Blog

Van Conversion: Part 12 - Internet and bling

In order to accommodate working from the van better, I decided to install a 4G antenna and WiFi router. The idea is that, while a phone does work very well, a dedicated antenna outside the Faraday cage that is a van would improve the chances of actually getting a signal vs a phone.

The antenna is a Poynting MIMO-3-12, which is a 2x2 MIMO 2G/3G/4G/LTE/5G antenna. The router is a Huawei B535. There is a small irony in that the router has a 4x4 antenna, which is faster than 2x2, but it isn't quite as strong.

Installing this did require another hole in the roof...

Installation

Area prepped

Fresh hole

Antenna placed

![Antenna cable dropped in and route in insulation cut](https://uploads.robware.uk/Blog%20Images/Van%2

Read more...

Automatically making tickets in Jira for updating .NET packages

Keeping your project dependencies up to date over the lifetime of a project can be a real burden, especially when you're working as part of a team. In order to solve the problem of who takes ownership of keeping packages up to date, I sought to create a way of automatically creating tickets in Jira, my current team's project management tool.

To achieve this I decided to have a bash script run as a scheduled job within GitLab (my teams's current source control and CI/CD tool).

Here is the script to do it (warning, I'm not much of a bash scripter):

#!/bin/bash

# Environment variables:
# JIRA_USERNAME: The user which will be making the tickets
# JIRA_API_TOKEN: API token for the user - https://support.atlassian.com/atlassian-account/docs/manage-api-tokens-for-your-atlassian-account/
# PROJECT: The Jira initialism for your project
# ISSUE_TYPE: What type of issue it is (E.g "Task")
# STATUS_ID: Which column it should end up in (E.g "To Do", "Refined") - https://<jir

Read more...

Van Conversion: Part 11 - Kitchen Stage 1

Sorry this update has taken so long to make it out, but this happened:

Engine gone

Yeah. The van had an engine swap. There were a series of issues which made it more economical long-term to get a younger engine with fewer miles.

Issues were thus:

• The turbo was on its way out
• Oil leak
• Oil pressure warning
• Coolant leak
• The cam belt needed replacing, which requires dropping the engine anyway

So, given the engine was going to get dropped to replace the cam belt, I figured that replacing the engine was the route to go down given the other issues.

The old engine

On top of this the gearbox also died on me and that needed replaced. I'd rather it didn't happen at the same time... Naturally having to organise this and source parts and stuff took quite a long time. Finding an engine was super hard and finding someone local to

Read more...

Van Conversion: Part 10 - The Shower

I thought the last post was a big one, but I never imagined this one to be such a mission. This part of the build was done in two stages; one to get a usable toilet and shower for going away on holiday in summer, and then finishing it all off.

Bed partition

So the build is being done from the back to the front, as the design hangs off the bed frame as a core structural component. The first part to this is the partition separating the "bedroom" from the rest of the space. This also acts as the walls for the garage.

First step is to template the wall of the van

Cut and test fit the first stage of the partition

Allow access to the bed

Give it some shape

![Fill in the other side](https://uploa

Read more...

Van Conversion: Part 9 - Bed, walls, and ceiling

This is a big one. These tasks were all completed in parallel to each other. I'm going to try and group things together in some coherent order, but the images will not always be presented in chronological order.

The Bedroom

A prerequisite of creating the bedroom is to panel up the garage. For this I used the existing ply lining that came with the van.

Existing lining

Chopped in half

Bedroom panel

Both panels screwed in place

Plywood strip to cover the beam

To support the bed there are two lengths of aluminium angle, 50x50x5mm thick, on each side of the van which are bolted to the main beam using rivnuts. I used existing bolts

Read more...

Van Conversion: Part 8 - Insulation

This one has been months in the making. Not only is this one of the larger undertakings, but there were also stock and weather issues to contend with (which I'll detail later).

Cab

So a long time ago, back in Part 1, I stripped the cab of its headlining and shelf.

No headliner

Well, a good 4 months later I finally started working on insulating it. For this I used sheets of 10mm closed cell foam. This also serves to act as a sound dampener on the van metal, as well as thermal insulation. I used 3 layers of this, taking it to 30mm total. Due to the flexibility of the material and curvature of the van it was hard to put these sheets down in a straight line.

First layer

Read more...

Van Conversion: Part 7 - Mounting the tanks

Time to free up some space from inside the house and put the fresh water tank, waste water tank, and calorifier under the chassis.

Prep

To hold the tanks under the chassis I'm used M8 hook bolts, aluminium square tube, washers, and nylock nuts.

One of six sets of mounting hardware

I cut 3 330mm lengths of aluminium square tube, and drilled 2 8mm holes through each end to accommodate the hook bolts.

Raised the side of the van

Redundant handbrake cable mount for European vans

The chassis comes with the handbrake cable mount/guide for both sides of the van, but it needs to go to make way for the fresh tank.

Mount removed

Read more...

Van Conversion: Part 6 - Rear door handle relocation

One of the key things I want to do is be able to open the door from the bed. The door handle, in its factory position, will be hidden away in the garage so it need to be moved. There's only one other feasible place for the handle, which is the top of the door. Luckily this is where I want it anyway.

Door drilled and rivnuts installed

I had to get a 9mm drill bit specially for this.

Handle dry fit

It feels much sturdier here than its usual location.

Next I took some road bicycle brake cable, 3D printed some adapters, and strapped it all together.

End stop for the handle

See it's chamfered hole to allow cable flex

Read more...

Van Conversion: Part 5 - The floor

Sorry for the 2 month gap in posts. There's been a lot of little bits going on with the van like servicing it and changing the brakes and discs, wiring up additional rear view cameras, and other stuff which I've not documented. A lot of that time has also been spent deliberating on parts, particularly what floor to go with. I went for Altro Orchestra in the colour "Fusion".

Prep

First thing to do was rip out the old ply floor. This required removing a lot of screws, many of which were rusty and wouldn't unscrew. When the screws wouldn't come out the only option was to go hulk on the ply and rip it out with brute force.

Revealing a lot of dust...

Swept up

Holes and screws left behind

Read more...

Van Conversion: Part 4 - Bed frame, roof rack, and solar panels

Bed frame

A bit premature, this one, but because I'm going to be dealing with the aluminium profile for the roof rack I'm getting it out the way.

Not much in the way of progress pics, as it's just bolting aluminium profile together, but here's the plan: 45mm aluminium profile bolted together using core screws and brackets for maximum strength, with a corner on each side at the back to make room for the rear pillars.

Cutting to length

Assembling the rear section, which will go around the pillars

Assembled, with 6ft human for scale

Test placement

The corners on cut profile are surprisingly sharp, so in order to protect the paint of the van, and other things, I designed and pri

Read more...