Day: February 6, 2013

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A Strange Weather Day

I spent most of this afternoon at the McDonald’s in Port Lavaca until my Mac was fully charged. It was pretty pleasant until a teeming mass of high school kids came in and then the place just got too busy for me. The kids weren’t rowdy or anything and they took up the complete opposite corner of the restaurant, but their chatter filled the room completely. I was glad the laptop was just about charged so I could get out of there.

After the mega storm, the weather vacillated between sunny with white clouds and very overcast. It spit occasionally, but that was it.

I got home to discover I’d gotten 2% worth of charge and was sitting at a 88% battery capacity. Voltage readings were good, too, but that didn’t last of course. Voltage drops in the evening are crazy, I can’t even turn on two LED lights at the same time. I know my wiring and and connections are good so I’m wondering if the problem is the house wiring being too small.

I also now know that my fridge has to do with the low voltage readings I’m getting as it was OFF when I came in, probably because it was competing with the computer for voltage during the storm. I installed my thermometres and will make it a point to check the status of the fridge more regularly. All that to say, I got in and my voltage readings were 12.48 and as soon as the fridge kicked on, voltage dropped to 12.1. I just repeated the exercise, 11.7 with nothing on but the fridge, 12.3 with the fridge on. What a sneaky devil! It only consumes 0.5A, but it’s a voltage monster!

So maybe I don’t have as much of a problem as I thought this morning. That 12.3 reading is very close to what my battery monitor is saying right now. So my problem has to do with voltage drops. Anyone care to chime on that? And, again, all of my modifications were made with 1-gauge wiring in very short lengths. So my wire gauge and connections are NOT suspect!

At any rate, a good part of tonight was devoted to planning my trip!!! I’ve been so busy that I haven’t even had time to think about it! Unfortunately, the weather isn’t looking to be great, so I’m not too motivated to set off at the crack of dawn tomorrow. The plan is to wander down to Port Aransas to check it out and scout out the boondocking opportunities. Then off to Corpus Christi for the latter part of the afternoon to see what it’s all about. Then off to a hotel near the border for the night. The weather is too iffy to count on sleeping in the truck and a looooooooooong shower would be so appreciated!

I wasn’t able to get a good enough deal on Priceline, so I booked through Hotwire, where I found the cheapest rate of all, $44.15 (including taxes and fees) at the La Copa Inn in Harlingen. Reviews for it are fair, so I’m optimistic. It’ll be a 40 minute drive to the border on Friday morning.

My appointment with the dentist is at 1PM. I have good directions and plenty of time to find him. I will be able to explore in the morning, have lunch, and get in line to cross back at a reasonable hour. I plan to do a cannonball run to home in the evening, unless I get a repeat of Tijuana and get stuck at the border for three plus hours.

Wow, it’s late (10:00 p.m., ha ha ha ha I can’t get used to my new schedule). I’ll update from my hotel tomorrow night.

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Amazon Prime Shipping To General Delivery

I get free two-day shipping with Amazon Prime. They ship with UPS and it’s always been my understanding that a courrier company won’t deliver to a post office. So I did a little research and found a post on an RV forum by a guy who seemed to have all the answers. He claimed to have often addressed packages along the lines of “1 Big Bus Parked At the Hot Springs” and never had a lost delivery! His tip for Amazon Prime shipping to general delivery made sense and I decided to try it.

This is the format:

Your name
GENERAL DELIVERY
The street address of the post office
City State Zip Code

I placed my order late Monday and got my delivery confirmation this morning. I let the storm pass and then headed into town (hauling both computers to charge them at McDonalds, an expense that will be categorized under electricity and not food! But I digress.)

I told the lady at the post office counter that I had a general delivery package from Amazon (the boxes are distinctive) from UPS. She said that UPS had passed, but the packages were not yet sorted. She was willing to go have a superficial glance at the pile (was it really that big?!), otherwise I would have to come back tomorrow. She was gone about two minutes and returned triumphantly holding my box. Yay!

Part of my order was thermometres for the refrigerator and freezer, recommended by Andy Baird. My near disaster made me realise I should be monitor such things. I also grabbed a cheap keyboard for my iPad. I want to see if such a thing really will make me use my iPad even more before I splurge on a good one.

Now that I know that I can get Amazon Prime orders shipped general delivery, I will be making use of this service more often. I did feel safer sending an order to reader Pam’s mom in Houston, however!

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Does Voltage Matter?

Well, my battery happiness was short lived. 🙁 I hope that some of you are being entertained by the ups and downs of the electrical saga…

Last night, after dark, I shut down everything and watched a movie for a few hours. All I had on was the fridge, which draws about half an amp. No light, no computer. My battery monitor claimed that I was at 98% capacity in terms of amps available to me, but after two hours of resting, my batteries registered 12.3V, or 70% capacity.

I emailed Andy Baird to ask him what he thinks and he says that he hasn’t looked at voltage in years, relying only on his monitor, which has proven its worth. He reminded me that voltage fluctuates wildly depending on what you’re using and that it’s practically impossible to know the state of charge of batteries using voltage. So I should stop driving myself crazy looking at voltage readings. I thought I’d feel better, but I didn’t.

I awoke this morning to a battery monitor that says I should be at 96%, but voltage was just 12.0V or 45%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m charging the laptop right now while using it and my voltage has dipped down to about 10.5V and the laptop is going to take FOREVER to charge. I can’t even put a light on or the fridge cuts out.

These numbers have so shocked me that I went outside both last night and this morning with a flashlight to recheck all my connections. Everything is fine on that end.

My best guess is that I have already ruined my brand new batteries causing them to not hold a charge, which is likely combined with them probably not being truly charged after all yesterday.

I’m done. That’s it, the towel’s on the floor. Everything is hooked up properly so I’m done troubleshooting and tweaking and whatever else and I declare the batteries the winners. Congratulations, guys, you put up a good fight.