Benz World Blog » Van

Roshani Everett

Jason Benz — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 12:19:13 +0000

This is multi-instrumentalist Roshani opening the Delta stage on the first day of Bluesfest 2022. The level of energy and excitement from artists and audience at that first post-covid festival was beyond anything I have seen before, and that includes a dozen Glastonbury festivals.

I am cautious using the word “talent” when describing musicians, as it ignores the hard work they put in. Roshani has a rich, powerful, soulful voice which could be the star of any band, but her talents don’t end there.

While travelling and living in her van she developed a one woman show with the creative use of loop pedals and various music tech. Roshani is the modern version of a one-woman band. (image download here)

Roshani will return one last time for the final Byron Bay Bluesfest in Easter 2025. Tickets are available via the Bluesfest Website.

UPDATE: In 2026 Bluesfest will be the last in a line of major festivals closed from increasing headwinds. This began before covid, with the previous state government’s legislative “war on festivals“. The new government risks letting this trend continue through inaction. However, you can change this. If 20,000 signatures are received, the NSW Parliament must debate Bluesfest’s future. #savebluesfest if you live in the state Sign up here. For everyone else, there is an international petition on change.org Sign up here.

UPDATE: Due to the success of Bluesfest 2025, its future has been confirmed. Roshani will return to the festival in 2026. Tickets are available via the Bluesfest Website.

Byron Bay Bluesfest 2026
1st artist reveal

Solar Future

Jason Benz — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 13:01:51 +0000

Today marks 1-year living off-grid. It has taken a decade to become independent of Australia’s fossil-fueled electricity. The solar roof provides all my power and most of my water. Until I learn to forage, one day a month is still needed to restock the van. Returning to civilization burns petrol, but this may change one day?

I know of (1,2,3) prototype solar-powered campervans already on the road. To make them viable with today’s solar panels, they use various extension systems to triple the roof areas, when the vans are stationary. I have a different design solution in mind, with a lower centre of gravity.

Power storage is a dilemma. Building a DIY Lithium or Hydrogen fuel cell has fire risks I am uncomfortable with. I hope a less dangerous option becomes available before my dino juice engine loses all its horses.

The speed I travel, maybe a small panel with large storage is enough, this is a guess. To get some real numbers into the design, I need to know the longest drive between bush camps (with suitable non-shaded areas to recharge) that are needed to complete a full year of seasonal migrations. Now the Queensland border is fully open, I can audit a weather led journey for a future zero-carbon route.

Remote Spot

Jason Benz — Sun, 04 Jul 2021 10:27:51 +0000

I have waited two years to visit this remote spot on Weilwan land. Each night I watch the majestic galactic emu rise in the Australian sky. I planned to explore this area last year until I heard there was a mountain of blueberries about to be wasted due to a shortage of backpackers. By the time the harvest finished, it was summer and too hot to visit. Winter is the perfect time of year to go bush. I arrived on the day a 2-week partial stay at home order was called in the populated parts of New South Wales. I have not been near the covid outbreak area for 5 months but my driving licence address is in lockdown. I decided to stay isolated in the Outback, and hope I don’t run into any officious cops.

Free Photoshop

Jason Benz — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 03:19:52 +0000

Back in 2008, at the height of the global financial crisis, I did what every parent fears for their child, I quit my well paid stable job and started a career in the creative industries. In 2009 I dedicated myself to the mastery of Photoshop. Back then Adobe had just introduced monthly subscription payments but you could still buy it for life, so I did. It was not cheap, costing about the same as 4 years of subscription, but I used it every day for the next 10 years.

Fast forward 12 years and my Windows 7 version of Photoshop on my equally old laptop is on its last legs. I was loathed to switch to a subscription having already paid a lump sum, and Photoshop has not changed much since CS5 apart from switching to Windows 10. Fortunately, I had a few stock photos at an agency called Fotolia, which Adobe bought in 2014. My images were transferred to Adobe Stock and they offered a bonus of free Photoshop if you exceeded 150 sales in 2020. I added about 100 images between building a solar roof on my van and the start of the blueberry harvest. It was enough to qualify for a free 1-year Photoshop subscription. My new efficient laptop coupled with half a kilowatt of solar means I should no longer have to ration fossil-free photoshopping to a couple of hours each month.

Extra image info: Wood Table & Control Panel

Update: Adobe repeated the bonus scheme in 2021 and 2022. The original batch are still getting 150 sales before the end of May. This means 100 good photos on Adobe Stock will get you a perpetual photoshop license. One which is renewed for free every year before it expires.

Solar Roof

Jason Benz — Wed, 02 Sep 2020 04:58:39 +0000

Hopefully, this will answer questions from the last post. The new solar panel is 2mm thick and comes bonded to a flat flexible fibreglass sheet. Its electrical properties are too different from the other panel to be connected in series or parallel without losing power. Each panel has it’s own charge controller and battery. If I need to give the engine battery a boost I can connect it to the home battery via the control panel. Days of taxing the alternator are behind me. Water is now the limiting factor for living in the wild and I have a wood powered still to clean river water in an emergency.

To attach the panel to the van, I learned from the experiences of the solar teams on the BWSC. The easy way would be to glue the panel to a sheet of plywood and attach that to the sidewalls. As well as adding weight high up, this approach also stops the panel from dispersing heat from the sun. This increases it’s electrical resistance and reduces the power from the panel. To avoid this I made a curved internal keel to take the weight and attached the panel around the edges to minimise weight and maximise cooling. The solar panel effectively doubles as the ceiling and the structural strength comes from the sidewalls. Like me, the old van has a bit of sag and the new roof strengthens the existing roof replacement wood frame from the original conversion and straightens the vans back.

Lockdown Project

Jason Benz — Mon, 31 Aug 2020 00:05:32 +0000

This is Macquarie Woods near Bathurst. Although it is surrounded by monoculture pine forests the campsite itself has a variety of trees and is one of the best state forests to camp in. Due to border restrictions, my travels will be limited to New South Wales in 2020 but this still gives me enough choices now many of the sites closed from the Australian fires have started to reopen.

During the lockdown, I have been converting my van from a disintegrating pop-top to a sturdy hard-top. The new roof is designed to improve my sustainability and productivity. A second solar panel increases my photon collection from 150 to 500watts. It has a gentle slope and curve to allow for rainwater collection. The six eye-level portholes which open inwards and silently are perfect for photographing wildlife. It is a big improvement on the old zips which scared off many birds before I could snap a shot.

Mark Four

Jason Benz — Thu, 09 May 2019 02:36:46 +0000

This is the fourth generation power board I have built for the van. It has been an exercise in iterative design. Fortunately, the blue gum chopping boards, which each stage has used, are easy to replace. The first, second and third designs all worked but after using them for a while I decided to remove the features I did not use and add others which might be useful.

The previous design had the unplanned issue of connecting the engine battery and home battery together if you turned them both on at the same time. This was sometimes of use when I needed to charge the home battery from the alternator. In this design, I added a button to connect them deliberately. The same button also allows you to use the USB and 12-volt chargers sockets on both sides even if you only want to use one battery.

After wiring it up I discovered the unplanned bonus of seeing how much current is flowing between the batteries via the chargers. This board also provides other useful data including the current I am getting from the solar panel. This has been a mystery for years as even the solar controller display does not give this reading.

I have also built some custom shelves to maximise storage in the van. These improvements should give me the ability to survive a whole month photographing in remote locations before needing resupply. This will come in handy in the second half of 2019 as I hope to be driving across many Australian deserts on my way to the start of World Solar Challenge in Darwin.

Mango Biscuit

Jason Benz — Fri, 21 Jul 2017 10:36:24 +0000

One morning in 2015 I woke to the sound of my neighbours’ mango tree being cut down. I asked the team cutting up the tree where the wood would go? When they said landfill, I asked for some. This is part of what they called a biscuit. It has been drying for 2 years and is ready to be shaped into a table for the van. Last weekend I used a wood router to make the outline of Australia so you can run your finger around and feel the coastline. In keeping with the egalitarian nation, I positioned the centre between three states, Queensland, South Australia and New South Wales.

Mark Three

Jason Benz — Tue, 03 Nov 2015 10:06:23 +0000

This is the third generation power control board in our van. The first and second design worked but I have tried to simplify the controls. I am a novice when it comes to electronics however building these boards have been essential to photography on the road, as camera batteries and laptops always need charging. Unfortunately, I may have oversimplified it as switching on either battery now appears to connect both batteries together via the amp meter. I am not sure if there is an alternative button wiring or a fix with diodes, and if so which type of diodes? Any suggestions?

Update: The Mark Four

Solo Road

Jason Benz — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 12:12:22 +0000

This is Coopernook Forest Park in New South Wales, Australia. Normally Karen takes a photo of our van at every place we stay. As she is not here this time I thought I should keep up the tradition. In the small hours of Monday morning, I dropped off Karen at Sydney Airport. She has just started a 10-hour stopover in Dubai before her flight back to the UK. We have been getting annual return flights from the UK since we first arrived in Australia in 2011. I am not joining Karen this year to qualify for Australian Citizenship at the end of 2015. This is the first time in over a decade I have been travelling without Karen and it feels different. The last time was the lap of Jamaica in 2004. I was in the final stages of planning that trip when we first met and discovered a mutual love for travel so we arranged to journey through Cuba together and had a magical time. I am looking forward to her return to the land down under.