Morning Cup Of Coffee And Weather

It’s sunny and -12F. I have to (get to) drive to Wausau today for a dentist appointment. It’s great to be self sufficient and not have to depend on others. Folgers in my cup.

 

w00f. -12. Yikes. Coming from California, you're a braver person than I am.

 

It’s warmed up to -11 and the high today will be plus 13. If you have the clothes and boots it’s not too bad. When it gets -20 with wind is when it gets too cold to go outside. I often leave the house underdressed for the cold but have cold weather clothing in the van. I also have a sleeping bag and food. I carry a bottle of water but don’t leave it in the van because it would freeze.

 

It’s a bit hot at 84 degrees in San Juan for checking out the forts and Old San Juan. Headed to St. John’s tomorrow, and south from there until arriving in Manaus, Brazil on the Amazon a week from now. The density of the insects on the Amazon are legendary.

 

waaaah!!!! waaaah!!!! waaaah!!!!

 

It might get above freezing after an overnight of 23F. Then in a week it might hit the 40’s. Folgers in my Henry mug.

 

We're thawing out, last night into this morning we've had rain --- so almost all of the snow is gone. Unfortuantely, this moved us from winter into my second least favorite season --- mud season The poor dog is miserable when she's outside, then again when she comes in.

@Tour 931 - How are things going after surgery? Well I trust?

 

One down and one to go.... and pretty quickly too! That'll be nice to have them both done, healed up, and used to before camping season really gets going.

 

I can see 20/20 from infinity to as close as 2 feet. I’ll need reading glasses but I’ve worn glasses since the fourth grade so I’m use to them.

I go for a follow up for my right eye tomorrow. It’s mostly healed and it lets the doctor know the prescription for the left eye will also probably be correct. I’m told sometimes it doesn’t go as planned and I could have ended up with 20/60. If that was the case he might have changed the prescription for the left.

The left will be done on the 30th.

 

Warmer, Damp, and cloudy. Up to 51 today, I suppose that is better than the 35 that is 'average'. Just remember, the average temperature for today is just the average of the previous 10 abnormal days. We'll pay for it, or, we're getting rewarded for something in the past I suppose.

So I see 2024 is going to be one of those years....We have to make the decision to move both of my parents from assisted living into a "Intermediate/skilled care center" --- a nursing home. The roles have reversed, I am now the 'parent' -- these decisions suck.

"Adulting" is certainly not as fun as it sounded when I was a kid...

On a much lighter note...And on the camping front. This is probably the one thing keeping me 'sane' right now. 2024 is shaping up to be a tough year, but the though of exploring this wonderful world keeps me moving.

For some stupid reason, I did not add the TriMetric to my build. Perhaps it is just that I didn't see the need as I was not going lithium (wasn't an option at the time) or that I did not see me camping 'off grid' as much as I am finding I want too now. But I am anticipating more off-grid and am preparing for it. My next battery will likely be lithium --- and may be soon.

In preparation for this though, I needed a battery monitor. Which means I needed a shunt. Oh My Goodness! Cary --- serioulsy, I am never going to play a game of competition tetris with you!!!! Is there an extra inch of storage that you havn't eeked out?

I wound up putting in a Victron smart shunt....I have to say the Bluetooth range is not as great as I'd like but it is more than adequate. I'm having fun trying to figure out just how much power I use and need. Don't give an IT guy more data points unless you want him to giggle

I'll be posting something about this once I have some time to play with it a bit.

 

Sweeney.

You know we lay awake at night trying to figure out how to use that extra 1" of space. That is the mission for sure.

I knew you would have to have a battery monitor with more data points. Ha! This made my day.

Cary

 

I bought a Chinese meter ($40 ALI ) that gave me volts, SOC in %, amps in/out. Which would have been enough. But I couldn't fit the display anywhere. I even made a couple of 3d printed housings trying to make it look right. But it just wouldn't fit!

I thought about putting it where the voltmeter is but figured it would be difficult to read, and I'd ultimately rely on the Bluetooth anyway, so I settled on the smartshunt.

Even the sunt-only solution was almost too big --- right now, it's 'floating' back there next to the battery. I want to mount it, but with my kilbasa-sized fingers I think I need about 30 degrees and a lot more sun.
Then I can think about tackling the VE.direct and python scripts. Thats for a time when I care a little more than I do right now. The Bluetooth/app will work fine for now.

I do not like being absolutely tied to an app

 

Sweeney,

Did you drop down your electronics tray? To do that, take out the battery. Then the wooden panel with the fuse panel, volt meter and DC switch has two screws that hold it in place. Take those to screws out and pull the face out and down. That will drop down the tray to access all the connections. The tray is pinned into the cabin wall by two tabs that go into slots when putting it back in place. Is there room in the tray for the shunt?

Cary

 

No, I hadn't. The smartshunt is HUGE. What will I find under the battery? Although keeping it as close to the top as possible is smart. The Bluetooth range is pretty bad on the smartshunt --- 0-15 feet from the back of the camper. Not a big deal, but I don't want to get it buried further down in the faraday cage than it already is.

 

David Rossiter noted some folks on forums elsewhere reported using Victron smart shunt "attached to top of battery" ...IIRC. (Not sure how-duct tape?)

Does your bat-tree compartment have room enough?
In my 2010 I can remove a thin board floor for battery to rest on crosspieces for an extra 1/8"...

But then again I dont have the dropdown panel with DC fuse which was 2011 onwards...so you may have less clearance.

Does the heat if any generated by current flow have a deleterious effect on the bat-tree?

 

I’ve scheduled 931 a trip to the mothership to get a new bat-tree and the electronics that goes with it. I also ordered the DC fridge.

 

I have a non-victron smart shunt attached to my batt with industrial velcro and reinforced by a new 2” battery cable on one end.

It all seems very secure, but I’m not sure I can recommend it until the trailer leaves the garage and we put some miles on it.

Somehow I’ve shoehorned in a 100ah victron agm, a ctek 12v charger, and the shunt into the battery compartment. I did have to make custom 10ga cables along the way. Now I have to stop! There is NO MORE ROOM! I’m not sure the 1/8” (3/16?) I could gain from removing the battery shelf would make a difference.

Note that both the ctek and shunt are in the battery compartment because punching new wiring through the countertop seemed hard. But what I did was also hard… hmm.

 

I saw your photos when I was looking into this I'm probably going to put my shunt where you put your ctek. On your camper, I'd be slightly afraid to even touch a screw there for fear of an explosion, not because of battery gasses --- just stuff trying to get back out

The factory installed my CTEK, and it is in the right-hand side cabinet --- I emailed Cary separately; I need to figure out how to get 12 volts to the configuration lead to tell the charger what kind of battery I'm using. Why they not just use a switch for this, I don't know. I suppose it's about keeping the enclosure sealed from water infiltration.

I have a couple of upgrades I want to do to the camper....

1. Upgrade the charger, I'm using a lot more power than I thought. Also, I am considering lithium. I'm still not 100% sold on it as a necessity. But I know I will be doing more camping at primitive spots this year.
   
   
2. Add a 'Fire pit' that isn't wood based. As much as I love a wood fire, there are times when you want fast heat and not necessarily for hours. Something like this tripod torch looks really interesting.
   
   
3. DIPing (paint with removable paint) the camper to give some protection against road salt - I wish I had done this last summer. I would have gone camping next weekend, but there's snow forecast -- which around here, even for a dusting, means they refresh the salt and add molasses to make it stick better.

For what it's worth, I just ordered the tripod fire kit. I'm going to try using the QD port, with a 1lb hose end, using a "steak saver" adapter to fee the additional regulator -- It will work or be a complete abysmal failure and I need to put a 'y' on the tank when I intend to use it, and the stove or a grill.

I know what shunt and monitor you used --- it looks nearly identical to Victron except for the price and software. I looked at it seriously and probably would have purchased it, but it comes from a smaller company than Victron. I hope that Victron will support the smartshunt for years as the phone OS's are upgraded. Both Android and IOS.

I am also fairly certain I'm going to upgrade to add the 10amp charger to my camper regardless. When I turn on all my stuff --- fridge, fan, lights, computer(s), phones...I'm just barely keeping up I know that is peak use and that during 'slow times' , I'm still charging --- my battery has never let me down.

This, I suspect, will be the last of the upgrades for a while.

 

Thanks for sharing Sweeney. I really appreciate it as I know you do your homework and have the tech understanding to adapt whats out there beyond the CampInn OEM, which all in itself is insanely smart tech background...so I'm lurking and learning.

One thing David Rossiter said about the LiON battery was what pushed me over the "buy now" edge: he found with car charging while driving mixed with remote camping along the way on his epic CA-AK-Canada cross country and back trip that he often never needed to set up his solar panels; he got 3-5 days on one Li charge alone. Yours and my POWAH needs are a bit higher I would guess..
And the Victron BT capability also gives the ability to see what item is consuming what amount along the way...

I'm still pending my next big trip while now working feverishly on home projects with first priority but in the meantime following yours, Seths, Davids and Tours and other's lessons learned on MOAH POWAH!

Oddly enough the AGM bat-tree that I thought I killed is still hanging in at 11.5v per the cigarrette plug in meter, with apparently "some" light making it in to the factory rooftop solar panel under the cover while parked in a shady corner of outside RV storage lot...dont even ask about my garage, pls...

Now I gotta figure out how to pull that AutoW fuse...
To see If thats drawing parasitic power...

 

Thanks for the kind words --- now if I can just figure out how to make money with it

I fully expect that I won't need solar on travel days either. Typically I drive for 8 hours, which should be more than enough to keep even a lead acid battery charged. According to Cary, the LIFEPO4 batteries charge even faster than the lead acids. You have to put more power into the battery than it will accept, and LIFEPO4 has much less "resistance"

I did just get off the phone with Cary; I ordered the shore power charger.

With the compressor running on the fridge (the biggest energy draw), brake controller, lights (usually 2 or 3 at 1 amp each) plus the onboard media server and laptops plugged in, the battery is now required because I'm pulling more than the shore power charger can supply. Now, of course, when the lights turn off and the compressor isn't running, I've got more than enough capacity to top off the battery. But there are times --- even when plugged into shore power, I'm depleating the battery.

If your AGM is at 11.5volts -- it isn't healthy. It should be like 13 when 100 state of charge. Depleaing down to 12.1 volts is as far as I would ever want it to go. 11.5 is only about 10% charged...that is when there's no load on the battery.

The Victron was super easy to install and configure, its pretty insightful to know how much power I am using.

The shunt install is super SIMPLE. There are tons of videos on how to install them.