Bob Blues

didnt sally ash get a 250K bonus last year? I recon it will go on some bonus somware... Bob

Clavinova's are terrible, there is nothing worse when you turn up to do a concert and they say we have a Clavinova. Arse! Feedback from the keys are almost non-existent the sound is like a cat being pushed through the strings of a banjo and for any Clavinova over 6 months old the action is like hitting it with a zimmer frame. I had to do a piece last night the piano was an old upright Lowest D was out of tune and 2 of the hammers were broken. So much better than a Yamaha.. Bob Edited to add I will never buy another peice of Yamaha kit ever. After spending 2K on a mixer and add-ons and then to find Yamaha refused to make Win 7 or Mac drivers for it. Effectively trying to make people to buy new kit.

ok I def think my combi is goosed. i put the clamp meter on and put it into charge. It started off at 70A (Bulk) dropped to 50 then slowly to about 13 A (charge) then it just stopped charging activity went from 12.5A straight to 0 and indicated float. after 20 mins it started charging again at 6 A in float mode. Oh well Time to break out the credit card I think I will get a Mastervolt 12/2000/100 Does this machine come with a de-sulphate mode ? Bob

Absolutely no other load. The clamp test was done on the large DC cable going into the unit. The Cable is about 3/4 inch thick! The test was done completely isolated. The inverter fans were off I checked with the combi off/ not charging or inverting, the current draw was 0.12A I think I will get a new one Bob The batteries are on charge permanently when connected to the mains and when I'm out I use the solar panel on roof + engine + 1 of two genies. (not all together!) Bulk Charging only takes a few seconds before it goes to normal charge mode. I will test the charge mode and what it is charging at tonight I do desulphate the bats every month. Thanks Bob

Well clamp meter applied and the unit is drawing 3 A DC at 12.3v idle at 217v AC with nothing connected. When I put all the devices on and it read 10A and then dropped to 9.5A after 3 mins I found the Mastervolt Freedom 20 manual and the info gives 93% efficiency with 84% at full load with an idle mode of .12A The output voltage is supose to be 230V I haev seen it as low as 208v Bob

The volt meter is there to give me a rough indication on how my batteries are and when I need to charge them when I am out. I have a shoreline when I am in the marina and keep the batteries on charge all the time so its only when I out cruising I run in to problems with power drain. When I started on here I use to read all the posts by gibbo and yourself regarding batteries. I understand that the SOC of batteries can only be determined with a hydrometer but not having one I have to stick to the 12.7 - 12.2 voltages when left off for 30 mins which is roughly how long Luna gets a late walk. So coming back to the boat and looking at my voltages with nothing turned on I guess that is as close as a power off reading as i can get. If you think the batteries need longer to settle after load then I would be pleased to run this through a test. My Clamp meter arrived today so when I get back to the boat I will run some tests. All the devices run off 240v saying that, I noticed one day that the voltage from the inverter was 208v Again I will update later tonight when i get some tests done Thanks

Hello Mike, thanks for the reply. The my current unit is a Heart mastervolt It was on the boat when I bought it and has worked with out fail. I do not know the Power efficienty I read the manual last night but didn't see any reference to it. I do a radio show from the boat twice a week for in internet radio station. So when broadcasting, I use my laptop (circ 35w) and a Mark of the Unicorn DA/AD convert which is 15w + a 3g router (5 w). I have 4 new (ish) US 2200 extreme 6 volt 245A (i think) and these are watered and de-sulphate once a month. The only other thing that consumes power is my 12v fridge which i turn off when broadcasting + 1 led lighting unit @ .3w. I have a digital Volt meter wired in above my desk so I can see whats happening. I am at float and turn off charger wait 30 mins and the voltage is 12.72. Turning on the inverter and the voltage drops to 12:36. Its always done this even with new batteries. (12.25 if not de-sulphated). Turning on the laptop and DA/AD converter and it drops to 12.26v after 3 hrs of use I am at 12.05. So I turn off the system and take the dog for a last walk. On getting back to the boat the power is 12.3v Now I recon 55w at 12v is (circ 5A ) so I should have consumer 15Aph and my batteries should be 12.55 or 12.65 I have had the batteries checked and they are good. So the only other thing i can think of is my old Combi is wasting too much power somewhere. So unless I have done my calculations incorrectly and this is what is expected then I am guessing my inverter is goosed. I hope to have my clamp meter today and will let you know the readings Bob

Thanks all for the replies. I have a clamp test meeter on order and will test out the leakage with just the inverter on. If the old Combi box does need replacing I will get a Mastervolt. BTW: The reason I have to go for a combi is because of space. My Gas locker is on the left side of the boat and protrudes into the engine compartment, so the only space I have is for a combi. Ive never had a problem with the old unit just I don't think the efficiency is up to much. Bob

I heard victron was good but a few friends have reported problems and some units had to be replaced under warranty Thanks Bob

Can I ask which Charger/Inverter combi manufacturer is best? I have a old Mastervolt Heart 2000w/100A charger. It is about 10 years old at least and although its working it seems very inefficient and I would like to replace it. Just leaving it on with no load and the battery voltage drops. Looking through the past posts on the matter it doesn’t seem to give a clear market leader. I am more favored towards replacing it with another Mastervolt but by the time you buy the control panel as well its about £2k. I am looking for efficiency and a very good sinewave (less noise etc...) I bought a 300W inverter from Maplins and my mac laptop wont charge off it. So, I need to run the main inverter just to run my laptop and 3G router. It seams a lot of waste. Regards Bob

Yea agree, I play the Hammond part to Sylvia, Its such a lovely piece and you have to listen carefully to get the full chord arrangement. Jan Akkerman and Thijs van Leer who played the on the track are two amazing musicians. I think they both tour still. Bob

Sainsburys Cheep Bio Power mixed in one mug and 2 ltr of warm water. Breaks everything down and smells nice. Also For top flush use Cheep Bio liquid well diluted bob

Boaters party Friday Night Real Ale, Music and good people.

I never said that at all it was It was Nick who said " A coal/fuel boat is no more a working boat than any of the other Floating Traders in Michael Wooding's gang. Therefore not a working boat in my book. " I consider any boat with a trading license a working boat. My original post was just a question, was it OK to do this and It seams from the replies that it is usual practice to place the boat against the lock gates. Bob

The boat I was referring to was a Coal, Fuel boat. Although, every so often you see a boat with a load of gravel heading south down the GU to the works below West Drayton. Not seen one for over a year though now. I managed to get a pic of one very low in the water full to the gunnels. Bob

The guy the working boat was very gentle and only opened one paddle so I guess to stop the boat being thrown all over. It was one of the wide beams earlier this month who seamed to hit the gates so hard.

As a single handed boater, when going up and having to re-set the lock, I have always tied up whilst setting the lock then once set go back and drive the boat in jumping off before the gates with the center rope in my hands walking the boat in. Very often now, I have seen people putting the nose of the boat (some times with a loud bang) right up against join the middle of the Lock gates leaving the engine in gear whist jumping off and emptying the lock. As the lock empties and the water level reaches balancing point the gates open the boat is driven in. It seems mostly Wide Beams doing this but last night I saw a working boat do it and just wondered, is this the correct way of doing it? There seems to be a massive bang when the boat comes to rest against the gates.

As a single handed boater, when going up and having to re-set the lock, I have always tied up whilst setting the lock then once set go back and drive the boat in jumping off before the gates with the center rope in my hands walking the boat in. Very often now, I have seen people putting the nose of the boat (some times with a loud bang) right up against the middle of the Lock gates leaving the engine in gear whist jumping off and emptying the lock. As the lock empties and the water level reaches balancing point the gates open the boat is driven in. It seems mostly Wide Beams doing this but last night I saw a working boat do it and just wondered, is this the correct way of doing it? There seems to be a massive bang when the boat comes to rest against the gates.

There I was in the middle of a session recording to a very tight deadline, and I was burning the oil at both ends and was trying to record a hard rock Christmas carol piece Lots of guitar tracks had been sent to me and I had to put Hammond and a load of synth parts down before sending them back the next day to be mixed and mastered so they could hit the Christmas rush. The Synth parts went down easy and as they are Direct to the AD/DA Converts all I needed was a pair of headphones. The difficulty was when I had to put the Hammond down, I need to use the monitor speakers instead of the cans. I shifted the dog down the boat onto the bed and miked up the Leslie and started the recording process. Suddenly half way through the dog shot down the boat and started barking at the door (right next to one of the Leslie Mikes). Suitably scolded and put back on the bed I started again, Same thing happened at the same place dog ran down the boat and started barking at the door. This happened three or four more times at the same place before I caught on that in my hurry to record one of the synth parts I had left a mike on and had recorded my friend coming to the boat in the afternoon and knocking on the roof which got recorded by mistake. once that was edited out no more problems and made the deadlines. Are you sure you want to record on a boat? Bob

A decent pre-amp is very costly and can change the warmth of a vocal especially if they are valve driven and many come with channel strips allowing various EQs to be added. There again same as getting a great mike, you can spend £5K on a bottle mike or £100 for a Rode Nt1 (dam fine mike). Mike choice is critical and I know many vocalists that insist on one type of mike when recording. If you are recording on your boat you may need to think about bleed through from other noise but the water tends to dampen out any unwanted echo. I like recording on the boat, but miking up the Leslie is a bit of a pain especially in the tight space but it all works well. Just as I was getting to the end of a lengthy part of an overdub with the Hammond the dog kicked off and I had to start all over again. Bob

Spoke to nice CART workers again this morning. The Case against the worker who disturbed the nest is ongoing and has been for a year. Somone called the police and they arrested the worker. So now as they cant not disturb the nests none of the workers will be going very slowly... CART have to be finished for the Slough Festival in September. Maybe this is why its costing £750k or they only have one bucket and spade .....

Its CART ....... The words Brewery and Pissup come to mind.

One thing I would say is if you havn't done areay use a compressor on your vocals even when singing live. Can help. Bob Use soundcloud

I use and swear by, Tesco Bio Washing liquid (£1.80) in the top tank watered down of course and Sainsbury’s Bio Power (£2.10) in the bottom. One mug of power to 2 ltr of water. Ive used it for 3 years its Cheep and smells nice. Both last ages. As an added bonus I pour one cap of bio liquid (concentrated) around the bowl once a week. Ohh I forgot, There are two rules in Boating. Never let go of your center rope Always use someone else’s Toilet.

I have a B3 Hammond and leslie on mine If I can put that on you can put a piano on. Bob