Construction on the RV Barn finally starts

[Underboss]

Nicely done.

 

[MarkMaxPayne]

One thing I purchased over the weekend was 2 4' x 6' solid rubber horse stall mats at my local Home Depot. One of those local rural specialty items on an end cap vs. listed online or in their mobile app. I cut them at the 3' halfway point with a box knife with new blade, creating 4 4' x 3' parking pads to go between the tires and the concrete. What I liked about these were the grooves that allowed any moisture to dissipate underneath each pad.

Warning: They are EXTREMELY HEAVY and unwieldy. A two person lift for sure.

Best,
-Mark

 

[MarkMaxPayne]

While waiting for painting of the RV Barn, I built a device that lights up to tell me when I need to stop backing up just before I touch the back of the RV Barn. This is a "how I did it" vs. a "how to do it" type of post.

It is pretty simple: I light up two trailer LED brake lightbars (one behind the backup camera and one where I can see it from the driver's side mirror) when my stored TOAD towbar puts any pressure on a commercial safety bar switch installed at the back of the barn. Wiring diagram and components are listed below and the entire project was wired up using Wago connectors. Past the 120VAC/12VDC power supply that plugs into a nearby wall socket, everything is 12VDC low voltage.

How it works: I installed a high visibility commercial safety bumper contact switch where the tow hitch will touch it before it touches one of the 2x6 wall studs. These safety bumpers will make contact with little compression, but then can compress another inch to two inches before reaching its full compressed state. If one stops before fully compressed then the wall has been saved. The complexity is that you cannot wire the LED brake lights directly to this type of switch as the lights draw much too high of a current when lit and these safety switches want very little current passing through them. A standard relay would also draw too much current and damage the safety switch. The trick is to instead use what is called a DC to DC Solid State Relay to isolate the input and output voltages and currents from each other and draw almost no current on the input side when being activated (unlike a standard coil relay). The safety bumper switch is connected to interrupt the input power to the optical relay and it then uses and internal LED and detector to then switch off and on your main load (which are the LED brake lights). Once the brake lights light up I pull forward just a tad for them to turn back off as to not keep the bumper switch compressed.

Here is my parts list:

• 120VAC/DC Power Supply with connector adopter - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GFFG1BQ?tag=rvf01-20
• Blade fuse holder with 5A fuse
• OONO CZH-Labs DC-DC Solid State Relay F-1049 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09T3RT5MG?tag=rvf01-20
• Trailer LED Brake Lights - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07V7BF18S?tag=rvf01-20
• Project Box to enclose solid state relay and wiring - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KY7VK8W?tag=rvf01-20
• ASO Safety Solutions Safety Contact Bumper (60mm x 100mm x 1.5ft) yellow and black - https://www.automationdirect.com/ad...ty_edges_and_bumpers/safety_bumpers/1701-3700
• Safety contact bumper cable with connector - https://www.automationdirect.com/ad...circular_connection_cables/7000-08041-2100500
• Various 2 and 3 wire Wago connectors
• Trailer light wire

Best,
-Mark