dsi water boiler for brunnhilde - part 2

Today I warped up the installation of the DSI water boiler in Brunnhilde in putting in the finishing touches. The loose end is mounting the switch panel in the dwelling cabin.

When I set out in the conversion of the boiler, one of the requirement is no cutting or new holes in Brunnhilde. For the location of the switch panel, I had planned all along to evict that of the Onan Cummin' generator which I have planed to remove, and restore the spare tire to its rightful place. It will not be a simple project as I have to hunt down the many tire carrier parts that Airstream removed, including restoring the hinge anchors on the Sprinter chassis the monkey cut off.

Until I get around to the generator removal project, I have to come up with a temporary provisioning of the boiler switch panel that is satisfactory. My idea is to put it on a small electronics project box and mount it in a discrete location. I am frugal and I don't want to go spend $15 on a project box. I hunted around the house form a suitable implement.

the naked switch panel I wired up so I could test the new water boiler

i went running shoes shopping at REI; i wanted to try the barefoot shoe but they were swamped with customers so i didn't; i bought the trail running shoes though

stopped by Harborfreight and pick up a few things; they have this no name headlight lens restoration kit which cost the same as the 3M one you can order on Amazon including free shipping; always shop around

this one is $5 more than on Amazon

my goodies from Amazon arrived

a 25-foot HDMI cable and a burner-top toaster for Brunnhilde

alas, the Amazon Basics HDMI cable is too well built; it is great if you are looking for one for used in home theater but not for my application - the cable has nearly the diameter of my index finger; it is too stiff for connecting to my iPhone adapter as well as the 23-inch monitor

I found this flimsy plastic container that is a perfect size to surface-mount the switch panel. This kind of box is made of brittle hard plastic so I have to work carefully not to fracture the material in the process.

What I find the switch panel of the water boiler lacking is an indicator to tell me when it is switched on. The indicator on the panel only illuminates when it is switched on, and it is calling for heat, and that combustion has not yet been achieved. It is also an indicator to signal the combustion failed (after 3 tries) and is in a lockout state.

As I often do not want the water boiler to be on, I want a clear indication that is hard to miss to show me if the boiler is left on. To this I added a white LEDs that I saved from electronic trash pile.

i cut a few holes in the plastic box and glued in the white LED module to the bottom; i want the LEDs to aim downwards

all soldered up and ready to be mounted - read my lips: "no new hole"

I mounted the assembly to the surface with velcro with adhesive back - no drilling. I ran the wire cable through the bottom of the generator switch panel by temperarily loosen it. The the lid of the transparent plastic box can pop open quite easily so I reinforced it with a bit of foil duct tape.

water boiler is switched off - no illumination

water boiler is switched on - the white LEDs illuminate; i really like how it turned out - reminds me of a TV spot of a menswear "you gonna to like the way you look, i guarantee it"

water boiler is switched on and the is calling for heat but has not achieved combustion - the white LEDs and the red RESET indicator illuminate

I think the white LED will be too bright and bothersome when trying to sleep at night. I would have to add a black tape to greatly attenuate the emitted light.

As an update, I looked further into the Truma water boiler Westfalia originally used. It is very similar to the Suburban DSI one that I just installed, though it has user adjustable temperature setting which the Suburban does not have. Here is a forum post of an owner servicing his.

product manual depiction of the Truma water boiler

While replacing the water boiler I worked with Brunnhilde's propane gas lines, which is made of steel. Because they are Westafalia factory origin that is European threads, I didn't attempt to try too hard to change any of the fittings or finding compatible fittings here in USA. I am under the impression often the plumbing fittings in EU countries has a mix of metric as well ad British (Imperial) origins.

I did a bit of research on the web to little success. I did find a GOK catalog of the propane/butane fittings. Evidently these compression fitting are referred to as RVS #, where the # denotes the different sizes. Searching RVS on the web gave me no useable result. When I inspect them closely, the diameter is remarably like Imperial and with coarser threads than the common brass compression fitting in the US.

GOK fittings