Almost Installed!

 So, I spent another couple of hours today running cables and fitting the rest of the boat electronics.

First in was the chartplotter, then running the multicore cable up to the vhf radio and back down to the GPS repeater.

The GPS repeater was next to be connected up.

Successful connection:

What that single picture doesn't show is the hour or so pulling wires up to the radio hutch, making up multiple power connections, etc. in order to get power to the Chartplotter and the data line back down to the GPS repeater.

The next step was refitting the VHF and connecting the NMEA Data line to the chartplotter. Surprisingly the data showed up on the screen almost immediately. I'm used to a bit of a delay.

Sorry for the blur, the boat was rocking a bit thanks to wake from another boat.

So that now leaves the NMEA data from the AIS/WiFi unit to the Chartplotter to connect up and get working. I know the AIS data is being received, as it's still being displayed on Navionics on my phone. In fact it works so good the proximity warning went off when a boat pulled into the moorings close by. That threw me for a second as I couldn't figure out where the noise was coming from at first. 

Nice to know it works!

So, for now feeding AIS date back to the chartplotter will have to wait: I'm grandkid-sitting tomorrow.

But I'm feeling pretty happy. The chartplotter came home with me as I need to clean it up a bit. 

Hopefully more next week.

 

I Did a Thing!

 Finally did something new on the boat, rather than reacting to stuff.

I've started fitting the electronics that I had on the conservatory table. 

Yesterday I fitted this little doohickey:

It's a Quark QK-A024 AIS receiver. But it doesn't just receive AIS signals and output the data using NMEA0183, it also takes any data input by NMEA0183 and broadcasts it in WiFi. So you can receive NMEA data on a mobile device.

It can also be used stand-alone, it doesn't need anything else other than an antenna to receive AIS signals. That's the mode I'm running in at the moment. It receives AIS data via WiFi. 

I log onto the unit's WiFi hotspot and then Navionics on my phone gets access to AIS data and displays AIS-equipped vessels on the Navionics map screen, including a pointer showing their current course:

You can interrogate the vessel data by putting the Navionics crosshairs over the vessel, as you can see here:

Hovering over the vessel will show their name, but in this case their MMSI was displayed.

Tapping the questionmark then shows more detail as it does with navigation marks.

Pretty neat.

One major downside of the Quark unit is the inability to run off a 12v supply directly. It is normally powered from the USB port you use to change software settings. Of course I wasn't happy buying Quark's special low-noise USB power supply (dodgy mobile phone supplies can create Radio Frequency noise and drown out the AIS signal). 

Instead I did a bit of electronic bodgery and fitted a 5V voltage regulator into the case of the Quark and fitted a power plug to the outside, hence the handwritten sticker on the case. NOW it runs directly from 12V! 

So, step one done. I now need to look at routing the multicore wiring for the Garmin Chart Plotter up to the radio and Quark unit. I think the trunking for the current wiring needs to be replaced for something bigger when i do that, so I need to get the trunking from Toolstation first.

Off-Water Skills.

This boating lark isn't just about sailing, there are other things you get to learn along that way, especially if you're lacking in the funds dept. 

The electronicy stuff in the previous blog illustrates one element of this. Although I'm lucky in that I've always been handy electrically and electronically, my first job at 16 was as an electronics test assistant. 

I then moved from electronics and analogue "computers" (anyone remember those: lovely feedback loops and servos) to digital electronics, networks and computing. Around the same time I did a Ham Radio course, so I know a bit about Radio too. 

I've always been handy with engines too, from an early age with 2-stroke mopeds as a teenager which then translated to 2-stroke outboards.

Fibreglassing is another skill I've picked up, although I'm still a bit reticent about repairs under the waterline. They've held up, but I still worry. :-)

Of course there's the usual woodworking and metalworking skills learned in school <gulp> 40 years ago.

So along the way I've picked up a few skills. Pretty necessary when you're a bit skint. 

Last weekend I was sewing. I learned that skill when I was about five or six, taught to me by my Mother. Albeit with a machine, but I re-stitched the spray hood for the boat. The old stitching had degraded and the panels were coming apart.

I know more about using that sewing machine than the Missus! All the different stiches, tensions and stich sizes. I've used the lot!

But looking back, it seems I've picked up the skillset required to do most things on a boat. Being skint has had a bit to do with it and because mechanics charge a lot more than I earn I also started out fixing cars once the family outgrew the bikes. I well remember I but my car into a garage for fixing, charging a substantial amount for something I thought I could do myself. After that first encounter I vowed to do as much as I could myself. 

When I had my powerboat I did all the work to make it CE compliant for the RCD. All I needed was a company to verify the work was compliant and issue the necessary paperwork. It's probably one of the few American powerboats out there in the UK that is fully RCD compliant. 

But I look back and think of all the things I've accomplished when I rolled up my sleeves and got stuck in and it does fill me with a warm sense of satisfaction that I could do them. I guess most boaty people that do their own work get the same feeling too. 

But I do wonder at the generations coming up after us. There seems to be no instinct to repair or replace. I know over in America at the moment there is a battle over the right to repair various bits of equipment. Manufacturers seems ever more hostile when it comes to customers who have bought (and supposedly own) their products to have the ability or even the right to open them up and delve in to repair the fault. 

Just think if it applied to boats and you had a leaky hull fitting: "Sorry sir, you can't fix that even though your boat is at risk of sinking".  Well what about the Marina mechanic? "Sorry sir, he's not accredited with the manufacturer of your boat: he can't touch it either". "I'm afraid you are going to have to either get the manufacturer's mechanic out to you, or haul the boat out and transport it by road to the nearest registered repair facility, none of which are located on the coast". 

Yeah, I'll stay thankful that we are able to repair our old boats ourselves as long as we are able. 

I'll revel in the thought of using a lifetime of self-taught skills just as much as the use of a decades-old, familiar tool.