fearful / curious

It is a common to hear the the van-curious say they are scared of  [fill in the blank].  I rarely get involved in these discussions because “you can’t reason someone out of a position they didn’t reason themselves into”, and the fears are rarely evidence-based the fearful typically overlap with the learned helpless, and that

theme juggling

sorry about the design change[s]. Trying out some themes to see what shows links reliably. Could have been altered in CSS easily but wordpress doesn’t allow that in the free sites. And the theme doct typically don’t show link colors because they are too busy vertically integrating the mobile experience for syncretic, engagement-forward experiences, or

bullsh1tters

In the last week I’ve run across two people who seemed to be more interested in yammering on and parroting misinformation than in understanding the situation or helping people. One turned out to be a salesman, and the other was a consultant. Yeah, I was totally shocked. One time in the mid-90s I had a

why no one should buy the $120 Renogy 100w solar kit (flash sale)

This terrible kit is on sale.  Yes, it’s substantially discounted from the normal price but it’s still terrible. Don’t buy it. Let us consider the cluelessness here:  mono panels are a poor match for PWM/shunt controllers, due their higher voltage (and hence lower current at a given rated wattage).  The kit would make 6% more

adding solar panels, pt 2

{I actually started this yesterday but the terrible WordPress block editor ate it} The previous adding more solar post was top of mind yesterday, but the overall idea has been kicking around ever since my solar harvest fiasco in the Oregon NF.  I was in a relatively open area but so surrounded by tall conifers

when does it make sense to add more panel?

Real scenario: a fellow had 2x 195w on PWM for 200Ah of AGM and pondered adding more panel if the 390w proved insufficient. IMO, 3x 195w is better than 2x 195w in pretty much every situation (maybe it requires a larger controller), but let’s join the discussion in progress to see how much better and

chirp via flatpak

“Debian testing” has remove python2, and chirp hasn’t been updated to use python3 yet. You can use the repo version (from Feb 2020) or do it with flatpak. I have little experience with the latter (and wanted features not present from Feb); here’s how it’s done: install

Amazon sale: Renogy 100Ah lithium $630

The Renogy 100Ah LiFePO4 is on sale. My FLA golf cart batts are still kicking (797 deep cycles as of this morning) so I’m not in the market right now. My guess is this means they will be releasing a newer model and want to flush out the supply chain. Sounds like a good deal

3rd Thanksgiving in the campervan

It’s only been 27 months, but because of when I started (Aug 2018) this is the third Thanksgiving. My gratitude has been so fundamentally recalibrated that I feel grateful pretty much every day — Thanksgiving doesn’t seem particularly special, but just another day to appreciate a good life. I find myself continually grateful for: solitude

hard freeze flushes me out to Q-town

For the second time in a few days I woke up to temps in the teens. It was 25F inside the van and the water system froze (no damage). From past experience the van is about 9F warmer in the morning after a cold night, so I’m guessing it was 16F. I vowed to start