tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78348260195885341752024-03-13T20:19:43.092-04:00The Marine Installer's RantA blog about the things boat builders do that cost you money, and other eclectic newsy musings of interest to boatersBill Bishop - Parmainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11554223870035485145noreply@blogger.comBlogger488125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7834826019588534175.post-43832460877920825702019-09-05T08:57:00.000-04:002019-09-05T08:57:08.222-04:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Thing are going to be messed up for a while some rearranging is going on. The older material is being cleaned up. There will be three archive categories. Humor, DIY, and random stuff. And we will start anew with a different feel and outlook, but still generally boat-related. Should be finished in a couple of weeks, there is a god awful amount of material to go through. B</div>
Bill Bishop - Parmainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11554223870035485145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7834826019588534175.post-63990722253447942672019-03-08T10:12:00.000-05:002019-03-08T10:12:19.559-05:00Yep, I'm alive<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Just a short note. I've been busy with a novel and screenplay writing project that's nearing completion. When I'm wrapped up the Rant will return but with a more eclectic change of heading. Stay tuned. In the meantime, I have disabled comments to keep the endless comment spam off the site. </div>
Bill Bishop - Parmainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11554223870035485145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7834826019588534175.post-22292804215329267852017-12-31T15:22:00.001-05:002017-12-31T15:22:29.838-05:00Speaker to magnets<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It's exactly what it looks like, a field. A neutral place generally free of magnetic sources. I say this because there is no place on earth free of magnetic fields. We all live on a giant roundish rotating magnet. But in this empty field</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> there isn't much. On our planet ambient background magnetic fields typically vary around 25 to 65 microTeslas. The extra microTeslas on you see on the meter are largely coming from power lines and other things around me. On the whole this isn't much and the local field is reading zero. However, a large green field isn't boat by any measure, and this is where we start.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr_-xw294U-WxMsQzXuHcn084F6PmITkNLUSs6j4BF05MMFpdqqGv-m75YxsVXfEHEaYnjxpIWPdyOEFDE7nnAcMawdM-4dBXfiIsQtOfwHHHSxQu66vE9DTU2LO0LDSPgg8vTl-I8QvSz/s1600/field+and+meter+c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="538" data-original-width="717" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr_-xw294U-WxMsQzXuHcn084F6PmITkNLUSs6j4BF05MMFpdqqGv-m75YxsVXfEHEaYnjxpIWPdyOEFDE7nnAcMawdM-4dBXfiIsQtOfwHHHSxQu66vE9DTU2LO0LDSPgg8vTl-I8QvSz/s400/field+and+meter+c.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here is a similar pic on an unrigged boat in a marina. The motors are hung. There is no power on. Like our empty field the magnetic fields are very low.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho1mTYV_KuhpXiwb-BFjsOZLVMke5vwxxa8J7NXD2njRDt1mtZjujRNGhCvj_xwjOnMAKi1AOrdJnWVSnxPBybdHRJsU9CiXoRGM6O-uHoZC9luMrfG1vQ7a78ij2XIcH5zuI0jCgFoei1/s1600/unrigged+boat+insert.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="546" data-original-width="729" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho1mTYV_KuhpXiwb-BFjsOZLVMke5vwxxa8J7NXD2njRDt1mtZjujRNGhCvj_xwjOnMAKi1AOrdJnWVSnxPBybdHRJsU9CiXoRGM6O-uHoZC9luMrfG1vQ7a78ij2XIcH5zuI0jCgFoei1/s400/unrigged+boat+insert.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Below is where everything starts to fall apart. This is a very similar boat except it's now fully rigged and the power is not yet turned on. I'm standing at the same location as the picture above and already there is a local field of 21. Not good at all if autopilot and its associated compass have to be installed on the boat, and it does... hopefully.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLHRJyt5HQq4R7iAeVY-4XyX_VH1SONIg90bRNI0sA7ZJz2NnX8F5c2O3nF0tulH5Z46m3vhPyar0jFlHVBYEDd0PzAv7OUwjOXsd4Fz05jVIWZWTgae7RAvCw9ziCwzNYMa0HQKOQL2fL/s1600/where+does+the+compass+go+insert.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="613" data-original-width="600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLHRJyt5HQq4R7iAeVY-4XyX_VH1SONIg90bRNI0sA7ZJz2NnX8F5c2O3nF0tulH5Z46m3vhPyar0jFlHVBYEDd0PzAv7OUwjOXsd4Fz05jVIWZWTgae7RAvCw9ziCwzNYMa0HQKOQL2fL/s400/where+does+the+compass+go+insert.jpg" width="391" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On this center console boat it's the speakers that are the primary problem and the console interior is the only pragmatic mounting location for the compass. It's actually worse. Inside the console are the batteries, power steering assist pump, assorted water pumps, two stereo amplifiers, two MFDs, an assortment of black boxes all jammed in a small space. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There are rules of thumb for your autopilot compass location, although they vary somewhat by manufacturer. You should keep your high tech compass about two feet away from the old school compass you have mounted in the vicinity of your helm. You do have one, don't you? They also want you to have it in the center of the boat at the waterline. And lastly you should keep it </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">six feet</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">away from ferrous metals and magnetic fields. On occasion, I have been able to follow the rules, but in most cases not so much. Something almost always has to give, but you can't give too much.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZqvuX6XpuY2eG3ssSUkfDeAJXCSnm3kbKPXL4tFFVjJeOkT3DTNPOqntttNSpyky5eY8pE0GbnGBvWAXSEdv5NWQceRnD9h961HnnqV2Gi0AUK7RI-K925CNkCJl7txr71C8jcxGaAijN/s1600/ring+dipole_magnetic.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="220" data-original-width="220" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZqvuX6XpuY2eG3ssSUkfDeAJXCSnm3kbKPXL4tFFVjJeOkT3DTNPOqntttNSpyky5eY8pE0GbnGBvWAXSEdv5NWQceRnD9h961HnnqV2Gi0AUK7RI-K925CNkCJl7txr71C8jcxGaAijN/s200/ring+dipole_magnetic.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Magnetic fields can't be shielded in the sense most of us think of the term. They pass right through lead, 3M 5200, fiberglass walls and everything else. Their fields however can be managed and redirected. When shipping magnets they are packed with their polarities opposing each other. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Keeper bars help as well. Materials like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu-metal">Mu-Metal</a> provide a path for the magnetic fields to travel through mostly constraining them. But in all cases some leaks out, it's just a matter of how much. Magnetic fields, like antennas create lobe patterns that have directional characteristics. Take a meter and rotate a bar magnet in front of it and note the strength changes. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaCvMRP8WnZVZ-36jeUUejtUotwymRYF9wSfRHAB3PmX5EdI9v1T40xgceOiTiZaCpQUg571dLIL77GDbRVENjkQaswZmpeVjXCWBX9e3vknOyeRYz22CYbBSXHYDE81qSTpap-Jx75x0I/s1600/percision+9.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1207" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaCvMRP8WnZVZ-36jeUUejtUotwymRYF9wSfRHAB3PmX5EdI9v1T40xgceOiTiZaCpQUg571dLIL77GDbRVENjkQaswZmpeVjXCWBX9e3vknOyeRYz22CYbBSXHYDE81qSTpap-Jx75x0I/s200/percision+9.JPG" width="200" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This was my first pass at installing the Simrad Precision 9 compass on this boat. I've installed dozens of them on others and to a unit all worked perfectly out of the box, except this one. It was my fault. The location looked good, and it was on the opposite side of the console that had the big sub woofer installed. It was also out-of-the-way meaning it wouldn't get stepped on.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My mistake was I didn't turn the power on and start the engines (power steering pump in the hood) when I used my Gemeco meter to scout the location. I ended up with a local field of 22, and the Precision 9 compass wanted 15 or less. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sometimes if it's edgy you can put in an offset to correct but my sea trial test and setup clearly showed me it wasn't nearly good enough for gummit work and would be unsafe.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFtGvdybY_U2VjTh9adY7DlTUOWfksLrdWnFl1sKTs7tT1SZ0NBtKE23kmu4t1xdR7lxNa4zlYujokdbYEkcC2xassrZFe9pYWEbJ5iyoSPS_7qW7hi4aKF37bzytql1QBIHZ1U_IX001N/s1600/sub+inside.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFtGvdybY_U2VjTh9adY7DlTUOWfksLrdWnFl1sKTs7tT1SZ0NBtKE23kmu4t1xdR7lxNa4zlYujokdbYEkcC2xassrZFe9pYWEbJ5iyoSPS_7qW7hi4aKF37bzytql1QBIHZ1U_IX001N/s200/sub+inside.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It's an oxymoron thing. When engines and power were turned on, and the stereo was thumping the final location was on the opposite side of the console even closer to the sub woofer, and I ended up with a local field of 9. I can live with that. I wish I had <a href="https://gizmodo.com/5012347/nasa-scientists-make-magnetic-fields-visible-beautiful">camera like NASA</a> has to see magnetic fields. It would save me a lot of time, and would make my job much cooler.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Credit where credit is due:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Wikipedia ring magnet field diagram by user Geek3.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Gemeco's iNstall app was used for measurements and screen captures.</span></div>
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Bill Bishop - Parmainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11554223870035485145noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7834826019588534175.post-5001051148668769972017-08-13T09:09:00.000-04:002017-12-31T15:27:28.402-05:00Jolting and Fleece<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Can boat batteries shock you? The answer is yes and I can in an empirical way say this is the truth. The way you can test this is on a stinking hot humid day in Florida whilst in the bowels of the boat sweating like a pig have your wet arm come in contact with the positive and negative battery terminals. Will this kill you? No! Will the shock hurt you? Not really. But in a cramped and confined hot space can it startle you causing your head to jerk up smacking the underside of the deck and let the wrench in your hand at the same time bridge the terminals causing notable arcy sparky stuff to briefly happen? Yep I know from personal experience this is very possible, and if there was hydrogen sulfide gas leaking from the batteries at the same time there might be a kaboom.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">BTW the legal department on the fourth floor reminds me to tell everyone to not try to invent or test ways to have large batteries shock you. If you're going to try this anyway at least make sure you video it and use the revenue to help pay the medical bills. Although the voltage is low the amount of the stored energy is large and the law of unintended circumstances can raise it's ugly head.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOukA-PQyDfeuAfjpX10gbvh6C9Dd9SRAUaGkPkN442SRFf1ZU84wunUk4_ea6G-RHp9Y8iLy0v2XfBdrujWOlLpcQ12QAijpbCMgu_JP1O_fAJiXrQAXdsfqCc2g9wYn7L0aefXVk-4gB/s1600/battery+bank.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOukA-PQyDfeuAfjpX10gbvh6C9Dd9SRAUaGkPkN442SRFf1ZU84wunUk4_ea6G-RHp9Y8iLy0v2XfBdrujWOlLpcQ12QAijpbCMgu_JP1O_fAJiXrQAXdsfqCc2g9wYn7L0aefXVk-4gB/s400/battery+bank.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">To be honest I don't like to deal with batteries at all. They're heavy, bulky, almost always in awkward and at times nearly inaccessible locations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In this particular case the charger in a new boat has failed and needs to be repaired, ahem, replaced. I think it never worked in the first place. This was made worse because it was one of the first devices connected to the batteries and the wiring was tie wrapped to large battery cables laying in between the battery boxes. But I have a flexible tool that takes some sting out of doing this job and it makes it safer.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZIOScKpNw2gwDyoqR5dxafFLwBZtYOQ7UjReJt9-QkT8Peol4us-JA0kzZazhI1wYbPYJ_v5i5XRiM04Yd9OOeclJpkYZh3BD1X5IR3vZG7p3huPoMEvRbPVz_E3cFxOS1B1XjATQHcBZ/s1600/fleece.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="450" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZIOScKpNw2gwDyoqR5dxafFLwBZtYOQ7UjReJt9-QkT8Peol4us-JA0kzZazhI1wYbPYJ_v5i5XRiM04Yd9OOeclJpkYZh3BD1X5IR3vZG7p3huPoMEvRbPVz_E3cFxOS1B1XjATQHcBZ/s200/fleece.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">These fleece blankets cost about $5 everywhere. If you don't want to make the investment then on your next flight you can whine at the flight attendant you're cold, and they will give you one. It's a cheaper version of the $5 one at Wallymart. I just stole mine from the Greyhound girl's big basket of winter blankets. I chose the safety orange colored one.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigH0AHkoCIOmRBD4o30WZU1SSOWOTMZqantZ2EEjKi91LpyYxsFiA8e659kxbkfa6gDZU-ux7EgWz-XOWkJtcHaU5b_6Qowtnya4cFB7lhzkPK1x7CxH_c8c_0elHMcRcUdvsZ7-G56igT/s1600/blanket.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1202" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigH0AHkoCIOmRBD4o30WZU1SSOWOTMZqantZ2EEjKi91LpyYxsFiA8e659kxbkfa6gDZU-ux7EgWz-XOWkJtcHaU5b_6Qowtnya4cFB7lhzkPK1x7CxH_c8c_0elHMcRcUdvsZ7-G56igT/s400/blanket.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The blanket is folded in half twice (4 layers) and it makes laying on top of the front batteries to get to the back batteries much more comfortable. All these pointy things aren't poking as badly into me. Fold it twice more and you have a good knee pad.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgatACdlExq4tu1be_OxIJHk3uMVxiq-RO_6MvEfGJVCzJPIb04IriXzSKpFUzmEHzBS_1P8jyjdgSvyTuGWfAqqD-YF8X3wR3UMvCg4FupBbBrqMFGp1if-N4vcL_ShpVUgnVc-vxIGcVu/s1600/blanket+tools.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1211" data-original-width="1600" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgatACdlExq4tu1be_OxIJHk3uMVxiq-RO_6MvEfGJVCzJPIb04IriXzSKpFUzmEHzBS_1P8jyjdgSvyTuGWfAqqD-YF8X3wR3UMvCg4FupBbBrqMFGp1if-N4vcL_ShpVUgnVc-vxIGcVu/s400/blanket+tools.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Even better when you're in a cramped </span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">place you can safely set your tools on it. In my case there is a bulkhead on each side of me </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; text-align: left;">and I would have to keep the tools behind me making them a P in the A to get at.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Since this is kinda a sorta safety first thing here I have some additional advice on dealing with batteries.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">1. Turn off all the batteries switches first.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">2. Use a tie wrap to bundle all of a terminal's leads together. This stops a critical wire from falling into the cracks and being overlooked when you reinstall them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; text-align: left;">3. Remove the negative terminal wires first, and then the positive</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; text-align: left;"> wires.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">4. Since the wires are off this is a good time to check water levels if need be, the date on the battery, and clean any corroded terminals and connectors. This is also the time to take a pic of the battery label so when it inevitably fails you know exactly what type and brand it is. You might as well check any fuses too. It would be comforting to know if the automatic bilge pump fuses are still good.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">5. If you're replacing old batteries have some rubber gloves and rags to clean up any spills and to protect you hands from the nasty stuff that's in batteries. Wipe out the inside of the battery cases at the same time.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">6. Reattach wiring starting with the positive terminal first. Make sure the nuts are good and tight.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">7. If possible do this on nice cool fall day. August in Florida wasn't the optimum day. </span></span></div>
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Bill Bishop - Parmainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11554223870035485145noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7834826019588534175.post-24629901910573846632017-07-24T09:03:00.001-04:002017-07-24T09:48:10.528-04:00OMG WTF WHY?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It never ceases to amaze me why people supposedly skilled in the art of building boats can do such stupid things. It could be in their minds it seemed to be a good idea at the time, or perhaps it's the delusion that their work is so good that it will never need to be touched again. So off we go on a modest photo essay of things I see that just drives me nuts. Our first case is corrosion protection.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghYtQupU4XIuHHWgkcytmcmEAu7G3wNpSeyCwhtqeuJUns1kueUnoPR4qDVnNvQN7jMzDXCn1wySMqOX9NGrKs9blfhDuNF_wkjgQsbAFSwEIR_2Eh1n399ZQA17wj0kj6Ikja1pxDXSPA/s1600/goop+on+fuse+block.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1329" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghYtQupU4XIuHHWgkcytmcmEAu7G3wNpSeyCwhtqeuJUns1kueUnoPR4qDVnNvQN7jMzDXCn1wySMqOX9NGrKs9blfhDuNF_wkjgQsbAFSwEIR_2Eh1n399ZQA17wj0kj6Ikja1pxDXSPA/s400/goop+on+fuse+block.jpg" width="330" /></a></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I don't know what all this goo really is but the boat builder no doubt had 55 gallon drums full of this stuff by the way they smeared it on. In the picture it looks like silicon, but it's not. It's just as gooey and slimy as the day it was applied. I had to have paper towels to wipe off the probes from my voltmeter while checking a circuit for power. I felt like I needed a shower afterwards. A light spray of Boeshield T9 would have done the trick faster and better.</span><br />
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<img border="0" data-original-height="1202" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1L49pOOLotVqnyRyYOp7tK9fhufyVvmF7b6W8QkVdiDgjviXdMR_brbB345txNezCzB0M8zietBgf2QH4-HtKbjyLQR6_8aVNM7odnNqn2ExV1FHwnbc-H-dE97JdmznxyytjI91ux5l9/s400/glued+in+mfd.jpg" width="400" /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Cut hole, check. Stick gasket in place, check. Put MFD in hole, check. Screw the MFD in from the front, check. Attach bezel, check. Go behind the MFD and seal it completely with 3M 4200 or the ilk, why?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This was unnecessary. I have to remove it. If it hadn't been glued in place it would have been five minutes to drop the cables and replace it with the new one</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPBbvaeaNpFIrpTrngFQQmQX8CVMAW1iQ0asnWjZp4K1HzOeTZUDPE79QaVhp5I_7r3SIDTh5QMyocM2Ukote7OvDpMEnnXvSWaK3CnVE7YXoWYqnN4dzmA2v9OL7nM4Qapux_PYQi7IiH/s1600/prying+mfd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPBbvaeaNpFIrpTrngFQQmQX8CVMAW1iQ0asnWjZp4K1HzOeTZUDPE79QaVhp5I_7r3SIDTh5QMyocM2Ukote7OvDpMEnnXvSWaK3CnVE7YXoWYqnN4dzmA2v9OL7nM4Qapux_PYQi7IiH/s200/prying+mfd.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Instead it became a 45 minute battle to extract it resulting in damage to the case in the process. I cut as much of the goo as I could get to with a utility knife but the installer was meticulous in ensuring it was thoroughly sealed.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVexJyfXKw8RhQhJLijroGRhMmpsAODNNqebR_dMS1oQLdZeMCoGb0Rbyvq1zLqqD41Pb73POScjOqhghKOEckPpD-f2EuxF-vSh256RjAwFBW-qv_95TfvCQRa_RFlLcR8SDoMEB7A-j-/s1600/tons+O+sealant.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1203" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVexJyfXKw8RhQhJLijroGRhMmpsAODNNqebR_dMS1oQLdZeMCoGb0Rbyvq1zLqqD41Pb73POScjOqhghKOEckPpD-f2EuxF-vSh256RjAwFBW-qv_95TfvCQRa_RFlLcR8SDoMEB7A-j-/s200/tons+O+sealant.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Despite the fact that the console was only a quarter of an inch thick the goo was one half of an inch thick in the places it was hard to get to, like the top of the unit where I couldn't get the utility knife in to cut it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So what was wrong with the gasket? Nothing other than the layer of spooge copiously smeared on top of it. Nothing at all. What was this moron thinking? All things break someday and typically sooner than later when it will have to be removed.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCpZ0BqHP2eFrAwIUSrbcBX_hZcYJAxXMKnqDXeJkCFhuyuQYxKMgLx6WdpJx94rh0Ox4pAobg3Ef3uidbLJwhVqACQuH4Rc3ogxFTq8lzyi2XonLg7YJgsp8wCpmKzmfhxKA1SL27ZEJy/s1600/foamed+wiring.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1202" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCpZ0BqHP2eFrAwIUSrbcBX_hZcYJAxXMKnqDXeJkCFhuyuQYxKMgLx6WdpJx94rh0Ox4pAobg3Ef3uidbLJwhVqACQuH4Rc3ogxFTq8lzyi2XonLg7YJgsp8wCpmKzmfhxKA1SL27ZEJy/s400/foamed+wiring.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This is the last WTF moment for today. This picture is from a high latitude yacht. To translate this into americanized English for everyone this means it was designed to cruise in cold climates and hence is heavily insulated with spray foam everywhere. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">Instead of investing a few bucks in conduit almost all of the primary wiring was foamed in place. This guaranteed the wiring could never be replaced, and even worse it makes it nearly impossible to pull new wiring in. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">The yacht is going through a substantial upgrade and the largest single cost is the time it takes to get new wiring from A to B all caused by saving a few bucks on conduit. Progress on some pulls is measured in inches per hour. WTF</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif;">Yeah I know it's been a while, and I'm sorry about it. Without going into the details life and work became extraordinarily complicated, distracting and very time consuming to say the least. Things have now calmed down to near its "Abby Normal" state and posts and life are resuming. Boy is there a backlog of stuff to talk about. </span><br />
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Bill Bishop - Parmainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11554223870035485145noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7834826019588534175.post-85661420346344777412017-05-07T10:53:00.000-04:002019-09-30T10:36:26.651-04:00Template tempest<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Rule number one: When you buy a four-foot open array radar, it ain't four feet. It's something else, and it's almost always longer. In sum, it didn't fit where it was supposed to go. This led to some interesting gyrations to find a solution. A number of problems had to be solved. The first was how to do some careful measuring of curved in space and time radar arch surfaces that were not perfectly symmetrical as you would expect of any hand made product. And who would be surprised to find out nothing on a boat is square and true? The second issue was measuring the swing of the radar array, and the third problem was the design of a cantilevered ledge to mount the radar on. But in the end the lesson here is that there is almost always a way to solve a problem. Oops did I just hedge my statement a bit?</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHaG9hyphenhyphenYf1rtKodVXiGYS8wqket-nGPK3ACgDMQsLwibdM0imWbZhBiAHgwNo6TbDzS7RkjsxYcbaK1FFY2xLoGitYSBGFCOwwOOY8aQdI1UXeEYMJiXniPMaWNZ5peXTUi31VFOs6nL8T/s1600/It%2527s+not+4%2527.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHaG9hyphenhyphenYf1rtKodVXiGYS8wqket-nGPK3ACgDMQsLwibdM0imWbZhBiAHgwNo6TbDzS7RkjsxYcbaK1FFY2xLoGitYSBGFCOwwOOY8aQdI1UXeEYMJiXniPMaWNZ5peXTUi31VFOs6nL8T/s400/It%2527s+not+4%2527.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So how did this all happen in the first place? The answer is it wasn't all that hard. Two antique radars were being replaced with two new ones and had been purchased along with a ton of other electronics as part of a major upgrade. The new 6' Fantom radar fit where the old one was, but the 4' Fantom array missed by a few wee inches.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVNQgaK_x775HPF3y7ycE1TpNHqTpVsNDGK0Ptw24jGYsad1oeumjhSMxfAbRWlKJZCs1k2rFamfftmvw-LoPASiRGPX17mUG_aiZx3CAguL8iC4k-KnyuEoriwVmATiagpgQM5np0z4aN/s1600/plumbob.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVNQgaK_x775HPF3y7ycE1TpNHqTpVsNDGK0Ptw24jGYsad1oeumjhSMxfAbRWlKJZCs1k2rFamfftmvw-LoPASiRGPX17mUG_aiZx3CAguL8iC4k-KnyuEoriwVmATiagpgQM5np0z4aN/s400/plumbob.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So to do the measuring we need some tools. The radar's template was accurate, but it didn't include the center point of the array's rotation. With the radar sitting square and straight on its template I used an ancient device that the pyramid builders used called a "Plumb Bob." Don't ask. I don't know who Bob was or why they named it after him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The array end is slightly curved but squarish. I used the plumb bob to plot the curve of the leading edge of the array as it turned. I marked the curve in about five-degree increments using one of the several compasses on my phone.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3N2yfJJQN07GRJ5oYCBWhbPWQEcF92vgfD8Y7tXeZn29w0tHa4Q11O6BZs-X_NMgjgxc_lNB5SCuSg-8hpZpfYwPfoMfFJwLWNvctd8wI8CyxWwpB4Cri2t9xphyj8a37AiMzs6OATQB3/s1600/measuring.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="125" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3N2yfJJQN07GRJ5oYCBWhbPWQEcF92vgfD8Y7tXeZn29w0tHa4Q11O6BZs-X_NMgjgxc_lNB5SCuSg-8hpZpfYwPfoMfFJwLWNvctd8wI8CyxWwpB4Cri2t9xphyj8a37AiMzs6OATQB3/s400/measuring.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Now for the arch surfaces. I needed to know where they started and stopped and where the flat portions were located. I'm going to through-bolt a platform that's going to be cantilevered off the bottom side of the arch. I also want the bolts to be as far apart as possible and still be on the flat surfaces. A square told me where the ends of the curvaceous surfaces were, and a straight edge let me define the start and stopping points of the flat surfaces.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg61G_zOVpSKc1DOuAFJUqYaEBRBwYlWFsZ01EAiGQx4mX3KTyg-tUM6gMtfd0fpCxAUdhW-SBpCZPoz_Gr2MItpwismHijH7Zmv5CzT3QLaKVhA5pj2c955JCkOSEGIybHIP_74GmEM3I2/s1600/underside+hatch.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg61G_zOVpSKc1DOuAFJUqYaEBRBwYlWFsZ01EAiGQx4mX3KTyg-tUM6gMtfd0fpCxAUdhW-SBpCZPoz_Gr2MItpwismHijH7Zmv5CzT3QLaKVhA5pj2c955JCkOSEGIybHIP_74GmEM3I2/s400/underside+hatch.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">There is an access hatch under the arch that also figures into the big picture, so I need to know where that is. When a surveyor does a survey, they have to have a starting point. In other words, you have to say, "This is here," and everything else is referenced from "This is here."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The opening of the access hatch is measured, and a longitudinal centerline is established.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitw0ewkMmaeYbAPeqPjvIZ7cHdWdfMbXHTMefvQruCtl1XVOqoSV3Pc94XVXXzwbolD-WhJAnFt5SSqMPdvu97uLIpC6O9MEzuuGO6lNteRrXxck53PJMcN9O4vWxM8CdLPlE81XiCPR26/s1600/completed+full+template+layout..jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitw0ewkMmaeYbAPeqPjvIZ7cHdWdfMbXHTMefvQruCtl1XVOqoSV3Pc94XVXXzwbolD-WhJAnFt5SSqMPdvu97uLIpC6O9MEzuuGO6lNteRrXxck53PJMcN9O4vWxM8CdLPlE81XiCPR26/s400/completed+full+template+layout..jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">All of this is being done on the upper deck of the vessel. The material of choice is poster board taped together. If you blow the pic up, you can see all of my cryptic notes. How far do the cables stick out the back of the radar? Where does the arch start and stop? Where is the centerline? What distance away does the radar have to be cantilevered out to be to let the array clear the structure as it turns? Lastly, even though I measured carefully, I needed to have some safety margins built-in. I only have one shot at this on the owner's dime. If I screwed up, the error would cost me my dimes.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh50wk1n3G0DVPoU2xB6H2igkBwDlkGwwiT1mwVeSr9cuJt8PiD0ohGjJqYrIHFWrrGf-lW2OUZMTVnPdzoVG4-d_cqMv7F8VHa59k-hc8MOtbFzrsrZrF_mATxy9048pGkgMYpT3Dbpy3X/s1600/finished+template.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh50wk1n3G0DVPoU2xB6H2igkBwDlkGwwiT1mwVeSr9cuJt8PiD0ohGjJqYrIHFWrrGf-lW2OUZMTVnPdzoVG4-d_cqMv7F8VHa59k-hc8MOtbFzrsrZrF_mATxy9048pGkgMYpT3Dbpy3X/s400/finished+template.jpg" width="376" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The final frontier of this exercise is the space ship Enterprise shaped template of the platform. It will through bolt on each side of the access hatch. Everything clears and I have some modest safety margins built-in. The moment load is about 125 lbs, and I'm comfortable the arch will hold it. It is going to be milled out of 1/2" aluminum, and I'm removing some material under the radar pedestal to get rid of some weight. The machine shop drilled the mounting holes and put a drain hole in the depression. I snagged it and took it out for coating. It's cleaned, gets an epoxy primer and then was powder coated in white.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmJ4H04RUsxpxHT5KZZCpmIn2adwmPhLkgfGtMsPq9emCwxrl2hLj0FkLvRJuq7IV_5Yyt37bnPKnsQ1G20-4CeKZJxMjeuPH5bykfCJEJLmK7HIPwGNS-MUOpwIMjVNgCs2OgipdWlusv/s1600/completed+template.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="377" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmJ4H04RUsxpxHT5KZZCpmIn2adwmPhLkgfGtMsPq9emCwxrl2hLj0FkLvRJuq7IV_5Yyt37bnPKnsQ1G20-4CeKZJxMjeuPH5bykfCJEJLmK7HIPwGNS-MUOpwIMjVNgCs2OgipdWlusv/s400/completed+template.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The final result looks really nice. It has a factory appearance and array cleared by 2" the structure behind it. The two plates (wrapped in plastic) job is to spread the bolt loading on the arch over a larger area. Close enough for gummit work. Tedious to do? Yes, but worth it and a satisfying project.</span></div>
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Bill Bishop - Parmainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11554223870035485145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7834826019588534175.post-18297594748008576922017-04-17T07:48:00.001-04:002017-04-17T07:48:23.153-04:00Navpods and goo<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sometimes things in my truck look like garbage and there usually is some there. But often it's part of my tool kit. No it's not as pretty as my micrometer or as fancy as some of my electrical measurement gear is but nevertheless it does a great job of getting rid of goo. This plain piece of 1/4" acrylic is the remainder of a VHF radio install using a new plate that covered the much bigger hole from a older deceased unit. I have several similar pieces like this floating around in the bowels of the truck.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In the boating world there are two types of goo. Those that can be removed with the aid of solvents, and all the others. The others are what this </span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">unimposing piece of plastic is good for. I've pulled out a VDO chart plotter. I had never seen one before but they did exist at least in the past, and this one was long overdue for replacement. The new unit is a Garmin 7612 MFD and because of space issues I'm installing it in a PYI Seaview Power Pod. But I have to get rid of the goo first.</span></span></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In most cases goo has been applied to a fiberglass or painted surfaces. You can't use razor blades, or metal tools because of the potential for surface damage.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Left over acrylic pieces with sharp edges work a treat. It's tough enough it doesn't dull quickly. This same material is familiar to those who live in northern climes. Acrylic is used to make many ice scrapers. Chunks like I'm using also inherently come in a variety of shapes to help get into tight places. I have some pieces I have snapped off that have close to razor sharp edges. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">These won't hurt most boaty surfaces as long as you don't get roid raged with them. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This doesn't get rid of all of the goo, but what's left after a good scraping can typically be abraded off with some paper towels and elbow grease. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The old VDO unit was added at some point in the past, and was not the most elegant piece of work I have ever seen by a long shot. The helm structure is aluminum and painted white. A hole was hacked out for the new chart plotter. A new 1/8' aluminum plate was machined and also painted white. The plate was then glued down using prodigious quantities of something that looks like liquid tire. The VDO unit was glued down with the same goo.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It looked cheesy to say the least. White was everywhere and apparently this installer couldn't find any white sealant to match. To top it off this was a tenacious and sturdy material requiring real tools including a hammer to cause more than just separation anxiety.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Here is the shiny new white acrylic cover plate. It's 3/8" thick, and just slightly over sized relative to the original plate. It's thicker than my usual plates because it has to take the load of the new Power Pod. I've also left a 1/8" more or less gap between the other devices to make it easier to do some paint touch up repairs to the adjacent instrument panel.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Seaview's Power Pod was the perfect fit for this application. I don't have the space to do a bail or flush mount mount and needed the movement flexibility to allow for adjustment. There are three major parts. The base, housing, and front cover. You get all fasteners, base gasket and a special screwdriver I'll come back to later.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I made a little GIF up from photo's on Seaview's website to show you the range of motion. At this helm the captain can quickly adjust the MFD orientation to suit whether seated or standing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Before I get into the install these pods were originally shipped with the base partially disassembled, and the instructions reflected this. Somewhere along the line they started to ship them with the base assembled. The instructions didn't change and at first it can be a bit confusing. If you run into this scenario just start at the last step and go backwards. Seaview is in the process of revising the instructions and the device isn't that complex.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">There are two other pieces of nuance to pay attention to. The first one is don't lose the screwdriver. It's for Torx security fasteners. It's not that you can't replace it, you can. The problem is you likely can't get one at the local corner hardware store if you need one and what size was that Torx fastener?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">You shouldn't do what your Installer did and unscrew the base rotation chrome lever thingy all the way out. It's not a crises, but it takes a little fiddling around to screw it back in. The short story is it never needed to be much more than just loosened in the first place. Doh!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Punch a hole to pass the wires through and attach the base and gasket with the supplied fasteners. Make sure the plastic slip ring is placed on the base. This makes adjustments a lot easier.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif;">There is a small metal clip that has to be removed to set the structure onto the base. The Torx screwdriver you have does this. Remove it, set the upper base onto the lower base, and screw it back into to place.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">If you look closely there is a clear shrink wrapped plastic film on the plastic housing. This protects it from being scratched during shipping and installation. Now is the time to take it off, and not later when you have to disassemble things to do it. Just saying.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Things are more straight forward from here on out. Pull the wires through, there is ample room. Take the housing retaining plate (it only fits one way) and use the back chrome lever thingy to screw into it. You will quickly learn how far to screw it in and how tight it needs to be.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Screw the face plate on, attach the template and make your cut out. Attach the MFD as specified by the manufacturer and plug in the cables. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This is a nice product. The foot print is small, it's easy to install and has a solid feel. The range of motion is large and it's attractive. The last thing I did was to take the included extra fasteners and taped them to the housing interior. If one of these fasteners goes kerplunk you have spares to use, if you haven't lost the screw driver.</span><br />
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Bill Bishop - Parmainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11554223870035485145noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7834826019588534175.post-2501779328722091482017-04-15T07:37:00.001-04:002017-04-15T07:37:23.216-04:00The apoplectic wire pull<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The DirecTV receiver failed. It was one of two on the boat. It was connected to a ten year old KVH satellite dome that was always on. Here is the catch. The existing receivers are legacy receivers and are no longer available. The newer SWM (Single Wire Multi-switch) technology receivers are available everywhere but not compatible with the existing dome. In theory you can add a powered Multi-switch to get around this. Given the age of all of the gear coupled with the mess behind the entertainment center with miles of unlabeled white coax cable it was decided to start anew. It seemed so simple at the time and then promptly went to hell in a hand basket when I tried to pull the new wiring.</span></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The KVH system was a factory installed and had a special mount fabricated for it. The hardtop was prefabricated and wired. The top layer is the bottom of the hard top. At the factory installing the hard top was simple. The wiring coming up from the boat's interior passed through a largish hole in the bottom layer, then was fished through a hole in the center layer where they were terminated with connectors.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Piece of cake. A overhead crane picked up the hard top and hovered it over the boat. Someone plugged everything in. The hardtop was lowered in place and secured. Easy peasy except for three small problems. First is the center layer hole was now inaccessible for all time. The second one is all of the wiring that entered into the boat was tied into one huge bundle. Finally they used black electrical tape. This will make more sense in a minute.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The old dome was removed from the boat kicking and screaming. Everything was corroded from the coax connectors to the bolts holding it it place. Reason failed, force prevailed and off it eventually came. The new dome is a KVH TV-Hub system. I only have to pull one wee coax cable to the entertainment systems. I look up inside the hardtop and by golly there is a conduit going down. How unusual is that? In ten minutes the cable is hanging out of the access plate between the top and middle layers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">At the other end the access plate is between the middle and lower layers. I can see the wires at each end. I pause and realize there is a hole in the middle layer I can't see, and worse I can't reach from either end. The three wires from the original KVH install are there. I disconnected the original coax cable from the hard top and attach the new cable to it. I try to pull it through. Zip happens. I go back to the other end and look more closely. The coax cable has been taped to the other two gray KVH wires (power and data). Sigh, I lop off their connectors and eventually after donating some DNA to the boat I painful moved my coax cable with the other two wires four feet to the other access hole. There was black tape every six inches assuring these cables are connected for life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The hole entering the boat from the lower level is packed full. Twenty minutes of trying to get my wire fish through is to no avail. Okay, let's try plan B. I cut the two gray wires as short as I can.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Down below I disconnect enough wiring so I can pull out the panel holding the receivers. This lets me lay on my back and slither into this small space and have one arm free to use. I can see the three wires where they leave the big bundle. I'm able to just grab one of the two gray wires and pull it really hard. It was a measure of my frustration at the time. Slowly it slipped through all of the gooey back tape and fell through. The second gray wire came out easier.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I go back up to the top, tape the coax connectors to smooth them out and lube up the bundle with dish washing liquid. Back down below I crawl back into the hole and start to pull on the coax cable. It moves and stops. At this point I don't care. I give it a huge jerk and it pops free. You can see in the pic where it exited from the big tie wrapped bundle.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Total time to pull a single wire about eight feet. A mere 12 hours of gyrations, or about 90 minutes a foot moved. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So let me sum up what the problems were. There was no anticipation that possibly these wires would have to ever be changed. The vessel design made it virtually impossible to pull in new wiring. The pull holes were just big enough for the existing wiring and no more. Lastly using the damn black tape to tie wire bundle together is always a bad idea.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">If you look closely at the picture above one of the better uses for black tape is to improvise a bandage for a slice made with a utility knife trying to cut the black tape off of a bundle of wires in the first place.</span></div>
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Bill Bishop - Parmainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11554223870035485145noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7834826019588534175.post-24431726372129697832017-01-31T08:46:00.000-05:002017-01-31T08:47:30.034-05:00Raymarine secret tech revealed.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I am often bemused by things I see on TV especially funky boating related content. Louis C.K. showed a photo he took of his chart plotter on some late night TV show talking about when he grounded his boat. It was from a classic E120 Ray system and I quickly was able to see the the safety contour was still set at the factory default of 66'. What this meant was all of the water that is less than 65' deep was all the same dark blue color on the chart. Set it to 7' and all water that is dark blue is.... you guessed it, is 6' or less, maybe much less so pay attention. Turquoise colored water is then 6' to 12', and white water is deeper than 12'. I sent Louis an email with instructions on how to set up his E120 better. I suspect he was too embarrassed to respond back to me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So it bugs me that apparently Hollywood and TV professionals seem to know little or nothing about boats other than there should be women in bikinis aboard. The set up is simple. The shrewd NCIS New Orleans personnel suspect the boat they are on took a trip and a murder happened. The first antics not included in the little video clip was having the actor look at the waypoint list to figure out where the boat went. How could that be determined? Well in an abstract sort of way waypoint data does have a time stamp showing when it was created, but not used. The actor then decides to use Raymarine's top secret new "Back Trak 3D(™)" technology you will see for the very first time. Look out track points, you're a thing of the past. You're history, passé, old school and devoid of high tech 3D computer graphics.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The sad thing from the producer's viewpoint should be all the wasted money spent on pasting in a cheesy CAD model and zooming in on it when the track points could have been used for free and would have been realistic. I didn't buy the alternative "Back Trak" thing, but maybe it's real? Producers, got questions about real boaty stuff? Send me an email.</span></div>
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Bill Bishop - Parmainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11554223870035485145noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7834826019588534175.post-2264572835564497092017-01-29T11:39:00.000-05:002017-01-29T11:53:08.634-05:00The Electric Chair<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I'm fairly sure this is R2D2's great grandfather and the image is iconic. It's circa about 1995. For those that are math challenged this is about 22 years ago. But this is really about the chair, or in this case two helm chairs. The chairs are beautiful and at the time most likely the best money could buy. Everything electrically adjusts. Headrests, position on the rails, and you name it is controlled by a panel of buttons on the side. Overall very cool if the electrical and mechanical stuff still worked. One sort of does, and the other not so much at all.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Very little documentation about these chairs still exist. After combing through the ship's papers and manuals I have a brochure, an unreadable wiring diagram, and parts list for things I can no longer purchase. Online is no help either. Time has marched passed these elaborate chairs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Here is the second problem. The yacht is getting new teak flooring. Yep real teak, not some type of veneered plywood. So what do we do with the helm chairs?<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The options are to rip the old chairs out and buy new, or use the existing chairs somehow, someway and still be able to replace them downstream. They still look nice. The later option is chosen, but this is not without challenges.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">There are three subsystems to the chair. There is the rail system and the stainless steel platform that rides on it. A base that consists of a really heavy, or so my back informs me hydraulic cylinder with a foot pump that still work well, and the chair itself with a 10 switch panel for the motors with worm gears that adjust everything.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The chair you're looking at above was electromechanically in a bad way. This started with a power on switch that doesn't, and hasn't been made in many yahrens. Goal one is to get the chairs</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> into a location where they can be fixed in place for all time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This required a little forensic analysis. There is no documentation on how it works so the place to start is to take it apart. Stubborn fasteners get removed, the chair is laid down and huffed off of the base which then lifts off.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It seems simple, but there are other things not so obvious like where does the power come from? This is an important question because I want to disconnect it completely and safe the electrical system. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The mechanics of the thing is straightforward. There is a DC motor in the center attached to a worm drive gear with a sprocket. A chain drives a shaft from its center which in turn has sprockets at the ends. The side belts have cogs on their underside and pulls the platform to and fro. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But where the heck is the power coming from? If you blow the above pic up you can see what looks like at best about 14 gauge red and black wires going over to the sides of the platform and they're attached to two very small boxes. The wires didn't look big enough to supply the entire chair and the little boxes looked like limit switches. It turns out I was wrong.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I took a closer look at what I thought was a limit switch and there was a small button on the side of it. What else was I supposed to do? It was almost like it was saying push me, I dare you, and I did. The assembly you see popped up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It was a carbon brush and spring like you would find in a DC motor. Who'da thunk. The brush rides on a shaft that you functionally can't see on the underside of the rail and feeds power. Clever but too Machiavellian for my taste.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Most of the mystery's of the chair have now been divined. The next step is where to position them. I get the captain and place him the helm chair. The seat is jockeyed around until he can stand in front of the helm, stand and use the seat as a leaning post and sit in it and still use the helm (in this scenario your feet work best using the spokes). </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The side chair is also positioned but a little further aft for easier</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> access.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Out comes my drill and holes are painfully punched in the SS steel base frame corners and number 10 screws lag it into the deck to freeze it into place. Loose wires are capped off and secured and the chair is reassembled in its new forever home.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In the very beginning of this sub-project I looked closely at the little motors and worm gears. The worm gears all have a about 1/4" (it's metric) square fitting. I stuck a screwdriver into it and it turned, and at a glacial pace what it was attached to moved. Cool, plan B is resolved and I can manually adjust the seat's components.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB2FszqYtxi1TPSWcBgWeWEJRBPMeqdpxRZg4Ay6hTTFCJtiai-LymgtFR0fp7xs-NvYqEERGIfDfMRlB55WGQwCJKqYJGZ8EU9nGf7uyVFyuM7KBw273MmNchbzVX0Qp28Db6eUao86Qx/s1600/flex+shaft+c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="95" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB2FszqYtxi1TPSWcBgWeWEJRBPMeqdpxRZg4Ay6hTTFCJtiai-LymgtFR0fp7xs-NvYqEERGIfDfMRlB55WGQwCJKqYJGZ8EU9nGf7uyVFyuM7KBw273MmNchbzVX0Qp28Db6eUao86Qx/s200/flex+shaft+c.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But even better the local Harbor Freight store for a whopping investment of $4.99 has a flexible shaft that will reach all of the motors. Chuck it into a drill and crank away in either forward or reverse. Problem solved, but I have more challenges to talk about including making a radar fit where it doesn't. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Another is getting 12 volts out of 24 volts with a small transformer used on aircraft that only costs $20.00. I needed this clever piece because the only part of the extensive new electronics that all runs with 24 volts is the 12 volt N2K network that doesn't. As a modest editorial comment why is NMEA 2000 only 12 volt instead of both like chart plotters? Much more to rant about is in the works, and a rainy Florida Sunday gives me some needed time.</span></div>
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Bill Bishop - Parmainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11554223870035485145noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7834826019588534175.post-14679279501036813932017-01-07T10:12:00.000-05:002017-01-07T10:12:42.780-05:00Wiring fuax pas<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A couple of wires got swapped around during a new gear install and the subsequent damage was north of $7000. You had to look closely at the wiring to see what went wrong. This is the terminal block inside a Garmin GSD26 CHIRP sounder module, and the wiring is coming from an Airmar 2kW/3kW r109LH CHIRP transducer. This costly error was made when it was installed and resulted in the failure of two sounder modules, and a very expensive transducer.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7p4EYbJbWPmh09sx37F3p6-5z6n0uU649-mNmV9YCfIZipmALhjQEwFSQotplro5P2ht3D007tPciyj0wxKGz5fISAdPvVDTENSFvXLbUuqdZq_ClebUdGaCryv_Cdo8GwaSlFU-0Ab-X/s1600/Miss+wired+GSD+26+annotated.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7p4EYbJbWPmh09sx37F3p6-5z6n0uU649-mNmV9YCfIZipmALhjQEwFSQotplro5P2ht3D007tPciyj0wxKGz5fISAdPvVDTENSFvXLbUuqdZq_ClebUdGaCryv_Cdo8GwaSlFU-0Ab-X/s400/Miss+wired+GSD+26+annotated.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In dual frequency CHIRP transducers, there are two sets of transducers. One for high frequencies, and one for low. In the case of the R109LH transducer, there is a bank of 15 low frequency elements, and one large high frequency element.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">When the transducer is connected to a CHIRP sounder module two separate transducers are being connected. The blue and its associated black wire is connected to the high frequency terminal block you see on the right side. The low frequency wires, blue/white, and its black wire are for the low frequency side connected on the left side. You can see from the photo, and my annotation this did not happen correctly. They were inadvertently swapped.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I first saw the boat when the owner contacted me about the sounder module not working. This is a working boat used for fishing charters. The boat was new to them, and was bought elsewhere. At the time of purchase the owner wanted a Garmin CHIRP fish finder, and the subsequent system was built around the GSD 26, and the Airmar R109LH transducer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I stopped by and looked at the GSD 26, and there is zero doubt about the lack of functionality. The owner was really upset. The dialog started with how disappointed they had been with the system's performance, and they should have bought another fish finder brand instead. Bad dock gossip is never good for any brand of marine electronics.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I had a spare GSD 26 set aside for use as an emergency replacement for fishing tournament and working charter boats. Until now it has never been needed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I leave the boat, pick up the new loaner sounder module, return and get ready to uninstall the non-op module, and that's when I saw the wiring. I leave the boat again to get my good camera and took the picture you see. The old module is then pulled, the new module is installed and I fired the system up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I was very concerned, but everything initially seemed okay dockside. I played with the system for a while. It appeared to be operating fine, at least as well as I could tell in shallow water dockside and I'm very relieved. It appears the transducer may not have been damaged. The boat goes back to work. I talked to the owner at the end of the day, and there was a vast improvement in the operation of the system, but there was still the lingering shadow of a doubt it wasn't quite as good as they were hoping for. Then a few days later the phone rings, and now there is a problem. The high frequency side of the GSD26 system has stopped working completely. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It's now time for some modest conjecture about what has happened here. No one to my knowledge has dealt with this wire swap transducer problem at these higher power levels and the potential consequences are not well understood. We however can make some observations, The first one is empirical. The sounder module was not happy with having the high and low frequency wiring swamped. It performed poorly, and in a short period of time failed outright. It's my understanding that the low frequency elements of the transducer would not be as prone to damage, but the high frequency elements are very likely to suffer in this scenario.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">My guess is that after GSD 26 loaner module was installed, the already damaged high frequency transducer element failed completely, taking the loaner GSD 26 to Davy Jones Locker with it. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So in sum the original GSD 26 failed along with the loaner and the transducer's high frequency ceramic element has been irreparably</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> damaged, and there still could be damage to the low frequency elements to boot. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This is not pretty. In the real world the damage caused by swapping the the two wire pairs cost north $7000 thousand dollars to rectify. A third new sounder module, hauling the boat, uninstalling the old transducer, and installing a brand new one all caused by two sets of wires in the wrong place.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">There is a one bright spot in this technical conundrum. Garmin, although it's very clear they had no obligation to do so graciously agreed to replace the sounder module, and transducer easing some of the fiscal tribulations for the owner of this working boat who was not well endowed with lots of cash. He still had to pay for haul out and installation of the new transducer. I donated my time for the repair. Pro bono work creates good karma, at least in the long run.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Why did this all occur in the first place? I will never know, and would be the first to say that I have made mistakes myself, but never this expensive. The lesson learned here is to check any work on your boat carefully, and read the directions carefully first. Regardless of whether you do the work, or a marine technician, certified or otherwise does the work, remember the manufacturer is never responsible for incorrectly installed marine equipment. The person who installed it is!</span></div>
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Bill Bishop - Parmainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11554223870035485145noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7834826019588534175.post-7626060771442094632017-01-01T10:53:00.002-05:002017-01-01T10:53:59.279-05:00Captain Ralph's logs. The life of a delivery captain.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The life of a boat delivery captain is more often than not a easy or glamorous job. They can delivery new boats, not so new boats, and boats they wished they never stepped on the deck of. My friend Ralph has been doing this for a long time and as a consequence he has learned bad stuff on boats can and will happen on occasion. Engines crap out always at the worst times. They can also on occasion catch fire or sink. Navigation electronics and autopilots fail when you need them the most and the weather always has to be accommodated. The list of stuff that inconveniently breaks on a boat is almost endless. As a matter of fact it's a rare boat that everything on it is actually working. Ralph has to know the basics of almost every navigation system ever made, and he's a decent a 101 engine mechanic under duress.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">As you can imagine over some metaphorical beers Whiskey Tango Foxtrot boat escapades flow right out of him. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ralph keeps a daily log of his trips, and through his eyes you are going to read his trip logs here on the Rant and the first one is fraught with problems. Did you know you can deliver a large boat on the water almost all the way to Tulsa Oklahoma? I didn't, and at times during this trip Ralph wishes he didn't either. Along the way Ralph adds in some some "Fun Facts" and comments about where he is.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPsSM3Jab-hVcm2IG8jOI26-Y-G6zjnbVHnx5J0FR1xM33dWafZuRBXGZbp3e1uAb-f5nloqlupG3j-0RF0FfO3Fbrut28iCFk9ReItOv4oPaS8HJHJT0xuylATPboVUFsDJBCumO1hsjg/s1600/ralph+old+salt.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPsSM3Jab-hVcm2IG8jOI26-Y-G6zjnbVHnx5J0FR1xM33dWafZuRBXGZbp3e1uAb-f5nloqlupG3j-0RF0FfO3Fbrut28iCFk9ReItOv4oPaS8HJHJT0xuylATPboVUFsDJBCumO1hsjg/s400/ralph+old+salt.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The first log details a trip from St Petersburg FL to Muskogee Oklahoma via the Mississippi in a 65' power yacht. At a minimum this should dissuade anyone who has contemplated a nostalgic pleasure boat trip up the Mississippi river that it's not a good idea.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The second one coming up is a trip to Cuba which will be of interest if you're planning to travel there. Other trips will follow. These are Ralph's words and photos. I have redacted some names and phone numbers from the logs and I added a little punctuation for clarity in a few places. Other than that I have left it alone. You will find the link to these expeditions in the sidebar to the right below Panbo titled Captain Ralph's logs and adventures. These are good reads, and in some cases cautionary tales.</span></div>
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Bill Bishop - Parmainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11554223870035485145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7834826019588534175.post-49226483261627356072016-11-19T13:01:00.000-05:002016-11-19T13:10:12.755-05:00Getting Skooled<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It's time to get tutored again by Garmin to keep my certification valid. The last time was in Ft Lauderdale a couple of years ago. This required getting up at 3 am to get my sorry ass to Lauderdale by 8 am. The 4 hour drive return trip wasn't any more fun either. This time fortunately training was in Tampa so I only had to get up at the crack of dark and drive an hour. The format this time was very different, and much improved.</span></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In Ft Lauderdale there was a large room with tables and a huge three ring binder jammed full. You sat, the speakers changed and the day went on. This time we did the moving. The massive binder was gone and thumb drive had taken its place. The day started with everyone in a large room with a welcome and outline of the day. On the back of my "Hi, I'm Bill" badge was my schedule. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The day was divided up into break out sessions that were one hour fifteen minutes long with about a dozen in each session and six of them filled the day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">What was different was the amount of hands on involved. As an example in the CZone session above you worked with real systems. In the session on networking you experienced a unstable marine network and why it was cranky. This was much better than staring at Power Point presentations all day long.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In the autopilot session the instructor did an impressive simulation of an autopilot calibration sequence which I suspect had taken some real practice to pull off. By hand the Reactor black box was rotated 1 and 1/2 turns, and the system said, my compass is linearized. For the sea trial he used his hand to rotate the Reactor left and right simulating the boats motion and pulled off a successful calibration. This was true slight of the hand work. I can't aver you could do this every time and pull off a good calibration, but he did it in front of me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So did I learn anything? The answer is yes. Although I already knew a lot, the complexity and capabilities of these systems has dramatically increased over just a few years and it takes a real effort to keep up. Now add in Navico, Furuno, and Raymarine and it becomes very challenging to stay current.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Beyond the nuance of things like steer by wire</span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> autopilot integration I acquire two small tidbits I was tickled with.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The first one is I can now load in PDF documents into the newer Garmin systems. For example for a fishing boat I can add the local fishing regulations. For cruisers it could be manuals for critical equipment or safety related materials.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I also thought it would be a good idea to include installer notes on where I buried black boxes, NMEA connections and other related items. Photo's with circles and arrows with a paragraph on the black could also be added to help the next guy downstream, and myself if a lot of time has gone by.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Hi I'm Bob, you worked on my boat about four years ago and I have a problem. Do you remember me?" "Hmm, I'm not sure Bob, is your boat white?" "Yes Bill that's me. " Sorry Bob, I don't remember, they're all white. I need a little more info."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The other cool thing is I can change the splash screens. I can add dealer logos, boat names, or any JPEG picture and or text the owner would want. The are some rules like matching the resolution to the MFD but it's straight forward.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Can the customer do this and load PDF's? The answer is no. It requires knowing where the secret buttons are to access all of the special diagnostic menus. A wrong move here could do real damage to the system and we all had to do a blood oath to get the info. Well maybe that didn't really happen but the Gods at the Garmin mother ship wouldn't be happy with me if I disclosed this info, and your local Garmin tech would be pleased to help you with these things.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Good job Garmin. The training format was terrific and the instructors were all very professional and knowledgeable. The day flew right by and lunch was good. I'm sorry I couldn't hang out and help pack and schelp all of those MFD's down to the van, I had an important </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strike>bourbon</strike> meeting to attend to.</span></div>
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Bill Bishop - Parmainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11554223870035485145noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7834826019588534175.post-8049605374257711192016-11-12T13:45:00.000-05:002016-11-12T13:50:11.687-05:00Screen scenes day<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">What do you mean your chart plotter is growing ferns and has bugs in it? Are you serious? You really are? Okay I'll come over and take a look. One of the interesting things about this job is trying to translate what people tell you about a problem into something useful you can use. More often than not it's collection of vague recollections. It's acting up, it doesn't seem right, there was a message on the screen but I don't remember it, my sonar isn't working. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The end result is my verbal interrogation skills have to kick in. I sit them down in a metaphorical chair, shine a bright spotlight in their face and sweat some additional meager tidbits out of them. "So Bob what do you mean your sonar is broken? What did you do to it? You'll feel better if you get it off your chest, tell me the truth Bob. Did you push the wrong button? You say you did nothing? Do you have any witnesses? No? This isn't looking too good for you Bob. I think you better call your tech. You're going to need representation, and repair money.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I get it. It can be difficult. It's like telling your mechanic you car won't start. He then thinks to himself there are a zillion reasons why this could be happening. It can be even worse. A owner tells the dealer something is wrong. It's already fuzzy enough now, and then the dealer calls me and makes it even fuzzier. Hi Bill, something is broke on Bob's boat, can you go over and fix it? Hell I don't know Bill, it's something to do with the electronics, just go fix it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In this case when I was told there were ferns and bugs in his chart plotter I'm not sure I could have done a better job of describing it. I just gawked at it for a moment trying desperately to think of something to say that sounded real smart. Failing miserably at this I just blurted "It's broke and it won't grow back."</span></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So what has really happened? Beats the crap out of me, but this won't stop me from speculating. This is a Raymarine RL 80C MFD circa 2002 with a Thin Film Transistor (TFT) LCD display that needs all kinds of mystical dark arts to manufacture. Although many are still working, most have ended up in a paupers grave. Often this a unmarked dumpster somewhere behind a shopping center. </span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">If you blow the image up in the lower left hand corner it looks like there was an impact. You can see a star pattern radiating away from it. This may have caused a delamination that was the starting point of the problem. The ferns I think are possibly a chemical reaction that is propagating inside the layers of the display. It has a very fractal feel to it. It's dead like Elvis, can't be fixed, and is slated for replacement. It was really cool and alien looking however.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In the same marina five boats away on the very same day there turns out be another screen problem. The reported problem, like many is also infused with obfuscation. The MFD is acting up. Unlike most jobs, I have a little history to work with here.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The MFD was installed by the boat builder. The console wasn't exactly a precision piece of work. When the MFD was set in the console it rocked a bit. This was fixed by screwing it down plenty hard until it fit flush and looked good.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Shortly after the boat was delivered the display started to delaminate. There was no ambiguity about the problem or its cause. A new MFD was installed by the dealer and this time carefully installed but now has some issues. My first guess is the two MFD's have different software versions and I'm armed with the latest software. When I look though the software is current, but the new display seems to have a touch screen problem. Sometimes it seems to work, and others not so much. I used twisty knobs and the ilk to navigate around. I re-calibrate the touch screen and no joy. I call tech support and the general consensus is the MFD might be funky, send it back and install a new one. Sometimes, but not often bad things can happen to new displays. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Then I caught a glint from the display out of the corner of my eye. I play with the back lighting and squinting at a steep angle I can see a crack about 5" long, not in the top glass layer but in a lower layer. Thinking about the touch issues I played a bit more. If I touch the screen to the left of the crack, it works fine. Touch to the right and I don't have squat. Regardless of any other issues it may or may not of had it will be replaced.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Back in the days of yore ye olde MFD cases were mostly made of cast aluminum. You couldn't force a corner down flush in a wonky console without traumatic things </span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">occurring. Today many MFD's are made with plastics. I don't think this is bad thing. There is less corrosion and coating failures. They are also lighter and thinner. However you have to be more careful during installation. If you're not you can stress the case (and all the stuff in it), or break it by over tightening the fasteners. If you have to spot weld them in place with an adhesive use the right ones like silicone and very sparingly. If you use the wrong ones like 3M 5200 the MFD will come out in pieces. The plastic cases, unlike the cast aluminum ones don't like being pried out out of the console with a Home Depot cats paw.</span></span></div>
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Bill Bishop - Parmainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11554223870035485145noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7834826019588534175.post-595253785456193222016-11-07T09:54:00.000-05:002016-11-07T13:08:06.745-05:00Presidential boating, a reprised post with a note<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>I assiduously avoid politics on the The Rant, and I'm not changing this stance now. Even being careful a story that is patently fictional to the point it even includes characters such as zombies or aliens, can on occasion incur the wrath of those that somehow can't tell the difference. I made the little cartoon just before the election in 2012 and it was crafted so no one was a winner or loser. This year is different and all of us will have been the losers in this process no matter who wins, but the biggest loser of all is public civility and rational discussion. Go vote tomorrow for anyone you want and on Wednesday we will all collectively be grateful the political ads will have disappeared from our TV. The story below is exactly as it originally appeared in 2012. Bill</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">After doing some research, most modern presidents have generally eschewed recreational boating. When you see them on a boat, it's generally for a photo op, or a day trip on a friends yacht. The notable exceptions are Jack Kennedy who was by all measures an enthusiastic boater, George Bush Sr. who has, and uses a center console fishing boat, and Herbert Hover who was avid fisherman. Although Jimmy Carter was a graduate of the Naval Academy, and a submariner, his boating presidency is marked by the selling of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Sequoia_(presidential_yacht)">Sequoia</a>, and the infamous <a href="http://www.narsil.org/index/peopl/jimmycarter/killerrabbit">rabbit incident</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Let's put President Obama, and Governor Romney in a debate setting, and have them talk about boats. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In this case Governor Romney owns at least a 29' Searay bowrider, a small Boston Whaler, ski boat, and a couple PWC's that are kept at his vacation home in New Hampshire. It is not believed that President Obama has a boat. They both do support boating, in their own ways.</span><br />
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Bill Bishop - Parmainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11554223870035485145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7834826019588534175.post-33163823210228078822016-10-08T14:53:00.000-04:002016-10-08T14:53:51.342-04:00Installing the Simrad SGO5 steer by wire autopilot and playing with the Sea Station.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Most of my autopilot installs I just grind out. Do the plumbing and contain the oily mess. Punch holes in the dash for control displays. Add NMEA network pieces, hang black boxes, and connect a bunch of wires. At the end of the job I smell like I've showered in hydraulic fluid, and dried off with a sweat soaked rag. It's very close to the truth. This autopilot system install is different, and different is good. No plumbing, no greasy fluids, few parts and it was easy-ish. This boat also has some very new Sea Star tech I had the opportunity to play with and really liked.</span></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This is a new center console boat with a nice factory installed Simrad system. Twin 16" NSS displays, CHIRP sonar and Halo radar. The boat is also equipped with a SeaStar Optimus 360 joystick steering system, and hence why we need a steer by wire autopilot.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">To do this install we only need two major pieces. The first is the Simrad SG05 you see above. There are several flavors of this unit seen above with the primary difference being cabling and interfacing for other steer by wire systems like Volvo's EVC/IPS and others.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The other important part is we need a compass, and in this case it's the new Simrad Precision 9. It's simple to mount, and even easier to adjust. There is just one cable that connects it to the NMEA 2000 network.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Before we get started take a look at the diagram. The SG05 is a gateway that translates NMEA 2000 into CANbus that the Optimus system understands. NMEA in, CANbus out and vice versa. So one cable (SimNet) goes to the NMEA 2000 network, and the other (the permanently installed one) goes to the CANbus network. Don't mix these two up.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We are also using the NSS display in place of an autopilot head. This saves another hole in the dash and the cost of the autopilot stand alone control head.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It's not in the installation instructions, but is covered in a Navico service bulletin. We have to isolate the power to the Optimus system. In other words we can't let the N2K network power connect to the Optimus CANbus system. A small inline isolator takes care of this. I made sure you can read the Simrad part number for the little thingy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The connections are very simple. The SG05 connects to the NMEA 2000 network with a SimNet to device net (regular N2K tee) cable. The permanently installed cable connects to the Optimus CANbus network. In my case I pulled a termination resistor and moved it to what will be the end of the network. The photo shows the result. Add tie wraps and the physical installation is done. My elapsed time is about four hours and it's time to set it up on the briny.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Set up is generally straight forward. You start by calibrating the compass. Look to the left at the vertical sliding menu. Click on Network, then Device list, and then Precision 9 compass. Now click Calibrate.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Like any compass set up you want low wind and fairly calm water conditions. Press Calibrate and start a turn in either direction with the goal being a full 360 rotation in about 1.5 to 2 minutes. It's not rocket science and the system will grumble at you if you're too slow or fast. Keep turning until it says it's done. My calibration only needed two turns. The Precision 9 compass was on the money when it was first installed, and retained it's correct heading after calibration. It's within a degree of a steady COG and that's as good as it gets.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The autopilot setup is a bit more nuanced. Locate on the vertical sliding menu and click on the Autopilot followed by Commissioning.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This is not the page I actually used. I lifted this screen grab from a Simrad demo boat at the NMEA conference. The software display is somewhat generic and this page is tweaked depending on the gear attached to it. In my case Sailboat was grayed out and the only two available boat types were displacement and outboard. Follow the screen instructions and fill in any blanks. Transition speed for a power boat is the lowest speed needed to maintain a comfortable plane.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Point the boat in a </span></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">direction that gives you about a mile forward of maneuverability. Set the throttle to the recommended speed, press Autotune and let go of the helm. The best speed for a planing vessel is the highest speed you can go with no notable bow rise. This is around 7 or 8kts up to around 10 to 12kts tops. Bow rise will affect the tuning and make sure your seat back table is secure and trim tabs are in their fully upright position.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This is the part I like the best. In days of yore it would a tedious hour or two manually tuning the autopilot while plowing back and forth in the bay. Tweak the counter rudder and do it again, add some gain, oops not good reduce the gain. What happens now during an autotune at a very macro level is the pilot commands a turn of say 5 degrees. It uses its sensors to measure what actually happened and makes some algorithm changes to optimize. Repeat and with large and small turns and you can tell you're near the end when the boat straightens out and steers straight and it's done.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The autopilot works perfectly. Minimal cross track error and a clean dead straight wake. In fact the Optimus is doing the steering and is being told what to do by the Simrad pilot. Total time to do the install was six hours, and I could easily slash two hours off the next time I do it now that I have read all of the docs and lived the installation dream.</span></span><br />
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So is it suitable for DIY install. I think the answer is yes if you have some familiarity with NMEA and CANbus networks. The tricky part you might need some help with is identifying the CANbus network and where to do the interface. If you're not sure then get professional help. I have seen what happens if you wire it incorrectly and it is not pretty or predictable.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This boat as you now know has a SeaStar Optimus 360 joystick steering system. It also has the new "Sea Station" option which I believe was formally introduced at the IBEX show this week while I was there. Not to step on others terminology who in turn stole it from many others this is a sky hook system. Translated, the boat has the ability to hold a stopped position with a further option to hold the position with a specific heading.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">To pull this off they have dual GPS's in a housing and uses them to calculate both position and the heading without the need for a compass. The Sea Station also has a small display for set up and advising what mode the system is currently using.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It works really well but what impressed me even more is how well and gracefully the joystick steering works. I have been on many boats with joystick steering and in general they all worked well and did their job. But to be honest the shifting of the engines on most of these boats have all seemed to have a sense of violence about it. The clanking and banging and jumping of the engines makes me wince and at the same time wondering it they are using shaped charge explosives to shift the engines. Well it's not that bad, but it makes me think the transmission life will likely be shortened. The Telefex Optimus 360 is devoid of most of this. They have some secret sauce software and interfaces that hugely reduces the number of times it needs to shift the engines in the first place, and when it shifts it does it smoothly. It's the best Joystick system I have used to date and the Sea Station option functions smoothly and quietly even in fairly strong winds.</span></div>
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Bill Bishop - Parmainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11554223870035485145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7834826019588534175.post-83106947474790740712016-09-15T15:31:00.000-04:002016-09-15T15:31:28.597-04:00Boating morals<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I really don't enjoy the big three long weekends. Memorial day, the 4th of July and Labor day are in my view the three worst times of the year to go boating. Marinas are packed, boat ramps overwhelmed, and anyplace on the water that has food, liquor and a dock is knee deep in vessels and their alcohol fueled exuberant crews.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">These are indeed the quintessential amateur days on the water. My life is made worse by owner's realizations the boat that hasn't moved since the last long weekend holiday now has a variety of ailments. Dead batteries, bilge pumps that don't, electronics that won't turn on and the 12 volt outlet isn't working and this means the daiquiri blender isn't usable. My phone rings endlessly. Some I can help, some I can't, and some I won't. Crikey Bob that thing has been broken for months, and you're calling me at the crack of dark Saturday morning to get it fixed by 10:00 am? Buy a car battery and jumper cables to run the blender. It ain't happening today, Sheesh.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I get most of my news from Google. They don't take any particular stand on anything. They just aggregate news from the web. Here are the first five articles on a subject from the big boys in news biz, and below is a link to all 1327 other news stories on this very subject. You can go through that long list and pick the stories that affirm your view of the world and ignore the rest. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Who needs the facts when someone will tell you what you want to hear.</span></span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">One of the things Google news lets you do is set up custom </span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">categories, and one of mine is "Boating". To be honest it's a horror show. Boat explosions, collisions, drownings, propeller deaths, BUI's, sinkings, boaters that haven't figured out dams are dangerous, and water craft that with greater frequency than you would think possible, are smacking into large inanimate fixed objects like bridges, docks, beaches and islands at high speed.</span></span><br />
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I've selected a handful of headlines from recent news stories. I'll provide a succinct description of the event and in a Murphy's laws sort of way provide a moral. Don't worry, this won't be a bummer of a read. Yeah some injuries, but everyone is alive, at least so far. I left the real carnage on the Google news page for you to read, and there's plenty of it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This headline caught my eye. The USCG had to rescue out of gas boaters? There must be more to this story and there was. No the boat wasn't being dashed to pieces on the rocks and it wasn't going to plunge over the dam either. As a matter of fact they had already called Sea Tow or the ilk for assistance. All they had to do was sit tight and wait, but they didn't.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Most of the people on board put on life preservers (okay this was in hindsight brilliant) including a young child and went swimming. This would have been okay I guess if the boat had been anchored, but it wasn't. The short story is the boat promptly drifted away and they couldn't swim back to it. The good news was someone on board of the immobile boat used a cell phone to call the USCG who </span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">dispatched a helicopter and a 45 footer to recover them all safety. </span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Moral: </span></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">If everything seems to be going well on your boat, you have obviously overlooked something. Most likely checking your fuel levels before leaving the dock. BTW don't leave the boat also.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Its been two decades since Sea Scouts have been rescued in San Francisco Bay, and there is a reason for this. My belief is the average Sea Scout is a better boater that most adult boaters. They have a thing called the Sea Promise as follows: As a SEA SCOUT I promise to do my best; </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">to guard against water accidents, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">to know the location and proper use of the life saving devices on every boat I board, t</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">o be prepared to render aid to those in need, t</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">o seek to preserve the motto of the sea, women and children first.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Despite all of this a group of 15 sea scouts with an adult were on San Francisco Bay in a 30' catamaran. The winds picked up. There was apparently </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">difficulty with both lowering the sails, and anchoring and they got flipped dumping the entire crew in the water. The were all wearing life preservers, were organized, and everyone stayed with the boat. The USCG quickly recovered them and short of some minor cuts and bruises all ended well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Moral: Never ever forget </span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">mother nature can be a bitch so be prepared like the Sea Scouts were.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">All I could think was if there was video of this event it would have gone viral in minutes. The news stories are a little vague about the event details. The Tow Boat US guy who extracted the boat from the woods noted that the first twenty feet of travel from the water into the woods left no marks. This lead to the conclusion the vessel was airborne for that distance, and then it traveled an additional 80 feet into the woods before encountering a significant navigation hazard, a large tree.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">How in the world could this happen? I mean it was around midnight, the boat was 17 feet long with a 150HP engine. Hmm I have two scenarios. The first is someone was holding his beer when he said, "Hey, watch this." The second was he was holding his own beer as he plowed into the woods. You just can't make this stuff up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Moral: </span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The two most abundant things in all the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOFHEXbgN-5C3IeXNGVCIFvSjogIkwUx_-6MJzi0icBgfiEywi9uX45TrnZConRSWYn-3mLw19azRjfkEnApW2KOsN-N2Ib4nrDiHj8LMNTmwTlQEqgF9-g6PD9DOUkdYGSSRapttJs7MG/s1600/moral+lawyer.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="45" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOFHEXbgN-5C3IeXNGVCIFvSjogIkwUx_-6MJzi0icBgfiEywi9uX45TrnZConRSWYn-3mLw19azRjfkEnApW2KOsN-N2Ib4nrDiHj8LMNTmwTlQEqgF9-g6PD9DOUkdYGSSRapttJs7MG/s400/moral+lawyer.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This is a small article about a broken neck and a boat. It does appear the gentleman's neck was broken, I'm sure it hurt, and it's implied there was no permanent damage. There is now a lawsuit. The essence of the suit is the guy was a guest on a boat that went out to a sandbar to anchor and play. The plaintiff says he had never been to a sandbar and the boat owner said it was okay to dive overboard, and he did, into really shallow water and hence the injury.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I have one simple rule about diving into anything. If I don't personally know how deep the water is and what's lurking underneath I don't dive period. This has always seemed to be a prudent approach, to me at least. I have some mixed feelings about this. The first is the immediate water around every sandbar I've been to is shallow. That's not to say that thirty feet further out it might be deeper. The second is my inherent distrust in believing what people tell me is really true, like it's okay to dive here. This is similar to a captain telling me "I don't need a chart, I know these waters like the back of my hand." "Maybe, maybe not and my grip tightens."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Moral: Look before you leap and don't dive. My mother had a lemming's take on this. "Just because someone else jumped off the cliff doesn't make it a good idea for you."</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6cWzKLYFGBKNkUJUoROmEoxDYV54AeybzNqPTarGt8vQs4Wlfzscj_EBp8zWUMfxhJkXpcJlkIoxx_q5eCOBkuqRgZ0JRBy-6AyFv8BJPDbXOHaT9XDLx-8deQVO0k6ncWYOxUeP5Hb8y/s1600/boating+headlines.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="26" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6cWzKLYFGBKNkUJUoROmEoxDYV54AeybzNqPTarGt8vQs4Wlfzscj_EBp8zWUMfxhJkXpcJlkIoxx_q5eCOBkuqRgZ0JRBy-6AyFv8BJPDbXOHaT9XDLx-8deQVO0k6ncWYOxUeP5Hb8y/s400/boating+headlines.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Height matters. The story is simple. A boat is traveling at (conflicting reports) 10mph to 20mph as they attempted to pass under a railroad bridge and didn't successfully pull it off. The bridge objected and the Tee-top was ripped away from the deck causing substantial injuries and helicopter rides for two occupants. I suspect the speed was closer to 20mph because I have repaired boats that have done this at about 7-8mph with a low local bridge. Although the damage was considerable, embarrassment and dented wallets were the only injuries. One of the vessel occupants had suggested the tide had risen and that caused the accident. Seriously?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Moral: A rising tide lifts all boats but never lifts a bridge. Not sure about clearance? Slow down and approach with caution because the bridge always wins.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgJOkCpqABTX4VPHSZk6MKHQac_wYgOMHi5pL2UlGJSoTVdfr-iD3ZtOVHQKU_h_Ftw7SA3obJv-uh72dAszKT7e0mqbQF7uWkHexNFxq_MZ4evSeIXjlXKshAEX6xUA7EptjgcaYsfNlw/s1600/boating+headlines+nyc.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="23" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgJOkCpqABTX4VPHSZk6MKHQac_wYgOMHi5pL2UlGJSoTVdfr-iD3ZtOVHQKU_h_Ftw7SA3obJv-uh72dAszKT7e0mqbQF7uWkHexNFxq_MZ4evSeIXjlXKshAEX6xUA7EptjgcaYsfNlw/s400/boating+headlines+nyc.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">What is this abo</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">ut? Are the rules different for boaters in NYC and is there some confusion caused by this? I checked and no they are not. It's just a really busy harbor with lots of boats of all types from huge to tiny so you have to pay attention. The story was about a ferry that recently plowed through a group of kayakers while backing out of its dock. No one was killed but but there was plenty of blame to spread around. The ferry captain said the sun was in his eyes, a poor excuse at best, and what the hell were kayakers doing milling around in the path of a ferry, any ferry in the first place? They were like gnats of the boating world waiting to be swatted.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Moral: There are boating rules, and then there are the immutable rules of mass and inertia. Large vessels have limited maneuverability and even worse brakes so stay well clear of them. This isn't rocket science. Being in the right as a 100,000 tons is bearing down on you will only provide a very brief period of smugness and satisfaction before you get splatted. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It was more difficult that I initially thought to find news stories about boating incidents that didn't result in a serious injury or death. Actually one of the headlines I originally chose had what appeared to be survivable injuries. This turned ugly when one of the individuals died and I removed it. A boat made a turn without looking directly into the path of another boat traveling at high speed while overtaking it appears on the wrong side. There was no good moral for this story. Be careful out there, and pay attention.</span></div>
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Bill Bishop - Parmainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11554223870035485145noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7834826019588534175.post-75653059891955388292016-08-19T08:46:00.000-04:002016-10-29T10:07:49.638-04:00The secret life of hulls and transducers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It's a great transducer. It was carefully and properly installed. The only problem is it doesn't work if the boat is moving faster than 10kts. You can't put this style transducer anywhere on this hull where it will work at speed. This is a far more common problem than you would believe and the problem is caused by the hull design, not the transducer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The owner of this boat is experienced and has expectations about transducer performance. Another owner of the identical boat is new to boating and just assumed transducers don't work if the boat is moving. Hull design, construction, and rigging all contribute positively or negatively to transducer performance. In my world a transducer should be able to hold bottom and mark fish targets at most boat's normal cruising speeds. For reasons we are going to learn about this is often not the case.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSRG901irpWEVWppfLrR2KfUTZgDe7_vdBDKkBTkzdIHvbL4B3CTXSs5FYcx0rvNSemScbieZzgxLIOq-Hl6122EBsyrGbUJkfvLwzHdd4qwLZaScvrpsTLLV_6UbiUJLfMFMEdkho2ckY/s1600/transducer+smallest-005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSRG901irpWEVWppfLrR2KfUTZgDe7_vdBDKkBTkzdIHvbL4B3CTXSs5FYcx0rvNSemScbieZzgxLIOq-Hl6122EBsyrGbUJkfvLwzHdd4qwLZaScvrpsTLLV_6UbiUJLfMFMEdkho2ckY/s400/transducer+smallest-005.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The problem in too many cases is the transducer is an after thought. Designers strive to create safe, stable and hydrodynamicly efficient hulls and our boat in question is all of that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But this design never contemplated installing transducers. This transducer will work, but needs shimming out from the boat using a fairing block of sorts to clear the turbulent boundary layer created by the hull.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2EXVRD-Zi2cNgRl0likPoHOJbu69B2nFNtJnmDZck_h_iCZUwvfX2EOazfu7gwcarJvLSQzgnJuR-E0E-SrAoMJjyqF53CfyYruIk_i1gF03Bz6LwR9igJ6eSmBQCx8lru7lABT-Nt0Ym/s1600/boundary+layer.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2EXVRD-Zi2cNgRl0likPoHOJbu69B2nFNtJnmDZck_h_iCZUwvfX2EOazfu7gwcarJvLSQzgnJuR-E0E-SrAoMJjyqF53CfyYruIk_i1gF03Bz6LwR9igJ6eSmBQCx8lru7lABT-Nt0Ym/s200/boundary+layer.gif" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Here is a one minute 101 simple lesson about the boundary layer using a borrowed NASA drawing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">When a fluid like water travels over a surface like a boat hull, the closer to hull the water gets, the slower it moves and friction caused by the hull creates turbulence. This is the boundary layer. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The smoother the surface, to a point, the thinner the layer will be but it will always exist on a boat hull. Anything on the surface of the hull from strakes to a through hull fitting can dramatically increase the thickness of the turbulent layer downstream from it. Just above, or below the boundary layer depending on your perspective the water has a smooth non-turbulent laminar flow which your transducer loves. It's a very complex subject with endless variables from hull shape to speed so this is a good place to stop.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy6brIevbveJTFnFLAV-hUQBiT_zMnbD-afBv5T-y_D0lIcFz48x0F5e2_lSFzawOF7yB0uCZRDR8TszIiP1Ww1HlzxfdooJeM1PONA0T1-6bLvG70vOTzAWfssrIHlVfIdrUOKtmZhvnF/s1600/strakesw+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy6brIevbveJTFnFLAV-hUQBiT_zMnbD-afBv5T-y_D0lIcFz48x0F5e2_lSFzawOF7yB0uCZRDR8TszIiP1Ww1HlzxfdooJeM1PONA0T1-6bLvG70vOTzAWfssrIHlVfIdrUOKtmZhvnF/s400/strakesw+small.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Here are a couple of very dramatic photos of hulls underwater rarely seen by boat owners. The one above is traveling high speed. The strakes really jump out at you and this is the reason universally manufacturers say don't install transducers near these structures. On this boat you could likely install transducers on or near the keel line. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB7qIc-WJuNjW4UwvztV_4iO_0a6dch5bEowwe0jVhxfAsxrq-d4YAu3_fRseJeKxbmRQJlNbPx_S-tXhrHAO_K1KvaQ72vDTCmEnGsNMbvGNLiktB__OWKcP1iBAP-gvBg49jUP4BjjLe/s1600/turbulent+hull.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB7qIc-WJuNjW4UwvztV_4iO_0a6dch5bEowwe0jVhxfAsxrq-d4YAu3_fRseJeKxbmRQJlNbPx_S-tXhrHAO_K1KvaQ72vDTCmEnGsNMbvGNLiktB__OWKcP1iBAP-gvBg49jUP4BjjLe/s400/turbulent+hull.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Here is another hull, and the boundary layer turbulence is significant. I can't see a single place where a transducer could installed without a substantial fairing block to get it down into clean water.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The take away is that a hull may perform really well but can be at the same time very transducer unfriendly. What can affect transducer performance? Every part of your hull that's in the water. Some have minor impacts, others huge. Here are a few examples.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTlv4b192OnbCK7t-yCJ6tVzV0KEdCI09cz3qGg24qHhe5zajrOL62S9RHtJ8MhyhE84ttRJGyvORwfXpxZXwbFE8h2gtZPCjGEBL8KYIM_uHJVWG2sLOkesAXyfYevkBuMfqvw-K4v3zF/s1600/020.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTlv4b192OnbCK7t-yCJ6tVzV0KEdCI09cz3qGg24qHhe5zajrOL62S9RHtJ8MhyhE84ttRJGyvORwfXpxZXwbFE8h2gtZPCjGEBL8KYIM_uHJVWG2sLOkesAXyfYevkBuMfqvw-K4v3zF/s200/020.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It's almost cute and seems harmless. It's a drain for an anchor locker. I suspect it's located below the water line so the locker dripping stains wouldn't be seen. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">At speed the venturi effect sucks in air from the locker through the hose and spews it down the hull. Looks good, it's nicely installed but very bad for a downstream transducer. This is just a one inch hole. Just imagine the turbulence you can get from a six or eight inch bow thruster tube in the bow.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcqwDdZFrXWLlqFzpBezEeLSEW4FxnKj6R4NN43ZrAef3SEsbUFJTjYQ8eQzI4oUT1sU9EQkizTTALQ0DuJMk4d0jRHsW5EwCyHCWEj_6L02tQ7TVYs2rWAtJF1EGwMeI0YldgiAG__MHh/s1600/019.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcqwDdZFrXWLlqFzpBezEeLSEW4FxnKj6R4NN43ZrAef3SEsbUFJTjYQ8eQzI4oUT1sU9EQkizTTALQ0DuJMk4d0jRHsW5EwCyHCWEj_6L02tQ7TVYs2rWAtJF1EGwMeI0YldgiAG__MHh/s200/019.JPG" width="200" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Strakes that stop mid hull create a lot of turbulence downstream. The more abruptly it stops (squared off) the more turbulence it will generate. There was some effort to fair this one but not enough.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgznPqS9qnyHSEVqSS-LuOebB3XIRQ7qVi0MWdpHKLxoKfUVa-zxDyb18BFCIUF1T7prue_MJrWfIK49bN2GmTNJ02X5piduQqBaIarnFyTyfYkoAsWDQo9OSzC6-IanngalvkjM68bghRM/s1600/017.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgznPqS9qnyHSEVqSS-LuOebB3XIRQ7qVi0MWdpHKLxoKfUVa-zxDyb18BFCIUF1T7prue_MJrWfIK49bN2GmTNJ02X5piduQqBaIarnFyTyfYkoAsWDQo9OSzC6-IanngalvkjM68bghRM/s200/017.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Hull ripples and flaws will increase the thickness of the boundary layer This is more typically seen in molds that were made by hand.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Newer robotically (CNC) cut molds are smoother and straighter. Even in this case as a mold ages and is continually repaired flaws can creep in. Look at your hull at a low viewing angle and see how straight it is. You might be surprised either way.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCbIiVks_mJ0TGuHYpQOtADbtEE0riSQB4ox8QzNyMOsuQltdBQUwSW3MW4Th4CRLp2eu-DhhIVMnl39tQMIIfiBv7ic9YY5_kgzBPmMgMsPy9qj3yHS1emee1RIRrxDiCz8KuW62Dlx7o/s1600/015.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCbIiVks_mJ0TGuHYpQOtADbtEE0riSQB4ox8QzNyMOsuQltdBQUwSW3MW4Th4CRLp2eu-DhhIVMnl39tQMIIfiBv7ic9YY5_kgzBPmMgMsPy9qj3yHS1emee1RIRrxDiCz8KuW62Dlx7o/s200/015.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This is a more extreme example but the owner was complaining about poor transducer performance. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what the problem was. Bottom paint that isn't smooth or is flaking and chipping off can cause a smaller version of the same problem. A clean smooth hull is more fuel efficient and transducer friendly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">All boats are compromises and trade offs have to be made. But knowing the depth is important to all boaters!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">To get good transducer performance the hull design has to contemplate and have locations suitable for transducers to be installed. In order for this to happen the builder has to work with the naval architect to make sure this happens. A motor yacht may need numeric depth and the customers may want forward scan tech usable at slower speeds. If it's a quad powered "Fishing Machine" the hull may require multiple transducers of differing types and the hull design should be capable of this and work well at higher speeds. Lets take this one step further. The manufacturer should specify exactly where varying types of transducers can be installed indicated on a dimensioned drawing that comes with the boat and the speeds they can be used at.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">If this is done most transducer performance problems go away. No more guessing. I have seen identical boats showing up at dealerships with completely different locations for the same transducer all with varying degrees of performance.</span></span><br />
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Builders have to think about this when the hull is rigged along with appropriate locations for through hull fixtures used for intakes, discharges or other purposes so they don't ruin valuable transducer hull real estate. Often I see the need for both symmetry and convenience ruining ideal transducer locations. </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZeD_EdbdUNuAEvn_-RLEZWrs9jBH1pSb-t21wtuUXQnl-rD8t0-hK4H7mhWtQuhBFxVjIDe2qa2RKUAMUc6s5lLbhXLpg5vOMdES7a2CGoRwkCTLuSbyhTkzv_M6os-TQelqh3q9ExUHB/s1600/intakes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZeD_EdbdUNuAEvn_-RLEZWrs9jBH1pSb-t21wtuUXQnl-rD8t0-hK4H7mhWtQuhBFxVjIDe2qa2RKUAMUc6s5lLbhXLpg5vOMdES7a2CGoRwkCTLuSbyhTkzv_M6os-TQelqh3q9ExUHB/s400/intakes.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Here is a classic example above. Both of these water intakes could easily have been installed on the port side of the hull. The starboard (propeller down stroke side) could have been left free for transducer installation almost anywhere.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Transducer technology has improved in both performance and technologies used. Just a few years ago the venerable 20/200kHz transducer was the standard. Today we have CHIRP, side and down view, live sonar with steerable arrays, forward scan and others. Boats have changed over this same period. Step hulls are common and speeds overall have increased. It's clear that many designers and builders are not keeping up with the need to integrate and understand the requirements of these new transducer forms into their products and this needs to be improved.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It's tough to explain to the new boat owner that he can only have one transducer installed on his new toy that will work at cruising speed while his buddy's boat has all of the new sonar tech installed. By design this can and needs to be improved.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The two underwater hull photos were graciously provided by <a href="http://www.americancustomyachts.com/">American Custom Yachts</a> and are not for reuse in any form without their express written permission. All other photos are by the author. The NASA image is public domain.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Many thanks to Airmar/Gemeco for their technical feedback.</span></div>
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Bill Bishop - Parmainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11554223870035485145noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7834826019588534175.post-5046747020313667392016-07-31T10:23:00.002-04:002016-07-31T10:31:09.936-04:00Sealed up for all time<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It ostensibly was an easy install. Stick a weather receiver on the hardtop, a quick and easy pull into the console and plug the little beastie in. The mechanics of the job are simple. Remove four nuts along with the collection of assorted washers used as shims for the cap nuts and some threaded bolts that hold the antenna mount to the plate. Right under the plate is a commodious pull to the console. So far so good and less than fifteen minutes have been expended and then everything went to hell in a hand basket.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This should be a piece of cake job. It's not like I haven't encountered this scenario before but it begs two points. First when you install something on a boat you should anticipate that someday you will have to remove it. Secondly although not intuitive you can do things too damn well and this is a case in point.</span></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Yeah I remember. Now the fasteners are all removed. It's time to take off the the plate but it won't budge and neither will the antenna mount. I have a passing niggling thought. The wiring is very neat with a zillion tie wraps keeping it that way. There is a school of thought that theorizes any slack anywhere in a wiring harness will cause eternal damnation in some godforsaken fiery pit.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I go down into the console and yep everything coming out of the down pull tube is in a tie wrap iron maiden. Back up on top now armed with some small tools I nibble away at the goo encapsulating the antenna wire until I can break it free. It comes loose and much to my relief there is some slack and it appears to be just enough.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The mount won't come loose. I scoot around on my butt, grab a hand hold and using my foot and considerable effort and it snaps loose. The entire underside of the mount had been coated in a 3M 5200 esque goo. The mount is now free, sort of and on the plate is a perfect male mold of the antenna mount bottom.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This was a portent of what was to come. I try to get a small screwdriver under the plate to wedge it up but this isn't going to happen at all. I go back to the truck to get my oft used Mr. Hammer and a collection of screwdrivers. Hammers are an essential tool for any marine electronics installer. The plate is thin enough it could be bent. As you might gather this isn't a good thing so removal needs to be done in a patience careful way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Pick a corner, any corner, and beat a screwdriver under it. Use a smaller one to keep the gains in place, and repeat for about 30 minutes. All of a sudden you can start to hear the crackling and popping sounds of the adhesive separating. Wait for the sounds to stop. Wedge some more. More sounds and in another 15 minutes of doing this the cover suddenly pops free.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Alas the release is a bit of a bummer. The adhesive was so tenacious a largish portion of the gelcoat and some fiberglass is stuck to the plate and has delaminated from the hardtop. I use a small screwdriver as a chisel to cut the gelcoat and glass on the other side and the damn thing is finally free. There were some hairline cracks on the other side but some artful caulking will cover it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The rest of the job was as it should have been. The cable pull was easy and the connections went well. The builder's installation of the N2K network was perfect, a sight I rarely see. Every wire was labeled and there were two unused tees to plug into.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The problem was why they assumed that nothing would ever be added to the hardtop and that plate would have to be removed. This was a case of using the wrong sealants, and way too much of the goop. I used a white polyether caulk and put a ring around the outside of the the plate, the bolt holes and the center hole, and reassembled it. It's water tight and it will only take a modicum of effort to remove. The next tech won't thank me, it's what he expects to encounter from a good boat builder. Elapsed time to do a one hour job, 3+ hours.</span></div>
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Bill Bishop - Parmainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11554223870035485145noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7834826019588534175.post-73840969464048293302016-07-22T10:27:00.001-04:002019-03-07T10:18:33.030-05:00If you can imagine it, it's already happening<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">How quickly is technology advancing? The answer is exponentially. I used Gorp as an example paddling across a river on a floating log around 10,000BC. The bolt of mental lightning had struck. Gorp no float. Log float. Gorp sit on log and float. It would be another couple thousand years, and many toes lost to piranha before the log was hollowed out by Urp to make a canoe. The reality is an early man was probably using crude boats made from reeds and bamboo much earlier than this, they just didn't survive through the ages to prove it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The point of the diagram is to show the relative rate of technological change. In my graph, it took Gorp about 5000 years to evolve from paddling to figuring out you could use the wind and save the calories. Looking back from today's perspective it seems it should have been obvious, but it was a long hard slog to get there. Gorp only had stone tools and they weren't exactly precision devices. The weaving of fabrics is still over 5000 years away in Gorp's far future when the first sailboats will finally appear. Crikey, we didn't have the practical tools to make boats out of wood planks until the Bronze age when the rocket scientists of the day started producing tools out of metal. This was 7000 years later in Gorp's future to come. Things started to move much faster when we learned to write things down saving the information we have learned. The printing press sped things up too.</span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The next big jump takes another almost 3000 more years when steam engines started to provide propulsion. After this boat tech starts to really accelerate. Gas and diesel power appears and boats get faster. New boat building materials like steel and eventually fiberglass cascade into the market place and we are now at our current time provided by a GPS satellite.<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Perhaps instead of dealing with Gorp and the passing of millennia a better example of technology growth is this more recent one.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It took 80 years to get from the telegraph to the radio and only 7 years to go from the transistor to the integrated circuit. A little over ten years later the microprocessor appeared. Within a single generation computers, t</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">he internet, and </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">WiFi appear and the tech advancement curve sharpens upward dramatically.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I have two takeaways. The first one is the consumer, meaning us, drives a huge portion of the technology advancement curve. Products we buy create the huge volumes of manufacturing which in turn drives down costs. At the same time, the competition for these huge markets forces new technology and features to be continually added to satisfy the consumer's seemingly insatiable demands. TV and phones are good examples, along with cars and a zillion other things.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Consumer demand doesn't drive all technology change but it's a major player especially on the manufacturing technology side of the fence. Other sources of technology growth include governmental (military space, et al) research and development that transfers downward into the commercial sectors albeit at a slower rate. Navico's impressive Halo radar with its gallium nitride amplifier is a good recent example of using military developed tech. Lastly, basic research and applied science have their roles to play.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Product life is becoming increasingly shorter. Products become obsolete not necessarily because they wear out, but newer products do much more much for equal or more typically less cost. The Raymarine Classic E120 in ten years and multiple generations later has been replaced with the es120 which in real dollars is half the price and substantially more advanced.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="font-size: x-large;">In a futurist mode here are some predictions based on my perception of needs in the marine electronics world.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Problem: Chart plotters have been a technological island. Although WiFi connectivity has become all the rage MFD's still had very limited connectivity largely confined to proprietary apps, download, and uploads. The exception is Standard Horizon which includes a basic browser in some of their products.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Prediction: Within five years most chart plotters will have full internet access capabilities with browsers and the ability to use </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">amplified</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">WiFi access points and external antennas. We are on the edge of this change now. There are some methods to connect an MFD to a hot spot via a router but information on how to do this is not easily available, intuitive, or included with most systems. This is also where Signal K has an important role to play.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Problem: Mobile devices work poorly on boats due to poor environmental packaging, displays that are not daylight viewable, and fragility.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Prediction: Three years will solve these issues. Rugged and waterproof phones already exist with up to IPX8 ratings and a small few already have daylight viewable displays. Within the 18 months or less daylight, viewable displays will become generally available resulting in more aggressive adoption and use by boaters.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Problem: MFD's are currently single purpose computers that support interfaces to some specialized subsystem such as sonar, radar, and power distribution systems. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Prediction: In four years or likely less MFD technology will start to merge with mobile device like hardware technology and will start adopting the Android OS (or possibly an Android/Linux hybrid) with large solid state hard drives. The Android OS is already is used by 85 percent of all smartphones sold worldwide. This will enable the use of common off the shelf features like Alexa/Siri style AI assistants with speech, access to over 2 million apps, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">video streaming,</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> large volume chart and document storage, and other general purpose computing capabilities. In short outside of proprietary subsystems, the MFD will gradually become accessible for third-party applications.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This will occur because the MFD's lower volume non-special purpose and custom system hardware costs will continue to stay flat while the staggering multi-billion annual production (2.5B est 2017) of mobile device hardware costs will continue to fall while increasing in capabilities. Specialty process subsystems will still be required for radar, and sonar, and a few other DSP and large bandwidth applications.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Problem: Autopilots have little if any awareness of the world around them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Prediction: In the next six years autopilots will start to utilize inputs like automatically acquired MARPA and AIS targets, machine vision and </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">throttle controls</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> along with the improved chart and hazard data to aid in piloting. This will be in part tech derived from both the drone and automotive industries.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Problem: Chart plotters are losing the external alarm circuit that can actuate a loud alarm for anchor drag, shallow depths, and other emergency conditions.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Prediction: Oops, we have started to move backward here. In general they once all had this feature which is now rapidly going the way of the Dodo. Only Furuno and some Navico products retain this important feature. Mobile devices are filling some of this void with apps.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">These were easy predictions for me and in a couple of years, I will either be declared "Seer" of the year or I will be running clutching my hat with stars and moons away from a large crowd with torches and pitchforks.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Some of this is starting to occur already. There is more usage of MFD WiFi capabilities working its way towards our boats, however, its been half a decade since WiFi first appeared in an MFD and its functionality is still pretty limited. The recent adoption of (AHRS Attitude Heading Reference System) commonly used in drones is now present in several marine autopilots. Furuno's TZ Touch 2 is using the Android OS and is one theoretical generation away from being able to supports apps, Google Chrome, and other similar software packages. All of the things I have prognosticated are already commonly used in other markets.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So what slows down marine electronics innovation? For starters, the marine electronics market is small when compared to other consumer markets and is dominated by a small group of companies. The other reason is their development efforts have to be spread across a large number of very complex technology platforms. Just adding a new radar or sonar product can eat up a considerable portion of these company's research and product development budgets and they're betting the family farm on its sales.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Competition in this small market also has to contend with the leapfrog effect. There are a few recent examples of this. Raymarine was the first to introduce WiFI embedded in an MFD. Within a year the others were all forced to include it in new products or end up behind the curve. Navico was the first with CHIRP sonar, and the others had to follow or get out of the way. Its clear innovation has had a dramatic effect on this niche market. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The last five years have given us WiFi, Bluetooth, CHIRP Side Scan, Down Scan, Live phased array sonar, pulse compression radar and more. Although difficult to quantify exactly my sense is the level of marine electronics technology has more than doubled over the past five years. I think it will do it again in just three more short years. Tighten your seat belts and batten the hatches. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">HAL 9000 is coming to your boat sooner than you think.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; text-align: justify;"> </span></span></span></span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; text-align: justify;"> <a href="http://www.buffautomation.com/">Buffalo Automation Group link is here.</a></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Advance marine autopilot prototype photo courtesy of the Buffalo Automation Group. </span></div>
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Bill Bishop - Parmainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11554223870035485145noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7834826019588534175.post-47321001785955438722016-06-27T14:20:00.000-04:002016-06-27T14:22:06.508-04:00A couple of small epiphany's in a day in the life.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It was a bemusing and somewhat vexing problem that at first blush was all caused by a watch. It's 5ish in the afternoon on a Saturday and I'm clutching an adult beverage at a function when the phone rings. I stare at the magic box doing it's best to attract my attention. I sigh and take the call. It's a local Captain who is taking a boat way offshore on Monday and his autopilot is now kaput ostensibly caused by a Garmin Quatix watch. This is a new one to me and he now has my attention.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">He launches into the saga. He has a original Quatix watch, and tried to connect it to the autopilot while underway. The autopilot immediately freaks out, and has to be put in standby to get control of the boat. The watch is disconnected from the system and he attempts to reengage to autopilot. The odd thing is now the autopilot seems fine until you engage it. Instead of doing its "Otto Pilot" thing it now pops up the "Shadow Drive" is on message and does nothing else. What this normally means is the helm has been manually turned, the autopilot thinks you want control of the boat, and gives it to you. This isn't supposed to happen when you first engage it, and I have never seen one do this. I agree to visit the boat on Sunday morning to see what can be done and will bring the latest software with me.</span></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The boat is a new and large center console fishing boat from a good builder. It has three Garmin 7616 MFD's installed by the factory in the dash. I take a quick glance at the gear connected to it and don't see anything of concern other than older software.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Captain shows me the problem, and what the hell. The damn thing goes straight to "Shadow Drive" when you engage it. So step one is to do a full software upgrade and see if that </span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">corrects the problem. This takes about 20 minutes to do. It's is a zen thing and I have some level of confidence all will be okay when done, but it isn't. The problem stubbornly remains. I take a closer look at the autopilot set up It seems to be okay, and the Shadow Drive is disengaged. What's up with this? I think maybe I should look at the autopilot's computer and see what the idiot LED light is saying.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I go off to the truck to get some boat disassembly tools and the first epiphany slowly seeps in. It's a funny thing about our brains. The Captain had mentioned the Shadow Drive message in his call to me. I had played with the autopilot and seen the Shadow Drive message a dozen times so I erroneously assumed it had one. I slowly realized on the walk back to the truck his boat doesn't have a shadow drive at all. It's a steer by wire system as the image of the boat's Teleflex Optimus 360 joystick appears floating in my head. Something else is going on here.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The console is opened, and yep it's a steer by wire Reactor and I had overlooked the SBW designation when I checked the N2K device list. Further it's telling me via the LED idiot light it thinks it feels okay. I scratch my head and try to figure out what to do next.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">When solving a problem in a system with lots of stuff hanging on it information is important, and the Captain had some. He had done some excellent and smart problem solving before I had arrived as evidenced by all of the boat's documentation spread out on the berth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Buried in the back of the console were two gateways. The first was for the engine interfaces, and the second was for the autopilot. Look he says "the autopilot interface LED is doing a two blink." This means in effect that it's talking to the steering system but not the the autopilot.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The second epiphany starts to coalesce. In my first conversation with the Captain he mentioned something about a Garmin GNT-10 being installed on the boat with issues. This black box transmits ANT+ from the network to devices like like a Quatix watch. The dealer had installed it on in the boat after the fact. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">According to the Captain it had been plugged directly into a N2K port on the back of one of the MFD's and didn't work. I wasn't surprised about that. The boat dealer had just recently returned and installed it on the Garmin network, or so they thought. The last of the puzzle fell into place and I now knew exactly what was wrong.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">NMEA 2000 is a version of CAN bus, and uses in many cases the same deviceNet connectors. So in effect there are what appears to be two nearly identical NMEA 2000 networks in the boat. They look the same but one is CAN bus only, and the other is NMEA 2000. The two don't play nicely together at all.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So what happened was the dealer's installer added the GNT-10 to the CAN bus network, and not the NMEA network. This is what was causing the havoc with the autopilot.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So how do you tell the two networks apart? The first thing to look for is a network with only three "Tee's" in it like the drawing above shows. The second way to tell is the tag on the Reactor's cable that says "Do not connect to a NMEA 2000 bus." In this case the opposite happened and a NMEA 2000 device was plugged into a CAN bus network.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This problem should not have happened in the first place and I can only make some broad assumptions about why it happened. The reality is the installation of the GNT-10 after the fact was a waste of money because the three factory installed 7616's were already ANT+ capable.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">If I was to guess both the Captain and the owner have Quatix watches and somewhere along the line an inquiry was made to the dealer if they would interface to the installed systems. Someone there made a determination that a GNT-10 was needed and arranged to have it installed, twice and incorrectly both times. I left the GNT-10 in place now unplugged but it should be removed. Sheesh, what a way to spend a Sunday morning, but the boat is fine now and well offshore today with a happy Captain as I'm writing this.</span></div>
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Bill Bishop - Parmainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11554223870035485145noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7834826019588534175.post-5704348139973524132016-06-19T09:56:00.000-04:002016-12-24T10:19:02.217-05:00The Electronics Undertaker<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I've been dealing with marine electronics for a long time and now recognize when death is close at hand. More likely it's emulating Norman Bates's mother who's telling the owner to call me. As a matter of fact I can sense the miasma of burned electronics through the phone during the call. The quavering desperation in the callers voice. The hesitant answers to questions like "When was the last time you used it?" "Hmmm, you don't remember?" "What model is it?" "Whoa, that's old, those vacuum tubes are really hard to find nowadays." What it's a sailboat? That means the radar is on the mast and the use of the bosun's chair along with someone with a strong back."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The coup de grâce in the conversation is the ever hopeful, "It could just be a loose wire you know." My inside voice is saying "sure buddy, but it's not statistically likely, and you should have called Hospice for this gear a long time ago." I hate these service calls. I will have to call the time of death and everyone is going to be unhappy including me. Like this is all my fault. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I try to be kind by being brutal out of the box, and sometimes this works. "Look Bob, the thing is older than Methuselah. I'm surprised it's still working at all. If it's broken it can't be fixed. It won't grow back and you can't just rub some dirt on it to make it better. Even if it could be fixed it will be expensive. Why would you throw good money after bad?"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But mostly the owner's oft misplaced optimism that it's only a simple loose wire or the ilk overrides. I sigh and go off ready to give Bob a bill to tell him in person what I told him for free on the phone. I bite my tongue and don't ask him if his TV at home has a picture tube.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So this begs two questions, "How long should I expect my marine electronics to last?" and "When do I decide to replace them?" </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3_qhuwWMr2o3Le-do8Y5myvVOTsFB3s-cYhw_JvvvHB9m4WQBff-KM5tAAQonLS0-cIsY1oh_LKDY0h5boD0PjrmvFoGWi8OjxjVSpobeAk9Y1mW7QQ6JbETHXoIebbpwTRLDsYKHnmBl/s1600/ray+e120.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3_qhuwWMr2o3Le-do8Y5myvVOTsFB3s-cYhw_JvvvHB9m4WQBff-KM5tAAQonLS0-cIsY1oh_LKDY0h5boD0PjrmvFoGWi8OjxjVSpobeAk9Y1mW7QQ6JbETHXoIebbpwTRLDsYKHnmBl/s200/ray+e120.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Behold the Raymarine E 120 the winner of </span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">NMEA's prestigious Best Navigation Product award in 2006. It was a powerhouse in the day. Big screen, fast for its time, and did everything that was possible.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Just to give you some perspective the price for this unit was $4600 in 2006 (no charts, sonar, or GPS included). In today's dollars that's $5481.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2e9RkXsD6MqadVu3-SDMHNHDFhTb0jNgkHD-op_EDh3PoCxjPiKC4w9c5D1YDiVGO-PsoQKd4ZxE8Xy4zJ824tBca9pg9_dQTNNggbKU_RN-RELsb54-yTfu3M4NheF4hmqRmYw0EnRr_/s1600/ray+127.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2e9RkXsD6MqadVu3-SDMHNHDFhTb0jNgkHD-op_EDh3PoCxjPiKC4w9c5D1YDiVGO-PsoQKd4ZxE8Xy4zJ824tBca9pg9_dQTNNggbKU_RN-RELsb54-yTfu3M4NheF4hmqRmYw0EnRr_/s200/ray+127.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A decade and multiple generations later here is their current product. The eS127 that sells for around $3000. It has a touch screen, built in CHIRP sonar and GPS. It comes with charts and is lightening fast. The bottom line is it has far more technology and it's half of the price of the older unit.</span></span><br />
<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">My best answer to the first question is you should expect a lifetime of not more than 10 years max. There is some waffling here. A lot of this depends on the environment your gear lives in. A lower station enclosed and air conditioned helm offers the best chance of a long life. The unit that gets broasted daily on top of the tuna tower won't live as long. </span></span><br />
<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And yes, I have clients with gear that has lasted far longer than the ten years and they are either proud of the fact, fiscally strained or are oblivious to the march of technology. Last week I was on a boat with a VHF radio that didn't have DSC capability.</span></span><br />
<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The second aspect of product life is the fact that electronics are changing so quickly that after about the third generation of changes its likely that product support will quickly dwindle. The E120 shown above is now only marginally repairable depending on what has failed. Some parts and components used in it are no longer made. </span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Now for the subject of when you should replace your navigation gear. Typically three things drive the decision. First you you have a major failure of some part of the system like the radar that is no longer made. The MFD, might still be fine but short of haunting eBay for a used radar unit you're SOL.</span></span><br />
<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The second is you want access to technology like CHIRP sounders and pulse compression radar which isn't supported by your current gear</span></span><br />
<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ah yes, the third reason is you're tiring of having your boat referred to as a marine electronics museum or having it featured on Antiques Roadshow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Next week I'm going to visit Bob. It will be a short visit and I will offer condolences for the passing of his radar. I'm about at 99.9% sure the radar on the mast expired from lack of use and the subsequent onslaught of entropy. No I'm not going up the mast to look at an antique radar, I conveniently forgot my bosun's chair. It's time for Bob to let it go and start anew. </span></span><br />
<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The redacted electronics waste photo is from Wikipedia and was taken by user Victor Grigas. </span></span></div>
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Bill Bishop - Parmainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11554223870035485145noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7834826019588534175.post-26163776813402597662016-06-12T10:17:00.000-04:002016-06-12T10:25:59.383-04:00Pontooning<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Hello, my name is Bill and I was once a pontoon boat hater. In days of yore they were ugly. Floating boxes largely devoid of hydrodynamic properties milling around on the waterfront at withering speeds of 6 or 7 knots with a geriatric crew. This has all changed. They're sleek, fast, safe and loaded with amenities. Corian counter tops, BBQ grills, bars, refrigerators, thumping stereos, and plush seating for the multitudes. Look at this curvaceous model with the arch. I don't know what those ports are on the bow are all about. Either they are intakes for the turbine engines or gun ports but they certainly look purposeful. The quality of design and construction is orders of magnitude better than it was a decade ago, almost.... You see I still have a small beef about most of these vessels. </span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In a world full of advanced materials with names like FRP, carbon fiber composites, NidaCore and the ilk, why are they still using plywood for the decks?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif;">It's not a tragically bad choice, but given the </span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif;">alternatives available it seems they could do better. I'm sure, at least I hope, that it's a minimum of AB grade marine plywood. </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig3BVA6wdQ_6KiVIfwyG7nnKXpQBTUW63JYcxoJOUBkuDgi85WJvoyocFn7jJvUaO461rVEpn5xFXOq29xIPHA4FlVADUJk4CvNP5RpPYCToz9vunFukZn1UFNHvasxAeDF9mYRnv7LkBh/s1600/007.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig3BVA6wdQ_6KiVIfwyG7nnKXpQBTUW63JYcxoJOUBkuDgi85WJvoyocFn7jJvUaO461rVEpn5xFXOq29xIPHA4FlVADUJk4CvNP5RpPYCToz9vunFukZn1UFNHvasxAeDF9mYRnv7LkBh/s200/007.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The thing about plywood, and even treated marine plywood is eventually it will rot. The only question is how long will this take? It's water intrusion into the plywood that's the issue. To be specific it's fresh water that's the problem.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXgDpA5Yv6NIRVBXkGNdPUOsKuW4uySGPmgI_clYmCZxJRtMEKLZvxmstpV2-slXS5ZQ90_yKJsv40tcd_khjcwbKP6m9EAZQck9VicOaMqBZ-PaDsaztAUOnPcMEfEJSWB8OLSthtza3p/s1600/Braunfaeule_Holz_FI20070208+fungi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXgDpA5Yv6NIRVBXkGNdPUOsKuW4uySGPmgI_clYmCZxJRtMEKLZvxmstpV2-slXS5ZQ90_yKJsv40tcd_khjcwbKP6m9EAZQck9VicOaMqBZ-PaDsaztAUOnPcMEfEJSWB8OLSthtza3p/s400/Braunfaeule_Holz_FI20070208+fungi.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Dry rot and brown rot are common terms to describe the damage caused by a fungi that can only exist in the presence of fresh water. Where does the water come from? Lots of places. Typically it comes from rain, condensation and the water hose used to wash off the boat to get rid of the saltwater.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">How does it get into the wood? Common starting points are penetrations into the wood from bolt and screws, and the end grain of the plywood.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I've seen many a stringer rotting where bolts used to secure the engine mounts created a water entry point. They look like they are made of fiberglass but in may cases it's just encasing a timber. Trampoline decks in boats got spongy in the first place starting where seats, Beckson plates and other items were screwed into a plywood and fiberglass laminated deck.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgua9M-bpChWfgYeUuLSbaZHGINek6BQeinTefVMT8ZqR_crynFh15_ZsgHQXKn3c7Aue-Cy_Y49SOHvrNGbQ5H0uZxC8KLGXpOM0X2Tqpi8kFavAyUDud4tZ23HxR83E1pgMrX2RKqC1gH/s1600/011.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgua9M-bpChWfgYeUuLSbaZHGINek6BQeinTefVMT8ZqR_crynFh15_ZsgHQXKn3c7Aue-Cy_Y49SOHvrNGbQ5H0uZxC8KLGXpOM0X2Tqpi8kFavAyUDud4tZ23HxR83E1pgMrX2RKqC1gH/s200/011.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I asked a couple of sales persons about why plywood was being used for decking? It was apparent they had been asked the question before, and all immediately launched into a dialog about how good their warranties are, so don't worry.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I looked at enough warranties to validate they are good and several were better than many fiberglass production boats. A fair number of them are transferable to the next owner, although in some cases this was a bit fuzzy. By that it seems you may have to buy the used boat from a dealer to make this work.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSBMsW8mOFAIZ7Q75YFyX91qEjAyoXltmp0q38g2COEr0UiVMh8_3RJcFPOwscGQZkeLYNR1Z-kwXZaE7skDEjvBcdXcvDhB9qqWT7tHrfwbPXeeL6PMLOEMYbKOfSDdUu-AjAaeREsAir/s1600/010.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSBMsW8mOFAIZ7Q75YFyX91qEjAyoXltmp0q38g2COEr0UiVMh8_3RJcFPOwscGQZkeLYNR1Z-kwXZaE7skDEjvBcdXcvDhB9qqWT7tHrfwbPXeeL6PMLOEMYbKOfSDdUu-AjAaeREsAir/s400/010.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So why the plywood in the first place? I think first it's cost. A sheet of good marine plywood is around $100. A typical 24' pontoon boat would use 6 sheets ($600). Using NidaCore panels (section shown above) would end up at about three times the cost or around $2000 adding some fudging. So by spending about $1400 more deck rot would never be an issue.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I think there is a second reason for the plywood. I suspect that many pontoon boat builders just don't have much experience with fiberglass products. They live in the world of aluminum welding and fabrication and do an excellent job of it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So would I buy a new pontoon boat with plywood decks? Sure. Would I rather they used something other than plywood? Again yes. Does it come with a Kegerator and daiquiri blender? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The photo of the Brown rot is from Wikipedia and was take by user </span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Mätes</span></span></div>
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Bill Bishop - Parmainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11554223870035485145noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7834826019588534175.post-8420829961561384732016-06-03T13:46:00.000-04:002016-06-03T13:47:01.810-04:00The connected boat part 3 Digital Yacht's on air TV antenna.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Despite rumors of its demise digital on air television is alive and well, while analog cable systems used by marinas are continuing to fade away into the past. In this series we have looked at installing a WiFi Access point connected to a router, smart televisions, and a Signal K server and there is more to come on this subject. To round out our cornucopia of wireless tech we are going to install Digital Yacht's impressive TV antenna and play with it for a bit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It's pretty easy to install and more than suitable for a DYI project. But remember the golden rules about boats. Access to everything typically sucks, and wiring diagrams don't exist. I heard a rumor that the last known boat wiring diagram from a sixties vintage Hatteras is archived at the Library of Congress. Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The actual product name is the futuristic sounding DTV100. I've splayed the box's contents out in the main salon. You get everything you need for most boats in the box with the exception of the coax cable from the amp to the TV or splitter. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">You get two mount adapters, the amplifier and its fasteners, and the antenna with 10 meters of attached cable.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">There is only one small thing I would have changed about this product if I was dictator. It would have about a 1' pigtail with the RJ6 coax connector attached to the cable, and then include a butt connector along with the 10 meters of cable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Why you ask? It's simple. The majority of boats already have a vintage antenna, and the coax cable is already there. In this common scenario detach the old antenna, stick on the new and attach the pigtail to the existing cable.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This saves lots of time in many cases, in a few others not so much. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This also presumes the connector hasn't corroded into oblivion, and the cable is going where you want it to go. Sometimes it doesn't.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The antenna has a nice sturdy feel about it. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">You get two mount adapters so the combination accommodates smooth 25mm and 36mm mounts and the threaded 1" mount versions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A little tip here. When using the smooth (non-threaded) mount put a couple of turns of masking tape or a little silicone on the mount to give it some added stiction. There is a bolt on the antenna base you tighten to lock it in place.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Now for the interesting part of the install. Hopefully you no longer still have a TV with built in VCR and glass picture tube. If you do, stop reading right now an buy a new TV, or get a good book and give up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The exception</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> to this is if you have a on air digital tuner attached to it, and all of this assumes you have a digital tuner in your TV. Some new flat panel TV's tout a feature called "Tuner Free" like it's a bonus you want. You don't want this so called feature so look for this when you're buying a new TV.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; text-align: left;">So we have a couple wiring scenarios to deal with. First is the classic AB switch configuration. The old analog antenna went in on one side and the dockside cable went into the other. The middle connector went to the splitter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; text-align: left;">The Shakespeare and Glomex boxes do a similar task, but are also signal amplifiers when they're turned on. So what to do?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; text-align: left;">What happened in lots of cases were the Glomex or Shakespeare switches ended up in geographically unattractive locations from a cabling viewpoint. You can use them as a splitter of sorts if you don't turn them on. I'm not really happy with this because you get some additional signal loss in the process.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; text-align: left;">The quick and easy way out is to give something up, like the marina dockside cable. It's a disappearing service, and when you have it it's still analog with limited channel options in most cases.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So my preference is to take the output from the amplifier and plug it directly into the boats primary splitter or directly into the TV and it's bye bye analog cable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The amplifier itself is easy to install. Find a close to the splitter location inside of something like a cabinet, but not so inside you can't easily get at it. It comes with a bolt set which I couldn't use so a couple of #4 screws took their place.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It has three coax connections. Take the wire from the antenna and plug it into the one marked antenna. No confusion here. Take another coax cable (you have to provide this) and screw it into the "TV" connector and the other end into the boats "In" connector of the boats splitter , or into the old "on air"connector" of either the Glomex or Shakespeare amps. If you do the latter don't turn them on for all eternity. The third connector is the FM antenna connection which I didn't use. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">You power the unit with either 12 or 24 volts and you're almost done now.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I wanted to compare the performance difference between the original vintage analog signal Glomex system that came with the boat, and the new Digital Yacht unit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Before I installed the new system I ran a channel scan using the original Glomex system. I picked up 31 channels, and in reviewing them 8 of them were pixelated. This provided 23 usable channels. This was done at two in the afternoon with clear skies.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The following day with the new system now installed, in similar weather and at the same approximate time I scanned again and received 49 channels, and 4 were pixelated. I ended up with 45 usable channels, more than double the old system. Really impressive performance. I was pulling in clear stations that were 60 miles away in Fort Myers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Part of the performance is the amplifier's gain range topping out at +27db. There are a few of other systems with similar gains, but given its compact footprint and solid construction this is the best performing unit I've seen to date. Having the FM antenna connection is also a real plus. In fairness to Glomex this was a vintage unit, and a newer one would have performed better.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Now for some nuance about antennas. I've installed five of these antennas. Four were replacing much older systems. The fifth was a new install and had some severe spatial constraints. Although the hardtop was large, the locations where you could pull wires to it were very limited. The last one ended up about 2' away from a Rouge Wave Internet access point antenna.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In theory the digital TV and WiFi frequencies are relatively far apart (MHz vs GHz) but the Ubiquity M2 bullet is leaking RF the Digital Yacht antenna can see. There are some anecdotal reports that this can occur in the 700MHz range which is the upper end of the digital TV range. This results in losing some of the weaker channels. The short term fix in this case is don't run both systems at the same time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In general with antennas it's good to get as much separation between them as possible. Another possibility might be a notch filter if I knew exactly what frequency was causing the problem. I'm still pondering options. In this same vein I have an Airmar PB200 putting an oscillation into a too close VHF antenna. I'm playing with copper tape to see if I can make it go away. This will be another adventure. </span></div>
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Bill Bishop - Parmainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11554223870035485145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7834826019588534175.post-43590228296262511842016-05-22T13:37:00.000-04:002016-05-22T13:37:39.005-04:00Waterspout to Tornado to Waterspout to Tornando<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Back in January we had a cracker of a front pass through Sarasota. Not that I didn't know it was coming, I did. Cold fronts are a regular event here. Almost weekly at some times of the year. They typically roll in diagonally on a long southwest to northeast sagging line. This one was coming in late at night. The evening cooling tends to calm the associated T-boomers down on most occasions. Yadda yadda yadda, big deal. Severe thunder storm warnings are also a dime a dozen here and off to bed I go with a good book. I never saw the tornado watch that appeared at 12:45am. At 2:03am the cell phones start squawking I grab mine, fumble for reading glasses, and holy crap, what the hell going on? This thing didn't calm down, in fact it got meaner, a whole lot meaner. There were warnings galore lined up.</span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I plunked myself in the living room and turned on the TV. All of the local TV stations had dragged in their meteorologists who were clothed just one small step above pajamas. Warnings were scrolling at the bottom of the screen, but what I was paying attention to was the Doppler radar images which were showing rotation just off the coast due west of me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Above is a cool NOAA screen shot from the event showing three potential areas of rotation embedded in the front. Note the areas of bright red right next to the bright green where shear is occurring. The one in the center created the tornado that will strike Siesta Key and move onto the mainland. It came to earth at 3:17 am in the Gulf of Mexico as a EF2 tornado and in just five minutes traveled 1.14 miles as it roiled across Siesta Key crossed the intercoastal and continued to ravage the mainland. Hence the title of the piece.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">What's unusual is there are few if any cases of a tornado starting as a mesocyclone waterspout then becaming a tornado as it moved onto land or is it now a landspout? Within a minute or two it became a waterspout again as it crossed over the intercoastal waterway, or is it still a tornado? And then again a tornado on the main land.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This is the catch. There are all sorts of fuzzy verbal boundaries and lots of forms of, okay hold your breath now, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclogenesis">Cyclogenesis</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">At the micro end of this scale you have gustnados that can look like a tornado, but aren't. Landspouts are generally considered to be a relative of a typical waterspout but it's over land. Don't forget the mountainado and snowspout either. At the nano level there are dust devils, sand augers, fire whirls and dozens of other similarly named whirlwind manifestations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So here is a clear rule of thumb. If any of these forms of Cyclogenesis, and I'm using the term loosely are attached to a mesocyclone storm cell (bad ass thunderstorm) consider them very dangerous whether on land or in the water. Even if some of these weather events aren't attached to a mesocyclone they can still be extremely dangerous.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I waited a day for all of the emergency activities to finish and walked the entire tornado path starting on the beach. It was scoured clean and very flat. Damaged beach furniture had been put in piles but I think only half of them were found. I couldn't help thinking beach goers will be finding the balance of them while swimming in the gulf for years to come.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The six story Excelsior condo took the brunt of the tornado's wrath coming in from the gulf. Windows blown out, cars were damaged, but the most notable damage was caused by the roof being stripped off. This allowed the next few hours of very heavy rain to soak the building's interior largely ruining everything.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Here is were my observations differ from the official report that stated the wind field was 350 wards wide. You can clearly see the path where the tornado crossed the road and I would say the wind field was less than 100 yards wide, and the real damage was confined to a width of a few hundred feet.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The bay side portion of the condo was luckier. Not that they escaped unscathed by any means. The spacing between the rows of condos was pretty large and the tornado spent a chunk of its time there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It did cross over one and got close to removing the roof on one of the buildings which will required substantial repairs. It then shredded its way through some oak trees and entered the intercoastal waterway. A quarter of a mile later it hit the mainland with vengeance.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The two story home on the water was completely demolished, and resulted in the only injuries which were fortunately not life threatening. Fire and rescue personnel extracted two women from the second floor with lift bags.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The tornado then coursed its way through a residential neighborhood for a distance of about two long city blocks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A walk along the now blue tarped damage path was accompanied by the buzzing of dozens of chainsaws grinding through fallen tree limbs. The majority of the damage was blown in garage doors and windows, roof shingles and other roof issues along with damage from large branches and fallen trees and then it dissipated into thin air.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">On the whole the National Weather Service does a great job, but most of us aren't paying any attention. I spoke to a neighbor who was on the edge of the damage. He was clueless, but the noise woke him up and went out onto his porch. His comment was it was raining shingles, branches and leaves. He understood exactly what the noise was and bailed for his bathroom. So this engenders the question, how does the weather service know there is a tornado?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The answer in most cases is they don't. What they can see via radar are places in a storm cell that have shear that creates rotation and may cause a tornado. When you hear there is a tornado on the ground it's usually because someone saw it and called in a report. There are a few exceptions to this. The screen shot above is a radar image showing a tornado's debris ball. This is what was causing shingles to rain down on the neighbor. It's those few white and pink pixels at the end of the hook signature. This doesn't happen often due to weather conditions, what type of debris it is, and how much of it is there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So what's the take away from all of this other than these are random and devastating acts of the weather god's wrath. There are several. Boaters (although not enough of them) generally pay close attention to the weather</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">and me more than most</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">. It's a Darwin thing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I had known the front was coming for a couple of days, but if I had taken a closer look, and I did have the tools to do this with my link to the <a href="http://www.spc.noaa.gov/">NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center</a>. They had been concerned about severe weather development in SW Florida two days earlier and had been tracking the front. I had just glanced at the weather maps and radar summaries thinking it's another damn front again. It would be a rainy day and not good one to be on the water.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">My problem was this occurred less than two miles away from me, a friends boat was badly damage when a palm tree was ripped up and thrown at his craft, and two good friends lived within a block of the tornado's path. The thing that saved a lot of people's bacon including mine was the fact that most of us have magic information boxes in our pocket and if you turn on the "Emergency Alerts" switch at will at least tell you there are things like tornado warnings going on. That's what woke me up. Is yours turned on?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://themarineinstallersrant.blogspot.com/2010/07/fear-and-funnels-in-florida-bay.html">Here is the link to an earlier piece of mine that has photos' from a local captain's encounter with six waterspouts in close proximity in Florida Bay. You don't want to take your boat through them.</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The radar images are from NOAA websites and the photos were take by the author.</span></div>
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Bill Bishop - Parmainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11554223870035485145noreply@blogger.com3