theboondork's RV blog

I got physical

8/4/2019

You camera on the back of a Palomino Bronco

The precariously mounted wireless camera on the back of the little Bronco. I didn't want to mount it there but the mount it came with only works properly on a horizontal surface. I'll have to be careful about going under any low hanging branches.

Today is when I get my hands dirty, where things get real, where push comes to shove, and your Depends get pushed to the limit. Yes I'm talking about, power tools, making holes in things, and holding 12 volts of raw power in my bare hands. I tried that with AC power once and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Today is not for the squeamish, the namby-pamby, or the guys that wear skinny jeans, don't shave for three days and think they have a beard.... Today I get physical.

If my preplan, plan, and post plan, have gone according to plan then I'm done with planning and I now have a concrete plan that's written in stone.

All of the tools that I need for this project have been gathered together in one place for ease of access... After a couple of hours of looking I finally remembered where that place was.

I measured the exact location of the single hole I needed to drill in the roof of the camper for the power wires to pass through to the interior. The first hole was slightly off, but after three or four tries it was exactly where it needed to be.

I quickly and easily tapped into an interior power wire using an interior tandem wire splice device to provide power to the camera. Now the only thing left to do in the camper itself is figure out why the camera only comes on when I blow the horn.

Since hooking up the camera only took a couple of hours that left plenty of time before dark to hook up the camera's monitor in the truck. The monitor was a more difficult installation because it had three wires with it instead of two like the camera. But despite that complication I got the wires hooked up in two shakes of a lamb's tail and had a beautiful color picture of what was going on behind the camper. I haven't had a chance to road test it yet because I can't get the truck started, it appears to be an electrical problem.

I think this shows how DIY projects go much smoother when you follow the 3 P's, pre-plan, plan, and post-plan, actually I think that's 5 P's. I expected this project to take at least two days but thanks to the 3 P's, or 5 P's depending on your hyphens, I got it done in just short of 18 hours.

That gives me me plenty of time tomorrow to have my truck towed into the shop to figure out why it won't start and how come my electric windows won't stop going up and down. I have to admit the windows are fun to watch.

theboondork

Remember anytime you're dealing with electrical wires neatness counts.

My new view from inside the truck. This will make it a lot harder for someone to sneak up on me.

4 Comments

Tim link

8/7/2019 01:12:34 pm

Hey Tom,

I was out of town last week, so just getting caught up reading your blog post. I'm really curious to see how your camera does on the truck camper as opposed to the Arctic Fox.

I won't be back to my rig for another couple of weeks, but I'm in the process of planning for another few much smaller projects that should only take a few hours each (which usually means all day for me).

It's funny about my upcoming retirement; in some ways it feels like it's decades away and in other ways it feels like time is zipping by and it will be here in the blink of an eye. I am feeling confident now that I have a firm date, which I'll tell you about when it's a little closer (I'm regretting not having already gone, so I don't think there will be "one more year").

Tom

8/7/2019 07:58:26 pm

Good to hear from you Tim. I haven't mentioned this in my blog yet so you'll be the first to know. The camera is working great, in fact it's acting just like my wired camera, and I'm assuming this is because the two antennas are a lot closer together than they were on the Arctic Fox. I didn't use a ground plane or anything special I just screwed the camera to the roof of the little Bronco and set the monitor antenna on the dashboard, and even though the antenna fell over because I didn't fasten it down the camera still works fine.

I always measure my projects in days no matter how easy they are. This saves a lot of frustration when things don't work out the way they should.

If you want to see time go zipping by just wait till you become a full timer and you find out you love the freedom to come and go as you please. Time travels at the speed of life and nothing will speed up your life like waking up happy every morning.

Late fall is a good time to leave cold places and head South. When it starts getting chilly stand outside your office looking up at the sky, and when a flock of geese fly over heading South run back in the building yelling, the geese are leaving! ! the geese leaving! Run into your bosses office, throw your resignation on his desk, say I've gotta go the geese are leaving, run out to the parking lot get in your truck and drive away. That way everyone at the office will think you're crazy and be glad you're gone. Always burn your bridges so there's no way to go but forward.

Tom

8/8/2019 11:50:32 am

Hey Tom - Glad the camera is working so well on the truck camper. Maybe there is just too much metal in the Arctic Fox for the wireless cameras. My wireless camera does fine sitting still, but I'm not sure how it's going to do going down the road (which is where I think you had your troubles).

Yeah, every project seems to always take at least a day. In my house, I would have several projects going at one time. For the RV, I've been keeping it to one project at a time and totally finishing the first one before moving on, which has worked out well and kept the disorganization to a minimum.

I really like your idea with the geese. The only issue is that with all the things going on lately, it would be frowned upon to act too much like a crazy person (Ie, I might get shot). So, I'll have to take your idea and modify it slightly into a letter to HR. "To whom it may concern - the geese are leaving, the geese are leaving. Therefore, I regret to inform you that I must follow my flock. Yours truly". Then I go jump in my truck and take off.

BTW, thanks for the laugh with the geese idea. It's been a relatively rough few days and I needed a good laugh. At least, I think you were joking about the geese. Right? Right??? :)

8/8/2019 01:41:09 pm

I figure the wireless camera didn't work on the Arctic Fox because of things between the Camera and the monitor, or the distance between the camera and the monitor. It could be my camera brand is just too low powered to go that distance, but their advertising said it would go that distance and farther. But it didn't even help when I put the aftermarket antennas on it and relocated them to better positions.

Yeah they worked okay sitting still, it was driving down the road that caused the problems which could indicate some kind of interference from the truck. But yours may not do that. They're probably a different brand so you may have better luck than I did with mine.

Your letter to HR sounded so professional they would probably find a way to talk you into staying. When you're ready to go it's best to go without the ugly scene of the boss crying and crawling on the floor grabbing your pant leg as you try to walk out the door, this is an old trick designed to elicit sympathy from a new retiree and is usually good for at least a six month job extension.

I modeled my new life after Geese and their migratory habits, if a Goose is smart enough to go south in the winter I like to think that I'm at least as smart as a bird, there are those that disagree, and often as not those that disagree are usually sitting at home in 3 feet of snow while I'm sitting under the shade of a Saguaro, it helps if you're tall and thin. So pack up the Arctic Fox before it snows and follow the Geese. Where they land you will find warm weather and a whole lot of other Snowbirds like yourself who will likely tell you if asked, I wish I had retired earlier.

Tom

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I got physical

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