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loving retirement

SF Bay Area

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Posted: 07/05/10 04:27pm

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VWvan, In your diagram of the sofa bed micro-switches and diodes you explain that the current is flowing with the arrow in the diode symbol. It is my understand that the only thing that is moving inside a wire of a completed and powered electric circuit, is electrons. In an electrified circuit electrons will flow from the negative power terminal through the completed circuit to the positive terminal (unlike charges are attracted) which means they would be flowing against the arrow in your diode symbol. Is not current flow - electron flow?

WVvan

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Posted: 07/05/10 04:34pm

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I'm sure everything you write is true BUT From the wiki page on Electric Current

Quote:

A flow of positive charges gives the same electric current as a flow of negative charges in the opposite direction. Since current can be the flow of either positive or negative charges, or both, a convention for the direction of current which is independent of the type of charge carriers is needed. Therefore the direction of conventional current is defined to be the direction of the flow of positive charges.

I'm using the conventional current notation.

Open the pod bay doors Hal.

Once I exit Hal, this is what I do.
WWW.WVBIKE.ORG

WVvan

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Posted: 07/05/10 05:02pm

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Sofa-bed continued:
I've tried to come up with a way to explain how everything works together. Hopefully this all makes sense.

The sofa-bed is in the sofa position. The switch is in the off position. Both limit switches have wires running to the NC (Normally Closed) terminal on one side and the COM terminal in the other side. There is only a complete current path through the switch if it is in the Open position. The two diodes directions are opposite of each other. Both the Drive Actuator and the Lift Actuator are in the fully extended position.

Flipping the switch down begins the conversion to the bed position. Power goes to the Drive Actuator which begins to retract. This causes the Seat Platform to starts to move forward and the Back Platform to slide down the Back Support. With limit switch #1 closed and the diode stopping current flow the Lift Actuator doesn't move.

In the diagrams I'm using red to represent positive and black to represent negative with current flowing from red to black and blue shows no current flow. It's not really accurate but I think it works well enough for this explanation.

Once the Drive Actuator has retracted enough it allows limit switch #1 to open. I've placed the switch so it opens only after the Back Platform has cleared the Back Support. With the switch open the Lift Actuator starts retracting.

As the Lift Actuator retracts it lowers the Back Platform. This in turn causes limit switch #2 to close. This shows the purpose of the diodes. With the closed limit switch the Drive Actuator would stop moving except now the diode gives the electric current an alternate path around the switch so the actuator can continue to retract.

Both the actuators are fully retracted and the sofa-bed is now in the bed configuration. I show the power switch in the off position but that's not really needed. The actuators will shut themselves off after either fully retracting or fully extending.

The power switch is now flipped up to convert the bed to a sofa. Only the Lift Actuator is energized at this time. Notice the diode with limit switch #2. When the Drive Actuator was retracting this diode allowed power to bypass the limit switch. But now that the current is flowing the opposite direction this same diode prevents the Drive Actuator from extending. The practical purpose for this is that I don't want the Seat Platform to start to move until the Back Platform has risen enough to clear the Back Support.

The Lift Actuator has raised the Back Platform far enough for limit switch #2 to open. This applies power to the Drive Actuator so both are now extending.

As the Drive Actuator extends it will cause limit switch #1 to close. This is the same situation from two drawings back. Even with the limit switch closed I still want the Lift Actuator to keep extending. So this shows the second diode doing it's stuff.

Both actuators keep extending until the sofa-bed is back in the sofa configuration then they shutdown on their own.

That's it. If it needs further explaining just let me know.

continued -

WVvan

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Posted: 07/06/10 10:44pm

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I'll give this a proper write up when I've farther along but got this finished tonight before dark.

Cut a hole on the inside of the rocker panel under the van

Use the cutout to reach inside the rocker panel and drill a small hole through to the outside of the van.

From the outside use the small hole as a guide to cut a bigger hole.

Install diesel fuel inlet.

It's a gas van. The diesel will be for a heater.

I started with just the tape measure then before you know it looks like a hardware store.

While the chromed diesel inlet looks pretty cool, the view from under the van shows I still have a ways to go.

* This post was edited 07/08/10 09:41am by WVvan *

McZippie

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Posted: 07/07/10 12:03pm

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What brand and model of diesel heater are you installing?

Tow Vehicle - 2009 Ford 6.0 Diesel - aka Walmart Boondocker
Toad - 2010 Jeep Rubicon Unlimited

Info Clicky

WVvan

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Posted: 07/07/10 12:39pm

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In general a Webasto Air Top 2000 D (diesel)

In particular, this one:

doughboy81972

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Posted: 07/07/10 10:52pm

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ok I could be wrong but that is written in German how do you know what is says and if it is like some of the European cars it is a powered ground sorry lost my thought

Steven 35
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IL Rallies attended

WVvan

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Posted: 07/08/10 08:11am

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Webasto is a German company but they have an American branch.
Webasto US webpage

The company also has a tech web page where you can download all the different installation and operational manuals in English .

This is a link to the installation manual for the Air Top 2000 (pdf).

The unit has a negative ground.

There is another German company that makes a similar product. The company's German name is Eberspacher (the "a" should have two dots on top) but they use the name Espar in America and Canada.
Here's Espar's web page.

* This post was last edited 07/08/10 08:37am by WVvan * View edit history

McZippie

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Posted: 07/09/10 11:00am

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WVvan wrote:

Next week I'm getting an Espar Airtonic D4 installed under a sofa/bed. http://www.espar.com/html/products/airtronic4.html

WVvan

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Posted: 07/18/10 11:56pm

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Sofa-bed continued:

I'm going to finish the End Pieces of the sofa-bed with Formica. I've not really messed with Formica before so this will be a learning experience. All I know I learned from reading the Internet and the back of the contact cement can. Anyone reading this who wants to point out my mistakes go right ahead. I sure do.

Warning: I learned this the hard way. If you bend Formica too far it will snap. The problem is the broken edges. They can be as sharp as a razor blade. If you're not careful it will cut you long, deep and awful.

Here is full sheet of Formica as I brought it back from Lowe's. Take a friend or get a sale associate to help you roll and tie the sheet. It's a lot harder than it looks.

First things first. Disassemble the sofa-bed. Paint what won't be covered with Formica. Thanks to landyacht318 for pointing out that I need to also paint the unseen bottom edges of the plywood furniture. Else if you spill water it could be absorbed by the plywood and cause it to swell.

Before you unroll the Formica be sure to sweep the floor clean. I'll come back to this.

The sheet is 4' X 8'. It takes up a good bit of space.

Mistake number one. I made a point of cleaning the floor before I began. But I forgot to mind the string that I cut off the roll. Sure enough it fell below the Formica and I happened to step right where the string was. That small knot is all it takes to make a crack in the sheet.

Here's Bob pointing out my mistake.

Bob loves to gloat.

Lay out the pieces I'll be covering on the sheet to get the best idea how to cut it up. Then mark the sheet with pencil. You cut the Formica so it's larger than the surface it will be applied to. The edges are trimmed down later.

The sheet was too large to feed through my table saw. To cut it I stacked four 2x4's in sets of two to raise the sheet off the floor. Place the cut marks between the two sets of 2x4's. Then used a circular saw to make the cuts.

This cutting method works well enough since the pieces will be trimmed later so the cuts don't have to be exact.

If you're using a circular saw you're supposed to cut the sheet from the bottom side to reduce chipping at the cut edges but I don't find the chipping to be that bad.

I was unable to cut around the small cracked spot but I arranged the pieces it so it shouldn't be visible when all's done.

continued -

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