grendel

please do slow down passing paddle boards though, as last year I offered assistance to one that had been unprepared for the wash of a passing cruiser and had been given an early bath. later I acrually did assist a fisherman in a canoe who had overreached and turned turtle, I guess I will never know if he managed to retrieve his rods and gear, we did get him reunited with his canoe and seat and paddle and the canoe emptied and back the right way up.

I thought there were issues involved with making the damage waiver inclusive?

instrument panel removed from the model, the centre pairs of terminals were linked up as a positive busbar, then the rest of the wires were connected up in order of the connector up the bank of switches, this gives me 12 possible switched circuits. the connectors were left on tails long enough to reach beneath the console under the sole and be connected or disconnected as needed, the wiring harness was bundled and cable tied.

probably a good idea to keep your eyes open at boat jumbles, at very least you might find a hook that you can fit a new handle to.

this afternoons task was assessing the 3 different voltage regulators that arrived in yesterdays posts, one was a plain 2.5V regulator, the other two were variable input and output, these needed wiring up, fortunately one type came with a section that could be soldered on that allowed standard connectors to fit, this made testing those two types easier. once wired up their performance was tested using the battery pack and my power supply. the 2.5v one was soon rejected as the white LED's dont brighten until nearly 3v (though it did a good job) one of the variable ones wouldnt give me the 3.0V required from a 4.2V source and varied as the voltage was raised- not what I wanted, so that too was rejected, however the 3rd one did give me the results I was looking for 3.0V at the output whatever the input voltage, this was what I needed, it also worked correctly down to 3.4V on the input side (so until the battery was nearly flat) nominal battery voltage is 3.7V, but that can raise to 4.2 (and possibly 4.8V if the solar panel is in full sunlight and charging). the navigation light LED's are rated at a maximum 3.2V- (2.4-3.2V) the white start at 2.8V and I am not certain the max, but 4V plus will blow the coloured nav lights, so the lighting will be set to around 3.0V using the voltage regulator This was the final choice once again I am amazed at just how small these circuit boards have got, even my small soldering iron tip was almost too big to use here, the voltage adjustment is achieved using the potentiometer bottom left here, its actually smaller than most of my screwdriver tips, adjusting it was fun. below are the other two circuit boards that didnt work for this application, I am sure to find a use for them in time. so I now have my charging source (solar panel) my battery with voltage regulation, and some of my lights, next I will have a switch to wire up, this is mounted in the helm already.

I prefer bacon and egg, galley slaves always scream when you start cooking them.

if you do forget to bring your own a quick visit to latharms or any supermarket will usually overcome the issue, and you get a new knife at home too

well after lunch today, i decided to carry on, I already had the light housing for the stern navigation light, but needed to make the wood mount it sits on, then I had the tricky job of running the wires, the long 1.2mm drill came in handy here as there is about 2" of timber to pass through to get from the edge of the roof into the boat the hole was marked and drilled, successfully as it came out right at the roof line inside, the roof wiring is now complete, all of the circuits have plug connectors on them, ready to connect inside the boat. a tiny notch had to be made in the rear bulkhead for the wire. once again the small soldering iron made the job a lot easier, and all the thin wires and joints were protected with multiple layers of heat shrink tubing while the wires were carefully attached to the roof to prevent them being pulled. next the deck fittings, though I dont know if I have enough LEDS left on hand to finish those (more are on order, but not a quick delivery item).

the notice does say that there may be times the existing pillar may be cut off to allow the new pillar to be connected, this reads to me that they are adding an additional pillar. or they would surely have said .replaced

or a centre cockpit wooden cruiser from Marthams that will get under all of the bridges (most of the time) though they wont have got under Martham with the recent high water levels and a bridge clearance under 5 foot this week, I have gone through with their pilots at under 5'10"

Well, with the smaller soldering Iron I was much more able to control the heat and after 2 attempts the lights are soldered, then the joints heavily reinforced with layers of heat shrink, the wires have been cable tied to the inside of the roof and I am pleased to announcethey now work, just for giggles I hooked the 3 circuits under the roof together, so now the lights are connected to the solar panel directly, this was then tested with both the work lamp and a torch with pleasing results, so in essence I have the battery charging circuit and roof lights on the rear cabin roof all working, just the rear navigation light left for that roof now

I would tell her you have done it for only £150, (you still wont see any money though)

I once had a butane bottle freeze on me, in my camper van, we were at a viking re-enactment show at easter and it snowed- we were grateful we werent in tents like some were.

Griff, I dont think I can get masking tape on that its just too thin, FairTmiddlin, I dont have the length left for crocodile clips on the thin wire

they could fit a charging point to my house and I still wouldnt be able to charge an electric vehicle. 1 because the wires would need to stretch a fair way to the road, the road goes past the end of the row of houses, with just a path front and back. 2 because the electricity company wouldn connect it as we only have a 64A cutout, which cant supply enough power- this is because the incoming cables arent big enough. once again though, they may have decreed it, but we are not seeing new estates asking for the additional demand that will be required for them to connect them yet. also the standard house cutout isnt big enough, so a new standard house cutout will be required- as soon as the manufacturers design and build them, most estate layouts dont have car parking next to the house anyway, so thats another stupid idea- oh and it will at least halve the number of houses we can supply from a substation. so house prices will rise, just to be able to supply the electric for cars, then gas heating is out so thats even more electricity needed.

i would twist the wires together first - if I could, but they are too small to consider trying to hold to do that. this is why this has held me up for so long, these are the issues I could forsee happening, I just got lucky on my first few tries

aha, fortune is smilng on me, I have just found my little 12W pcb soldering iron for delicate work, I will give that a try tomorrow, it has a much finer tip than the other.

it might be, but i have to get it on the wires and join them still

ok pictures from todays work, first we have the cover boards attached to the front of the mast then we drilled a hole for the wires, and refitted the mast into its bracket this left me with about 2" inside on the long wires and 1" on the short set, note how I have heatshrunk the wires bigger than the hole size so they cant accidentally get pulled through, allowance has been made to raise and lower the mast. then we compare the wire with 1mm dia solder yes if i get it right I can hold it in a crocodile clip lastly lets compare the wires with a hair, unfortunately this had to come from my beard, as there are already few enough on top, the insulation is double the thickness of the conductor inside

LOL the thick stuff I am soldering to is still thinner than that, the thick stuff is 0.5mm dia, with a 1mm sheathm the thin stuff is like a single strand of my thick stuff, and thats what is pre wired to the LED's, so thats what I have to work with, the LED's are less than 1mm in size so resoldering onto those is not possible either. the thin stuff just slides through a crocodile clip as even one with tight mesh has bigger gaps than the wire thickness, that and I only have about 1mm of tinned end, so I put a clip on the insulation, I cant get the soldering iron close enough.

aargh, now I know why I was dubious about the wiring, today I just had 4 wires to feed through a hole and connect to thicker cable, 2 1/2 hours later and I have done 2. if the wires dont attach first time then its almost impossible to get them to join, they also melt (the very fine ones) and get shorter, the 2 shortest wires now only have about 1/4" of wire left to work with before they disappear into heat shrink tubing. at 200 degrees the soldering iron is too cold and not melting the solder, at 300 degrees its too hot and melting the insulation. attempt abandoned for another day. now i no longer have the original tinned ends, how to I strip insulation from wire no thicker than a hair.

perhaps there will soon be a new requirement for all new houses to have stables, to house the inevitable horse that these households are required to have once all the green initiatives have robbed us of suitable alternative transport.

the good thing is I found a camera that has a super macro setting, which seems to be working well for these pictures.

continuing work on the mast ighting, first I needed to make the new light fitting, I chucked up a piece of aluminium in the lathe, turned a section down to 8mm dia so I could hold it in a collet chuck, then turned it to shape. then it was time to mill out the slot for the glass (perspex) this was then done. so I filed the perspex to size to fit in the slot, and glued into the fitting. then the perspex was trimmed to shape after this the wiring was reinserted into the mast the lengths were then adjusted to their final position then came time to heat shrink the cables and set them into the groove after this it was time to temporarily wire the lamps to the power supply and see how they looked.

you sacrifice some modern comforts (they do have fridges and heating and you will be offered a tv) but you gain the appreciation of travelling in a beautiful wooden boat with the honey glow of the wood inside, it really depends what you want, the only problem you have is if you try a wooden boat, you may well end up wanting one. I used to hire from Marthams, and have probably been under Potter Heigham Bridge more often than most here, unless the weather and tides are perfect, most boats cantt get under Potter heigham most of the time, if you do get under though its very peaceful and beautiful.