Christmas (and New Years) with the WIN's

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Spent Christmas and New Years with the WIN's, with friends, Diana did an excellent job as usual with reporting what happened in her blog, Life on the Open Road...

Food, bagpipes, gifts, and dancing for all.. special memories.


P.S. Just be aware of the planes spraying stuff in the air, we (Mom, pup and I) feel better now that we left.

A valiant sacrifice, my Hughes autoformer dies...

I am in Rock Springs, Wyoming, at my friends place, the one with the shop and all. If you remember, I blogged about the voltage problems last year while staying here. At the time it was low voltage, and the electric company changed a tap on the pole transformer to make things better.

My line voltage alarm went off while sitting in my trailer today, I was taking a rest, from a small welding project I did. I checked the alarm and it showed 137 volts, my inverter circuit had kicked in protecting my TV and computer, but the Norcold fridge is on the circuit and a few other things. I heard a pop and a hiss, and white smoke started filling the trailer, I have heard the pop hiss before working in electronics, and the smell was reminiscent of fried capacitors and/or transformers, I ran around flipping off circuit breakers and the main battery switch, the smoke continued filling the trailer and forcing me outside. I unplugged the trailer and waited for the smoke to disperse, rushing in to open my electric area, and rushing back out when throat and eyes started burning. My fans wouldn't work (I had turned off the 12v power.) Since I could not see flames nor smell burning wood, I waited a bit with extinguisher in hand. The smoke cleared and I could see my autoformer was smoking and had left some goo splattered around. I pulled the autoformer out, still hot and smoking and took it outside.


I pulled the autoformer apart, and checked the wiring and circuitry, I am unhappy, there were no MOV's in the unit, it appears they were not installed. MOV's are small self sacrificing components to protect from over-voltage and voltage spikes. Instead the autoformer sacrificed itself to protect the trailer. The goo is the transformer potting material that was heated into liquid goo and smoke.


The autoformer got hot enough to melt the vinyl flooring making it stick to the autoformer, the wood underneath is not burnt but has some goo on it.


If I had a Surge-guard inline this would not have happened, or if the autoformer had overvoltage/undervoltage protection. I have been very happy with my Hughes Autoformer and undervoltage problems up till this point, it seems it was an older unit that did not have the MOV surge/overvoltage protection. After my research it seems that Franks RV voltage booster has under/over voltage protection built in.

Also see I'm tired of RV resort excuses for Voltage

Fruity Ideas

Most people have heard about the new Apple I-pad that was just introduced, some people like it some don't. You know Apple has the I-pod with I-tunes, I-phone, I-touch, besides the I-pad.

All of Apples' technology is geared towards the younger generations, that's not to say that I can't use it, it's just not geared toward me. One of the complaints I've heard is that the fonts are too small, hard to see with "older eyes," the movements, flicks, taps, pinches and drags need to be quick, and we often don't feel like being "quick."




I'm marketing technology called "Prune" for obvious reasons. It's geared toward the large "retired" generation, using familiar movements and ideas, I'll have Prune (P) technology, I already have several items ready, there is the P-ad, which can be written on with the P-encil, the P-en or the Shar-P. I also have a cellular P-hone, which will take P-hotos, and my P-pods are nutritious and good to eat. I also have a P-touch, but I'm not going to elaborate on that function.

(c) Prune-Tech/Ron King/P-tech

I'm tired... of RV resort excuses for voltage

/rant on

Over half of the RV resorts I frequent have low voltage. I've seen voltages under 100 volts, when powering up the microwave. It's one of the reasons I have the microwave on the inverter side of the 120 volt system. RV techs warn RV'ers that continuous operation of motors under 108 volts will damage and shorten their life expectancy. I recently purchased a Hughes Autoformer to combat the problem. Autoformers boost the voltage by two percent whenever they are plugged in, until the voltage gets to 116 volts, then a boost feature kicks in, boosting the voltage by ten (10) percent. When at 116 the voltage will magically jump to 127 or 128 volts, which everything happily consumes.

We as consumers have been slowly led to believe 110 volts is normal, IT IS NOT.. Check your labels, 120 volts is what everything has been designed for, and the appliances are happy with anything up to 132 volts, 135 volts is when most overvoltage situations kick in. Voltages lower than 120 lead to more heat, and then lead to shorter life of the appliance. It's a conspiracy, shorter life of product means more sales over the consumers life, and it's all about money, folks. /rant off

A friend emailed me a question recently.

"Is the autoformer the voltage regulator/booster device?
Why are you getting it? I know I have hit a few older parks with shakey power, is that why?
They looked kinda pricey just for the voltage regilator.
Just curious and also where you gonna put it?"

You hit the nail on the head, unfortunately the the majority of the parks I've stayed in have low voltage. I define low voltage as anything under 110 volts. It's one of the things I keep track of.

As you may or may not know, in a travel trailer there are two types of loads, resistive and inductive. That is, heaters/lights/fridge (resistive)(fans-inductive) and air conditioning/ microwave (inductive), the converter (120 to ~12v) is inductive. Getting a little deeper into electric theory, Power is made up of two things, the voltage and the amperage. They have a direct relationship as expressed by the formula (P=EI) (P)ower is expressed in watts, (E)lectro motive force is measured in voltage and I (current) is measured in amperage.

Resistive loads are usually happy with whatever they are fed, if they get low voltage, they may be a little dimmer, but it doesn't hurt the resistive load, the amperage/current is used to heat directly. (an incandescent light bulb heats a wire until it glows and gives out light.)

However, most lights in trailers are 12+- volts, so the actual 120 volts doesn't affect brightness or performance.

Onto inductive loads, anything with a motor or transformer, they are most happy and will last longer with higher voltage and lower current/amperage. The reason is current flowing through a wire heats it to some degree, resistive loads depend on the concept, unfortunately the motor/transformer does not need heat, it literally can destroy the motor (usually by melting the wire covering, be it enamel or vinyl/plastic/rubber and shorting out the device.) Motors and transformers in converters are wire wrapped devices and a short (or open) makes it not want to work, (an open causing the current to stop flowing, and a short causing the current to flow more with the possibility of fire.)

Motors need a certain amount of Power to run, for an easy example, say a motor requires 1200 watts of power, that would be 10 amps at 120 volts. The motor is usually (if 100% duty cycle) designed to handle the amount of heat 10 amps produces. If your voltage drops to 100 volts, the motor now requires 12 amps to run continuously, producing more heat, and over time it will affect the life of the device because it's running hotter than design. However, the air conditioner (13.5k BTU) will pull about 23 amps/120 volts (~2800 watts) to start, then settle down to run at 10 amps. If starting at 100 volts, it will pull at least 28 amps, a great increase in amperage (and heat.) (remember, heat destroys)

By the way, these are real world figures for my trailer,(Nash 22H,) as I had some time and voltage problems on my hands in Rock Springs, Wy. The problems were cured by the power company changing the center tap on the pole transformer (a larger autoformer) and giving the house/shop it's rightful 124 volts.

To sum it up, higher voltages (to about 135v) are better because they produce lower current (heat.) The electric company doesn't care, they get paid for "power" (kilowatts actually). You ever wonder how they get away with using such small lines across the country to deliver it? They use the same theory, very high voltage and small current, (remember, current heats) and then use various transformers/pole transformers to reduce the voltage to something usable by us little guys.

The autoformer/power booster helps the trailer to be more reliable and your appliances to be longer lived. A popular booster increases the voltage by 10% whenever the voltage drops below 116v, ie: 116 + 11.6 volts = 127 volts, if the voltage goes to 110 volts (very common) your voltage would be 121 volts.

Contrary to popular belief and despite what park managers will tell you, an autoformer does NOT steal power, it merely makes what is AVAILABLE more efficient, the autoformer by itself only drops about 1 percent of the load making it 99% efficient.

So while in Palm Desert/Palm Springs, I installed my new (to me) autoformer.

Area formerly under the Jack Knife bed, (now storage area-see blog) where 120/12 volt wiring and panel are. Seems there is some room in betwixt those wires.

A slight modification to the cord box, a little insulation and presto, it fits along all the other wiring.


I converted the 30 amp power cord with appropriate plugs/receptacles so I can use any 30 amp extension. I can also bypass the autoformer if needed.

For a wiring diagram, see my other blog posts on installing the 3000 watt inverter.

I am not affiliated in anyway with Hughes Autoformer, Franks RV power booster, Surge Guard Voltage Regulators or Powermaster Voltage Booster.

By way of CV, I graduated from Denver Institute of Technology with an Electronic Engineering Certificate (AAS) and spent a couple of years working for Texas Instruments (North Building) in Dallas, Tx. A couple of years working on televisions and radios in Rock Springs, Wy. then years of hobby electronics, including hidden cameras, power supply's, building and troubleshooting my own computers, becoming a computer forensics expert, and designing simple circuits for jobs around the house/trailer.

Also see Valiant Sacrifice my hughes autoformer dies

Going green in the RV?

As you know, RV's are quite green, leaving a very small carbon footprint on the earth..
They don't require much to heat or cool, just opening or closing of the windows.. Living in the RV makes it easy to recycle, (when you don't have room to store..) All the cans and bottles get separated and put in the appropriate place...
I buy green.. I bought a green dish brush even.
I started reading the back of the tag, mentally patting myself on the back for "going green" "clean water", "save trees", "conserve energy"... reduce, reuse, recycle, recover, and renew... Package is made..recycled, brush is made..recycled..blah blah blah...

WAIT A MINUTE, whats that last line? I'll tell you, MADE IN CHINA... in small print..(click to enlarge)

So the Chinese make this out of their recycled material, and send it to the U.S. they send their waste over here??? I mean, we're not sending our waste over, letting them make the brush and send it back...

They are sending their waste products to the United States, like ST (special trailer) tires, every ST trailer tire is "made in china" even Goodyear's.. Chinese put melamine in the dog food and and kill off dogs and in human food and kill off infants... I'm wondering what toys are getting recalled this year, because they are "Made in China" and painted with lead paint.. Is there no way out?? More Chinese BS

Oh yeah, I'm still near the Oregon Dunes NRA/Coos Bay, the days are 70F although the nights get to 40F, it's nice and it's good sleeping weather. ;o)

Pet Peeves (Flossing)

The following scenario is a true story......Layton, Utah, Gary, a friend of my paintball teams captain, worked as a manager at Ultimate Electronics. He was finishing his house, and was hanging some of the drywall while alone. The walls were finished, but while trying to hang the overhead, he decided to use the only table in the basement at the time, a pingpong table... Needless to say, it collapsed with the weight, he fell and broke both collarbones and wrists attempting to catch himself. At this point his loving wife takes him to the hospital, where he gets the works, he is placed in a upper body cast from the neck to just above the waist, with both arms forward and out. (reminding me of the lumbering monsters in old movies.)

His loving wife now has to do everything for him, feed him, drive him, and various other things...... About all he can do is click the remote and watch TV, he can't even use a mouse to play on the net.
One night in the first week, she sees him settled in with a Big Gulp and the remote, she tells him she's heading for the store and will be gone just a short while. Fine, everything's cool, UNTIL the Big Gulp is about finished, he wanders into the bathroom. Now picture this, he can't hold himself because his arms/hands are about three feet apart in the upper body cast, so he has to sit and hope it drops enough to hit the toilet, he manages to squirm around enough to get it in. BUT.. while sitting there another natural urge overtakes him, fine, he takes a dump also, after all it's natural....

On getting up, he finds he has managed to close the bathroom door behind him, he doesn't know if his wife is home or not, BUT.. he has another problem, he can't wipe himself, his arms/hands are solidly placed a waist level in front of him... he can't open the door, cause his fingers can't grasp the doorknob, he tries his mouth to open the door to yell for his wife to help....if she's even home.. He can't get the door open, and he's made the room very soundproof because it's close to the downstairs family room.

He's in a quandary, he finally cleans himself up a bit by draping ends of one of the nice bath towels over each hand, stepping over it and using a see saw (flossing) motion.
He leaves the towel in the bathtub, as it's now stinky, eventually his wife comes looking for him, and saves him from the bathroom. Of course, she's not happy with the towel or the bathtub, but after the explanation admits he had no choice......


And that leads me to a new "Pet Peeve"..

I know when you're on the road, you've never used a public bathroom, but if you did, have you ever looked at the bathroom tissue, besides being shiny, made from recycled materials, and placed in a can that only distributes 3 squares at a time, it is only about 3 inches wide, get real, Wal-mart, Target, Flying J.. it's just not fair, do the American public a favor, replace your floss with a brand name.