Chalky
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Posts posted by Chalky
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It all depends on how the charge circuit / power converter that's built into the battery and how the battery management system is configured.
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What you've bought is a single lion cell and s simple power converter. The electronics can provide 5v at 2A max - I use these a lot to power small robots in the lab.
Scaling the battery up is expensive. Using more than 1 cell will require a battery management system that can monitor cell temperature, voltage and manage the SOC of each cell - get it wrong and you've got a small bomb on your hands.
To make a multi cell lithium battery safe and reliable needs high reliability electronics which isn't cheap...
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Our hob is under a window. We have a glass cover over it that folds back against the window. We also have an aluminium Venetian blind. The hob is sufficiently far away from the window so we can fit a pan on it and open the glass cover.
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Thanks for the info Richard. All coming together nicely. Plan to get it all back in the boat by the end of the month.
Just one thing. What temp thermostat should I use. The one that's in it is an 82c!!!
If you decide on staying with the 82 deg thermostat and you have trouble obtaining one they're obtainable from MG specialists since they're the one specified for the MGB. Leacy's list them at about £5. They also list a 74 degree and 88 degree.
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I've got the Starter motor, the tunnel light and the horns wired off the starter battery, everything else is off the domestic. There is a relay connected to the engine ignition switch so I can't leave the lights on.
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Before you get too excited about inductive hobs Google the term "Stray Field" and have a look at the ICNIRP 1998 guidelines (International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection), especially the section "Biological Basis For Limiting Exposure". The guidelines were weakened later. Once you've read them then ask the inductive hob question again.
Link to guidelines http://www.icnirp.org/cms/upload/publications/ICNIRPemfgdl.pdf
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Make sure they are the same length
Richard
From what I know there are 2 different lengths depending on the cam followers used (usual petrol engine caveats apply). They're about £3 each and seem to be fairly easy to obtain new. Check they're a common part before using them - some bits are common, some aren't.
http://www.leacyclassics.com/11g241.html
http://www.leacyclassics.com/12h3357.html
http://www.moss-europe.co.uk/push-rod-engine-12h3357.html
http://www.moss-europe.co.uk/push-rod-engine-11g241.html
http://www.mgocspares.co.uk/acatalog/MGOC_SPARES_UPPER__MGB__4.html
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If they're the same as the ones on the BMC petrol engine then there are loads of places that sell MGB spares that will stock them.
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We had the problem at work with the words Gaydon and Essex. Makes you wonder how they ever receive any messages with the word canal in it. Perhaps that explains a lot...
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I'm on another forum that has a library of technical articles. These are written by forum members and describe various topics e.g. How they did a particular job or a trick they found. there can be multiple articles about the same topic.
The forum is mg experience. Mgexp. Things are still debated and discussed but there's also the library.
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Just emailed a former colleague of mine who lives in Holzkirchen to see if he's ok. He takes the train every day to Munich en route to BMW.
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Another vote for wickes aqua panel. I spent some time researching it and its a cement based board. I did find a manufacturers data sheet for it that specifies the thermal conductivity. From memory its conductivity was at the bottom end of the limit allowed by bs8511, but it is in the tables and a compliant design can be achieved.
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If you do swap antifreeze types you'll need to drain the system fully before you refill with the new type. Not all antifreeze types are compatable with all engines. My Ford (4 years old) uses the red long life antifreeze. My MG (37 years old) uses the older blue. If I was to use the more modern antifreeze in the older car there is the danger that it could attack things like the soldered joints in the radiator.
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The issue of valve clearances is a regular topic on the MG forums. Some set the inlets a lot tighter than the exhaust and claim it works ok. 9 thou has been mentioned. I've always set to 15 thou.
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The issue of valve clearances is a regular topic on the MG forums. Some set the inlets a lot tighter than the exhaust and claim it works ok. 9 thou has been mentioned. I've always set to 15 thou.
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I was told, by the then moorings warden on my bit of the canal, that on the Oxford Canal the possession of riparian land did indeed confer the right to moor, as long as your boat wasn't blocking the navigation. There is, said he, an old Act which has never been repealed. Can anyone shed light on this?
We're moored on the south Oxford on a bottom of the garden mooring. We were told when we applied for it that there were no BOG moorings on the south Oxford. When we produced a copy of the property deeds BW as it was then promptly changed their minds. I'd be interested in your comments about original act.
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Sloshing the electrolyte round is going to disturb the lead silt at the bottom of the battery. This will then short out the cell/s and wreck your battery. As said above charging will agitate the electrolyte. If agitating the electrolyte was important why are AGM and gel batteries so popular since they have no liquid electrolyte to agitate?
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Not all LEDs are made equal. When the LEDs are made there's a huge variation in light produced for the same power output. An led I've used a lot in circuit designs uses 4 watts but has a light output of between 30 and 240 lumens for the same 4W input. Most of them produce 80 lumens and these are sold for about £2 each. The 240 lumen devices are about £7. If you just boy on wattage alone you could end up with a very dim 30 lumens that uses 4 watts or a very bright 240 lumen one that uses 4 watts.
Buy the lowest wattage for the highest lumen output. They'll cost more but they're far more efficient.
how do you work out what draw they take
1 WATT = 1 VOLT * 1 AMP
Divide the wattage by 12* and you'll get an approximate current.
* on a 12 V boat system the voltage can vary between 12 and about 14.4 depending on how flat your batteries are and if you're running the engine to charge them. For a house use 230V.
12 lamps @ 2.4W = 28.8 watts
Divide 28.8 watts by 12 V = 2.4 Amps
you get 2.5A due to tolerance on the lamps and your gauging.
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The thing that always concerns me is the quantisation error / calibration accuracy in the meter. E.g. When you're running 100w bulbs 5w error is in the noise. When you're running 4w LEDs it's huge. The shift to lower energy lighting etc could cause some other errors besides the PF.
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Go and see your GP / asthma nurse. If it's got worse then it's not under control and needs looking at.
My asthma usually gets worse at this time of year. I was prescribed singulair about 3 years ago. If you can tolerate it it's superb at controlling asthma.
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I have a collection of electrical manuals called "Modern Electrical Installations". It's in 5 volumes and its dated 1897 - yes 1897. One volume deals with items like how to make cables with lead and bitumen insulation. Another has items such as using a tank of water as a resistance to dim lights. There's another volume that deals with steam engines so you can run your generator!
Most / all of the kit mentioned earlier was just a pipe dream.
Ah! a PDP8 - the most perfect small computer, especially the model with the wood-effect Formica doors. The world started to go to pot when DEC brought out the PDP11 (but the PDP9 and PDP15 were interesting machines)!
I still have my copies of "Introduction to Programming" and "The Small Computer Handbook", published by DEC c.1969 and which must have been given away by them in the tens of thousands. Anyone need some Assembler written for a PDP8 or a PDP15?
Chris G
I still have my Microtan 65 from 1978. One of the last rack based home computers. I started programming on Nascom 2s and learned Fortran and Pascal on the Harris mainframe at college. Fortunately Harris no longer make computers.
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Graham.m says they just need a fuse .....
It's a lot more than that. When lithium batteries are mischarged they will spontanoeusly combust. Since the reaction produces its own oxygen they need special extinguishants. The heat produced will cut through steel.
There's also an issue with the mains leads many of which have a Chinese interpretation on the UK wiring regs. Things like no fuse, terminals not shielded, earth connections not to standard etc.
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As someone said earlier a lot of the issues could be simple mistakes. My water pump splutters when the water lever is low and it can't pick up properly. Low fuel could have caused the engine to die - if you've only ever used a vehicle fuel gauge you might not read the level properly.
The biggest issue I would be concerned about is the state of the hull. My brother in-law bought a springer off ebay and then told us he'd done it a month later. I asked him about a survey, he said one had been done 4 years earlier and he'd gone with that (he'd only ever bought a house). 10 months later he spent the purchase price of the boat having the hull replated...
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Not if the alternator is big enough.
Let's take a 1000 watt hair dryer as an example, the load on the 12v system would be, 1000/10 (to allow for losses in the inverter) so a load of 100 amps.
If your alternator was 100 amp model and totally efficient and being spun at a fast enough speed, the load on the batteries would be zero.
However in the real world a 100 Amp alternator will only produce 100 Amps when running at near max rpm. At the speeds a normal boat engine is running at it'll produce significantly less. The 70 amp alternators on my boat only produce 40 amps at tick over / cruising speed - I'd need to be water skiing to get the 70 Amps. The chances are that running the hair dryer is depleting your batteries, possibly by a significant amount.
If you have no battery monitoring system or even just an ammeter / volt meter then its worth getting one - they're cheaper than a new battery bank.
Unwelcome shipmate
in Living Afloat
Posted
If you do use poison use one containing something like difenacoum. Unlike warfarin it's persistent in the liver so the mouse can eat small amounts over several weeks and it'll still be fatal. You need to be careful handling it since it can be absorbed through the skin.