I have seen some interest, by others and myself, in using a microcontroller, such as an Arduino, in their trailer build for one thing or another. So far, I haven't found any implementations. I haven't gotten going, either.
The goal of this thread is to create a collaborative effort to find uses of such a system and to bring them into being.
My background includes about a dozen credit hours in Electrical Engineering, 40-odd years ago. Careers #1 and 2 involved the use of several manufacturing-related computer systems, and writing code to support their use. Career #3 found me as an ASE certified automotive Master Technician, where I learned the principles of modern computer-controlled automotive systems. I will not make any claim that I was particularly good at any of these. This all gives me enough hands-on background to believe that, with your help and encouragement, I can take on this project and make it work while sharing the results.
As things progress, I'll use this page for a Table of Contents, Glossary and Appendices.
Looking forward to your contributions!
edits:
Features
First implementation
- Assume lighting control using existing switches. Add the ability to conserve battery power by automatically dimming an individual light after a predetermined time. Add a second dimming level and turn light off after the second dimming times out. Lights that have timed out can be relighted simply by turning the switch off then back on.
- Similar to lighting control, put the water pump on a short timeout to reduce the chances of a flood if plumbing fails. No power savings here.
- Slow down the Fantastic Fan (there's a whole topic for that) using a motor controller controlled by the microcontroller. Using PWM to control the speed will save battery power proportional to the off portion of the pulse cycle.
Second - Output to a display panel.
- Monitor battery usage in real time, discharge and charge.
Later - Remote control
- Security system, at least intrusion alarm. Add GPS and WiFi to report location in case of trailer theft.
- Tell time, temperature, humidty, sunup, sundown, moon phase, other?, ...
- Ability to monitor clean water levels