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tonight I had to figure out how to get an 8-pin ethernet cable to work with a 6-pin connector. I had already inspected all of the components for the install earlier – about a week ago. At a future date a junction box will be installed in the attic and the 14-3 trench log wire will be wired in to provide a 12V power supply to the cabin.Īs the night was coming to an end I decided to plug in a short cat5e cable to the double ethernet outlet I just wired in to the wall. Two 14-3 trench log cables were also run down from the attic through the wall to be buried between buildings. Why the madness? We have buried gas and electric lines already in place that we cannot cross, so we have to get the lines over to a place where we can run them out the garage wall and then run underground to the cabin without the risk of crossing other buried lines. Two ethernet lines were run up the wall, through the garage attic, then down the wall again. Next there was some less glamorous, and less photo worthy work to be done. After making a shim out of a thin scrap of wood, I was ready to install the shunt. I hammered one flat and drilled out a second hole. And there was the answer, some old 4/0 heavy copper lugs. In the drawer are remnants of other installations: spare wires, swedge tool, latex gloves, dielectric grease, spare muffin fans, and… ah ha! some spare copper lugs. In order to form a bridge between shunt and main negative lines I had to dig into the off grid parts drawer. In hindsight, I really didn’t need to stack two copper bars to make a single functioning bus bar. Secondly the bolts are not long enough to make it through my double copper bus bar. First off, there is no room to bolt directly. I would simply bolt one end of the shunt to the bar, shim it a little so I could secure it to the wall, and then attach the main lines to the other end. Originally I figured it would be a simple matter. I went to work right away on installing the shunt. Why the deadline? Because tomorrow we have reserved a trencher from the local hardware store (local means a 45 minute drive). The first order of business was to install all the hardware that we could before tomorrow morning. DC means no inverter between bulb and battery, thus a super high efficiency illuminated novelty. I have a wild idea for one of the 12V lines, that may gain support from the ol’ man, to hang a railroad lantern or boat lantern (something with colored glass – a combination of blue, green, red, etc…) and put a 12V LED bulb in it to make the most epic nightlight ever. The second ethernet is for redundancy – to ensure that this is the last trench we dig between the two structures. We will be placing two ethernet lines and two electrical lines so we can add 12V lights to the cabin in the future. In order to link the monitor and the shunt a trench is being put in between cabin and garage. The gist of it is this: a Victron BMV 600s battery monitor is being installed in the cabin and linked via ethernet to a shunt (with onboard computer chip) that is to be placed on the negative main line in the garage. She has a beautiful web with a single long strand going up to a half curled leaf with a fly spun up for a late night meal.Īll right, enough – on to the battery monitor installation. I got lucky and caught a stunning high resolution image of this big girl. On the way in to the cabin, on the back roads, I saw this spider from the cab of the truck and we had to snap a picture before moving on. and spending 4-1/2 hours on the road we arrived at the cabin. The second group to tour the plane, that was me and the ol’ man. and we were in line a few minutes before nine. And for the aviation geeks out there, we got to tour the cockpit and rear fuselage of the only airworthy B-29 Super Fortress left in the world. Don’t think us lazy or slow to get going, we were walking around the EAA grounds in Oshkosh, WI at 7:30 a.m. Dad and I arrived at the cabin around 4:30 p.m.
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