new electronic gadgets

Month ago I ordered two cool electronic gadgets that will be installed in my RV/camper Vanagon. Both are electronic kits to be assembled at home in a DIY fashion. I like soldering such kits and that's why I ordered them in such form (I might purchase them already put together).

The first is a electronic thermomether, capable of measuring temperatures in two points, with two sensors. It has two-colored LED display, one color displays the first sensor's temperature, the second the other.

Why do I need such thermometer?

I always wanted to know the inside and outside temperature. To know how cold it is in the evening and how warm it is inside my camper. One of the sensors will be installed inside, probably will be attached to one of cabinets. The other I will attach to the radiator or the coolant hose to measure also the temperature of water reaching the radiator. I am not certain if my cooling system works properly, so I need something that will let me know if it fails. The original temperature gauge is not enough -- I destroyed one engine while looking only at this gauge.

Read the rest of new electronic gadgets.

Gel batteries removed

When I bought the gel batteries couple months ago, I was lectured on how to work with them to extend their lifespan. I was told that gel batteries don't like to be exposed to temperatures below 5°C (41°F). This is important at the moment, when the temperature is going to drop below that threshold for a long time.

Because of that, I took the gel batteries from the camper to the basement in the building I live in. I had to disconnect all the wires that were bolted to those batteries, but that was not difficult.

I am supposed to charge them once a month. I brought the charger along, but I am not sure if I can find any electrical socket in my basement...

I must figure two things out:

• there is no lighter socket in the dashboard I have, and the extra sockets I use were connected to those batteries,
• I carry one small solar panel installed in my camper's window, but at this moment it does not charge anything -- maybe I can use it to charge the starter battery?
  

Solar power 1

This is an english translation of an article that was posted originally on the polish version of this blog on june 22nd.

With a bit of help from my father-in-law I managed to work on my solar power system couple days ago. Today I finally managed to write a post about it with some photos and schemes. I want to describe the current status of the solar power system, and to write a bit about the future of the system.

According to our plans, we're going on the first part of our summer holiday on july 6th, the next monday. I don't have much time to finish the work with supplying all the electrical devices with electricity from the solar panels.

From Volkswagen Transporter T3

The first thing I did was to put two gel batteries in one of the cupboards of the camper. I wanted to fit them under the driver's seat, but there's no enough space there. I connected the batteries (parallely) to the solar charge controller, unfortunatelly using cable with cross-section much smaller than suggested by the controller's manual. The controller can be seen on the right hand side of the photo -- it's the black plastic thing hanging on the white wire.



On the second solar panel my father in law soldered two connectors -- male and female, one will be used to supply power to the charge controller and the second to connect the two panels together (parallely).



Here you can see the cable from the panel connected to the one from charge controller.



The solar panels aren't attached to the roof yet. In order to use them, I'll have to manually put them in sunny place...



...and connect together. This was the best I could do. Until they're permanently fixed to the roof, I won't connect them permanently to the charge controller.

To be honest, I have two independent solar power systems. Two sets of batteries, two charge controllers, two sets of solar panels. The scheme of all this looks the following:



On the left hand side of the drawing you can see the new solar power system: two solar panels, 40 W each, and two gel batteries, 38 Ah capacity each. On the right hand side, the old solar power system, the old solar panel (10 W), old charge controller and old battery. At the moment, all the appliances (shown as an icon of electrical bulb) are connected to the old battery, using quadruple cigarette lighter socket.

"reg.ład." is a short for regulator ładowania -- solar charge controller.

I want to add a couple of extra parts to the system and make it look the following:



The most important part of this system is the set of two gel batteries, charged with the two solar panels. To this solar charge controller I will connect all the camping appliances: radio, lights, fridge, water pump. The older part of the system will work as emergency energy source, will be connected manually to the rest of the system.

Directly to the batteries I will also connect:

• inverter, shown as 12-230, that will supply 230V AC power to my laptop computer and TV tuner,


• gel battery charger, shown as 230-12, that will charge the batteries whenever I will have the 230V power supplied to the camper from external source,


• additional battery charge controller, SLA40, that will start charging the gel batteries when the alternator makes enough electricity.

Most of the appliances must be connected via charge controller, that will disconnect them when the voltage in the battery drops below safe level. The inverter has this security measure built-in, so it might be connected to the batteries directly.

I already have the inverter, the 230V charger and new wire to connect it all (4mm² cross-section area - 12 gauge!).

Preparing solar panels

As I mentioned here already, I plan to power all my camping electric needs with solar power. That's why I bought two 40 W solar panels with solar charge controller in february. Since we plan to spend three days living in camper during this weekend (starting on friday), I need to put everything together. Even if it all will be only temporary.

On monday I bought two gel batteries, 38 Ah capacity each. They look just like ordinary car batteries, only the connectors are different. Even the weight is similar -- those weigh 13 kg (29 lbs) each.

From Volkswagen Transporter T3

Today I spent about an hour soldering the cables together. The most important task was to solder the cable to the second solar battery (the first is already in the camper). I am not good at soldering, you can easily tell after a look at the photo below.



A bit about the cables I used here. The solar charge controller's manual recommends using a cable that has area of cross section of 4 mm² (AWG 12), but I only had 2x0,75 mm² cable for loudspeakers. So I used two pairs of this cable, removed the isolation from the ends and twisted the wires together. When I buy the proper cable, I'll connect it to the small parts of the cables I soldered now.

To the end of the cable from the solar panel I soldered a male connector used in RC toys and airsoft replicas. The connector is supposed to withstand the current of even 30 A, a lot more than I plan to put through it. 30 A with 12 V voltage is over 3 kW, and my solar panels give only 90 W (2x40 W and a small 10 W panel).



The female connector I soldered to the cable from the solar charge controller. I bought this cable yesterday, not the one I would like to have, but I had simply no choice. When I buy the proper cable, I'll simply replace it.



The same cable will be used to connect the charge controller to the batteries. I connected two pairs of wires to the controller as the batteries will be connected paralelly.



I left two things to do tomorrow in the camper:

• solder the connectors to the cables attached to the solar panel I have in camper,
  
• find a place for the batteries,
  
• connect the controller with the batteries.

I wonder if the soldering iron will work with the 12/230 V AC/DC converter I have in the camper and the battery that's used there now.

New stuff in my camper

Last week we had the last wednesday of april. The last wednesday of each month is a time when group of VW T3 (T25 / Vanagon) owners from Warsaw meet at 8 PM. As Tomek already has his T3, we decided to attend the meeting for the first time. I drove my camper to work in the morning and at 4 PM (after work) drove to Tomek. We wanted to install a couple of things to my camper, scavenged from my second Volkswagen -- a red/cherry multivan I bought two years ago to donate its engine and gearbox.

First of all, I wanted to install the speedometer with odometer. The one I have in my camper was broken -- I fixed it but it broke down again. We couldn't swap them as the wire that makes the odometer work was connected to my speedometer with thread and the one from multivan had only snap connection. We will also change the wires in near future. When the meters were removed, Tomek installed me two small details -- parking break indicator and one small green light that is supposed to indicate something when you tow a trailer. They were not connected, though. We plan on replacing the entire front board with the one from the multivan -- it is of very nice brown color, with light brown upholstery on the floor and air distribution canal between the seats. For now we only took the steering wheel from the multivan and installed it into my camper -- now I have smaller, thinner brown wheel with large button for car horn. The one I had before had the button broken.

I also replaced the two little thingies that hold the foldable shades above the windscreen. Unfortunatelly I have no idea what are the names of both. The camper had those thingies broken, so it needed to be replaced.

I scavenged a fluorescent light from the multivan and will install it soon to the camper's roof cupboard (the one above the bed). It'll be used for reading and in case of emergency repairs of the engine.

And finally -- I got another (3rd) chrome hubcap. I need only one more -- this one was found by Tomek's fiancee.

I will post here photos when I resurrect my Picasa and upload those photos to the web album.

Today I checked the pressure of the summer tires I installed recently. As usual it was well below the correct value. It should be 2.7 and 3.3 atmospheres on the front and rear axle and was 2.0 on both of them. Now it's 3.0 and 3.5, respectively, as I always liked to inflate the tires a bit more than the recommended pressure. It helps to save fuel. ;)

Winter tires bought

I wrote some time ago that I wanted to buy winter tires. So I bought them, that's why we had to go to Łódź recently.

I bought on Allegro.pl (the polish alternative to eBay) a set of four steel wheel rims and four Barum SnoVanis 185x85xR14C tires for 400 PLN ($110). One of the tires was broken, so I called the local workshop and asked if they could sell me one such tire and install the wheels on the camper. For that tire, installing it on the rim (with balancing) and putting all the wheels on the camper I paid 254 PLN ($70).

I left the camper in the workshop for a bit longer than I planned, but I'll write about it in the near future. ;)

Solar panels for my camper

I wrote here several times that I have solar panel and solar charge controller connected to second battery in my camper. They all are parts of my solar camping set. But solar photovoltaic panel able to give only 10 W peak power is not enough to fuel all my electrical needs in the camper.

So I bought two additional solar panels, 40 W power each. And another solar charge controller, as the one I have would not be able to manage the current from those panels.

They were brought here on thursday, wrapped in bubble wrap, cardboard box and black plastic. When I cut throught all the layers I saw the following:

From Volkswagen Transporter T3

Those panels will not give me very much power, only about 300 Wh daily.

Solar battery charging

Everyone knows what happens to car batteries if the temperature is below freezing (0°C, 32°F). They don't give any power to the starter. From the scientific point of view their capacity drops a lot when it gets colder. For the driver it means one -- he can't start his engine and has to walk in the cold. It is especially difficult for diesel engines as they need to be warmed by glowplugs before they can be started and need a lot of torque in the starter (as they have high compression ratio).

Since I have my camping solar set, I wanted it to charge the battery that's used to start the engine.

My solar set consists of the solar photovoltaic panel, auxillary battery (under the passenger's seat) and a charge controller. This controller has three sets of connectors: source of power (to charge the battery), the battery and the devices to be powered from the battery. If the voltage in the battery is high enough, it allows the devices to use electricity. If not, the devices are disconnected.

I used the third set of connectors and attached a plug that's compatible with cigarette lighter sockets. If sun is shining, it charges the auxillary battery along with the standard one.

That's why when I leave my camper on the guarded parking near my apartment, I leave the solar panel under the windscreen. And why I chose a parking space with a lot of free sunlight.

From Volkswagen Transporter T3

New camping battery? Not right now...

I thought I need to buy new camping battery. The one I have installed in my camping solar system works poorly. It discharges itself very fast... I thought it was couple of years old and it reached it's lifetime. I wanted to buy a new battery.

Since we have to pay some deposit when I purchase new battery (it's refunded when I leave the old battery in the shop), I took the old battery from the camper and wanted to buy a new one. In one of our local shops the new 12 V 45 Ah battery was sold for 150 PLN (less than $60). But one small detail grabbed my attention and saved me the money.

A small plastic envelope is glued to the battery. Inside that envelope is a piece of paper with warranty and user manual. And the warranty has the purchase date written on that paper. When I read that date I was very surprised. I found out that the battery was purchased last year, on august 10th! So the battery is not old, it might only be broken. Or... just needs to be charged fully and will start working.

So instead taking the battery to the shop, I carried it to my apartment along with rectifier.

From Volkswagen Transporter T3

The battery was almost completely discharged. I am afraid the lead plates inside the battery are covered with sulphur and the battery will not work properly. But if it's broken, I'll try to get a refund or new battery from the manufacturer as the warranty is valid for another year.



The photo shows the rectifier does work. I hope it'll charge the battery within a day or two...

New pump and faucet

So I have new water pump and faucet. Nothing very difficult, just some $50 spent, two pair of wires cut and new devices soldered.

There'll be only one photograph. These are the pumps: old versus new. The red is obviously the old one. ;)

From Volkswagen Tr...

The new faucet looks exactly the same as the old one. But works differently.

The old one had to be turned clockwise to start the pump. At first the turning caused the valve to be opened, further turning started the pump.
The new one needs to be turned counter-clockwise. Like ordinary faucet or any other valve. :) Turning the valve starts the pump and after some further turning the valve is opened.
Small diferences, but mean a lot...

See for yourself. :)

Holidays in Kolobrzeg - photo summary

I posted here some info on our summer holidays near Kołobrzeg. Now it's a good time to summarize the entire trip. I always liked photos and made some, so I'll post selected photos as a good summary.

From Volkswagen Tr...

You can see here the camper's cupboards filled with food and clothes. We hardly managed to put everything inside. :)


I like this closet, 'cause it allows the clothes to hang almost freely. And it is really huge (compared to space in my VW T3). I think I'll add a mirror on the inside of the door.


Bikes attached to bike mount. If you'd like to buy such bike mount, contact me, I have one spare. :)


This 12V->230V electricity inverter is an important part of my camper's electrical equipment. But on this photo it was used by my dad to charge his cellphone from his camper's battery.


The bed is large.


The first evening.


The first evening (cont).


Mig-21's we saw on our way to Borne Sulinowo, on an airfield close to Nadarzyce.


In the Borne Sulinowo. These buildings were part of russian military base.


Second day of our trip, road somewhere between Borne Sulinowo and Kołobrzeg. It's a result of asking GPS software to find the shortest route. As you can see, the road was very narrow. I was glad we didn't have to pass any other cars... :)


That's me, removing the back cover of my fridge.


Faucet.


The back of the fridge. You can see how precise the removal of cupboard's back was. You can also see my camping battery and solar charger.

repairs on the campsite (2)

When I wrote the last post, I thought I'll have every important appliance in the camper working. But things changed since the day before yesterday.

Fridge

The absorption fridge works only on gas. It doesn't work on 12 nor 230 volt electricity. I have no idea why. I removed the back cover of the fridge cupboard only to see that the power is delivered where it should be. The 12 volt heater conducts current, but doesn't work. I don't know why, I have no equipment to see what's wrong. I tried to see if the 230 volt heater works, but only got electrocuted. For the lack of tools I tried to check that using standard lightbulb.

Pump and faucet

Both worked yesterday. When I wanted to put the faucet together, I thought it'd check the last time if everything works. I forgot to put inside the part that closes the water flow, so the water fountain made everything wet. Including the switch that had to be cleaned when the faucet didn't work. I thought it just needed to dry and will work. I was mistaken. The next day the switch worked great, but the pump did not. So not every important appliance does work...
The photo shows me tightening the screws that hold the couch's hinge.

We're leaving tomorrow. I had enough of cold sea (today the water temperature was 11'C - 52'F), messy bathrooms and stupid rules on this campsite. More details on the latter - in one of future updates.

Preparations

Tomorrow I am going for my wife, the day after we're going to Kołobrzeg on the Baltic Sea coast. Yesterday and two days ago I spent some time with my camper, preparing it for the trip.

I started with the most important issue on saturday. I had to check if the camper's 230V electricity worked. I am going to use it intensively during our holiday to power my electrolux camping refrigerator, laptop computer and probably some other stuff. I bought a connector that allowed me to connect my campervan to standard socket which can be found on polish campsites (and in our homes).

From Volkswagen Tr...

Then I had to check if there's any electricity inside the van. I put a lightbulb in my only 230V socket. As you can see, it worked.


The next stage was to clean the van and make some room in the trunk below the back seat. I use it for the most important things such as:

• jack,
  
• toolbox,
  
• a box with lightbulbs, connectors, fuses and some other electrical stuff,
  
• a box containing screwdriver and some bits,
  
• compressor,
  
• some spare parts,
  
• some wires,
  
• unused (yet) loudspeakers.

When I finally dug out the trunk and was able to vacuum it I was very proud.


To make some room in the camper, first I had to throw everything out.


The gray bucket is my camping bin. The black vessel with two handles in the back of the photo was a pot for a christmas tree I planted with my wife on my piece of land at the beginning of may. The shovel and scythe (you can see the wooden part of scythe on the photo, just under the fence) I use on my land and never have time to store them anywhere else than in the camper.

Getting camper prepared for summer trips

Since it's already summer on the northern hemisphere, it's time to get camper ready for any summer trips. Since it was broken last year, we missed our opportunity to go somewhere with camper and had to use my daewoo lanos and sleep in a tent instead. My Vanagon camper is at this moment operational, but not yet prepared.

First of all, we need to change the engine oil. The engine is at it's break-in (it was put together not more than 500 km / 300 miles ago), so the oil needs to be changed.

Second important thing (I'd say it's the most important on the to-do list) is to find out why the engine leaks oil. I have to determine at what rate the oil is being lost. I can go somewhere with leaking engine, but I have to be sure when to pour some extra oil in the engine. I also need to know that this leak won't become greater after some time... We guess that oil leaks from the turbine.

Those are the two most important things. But there are some other things that need to be done or should be done. Or even could be done.

The less important things are:

• install some new speakers in the camper's doors,
• put together the rest of extra wiring for leisure electric devices,
• get a new camping battery, preferably a gel type battery,
• check if the camping 230V electrical wiring works fine (I bought today on the internet an interface that can be used to connect the camping plug to standard socket that can be found on polish campsites).

We plan on going to Kołobrzeg somewhere around july 24th. On 25th-27th there's Sunrise Festival - a well known polish house and trance music festival. We plan to go see Armin van Buuren and Markus Schulz on 25th. After that we'll probably stay there for a couple more days, to sit on the beach and sunbathe (we could even go swimming!), or go somewhere else and stick around there. We'll probably take our bikes along (good thing I have an original bike rack for Vanagons (actually I have two of them -- interested in getting one?)) or do something else for fun.

On this weekend I plan to visit my parents in their summer retreat, and work a little on the camper. On thursday I am going to meet Tomek and take a look into the engine. We'll see what we'll come up with.

I have to complain...

I am not satisfied with today at all. So I'm going to complain here, maybe I'll feel a bit better. ;)

Somewhere around the 12 PM we went to Jeruzal, where I own a piece of land I want to build a house on. Nothing worth mentioning. We visited my future brother-in-law and then to my future parents-in-law. As last time -- to eat and to work on my camper.

I planned for today the following:

• install the CB-radio speaker,
• install the lighter plug sockets (the one I mentioned in april),
• check the tire pressure,
• check why the camping water pump doesn't work.
  

During this trip my gearbox lever broke. Before I finally found out how this mechanism works I wasted more than 20 minutes. I thought that the lever disconnected itself from the horizontal rod that changes the gears in the gearbox. I lowered the box that holds the spare wheel, didn't see a thing, went back inside the camper and finally was enlightened! It is held by some spherical hinge: a ring with spherical inner surface is fitted to the floor, two halves of a sphere (and a spring between them) are attached to the lever.The upper sphere half had to be pushed against the spring to touch the lower half, then both of them had to be pushed inside the ring.

When I arrived at my destination, I started to work on the speaker. The amount of work is difficult to describe. First I had to find a hole to put the cable through. Then find a good spot to attach the speaker itself, using three bolts. I drilled 3 holes, screwed on one bolt, the second broke. I decided to use 2 bolts instead of 3, enlarged the third hole and broke another bolt while trying to screw it on! So I had to make another 2 holes, this time big enough. I broke only one drill... The cable was put through the hole next to gearbox lever.

The speaker does work very nice, especially when I turn up the microphone gain knob.

The lighter plug sockets were attached almost immediately. I cut the plug, removed the cables from solar charge controller, connected the cables with the ones from the socket, attached again to the controller. I had in mind connecting a long cable that'll be later used to power additional stuff in the back of the camper, but left it alone for today.

The work with the pump was even easier, 'cause it wasn't broken. When I turned the faucet knob, the water flushed from below the faucet. So I thought that I have to find this leak and seal it with something. I decided to remove the entire sink / stove plate from the drawer, to take a look from below. I removed 8 bolts that held the sink / stove. I couldn't lift it. So I removed two nuts that attached the gas valves to the metal plate, bolted to the drawer, and eventually the metal plate itself. Nothing changed. I tried to disconnect the metal pipe that fed gas to the valves, but unsuccesfully. Then I took a good look inside and found out that the faucet itself prevented the sink / stove from being moved! So I tried to disconnect the metal element that secured the water hose on the faucet. When I removed it I still couldn't remove the hose.
And then I saw where the water came from. The faucet's arm was made a hollow pipe and one of the holes was closed with some plug. This plug was missing. I made a temporary plug out of pencil rubber.
I didn't have to waste an hour to see where this water comes from...

And of course I forgot to check tire pressure.

Photos will be posted later.

Shopping for camper stuff

Tomek promised me, that I'll get my T3 Camper this week. Yesterday, today, tomorrow... On monday guys from the repair shop were supposed to put the engine into the body, because they had their lift repaired. Tomek went to Germany and will be back tomorrow, I guess they didn't do anything with the T3 and I'll probably get it next week.

Nevertheless, I ordered some stuff at Allegro.pl (the same thing as Ebay, but polish). I bought some stuff that I want to be installed in the T3.

First of all, I need to get all the electrical wiring done. At this moment all the electrical stuff is powered from the single, mail battery. There's another battery, attached to charger and solar panel (my camping solar set). I want all the camping equipment to be powered with this second battery. I have 12/230 V inverter at home, bought it last summer. I will also do some wiring for 12V devices. CD-player, CB radio, refrigerator, lights, water pump -- it all needs to be powered from the second battery. I'll add two quadruple lighter sockets, they'll be very handy, especially in front of the bus. Cellphone charger, GPS receiver charger, CB radio -- they're all powered with lighter plugs.

I bought some stuff for my CB radio. A new rubber ring for my magnetically-attached antenna. A speaker to be installed below my bus so I can yell at other drivers and pedestrians using the CB's microphone. :)

I have some other things planned for future purchases.
First of all, I need a good secondary battery. If I will have enough money, I'll buy a gel battery of large capacity. Enough to power my laptop computer for two-three days, couple hours daily. :)
I want to replace as many lightbulbs with LED bulbs as possible. Of course, the camping light above table is fluorescent, but the light above driver's head is an ordinary bulb. I want to add some light in the back of the sleeping space -- it'll come in handy when I want to read a book or repair something in the engine space (engine is located below the mattress). The taillights will probably have bulbs replaced with LEDs. I also'd like to purchase some LED daytime running lamps.

We'll see what will happen with my VW T3. I wanted to drive my camper on the first may weekend (we have national holidays on 1st and 3rd of march and because 3rd is saturday our employer gave us also 2nd off) somewhere, but now I don't know if I will do this. I don't think that everything will be done on time. But I bought all the stuff mentioned here, because I have some extra money at the moment. Better shop now, when I have some cash than later. ;)

VW T3 tuning on Discovery

Volkswagen busses, including T3s are tuned even on Discovery Channel!

Yesterday I saw two episodes of "Wheeler Dealers" on Discovery Channel. In those episodes the guys tuned Volkswagen T3.

It was a typical cargo van with 1.6 turbocharged diesel engine. Since the show is made in UK, the car has steering wheel on it's right side. They wanted to make a beautiful camper van out of it. It was bought for £1,100, in poor shape. The muffler had many holes, one bumper was missing, the side door was not working properly, stuff like that.

They started with the engine. They replaced the V-belt, glow plugs (the engine didn't start the each time, muffler and oil. Total cost: £160.
The door was fixed. They installed a window (one that can be opened, not like the window in my camper :( ) bought on a scrap-heap for £50.
They wanted the car to look very nice so thought about getting paint done. But instead of painting some weird shapes and patterns with the paint, they bought large vinyl STICKER! Beautiful sticker with some bubble pattern, for £1,000...

The most important thing was to replace the insides of the van. The old upholstery was changed -- they removed old one made of fiberboard and replaced it with plywood. I think they also should put some styrofoam to minimize the heat losses (important while camping in autumn or spring). They installed a folding bed (made from DIY set), the floor was covered with artificial grass. Set of camper furniture pieces (folding table, cupboards with sink and stove). The front suspension was lowered (the springs were replaced with shorter ones), the wheels got polished caps.

Totally the conversion cost was near £4,000. :)

Too bad I didn't have the chance to record those two episodes. :(

Camping solar set

From Volkswagen Transporter T3

The photo above shows my camping solar set. It is the beginning of what will power all my camping appliances. I am going to power all the camping stuff (refrigerator, lights, water pump, even CD player) from second battery, charged with car alternators and also with solar panel).

The solar panel can be folded and put in backpack. It has connectors (gray, can be seen on the photo) which allow it to be connected paralelly to another photovoltaic panels (paralelly - the same voltage, but more power). The solar panel also has connector for plugging car lighters, for example I can put there my cellphone car charger.

The charge controller has three sets of connectors: one for battery, one for solar panel, one for the stuff that's to be powered with the battery. It protects the battery from being discharged too much but also from being overcharged and discharged by solar panel during the nights.

For now, the set consists of old (not fully operational) 45 Ah car battery I used in my Fiat 126p, charge controller, solar photovoltaic panel and LED lamp (made of LED bulb for home halogen lamps).

In future I'll install there bigger battery and connect all the camping equipment to it. Perhaps I'll buy a 12/230V inverter?

The day of unfinished business

I planned some very important things for today. We're leaving with Ania for our summer holiday. A long awaited one, so I had not much time to do many things.

First I wanted to put my tuning headlights, the ones Tomek bought for my birthday. They are made for Volkswagen Golf Mk II, so were supposed to require some extra work to fit them.
The second thing I wanted to do, was to put together a solar charger for my camping battery.
The last thing was adding taps for both clean water tanks and connecting those taps with a hose. This would connect them together and thus "double" the car water storage capacity.

Let's start with the beginning.

The lights were more difficult to be installed, because they have bolt holes in wrong places. Only two of three bolts were used, the third point of contact with the frame was made with a piece of wire. They're tilted clokwise by couple degrees, because the holes were in wrong places. They're installed, but I'm not satisfied with the results.

The solar charger was to be connected to my second car battery (an old 12V 45Ah capacity battery, from my Fiat 126p), solar battery, solar charge controlled and a LED lamp, connected by some wires. I wanted to connect all this stuff to existing car wiring, so it would be charged by car's alternator while driving. I didn't make the lamp (I had only a LED bulb and some switch, didn't have the time to put it together), so this makes the job only half done.

I removed windshield washer fluid tank. As I written some time ago, it has broken pump. The second pump I connected to the wires also didn't work. I checked both on an external battery, they are operational. I checked if the wire has enough power to move the pump but was unsuccessful - I saw that it does have some power, but couldn't measure the voltage because I had only a test bulb and no voltage meter. The job is not done at all, though I wasted some time.

I had no time at all to install the taps on the tanks. :(

Camping stove/refrigerator

My Volkswagen Camper is equipped with refrigerator and gas stove. The refrigerator doesn't have a compressor, because it is absorption refrigerator. It's powered by heat source, not by electric motor. The heat source is electric heater or gas burner, so it can be powered by LPG from gas tank, or electricity, both 12V DC from car alternator / battery or 230V AC from grid.

The refrigerator is large enough to fit some stuff inside. But I am not sure if it works as it should. From what I saw to this moment, on 12V it does a nice job, but on gas doesn't work as good as on DC.

The stove works very fine. It has two burners. I bought a small kettle so I can boil water for tea on Warzywniak meetings. While I am driving, the kettle is placed in the sink, for safety.

All the burners are equipped with auto-shut-off valves. It protects the passengers from inhaling the gas if the flame extinguishes. I am glad that the car almost 30 years old has the technology that was introduced to polish homes couple of years ago.

Below is the photo of the cupboard that holds stove, sink and refrigerator. After folding one of the sides of the second case it makes a shelf for preparing food and stuff. The front side of this cupboard is equipped with 230 V socket. I am not sure if it does work...

After opening up the roof one can stand inside, prepare food on the stove, wash the dishes, as long as there's water in two 10 litre (2.64 gal) tanks. ;)

From Volkswagen Tr...