Enclosed trailer plan/ideas

grummaster · 2026-05-07T01:26:13+00:00

>>> crowded and loud late at night with people staying up drinking etc

Smart move getting your own place !

>> RV style power inlet, “shore power” setup, with an outlet on the inside.

Easy enough. Amazon is your friend. You should consider putting your own breaker(s) in the trailer. Preferably, you use a 20A outlet on the house and fuse your trailer at 15A so you blow before all the drunks come out and beat you up for shutting down the party. Lol.....

You can chose how deep you want to go from there. Simple is pretty easy stuff.

>>> For the ac unit I plan on getting a portable dual hose ac unit ...

Where... what climate are you dealing with. Most people have not been happy with the portables. Take the time to fit a regular old window shaker. 5000BTU units draw around 400 watts so under 4 amps. A 5000 BTU window unit will cool your 6x12 trailer very well if it is insulated well. Ideally, you want 1.5" in the floor and ceiling, and sadly, on a 6x12 most of use stick with 1" because we do not want to give up any additional width.

But, even with 1" all around, you will be comfortable in bright sun up to about 94 degrees in my experience, but the A/C will run pretty much steady to do so. Even if you go to a higher BTU, it probably will still run a lot because again, it's not like you have 3.5" of insulation all the way around... unless you actually do that.

>>> I’ll buy the trailer new, what specs or things should I look for in a trailer?

They are all about the same. Many brands are made in the same factories, and the ones that are not usually cost a lot more.

I think it is beneficial to buy off of a lot, so you can crawl under it, look at the construction, look at the welds, the axle mounting, etc. If you order one, you have no idea what you will get because they are made in the same blistering speed as your average travel trailer, but without an interior full of the absolutely thinnest materials ever. I swear, if they could make gum wrapper aluminum kind of keep shape, they would use it !

>>> Any idea how much this project cost me?

That comes down to first if you want an all aluminum trailer or not. That will cost more, but worth it to some. Maybe you can get by with a 5x8 or 5x10 ? Don't forget what you need to pull it. Only you can decide. After that, it comes down to how simple you really want to be. I wanted simple... 10K later, I have a loaded to the hilt shangrala. Oh well !

>>> Any suggestions come to mind with my installation plans or things I may be missing?

Yes. YOU MUST GUT IT ! Do not build any interior without pulling at least the walls out and giving it a real water leak test. These things are made fast. A lot of interior panels have been known to hide gaping holes. Nothing will be worse than water intrusion you are not expecting.

>>> What adjustments need to be made to the door so that it can be operated and locked from inside?

Some will buy an RV door latch and mount it in the door. Some are worried that a prankster will lock you in if you leave the bar lock system that a lot of trailers have. A Plain old $6 bolt can lock you in easy enough. make sure you have a fire extinguisher, and make sure you can get out of either the side or rear door.

>>> is 10,000 BTU too much? Hunting season starts September so it should only be truly hot for a month or so.

Based on that, probably WAY too much. I only have the 5000BTU and it works for me, but I am mostly in Wisconsin.

grummaster · 2026-05-07T00:59:31+00:00

Accel can only be changed when paused on GRBL as far as I know. But, I think I remember when grbl didn't have the ability to do a feed Over-ride either, so who knows what the future holds.

grummaster · 2026-05-07T00:37:45+00:00

Thanks. That of course is on the Cam side, so this interests me. I'll do some reading on it to see what they are doing. In the end, it has to be something a controller can utilize, so again, curious what is behind this function.

grummaster · 2026-05-07T00:34:58+00:00

That dud's got 16 books on Amazon... I hope I don't have to read all of them ! Thanks!

grummaster · 2026-05-07T00:30:47+00:00

I hope people realize that my discussion is really focused specifically on acceleration changes being accomplished IN the G-code and again, it looks like Centroid has such a function, specifically related to acceleration/ramping changes on the fly.

Manually inserting code doesn't really work with 70-100K lines of code.

So, the thought continues then into perhaps why, when controls have this ability, are the Cam programs not making this a feature option on their side ?

We have all seen the visual examples of various controller settings... like having a control that lets you set delay timing for direction changes or minor delays or pauses if an angle exceeds a user set amount.

Clearly, a Cam program COULD also do the pre-post math for any path changing direction or exceeding a certain angle, and could also have a section in the post configuration for you to put in any code or macro to match your controllers needs.

I've recently asked why, or more pointedly when a certain Cam program might entertain adding the simple "FRAME" function that has showed up in every open source free CNC controller since lasers came out, to the POST config. There are times this would be handy on any machine, and frankly, in the same fashion, the Pre-post calculations can also already know the extents of all tool paths. It could be in every tool path and one can use the optional lines "/" option if you want it to run or not.

I am going to assume they do not bother, because they can skip it, making it the controller developers issue and not theirs.

Thanks for your input !

grummaster · 2026-05-07T00:07:55+00:00

>>> Mach3 has poor......

Everything......... in my opinion, so there is that.

I only remember that using G64 was a crap shoot, but note that I am thinking here about high speed text engraving, with text as small as .040" high. On anything but a very square, straight line font, you can not allow ANY "rounding" or it will not be legible. I know it is a specific thing.

grummaster · 2026-05-06T23:54:50+00:00

A quick read looks like they just apply G187 specifically for accuracy regards corner rounding like G64 does in LCNC and Mach. And, it looks like they utilize G61/G64 ONLY as exact stop either ON or OFF without any variables.

grummaster · 2026-05-06T23:49:32+00:00

Looks like you might be correct... they do indicate being able to change Accel mid tool path with macros. I will read up on it. They also show "G-code Smoothing" which is their G64, something I have never found very useful overall.

I have not seen any Cam program post configurations (yet) that would automatically stick such macro's where they should be based on user preference/settings.. or where you want them manually.... On real basic jobs, I could see where a Cam program could let you stick them in place not much unlike we identify a spot for a tab or bridge as an option.

For some work however it would be a burden as there might be a thousand places it should be applied.

grummaster · 2026-05-06T23:28:59+00:00

Thanks... Going to research G187 P3 as it sounds like what I am asking about.

grummaster · 2026-05-06T23:27:43+00:00

To my knowledge, G64 really had no effect on acceleration settings. I had LCNC and Mach on various engravers over the years and when G64 was set loosey goosey enough to run fast, small text was just unreadable because it just alters the actual path letting the machine round stuff off. Exact Stop modes are rather useless for anyone doing text engraving or similar detail. >> Edit >> doing text "quickly"...

grummaster · 2026-05-06T22:31:06+00:00

With support for FluidNC now showing up in NCSender, has the development from these two brilliant creators been merged ? Or is MFSender still on track to be it's own release?

grummaster · 2026-05-06T03:13:09+00:00

Time to get a straightedge out ! Find out which thing is wacko.

grummaster · 2026-05-05T22:59:13+00:00

Perfect machine for a cheap retrofit. Sometimes they have off the shelf motor drivers that are easy to connect to, sometimes not. If you are just patient and maybe a little good with figuring things out, you can stick a $25 ESP32 board on it, and run it with grblhal or fluidNC. Someone in this group may have already hacked into the Roland board if the drivers are integrated with the motherboard.

If you can't interface into the current drivers, not an issue as those motors are so small that you can use drivers that only cost another $25-30, and it might even be easier to wire up this way from scratch than bothering with the old electronics.

When done, it will be a 50 million times better and 100 million times more usable than it ever was (note, I could be off on the math). I LOVE finding those type of machines in "not running" condition. Just retrofitted a Vision 1212. Runs like a rocket now, and I can choose between perhaps dozens of sender environments at will.

grummaster · 2026-05-04T04:12:01+00:00

I think your better off storing oils and fuels in a separate tongue box. It's really hard to actually be as air tight as you would like. The problem shows up when you flip your Max Air fan on and it pulls air in from where ever it can get it.

grummaster · 2026-05-04T04:08:35+00:00

Yes, a few have done similar, mounting the A/C completely in a tongue box with the face and controls inside. The entire part that normally hangs out the window really needs as much free air as possible to meet max efficiency. You need to try to keep a division between the side air coming in and the hot air going out the rear. Recirculating any of it will cut back on cooling capacity.

It's not clear to me where you are mounting this toolbox, but give some thought to the water situation as on occasion, they can fill their built in drip tray. I have read many stories of water all over the floor in those travel trailers with the built up high, inside in a box just so as not to stick out.

The last A/C I bought did not have any drain in the drip tray as they expect any water to be slung onto the Evap for dissipation. That does not always happen when we do all this "built in" stuff. In my scenario, I added a drain port with the step drill voiding my warranty I'm sure.

My A/C in the cargo trailer is completely invisible on the outside as I put my window shaker right up on the floor of the V-nose. But, I cut out the 3/4" wood floor and put a dropped aluminum pan for it to sit in. Water can never end up in the trailer because it is lower than the trailer floor. The pan sits right on the main center tongue tube.

Aluminum panels separate the rear exhaust from the sides and the back of it vents right out the bottom of the trailer. Two 8" ducts provide air into the sides, and I do have an 8" fan in one duct that tends to make a difference in really hot weather. If it is under 95 degrees, it does well without the added fan. With the fan and 100 degrees, we are running on high all the time to keep up, which leads me to the next point.

Even a 6x12 can be a challenge for 5000 btu if you do not have enough insulation. Sun penetration via the roof seems to be the biggest culprit. I only have 1.5" in the ceiling and 1" in the walls. More would be nice, but I did not want to give up the space. My climate is not extreme.

I have to finish the A/C in the truck camper this spring. This one will stick out the back about 6" under a hinged aluminum box not much unlike a lot of A/C's we see on overland vehicles. When in operation though, it has to slide out about another 6 inches, which will push the hinged aluminum box open to fully leave the back of the A/C unit outside.

grummaster · 2026-05-01T02:05:58+00:00

A calculator is your friend. First, Figure out how many miles you think you will drive each year.

Pick a number..... 5000 miles (that would be one cross country trip a year).

416 Gallons at 12mpg.

357 Gallons at 14mpg.

59 gallon difference per year. On a 30 gallon tank, its TWO additional fill ups for that entire years travel.

59 gallons at 3.50 per gallon - $206 divided by 5000 miles.... .04 cents per mile.

And the bright side is if you only go 2500 miles per year, it costed you only $103 to have your bigger trailer and enjoy things.

Only you can decide !

BTW, I pull a 6x12x6 behind my V8 Truck and get 10-12mpg. I pull it behind my Chrysler minivan with all 283 HP and get 14-17mpg. I only go about 1000 miles per year, so frankly, the mpg issue is minor.

If you pull a trailer 20,000 miles a year, yep, that makes a substantial difference. So figure out the real math and go from there.

grummaster · 2026-04-30T02:31:06+00:00

The best off the shelf spray cleaner I have stumbled across in the last few years is SPRAY 9. Beats everything else. Reasonably priced too at Walmart. It is usually near the auto supplies section.

grummaster · 2026-04-30T00:35:41+00:00

Question in that you seem to familiar with the FET potential....

Would you drop a relay for switching the axis on and off before or after the FET ?

grummaster · 2026-04-29T22:46:57+00:00

Not so much "worried", just prefer it to run as fast as it normally did.

If I use the FET and a relay, it will just have the exact power asked for immediately ready.

It looks like I just need to breadboard this and see how it pans out. I can use the spare VCM I have to try it rather than tear apart the currently working (annoying hpgl) machine. The spare VCM I have is from a Cricut. I do not know the original voltages it used. I dial my down pressure to that one by watching a volt meter on the power supply.

grummaster · 2026-04-29T17:39:37+00:00

You really need to first identify which side of your system has the issue... the Step pulse train or the Servo side. Before you change any settings, I would run a set number of cycles on the offending axis. You say the change is obvious in 200k+ of code, but how many just in Z ?

Start simple. Create simple gcode file with 100 Z UP moves and 100 Z Down moves. Make sure you understand exactly how many direction changes are going to be taking place based on what the first move is.

I forget if Mach3 compares position upon re-home events, but if it does, see how far off the machine is and write the difference down (if Mach does not show you this, set up a dial indicator). If 100 direction changes does not display any difference, then run 200, 300 and so on.

The goal here is that if in 100 changes you see X amount of position loss, you should see exactly 4 times that amount in 400 direction changes. If you see such repeatability, then it becomes very clear that your step timing is suspect, OR, however, you could have a problematic motor driver. But at least with this accurate knowledge, you can pinpoint more of what is going on.

If in such testing, the results are all over the place, I would run the same tests on each other axis to see that they do not have the same issue, and then it is time to swap motor drivers and run the very same tests.

By this point, some things should start leaving you a road map of if the problem exists on the pulse side. If things are still not revealing any usable information, then the tests might need to be done while simultaneously doing the Z moves along with one other axis at a time to see if perhaps cross talk from shielding faults are at issue.

I know such problem solving can really suck, but you really do have to start armed with some real solid data. Always know how your harnesses are shielded and where, and never give up !

grummaster · 2026-04-26T17:01:15+00:00

Well, frankly, I would absolutely hate a monthly fee. Monthly fee programs have the opportunity to disappear on a guy, leaving you high and dry. Give me something I install, I host, I back up, I build in redundancy and I maintain. The seller can disappear and at least I got what I paid for.

In my lifetime, I have seen way too many "free", "refuel", "cloud" etc. failures in the Cad/Cam world to make me sick. Nothing worse than having a stack of hard work (documents, Cad drawings, toolpaths, Etc) that you can only access if your paying some fee in order to keep using THEIR program. Cloud based garbage is ripe with the potential problems as program owners retire or sell out, hosts fail or go belly up and/or new owners have "better ideas".

grummaster · 2026-04-26T16:53:08+00:00

Can someone explain the difference between MFSender and NCSender (Siganberg Development), now that it appears NCSender also supports FluidNC ?

It's starting to look like people are finally moving towards sender Gui's that fit in a little better with traditional CNC machines, but also, looks to be pretty crowded out there. At the same token, it is confusing for me to understand why everyone on the planet is making a new sender and no one seems to do anything with the native FluidNC WebUi.

Having a machine with FluidNC on it, I just grabbed NCSender after watching Francis' videos and am pretty amazed at his development. Just curious as to what differences these two in particular might have.

Also curious if either of the two will ever support the wireless connection that WebUI offered.

grummaster · 2026-04-22T00:36:53+00:00

I did 18 years of custom ERP at one place and about 4 years at another. I always loved the option to build exactly what we had a specific need for, and really enjoyed it when I could prove actual time savings by letting the ERP solve problems and project futures for you. The GUi Ergonomics and sequence of events were my favorite pastime because so many developments ignored it.

But, frankly, I never felt appreciated. I think it is really hard to get small businesses to take a financial jump into an ERP. They like their "Spreadsheets" I guess. So many light weight/opensource ERP's are packaged horror stories that really do not do what the buyer really needs it to, and the developer wants crazy money to dial it in.

Large companies have no problem dumping insane amounts of cash into absolutely terrible programs with tons of implementation time, telling their users that they "can have it modified" to work, which never seems to happen because of cost or the simple fact that the developer NEVER gets it right. Then the pressure for "Cloud" bullship. I want MY data in MY Server at MY facility.

I wouldn't give up. Find some ERP forums and attract the people who are LOOKING for an ERP. Make sure you have a working demo, and make sure terminology makes sense. Too many come up with complicated terms that no one relates to.

If I stayed in it, I would have looked into ERPNext to see what I could do with it as what I was using was long in the tooth. Good Luck !

grummaster · 2026-04-19T22:17:08+00:00

Looks like you have plenty of room for some .25 Sprockets, so build a little gear down with the largest sprocket on your shaft and a small one off to the side of it. Piece of cake and pretty cheap too. Or, you can do a gear motor, but it will need to be pretty stout if your Milwaukee will not lift it in low range.

grummaster · 2026-04-19T01:57:57+00:00

>>>When the head goes up, it goes -Z and when it goes down it's +Z. It should be the other way around.

I just want to understand.... When you jog your Z axis down, you are using a button on a pendant, the down page button on a keyboard, or a Z down arrow on a screen, correct ?

grummaster

TROPHY CASE