This week I built a little home on a field, investigated a faster way of feeding Vanilla’s battery, gave the wheels their own soundtrack and took 164,280 eggs on a night out. Somewhere in amongst that, the website decided it wanted to become a magazine. Seven days at NIX: apparently sitting quietly is still beyond us.
The lovely part is that the machinery and the moments are starting to meet. All those chargers, awnings, playlists and photographs have a purpose beyond giving me something else to fiddle with. They make the ordinary days more interesting—and the days away feel properly ours. This extra midweek edition looks back from 7 to 14 October. Some stories overlap Sunday’s issue because this is a rolling seven-day diary; the newer chapters have already moved the plot along.
CHAPTERI spent the first part of this power adventure asking how much electricity I could carry. This week the more useful question became how quickly I could put it back. The Fogstar has made using energy feel less precious; the little 10A Blue Smart has made replacing a sizeable chunk of it feel rather leisurely.
The published test in The Ten-Amp Bottleneck is the turning point. Across 9–10 October, the SmartShunt showed a drop from 98.4% to 45.8%, followed by recovery towards 90% with solar and the existing charger, without an Orion contribution. Nothing collapsed. The experiment exposed time as the limitation. That is a much better reason to investigate an upgrade than merely spotting another blue box on the internet.
[READ THE FULL STORY → the real test behind the ten-amp bottleneck](/blog/the-ten-amp-bottleneck)
The next charger story explored the 30A IP22 route: faster recovery, Bluetooth visibility and a different set of installation demands from the rugged IP65. Then Professor Spark turned his attention to the 25A IP65 alternative. These are two candidates in the published investigation, not two newly fitted chargers. The distinction matters: a promising current figure still has to become a properly connected, measured result aboard Vanilla.
[READ THE FULL STORY → the 30A Blue Smart upgrade investigation](/blog/three-times-the-current-vanilla-s-blue-smart-charger-upgrade)
[READ THE FULL STORY → Professor Spark and the 25-amp question](/blog/professor-spark-s-blue-box-theory)
Underneath it all is the Fogstar story itself. The battery was installed on 5 October; the article published in this window explains why that earlier change matters now. Fridge, lights and the Webasto’s electrical needs have a dedicated lithium home, while the Jackerys remain separate reserves. The aim is wonderfully untechnical: go somewhere, stay warm, stop checking the percentage every time the fridge makes a noise.
[READ THE FULL STORY → why the Fogstar changed Vanilla’s ambitions](/blog/fogstar-105ah-the-day-vanilla-cut-the-cable)
CHAPTEROld Dairy Farm gave the whole project somewhere to live. Caroline took the campsite’s 16A hook-up and provided the comfortable centre of camp. Vanilla stayed off-grid. Between them, the Faros Air 3 became a sleeping room, with a mattress, lantern light and the Dreo heater taking its electricity from Caroline.
That division of jobs is what I like most. I didn’t ask Vanilla’s battery to impersonate a campsite supply just to prove a point. We used the available power where it made sense and kept the van independent. The result was a small, warm world assembled from vehicles, canvas and a few very good decisions.
It is also the answer to anyone wondering why I get so involved in the equipment. The equipment is there so that an evening can stop being about equipment. At Cropredy, it did.
[READ THE FULL STORY → Caroline, Vanilla and our Cropredy camp](/blog/old-dairy-farm-cropredy-caroline-vanilla-and-a-little-world-of-our-own)
CHAPTERNaturally, once the van worked better, I found something else to stare at. The champagne LV4s and chunky Grabbers have made the original grey calipers rather conspicuous. Project Orange asks whether Vee Dub aluminium covers could provide the finishing detail I want without the preparation involved in painting them.
This remains a proposal. The article is clear that the calipers have not been painted, and that wheel size alone cannot prove the required spoke clearance. The look is easy to imagine; the physical fit still needs checking. Even I have to concede that a tape measure gets the casting vote when the decoration lives beside the brakes.
[READ THE FULL STORY → Project Orange and the caliper-cover fit question](/blog/vanilla-s-next-orange-obsession-the-vee-dub-caliper-cover-project)
CHAPTERThe Drift reflection puts the current upgrades in perspective. Europe was the earlier journey; this week’s published story looks at what it taught me afterwards. Roughly 4,000 miles across twelve countries proved the little grey van’s basic idea. The refinements that followed are about being able to stop somewhere good and explore from a base, with Torque extending the reach beyond the parking place.
That is the useful shift: less pressure to keep moving merely to support life in the van, more choice about when to move because I actually want to.
[READ THE FULL STORY → what the European Drift taught me about Vanilla](/blog/the-drift-changed-everything)
Then came the other sort of road story. Egg takes the familiar working loop and makes its hidden scale visible: Cannock, North Scarle, Yorkshire, Widnes and the way home, with 164,280 eggs travelling through the dark. Around 275 working miles sounds substantial enough. Thirteen thousand six hundred and ninety dozen eggs makes it sound faintly absurd.
The details make it human. Sandbach was a comfort stop; Stafford Services was fuel. Behind the enormous supermarket machinery is still a bloke who needs the loo and a truck that needs diesel. I liked that the story kept both scales in view.
[READ THE FULL STORY → 164,280 eggs and the night-shift loop](/blog/egg)
CHAPTERCropredy also left me photographs from above. The drone-photo post is a small visual companion to the campsite story: fewer words, another way of seeing the weekend. After all the talk about how camp worked at ground level, it is lovely to step back and let the pictures carry it.
[READ THE FULL STORY → the weekend’s Cropredy drone photographs](/blog/some-drone-photos-from-cropredy)
Flight Archaeology went in the opposite direction, into a forgotten Milford log from 27 August 2017. Telemetry brought back a flight, its battery behaviour, warnings and 28 photographs. This is a historical reconstruction, not a suggestion to repeat the old route or distances today. What stays with me is the original impulse: put a camera somewhere I couldn’t stand and bring back a different view.
The cleverest thing about an old CSV is that it can unexpectedly turn into a memory. Apparently NIX was already hiding in the numbers.
[READ THE FULL STORY → the Milford flight log that brought 2017 back](/blog/nix-flight-archaeology-milford-27-august-2017)
CHAPTERThe site has acquired an enormous soundtrack. NIX WHEELS ties the music directly to Vanilla’s visual personality: machinery, road, tyre, orange detail and motion. Starting with Depeche Mode’s Behind the Wheel makes perfect sense; ending with Gat Decor’s Passion lets the feeling take over from the literal theme. A wheel photograph has somehow become a two-hour journey. I approve of this escalation.
[READ THE FULL STORY → NIX WHEELS: Orange, Rubber & Road](/nix-music/nix-wheels)
The electrical department even has music now. [NIX HIGH VOLTAGE](/music/nix-high-voltage-e9883d) gives the week’s chargers and circuits a synth-and-rave companion, while [NIX: Long Haul](/music/nix-long-haul-05ef6a) belongs to the road and [Underworld v Leftfield](/music/underworld-v-leftfield-2-hour-soundclash-9434f1) supplies the heavier electronic pulse. These releases make the music feel part of NIX life rather than a separate shelf of recommendations.
The newest STORIES article gives those different parts of life a bigger canvas. Text, photographs, galleries, video and maps can have their own rhythm, with existing stories carried forward and the phone layout considered alongside desktop. The six main gateways and the deeper A–Z are explained there too. The point is simple: a photograph should be allowed to make an entrance, and a technical detail should not have to wrestle half a page of prose for attention.
[READ THE FULL STORY → the new NIX STORIES magazine layout](/blog/nix-stories-this-is-what-the-new-nix-looks-like)
CHAPTERCropredy wins. There were louder headlines and bigger numbers, but the Old Dairy Farm story is where the upgrades earned their place. Caroline supplied the comforts, Vanilla stayed independent and the Faros turned the space between them into somewhere worth being.
That is the bit I want to remember when I next get lost comparing chargers. A warmer night, an easier evening and a little place of our own. The specification sheet did its job when I stopped thinking about it.
[READ THE FULL STORY → this week’s highlight at Old Dairy Farm](/blog/old-dairy-farm-cropredy-caroline-vanilla-and-a-little-world-of-our-own)
CHAPTERThe rest of the music shelf is gloriously unruly. [NIX Punky Reggae Party](/music/nix-punky-reggae-party) and [PROPER NIX — No Genre, No Rules](/music/proper-nix-no-genre-no-rules-b34826) bring punk, reggae, ska and dub into the same room. [RUN-DMC: Two Hours of Kings](/music/run-dmc-two-hours-of-kings-5a1c15) adds old-school force, while [Michael Jackson — Two Hours of the King](/music/nix-michael-jackson-two-hours-of-the-king-97d279) takes the bigger pop-show route. No committee has attempted to make my taste tidier.
Festival memories have two perspectives in [Dubbed Out — Two Years, One Field](/music/nix-dubbed-out-two-years-one-field-dab177) and [Three Years Dubbed Out](/music/nix-three-years-dubbed-out-4657f3), moving from familiar singalongs towards house and rave. For a longer, less hurried listen there is [Dire Straits: The Best 2 Hours Ever](/music/dire-straits-the-best-2-hours-ever-6f8c3e); for the electronic evening, [I Feel Love After Dark](/music/nix-i-feel-love-after-dark-642091) follows the sequencers. [Classic 80s 12-Inch Remixes](/music/classic-80s-12-inch-remixes-4b2b4d) has a published listening page too, although its own description still calls the playlist a draft. [Small Bose, Big Sound](/music/playlist-d98f5b) turns attention to what a little speaker can reveal in a familiar recording.
The kitchen contributed [NIX PAYLOAD: Elvis Juice & Cheddar White](/blog/nix-payload-elvis-juice-cheddar-white), a PN100 experiment with mature cheddar and ketchup providing the flavour. I’m leaving the ingredient quantities in the original recipe rather than pretending this diary is a new recipe test. It belongs here because the week’s appetite for tinkering clearly extended beyond the passenger seat.
And [Vanilla Unplugged’s Jackery-as-hook-up proposal](/blog/vanilla-unplugged-turning-my-jackery-2000-v2-into-my-own-electric-hook-u) is still an investigation worth reading alongside the simpler charger-to-Fogstar route. Feeding the van’s mains installation is a separate proposition, with earthing and RCD behaviour identified in the original as needing proper testing. A clever diagram is not a completed validation.
CHAPTERThe published projects already give me plenty to follow. The next useful chapter in the charger investigation would be measured recovery aboard Vanilla—actual current, background loads and time, rather than another theoretical division on Professor Spark’s blackboard. Project Orange needs its physical clearance check. The new STORIES page is explicitly a test bed for adding photographs and other media, and Flight Archaeology has already said there are more old logs to explore.
Those are continuing threads, not promises that every job will be finished by Sunday. I’d rather come back with something that genuinely happened than announce an imaginary itinerary.
Until then, follow a link, turn up something good and have a wander around NIX. I’ll be back next Sunday.
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NIX LISTENS / PLAYLIST
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NIX MUSIC / EDITORIAL
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