D Nikolls

My last cat wore a breakaway collar from about age 8, when he became an indoor/outdoor cat. He broke it off a maybe once a year, I would guess.

He also wore a gps tracker for much of that time, so usually the collar was retrievable.

He was quite reliable about coming home at dark, and on 2 of the occasions that he was very late, he came back without his collar, which I would guess implies that the breakaway function was necessary. On one occasion I found the collar clearly well snagged in brush.


Whether a collar is useful is another question.. I figured the reflector might save him if on the road, and the gps obviously needed a collar. For anti-birding purposes I have read that bells do not really help, but oversized brightly colored collars can, while the reverse applies for rodents.. so next time no bell.

I DIY lots of things, and intend to keep doing so.


That's what I was doing, building a shed, when the ladder tipped out from under me.. now I have a crippled foot that prevents me working a full day, or walking any substantial distance without pain. I have also incurred costs running well into 6 digits due to the unfortunate timing of shattering a bone at the beginning of a large project with deadlines involved. Between the injury and the ripple effects, it's been pretty life-changing.

It hasn't stopped me DIYing at heights, but now when I work on a roof or a tall ladder I get the shakes and have aching muscles for days due to how tense it leaves me. Can't really recommend the experience.

If I was a more reasonable person, it certainly would have stopped me DIYing at heights.



As to your specific situation, what's your roof like? A modest sized simple gable roof at around 4/12 pitch, I'd do myself, and no doubt will again. I don't like steeper roofs and I wouldn't want to fuck about with a more complicated roof with lots of valleys, dormers, hips, skylights, etc.

Whatever your choice is, seems like it's time to get things moving.. winter is coming and around here roofers get damned busy in in fall!

Kara Ann wrote:Thanks, D for the clarification, and also the safety tips. The bolts on the expansion battery now have caps and the battery has a cover to prevent unexpected OOOPS connection disasters (EEEK!).  The wiring between the Pecron unit and the expansion battery are threaded through adhesive clips that are attached along the pathway to prevent an unwanted tug. I appreciate the knowledge / experience you have in this subject area, and if I want to follow up on some of these suggestions later, I hope it will be ok with you if I reach out with questions.

Nice, glad to hear of those safety upgrades. Absolutely, just poke me via PM if I miss something in the thread.

Kara Ann wrote:
Hi Mike - thanks for joining in the conversation - your questions are just the thing that I value about Permies... all of us here sharing our experiences and skills to help eachother.  I really like the Pecron, and have been using it as power source on my off grid farm over the past year. I researched and comparison shopped quite a bit before I purchased.  I live here solo, and my electricity needs are pretty modest, so I chose a smaller unit. If I were doing it again, I would stretch to one of the E3000 or E3600 units you are considering.  I have found it to be very reliable and easy to use. The lower watt solar panels (200W and 300W) are lightweight almost like very firm fabric and very portable. They actually seem to do pretty well with charging in overcast conditions (Pacific Northwest needs that), and they can be daisychained. Last month I purchased the 500W solar panel which is 4 folding panels that are hardframed - not the firm fabric. It works VERY WELL, both in sun and in cloud. I attached a pic of the solar panels by the trailer (the 4 panels on the R side, mounted temporarily on a pallet frame that is ground anchored beside the RV) where I am glamping til the tiny home is habitable.  Anybody else using Pecron with some experience or opinions for Mike?

I didn't end up buying one, I stuck with a system built with discrete components.. but I thought pretty hard about adding a power station a couple years ago, and the Pecron gear was broadly well reviewed, particularly for the price point. If I was buying a power station, I'd take care to select one that had MPPT inputs with adequate capacity to use full size rigid solar panels, something like 540W or 620W per panel, as the price per watt is far more palatable than the portable and compact stuff.

Kara Ann wrote:
Hi Daniel -

Why did you use the banana plugs instead of the correct plug for that port?  I was able to buy a matching plug on amazon easily but I havent installed it yet.

Great question. If I could have found the correct cascade port cable for the E2000LFP unit, I definitely would have purchased it.  You did not mention which specific Pecron model you have.  For the E2000LFP, there is a EB3000 cascade cable listed on the Pecron website, but it is out of stock there, on Amazon, and anywhere else I could find. The banana plugs were not chosen because I like to innovate - it was because I could not buy the correct cable.  Which model do you have?

I expect the connector that Pecron uses on the E2000LFP cascade port cable is not unique to Pecron, but couldn't find a decent picture to identify it. Seems like some sort of threaded aviation style connector, which can possibly be found as just the ends to allow you to make your own cable.. That's what you mean, Daniel? Got a link to the one you found?

I might have been a bit unclear in my phrasing; I am confused about *Pecron* choosing a 30A fuse. If they used two in parallel to give a total capacity of 60A, for some reason that made sense to them, this would seem far more reasonable.. but on the othwr hand that might seem a bit optimistic for the connector. Hard to say without seeing that plus their cable in person...

Certainly the right choice for *your* fusing is a conservative value based on the available information on the rest of the components; I agree that is 30A in this case, and I wouldn't want to push much more than 30A through banana clips even if the Pecron fuse was believed to be higher amperage.


Given your described use I would figure it's all good as it is, unless it gives you any trouble. Checking for any unreasonable heat at crimps and connections is good for peace of mind.

Reliable means of protecting/securing that cable would be good, those banana clips are *not* a good connector to have on a cable that accidentally gets yanked out! Ditto something non conductive to completely physically protect the terminals of the battery. If a metal tool gets dropped across those terminals it will be very exciting.

(In case nobody has mentioned it, smoke from lithium battery fires is *very* bad, do not breathe it, get away.)


As far as the solar side, yep, exactly. A Victron MPPT charge controller can be configured to charge as desired, and you can also set a max charge current. This means you could potentially use a pretty substantial array/charge controller, and limit the max charge current to 30A, so that you can harvest more power in suboptimal conditions.

In practice the additional MPPT will be charging both batteries at once, so the current through the link should never approach 30A; both batteries will maintain the same voltage while charging. So in theory you could charge at say 70A expecting the larger battery to absorb any least 2/3rds of the charge current... leaving less than 30A to flow through the link.

*but* if the BMS on the larger battery disconnects it, or fails, or the battery and power station are disconnected and charge levels allowed to vary, you could see excessive current through that link.. so, the conservative 30A max charge current is safest.

Nicely done, congratulations on conquering an unfamiliar project.

I'm surprised they would use ~30a fusing. Under heavy load approaching the max that Pecron is rated for, that's not going to allow even half of the current to come from the expansion battery.. and the expansion battery, either yours or the official one, has more capacity than the integrated battery, and should be providing proportionately more of the power used.

It should work great under modest loads, and probably fine under brief heavy loads. I would want to monitor it under heavy load; you might find you blow the fuse, in which case a DC breaker might be preferable. If this does cause any issues, you could try fine-tuning the peak current from the expansion battery by extending the wiring to add a bit more resistance; the batteries will equalize once the heavy load is gone.

I'd be curious about adding more solar with an MPPT charge controller directly to the expansion battery. I can't see any reason not to, at first contemplation..

What a sweet little stove! Love it, look forward to more about it.

Jill Dyer wrote:Here's a handy list   [url=https://www.ritas-outback-guide.com/FirstAidKitChecklist.html[/url]
Although it's suggested for Australian conditions, it applies anywhere.
I would make the tweezers really pointy for that stubborn splinter or thorn,  and add a paste of magnesium sulphate + glycerine for putting on a band-aid to draw out the stubbornest splinters/thorns (and things like boils, 'point' skin problems).  In the "Olden Days" this was Pasta Mag. Sulph.  Possibly available to purchase if you're lucky, otherwise do-it-yourself. Maybe add steristrips if they are available - good for pulling together the sides of a cut.  
Real Outback medical kits have prescribed remedies that are used under the guidance of the Flying Doctor - best kept that way, for obvious reasons! but any medications prescribed to you should be in it, if away from the homestead.

Nice, thanks! I've been looking at lists meant for long distance sailing, but another perspective is great.

Steristrips and good tweezers I've got, but I have not used drawing paste, and I can think of a dozen times it would have been useful.

Given how insanely slow access to healthcare can be here Canada, perhaps we ought to institute a similar system of having drugs available to be used under the guidance of a remote doctor.. but it certainly won't happen.

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:If you are shy on knowledge, get a couple books. I have both of these....

The Survival Medicine Handbook And Where There is no Doctor.

If you can only choose one, get the first one. The second one is more for a third world country.... Which we may become if shit continues to hit the fan. Be careful out there everyone!

Oh! And don't forget to get some antibiotics from here for your pet bird, or fishies! See the first book for more details....

Do read them several times and again every six months or so. I'm more than a bit overdue.

If you aren't familiar with hebal medicine, get this book by Dr Sharol Tilgnor. This one teaches all about the body systems, and has lots of featured herb monographs. Hmmm... It doesn't seem to have instructions how to make medicines. BUT! She has that information available free at her site. Do print those instructions out! I have 3 of her books, the other 2 do have detailed info on making medicines. All are very much worth the money! (Says this squeeky cheapskate.)

Thank you; books are definitely lacking. I am fortunate that I have a couple friends who are much more onowledgeable, but I cannot count on them answering the phone in an emergency.

Fortunately, I am for the first time in 14 years able to unpack and inventory my books, a good time to add as needed.

Unfortunately, animal antibiotics are not so easy to come by in Canada these days. There has been a substantial tightening of access to animal medications, many things require a good relationship with a helpful vet, which I do not have..

Robert Ray wrote:Not just kit, but knowing how to do some rudimentary skills. Many of us with animal husbandry skills have stitched or stapled a cut, lanced and drained an abscess. Sutures are becoming less common with staples and the new wound glues. Knowing how and when to close a wound is helpful skill. IV protocol for animals transfers over to people. Things that used to be easily accessible have become difficult. Blood clotting dressings, powders and syringes are now affordable. An IFAK though not an ideal answer to everyday first aid is in every car we drive in case of a trauma incident, smaller than a cell phone and stashed in the glove box.
Anticipated circumstance and skill will guide the construction of your medi-bag,. Readily and easy accessible an important consideration

Absolutely. I've watched videos and read guides, but as usual for me it doesn't see really lodge in my head for the long term unless I've actually done it, and mostly I haven't yet done these things. I've got a medical stapler, but I'm sure gonna be nervous the first time I go to use one.. we should probably do some practice on wound closure on the next animal we process.

Ali Green wrote:I recently sliced my arm quite deeply, doing DIY at home, alone. I realised that my neat first aid kit, with its zip up case, and ziplock bags of individually wrapped wipes and dressings was pretty unhelpful for someone to access quickly, especially with one arm bleeding and the other trying to stop it! I now have a pull out tray, with easy to grab first aid supplies in sections - including an empty section for used wipes etc.

So, as you think through what you need, also think about how you will store it.

I don't have a good list, so I'm glad to read through the suggestions.

Good point. The old kit lived in a tote under the bed in the tiny house, and this was certainly not ideal. We now have more space, so the new iteration will get new packaging and live somewhere easier to access.

Thinking about medic-ing with limited hands, I am going to keep a good headlamp with the kit, and something it came mount to.