RD1
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Posts posted by RD1
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In the days before aircon, Land Rover had a white safari roof on their vehicles for warmer climates.
Basically it was a white aluminium roof that sat with an air gap on spacers an inch or so above the original.
A white tight tarp placed over the canal boat roof could have a similar effect.
When we used to camp, we had fresh milk, so a bowl with an inch of water in, and a "T" towel draped over the milk bottles, meant the towel was always wet, and when placed in the windiest place, in the shade, say under the car or caravan, dropped the milk temperature a fair few degrees. Basic Physics, more efficient with more airflow though.
In the 60's there was also a water evaporative fridge you could buy, pour a pint of water into a hollow on the top and a cool fridge ... sorted.
Last week, when the heat was too hot to stand... we came home lol. Drove home in an air-conned car, switched on the portable aircon unit in the bedroom... bliss.
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7 minutes ago, WotEver said:
There used to be a scam perpetrated by burglar alarm installers. Once up and running they would set the system to display an error code after 12 months. When the error appears a year later the customer phones the installer who would reply "Ahh yes, I'll need to come out and give the system a service".
Software bombs were common in industrial equipment, if a supplier has progress payments that are not paid on time, then a bug creates a fault. Damn criminal. Sometimes the "bugs" just required a few key presses, to save the cost of an engineer going out, once the "random" is paid.
It is a ransom too.
Now I have a printer that can use third party cartridges, but the printer company had no contingency to prevent this, so after a time they develop a "fix" so they encourage the owner /user to upgrade the firmware to give better ink usage or better quality, but what they are doing is, installing a "fix" to stop the use of particular cartridges. Guess what... ? after the "fix", the third party cartridges no longer work.
Then we have VW group and their emission "fix" No one seems to go to prison? It is all fraud how ever it is wrapped up.
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5 hours ago, BruceinSanity said:
The other, or additional, possibility is that you didn't get a good seal when you put that last cylinder on and it was dribbling gas away all the time. How carefully do you check for gas tightness after you've changed cylinders?
With the propane "pol" brass fitting, we had a bad seal, I always use the gas leak spray, and it bubbled away quite happily. It was a new cylinder, and the regulator sealed ok on the spare cylinder. It was suggested on a canal forum that I just used a bigger spanner, and a bigger and bigger hammer to solve the problem, I thought with advice like this... best find another forum.
What I did find was a propane regulator with a rubber type seal, that only uses a finger wheel to tighten the regulator. This sealed first time, and on subsequent changes, I always use the gas leak spray, and the gas locker no longer smells of gas, and the gas bottle lasts considerably longer.
However, I have still not had confirmation as to whether this type of regulator is BSS approved or not, but I sleep better at night knowing that there is no gas escaping into my self draining gas locker. Still better than waiting for an overtightened brass gas fitting to fracture.
We also have a paloma, the pilot is shut off after each use, as said it probably consumes the same amount of gas as the gas fridge, We also have a propex warm air heating system, but it is autoignition, so uses no gas on standby.
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Surely a minimum of a fly tipping offence, and all the charges that go with it.
It's not as if there is no DNA evidence to prove it...
Report it, the evidence stands alone.
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15 hours ago, WotEver said:
I didn't say that it does take the supply from the measured voltage. It can take the power from the measured supply as long as the measured supply is within range. If the supply being measured is higher than 30V then the unit must be supplied with a separate supply of suitable voltage.
I totally agree too, but to help clarify, the current load in amps, is actually measured from the return, ie 0 volt line.
(It's the same current flowing in the circuit where ever you measure it).
Some people might think that the current should be measured from the positive supply going to the load, and I think this is where a few people are getting lost. Hope it helps.
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On the Broads there is a lot of friction between moorers wanting to double moor.
The Broads Authority have said that permission must be sought prior to coming along side, and permssion can be refused.
There were simple rules, the boat attempting to double moor could not be longer than the one already on the bank.
Suits me Sir... not many boats less than our 23' length struggle to find a mooring.
However, our boat is very unstable with a 100 kg crossing the foredeck, if someone stepped aboard without knowledge, then kettles and boiling pans could spill, causing injury, wine and beer, lost, serious stuff.
If I stood up from the dinette just as a moorer walked across the deck, he might trip, crack a window, etc who is responsible for damage and personal injury?
You also have antisocial running of engines or generators and central heating exhausts, do you check which side these exit before double mooring?
Water pumps, electric macerators, loud tvs and stereos, rattling of calor gas bottles, and slamming of locker lids...
Why would anyone want to encourage double mooring?
I came to the boat to get away from it all.
It hasn't affected us, for the length reason mentioned, but I can see it causing friction.
Oh... I'm thinking of getting a sign made... "If you are thinking of double mooring... Warning... I SNORE ! "
Richard
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5 hours ago, Murflynn said:
OP hasn't confirmed ti, but it appears the whole saga would have been avoided if he had removed a couple of bits of piping in the first place.
my dear old departed dad always used to say there are 3 parts to any job - preparing to do it, doing it and cleaning up after doing it. I'm in my eighth decade and still haven't learned that properly.
But had he used an "O" ring in the first place, then a simple box spanner would have worked, without removing any pipework, and the job complete in half an hour, and the post would never had been raised.
You start off simple, then sometimes you need to step back and review the next step. Is this the right way to go?
I was amazed at how much punishment that flange could take, I was certain it would either collapse or shear off.
I have done a couple and I was advised a shock load rather than increasing torque. Keeping it full of water was a good tip though.
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On 18 April 2017 at 00:26, WotEver said:
How do you fill a chisel with water?
Ahh so is this where the term water hammer comes from too.
You "hear" about these things lol...
Pleased you got it out, I don't need to keep looking at the post now.
Well done.
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I agree with the previous post, if the ignition light bulb has gone open circuit, and you can't get to it, you need a length of wire croc clip on one end, say a 12 volt 5 watt bulb( car side light bulb) in series, with insuluated terminals, with the remainder of the wire with a croc clip on that end.
So one croc clip on a 12 volt live, say engine starter positive, then hunt out the alternator and place the croc clip on the thinner terminal, the exciter coil connection, on the alternator, make sure the wire cannot snag on the drive belt, then go through a start process, initially the bulb will light, then should go out when the engine runs and if this is the cause, then you should have power.
It's amazing what you can fault find with a 12 volt bulb and a bit of wire, fuse checking, continuity.
Good luck,
Richard
Edited to say , I think this trip you need to be organising a way to get those batteries charged, if at home you may need to take a trolley, or find electric shore power. The batteries if left will soon become unserviceable, and they may have lost some capacity already.
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Add antifreeze and radweld together, no one has suggested that.
You don't mention where the leak is, if it's a cracked engine block, or heat exchanger?
You might want to up the anti, and use "kseal" in place of rad weld.
Whether you attempt a permanant repair or not depends if you can live without the generator from the day it becomes unservicable, and I hope you have some overheat device to shut it down in the event of a complete drain down.
Richard
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If I formally asked the Environment Agency whether I needed an anchor on the non tidal Thames, then if they say, like a non professional might say, that in their experience you don't need one, on the basis that they haven't had a total loss or loss of life yet, then they would leave themselves wide open to being sued for loss of life, damage to property or stress.
They would be very foolish to say that. They may of course say ( I do not know exactly what they would say, as I haven't contacted them, but reading other posts, it does look more likely) it is advisory, not compulsory in order to safely navigate the system in normal conditions. After all they advise not to cruise in strong streams, but you might find yourself in one.
When we moved to the Thames, we placed on board a 7kg Danforth, with chain, looking at various websites it looks like it is adequate for a 23' grp cruiser, under normally expected conditions most of the time. It happened to be a spare one off my Father. I intend to treat the Danforth as a disposable safety device, a bit like an air bag on a car, if it does the job once and saves injuries or losses, then cheap at twice the price lol.
I hope to be able to recover it, but safety of the crew and vessel take priority.
So In my opinion, I would not venture on the Thames without a suitable main anchor, but then a secondary anchor may be advised too. For that we have a 4kg grapnel.
Even a small anchor may drag enough to keep the bow to the current, and help reduce the chances of a "broadside approach to a weir, moored boats or other dangers, whereby the river water will build up along the entire length of the boat, rather than the width of the beam, which could cause a rapid increase in water level behind and under the hull, thus increasing the "roll over" moment of the hull.
Also a boat dragging an anchor in a current will allow a boat to steer closer to the bank, and may even allow the crew to secure the boat.
Taking longer to get to a danger, will give more time to review the situation, maybe get a vital phone call in, before the phones are swamped.
Yes, (in my opinion) you need an anchor, like your airbags in your car, you hope not to use them, but unlike your airbags in the car, you can still move the anchor to another boat, if suitable, or sell it, and the cost of ownership is minimum, for great peace of mind.
Richard
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On 27 March 2017 at 13:29, smileypete said:
Measure the DC resistance of the grider across the L and N terminals of the plug (when unplugged, lol
).
That'll give some idea of the instantaneous startup current of the grinder, using amps = volts/ohms.
After a few milliseconds it'll drop due to the inductance of the motor windings, then drop further as the grinder spins up - due to 'back emf' from the spinning motor.
With a cheapo non-LF inverter I'd make sure the surge rating exceeds the instantaneous startup current....
Probably not an unreasonable theory test for series wound motors, where there it is a wired field coil in series with a wired armature, with carbon brushes, but would not work for induction motors where it uses a start up capacitor, examples of which can be found on some table mounted bench saws etc. Induction motors usually start off slowly with a big hum at the beginning lol I am not sure what these would do to an inverter though, as it is a very inductive load.
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On 25 March 2017 at 15:30, WotEver said:
I think a pair of curling tongues could be quite desirable, yes. I have no use for curling tongs though.
D@mn auto spelling correct has a lot to answer for lol.
Actually my wife does have a curly tongue, I wondered what caused that. Thanks for the heads up on that one lol...
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5 minutes ago, WotEver said:
I doubt very much that a 600W inverter will power a 500W grinder. Whether or not it would release its magic smoke is unknown. I had a little 200W inverter that I was playing with and someone (not me) plugged in a 1000W load. It never made a sound nor released any smoke but it never worked again.
We had a small inverter, capable of running a laptop or my wife's curling tongues in the car, her gas ones were faulty. However, when we tried her other electric ones, it took out the inverter immediately, even though the power was less than 1/4 of the inverter's capability.
The inverter did not recover. I stripped it down, I went straight for the large driver transistors, removed them from the circuit and tested them with the multimeter, and observed that the readings were different for both identical transistors, I took a chance, ordered a pair of transistors, 60p I think... and the inverter repaired and still working, but those curling tongues are banned.
Caution, I am an electronic engineer, so I am aware of the risks, messing with high voltages that are generated by 12 volts can be fatal. There was no guarantee that this repair would work, or continue to work reliably, or that the output voltage of the inverter would be within the manufacturers tolerances.
Richard
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We have an 800 watt modified sine wave inverter, I have an old variable speed 400 watt Black and Decker drill, and when cutting large holes is quite capable of tripping the inverter. If I take it easy, less force, it works fine.
So my set up of 2:1 (800 W: 400 W ) just about works, I think you need a bigger inverter, or use a multitool, although my inverter didn't like that, tripped it straight away, so I found some shore power lol.
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2 hours ago, alan_fincher said:
I thought most site transfomers were not isolation transformers, but were auto-transformers where the primary and secondary were actually the same winding.
Unless I'm wrong this isn't going to work.
Most CE approved 230/240 volt to 110/115 volt isolation transformers should be isolated, in to out, in fact the output winding is centre tapped to the incomming earth, so the output is still say 110 volts, but +/- 55 volts to earth. So if you stood in a bucket of water, you are at risk from 55 volts ac not 110, and not 230 volts.
Combining the outputs from two of these transformers might give you 230/240 volts but you will have to remove the centre tap of each transformer from earth, and thus affecting the insulation breakdown voltage across each output winding. Any of the output windings would normally only have to sustain 55 volts to earth, but now, one of the windings could see 230/240 volts on the output to the disconnected earth. You can virtually guarantee that these transformers have not been tested or even designed for that. You might want to do an insulation "flash test" on them, but all adds to the cost.
So do not combine the outputs of two industrial isolation transformers.
I hope I have made it clear.
Richard
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30 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:
Water leaks are a pain in the arse.
Got one on my car. Can't for the life of us find it but when it rains heavy the rear footwell on the passenger side gets wet.
If it's a citroen picasso, I know why, and how to cure it. The Little under floor boxes in the rear were part filled with water.
Easy and cheap fix.
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I would suggest that each 10 amp socket has it's own fuse, 10 or even 15 amp, but with a master fuse of say 50 Amp....
My proposal:
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12v output fused at 50A split and run to various outlets.
Thoughts welcome
Cable on supply and return both of suitable current carrying capacity.
The reason being, most cigar lighter plugs are not fused, so you would need to blow a 50 amp fuse with low amp cables.
Look at extension leads, some with USB outlets, input wiring barely capable of carrying 5-10 amps let alone 50 amps.
Also the connectors on cigar type sockets are not designed for two cables on each terminal, each carrying 50 amps.
Also there is reliability, if one socket is taken out by a faulty appliance, it only takes out one 10 or 15 amp fuse, the other sockets should still remain intact.
Hope it makes sense.
Richard
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That works for us, we have an sms text controller that we can use to switch on a dehumidifier, set to a time via sms text. It also advises when power is lost and restored, and boat interior temperature. Over the last 2 months we have had two shore power failures, but were restored within a few minutes. Some dehumidifiers won't restart after a power drop out, and others, don't respond well to power outages when they are going through a drying cycle. Choose your equipment carefully, check them as to what they do after a power failure.A cheap fix for that would be as previously suggested. Have a socket directly wired to the shore power input (via RCD and after GI/IT of course) and use that for any unattended mains stuff.
A simple mains power fail detector could be...
Take an old mobile phone with some credit, preferably with a very poor battery. ( don't know what would happen if you had no battery at all !)
If you call it, and power is ok, it will ring out, free call if it doesn't go to voice mail.
If you call it and you have lost mains power, then the battery will run down, and the phone will switch off, and if set right, the phone will not ring out, ie unobtainable or go to voice mail.
Some experimentation required to check what happens to your old phone, during power failure and restore, but might give some of you peace of mind, as to the status of your shore power. Clearly regular checks are required, but if power is on, the calls are free.
If your phone battery has a life of a week, then it could be over a week before you realise you have lost power.
Not fool or idiot proof, but might be of some use.
Richard
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I agree with the quality of the Aldi brands, and the marmalade of course.
In my opinion... well my wife's really, the fresh fruit and veg can be their let down. They do not have a sell by date or best before date, but have some various code numbers, but I think Aldi staff are not good at rotating stock, maybe they don't understand the codes either.
Rotten oranges, three days after purchase is a classic example.
We now don't bother with their fruit and veg anymore, problem solved.
We have 6 Aldi stores within a 6 mile radius, but only one Lidl.
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I believe it's now mandatory for hire boats to have carbon/smoke alarms.
That's great, but do you have information to confirm this, not all the hire companies on the Broads are yet convinced.
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Ideally you need the solar panels to be perpendicular to the sun in both planes, not possible with fixed panels, but having a tilt mechanism with the sun on the beam would be next best. This could possibly double your solar output, cf. to flat panels on the deck.
More messing about, but if you are moored a long time, might be worth the effort.
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Thinking on, we have been talking about types of valves and potential leaks, but you also have to consider noise and pressure drop across a valve when water is actually flowing.
Full bore valves like ball valves are probably best, gate valves next, but there will be some turbulence as it's not smooth flow, with turbulance, comes noise and then a pressure drop.
The worst ones for pressure drop are of course the conventional stop cocks, water is first diverted at right angles through a restricted opening before being diverted again at right angles.
No wonder when you are having an electric heated shower you have a temporary scalding when someone flushes the loo.( some showers are designed to protect you from this).
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I think the way forward with any valve is to exercise them at least once a year. Then spend the next week or so chasing drips. Chinese take away containers are brilliant, placed under eack tap/ iso valve. Toilet paper tied in a knot and placed around each risky joint gives a quick clue as to where any leaks might be.
I hate isolator valves on toilets, or tanks in the loft, they rarely get exercised, rarely work when you need them, and often leak afterwards.
The isolators/valves that leak in our house..
Main stopcock, fine when open fully, but close it, and it drips. I tighten the gland nut slightly and it stops.
Stopcock in airing cupboard that feeds water to loft tank, not used for 6 years, once I managed to open it, it too leaked.
Gate valve for hotwater feed, siezed, crystals built up around gland too.
I think it's fair to say, like boilerman, have a spare stop tap, iso valve or ball valve to hand before tackling any isolator.
I spent longer fixing leaking valves than doing the job.
I have never changed a central heating water pump, I often wonder if the isolators on either side of the pump would actually work, after 15-20 years of non use. I did a part drain to replace a three port valve, that was straight forward, added the remainder of the inhibitor after.
Water quality, hardness also affects the reliability, we are in a soft water area, I find valves generally on the central heating fair the best, as long as inhibitors are being used. Recently I exercised all the rad valves and lockshields, to flush the heating system, and descale the boiler etc, I was pleased that non of them actually leaked, when you consider that new one only cost just over a pound lol
I have fitted lever ball valves to the feed to the conservatory, 5 years later, they closed with the pressure of one finger. No signs of any leaks or crystal build up. I am hoping they will perform well.
I once worked for a company that one division used a lot of lever ball valves for commercial chemical and dosing systems. They proved to be very reliable. Probably better quality than some of the cheaper versions from diy shops.
For a stop tap or gate valve, I never fully open it, I start by opening it fully, then close it a fraction of a turn. I like to have a bit of wiggle room, so when it does seize, you can start it in either direction, a few degrees at a time, forward back etc, increasing the movement each time. Works for me.
No doubt someone will take my comments and say how wrong some of them are and offer better advice, that would of course be great, and we can all learn from their professional training and experience but it has worked for me for over 40 plus years. I am not advising anyone to try what I have done, it is just feedback from my experience.
I love the debate from the plumbing world to ptfe a compression joint, or to hawk white it ( potable version for drinking water) or to assemble dry as designed. I personally prefer dry. I worked on a friends plumbing, following on from a retired plumber, and every compression joint was wrapped in ptfe, he said he never had a joint that leaked.
Each to their own lol.
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Battery isolators
in Boat Equipment
Posted
If you want to test if your light on the fridge really goes out when you close the door, then place your mobile phone on record, place it in the fridge, then open and close the door, then observe the footage after.
So at last a good use for a mobile phone, another is to view your remote control, aim it at the camera lens, then press the remote keys and you should see the image of the transmitter flash white as the camera is sensitive to infra red light, but your eyes are not.
Admit it.... who is trying it out now in front of the TV lol.... ?
Good tip !