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The recent Invision update was just bug fixes and removal of some deprecated admin features. We have to update other software too, not just Invision. This includes things like web server software, database software, anti virus software, mail server software. - Plus the operating system itself (Ubuntu) The list goes on... Over time, they consume more resources which is unfortunately the nature of software development but luckily hardware technology advances too. - though at a cost. Ultimately there becomes a point where we have to upgrade. Our current web server has lasted us over 3 years which seems reasonable. If we don't keep on top of this the site will be become slow, unreliable, glitchy and potentially insecure. We follow best practices to avoid this. Also, site activity has increased in recent months, particularly the number of concurrent online users during peak times. I haven't drilled deep into the stats, but definitely an observation - this too will result in higher memory utilisation. This is at an increased cost to Canal World which as you know is funded entirely from member donations. All donations appreciated. 🙂

Yes but... Up the Oxford (pint in the Folly?) GU to Warwick (Cape of Good Hope) Up Hatton and North Stratford into Brum (a couple of decent pubs) Back out and down Tardebigge, (via the Weighbridge), Droitwich down to the Severn and a couple of locks up to Stourport (maybe the Black Star). Whole length of the lovely S&W up to the T&M. Several beers in Stone (probably the Swan) and then the Holy inadequate. Through the big tunnel into the almost North then up the Macc. Down Marple (if its ever fixed) then the Ashton down into Manchester, a first taste of Northern Urban locks but at least they are narrow. A night in New Islington and beer at Cask. (MtB will feel at home here as its Southern prices). A quick dash up the Rochdale(!!!) and beer at the Golden Lion. Better than the back of a lorry 😀

Or just put a lead acid battery in parallel with the lithium(s) and if necessary a bit longer cable from said alternator and all is hunky dory. 😊

And what is your experience with fitting out a boat with Lithium? Please let us know your vast knowledge on Lithium batteries, yes @IanD might go on a bit, but you have no experience with the technology being discussed and @IanD does. Your a total argumentative joke.

Also, just to add that this specific issue is a server side caching issue. I have done what is advised in the error message so hopefully you won't see that error for some time!

Given the alternative of moving ashore is going to cost a CCer about £12k a year in rent (in the south of England), I can't see many moving ashore for financial reasons even if CRT loaded up the CC licence fees by £2k or £3k, let alone the £200 or £300 currently. I suppose moving onto the Thames might look attractive, or vanlife-ing.

Think this is the Welland canal in the Great Lakes, the only triple lock I know of on a big waterway apart from the Panama.

It might even be 3.55, I can’t remember. On the other hand since they specify 14.4v as the charge voltage, it’s probably 3.60v. On my own system I use 3.65v as the start of the alarm, I think 3.70 is the disconnect voltage, but since I only charge to 14.3v for a 100% charge (and that is only done once a month) these higher voltages should never be reached. Balancing is triggered if a cell goes over 3.60v but the balancing continues for a calculated period of time regardless of what the charge voltage subsequently is - ie even if the system stops charging. However in the past year, balancing has not been triggered. Again we are up against the issue of whether the BMS disconnect is used routinely as the charge control, or whether it is there as an emergency backup disconnect. Wrong. I would make it 5%. Assuming the system can charge at over 15A. Although it also depends on what voltage settings you have set.

When there is a percentage change and the quantity that is changing is itself a percentage then things can get very confusing. The common solution, especially in political and some media uses, appears to be to use the term "percentage points". So, as the surcharge goes up from 5% to 10% it has indeed increased by 100% but only 5 percentage points. On the subject of media, an increase of 100% would surely be an exponential increase 😀😀

A self drive UCC camping boat similar to this was my first experience of canalling back in July 1973, courtesy of my local mixed venture scout group.

A very interesting chap. He gave a talk that I attended a couple of years ago, he started as a truck driver for a haulage firm and built up the Manchester Cabins firm later. Have a look at his steam powered Land Rover and interesting things in his garden! A worthy successor to Fred Dibnah with an infectious laugh😃

It's why I've got him on ignore -- which he hates because he wants ATTENTION, so no doubt there'll be another post from him -- as in the past -- accusing me of moral cowardice by not being man enough to face up to him. But there's absolutely no point trying to debate with him, the only solution is to blank him out -- same as the loudmouthed drunk in the pub spouting provocative BS and spoiling for a fight, just refuse to talk to them and ignore them, then hopefully they'll go away and annoy someone else -- preferably in a different pub... 😉

Might work perhaps, but a piece of wire is easier to find.

I also spent a *lot* of time investigating the technology -- not just the batteries and charging/control but the systems wrapped round them -- before I went to Finesse (thanks to @peterboat for the suggestion) because I was initially considering specifying everything myself -- probably not assembling it because that's the job of a boatbuilder, but designing the installation without any corner-cutting, pointless on a new boat which costs a fortune anyway. I even dug down into things like the detail of motor control algorithms because I expected I'd have to do this myself if I chose anything "non-standard" for the builder -- and could certainly have done this (I've done similar things in the past at work), though it would have taken a lot of time and effort and trials. When I talked to Ricky I found that he'd made almost exactly the same choices that I had done, especially crucial things like motor/controller/batteries, and had built multiple boats this way -- at which point I decided there was no point reinventing the wheel, and it was better to make use of *his* existing expertise which had come to the same conclusions that I had. We still made quite a few changes to the boat, but always with discussion between us about how practical/sensible they were and what the possible downsides were as well as the plus points, and some ideas were rejected and some made it into the final build -- which is how engineering works. We also had lots of discussions about the best way to treat the batteries, knowing how LFP cells behave (and how much a 35kWh battery bank costs) -- and yes Ricky is a bit of a techno-nerd too, he enjoys digging into things like this (and the motor control stuff) -- and we agreed that there's a lot of misunderstanding about this, especially on Internet forums, as can be seen every time the subject comes up. Many of the things people seem most concerned about -- like restricting SoC range -- simply don't matter in any real sense, with a good BMS battery life is pretty much only dependent on total energy throughput, and anyway is likely to exceed the lifetime of the boat on the canals. So long as you don't overcharge them or overdischarge them (a good BMS and charging control!), what you do between 0% SoC and 100% SoC makes very little difference, they're just an energy bucket you can fill and empty as circumstances demand -- and that's the real advantage over LA. And that's not just my opinion, there's lots of data out there which shows this, not just from expert long-term LFP users like Rod Collins (marinehowto) but also remote monitoring of every LFP installation Finesse has ever done -- all of which show pretty much zero battery capacity/health degradation over the years. Which is exactly what would be expected... 😉 Or possibly premature death for either LA, LFP or both -- depending on how the setup is built and used, especially by naive users who don't understand batteries... 😉

I can quite safely say that. During my time as a Lister Petter engineer I visited the Sabb factory in Bergen to assist them with the engine. Also as a lifeboat it is necessary to be able to run the engines out of the water for short periods, hence they would be 100% keel cooled. As the photo shows the engine is fitted with a dry exhaust.

We’ve covered this before on the forum. The idea that trees are helpful to slope stability is largely myth. A strong well rooted tree is likely to be beneficial but the type of slope they grow on is likely to be one that is well drained with deep soil and not at risk of failure. At risk slopes are generally poorly drained, shallow soil horizons overlying rock and the trees that grow on them have shallow roots which makes them susceptible to overturning by wind action. A combination of saturated soil and wind action on trees are common factors in slope failures. Early canal and railway embankments would likely have been constructed to a gradient of about 1:1.5. Modern slopes to something like 1:3. Early canal and railway cuttings mostly had crest drains that in most cases are long defunct. The nature of the land above the slope - both topographical and usage - is also critical. Particularly if the crest drainage is non-existent. Something as simple as changing the direction a field is ploughed can be a precursor to failure. On the railway de-vegetation is a key tool in the armoury of the Earthworks engineer. For starters it is an enabler to inspection. On the clay soil embankments of south-east England that are prone to seasonal desiccation any tree is bad news.

Middlemoor Farm Boats | two cosy glamping narrowboat vessels moored on a farm in Northumberland (hostunusual.com)

And there was me expecting a thread about these, but with LPFs...