What did you do to your sailing boat today ?

I bought it . Well alright it was last Friday, but it is a bit exciting, so I'm posting it here as something I did to it .

Well Done !
Enjoying the fruits of your labour !
? Anchored close to a Port,out of the channel ?
Mason

Living the Dream !
Mason

Didn't do anything to the boat today but while looking for some lost jewellery I discovered lubrication points for the steering cables. I have had the boat three years now and didn't know they were there. Better get the grease gun out now.

I've been "laid up" with my leg in plaster & not able to get to the boat so it is time to set up my new Raspberry Pi5.

Not very neat at the moment - all just temporary until installed.
This new Pi5 is so much faster than the previous Pi4 and now using an NVMe SSD card is faster again!!!

Resurrected a slipping Lewmar D1 rope clutch by putting a 2mm SS packing piece under the spring foot to give it a bit of-preload tension. Priced new dominoes at close to $200 shipped from old Blighty (WW's Melbourne won't supply them). WTF!

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Madmouse said..

Ramona said..
I have been busy cleaning out mould from my boat. I used the Aldi hospital grade mould remover/cleaner and it did a particularly good job. My boat has a really good ventilation set up and I was surprised how bad the mould was. Inside the slightly opened front hatch alloy frame and the Seabird ventilators were the worst areas! The cloth cushion covers are a real problem and so far I have just sponged them with the cleaner and hope that kills the spores.
My mate come over for a chat and to show me his new interior lights he just bought off eBay. The quality is simply outstanding. Solid and quite heavy aluminium with decent rubber O rings.
www.ebay.com.au/itm/395246636063?var=663836116244

The eBay listing says 6500k color temp which is an extremely cold light. Did you see them in action?

No he had them in his hand!

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JonE said..
I'm on my second RS422/485 usb converter. Bought the isolated one this time. Taking NMEA from the H3000 and the A+T MFD but I cannot get meaningful NMEA data no matter what I do..

Hi JonE,
If I remember correclty, the default port for NMEA on the H3000 is the USB port. There was a jumper internally to switch between the serial port and the USB. Have you tried the USB port?
Another dim memory cell was that the H3000 was RS232, not RS422/485.

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shaggybaxter said..

JonE said..
I'm on my second RS422/485 usb converter. Bought the isolated one this time. Taking NMEA from the H3000 and the A+T MFD but I cannot get meaningful NMEA data no matter what I do..

Just to clarify, you are only trying to receive (listen) from a single transmitterr (talker), correct?
When I reread your post it sounds like you have two talkers transmitting to one listener, (which definitely wouldn't work).

Correct. The H3000 has NMEA out. The a+t also has it. I've tried both, with 2 different usb rs422 dongles (including an isolated one) and straight into serial on the pi. The baud rate is correct (4800) and I get the identical results from both bits of equipment.

tried with laptop and pi

I've tried powering the pi with a Buck converter from the boat's power same results.

If I had to guess, by looking at the data, I would say the data is inverted, but switching the pins gives no data at all so that's not the fix.

Edit: sorry, just read your first post. I don't have the cables for the serial or usb ports on the h3000 - I think if I did I would be off to the races. I'm using the NMEA Out port which is on regardless of jumper position.

if I could get the cable for usb or serial I would be very happy!

If the NMEA port is RS232 that could explain it, but then very interesting that the A+T is the same?

Hi JonE,
I was in between renders for a work project and had some time to kill, so I put together a quick and simple animation on RS232 v 422 and how to test your serial output for NMEA devices.
I've used this before when I don't know whether the Txmitter is RS232 or RS422.

If you have an RS232 to USB adaptor for your PI/latpop end (Jaycar and such have them for about 30 dollars) then this might help you put to bed the RS type.
Sadly, it doesn't work the other way around. You can't use a RS422 receiver to interpet an RS232 transmitter (it needs the B wire signal, which RS232 doesn't have).

Apologies if you already know this, but if not I hope this helps!
Cheers,
SB

Edit: There are some nuances to all this, such as when you want to have more than one listener, but for a test setup using one listener this should work fine in getting data to flow properly.

My Pypilot turned up, so I have been setting this up as my backup autopilot.

Great bit of gear which connects to the Raspberry Pi5.

This unit was 20 times cheaper than the Course Master I bought 9 years ago!!

Many sailors are using this as their main AP but I will have a couple of toggle switches that I will be able to switch from one to the other.



This backup auto pilot can be controlled from the chart plotter, as well as other means, running on the Pi5!!


The whole Pi5 & Pypilot stuff is all Open Source, so it just keeps improving as the Raspberry Pis keep getting better!!

Gotta say though, it's keeping my aging brain active!!

Love my PyPilot Lazz, but it was my son that got it going. Great bit of gear that runs a really husky worm drive motor. Still the whole thing works so much better than my Raymarine and most of the time draws less than 1 amp.

Went to the second spreader and put new lazy jack lines through the existing bocks and was pleasantly surprised to see cleats ready to go mounted on the mast by the boom.

Then I went to the top to check the vhf antenna and by then i'd had more than enough thanks very much.

Glass out conditions today and yesterday on Pittwater so finally did the flush of the raw water system on my Bukh DV24.

I have been meaning to do it for a year and a half but cannot get the bolts out that hold the thermostat housing together.

Anyway I have noticed that there is a 22 millimeter access bolt in the lower part of the thermostat housing into which the water passes after circulating through the block and which is of course separated from the bypass circuit above when the engine is cold and the thermostat shut.

I removed this bolt which thankfully is BSB and so with a couple of Bunnings plumbing fittings turned this into a nipple to which I connected a hose.

To further complicate the situation however the used raw water injection into the exhaust has a Y fitting so that there is not only a feed from the bypass chamber just above the thermostat but also a feed from underneath the exhaust manifold which comes from who knows where.

Anyway when I hooked the whole system up I was pleased to note that as acid was coming back into the bucket not only from the bypass circuit but also from the circuit that I tapped into below the thermostat so after running for 80 minutes I am just about to disconnect the lot and give it a couple of flushes.

Oil change. Don't buy the cheap electric transfer pumps, they're c&$p. Managed to spill almost no oil in the bilge but was peeved to get a drop of new oil on one of the cushions..