wayne drinkwater Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 Hi and first of all Happy Easter from NZ Just thought I would share a brilliant tip from our club flying site. We have recently built a shed at our club field to house things like the pegboard ( which gets less use every month due to the affordability of 2.4 sets) also things like the BBQ, windsock etc,but the thing that saves the day is a large truck battery which is kept charged by a solar panel on the roof, attached on the outside of the shed are two bus bars one positive one negative so should you have a flat battery you simply connect your 12 v charger crocodile clips and your batteries can be charged and the advantage is that you do not need to open up the shed, so you can pop down for a fly midweek and charge away ! The charging system is protected by a fuse so if the bars are accidently shorted nothing untoward will happen. I was very impressed by all of this but then I have been told I'm easily impressed, what do you think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Bennett Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 good idea, saves lugging your own charging battery to the field. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leccyflyer Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 Happy Easter Wayne, that is indeed a great idea. However NZ probably does not suffer from vandalism in quite the same manner as the UK. Such a system would be a welcome addition to any club site but the sad reality is that, at many locations, the busbars would be prised off the side of the club hut and sold for scrap, the solar panels would be smashed beyond repair and the door to the club hut -which now clearly contains something worth pinching - broken down. Likely to happen within acouple of months. Sad but true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 Its a very good idea indeed. I started reading this thinking "OK its not a bad idea, but what's so special about having a battery in the shed? Ah, its a solar panel charged battery - OK a bit nifty but still not that amazingly clever - Wayne is gliding the lilly a bit here". Then I read the bit about the bus bars on the outside of the shed - now that I haven't seen before. Constantly avbailable 12v at no cost other than the initial capital outlay - very good! And bus bars - not sockets, so presumably more than one person can "clip on" at a time. BEB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob..... Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 we have 3 panels on the top of our container,with a coach battery and 2 leisure batteries inside.we have a charging station (bus bars) inside and a unit that goes on the bench set when thats brought out.the amount of electric stuff in our club is pretty high,so they take a bit of a thrashing at times. we've not had any problems with vandalism to them,probably because you can't see them. other trrouble tho,used to have a wooden fence in front of the container which got broke down. we're pretty much out of the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Essef Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 Posted by leccyflyer on 08/04/2012 09:55:31: Happy Easter Wayne, that is indeed a great idea. However NZ probably does not suffer from vandalism in quite the same manner as the UK. Such a system would be a welcome addition to any club site but the sad reality is that, at many locations, the busbars would be prised off the side of the club hut and sold for scrap, the solar panels would be smashed beyond repair and the door to the club hut -which now clearly contains something worth pinching - broken down. Likely to happen within acouple of months. Sad but true. Leccy You omitted the bit where they set fire to the shed, presumably because they have'nt got one themselves. Heres a better idea, lets wire the shed to the nearby main grid pylon !!! ----- i'll leave the outcome and benefits of this excellent solution to individual imagination. Stephen Edited By Essef on 08/04/2012 10:29:42 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Claridge Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 shocking idea, but i like it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Bott - Moderator Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 Guys with the 12V busbars outside - can you get a photo or show how they are arranged? I keep wondering about a way to do this directly on my leisure battery so a few crock clips can be hooked up at the same time, but worry a little about clips swinging around and shorting out the battery, or something metal inadvertently finding it's way across the two connections. At the moment I have three 4mm gold sockets paralleled up on each terminal, and this is working well so far. Edited By Chris Bott - Moderator on 08/04/2012 14:33:50 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayne drinkwater Posted April 8, 2012 Author Share Posted April 8, 2012 OK I will try to remember to photograph the set up.Its just a couple of bits of copper tube flattened out and screwed to the shed the fuse is on the inside to protect it from the weather . We are lucky not to have vandalism here. although the sheep mess.can be annoying at times and our models need regular cleaning as do out boots and car tyres. No there is not much to complain about here in "Gods Own" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Skilbeck Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 We have the same problem with sheep at our field in the UK. We put up a small metal shed with a sliding door and one of the doors got vandalised by the sheep so we had to put up a small fence just to keep the sheep away from the shed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Olsen 1 Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 Well, speaking as another NZ resident, I suspect that it would be a mistake to assume that NZ has any less problem with vandalism than any other part of the world. The main thing protecting flying sites would be that they tend to be well out of town, and with not much there to attract attention. However there have been farmers in NZ who have gone out to milk their cows and found that the milking shed had no power, due to the copper power lines having been stolen. So I would suggest keeping things as unobtrusive as possible. At our club there is quite serious talk of putting in a small solar powered weather station with wireless data access. This would be good, as it is half an hours drive for me, and it is always windier there than at home somehow. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Hargreaves - Moderator Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 An interesting way to achieve this might be to cover the bus bars with those brush type draught excluders that you use behind your letterbox.....these would keep the bars hidden & protected from anything falling across them & would still allow a croc clip to be pushed through & connected to the bus bar..... Might that work?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graeme Poke Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 Here in good old Tasmania, not that far from NZ, we have that "set up" as well with fire proof benches inside and out. The battery is charged by solar panel and we have our weather station. Vadalism is not a problem because our strip is remote and difficult to find unless you are in the know. The only problem with the weather station I have noticed is that members often won't "risk it" and have become bit of sooks. The slightest hint of wind seems to put them off. I don't check myself as much now either since I was also wimpying it out at times. regards Graeme Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Bott - Moderator Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 Posted by Steve Hargreaves - Moderator on 09/04/2012 08:29:17: An interesting way to achieve this might be to cover the bus bars with those brush type draught excluders that you use behind your letterbox.....these would keep the bars hidden & protected from anything falling across them & would still allow a croc clip to be pushed through & connected to the bus bar..... Might that work?? Steve that's really quite a nice idea, particularly for busbars on the outside of a shed. Perhaps it's a bit bulky for my leisure battery though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Bran Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 As said, no chance of any of it lasting more than seconds. We share a site with Airsoft (the masochists version of paintball, we call it painball) and their fight round the "buildings " structures and food hut (always empty, no door, open counter) get regularly trashed. Recently three yobs were quite happy to carry on trashing them even with people around on site....didn't deter them at all.......then they got out their own paintball gear from backpacks and started playing..so they are not disinterested in the same sort of "fun", so why smash it up............. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olly P Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 Dave - I am also an airsofter, it actually hurts less than paintball.... If they are trashing your buildings have a word with the marshalls who ensure games are played to the rules and fairly, and ask if they can place your buildings out of bounds. Which site is it? I may know some of the marshalls/owners... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclicscooby Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 Posted by Steve Hargreaves - Moderator on 09/04/2012 08:29:17: An interesting way to achieve this might be to cover the bus bars with those brush type draught excluders that you use behind your letterbox.....these would keep the bars hidden & protected from anything falling across them & would still allow a croc clip to be pushed through & connected to the bus bar..... Might that work?? I was gonna suggest a 'T' shape plastic / wood strip, with the Top of the T screwed to the wall, and a bus-bar either side Top n bottom, separated by the sticky-out bit.. BUT.. Your idea of draught excluders is proper brilliant.. Thats Dragons Den type stuff.. Luv Chrisie.. xx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aky208 Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 instead of bus bars why not use banana sockets in the wall of the shed? alright takes a bit more setup and expense, plus members would have to source suitable connectors but definately no chance of shorting (unless you delibrately wire between them). safe from the weather and its not obvious for the vandals to take advantage of... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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