power utility panel - repurposing of Dometic fridge vent

[chase4food]

The conversion to a DC fridge frees up a lot of opportunity for enhancements. For the Swiss Army Knife of all campers every cubic centimeter in the Westfalia Vanagon is precious, and a lot of thought should be devoted before deciding what to do with these scarce resources. What to do with the air vent for the Dometic fridge? I know some will argue to keep it for the DC fridge as the efficiency of the compressor fridge hinges significantly on the well cooled compressor and the condenser coil. I decided that I am comfortable with the amount of vent holes along the back of the kitchenette cabinet. I also paid special attention to provide adequate ventilation thru natural convection when installing the new fridge.

I had long created an electrical panel that is mounted on the passenger side B pillar fabricated with a electronic project box - that also has a rocker switch to control the factory doom light. That location was ideal (without butchering the Westfalia interior) at the time before mobile devices.

old power utility panel - 2 ports for house battery and 2 ports for starting battery

the Dometic fridge vent grill

i found these great and cheap Chinese made 12V power receptacles with USB insert

before proceeding I measured the quiescent current draw of the 5V USB module - 16mA is good in my book

they also passed my 12V plug insert and retention force test

Insert and retention force of the 12V receptacle is one very important attribute for me as there is nothing more annoying than a plug gradually work itself loose.

with some careful dimensional planning I decided that there is room for 2 receptacles and one switch on the top half of the panel

I hand cut the hole for the rocker switch first

then the two holes for the receptacles

the rocker switch is controls the power to the DC fridge - allow easy switching off the fridge without having to fuss with the temperature dial inside

I repurposed the Dometic fridge's burner-on indicator on the Westfalia status panel - the blue LED illuminates when power is present to the DC fridge

here I use a different USB insert with illumination on the inner receptacle

a different cheery color for each day

One important goal that I always try to achieve is no new holes or butchering into the vehicle. It is not always possible but often I succeed with a lot of thinking. As to the fate of the old power utility panel by the sliding door, I already have plan for it while retaining the existing useful features - the doom light override with LED locator in pitch dark. That will be another project.
_________________
- Vince 飲食玩睡

what Isolde wants Isolde doesn't always get, 4 I know what is best for her - Liebe macht frei

[[email protected]]

Sweet love it, link to cig receptacle?

[chase4food]

[icolquhoun]

Awesome work!

I've been scratching my head as to where to mount some USB power plugs and was going to go with the stock 110v outlet, but with dogs occupying the lower areas of the van, I like your location much better!

[Merian]

I call overkill on the test-bench power supply and you don't own a hole saw or hole punch??

[chase4food]

[dobryan]

[otiswesty]

Um.
Under $10 at GoWesty. No drilling required. 10% off today (just $9).
http://www.gowesty.com/product-details.php?v=&id=24356

_________________
1978 Sage Green P22 Westfalia
1989 T3 Syncro Single cab

Just a regular guy

[chase4food]

[DwarfVader]

I'm curious about the power utility panel shown in the first photo...

It looks like a mult box, just with the XLR plugs and all... never personally seen a electrical utility panel that uses XLR.
_________________
- oderint dum metuant -

I'll find my van someday, or it will find me.

[chase4food]

You are exactly right they are XLRs. I bought a bunch of plugs and receptacles cheap at surplus. Reason is I cannot stand automotive cigarette sockets like one in the Vanagon which the plug keep pushing itself out. This was done circa 20 years ago before the advent of mobile. The XLR plugs has a push to release latch so no accident disconnect.

Nowadays we can find 12Vdc receptacles that holds the plug relatively securely.
_________________
- Vince 飲食玩睡

what Isolde wants Isolde doesn't always get, 4 I know what is best for her - Liebe macht frei

[chase4food]

When I designed this, one function is to allow me to hook up a tiny Honda generator to charge either bank of batteries. Or to connect a charger to keep the batteries maintain while stored at home.

The toggle switch allows me to switch on/off the dome light with the sliding door open. It is just taps into the pin switch of the sliding door, though a diode logic - hence saving me having to run a wire all the way to the dome light. The green LED illuminates if the toggle switch is set to off so you can find the rocker switch in pitch dark. It just happened with the diode logic the LED extinguishes when the dome light is switched on.
_________________
- Vince 飲食玩睡

what Isolde wants Isolde doesn't always get, 4 I know what is best for her - Liebe macht frei

[DwarfVader]