Paul Busby

Thanks AG, good to know there is another resource pool of well schooled folk with some experience. I think with all the places I have posted already and the feedback I've had, I'm going to stop talking and start working. Going to head up there today and start moving my kit out again I think, let the room air out, maybe take a couple more panels down.

I've also posted in a couple of other places, and contacted a few companies that do/sell shipping container conversions, so far feeling a bit better about the approach we have takenand people seem to think that ventillation and sealing up as best as possible should do the trick.

I've got some vents ordered, I've got a dehumidifier on the way, just need to build myself up a bit to deal with insulation again 🤢

Oh god damnit... they ended up gluing insulation to the walls.

Watching this currently:

Thanks, I'm just not sure there is anyway I could do something like that. I don't really see how I could actually seal it up in the same way, even if I did rip everything out.

There will certainly be an extractor fan from the "box" to the outside, but you think I also need a powered one for the outside of the box?

I have been looking at simple ventilation grilles. I was thinking of angle grinding out the existing vents that I have sealed up, and adding something like these in each corner

Tried watching a few videos and most people seem to basically attach insulation directly to the walls of the container/camper.

Not filling me with a great deal of hope to be honest... might go and lie down.

Well... I have a wooden frame inside a container, with 50mm insulation boards, then OSB.

That's it. So there isnt anywhere nearly the same number of steps of sealing as you mentioned.

So you think I'm going to have to rip everything out and basically start again?

I'm probably not too far off the maximum... I'll see how the landscape is mid jan and then maybe that's something I will have to do.

Universal Credit - not yet. We may have to do this.

Not a product specifically, no. What I did was use aluminium insulation tape across the seal of every single insulation board, and even covered up most of the timber, so whilst I didnt install a product specifically to do that, I would have thought that the silver tape along with he fact that all the boards were already either tight up to the timber, or foam filled in where it wasn't, would do the same thing?

You can kind of see what I mean here

I'm absolutely not a builder though, and have been learning as I go, so perhaps there is something I'm missing, but I don't really know if that would have helped.

As I mentioned before, the current feeling is that the biggest issues causing this are:

1. Cold icy weather on the outside has resulted in ice on the roof of the container
2. I have had heaters running, so the "box" inside the container is warm
3. I stupidly sealed up the vents that would have allowed airflow on the outside of the "box"
4. I didn't seal up the "box" at the end of the container where the double doors are

Any of you guys know a few things about this stuff and can offer advice, i'll take any of it?

It's a LTD company, so the SEISS scheme, no. The BBLS yes, I qualify, and have taken that out under the idea that it would cover me before I can take my "buffer" out of the savings account.... but it hasn't worked out that way due to just getting no work at all. I got small grant for my business being affected by COVID, but it was a drop in the ocean, frankly.

You can see how bad it is here

This is taken from where I have removed the cieling boards and insulation, down into the rest of the workshop. It seems like the problem might be worse in the end that's closest to the big doors that wasnt sealed up properly, if that's the case, it might not be too much of a problem.

Definitely need to open up those vents, which is going to be a challenge in itself... Also ordered a dehumidifier that I'm going to leave running in there to make sure in the mean time the issue doesn't get any worse.

COVID, for sure. I think with Brexit, if it had just been Brexit, I could have navigated through contracts, even if they were a bit less desirable and glamorous compared to what I'm used too.

COVID, or more specifically the length of time it has gone on for, has really scuppered my plans. When everything hit, I kickstarted the workshop project based on the work that was in my diary that I managed to scrape together DESPITE COVID. I, and also my clients, were not expecting to be in this position as long as we have been, and everything from October onwards has been delayed or cancelled... meaning I'm burning through every last penny to get the workshop up and running so I can make something out of it, with nothing else coming in. As you will see from my status update, I've also hit a massive roadblock with that too.

Just really rough at the moment man, think I may just have to put my company on the back burner, take a full time role somewhere and see everything out.

Yeah. There were vents on the side of the container that I, rather foolishly, filled up with foam. I'm wondering if that's part of my problem.

I also didnt seal up the end of the container where the big doors are, so that also may be contributing to the hot air escaping the "box" and causing condensation on the metal. That's what my mate says anyway.

Really want to avoid pulling the whole thing down. If I have to, then I think the whole idea needs to just be abandoned and I need to look elsewhere for some kind of work.

Sad, but I cant really go on much longer without some proper income.

I'm very confused about what's going on. Do we pay VAT(equiv) in the sellers country and then also get stung by VAT in the way into the UK?

This was all to be expected though, even with a trade deal, all that means is that they don't add tariffs onto various items, now that we're not part of the single market, VAT and various handling fees to deal with all the paperwork was always going to become a challenge/hurdle. I suspect they will streamline it all and the prices will come down eventually, but the next year is going to be tough for companies that import/export, or have import/export in their supply chain... which is a lot.

And quite right re: my business... having a real hard time at the moment. Can't work in Europe so easily any more, that had already started to slim down my work before COVID, whilst customers try to ease me out of the equation. Now with COVID it basically drew a line under that. I'm now also in a situation where basically any project that would need contractors are being delayed in the UK so there is nothing at all going on.

Another lockdown may well be every last penny of my savings gone. Before all of this non-sense I was probably only a couple of months away from getting into the housing market...

Gorram kids and their drones *shakes fist*

I actually don't think Kev has staged anything, in either video. We will never know, but I just don't get that vibe off him, or the video's.

But a bit of investigation again, on a bit of a tip off from @m4inbrain's comments. I opened up castle link in "demo mode" to have a look at the settings (too lazy to plug in my MMX8S) I think "smartsense" is actually the mode that detects when to use the sensor or not, as the only other options are "sensored only", and "Brushed Reversing"

I paused the videos when he was calibrating the ESC.

I noticed this:

Well if you have a look at the 3200kv competion motor on the TP website, you will see that it's a D type wind:

Is it safe to run a delta wind motor at 10 degrees advance? I'm no expert, but I know different motors need different timings, so this could be significant.

You will also notice that the max voltage is 23.5..... 8s is 33.6v

Could be a combination of these factors (unnecessary advance timing and 10v too much) which resulted in the pop. I think Hobbywing ESCs default to 0 degrees, especially the EZRUN that don't have these settings available, if not 0 then I presume they have a super safe timing setting?

EDIT:

Couple more things. This is how much throttle he was giving it when it went pop... really not much:

if you want to check for yourself then go here, then pause it and use the full stop and comma keys to move frame by frame. I'd recomend this so you can see all the cables flop about when the caps pop.

But here is an interesting point:

Someone in the comments pointed out that the cable sparks when he cuts the battery off. This means that there is continuity between the battery poles, so it IS shorting when the caps go poof which is probably what resulted in the lipo fire last time.

It's the same car, other than that one component I think. The video was about upgrading the ESC for the long jump car project. I don't think it's totally out of context to include some footage of what it previously achieved.