Day 10, 11, 12 - Mims, FL

Friday (10) - Today's "project" was just trying to figure out why something that used to work fine just stopped working. In the wet bay, there is a bulkhead mounted "F" connector for cable TV. There is a switcher in the front cabinet which allows you to direct the signal to any of the TVs. At some point, the TV in the front was no longer able to see the cable TV connection but was able to receive the signal from the rooftop TV antenna. This had me convinced that it was the cable from the wet bay to the switcher. Just to confirm that this was the problem, I ran a cable from the wet bay bulkhead connector to the front of the RV so I could just connect my VOM to both ends of the cable. And, there was continuity on both the center conductor and the shield. Hmmm.

When I used a barrel connector to connect the cable TV input cable to the front TV, that TV could not see the cable signal. When I used an extra piece of coax to connect directly to the TV bypassing both the switch and the short cable from the switch to the TV, it worked. I installed the cables to the switch, and it worked fine. For some reason, the cable from the switcher to the TV worked for the over-the-air antenna but didn't work with the cable. Very odd. When I tried to use the old cable to pull in the new one, the connector fell apart. Problem 1 solved. The next problem that kind of appeared around the same time is no signal reaching the bedroom TV also suggesting a broken cable.

Time to get ready for today's test session. It's 84°F already so I  headed for the pool after the session was over. Still cold, but refreshing. The dinner experiment is a beef short rib ragu. Something I saw on Sam the Cooking Guy on YouTube. It looked pretty good.

Saturday (11) - Yesterday, my Ubiquity Nano died. This is the device that I use to either connect to campground WiFi, the AT&T hotspot, or one of the Apple devices that are set up to share their cellular data. The configuration wouldn't save and the admin web pages were all messed up. The device has lasted for six years with numerous reconfigurations so I shouldn't complain too much. The AT&T hotspot does have an ethernet port but I can't plug in a cable from the Ubiquity AirGateway, which is my WiFi access point as it puts 24VDC onto the cable to power the Nano. 

So I ended up picking up a new WiFi access point. Walmart had a Netgear R6080 for $39 so I picked one up. This was actually $5 less than Amazon though they did ding me for sales tax, When I got back to the RV, I discovered that it was a return and already had a password set. So I returned it (no questions asked) and picked up another one where the box was still wrapped in plastic. It worked fine. This also resolved one of my other network needs which is an ethernet switch that runs on 12VDC. The voltage input for this router is 12VDC @1amp. I just need to set up another buck convertor to for 12VDC in and 12VDC out. The buck converter will essentially function as a voltage regulator. 

Sunday (12) - Today, I met with Steve, one of the other VEs (volunteer examiners) for coffee at a Dunkin’ Donuts just south of the RV park. It’s interesting to meet someone that you’ve only known on Zoom. We ended up talking for several hours and Dunkin’ Donuts even had an extra coffee. After getting back to the RV, I washed the Jeep as it was accumulating dust and pollen. I guess that means Spring is starting in FL. This was in addition to the oil droplets from being towed behind the RV.

Currently, it’s 81°F and 51% humidity but it feels warmer than that. I rode with back from coffee with the top open on the Jeep. That is a nice perk of the soft top.