Big Blue's Transformation

[ArdWrknTrk]

Well, that's disappointing. Gotta go with switched power.

How many milliamps is it drawing?

How many milliamps go into the meter, even without the LED's lit?

[Gary Lewis]

Gary, it's not going to do anything but basic USB unless the charger isnt getting the data "handshake" from a discharged device.

Adaptive charging is just that. There is a protocol between device and charger.

The voltage and current depends on the device battery's ability to handle it. And it will taper off as that battery reaches full charge because there are less ions readily available to move between cathode and anode... or they have further to travel, or....

Without the handshake, if you provide a load, any load, it's going to charge.

Jim - My point is that in its quiescent state it pulls 6 ma. And that is at least partially due to it having an LED that wasn't mentioned in the advert.

I don't want that load on the battery when the truck might not be driven for a month or so at a time. I'm sure there are other dark currents, but I don't want to add this one to them.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Jim - I'll think about that. Thanks.

Now let me go over my plans for the "power box". You folks have seen it before but there have been some tweaks so I thought I'd 'splain it this round 'cause I think I'll start building it tomorrow.

I've re-oriented the AC relay so it takes up less left/right room. And I moved the DC fuse to the bottom. Both of those changes gave me more left/right room for the chargers & power ports, and I spaced them out to take advantage of that space. So now I'm confident that as new tech for chargers comes along I'll be able to swap these chargers out for the new ones - if I see a need.

And with the fuse on the bottom the DC power will come directly to it and then fan out to the chargers and power ports above the fuse. DC ground will also come in there and daisy chains across the chargers & power ports as well as goes to the far lug on the right of the relay.

The DC switching signal will go to the nearest right lug of the relay. And the AC cord will fan out with ground going to the angled lug on the AC outlet, neutral going to the closest straight-out lug, and hot going to the closest lug on the left of the relay. A jumper from the next-in lug on the relay to the other lug on the outlet finishes the AC wiring.

I think I would try to have the AC socket facing up.

I know, I know things (especially liquid) would tend to drop in.

But if in motion I think the cord and plug are going to vibrate out.

Or worse yet, come partially out and present a live circuit.

Is there a reason not to reverse the relay and socket?

At the least I'd invert the socket so the ground tang of the cord is on top.

I hate that, but short of a locking plug in a moving vehicle it is what I think I would do.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Jim - My point is that in its quiescent state it pulls 6 ma. And that is at least partially due to it having an LED that wasn't mentioned in the advert.

I don't want that load on the battery when the truck might not be driven for a month or so at a time. I'm sure there are other dark currents, but I don't want to add this one to them.

Yeah, 6mA. I get it.

Do you have an isolated power supply where you can read how much your meter itself consumes?

I can say unequivocally my Aukey does not have a light, but does have the adaptive charging sockets.

On a side note my Meterman 33XR croaked a couple of weeks ago when I went to use it at my brothers house.

Constant tone and gibberish readout.

I need to consider its replacement.

[Gary Lewis]

I think I would try to have the AC socket facing up.

I know, I know things (especially liquid) would tend to drop in.

But if in motion I think the cord and plug are going to vibrate out.

Or worse yet, come partially out and present a live circuit.

Is there a reason not to reverse the relay and socket?

At the least I'd invert the socket so the ground tang of the cord is on top.

I hate that, but short of a locking plug in a moving vehicle it is what I think I would do.

Good thoughts, Jim. Thanks.

On the plug working out, I just plugged the compressor into the socket I'm using and there's a definite "click" as it goes home and it isn't easy to pull out. So I don't think it is going to work out.

But, there's no real reason the socket can't go on top, and that will ensure it doesn't come out. So I'll do some more CAD work to make sure the relay can go on the end w/o hitting the socket.

Probably won't get starting building the box today 'cause I spent quite a bit of time this morning on the phone re the switches, which I'll report on later. And I'm installing the charger in the ash tray, which is taking some finesse. Plus, I swapped steering wheels and the horn is going to take some minor changes.

Thanks! Later.....

[Gary Lewis]

Yeah, 6mA. I get it.

Do you have an isolated power supply where you can read how much your meter itself consumes?

I can say unequivocally my Aukey does not have a light, but does have the adaptive charging sockets.

On a side note my Meterman 33XR croaked a couple of weeks ago when I went to use it at my brothers house.

Constant tone and gibberish readout.

I need to consider its replacement.

I'm confused. The meter is in series and if anything it drops the current the charger would pull w/o it since it is a resistor/shunt. Right?

I do have the bench power supply, but the analog meter doesn't read that precisely.

Black Friday? I saw meters on sale some place very recently.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Good thoughts, Jim. Thanks.

On the plug working out, I just plugged the compressor into the socket I'm using and there's a definite "click" as it goes home and it isn't easy to pull out. So I don't think it is going to work out.

But, there's no real reason the socket can't go on top, and that will ensure it doesn't come out. So I'll do some more CAD work to make sure the relay can go on the end w/o hitting the socket.

Probably won't get starting building the box today 'cause I spent quite a bit of time this morning on the phone re the switches, which I'll report on later. And I'm installing the charger in the ash tray, which is taking some finesse. Plus, I swapped steering wheels and the horn is going to take some minor changes.

Thanks! Later.....

Receptacles are always tight when new.

But never for too long unless they latch through the holes in the blades.

Some household outlets I've had to change just because they won't support the weight of the cord itself anymore.

Don't get me started on how many expensive extension cords I've had to bin because they won't hold or the ground tang has broken off.

(Go look up the OSHA fines for having no tang or a replacement plug on either end and not a one piece -waterproof- molded cord)

[Gary Lewis]

Receptacles are always tight when new.

But never for too long unless they latch through the holes in the blades.

Some household outlets I've had to change just because they won't support the weight of the cord itself anymore.

Don't get me started on how many expensive extension cords I've had to bin because they won't hold or the ground tang has broken off.

(Go look up the OSHA fines for having no tang or a replacement plug on either end and not a one piece -waterproof- molded cord)

Ok, I'll move it to the top.

As for what I did today, I have way too many little things to put in one post so I'll break them up a bit. And first we'll talk about the USB charger. It came in today and I installed it in Big Blue's ash tray. But it wasn't quite as easy as that since the lip of the door hit the charger and wouldn't allow the door to close properly. So I filed the door's lip down until the door shut properly, and that probably took taking 1/8" off. So I'm really glad I went with a screw-in charger rather than a power port & plug-in charger as that combo would surely have required a lot of cutting on the door.

As previously reported the quiescent current on the thing is 6ma, probably due to the LED, so I'm going to change to switched power. And while I was thinking about that I wondered what kind of a push button I might have to latch a relay in with. Looks like there's plenty of room in the corners.

And about then the Anker USB-C to Lighting cable came in (yep, Amazon delivered at two different times today) and I wanted to try it out. So I borrowed Janey's iPad Pro, which was at 84% on the battery, and plugged it in. Initially the current went up to 1.6A, although I don't know what the voltage was and it can go up to 20v. After a bit it dropped to 1.3A, and then over 20 minutes it dropped to .5A, at which point the iPad was up to 92%.

So that's pretty much it on the charger.

[Gary Lewis]

Ok, I'll move it to the top.

As for what I did today, I have way too many little things to put in one post so I'll break them up a bit. And first we'll talk about the USB charger. It came in today and I installed it in Big Blue's ash tray. But it wasn't quite as easy as that since the lip of the door hit the charger and wouldn't allow the door to close properly. So I filed the door's lip down until the door shut properly, and that probably took taking 1/8" off. So I'm really glad I went with a screw-in charger rather than a power port & plug-in charger as that combo would surely have required a lot of cutting on the door.

As previously reported the quiescent current on the thing is 6ma, probably due to the LED, so I'm going to change to switched power. And while I was thinking about that I wondered what kind of a push button I might have to latch a relay in with. Looks like there's plenty of room in the corners.

And about then the Anker USB-C to Lighting cable came in (yep, Amazon delivered at two different times today) and I wanted to try it out. So I borrowed Janey's iPad Pro, which was at 84% on the battery, and plugged it in. Initially the current went up to 1.6A, although I don't know what the voltage was and it can go up to 20v. After a bit it dropped to 1.3A, and then over 20 minutes it dropped to .5A, at which point the iPad was up to 92%.

So that's pretty much it on the charger.

Next up is the steering wheel question raised on the Woodgrain horn cover with speed control [E1TZ-13A805-A] - NOS [relisted?] thread. Turns out that I have two later-model steering wheels, but only one horn pad and it doesn't have speed control buttons. However, since I'm not using the speed control right now due to a surging problem, probably caused by the top speedo cable, that's not a big deal.

So I cleaned the better of the two wheels up and installed it. But, as I started to install the horn pad I found that the later trucks are apparently wired differently than Bullnose trucks. As you can see below, the later pad has two wires that go to the connectors instead of one wire to the left connector and the other to the hole in the steering column like a Bullnose. And with that combo it wouldn't honk the horn.

Now here's where it get puzzling. Not shown in the pic is a metal "cone" that fits over the circle and screws to the three screw holes. And it comes in contact with the copper tab at the 9:00 position of the circle. Thinking that might be the ground I put it in place but still couldn't get it to honk the horn. Perhaps I didn't get it installed fully?

In any event, I modified the horn pad's wiring by cutting the ground tab off the Bullnose pad and placing it on proper wire on the later pad. And that worked.

So I installed the pad and took a pic of the later model wheel to compare with the Bullnose wheel. And while the pictures don't tell the story, there is a significant difference in the ability to view the gauges.

The pics don't show what the driver sees, and that took me a bit to figure out why - we have to eyes set several inches left & right from the camera's position. So I can see part of the AFR meter that is on the left side and part of the voltmeter that is on the right side w/o moving my head. And with the Bricknose wheel it doesn't take much movement of my head to be able to easily see either gauge. But with the Bullnose wheel I have to not only move my head left or right, but I also have to lean forward.

So I'm going to run the Bricknose wheel for a while to see what I think. Then if I like it I'll have to find a horn pad with speed control buttons.

[Gary Lewis]

Next up is the steering wheel question raised on the Woodgrain horn cover with speed control [E1TZ-13A805-A] - NOS [relisted?] thread. Turns out that I have two later-model steering wheels, but only one horn pad and it doesn't have speed control buttons. However, since I'm not using the speed control right now due to a surging problem, probably caused by the top speedo cable, that's not a big deal.

So I cleaned the better of the two wheels up and installed it. But, as I started to install the horn pad I found that the later trucks are apparently wired differently than Bullnose trucks. As you can see below, the later pad has two wires that go to the connectors instead of one wire to the left connector and the other to the hole in the steering column like a Bullnose. And with that combo it wouldn't honk the horn.

Now here's where it get puzzling. Not shown in the pic is a metal "cone" that fits over the circle and screws to the three screw holes. And it comes in contact with the copper tab at the 9:00 position of the circle. Thinking that might be the ground I put it in place but still couldn't get it to honk the horn. Perhaps I didn't get it installed fully?

In any event, I modified the horn pad's wiring by cutting the ground tab off the Bullnose pad and placing it on proper wire on the later pad. And that worked.

So I installed the pad and took a pic of the later model wheel to compare with the Bullnose wheel. And while the pictures don't tell the story, there is a significant difference in the ability to view the gauges.

The pics don't show what the driver sees, and that took me a bit to figure out why - we have to eyes set several inches left & right from the camera's position. So I can see part of the AFR meter that is on the left side and part of the voltmeter that is on the right side w/o moving my head. And with the Bricknose wheel it doesn't take much movement of my head to be able to easily see either gauge. But with the Bullnose wheel I have to not only move my head left or right, but I also have to lean forward.

So I'm going to run the Bricknose wheel for a while to see what I think. Then if I like it I'll have to find a horn pad with speed control buttons.

And now for the switches. I spent quite a while on the phone with a very patient Tina at Carlingtech. She helped me understand a lot about the part numbering system, including that only the first four digits of it are on any of the switches, so there is no reason to pull the OX switch out.

As for the legends, while they have hundreds of them I can't buy them since they don't sell to individuals. So I have to buy from a distributor and there's a minimum quantity of 10 if I want something that the distributors don't stock. However, there is a distributor that puts their own legends on the rockers - OTRATTW.net. And that stands for Over The River And Through The Woods.

I called and talked to Jim and told him what I'm doing. He, also, was very patient and helped me understand a bit more about it. But basically what I need to do is to peruse their website and see what they have, then call Jim back and buy the switches themselves awa the appropriate rockers.