TrimetricSaves the Day Again

[BFL13]

Still working on things getting the new to us 1991 Class C working right. Trimetric monitor saves the day again!

Had to replace the busted dash radio with an old radio/CD player from a scrapped vehicle. Wanted to have that powered by the house batteries instead of the starting battery so I can play CDs off grid without having to fire up the DVD player and inverter. Got that all wired up after a struggle.

Turns out the replacement dash radio/CD player uses 1.0 amp while playing on the four speakers (one in each door and two in the RV part-one on each side) --as seen on the Trimetric. So now I know to turn it all off when not listening to it.

The fridge light was burnt out when we got this thing. Got a new lamp, one of those glass fuse looking things, and it draws about 1.6 amps. Found that with the fridge door closed it still did. Oops!

There is a push button fridge lamp switch at the bottom that is supposed to be pushed in by a part on the bottom of the door, but it doesn't reach to push the button. Solution was to jam a blade fuse into the thingy on the bottom of the door making it stick out farther, and now it pushes the button closed.

As seen on the Trimetric. You can't see if the fridge light is on or off with the fridge door closed, but the Trimetric can tell! Ta da!
Saved again by the Trimetric. 🙂

[Almot]

They are not just "thoughts", BFL. Observations.

A few tips you can still learn, things that you understand and did before, only in a different way. Try learning at substantial level something completely new and unrelated. Like Spanish. Or if Mex tried learning Cantonese. This is what physics and electricity are for people at this age if they never learned it before.

The saga with your new old MH will likely not end with the fridge light. When you are enjoying what you are doing, you don't want it to end, that's the problem. It's not about "getting there". I envision a few more episodes - portable solar, battery upgrade and/or alternator 🙂

[BFL13]

So the latest crisis in this saga, is that when I leave the Dometic fridge door open when not camping so the fridge does not get horrible inside by leaving the door closed, the light stays on. Didn't happen with the Norcold in the 2003 5er. Don't know why not. The light in it worked.

I pulled every fuse in the DC fuse panel and nothing happened with the fridge light. Stayed on. On shore power. So maybe when I by-passed the 6300 converter and kept the old fuse panel (doing the jumper trick you do for that), I maybe by-passed all the fuses? Can't be right. No idea.

So yet another new chore to add to the list for getting things working right in this 1991 rig. 😞 (I do like this rig though, so no hard feelings, really.)

[MEXICOWANDERER]

(Jacques Clouseau) "And furthermore..."

Even a nerd like me studies information on this thread...BFL13, performs a lot of home-brewed tests and exercises worthy of study. Others conduct projects and post information. With electro-chemical the results of a reaction can be surprising.

Not related to this thread is my five hour read about EMP events and one Sandia National Labs synopsis that utterly discredits many reports of transmission and grid damage in Hawaii from the Johnson Islands nuclear atmospheric tests.

I'll say this again...

"When a person stops learning, they start dying"

Boondocking is not a "Hands Off" plug & play event. Some effort is necessary to resolve problems and questions. I seem to lose interest in flash-in-the-pan newbies who show up for finger sandwiches blaring a disclaimer avoiding exertion and effort only to disappear when the tray is empty. Many times without so much as acknowledgement of efforts by others to help them.

Enough preaching -- back to >50Kv/M

[BFL13]

Almot wrote:

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
...

Don't go hard on them. People who skipped science classes in school and didn't go to college - or graduated with something like MBA - don't know anything. After certain age you can't learn new things anymore, memory retention drops to zero.

Please don't post such nasty thoughts into a thread of mine. Thanks.

BTW, nobody who finds his way to rv.net is any kind of idiot. And BTW, I am 75 and still learning lots of stuff from other posters here. And there are folks here in their 80s doing the same thing.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

A fallacy. I crammed learned LED engineering in a little over a year at age 62. If they want to learn they will -- if they want to persist in 101 excuses, well they will. An MBA or MEE does nothing except impress upon an individual how little they know.

I do not know C++ so I avoid getting into a position where knowing it is mandatory. I am poor at political science, law, the humanities, and the arts. I don't go there either. Which is a lot more sensible in insisting I wade into the muck then yelling for for help. "Oh wait. Law. Well I don't want to read about it but I need help. Show me where to place my feet".

This has -nothing- to do with folks asking questions about troubleshooting. It has everything to do with asking how to fix a problem with a grave reluctance to spend a nickel on diagnostic tools. "What do I yank and then if it doesn't work, what next?" followed by a recommendation to purchase a basic common sense tool, followed by silence or worse, more questions about where to place their feet, is the issue. People who are helpless have an innate inability to perform fundamental diagnostics. They should not enter an arena like boondocking that is anything but plug and play -- UNLESS they are willing to exert themselves just a little.

And I promise to stay the hell away from C++, carpentry, and hairstyling...

[Almot]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
...

Don't go hard on them. People who skipped science classes in school and didn't go to college - or graduated with something like MBA - don't know anything. After certain age you can't learn new things anymore, memory retention drops to zero.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

I lose interest rapidly when a person demands to know what is wrong with their system after refusing to purchase simple meters, and learning how to use them.

It is nothing more or less than sheer laziness.

Don't want to learn? Don't want to invest a little time and money in meters? Head for a power post.

I didn't WANT TO learn plumbing. I didn't WANT TO learn basic carpentry and basic refrigeration, and insulation. But common sense prevailed. I spent time enough to make the right decisions by learning.

People who don't want to learn remind me of moochers who whine and plead to borrow a common two-dollar tool.

Snarl - Snap

[BFL13]

I got my Trimetric from bestconveters in Dec 2010 at the usual price plus shipping. So it is seven years old. $30 (Can.)/year so far. 🙂

Didn't really need it; very glad I got it. Use it a lot. Now is a "must have". There are other choices.

I take the point that not everyone knows what they are, but too late to change the thread title now. Point being that an ammeter is a "good thing".

[Almot]

westend wrote:

Mex has it right on the LED's. I bought many with the most common vehicle adaptors included. The price was the same as bare bulbs.

My fridge bulb burned out after keeping the door open few minutes when cleaning the fridge. Got a pair of LED lights with same base-type for a price of my old bulb. Now I wouldn't care less if it stayed On all the time, very little heat and current.

In a few years it will be difficult to even find 12V incandescent bulbs.

Some locations should not have lights with door switches because you don't see when it's On. Removed one from the gloves compartment in my car.

The "Ode to Trimetric", however, should be understood in the context that the author didn't have to buy this expensive toy but rather salvaged it from the previous 5-er, and also the fact that there is no solar charging in January in coastal BC and plenty of forest all year round. Yes, it also measures amps 🙂

[DiskDoctr]

Fuse Buddy is what I used to test the draw of each CIRCUIT, and by turning on only one device on that circuit, could tell what each item draws. I did this when installing my LED conversions.

I have same ones as Westend, I think. Pretty sure it was his recommendation for that seller, thanks!

Fuse Buddy



Plug it into your fuse location. You can put your fuse into the Fuse Buddy, but I just use a larger fuse that I leave in it to speed things up 😉

VERY NICE for finding parasitic draws in camper, vehicles, etc 😉

[westend]

Good for you BFL!
Mex has it right on the LED's. I bought many with the most common vehicle adaptors included. The price was the same as bare bulbs. Purchased on E Bay through seller "2001_Leds",IIRC. BTW, if you buy a few and don't use all the adaptors, the included molex connectors and wiring on the unused can be used for powering other LED light fixtures.

[Almot]

Harvey51 wrote:
I respectfully suggest it would be clearer to non-experts in our community to call it a "battery monitor", perhaps mentioning that the Trimetric brand is the top of the line and most expensive one.

Yes, one of expensive monitors. Victron is another one. Not sure which one is the top.
Yes, $15-20 will buy you a battery monitor, and $40 - a resettable monitor. Reportedly, accurate.

A beginner that doesn't know what Trimetric is, might a) not need one, or b) not know what to do with this device and its readings.

Scenario "B" seems to be common. Accounts on how nice is to be able to measure individual draw of all your devices by using Trimetric, are not annoying to "experts" (I believe), but rather, amusing. Mex must be laughing his ars off.

Yes, any battery monitor will do this. Any $5 digital meter, in fact. Do we need to measure exact draw of each and every device? Not sure. Full battery in the afternoon is my priority (not a big issue, thanks to local weather and big solar). Oh, and the meter on my MPPT controller does show current draw with all the corresponding increases, i.e. 1A with only fridge cycling, 0.6A more when I turn kitchen exhaust, and so on. Not that it matters.

Yes, it would've been nice if car manufacturers put $3 voltmeter in, in addition to stupid light "battery OK / check the battery" which light is probably necessary for, er... some car owners. Same goes for Christmas lights panel in RV, with indicators "battery full/half/empty".

Btw, what exactly was the reason to keep CD playing through all 4 speakers when nobody was listening? 🙂 I'm probably getting old, must have missed something in this new to me technology...

[landyacht318]

ASD relay is Auto shut down relay and basically a standard 30 amp Bosch relay. If it does not get triggered, no fuel, no ignition, but engine will crank until the battery is dead. Dodge Van related, not RV battery monitor related.

I would not mind testing a 20$ battery monitor. A few years back I used a 15$ 100 amp rated shunted ammeter/voltmeter, that used the same shunts as these 20$ battery monitors now avalable. I could not calibrate it to read 2 amps and 40 amps accurately. It was one or the other.

Unless I could test one of the 20$ battery monitors myself, I would not put much faith in the amperage display, nor the AH from full readings and certainly not the % screen, if one exists.

But even if it is not so accurate, it is a heck of a lot better than only a voltmeter, or three lights.

[Harvey51]

Pardon this "dumb" post; my intent is to make RV.net more beginner friendly - not to annoy the more knowledgeable.

Say a beginning RVer wanted to buy one of these fabulous Trimetrics. Perhaps he would look up the definition of Trimetric

I respectfully suggest it would be clearer to non-experts in our community to call it a "battery monitor", perhaps mentioning that the Trimetric brand is the top of the line and most expensive one.

The best reference I see for it is right here in this forum.Battery monitor
Any decent battery monitor can show the current being drawn as well as the per cent of full charge - even the $20 ones. I love battery monitors and wish every vehicle had one for its engine battery. We just bought our first new vehicle in 14 years - it has all kinds of nearly useless things displayed but not even a battery voltage let alone a state of charge.

So what is ASD?