Office desk and music piano keyboard

The foldable office desk needs to be affixed to the wall. I added an additional horizontal support beam into the wall, which I used to screw the desk surface onto the wall. Got some help from the neighbor's kids, who helped pressing the desk onto the wall while I drilled the screw into the desktop surface from the bathroom.

Foldable desk and office chair now in place.

Adding support structures for shelves provided the necessary removable attachment upon which the music keyboard could  be place.

Now can play music! The neighbors' kids did enjoy hammering onto the keyboard.

Everything folded and secured in place for possible travel. Must be done everytime before the camper is driven.

Door latch

I did reposition the right door latch so that it would no longer interfere with the roller shutters. 

And I affixed the same door latch also to the left door.

Had to install another wooded bar inside the door to provide the necessary mechanical support.

Upgrade of electrics to 24V

The MPPT controller for the solar-battery system can only handle solar voltage of up to 80V. Since my solar panels are connected in series, this voltage will be exceeded. Currently the three panels produce an idle voltage of 66V. If I would connect the 4th panel, the voltage could be 88V.

This is in the 12V mode. If the controller would operate in the 24V mode, a max voltage of 160V would be accepted.

Therefore I decided to upgrade my system to 24V. 

And I went for a real upgrade: two LiFePO4 batteries from Amazon. LiFePO4 is supposed to be very safe, no fire hazard. Is currently the standard for RV and camper batteries.

Most of the 12V equipment can also operate on 24V: refrigerator, circuit breaker panel. The invertor needed to be replaced: I had a spare 24V inverter from my experiments with the solar system of my home.

The batteries arrive:

Each has a capacity of 100Ah. Together they have about 5 kWh capacity.

Connecting them in parallel.

The inverter.

Inverter connected to the battery.

Affixing the manual circuit breaker and the battery volt meter.

Batteries are connected.

Circuit breaker panel is connected.

Refrigerator is operating on 24V (25.6V).

Current temporary wiring of the internal battery-powered electrics.

The UK-circuit checker shows "missing ground" when connected to the inverter.

The 230V fuse panel, operated with converter voltage.

Settings of the selector switches: lower left switch:  1 = from extern power, 2 = from inverter; upper right switch: 1 = regular polarity, 2 = switched polarity (phase is on other line).

Power from solar panels when solar is connected to controller: 38.9V

Power from solar panels without connection to controller: idle voltage = 66.2V.

 

Travelling

 Visiting my friend Muth.

Shopping.

Sightseeing.

Having tea and cake on the balcony.

Inspection by the cats

My two cats inspect the camper for the first time.

Getting the van into travel and camper mode

The main living room is now in principle complete. A few things still need to be done: window frames, edge protectors, shelves etc. still need to be added.

But the kitchen is in shape.

The extractor still needs a connection to the outside so that the fumes from cooking can be guided towards the outside.

The living room.

The seating area.

And the TV is mounted on the wall, plus a few of the things that I collected over the past decades.

And at night with the party illumination...:

Enclosing the bathroom

For enclosing the bathroom, inside walls need to be built. Consideration is here both low weight and stability.

First a small vertical bar is mounted at the left side wall as an initial guide.

Important is that the wooden structure is attached to the stable metal structure of the roof.

Horizontal bars provide stability. Several of them are beech wood, known for its rigidity and hardness.

The panels are affixed to the wooden bars with small screws.

In the now enclosed bathroom a temporary self-contained wash basin with foot-punp and waste water container is placed.