BEngo

The common Daly, JK, JBD/Overkill/xiaoxiang BMS units all expose the state of the charge FETs over their coms units- UART, RS485, BT and App, CANBUS are all available, albeit not fitted to or exposed on all batteries. I haven't run across SPI or I2C, yet. All these BMS' will accept an incoming command to open and close the charge FET. There are others ( e.g. ANT-BMS ) I have not investigated The hardest part seem to be in parsing the control messages from the BMS to extract the necessary decision data (pack voltage, cell voltages, balance delta , charge current from the serial string of hex bytes that the BMS transmits in reply to an incoming hex byte string. Hard wired connections seem easier to manage than BT ones. A look round the home automation and diy solar sites will produce a bewildering quantity of information and there is plenty of C, C++ and Python code lurking. N

Set the user profile up so absorption charge is at 14.6 V and float at 13.6V. You will need to experiment a bit with the duration of Absorption, depending on the solar output. N

Mr B has it. Fit it so you can easily get to both the schrader valve and the isolation valve. N

As the boat is out of water, it is quite possible that a previous owner has filled the engine with antifreeze mixture to prevent frost damage and internal corrosion. All that is needed is to stick the intake hose from the seacock in a bucket of ready mixed antifreeze and run the engine for a couple of minutes. The jabsco pump will then push antifreeze into the block N

Ditto. I still have the back cabin chimney, a tall pipe and a cutter he made in '89 or ' 90, together with a tipcat and two buttons. All still going strong. The bow fender didn't survive more than about 5 years. The front stove chimney lasted until 2011 when it was knocked overboard at Brinklow. Derek was an amazing guy. He singlehandedly put the steel top on Wylo over a single summer in Aylesbury basin. He used no power tools apart from the welder. All the steel sheets were cut with a hand sheet saw, curves by chain drilling and a file. N

With two alternators the smaller one for start and the larger ons for domestic is normal The only common electrical bit is that both negatives should be connected to the hull. A Google of 9 diode alternator wiring may help. Broadly: Connect the positive wire ( from B+, usually) to the battery positive via a good master switch. (NOT one with a red plastic key). Connect the negative wire ( from the case or B-) to the battery negative. Connect an ignition switched wire, via a warnjng lamp of about 2.2 W, from the engine side of the master switch to the D terminal on the alternator. Repeat for the other alternator. Connect both battery negatives to the hull. Connect the domestics to one battery master and the starter to the other, on the side not connected to the battery. Insert fuses to protect your cable. You may find the alternators dont have D terminal. If so Google on 6 diode alternator wiring should help N

When you have boogied out the flue, go round the stove with a good torch. Check that all the panels are crack free and that the joints are properly sealed. Morso stoves are good, but they are very prone to cracks where the bolts hold the front and rear panels to the top and bottom, especially if rust has built up in the joins. Check also the rear flue entry. The ssealing plate is only held on by two small bplts and these again do not like it if rust has built up in the join. N

There arevmire than a few elderly boaters around. George and Ruby Stoddart-Stones were boating into their late 80's and early 90's with Wyton. ISTR that Jim MacDonald's parents werec still boating significant distances in their 80's. N

If you keep away from black smoke (overtorque) situations, diesels produce very little CO across the speed range. That is because there is, even at designed full load, always excess air in order to achieve compression ignition temperatures. Plenty of air meens all the injected fuel is properly burned. The excess air also keeps combustion things fairly cool, so there is little NOx. No hydrocarbons, no NOx, No CO. All very green. Pity about the PM 10's. N

I woild think that cold moulded ply over a concrete form would be just the job for a bath. Get the form by blagging a dead plastic bath off a plumber/local tip and filling it with concrete round a foam core Double diagonal mahogany would look good but the corners might be difficult. N

Look at Wyvern Shipping at Leoghton Buzzard. Old established family firm with really good boats and excellent in-person locking and boat handling tuition. Routes go up into the Chilterns, or North through Milton Keynes, which is really leafy, by canal, to Stoke Bruerne, the Waterway Museum and, if you are feeling brave, Blisworth Tunnel. A good selection of pubs either way. N

But it is not the alternator ( or other dumb) charging in itself that is a problem. The problem is the effect of relying on the BMS ( a battery protection device) to be a charge control device and of using an inappropriate alternator ( not able to providea suitable continuous output) as charge source. Neither is difficult to solve safely though charge control solutions are somewhat limited options. N

I do not know abour the offside, but the towpath certainly has a drain at the toe of the slope, with cross pipes under the towpath to take the drained water into the canal.. Like many other BW/CRT assets the drain has has little or no proper maintenance for years and as a consequence it is pretty ineffective. N

Wyvern Shipping at Leighton Buzzard. Excellent boats. Family run company that has been in business for years and years. Nice stretch of canal up into the Chilterns or north to Stoke Bruerne where there is a tunnel, the Waterways Museum and a pictureskew village centered on the canal. Decent 0oselection of pubs either way. N

That certainly looks like the Oxford side of Napton Junction. The turnover bridge is hidden by Somerset, but the house is a bit of a clue. Thus Betelgeuse and empty motor are coming from Banbury way. I would hazard a guess that this was a return empty from either a United Dairies or Co-Op coal delivery. Current destination? Probably Suttons for orders. N

Where is this bridge please? Might be able to get my pointing trowel into action again N

The best thing for keeping brass shiny is clear powder coating. Lasts for years and years. Where lacquer has been used and is breaking down, cellulose thinners (gunwash) is effective in removing the lacquer ready to repolish. Re-brassing is an electroplaters job and the environmental controls are so costly there are not many about who will take on anything other than production jobs. N

10m is not a lot- not enough for a side fender probably.. You might make an ocean plait mat or something similar. A set of coasters perhaps. Or a selection of common knots on a board, labelled and framed? If it is real natural fibre hemp it is susceptible to rot so needs not to be continuously damp. N

Bog roll or white kitchen towel are often handy when checking for leaks of all types. Just place a piece to intercept any possible weeps, seeps or drips. You can normally get it closer to a possible source than tracing the route of a damp patch which has appeared under the engine. N

The 1500 V DC electrification was planned and the overheads designed when the LNER owned and ran the Woodhead line. The LNER also owned the Ashton Canal (with a depot in Gorton Tank) so it was probably not a hard ask to use the Ashton towpath for the gantries. The stretch of railway from Manchester to Glossop was re-electrified at 25 kV AC after the DC line closed through Woodhead. Some at least of the DC gantries were re-used. N

Some of the lock tail bridges are low, particularly the flat cantilever ones where BW added railings with supports below the bridge.

The standard original marine oil tank is a large rectangular brass and copper item. This has the dipstick. And the oil filler. It may help to post some photos of the engine and its surroundings. N

The key thing with insulatingvsteel 8s to provide a vapour barrier. Either as an integral part of the insulation as in kingspan/celotex or to add one as a separate layer over the top of polystyrene or rockwool. Builders merchants sell 100 micron polythene sheet, which is idea. Tape the joins. Under the gunwales use the same insulation sheet as on the sides, then put a vapour barrier over if not celotex and tape the vapour barrier to the ones on the cabin sides and hull sides. The other advantage of a poly sheet is that it separates your cables from the polystyrene. Arthur is bang on about mdf. N

There are quite a few narrow and wide canal craft on the SSR. Full registration makes it a lot easier to get a marine mortgage. Again there are several canal boats Registered as ships. N

Even if the Builder has his own Bill of Sale the RYA and/or BMF ones at least provide reference points to make sure that all the necessary " stuff" has been covered. If the purchasers are ever thinking of registering the vessel as a Brittish Ship under the Merchant Shipping Act or whatever it is today ( Not the Small Ships Register) it is worth getting the builder to complete the necessary forms at handover. These, together with subsequent Bills of Sale for all of the sixty four parts a Ship can be divided into will form the basis of establishing registerable ownership. N