFilledIn.jpg
This shower will have two modes:
1. Normal shower
2. What I refer to as vertical hot tub mode where it is a recirculating shower. You can take a hour long hedonistic shower and not waste any water...
Ok, back to work....
Hi Everyone
One of the latest bits of chaos; is reworking the kitchen. Here's a picture my original kitchen:
https://www.crystalpoint.com/cpdownl...alKitchen2.jpg
The bus originally had a propane stove/oven. With my solar setup I am totally doing away with propane in the bus. The refrigerator was also a dual mode propane/AC power unit, that is being upgraded via a DC compressor conversion kit.
Where the old stove and the two drawers were; is being replaced with a dishwasher, microwave convection oven and induction cooktop.
I didn't like the big double bucket sink that absorbed most of the counter space, so I am replacing it with a bar sized sink to get counter space back.
Here's a picture as we start to remove the old counter top:
https://www.crystalpoint.com/cpdownl...tchenDemo1.jpg
Look at how big of a hole the old sink occupied!!!
Anyway the demolition process was very delicate as the tile work was done after after the counter top (plywood and formica veneer) had been installed and the counter top had lots of nails that were on the edges under the tile that had to be cut first.
We ended up having to remove the counter top a piece at time and cutting close to the back tiles, so we could then get an oscillating multi tool metal cutting blade under the remaining pieces to cut the nails flush before we could slide the old counter sections out. The metal cutting blade only has about a two inch reach.
For this project I hired a guy who does extensive kitchen remodels to help me. He said in a house that the demolition phase is generally not more than an hour or two. We wound spending the day doing this phase to preserve the tile work and did lots of kibitzing on tactics to get around the stubborn areas. We only had a couple of tiles and a bit of grout pop loose; which we consider a major success!!
The next task that I did was to cut a fan ventilation hole given the potential for heat build up with all the appliances in a stack:
https://www.crystalpoint.com/cpdownl...henFanHole.jpg
I would have to say that my bus has very substantial cabinetry; as all the walls are 3/4 inch thick. I had to cut this hole using plunge cuts with the oscillating multi tool.
I will be adding another temperature sensor in this area and adding a fan to vent from this space to behind the refrigerator and out the roof vent.
Here's a test fit after the stone work was done for the new counter top:
https://www.crystalpoint.com/cpdownl...henTestFit.jpg
We then encounter our first ah shit, I was reading the manual for the induction cooktop and it says there has to be six and half inch gap between the top of the cooktop and an appliance below it!!!
So I take out my now trusty oscillating multi tool and cut out the floor of the now gutted cabinet to get more vertical space.
https://www.crystalpoint.com/cpdownl...etFloorCut.jpg
As you can see we are now down to the original floorboard and see evidence that the cabin has been through multiple generations of do overs by previous owners.
This cabinet surgery gained me another 2 1/2 inches of vertical space for the induction cooktop, so we are now at 5 1/2 inches. So close as I am going to get!!!
Freds:
One question
Is it legal for you to be having this much fun? LOL
Nice work, maybe someday I will get that ambitious.
Chuck
Huh, what?
Ok I plugged the dam thing in!!!
In finishing out the kitchen with running the power inverter for extended periods of time and experimenting with the climate control for the bus with my home automation system. I was severely behind the power curve (aviation term for your just about to hit the ground in a non-survivable manner, unless you get your head out of your @$#, right now...), I managed to flat-line the house battery system. Danger, Danger Will Robinson!!!!
https://www.crystalpoint.com/cpdownl...arPlugedIn.jpg
Ok this post is going to cover a lot of ground so it will be broken up into multiple parts.
One of the major challenges is how do you recharge your solar house battery pack when the sun hasn’t been shining for multiple days and you have run it down into the ground?
Just to give an example, I have 3.7KW with ten solar panels that are flat mounted on the roof of my bus.
Given my high latitude (almost in Canada) they are not at the correct angled to harvest the most power.
As an example, a recent day with a bit of mixed sunshine they generated 5.1KW of solar production, however the same panels only generated around 0.1KW of power while it was gloomy rainy day!!!
Prior to getting all ten panels mounted, a couple panels worked almost as good leaned up against the side of the bus pointed at the sun (closer to the correct angle) when the sun appears in soggy Seattle in the winter!!!
Hey, I should be in Arizona this time of the year!!! I am definitely behind schedule right now and can sort of blame it on Covid…
Anyway, as part of a typical solar configuration you generally have:
1. Solar panels
2. Solar charge controllers of which the best is the MPTT types.
3. House battery system
4. Inverter/charger
For the solar charge controllers, I absolutely love, love Victron products, because of the quality of that product line and the free intrinsic cloud data services you get from using their products. (See my sort of fake power production image above)
However, while I am willing to pay a premium for their solar charge controllers, not so much for their inverter/chargers.
Victron is a global company and they fairly much package their product line for that target audience and
this leads to a bit of disconnect in the America market.
In Europe they have three phase power and here in the US most homes have what we call split phase 240V power.
So, Victron’s solution is hey buy three inverters for Europe and two for the US, unless your power needs are low in which case you can buy just one for 120V or 208V power.
Sort of if you want it, just pay for it!!!
In my motorhome I decide to go with a 240V split phase inverter that was compatible with my choice to reuse Tesla car battery modules (could have been the more standard LifePO4 batteries).
Hey, I do own a Tesla Model S P85 in which you are always a couple ounces of foot pressure away from releasing your inter demon (very quietly/civilized, just instant raw acceleration whenever you desire it.) …
So my battery choice was a couple of recycled Tesla battery modules, from some poor sucker who totaled their Tesla...
Given this choice and the technical difference between LifePO4 batteries and Tesla battery modules, my choice narrowed down to a Sigineer inverter/charger; which is a 6KW split phase true sine wave inverter that can surge to 18KW for short time periods. Given this I can fairly much run anything that I would normally run when hooked up to 50AMP service with my motor home/bus conversion while off grid.
Note the Sigineer inverter/charger works with both LifePO4 batteries and Tesla Battery modules, something you can not say for other brands.
Sigineer marketing material indicates that it can cover several applications including RV usage.
However, I do find the Sigineer to be a bit limited in a couple of aspects for RV usage and must consider that it was originally designed to be a UPS device in commercial service. These limitations are:
1. Charger circuitry only works with 240V input source.
2. Inverter/Charger can only do one function at a time.
This works well as a backup UPS power source where when the power returns it bypasses the new power feed to the target load and recharges the battery pack. However, it sucks when you consider a couple of typical scenarios’ that you encounter as a RV’er.
1. Mooch-docking in a friend’s driveway with a simple extension cord.
2. Campground with 30AMP 120V service.
This is where the Victron inverter/chargers really shine in that they allow the 120V though in passthrough mode and do a power assist mode in the case you need to run an air conditioner and microwave at the same time. Where the extra temporary extra power need comes from your house battery bank, without tripping your friend's circuit breaker.
However, a Victron 3KW power inverter costs about the same as a single 6KW split phase Sigineer inverter; where with the Victron product line you would need two inverters to cover the same functionality for your motor home.
So how did I choose to work around this flaw/limitation with the Sigineer product line?
Standby for part two!!!
The answer to my dilemma is inexpensive surplus HP server power supplies!!!
HP for over a decade has had standardized redundant power supplies in their server product line.
As these server’s age; they get recycled for new more powerful servers in data centers and then get stripped for parts to sell.
Given this these power supplies get sold for around $20.00 apiece. The primary market for these recycled power supplies is to power GPU’s for Bitcoin miners.
Another is for radio-controlled (RC) hobbyist to power lithium battery charge controllers to charge multiple batteries for model airplanes and helicopters.
One of the limitations of these power supplies is that the 12V output is tied to a common ground so if you want to use multiple power supplies in series for more voltage; you need to convert them to floating ground so they don’t short out when connected together.
The following link gives background and technical details for how you do this by drilling out a couple of ground studs and replacing with them with nylon bolts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2QFBE6ZFF0&t=459s
However, when you are talking drilling with electronics, the resulting metal fragments and electricity that run on; doesn’t mix too well; so you must be very, very careful and understand what you are doing!!!!
Back to your solar charge controllers which you will use as a smart interface to your house battery system.
These controllers generally need an input source that is at least a few volts higher than the voltage of your house batteries. Their primary function is to convert power from a higher voltage source down to the house battery voltage. So to reach the voltage level of a typical solar panel you will need multiple supplies.
In my case I have a couple of Victron 150/70 MPPT charge controller which mean they can handle up to 150 volts input and output up to 70 AMP’s out to the 24V house battery bank. (Note I will use four 12V power supplies which I will explain later.)
Given clouds, time of day. The input voltage can vary, hence the advanced (MPPTT) multiple power point tracking functionality of the solar charge controllers.
Ok, how do you process these multiple power supplies to floating ground without drilling them as it shows in the video?
I came up with a much simple procedure using a rivnut tool, so it only takes about five minutes for each power supply conversion without the need to do any drilling!!!
More to come and hey I am spending a lot more time describing this to you, than it actually took to do!!!
Here's my simpler no drill method of converting HP server power supplies to floating ground operation.
Steps:
1. Remove the top off of the power supply (four Phillip's head screws).
2. At the back of the power supply remove the two circuit board mounting/case grounding screws.
3. Turn the power supply over and screw the rivnut tool shank through a drill stop ring and pull the nut stud out of the case for both screws.
4. Replace the original metal screws with nylon parts and put the top back on the power supply.
Nylon parts that I used:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Though when I do it again, I may just use the spacer and some hot glue as the head of the nylon bolt sticks out too much.
https://www.crystalpoint.com/cpdownl...onversion1.jpg
The rivnut tool that can handle the small metric screw size that is used in the power supply is:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
And after we have removed the embedded nut that acted as the grounding post.
https://www.crystalpoint.com/cpdownl...onversion2.jpg
Generally on an RV you wire up all your solar panels in parallel so if one panel is shaded it doesn't affect other panels.
Each panel includes a DC blocking diode as part of it's construction so that current can only flow one way.
https://www.crystalpoint.com/cpdownl...nelSymbols.jpg
In our world a battery isolator performs the same functionality as it has DC blocking diodes as part of it's construction. Though they are more higher amperage then a typical solar panel diode.
https://www.crystalpoint.com/cpdownl...onversion3.jpg
In the above picture you see the metal bracket that I bent up to mount my four converted HP power supplies to the roof of my battery bay.
The power supplies are wired in series and the output runs to a battery isolator which is then wired in parallel with the solar panels on the roof of my bus. I selected the solar charge controller that had the fewest panels connected to it.
The reason that I used four power supplies is to have a higher total voltage then my solar panels put out. By using the battery isolator the charge controller will see whichever device is producing the most power.
A quick note about these power supplies their maximum output is 900watts on 120volts and 1200watts when fed 240V.
The maximum power that you can draw from a 120v circuit is around 1800 watts.
Both the HP power supplies and the solar charge controllers are about 90% efficient.
My solar charge controller output is 70AMP's at 24 volts which is 1680 watts. However back to the efficacy of both devices we talking an input power requirement of over 2000 watts to deliver that much power, which will trip either a circuit breaker or overheat the extension cord.
There is also another rule that should be paid attention too; is that for continuous loads you should not draw more than 80 percent of available power. This works out to an extension cord load of around 1440 watts.
So after working all these numbers I changed the maximum amperage on the solar charge controller from 70 amps to 50 amps. Which is about a 1200 watt charge rate to the batteries.
I purchase my HP power supplies from eBay.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/DPS-1200FB-...72.m2749.l2649
I also purchased adapter boards that fake the power supply into automatically turning on and breaks out the DC voltage to a terminal strip, as this greatly simplified the conversion process that was in the original video that I gave a link too.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/DPS-1200-12...72.m2749.l2649
Note the terminal screws on this boards terminal strip are small; so use multiple (fine wire flexible) wires to carry the load.
Explain what uve built in another way. Based on early results, in your opinion, once u get way down south and head out into the wide open spaces of a spot like Quartzsite. Im assuming spring and fall were bigger constant HVAC loads aren't nessessary im thinking u could go indefinatly without supplementing the panels for power.? Yes?
Next question. If heat is needed at night or AC during the day in your estimation how many hours a day do u think u could support an air conditioner or heater and still not need to supplement the panels on the average mostly sunny day? 2 or 3 hr or will it be more or less?
I know when I'm in the infield at the race track living off inverter I need about 4 hr of gen time when I'm not needing HVAC and I go 2 in the morn and 2 in the evening resulting in about 10bucks a day in fuel. Not counting the inverters or batts or hardware that we all already have but just the panels and charging controllers how much did u put into just those items?
Possibly a ridiculous question. In intense boondocking circles do u know if there r portable wind generators out there that have any value?
More great info! A 2 alternator, one battery battery isolator would be perfect, if you want to use diodes. A better option might be an automatic charge relay. High current and NO Voltage loss, like a diode.
Here's a block diagram of the installation that I just performed on my bus:
https://www.crystalpoint.com/cpdownl...ockingFeed.jpg
As I mentioned in my previous post these power supplies can produce 1200 watts if fed a diet of 240 volts!!!
So I will be adding another set of power supplies that are driven from my diesel generator, so in this instance the block diagram would be:
https://www.crystalpoint.com/cpdownl...eratorFeed.jpg
Ultimately I will have an automation that will go hey it's 7PM, how's the state of charge for the house batteries? Hey it's a little low, need to run the generator for 20 minutes...
I also found a service where you give it your geographic coordinates and it will predict your solar production for the day, based on the weather forecast and cloud based AI that uses the latest cubesat imaging.
Hi JoeQuote:
Originally Posted by Joe Camper
Yes boondocking in Quartzsite I should not need to run the generator at all. If the batteries are totally empty I shouldn't have to run the generator for more than a couple of hours.
I really haven't seen any good feedback out there for using windmills for power production in our typical scenario's.
Hi JoeQuote:
Originally Posted by Joe Camper
I just realized I didn't answer all your questions...
My Tesla house battery pack if fully charged holds around 10.4KW of power, however for the longest life you generally charge to only an 80% power level so around 8KW of storage though I can elect now and then to go to a full charge.
The biggest draws are my air conditioners and when they are running flat out they draw around 2400 watts, so around three hours at that consumption level. I have no experience yet with what their duty cycle would be at say 80-90 degrees, so at this time guessing longer. During the night I could elect to just run the air conditioner that services the bedroom.
My outlay for the solar panels and solar charge controllers has been, oh shit you made me add everything up!!!
Actually this isn't bad, just 8KW of Battle Born batteries would have been close to the same amount.Code:Solar panels $1700.00
Victron Charge controllers $1800.00
Victron Color control computer $510.00
Victron 24V to 12V 70 AMP converter $141.00
Victron 24V Isolated 20 AMP DC charger $165.00
2 Tesla battery modules $2200.00
SimpBMS for Tesla battery modules $800.00
Signineer 6KW inverter $1200.00
==============================================
Total $8,516.00
DIY LifePO4 battery packs has been really dropping, if I was starting over today my totals for batteries would be around $2000.00 rather then the $3000.00 that I spent.
I am considering buying another couple of Tesla battery modules to double my storage capacity.
I could have gotten by with two solar charge controllers instead of the three that I purchased.
Persheate that Fred. I have redundant inverters although my loads and draws r small and I only utilize 1 at a time.. Both r 2800 w and have 2 8D deca gel hooked to each one. The costs of these items were ZERO coustomers give me their old stuff all the time I've actually got enough to do another set at home and I plan on pulling all my lights and AV off the grid at some point. A little added input all 4 of my 8d Decca jell r almost 10yr old and they all still rest north of 13 volts. I love them, love to look see 13.1 with the controllers floating, gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.
So solar panels and those costs r what I'm interested in. The solar panels and costs was great info. I currently have only 1 panel attatched to each inverter and what they do is very adequate for what they r. However im often parked in a driveway sometimes on inverter and i have a trailer I pull that if I lined the entire roof with panels u wouldn't even really notice them and I probably will. Lot of your stuff is beyond my knowledge thanks for the input.
I assume the panels u r using would also be the best bang for the buck for me too? I would think I would not need the costly charge controllers u have put in and for a couple grand i could fill my trailer roof and cover a less expensive control?
I don't make the left coast too often but if God is willing ill be in Sacramento late May. If u were ready and willing to do some chassis stuff at that point bring yourself down to Norms towing and we will strip and redress your baby's underbelly.
Your 240V drawing is confusing me. First, can I assume you are talking ACV? If so, what will you do with 240VAC that's not split-phase?
Good Morning JoeQuote:
Originally Posted by Joe Camper
I got my panels from https://www.santansolar.com/ in their scratch and dent sale, as used panels from someone who did an upgrade on a solar farm. It looks like they are selling new panels for about the same cost as I paid.
The thing about shipping solar panels is that they are so large they require an extra large pallet and require special handling so it costs as much to ship a couple as it does for ten of them. A general rule of thumb you can't have too many panels (grin)...
I will keep in mind that you might be out this way, not sure where I will be at that time myself.
I understand you get your batteries for free and already have your inverters. I went for a 24V house battery system as that's a voltage of a single Tesla Battery module and I wanted to add on modules one at a time. Though I did consider 48V and a different inverter, but that would have required buying two modules at a time.
Generally the higher the voltage of the house pack, other costs go down for wiring and solar controllers. I have heard some horror stories about other brands of solar controllers failing and cooking large battery arrays.
The HP power supplies do not care what form of higher voltage that you have as an input since they are designed to be used around the world. It could be split phase or a tap off of two legs of three phase power which is 208 volts, they adjust to a wide voltage range.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gil_J
The key operating point is that aggregate power generation of the combined power supplies is greater than what the solar charge controllers can absorb. It's the solar charge controllers job to manage and account for the type of house batteries that you are using.
In my case I plan to split the power out via the battery isolator to my two other solar charge controllers when charging via the generator.
I suppose I could do the same when plugged into 50 AMP service, though generally when you do that; you are going to stick around for awhile, so not the time pressure you have when running a generator.
Speaking of solar charge controllers; if your house voltage pack is higher then the bus start batteries you can use one as interface between the house batteries and the bus batteries as a full time maintainer.
The YouTube channel "Beginning from this Morning" has an episode on doing this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04hVUQQYiyY&t=13s
Reached a milestone with the Kitchen rework today, I used the Microwave LOL!!!
https://www.crystalpoint.com/cpdownl.../Microwave.jpg
I do that too, when i am in the bus working, it's nice to have a bathroom, water to wash your hands, a kitchen, etc. Congrats on your power working, Life is good. ;)
Ok you can blame this on automation or design choices by yours truly. Given that I have made a living from software relate stuff for 40 plus years, I do tend to try and be a little smarter or dumber until I work all the bugs out.
Anyway my bus house systems automation has been based on very local (inside my bus, not dependent on reaching the Internet) Internet of things (IOT) stuff. The brain of my house automation is Raspberry Pi on a bus wired/WiFy network that is private to the bus.
As part of the design I went with Shelly Humidity and Temperature sensors that are battery powered. They are suppose to wake up every five minutes and detect the current values and if they have changed by X amount connect to the local WiFy network and report the change.
https://www.crystalpoint.com/cpdownl.../ShellyHT1.jpg
As you can see I have one such sensor stuck up on the wall of my bathroom.
As a sensor the drawback is that they are battery powered and I am on my second set of batteries in the last four months.
As a side note I am not yet living in the bus so it's going through larger temperature extremes then if I lived in it, so probably more reports than what would be normal.
Given that I plan on living in the bus full time for the next 10-15 years, maybe I should get them directly wired so they can be more reliable.
https://www.crystalpoint.com/cpdownl.../ShellyHT2.jpg
As you can see from the above graphic there was no kitchen reports until I inserted my last spare battery this evening...
While I could make the automation software ignore a heat zone or use the nearest zone if a zone is not reporting, I thing a hardware solution is more appropriate. I.E. Add some wires to provided power so that they are always ON!!!!
I think wired is a good choice, those sensors most likely sip power from the tiniest of thimbles.
They make a replacement back that accepts USB power and converts it to 3 volts. I will add some small DC to DC converters to power these.Quote:
Originally Posted by PrevostNewbie
My biggest problem is fishing the wires through the walls, which I dread doing as once the hole is drilled, it's drilled...
I totally hear yaQuote:
Originally Posted by freds
My bus came equipped with a large Norcold 1200 double door refrigerator/freezer. It worked on electricity but not on propane, which I recently discovered was that the ignitor coil had cold solder joints and had disconnected from the controller board.
https://www.crystalpoint.com/cpdownl...alKitchen2.jpg
I made the decision that my bus would be propane free, (opps now thinking of it for engine HP boost LOL!)..
But anyway this latest project that went very smoothly; was upgrading the refrigerator from the typical RV propane/electric cooling to a 12 DC compressor to be more power efficient inline with my solar power goals.
I purchased my conversion kit from:
https://jc-refrigeration.com/product...ld-hvac-units/
They have videos of how do the replacement/conversion of the cooling portion of your refrigerator/freezer. They offer replacements for most RV type of your refrigerator/freezer.
Here's the video of the basic procedure that I performed to upgrade my refrigerator/freezer.
https://jc-refrigeration.com/wp-cont...10-Norcold.mp4
I first heard about this conversion from the youTube channel "Morton's on the Move". https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCir...xZZApeIe0a5-6Q
The videos covering their conversion is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yte1V3CkDrw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeKtqqleMdM
And since the proof is always in the numbers, here's a history chart from my first run:
https://www.crystalpoint.com/cpdownl...eratorRun1.jpg
I was able to install my automation temperature sensors by running them in through the holes for the drip pan drain and the ICE maker.
I realized on my way home after powering it up for it's first time that I forgot to clip the refrigerator temperature sensor to the appropriate cooling fin, just left it hanging. So as you can see from the graph's it over cooled the interior, but hey it works!!!
Still tucking it away and I will document another modification that I made in a future post.
Freds,
Very cool work you've done. I've thought of some similar changes but don't have the guts to dive in.
I must point out the spelling of "Refridgerator". Love it.
Awesome work sir!
LOL, Fred, that's how i spell it too, are you from New England?
Wow...did I say wow? Of course I did...wow!
No Seattle, hey what ever gets me by spell check...Quote:
Originally Posted by PrevostNewbie
Thanks guys for the feedback...
PS. Did it by myself mostly. Had a bud help during the final mechanical reassembly before the foam hardened.
Ok a minor detour into the weeds from my basic make it functional route.
After getting the dishwasher and microwave installed the wood trim around it looked a bit out of place and I happened across a list of home improvements that had as one of it's items stainless steel wall paper to recover your appliances.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...e?ie=UTF8&th=1
https://www.crystalpoint.com/cpdownl.../stainless.jpg
So at first glance it looks like I have custom stainless steel trim to finish out my appliance column.
However it didn't stick too well to wood; as I just wrapped it and didn't do any surface treatment, thinking it would work better on metal. Stainless steel shouldn't have a bubble here and there!!!
But hey it was only ten bucks and a bit of time!
Looks great!
I haven’t posted much lately, been pushing towards getting ready to travel this month. Lots of little systems that have been started but are not finished, so no final result to post even though it’s going well. Just sticking to critical path items.
Anyway, this post is about my first Moochdocking test with items that just arrived from amazon yesterday.
As part of my DIY hydronic design, I used two RV style water heaters to hold and warm the glycol for the system.
When being used with electricity these two heaters are wired on each side of the 50AMP service plug (same for the air conditioners).
So anyway, the expected shore power scenarios are:
1. Single 120V extension cord.
2. Two 120V Extension cords to different circuits.
3. Single 120V 30AMP connection.
4. Dual 120V 30AMP connection, with 30AMP extension cord to unused camp site.
5. True 50 AMP RV service
I found the Two 120V Extension cords to different circuits solution from watching the following YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80ZucqclD80
The parts that I ordered to do this are:
1 EA https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
2 EA https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
30AMP extension cords not ordered, but considering:
https://www.amazon.com/Camco-Extensi...e%2C217&sr=1-4
https://www.amazon.com/Camco-Extensi...e%2C217&sr=1-3
I really, really like the combiner cord as my first use was after dark!!! Each input leg has an LED to show that it is being fed power. The NEAM 14-50 female end had two LED's which I used as a mini flashlight to find the mating plug in one of my equipment bays.
So anyway back to some take a way’s on my hydronic system:
1. Diesel boiler runs at full power until the input temperature caches up with the output. At which point it throttles back. So, I will add an automation to detect this and automatically turn it off until the relight point is reached.
Running toward peek temperature:
https://www.crystalpoint.com/cpdownl...ronicRunUp.jpg
After the peak:
https://www.crystalpoint.com/cpdownl...eraturedip.jpg
2. The maximum temperature that the water heaters will heat to electrically is 140 degrees with no adjustment controls.
3. When running on extension cords you don’t really want to draw more than 1800 watts peaks.
The water heater's I selected pull about 1500 watts when energized. Not sure I can keep the bus warm on 3000 watts in colder temperatures, so hey another automation control option to kick the diesel boiler on when it can’t keep up.
4. My previously posted solar simulator to charge via shore power must be controlled to get under the maximum peak draw. So, if a water heater on the same circuit is energized then the power draw needs to be turned down. So, I will have the automation logic automatically turn the power draw down if the hydronic output temperature is below 150 degrees and the heater circuits might kick in.
So anyway last night I ran the diesel boiler until it reached peak (no temperature control on the interior zones yet) and then turned on both water/glycol heaters with heat distribution to all zones and left the bus Moochdocking from two 120V outlets on separate circuits.
Here are the results (note the switch over was around 8PM):
https://www.crystalpoint.com/cpdownl...gOvernight.jpg
As you can see it fairly much held it's own, though it only got down to around 43 degrees last night. Just need to decide the criteria to decide when to kick in the diesel boiler assist for the automation logic.
Good Stuff Fred, once i get my bus in good shape I plan on pulling out my Country Coach ECC and replacing it with a PLC control.
I am very much in love with Node Red. The graphics that I have been showing are great, but unless I limit the data points it tends to overwhelm a raspberry pi 4. However using a MQTT broker as the interchange; it is easy to split the functionality. So I may move the GUI code portion to a PC virtual machine.Quote:
Originally Posted by PrevostNewbie
I have not posted in a while. The last month has been very busy for me in the run up to attending my first bus rally in Quartzite AZ. With the Covid chaos I wanted to attend a small rally and do a shake down first trip (three months) to decide if I am going to do this full time before I move out of my main domicile.
Anyway, given that I am a major tinker I had a project that is bleeding edge for inclusion in the bus which necessitate spending two and half weeks learning FreeCAD and coming up with the design and then another week assembling the mechanical portions and installing into one of my bays before departing, more on that project later.
All this precluded a leisurely departure for the five-day rally and I just made it for the last day of the bus conversion get together. I met a lot of people who was interested in the things that I was doing to my bus, either that or I was simply fresh meat after they had spent the previous four days with each other LOL!!!
I did not really get see other people’s buses as I was basically fried with all the rushing to make it and I will have to say this trip was about a month too early for me, given that my bus was still basically a construction zone. I.E. Clearing boxes of stuff off the bed each evening to be able to sleep.
I also missed the big tent event in Quartzite.
The route that I took from Seattle to Quartzite was a bit weird in that I took I-5 to Portland OR and then back roads direct which was mostly two-lane roads. Saw one patrol car in my entire trip.
I have seen discussion on the loneliest highway in Nevada and I would have to say that this route must have been the second loneliest highway as I went multiple times for at least 45 minutes before seeing someone coming from the other direction.
Probably not the wisest routing choice for my first long trip. But I have driven the route from Seattle down I-5 to the bay area, numerous times and I am a bit sick of it.
https://www.crystalpoint.com/cpdownl...zsiteRoute.jpg
The bus did great on this trip and crossed multiple 6000-foot summits without any overheating problems which was a major topic at the rally. It only used one quart of oil for the trip, most of which I think is on the back of the bus from Detroit Diesel leaks.
The only mechanical failure was a broken zip tie where one of my air horns had gotten crunched in the past by a previous owner.
https://www.crystalpoint.com/cpdownl...unchedHorn.jpg
However, you do know that you are out in the boonies when there is a single four hole-er rest stop servicing both sides of the road and it includes a horse exercise area!!!
https://www.crystalpoint.com/cpdownl...seExersize.jpg
Other than being rushed it was a great trip, unwinding after the rally and helping another busnut with an electrical problem, while cleaning up things in my bus that I wasn't able to do before leaving. Finishing plumbing so the shower works, etc.