Thinking about this thread reminded me how complicated some things that should be really simple have become.
In the mid 1970s, I had a Chevy 3/4 ton pickup with a 11 ft camper in the bed. The camper originally shared the truck battery (mainly for a few lights), an idea that did not seem too good to me. I bought a battery and a box and mounted it beside the camper in the truck bed. I then purchased, at an auto parts store, a starter relay (solenoid) for an old car. I wired it to the ignition circuit so that whenever the ignition was on the relay was closed. So the alternator (it may have been a generator back then) charged both batteries. But when ignition was off, they were totally isolated. There were no trombones, coronets, birds or other animals involved. If I should ever leave the lights on (etc) in the truck, I carried a small jumper wire to connect the solenoids coil to the house battery, This then closed the relay and allowed the house battery to start the truck.
I also carried a battery charger and jumper cables for worst case scenarios. I still do that.
Why are today's systems better? To me it just seems way more complicated.
All I can see is that is takes the human out of the operation and thus the human hasn't a clue what is going on unless he is a musician who belongs to audubon so he knows about trombones and birds.
I'm guessing a trombetta is an in-development trombone that is still in beta mode.
Ken
Thor Forums
