Firefly Vegatouch Mira

About the same time I purchased the Coach Proxy device to remotely control our coach, I also purchased a Firefly Vegatouch Mira device, that does much the same thing.

They each have pros and cons; the Mira device interfaces with an actual iOS app, with a more attractive UI, whereas the Coach Proxy has a local web interface. The Mira device communicates via Bluetooth, so is local to the coach, whereas Coach Proxy uses Wi-Fi, so can be accessed remotely — but the Wi-Fi connection can be less reliable.

The features are a bit different, too, e.g. the Mira app can rearrange the home screen a little, but Coach Proxy has presets to quickly restore a state.

And Mira was from a commercial company, vs a hobbyist project for Coach Proxy.

So, having both seemed like the best of both worlds.

However, the experience with Mira wasn’t as seamless as I’d like.

But first, installation of the hardware. The hardware component is a small box, about the size of a deck of cards, with a port for the Spyder multiplex network of the coach. It just needed to be plugged in anywhere on the coach. I happened to have a spare port behind the fridge, accessible via a panel outside (you can see more pics of this area in my Spyder shades issue post). So I connected it there; the orange cable leads to the device:

Panel behind fridge

A closer look:

Vegatouch device

To enable the app, one long-presses on the coach floorplan option in the main Spyder panel (which I had previously upgraded), to reveal a secret coach models screen, which includes a button to enable the mobile app, amongst other options:

Coach settings

Once that is done, a Mobile App button appears in the settings:

Mobile app button

The Mobile App settings, before connecting the device:

Mobile app settings

After installing the Vegatouch Mira app, it installed an update:

Installing update

But the app mis-identified our coach as an Allegro Open Road?! That’s not right:

Allegro Open Road?!

Of course, with it misidentifying the coach, most of the controls were wrong, and didn’t work. I tried re-installing the config, to no avail:

Installing update

I spent several months emailing the relevant person at Firefly every week, trying to get a fix. That was very frustrating, as he repeatedly said they were working on it, with no progress. I somehow managed to get the app to show a screen to choose a different floorplan, but the code I got from Firefly to choose the right one didn’t work. I eventually asked for a refund, and nothing happened on that either.

But I kept trying. After power cycling the entire coach for another reason, I managed to get that floorplan screen to appear again, and this time the code worked; I was finally able to set it to the correct model:

Bus settings

Yay!

Though it still isn’t perfect. Several of the pages aren’t quite right, e.g. on the home screen it shows LPG, which our coach doesn’t have, and the shade master and entry door lock controls don’t work:

Home page

The Lights page seems to work:

Lights page

But nothing on the Climate page works — our coach doesn’t have Spyder-controlled climate, so that isn’t surprising, though the Aqua-Hot controls should work, but don’t:

Climate page

On the Cockpit Shades page, nothing works:

Shades page

And on the Coach Shades page, the master and driver side don’t work, and the passenger side is reversed (goes down when pressing up):

Shades page

The Power pages are also mostly non-functional:

Power page

So after all that time, the app is still a little useless, though slightly better than it was before. The features that do work, like the tank levels and lights, are enough to justify keeping the app and device, though I wish more of the features worked correctly. I will likely continue using Coach Proxy most of the time, but for occasions when that is offline (due to Wi-Fi issues), having Mira as an alternative could be useful.

I would not recommend Mira for other owners of 2017-era coaches; Coach Proxy works much better. On more recent coaches, it might be more satisfactory. But I hold out hope that Firefly will improve the app, and maybe eventually fix those issues.

Travel from Wheatland, Wyoming to Longmont, Colorado

We drove our coach 155 miles, about 2 hour of driving, from Wheatland, Wyoming to Longmont, Colorado, with a stop to repair a leaking tire.

The map route, heading south:

Map route

Heading south on I-25:

I-25

Green hills and cell towers (I appreciate the good cell reception down the freeway):

Green hills

Domes:

Domes

Interesting rocks:

Interesting rocks

Man, horse, dog artwork on a hill:

Man, horse, dog artwork

Mowing ahead:

Mowing ahead

Rain:

Rain

Expect fog… yep indeed:

Expect fog

We stopped at Little America of Cheyenne:

Little America

To visit Rocky Mountain Truck Center, to diagnose and repair a slowly leaking tire on our coach:

Rocky Mountain Truck Center

While they looked at it, we headed up to the Little America resort for lunch, passing a Sinclair Oil dinosaur dressed as a cowboy:

Sinclair cowboy dinosaur

Little America buffet restaurant:

Little America restaurant

We cut lunch a bit short, as they needed us to jack up our coach, using the leveling jacks. We raised only the driver side, to keep the passenger side wheels on the ground — raising all of the rear wheels off the ground is dangerous, as that’s the parking brake:

Jacked up coach

They found and marked the location of a nail in the tire, and worked on removing the tire:

Removing tire

I didn’t get a close-up picture of the nail in the tire, but here’s a zoomed crop:

Nail in tire

The inner tire of the dual pair, and the rear jack:

Inner tire

Paladin sitting on the driver seat:

Paladin

The repaired tire re-installed:

Repaired tire

After getting that repaired ($70 total), we fueled up at the slowest truck stop ever. Usually truck stops have high-speed pumps, but this one was not. It was taking so long, we decided to fuel from both sides for the first time ever:

Fueling both sides

The main pump, as usual:

Fueling both sides

The secondary pump, on the passenger side; it is activated by the main pump:

Fueling both sides

Continuing south, some hilltop buffalo artwork:

Buffalo artwork

Budweiser factory:

Budweiser factory

Paladin in the steps:

Paladin

Roadworks:

Roadworks

A fascinating concrete-laying machine (concrete freeways are the worst):

Roadworks

Our destination, St Vrain State Park:

St Vrain State Park

Entrance station:

St Vrain State Park

Due to the tire excursion, we arrived later than usual, so the entrance station was closed. We used the “iron ranger” (as the rangers call it) to purchase a couple of Colorado state park annual passes (one for the coach, one for the truck):

Iron ranger

Though when we talked with the ranger the next day to exchange the temporary ones, it turned out that we should have bought one, with a half-price add-on for the second vehicle. So we did that, and submitted a form for a refund for the second one. Oops. (We decided to get annual passes as we’re staying just enough days at Colorado state parks to offset the cost. Ironically, next year we don’t expect to visit Colorado at all. Still worthwhile, though.)

This is a rather nice park; stay tuned for more pics from our stay:

Entrance road and pond

Coach changes after a year

A month ago I celebrated the one year anniversary of buying our coach, and mentioned that I’d do an update on it. Here ya go — some pictures of the what our coach looks like now, after a year of modifications.

Here’s the 2017 Tiffin Allegro Bus 40SP floorplan, edited to show our options and modifications:

2017 40SP floorplan with our mods

The outside is much the same, but we now have Sinclair Trails stickers on the side of the slide-out, along with a map showing the states we’ve visited, plus the Magne-Shades on the windscreen and side windows:

Our coach

Looking down a bit, another addition visible there is a foldable wagon, and an extra step:

Our coach

On the other side of the coach, we have National Park stickers for parks we’ve visited on the slide-out:

National Park stickers

Heading inside, the cockpit area has a few changes:

Cockpit

For example, the steering wheel table and plants (the boxes contain our keys etc, to avoid Paladin knocking them off the table):

Steering wheel table

Speaking of the boy, he enjoys his boxes on the dash, and sitting on the carpeted dash cover:

Paladin

Above the entry door is now a small cupboard full of internet devices, with the door removed:

Internet cupboard

We added hooks for hats and bike helmets:

Hooks for hats and bike helmets

On the passenger side, in front of the lift TV is a top-entry cat litter box and waste bin, plus IKEA drawers and cupboards, where there was originally a couch, and later a desk:

Cat litter; IKEA drawers and cupboards

Here’s the main TV active (with Jenn’s video game), and the smaller TV over the windscreen (showing a baseball game):

TVs

Opposite that is new theater seating and cabinets, where there was originally an L-shaped couch, and later recliner chairs:

Theater seating and cabinets

Here’s a view of the living area:

Living room

The dining table and chairs are unchanged, though we have Paladin’s food, water, bed, and a scratcher on the cabinet behind the table, and alcohol storage in the rightmost cupboard below:

Dining table and chairs

Next to the fridge is a framed wooden map and sticker board that we recently added:

Fridge

The kitchen / galley area has modifications like the towel rail, and a drying rack over one of the sinks:

Kitchen

A closer look at the kitchen counter:

Kitchen counter

The two sinks, with a drying rack and bottle rack on the right-hand one:

Sinks

In the sinks are handy strainers, better than the stock ones:

Sink strainers

Continuing back, the half bath:

Half bath

The thermostat and Spyder control panel in the bedroom; upgrading this control panel was a huge improvement:

Controls

In the bedroom, we’ve added hooks for actively worn clothes:

Bedroom

Another cat bed, plus gaming headphones and controllers, a projection clock, and device chargers:

Cat bed and electronics

In the media cupboard, Jenn’s PS5 etc:

PS5 etc

The bed is much the same, just different covers:

Bedroom

The bathroom:

Bathroom

The sink area has necklace hooks and under-cabinet lights:

Bathroom sink

The shower has extra hooks and dispensers, and we added towel rods next to the shower:

Shower

A look at the living area from by the half bath:

Living area

And a similar view with the slides in — somewhat smaller:

Slides in

Still enough room to get by the couch, though:

Slides in

The bedroom with slides in; can’t really get past the bed without difficulty; we pile the steering wheel table, air cleaner, etc on it for travel:

Slides in

Heading outside, the basement cooler is the same; we have it unplugged, and just use it to store spare beverages:

Basement cooler

The next basement compartment has houseware supplies, plus a box with the Starlink dish:

Basement storage

The next compartment has my tools:

Basement storage

A small one next to it has bottled water and less-commonly used camping supplies:

Basement storage

Continuing back, next is the air and hydraulic compartment:

Air and hydraulic compartment

The last compartment on the passenger side has chassis batteries and stuff; the only change there is the addition of a tire pressure monitor repeater, to enable sensors on the truck to reach the display in the front of the coach:

Chassis compartment

In the back, the engine compartment, unchanged other than replaced filters etc:

Engine compartment

The DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluid) compartment; I do have a DEF simulator as insurance against a somewhat common failure:

DEF compartment

The electrical compartment, home to a Power Watchdog smart surge protector when traveling (and a cloth I use to wipe the cord while winding it):

Electrical compartment

The wet bay has the water hose and sewer stuff; here’s what it looks like when in use:

Wet bay

And when packed up:

Wet bay

Next is the Aqua-Hot system, unchanged other than topping up the boiler antifreeze fluid:

Aqua-Hot system

The other side of the basement storage contains the water filters and hoses, plus the Blackstone griddle:

Basement storage

With the griddle and filters in use, you can see less-commonly used stuff behind:

Basement storage

The next storage, which also goes all the way across, contains the fold-up wagon, jack pads, etc:

Basement storage

The battery compartment:

Battery compartment

We did upgrade the batteries to AGMs:

Battery compartment

At the front of the driver side are fuses and such; I hope not to have to access this compartment often:

Fuses etc

In front of the coach is the generator:

Generator

There have of course been lots of other changes, like getting ebikes, a pop-up gazebo, and other stuff. And a couple of extra solar panels on the roof:

Bikes, gazebo, solar

I hope you’ve enjoyed this update. No doubt we’ll continue making improvements to our coach as we continue our adventures.

Mirror glass replacement

While driving along I-5 in Tacoma, Washington, a truck got a bit too close to us, and bashed their mirror into ours, shattering the mirror glass:

Cracked mirror

In this frame from the dashcam, you can see that their mirror was knocked back from the impact:

Truck

The cracked mirror:

Cracked mirror

I ordered replacement mirror glass from the manufacturer:

Replacement mirror glass

Removing the broken glass:

Removing broken glass

The mirror is heated, so I needed to disconnect it (I’ve already unhooked one connector in this pic):

Disconnecting heater

Behind the glass:

Behind the glass

New and old glass:

New and old glass

The mirror is mounted using adhesive pads and clips at the top and bottom:

Adhesive pads

The replaced mirror glass:

Replaced mirror glass

Unfortunately, the motor that adjusts the mirror position also seems to have been damaged; we can move the mirror in every direction except towards the coach. So we’ll have to get that fixed sometime. Not so urgent, since we can still adjust it by hand.

Theater seating and cabinets

While at the FMCA rally in Tucson back in March, we placed an order with Dave & LJ’s RV Furniture (based in Woodland, Washington) for theater seating and a couple of cabinets, to replace the recliners we were using since we removed the original L-shaped and jackknife couches. We liked the recliners, but they were a bit more hassle on travel days, and when we eventually sell our coach, we wouldn’t want to include them, hence deciding to get more conventional seating.

Here’s the model couch they had on show:

Demo couch

Our recliners:

Recliners

To get them out the door, I needed to remove the bases (same as when I brought them into the coach):

Removed base

We kept them — we took them to our storage unit just before getting the new seating installed. One day we’ll use them again.

Paladin suspects something may be missing:

Paladin

Five months after ordering, we stopped by Dave & LJ’s in Woodland to get the new items installed:

Dave & LJ's

We had ordered two of the wide cabinets, but due to a mixup they only had one:

Wide cabinet

We could have had the other shipped, but decided to go with narrower ones, that were in stock; we figure that the extra gap on either side is handy for storing lap trays, shoes, and such.

They brought in the theater seating in mulitple pieces:

Couch components

Drilling a mounting hole:

Drilling mounting hole

One of two bolts through the underside of the slide-out:

Bolt through underside of slide-out

Paladin supervising:

Paladin supervising

The installed couch:

Installed couch and cabinets

Installing a cabinet:

Installing cabinet

Installing cabinets

With the slides in, still plenty of room to get past:

With slides in

The front feet lift off the floor, along with the slide floor:

Front feet off floor

Paladin approves:

Paladin approves

With slides in:

With slides in

And out:

Theater seating

The center of the couch can fold up, and includes a pop-up power center, with two USB-A and one USB-C power outlets, and a Qi wireless charger:

Power outlets

Plus there’s another USB outlet along with the controls; a button to bring everything down, a button to extend or retract the footrest, and another button to move the headrest forward and back:

Controls

The new seating is comfy.

Map and sticker art

To personalize our coach a bit more, we decided to replace a generic artwork in the kitchen with something a bit more meaningful to us.

Here’s the old artwork, after removing it from the wall:

Old artwork

The empty wall:

Empty wall

We got a wooden US map to feature in its place:

Wooden US map

The map comes in several pieces:

Map pieces

We also got a 24×36” wooden frame, an opaque white plexiglass sheet of the same size, and some foam boards to fill out the space behind it:

Frame with foam boards

I used Command-brand double-sided strips to help adhere it to the wall:

Frame with Command strips

I also used screws through the plexiglass to secure it to the wall; the screws were later hidden behind stickers (the PostIt notes mark the map placement):

Frame mounted

The wooden map is attached with double-sided adhesive strips:

Double-sided adhesive strips

And mounted to the plexiglass:

Map mounted

It has a nice 3D relief:

Wooden map

Hawaii:

Hawaii

Alaska:

Alaska

Some hummingbird decorations:

Hummingbirds

We added pins (that came with the map) on states we’ve visited:

Pins

Plus stickers around the map for some places we’ve been:

Stickers

The current state:

Over time, we will add more pins and stickers, to help commemorate our travels.

Hammock

Jenn won a prize to choose an item from Amazon, and opted for another useful addition for our travels, a foldable hammock.

It folds up fairly compactly in a carry bag:

Hammock bag

The hammock frame easily unfolds:

Hammock frame

The fabric is attached:

Hammock

Hammock frame

Pillow:

Pillow

Extendable poles:

Extendable poles

Support an optional shade:

Cover

The assembled hammock:

Assembled hammock

We probably won’t use it often, but it’ll be nice to have when wanted.

Half-bath door hinges

The door for our half-bathroom was sticking. I investigated, and determined that the issue was that the hinges were bent; here’s an old hinge after being removed:

Old hinge

So I removed the door to replace the hinges:

Removed door

The old hinges were non-mortise, i.e. designed for surface mounting. But I determined that there was enough room for regular hinges, so bought some of a similar size (with a removable pin, for safety):

New hinges

An installed hinge:

Installed hinge

The half bath door works much better now:

Half bath door

Sinclair Trails stickers

One of the use-cases for getting a logo designed for Sinclair Trails was to put it on our coach.

Here’s me adding the logo sticker to our slide-out, above the states map:

David adding sticker

The Sinclair Trails logo sticker; looks really good, I think:

Sinclair Trails sticker

Above the map:

Sinclair Trails and map stickers

We also got another sticker with the SinclairTrails.com website and social name (e.g. Twitter and Facebook):

Sinclair Trails sticker

The stickers:

Stickers

IKEA storage cabinets

One of several criteria when choosing an RV was that we needed to keep working as we travel, so we wanted a desk (or two). So soon after we bought our coach, we removed the couches, and replaced one with a desk:

Desk

From the start, I used a lap tray with my laptop, sitting in my living room chair, while Jenn used the desk. Over time, she decided that she didn’t need the second screen, and ultimately didn’t need the desk either.

So we removed the desk, while temporarily leaving its drawers:

Removed desk

We might get some custom furniture to go there in due course, but in the meantime we decided to replace the desk with IKEA KALLAX drawers and cupboards; a very flexible system that we’ve enjoyed in the past.

Here are the drawers being assembled:

IKEA KALLAX drawers