Micah 1; iPhone fails after attempting update

We had a handy lift down to Cranfield today for our grandson Micah's first birthday party. His dad, Ben, made a splendid aeroplane cake for him.

The birthday boy himself was more interested in the Wendy house.

We helped his brother, Josiah, pull up a carrot he had sown.

Ally and Ben had invited lots of people to the celebration; we all had a good time. Unlike my phone. I tried to install an update on my iPhone 4S - an update which I had been putting off until I had a wifi connection - which killed the phone. Most annoying. Fortunately Ben helped me put its SIM card into the phone we use for Waterway Routes, so at least I can make and receive calls and text messages, but I need to install things such as WhatsApp and my railcard. That will have to wait for another wifi connection.

How did I manage without one of these?

A few days ago, after some deliberation, I bought myself a combi drill, which I take to mean a combination drill/screwdriver. At a shade under £50 from Aldi it must be among the cheapest on the market.

My August Toolstation catalogue lists a similar spec Bauker drill driver a penny cheaper at £49.98; the next comparable tool is double that and still has the same capacity batteries.

This Aldi Workzone device comes with two 1.5 Ah lithium ion batteries, a five hour charger, a selection of drill and screwdriver bits and a good carry bag.

Minutes after cycling home with my purchase I was fixing a wood block to the wall of the house; this afternoon I did some more drilling and screwing jobs at Andrew's house in Sheffield. It's so quick and easy! For all these years I have been stringing up extension leads, fiddling with a chuck key, finding the right screwdriver (manual, of course) and so on. Now everything is in one small bag, with no need of mains electricity. The jobs took less than half the time they would have done. I would say "Who knew?" but I expect you all did.

Yes, the batteries may be on the small side, but the sort of jobs I need a drill for are usually small ones themselves. Neither is the motor brushless. Nevertheless I suspect my faithful old Black and Decker may never get powered up again.

Rat, rain and radio conversion to 12V

This is obviously a good year for buttercups. This was on the North Oxford Canal at Ansty this morning.

The buttercups make it easy to see the ridges and furrows typical of mediaeval farming practice.

We found a less bucolic scene when we stopped at Nuneaton for lunch (appropriately - Nuneaton ... geddit?) This brown rat was brazenly walking along the towpath.

In the town I obtained supplies at Lidl while Jan had a haircut. We set off again at about 1700, still in very warm conditions, although the sky was clouding over.

And then the rain came.

This was the view from the front doors after the rain had eased off a little. When it started we were just approaching a bridge; I stopped under the cover and held the boat while it poured. But then the inevitable happened. Another boat came into view behind us. So we had to move on, knowing that the other boat would use "our" shelter!

I was hoping for piling for a quick tie-up, but there wasn't any. I had just decided to pull up to a nice wooden edge in front of a moored boat when the downpour suddenly intensified. Rain was running off my coat and soaking my shorts; I stopped the boat near the side and hid inside the back doors, checking now and again for moving boats. Jan did the same at the front. Conveniently the boat snuggled up against the (correct) bank enabling me to dash out during a lighter phase of rain to bang a couple of pins in and tie up properly. No boat had passed, of course; it really had been lashing down.

And the calm after the storm. This is again taken through the front doors and, if you know where the old telegraph pole is, shows exactly where we are.

"Mount Judd" is next to us, hidden by the trees. We went for a walk after tea (the planned barbecue having been abandoned) and encountered the weird landscape of the old granite quarry with its roads between vast heaps of rocky spoil. We got a closer view of the enormous spoil heap which is Mount Judd, too.

Back on Jubilee, here's something I wired up a couple of days ago. Now we have the 12V fridge we don't need to run the inverter all the time. The DAB radio was relying on its mains power supply, so now I had to be able to run it from 12V.  I had already got a couple of DC - DC converters from eBay; I simply soldered wires to the battery terminals inside the case and connected it up. The voltage is adjusted with the blue trim pot; I set it to 6V and it all works perfectly.

Yes, it would have been neater to connect the PSU output via a plug into the back of the radio, but I didn't have one the right size. We don't move the radio, so this should be fine for now.

Alternator gets very hot

Yesterday we brought the boat down to The Galleon in order to be closer to Ally, Ben and Josiah. When I tied up I noticed a strange smell coming from the engine hole - a hot sort of smell, but not hot oil. The domestic alternator felt especially hot; it was also making a new noise. I don't think it has been charging the batteries very well, despite the voltage being between 13.8V and 14.4V when the engine was running. The batteries quickly went down to 12.7V even with no inverter load (inverter switched off).

This morning I investigated the digital ammeter I bought from Amazon a short while ago - the display unit is definitely faulty. I checked the voltage across the shunt with my DVM and obtained sensible readings. Incidentally, connecting or disconnecting the inverter negative lead from the battery bank made no difference, so all the charging current is via the shunt; so is all the discharging current apart from the inverter.

I connected my centre-zero moving coil voltmeter across the shunt to allow me to monitor the charging. The scale is marked 10 - 0 - 10 (volts). Full scale deflection would correspond to 114A; with this in mind I was interested to see that, when I fired up the engine again from cold, the charge current measured just 5A. Within seconds the alternator body was almost too hot to touch; the internal fan was blasting out hot air and that strange smell. Cooking enamel insulation?

Other relevant facts: the outputs of the engine and domestic alternators are combined in a Sterling Alternator to Battery Charge Controller stuck to the steel wall of the engine room. When we got to the boat on Sunday the engine room was thick with condensation - all over the engine, the walls and the Sterling ABC. Had this water got inside the device and affected it? When I checked the ABC before switching the engine off after the run yesterday I saw a warning LED glowing, corresponding to "HIGH ALT TEMP, STOP". (There are temperature sensors on each alternator and one of the batteries.) If nothing else, this shows that the temperature sensor on the domestic alternator works, and that the ABC is recognising this. Everything else on the ABC seemed to be working normally.

What I would really like to know is ...

1. Is there an easy test to see if the alternator is working properly?
    
2. Is there an easy test to see if the Sterling ABC is working properly?
    
3. If the Sterling ABC is faulty is this what has caused the demise of the alternator?
    
4. Is the alternator definitely dead?
    
5. Is there an easy way to bypass the Sterling ABC?

Here are two more views of the alternator.

The alternator appears to be a Prestolite AVI128 110A.

Ammeter wiring - why doesn't it work?

I promised to show you how I connected my 100A ammeter. Perhaps someone might be able to point out why it doesn't appear to work. Please excuse the scrappy (and dark) nature of this wiring diagram:

The current shunt is in the negative path immediately before the battery bank (four 12V batteries in parallel, not four cells in series!). The actual negative cables attached to the non-battery side of the shunt are one to the engine block "earth" and one to the domestic negative busbar next to the circuit breakers.

The thin wires to the display unit are connected to battery + and either side of the shunt.

On my diagram I added the connections to the inverter as an afterthought. Having done so I am now wondering whether the negative cable to the inverter could actually be earthed there, thus bypassing the shunt.

Whatever, the result of this wiring is that the boat electrics function normally but the current shown on the display unit never exceeds 0.4A, whichever way round I connect the thin wires to the shunt.

Any ideas, anyone?

Attempting to install an ammeter

A few weeks ago I ordered from Amazon a 100A ammeter. We are currently (oops!) on the boat having got here two days ago. Yesterday I had a go at connecting up the current shunt and digital display.

Ideally I would like to be able to see how much current is flowing into or out of the domestic battery bank; I know that these meters need the shunt to be in the negative lead and that they work in one direction only. I have an idea for how to deal with this later, but for now I wanted to see if the device would work.

As soon as I lifted the lid on the battery compartment I realised that things were not going to be straightforward. Some of the negative connections, from the alternators, for instance, I think go directly to the engine "earth". And there was the massive cable going to the inverter. Do I try to put the shunt in the way of this? The inverter is a 3kW jobbie; at full output it could draw at least 3000 / 12 = 250A, so my 100A shunt would get all hot and bothered. Plus the display would merely indicate overcurrent.

I bolted the shunt to a spare short battery lead from the negative of the battery bank and connected all the negative leads apart from the inverter to the other end of the shunt. I say "all" - there were, in fact, just two leads. One was the negative connection to the 12V distribution busbar; the other connected to the engine block. Then I connected the three small leads from the display unit - one to +12V and the others either side of the shunt.

I found the display reading the battery voltage more or less correctly (overreading by 0.2V) and displaying 0.0A. Then I switched on all the lights to see if the reading changed but it didn't. (That's LED lighting for you - I should have switched on the tunnel light!) I guessed I had wired the display for current going in the other direction but I had run out of time to see if it measured a charging current as we had promised Ally and Ben some help at their house.

Today I had another go, swapping round the current sensing wires and connecting only the 12V distribution negative. Mistake! This is how it looks now.

The current shunt is a bit difficult to make out as it is black over the black battery. It runs top to bottom of the photo; the top thick black cable goes to the main battery negative terminal and the bottom thick black cable goes to the 12V distribution. The thin blue and green wires are fixed to the shunt with small screws.

This is the display. The wires coming out of it are only a few centimetres long, hence the different colours at the other end.

The mistake I made was to not connect the lead to the engine block to the shunt (I had reconnected it to the main battery negative). When I checked the display again it showed 0.2A when the water pump ran, but the reading jumped between 0.2A and 0.4A in an apparently random manner.

Tomorrow I shall have to connect up the engine block lead and see if I can register any charging current.

My solution to the only-reads-one-way problem will be to add a simple changeover switch in the current sensing wires. Then I should be able to see the charging current when the batteries are charging and the load current when not charging.

Sorry this is a bit rambly!

Buzz on sound

No rain that I can remember today, and even some sunshine, but a strongish breeze kept things cool outside. We cruised from Maghull to Burscough Bridge with a long delay for diesel at Scarisbrick Marina.

Long delay? Yes, there was only one person manning the office and looking after servicing. Still, we filled up with water and did a washing machine load while we were waiting.

After this I cycled to Southport to pick up a package I'd had delivered to Wolverton (complicated story); then we moved on to just past Crabtree Lane Swing Bridge.

Just before getting the diesel we tied up by the marina and had lunch. As I was untying to head for the service bay a widebeam came out of the marina and turned right to come our way. At the same time a narrowboat came along and overtook the widebeam right next to Jubilee. The widebeam must have waved the narrowboat past as there were smiles, not frowns, as the two boats steamed dieseled motored past.

The package I made a ten mile round trip for was a 12V "hi-fi" amplifier module (£2.99 from China via Amazon) which I want to power some loudspeakers from the DAB radio.

Unfortunately when I connected it all up there was a horrible buzz on the audio, probably from the inverter but possibly also from the LED lights in the cabin.

I must now find a way to suppress this interference which I suspect is coming up the 12V connection (unscreened and running the full length of the boat). I'll try a small capacitor across the power supply first. I have dozens of such things in a drawer at home; here I might have to buy one. Is there a Maplin in Wigan? I might find out tomorrow.

Voltmeter working a treat; wind turbines at sunset

I think I have mentioned that my current (sorry!) favourite gadget is the cheap but effective digital voltmeter constantly monitoring the battery bank. Here it is in situ in the cabin, measuring the voltage while the sun shines on the solar panels (and with the inverter and fridge on).

Being out of direct sunlight it's easy enough to read, but the one I have for the steering position is hard to read in daylight. I now have some different colour gels with me to try out over the display, so I'll experiment. Meanwhile I have ordered another low cost DVM, this time with a red display which I'm hoping will be more legible at the helm. Like the blue voltmeters it's not a bank breaker at £1.48 including postage. (The blue ones have now come down from the exorbitant £1.85 I paid to the altogether more reasonable £1.63!)

Stephen on Chyandour came over for a coffee this morning after I'd helped him tie up; he came for a meal later as well.

We walked into Crick village again; this time we looked round the (unlocked) church and bought milk from the Co-op.

On another walk, this evening, I took this photo.

What is it with me and wind turbines against an interesting sky?

Cheap 3kW inverter

I see that Maplin are doing a 12V 3kW inverter for a penny under £250 £350*. It's only modified sine wave, so that might restrict what you can successfully connect to it, but it seems like a lot of watts to the pound. It even has a remote power switch.

This is Maplin's photo - I'm sure they won't mind me posting it here!

I have no connection with Maplin - I just thought this might be of interest to my fellow boaters.

Is it washing machines which object to anything which isn't a pure sine wave? How do 230V fridges and microwave ovens cope with modified sine wave mains? Electric chain saws?

*update... This was a "deal of the day" offer - it appears it was for sale at the lower price for one day only.

Installing solar panels on narrowboat Jubilee

I have now installed the solar power kit I bought at the National Festival. The kit comprised two 100Wp solar panels, an MPPT control unit, a remote display/control unit, connecting leads and brackets/nuts/bolts etc.

I decided to mount the control unit in the electrics cupboard so as to be conveniently close to the nice fat leads from the battery bank.

In order to do this I had first to make a mounting panel from some scrap timber, wood glue and panel pins!

I screwed this to a vertical timber - the next photo shows the four fixings on the right side of the panel protruding into the calorifier cupboard.

To get the cables from the panels to the controller I routed them through a mushroom vent. When I unscrewed the gauze from the underside I found it had successfully prevented the invasion of a number of bees.

I cut away enough of the gauze to be able to feed the cables (with connectors) through. The cables run under the ceiling above the bed to the back of the boat. I have bought a length of scotia moulding to hide them, and I intend now to cut away part of the ceiling T&G next to the vent so that the cables don't have an awkward visible bend before they enter the moulding.

Supplied with the kit was a tube of glue to stick the brackets to the roof, but I didn't fancy doing something so irreversible. I screwed rubber feet the the underside of the brackets and stood them on pieces of anti-slip matting for good measure.

Security is an issue I still need to address. At the moment the panels are held in place on one side by tying them to the roof furniture stands. To weigh them down I've threaded a short shaft through the other side.

The panels are set slightly off-centre because of the position of the roof furniture brackets.

As well as tidying where the cables run through the bedroom I think I'll remove the brackets from the panels in order to sit them lower.

I connected the panels in series. In strong direct sunshine the voltage from the panels is about 40V and I have seen them supply 11A at 12.5V.

Testing my new narrowboat solar panels

On Saturday I connected up the solar panels with the MPPT controller - temporarily - to test them. I had bought the kit from HPS at the IWA National Festival a week before.

I laid the 100W panels on the boxes they came in on the roof and connected them in series. This was easy to do as they came with flying leads, each terminating in a male or female connector. All I had to do was plug the +ve from one panel into the -ve of the other, then connect the long leads from the controller to the remaining solar panel leads.

As well as the MPPT controller, a reassuringly chunky aluminium box with heat sinks on the back ...

... I got a remote display/control unit.

My lovely assistant Jan took some photos of me wiring up the controller. The output cable to the battery bank is disappointingly thin, so I'll probably beef it up a bit.

One major thing for me to work out is where exactly to mount the controller and the remote unit. I want to keep the output lead to the batteries as short as possible, but the batteries are rather fiddly to get to. For the purposes of the test, I had the bright idea of connecting to the other ends of the thick cables, where they go to the isolator switch and the negative busbar.

The wiring here is not very tidy, but there is a convenient flying "live" lead to which I bolted my +ve connection from the controller. (The flying lead is there to provide an emergency link between the domestic battery bank and the starter battery, but it really needs securing better!)

And here is the negative busbar, with my lead bolted on at the top. It looks like it is coloured red, but that is the remains of the insulation when I separated the twin lead a few inches.

When I inserted the fuse in the lead between the battery and the controller I was pleased to see that it immediately sprang into life!

The display indicates that 1.7A is flowing into the batteries, at a voltage of 14.4V. Given the bright sunshine falling on the panels it could have been more, but the batteries were already fully charged. It's very encouraging for the future, though.

By pressing buttons on the panel I could see that the input voltage to the controller was 38.6V. This corresponded with my own measurements beforehand of about 20V per panel off load.

I mentioned my not knowing where to mount the controller and display; perhaps a more difficult problem is how to fix the panels themselves. The kit provides some right-angle aluminium brackets and a tube of adhesive, the intention being to glue the brackets to the roof. Well, I'm not happy with that method. I think I'd rather the panels rest in a frame of some sort, with a security cable, so that they are easily removed for painting etc. I'm not going to bother with angling the panels to catch the sun better: I'm persuaded that leaving them horizontal won't lose me too much power. And I'd "fit and forget".

So, panel mounting, cable routing, controller positioning, remote display fixing ... there's work to be done!

Brewing up at Foxton - in a volcano kettle

A few days ago I made part of Foxton Inclined Plane the subject of a mystery photo. But when I was there taking that photo in 2009 I stumbled across another mystery, one which was quickly solved, though.


A volunteer was tending a device I'd not seen before: a volcano kettle.


It's a simple and effective machine. A water jacket surrounds a chimney: Fill the jacket (through the off-centre spout), light a fire underneath, and the hot gases drawn up the chimney quickly heat the water. No pressurised gas cylinder, no need to worry too much about wind. Brilliant!

If the fire dies down a bit, just drop more fuel down the chimney.


The tea made this way was to be fuel of a different sort - for the volunteers working on the Plane.


BTCV - the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers - has had several rebrandings, and is now known as TCV (The Conservation Volunteers).

Oh, and just to show that here in Norfolk we didn't quite escape the snow today (23rd March 2013) ...

How I plan to make a cheap timer for a Webasto

When Jubilee was built the Webasto heater unit had, apparently, a time switch fitted. By the time we bought the boat the timer had failed, and the previous owner had substituted a simple on/off switch. This works fine and is ultra-reliable, but Ally and Ben would like to be able to wake up in a pre-warmed boat these cooler mornings.

I know, I thought, I'll use a mains time switch to supply a small power supply to operate a relay, the contacts of which will be connected across the Webasto switch. I had a small power supply, so all I needed was the relay. I looked in a Maplin catalogue and found something even better: a mains actuated relay. I didn't know these existed! The relay coil takes 230V AC mains.

Here it is. I've tested it by connecting the coil to the mains and, yes, it switches. It buzzes a bit too, but I can hide it away somewhere so that shouldn't be too much of a problem.

And this is the time switch which I'll plug in next to the existing timer for the immersion heater (or in place of it - the Webasto will heat the domestic water as well as the radiators).

All I'll need then is a 13A plug and a bit of cable. And I'll obviously have to insulate the mains connection to the relay.

Cost of components: Relay £4.49; Time switch about £5.00. Total: about a tenner.

Compare this with £85 for a genuine Webasto timer! Of course, my method needs mains to work - fine for Ally and Ben in the marina on shoreline power, not so handy on the move.

I'll let you know how I get on installing it next time I'm on the boat.

The need to go boating... and a Maplin delivery

Looking through some photos for yesterday's post I realised that I need to get back on the water. I'm missing the cut. Fortunately we have a week on Shadow coming up next month, so there's not too long to wait. I hope there'll be enough water.

********************************

I ordered an 8GB memory stick from Maplin on Tuesday for £5.99 with free delivery. I had tried to get it in the central Norwich store but was told that it was an on-line offer only. On Wednesday I had a day off, so happened to be at home when there was a ring at the doorbell. A large FedEx van was in the driveway, and a deliveryman was proffering a jiffybag and something for me to sign. I signed his electronic device, took the package and closed the door - and then wondered what would have happened if I'd been at work. Presumably the delivery would not have been made, and I would have had to go to an office on an industrial estate somewhere to pick it up. The package would easily have fitted through the letterbox - it was only a cheap memory stick - so why did I have to sign for it? Also, why not just stick the stick (so to speak) in the ordinary post?

I see there are other offers at Maplin - for today only - which might be of interest to boaters. There's a 150W inverter for just £17.99; and an 8GB SDHC memory card for £6.99. Possibly not quite as useful for boaters is a telescopic ladder - 3.75m shrinks down to 80cm - for £59.99.

I have no connection with Maplin, by the way - I just thought you might be interested. I'm going to see if I can get the memory card this lunchtime...

Timelapse: Preston Bagot to Hatton, two other short bits and power supply problems

I was having a few power supply problems with the timelapse camera on our April 2011 cruise. The camera is designed to run from two AAA batteries - no good for the lengths of time I need to run it - or a 12V cigarette lighter plug power supply, connecting via a small plug into the camera. Ideal for a boat, you'd think. But the connection between plug and camera is not reliable, so I soldered a couple of wires to the battery connections inside the battery compartment and lead them out to a home-made power supply which I run from a large rechargeable 7.2V battery. The bodged way I connect to the large battery involves pushing the wires into the connection holes. Hardly surprising, then, that they sometimes come adrift. I really will have to come up with a more reliable solution!


When we'd got to lock 31, as on yesterday's timelapse film, the camera's memory card had filled up. I realised that that was what had happened when, still aboard, I transferred some of the files to the laptop to make space for the rest of the trip. Before that point I suppose there was enough space for a couple of (very) short sequences.

First, six seconds of our entering a winding hole just north of Wilmcote.



Next, and more interesting, a whole 14 seconds including steering onto the Edstone Aqueduct. It would have been good if it hadn't stopped before we got to the end!



Now for the full-length feature. Day 13 of the cruise saw us climb from Preston Bagot on the Stratford Canal to Kingswood Junction, turn right on the Lapworth Link, and right again down the Grand Union. Ally and Ben had joined us again; we had a barbecue when we tied up above Hatton Locks.



Tomorrow: the delights of the Hatton Flight.

Microfibre cloth leaves narrowboat sparkling

One of the reasons shared ownership boats usually look good is that we owners are all supposed to clean them, inside and out, before leaving them for the next user. The recommended way to look after the paintwork is to use a sponge and car shampoo. The problem is that, on Shadow, anyway, when it dries, the paintwork is covered in marks where little globules of water have dried out.

Not having a narrowboat here at home, I have tried to replicate the effect on a window.


Now, a couple of years ago, I discovered microfibre cloths, and found that they are PERFECT for buffing up the cabin sides. That sounds like hard work, but it isn't at all. It takes perhaps five minutes to do one side of a 58' boat, no longer than the actual sponging part of the operation.

Here is the "after" shot - the cloth is so good that the camera can't focus on the window! I wiped only the right-hand part.


They can be used while the paintwork is still damp, or if it's already dry. They're very versatile and can be easily washed in the washing machine.

And the cost? Just one pound sterling, from, yes, you've guessed it, Poundland.


Other cheap shops are available.

Custom short-throw and long-throw combined windlass

Forget your ratchet windlass ... or your extending-arm windlass - if you want an all-in-one long-throw and short-throw windlass just do as Michael has done and weld your own.


We met Michael and Kate (?) at Lock 26 on the Stratford Canal where I spotted their unusual windlasses.


It's such a brilliantly simple idea: take a long armed windlass and weld the sockets from a donor windlass onto the arm at about the conventional distance for a short armed windlass. This will now work in all situations: if extra effort is needed on a stiff ground paddle or a heavy lift bridge then use the appropriate socket at the end; if it's a heavy gate paddle, where a long-throw windlass wouldn't get round - or would graze your knuckles on the balance beam - start it off with the end socket, then use the inner socket. The entire arm will now clear any obstruction.


The windlass is, of course, heavier than usual, but if you find you often need a long-throw windlass then perhaps this might be for you.

On the subject of windlasses, my hands are pleasantly hardened from working the 233 locks of our recent trip. (Make that 232 locks worked: one was the King's Norton Stop Lock, where both guillotine gates are permanently raised.) I wonder how long it will be before they become softie Southerner's hands again. And, for that matter, how long before my boater's tan wears off.


King's Norton Stop Lock looking towards King's Norton Junction

More about Michael and Kate (if I have recorded her name correctly): they were moving a boat down to Wootton Wawen for Anglo Welsh. They do a lot of boat moving for them - as well as frequently hiring from them.