Contents
Tarps
Mice & Squirrels
On Expo we share top camp with a few permanent residents of the plateau
Mice (Mus musculus) To begin with they are small cute fury and eat all the bits you drop on the floor, a bit like a cleaner at halls. Then they have lots of babies and they start eating everything else. They are not smart, in previous years we have controlled them mainly by putting our food in hammocks strung across the bivi such that they don’t find the food. They can climb the walls but don’t seem to be that interested unless the know the food is up there. We’ve tried traps but they either get too fat to crawl into them or steal the bait before the snapper gets em. They will climb inside your tackle sacks and chew through wrappers and plastic to get at any food you’ve left in your bag, dribbling urine all the time so they can find they’re way out (nice). Maybe we could learn something there…
Squirrels (Sciurus jumpaboutalotaris) 2007 we met a new resident in the bivi, the acrobatic squirrel, it comes out late at night so sighting of this vicious creature are rare and fleeting. A few unlucky souls have seen it jump in one bound from the floor to the hammocks where it is sits silhouetted by the moon, waiting, biding its time. It appears quite partial to mashed potato. We have tried throwing stones at it, this works temporarily forcing the creature to retreat to the relative security of the tarps. However Becca and Julian sleep under the hammocks and for some reason don’t like us throwing rocks at the hammocks when they’re asleep.
This year we need a few more containers to put stuff in, specifically to stop the squirrel nibbling into al the packets of stuff. Incidentally it doesn’t seem that interested in flapjack, which looking at the amount left at base camp last year we weren’t either. --Frank 17:40, 15 May 2008 (BST)
Lamp charging at top camp
We have solar panels at top camp these operate via a regulator to charge a large car size battery. When it's sunny this works really well. When it isn't sunny we barely have enough power to charge the lamps of the few hard cavers staying up and carrying on caving. The battery is used to charge lamps overnight.
- Do not to bring battery chargers that need to use the mains to top camp. For all caving lamps there are 12V chargers that will work off the car battery directly. Ask someone electrathingmey and they might point you in the right direction.
- The same goes for mobile phone chargers.
- And anyone who brings an electric airbed inflator up to top camp will later have to remove it from their arse.
- We need another car cigarette lighter splitter, I will get one unless someone has one. --Frank 21:03, 12 May 2008 (BST)
Bosch battery charging
The solar panels can be arranged differently to charge the Bosch drill batteries. DO NOT CONNECT THE SOLAR CELLS DIRECTLY TO THE BATTERIES. Superficially it does work but when the sun comes out the batteries go bang... The consensus last year is that the reason our drill batteries only last two years is that we charged them directly off the solar panels. It is very difficult to guess when they are charged and overcharging severely shortens their life.
- As part of the Bivi fettling this year I was intending to move the battery and gubbins into the Bivi, Not being in the rain/sun will make it safer and batteries charge more efficiently out of the sun. --Frank 21:03, 12 May 2008 (BST)
Use of the inverter at top camp
An inverter is an electrical device that converts 12VDC from a car battery to 240VAC like you get our of a plug in your house.
We do have an inverter at top camp. These items are very inefficient and we do have very limited power.
- I'm not sure I would describe our electricity production as limited- we have over 110W. Last year we bought 3x 32W panels in addition to the 5 small panels that expo already (small, 6W each?). -Aaron 13:28, 19 June 2008 (BST)
The main danger of using mains electricity at top camp electrocution, getting a 240V electric shock is a numbers game. The odds are roughly 19 times out of 20 you will get away with it and it will simply hurt a lot. The consequences are somewhat serious if you get a good whack at top camp because a defibrillator will not be handy. If there is any reasonable means of not using mains powered equipment at top camp use it.
- Think very carefully about the safety issues surrounding the use of an inverter to provide mains at the bivi. Duncan.collis 14:06, 9 May 2008 (BST)
In Crete 2006, SUSS used a 240V generator. This proved extremely useful as we had unlimited charging power etc. - to charge up drills, lamps etc it needed to be on for around an hour each day. As generators are now (relatively!) light, is this worth considering. Having not been to the bivi, it may not be a good idea - in Crete it never rains - but the carry-in only needs to be done once and it massively reduced needs for trips down the hill. Thoughts?--Steve Jones 17:20, 12 June 2008 (BST)
- Hm. How heavy is light? If it's under 15kg, might be worth considering. We do have an awful lot of solar power these days - more than we could use last year. Presumably if the generator is on for only 1 hour a day, that means you need chargers fast enough to charge everything in 1 hour? Otherwise we end up having to store it in a 12V battery and have the inverter problem again, right? -Aaron 13:25, 19 June 2008 (BST)
The Grike
The grike is an area I personally spend as little time around as possible, but I'm sure we will all apreciate if its kept clean and tidy.
So here's some instructions:- File:Grike.pdf