wakey_wake

Yes, their webserver's SSL certificate isn't properly set up. This works without warning, https://cockeyed.com/pranks/imposter/imposter.html (I removed the www. after examining the cert) We weren't going to send any bank details there anyway. 😉

I don't have a view on this, it's not my picture and I'm not wanting to fire flak. However one of the responses to this "theft" is for the owner and provider of the image to replace it with something else. Often deliberately offensive. In such a case would you consider yourself in breach of the forum terms, for posting something offensive? Hmm, can't find the funny article I remember. Here's the serious version. https://altlab.com/hotlinking/ Ah, huffpost https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/oct/28/cartoonist-the-oatmeal-trolls-huffpo-over-images-published-sans-permission List of examples of more famous responses https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HotlinkedImageSwitch Ah here we are! https://www.cockeyed.com/pranks/imposter/imposter.html

Yes, there's no standard and most of the options have problems. Mine came with a couple of cigarette lighter sockets and a fair fitout of W4 sockets. The cig lighter is IMO a horrible plug. It has minimal wiggle-out protection and so it's prone to come loose, then it can just switch off or worse overheat at the slack contact. We don't use the hot element (actual cig lighter) part any more, so why use the rest of the form factor? Thanks for the links to better quality ones - another thread - I'm just happier without them. The W4 isn't bad, and can carry more current. Mine claim to be rated for 10A, and when new they're probably good for that. The springs can get loose over time and then maybe they'll overheat at 10A also? I would rather not find out because nothing in the design prevents an overheat running away to fire. Also I didn't want to set out out with a whole new kit of four-ways and extension cables in a new standard. Anyway is it practical to draw more than 5A on a 12V socket. a) I have very few devices that would try, and b) unless the cable was chosen with that in mind then voltage drop stop a heavy-current device working properly. Therefore I concluded that the assortment of lower power 12V devices I have can run off 2.1mm barrel connectors, for which the CCTV industry provides cheap connectors. Be sure to have a insulated tip on the inner positive, and if buying pigtail connectors check the cable size - some are really thin cheap junk. The USB PD standard is quite flexible in this respect, and I considered something similar. You can also get "USB PD spoof" boards which will request that the USB PD socket provide 5V, 9V, 12V or various levels between. These could be useful for other kit, but you would need to ensure it remembers the correct setting. However each socket will have an idle current draw, which might be insignificant in your power budget but it bugs me; and you can't (in some cases shouldn't) put a splitter after the USB PD output, because the devices may want different voltages, so it makes sense to over-supply with USB sockets.

The important thing to remember is that "12V" input is not 12.000V input but 12±something volts. This applies to what devices expect, and also to what you give them. Kit specified to deal with automotive power has to cope with a quite wide range of voltage on the "12V" input. Cheaper kit won't cope, and non-automotive kit won't be trying. Most kit will have voltage stabilisers of one sort or another. Putting the final voltage regulation in the wall-wart leaves the circuits vulnerable to voltage droop in the (probably thin) DC supply cable and dirt on the DC plugs. Increasingly devices will run on 3.3V or 5V internally, but need most still need more power than can be supplied on a simple USB input (10W at best). What you don't know is the tolerance of the 12V to 5V buck converter design to out-of-spec voltage. The simplest failure is when the input voltage is too high - possibly a resistor overheats, but more likely some silicon gets damaged. There may or may not be a cascading failure. Not knowing the design, it's quite hard to guess what over-voltage will do damage... but there are probably several volts of headroom because many DC buck converters expecting 12V will take 15~20V. Failures from voltage being too low are most likely to be a brownout, i.e. device stops or crashes until power recovers, but the constant-power/over-current one below is more serious. My 4G router has an internal DC to DC (buck) converter to make its lower voltage supplies, 5 or 3.3 or whatever. I forgot the details, and forgot what its minimum input voltage is. I gave it a domestic 12V feed through three 1N4001 diodes, just for each to drop about 0.6v. I'm hoping that I bought enough headroom against over-voltage... OK so far. Having the sensitive kit on a different long copper run from the battery should improve protection from inductive spikes. I don't think you'll get 120W at the wrong end of 100ft of copper wire. If you had 12.2V at the battery and started drawing 10A, you will probably lose a couple of volts in the cable (depending on thickness / I haven't done the numbers for my cable). Now if you still want 120W then at 10.6V in you need to draw 11A and the voltage drops some more. My interpretation is that you're trying to draw constant power down that long cable run. As above, once the voltage drops far enough you're into losing too much in the cable to supply the device needs. Once the voltage drops, the 8~40 to 12 regulator has to "suck" harder to meet the power demand and you're dropping 4V from the battery to regulator. This all points to using 24V supply. There are inefficiencies but you can draw 4x the power before it collapses. There is also risk of applying 24V to 12V kit 💥 and also you may want a second DC connector, physically incompatible with 12V. For the telly setup, it may be simplest to have domestic -> breaker -> 12V-to-24V-boost -> long copper -> 24V-to-12V regulator (as in the OP) -> panel of 12V sockets. Those 12V sockets are then well regulated even at heavier current. You may want local fuses to protect downstream wire. You lose probably 0.5 watts of idle power and another 20% of delivered power. These can be measured so you can decide whether to bother isolating the thing when not using it. (Am I promoting overkill? Not sure) With that 8~40V input regulator, beware that the "12V" output might be a negative, i.e. output black wire at -12V relative to the hull. It depends on the converter topology.

I think it's possible, but bizarrely esoteric. Baseplate. Steel up-stand welded to that, of sufficient height. Pump mounted onto that with acoustic isolation. Then the whole mess thermally insulated. 🤷‍♂️

OK I'm a bit late to the parity, but this reaction might even things up a bit Various youtubbers do these reaction vids. This voice coach's series of them is great. 💖

With a Jabsco Par-max mounted near its temporary 25 litre Jerry source and 1/3 of the way up, it will self-prime by pumping the air, provided the output pressure is low enough. I suspect it's a diaphragm pump with duckbill valves. This makes two options: usually I can switch the source Jerry without introducing much air, or if the pump is struggling with the air bubble then I leave a tap open until it copes. It isn't a problem, and I don't think a meter's head (= 1/20 of the output pressure) would make a difference on the input. However, I like this and think I will at some point move mine upwards. Murphy's law says any leak will be when I'm absent for a while. Sure it could leak either side, but on the pressure side either you're there to deal with it or the pump is off and the extent of the leak is the pressurised volume. On the tank side, a slow leak draining the tank into the boat while I'm away seems like a semi-trashed boat; less trashed than a fire or sinking, but bad enough. The alarm is a useful component but when you're away, even if it sends SMS / email, what can you do? Containment might be large enough to hold the pressurised volume when the pump is off. It won't hold the entire tank. It would make sense for the alarm to switch off the power to the pump in any circumstances, but this is starting to sound quite custom. (Leaks can spring in other places than the pump, but I'm hearing that this is the more frequent failure point.) Also important to consider! Variations are routine draining, which can be done for some pumps by running dry into open taps - for short bursts and in accordance with the instructions - to help purge the water. Having a valve to admit air or alternate water source could be helpful, and this is essentially what I have and will maintain after reclaiming the bow tank. Or include it in the heating (cabin heating, trace heating) and check the budgets for that or mount it on a metal bracket standing from the baseplate, all thermally insulated. This might be overkill 😛 but perhaps worth considering for a new install? Mine is currently in an under-step cubby, over the base (OSB floorboard between) and against the side of the main water tank (steel bulkhead plus OSB). It's protected by heat of deeper water plus plenty of thermal mass. In moving it up, it would still be in a cupboard. I suspect this will stay close to baseplate temperature, so that's another thing to watch in the cold snaps. They've always worked for me. Two layers of protection is better than one. On a related point, do folks recommend to leave the system pressurised? When I leave the boat I let the pump run, then isolate its 12V. The pipes remain pressurised. When I return it's almost always held the pressure, even after weeks of absence, so I'm fairly sure there are no slow leaks.

Somehow both amazing and really not surprising at all. 😕

That's important to know! Are you able to tell us how you found out?

An interesting possible failure mode! I've not looked at alternator current on an oscilloscope, but since it's full wave rectified three phase then presumably one should see six overlapping half-sine peaks per alternator turn? About 1800 per second, if 1200 engine rpm * 2.5 pulley ratio * 6 peaks? (I don't expect most folk diagnosing charging problems will want to bring an oscilloscope into the mix, but mine is just up the gangway. An exercise for later.) ~~ post join? ~~ I do look rather quizzically at some of these shunts I got. The smaller ones are on a plastic base plate, and if that melts the next stop is ground. For a high-side shunt that's Bad News aka. let's see if the fuse works. However I don't see any shunts on ceramic isolation, so I got some bare ones and will sort something. OK the shunt should be protected by the fuse, as it is essentially part of the cable, but it's just a "deliberate" resistor as opposed to an "accidental / inevitable" resistor like the rest of the cable.

Ha if you'd carried on digging, you might have had enough gold to last the rest of your life! 💥 If it's the NI credits y'all are talking about, those can be purchased. They have to be purchased because they're worth money later, so... how is getting the credit (stamped card) for free now any different from having a penny out of the social pot which is then saved for your state pension?

Sounds like a thermostat problem? My gas oven is like that, it can reach cooking temperature eventually... but not when it has food inside. I think it's running on the pilot lights and just not switching on the main flow for the burner? It's old and I forgot the brand. Probably not worth fixing. I call it a cupboard and cook most things in the frying pan. 🤷‍♂️ Bread machines are good, I've had several over time but not just now. They'll want 1000 or 2000 watts when they start the cooking phase so 240V only. And you can't cook much else in them, so I think there's not enough space for one in my galley. 😞

We're hearing the social approaches, and how they don't suit everyone for various reasons. We're hearing the legal approach, which basically doesn't work at all? There are the technical or internal responses of being somewhere else, or finding a way to cope with how things are. I propose another technical solution of the form "my generator / solar / battery bank <delete as appropriate> is quieter than yours and large enough to supply both of us. How about I run you a shoreline and you can take up to 500 watts to a total of 2 kW hour, and you switch your generator off? And if you take more than two amps it's going to blow the fuse and I won't want to replace it until 9am tomorrow." It will need safety considerations, and probably has other problems. Is it new? Has anyone every done it?

That's useful to know for tube heaters. However the more focussed the heating, and better insulated the protected stuff, and the better the control of switching the heat, the less energy you'll need over the whole cold spell. On a shoreline that's "how much does it cost me", but if anyone were thinking of doing it from batteries then it's a critical part of "for how many hours of cold spell could my system sustain this, and what's going to refill the battery after?" Oh yes. On the other hand, an intermittent shore line (such as caused by RCCD trips and somebody coming along later to reset it) may be adequate, as long as the temperature set points have enough space. Stuff doesn't freeze instantly. Not wishing to knock the usefulness of these devices but - on the positioning of temperature sensors: Having observed a gaggle of (cheap) digital thermometers both interactively and with min/max after a period of absence from the boat, I would caution that "the temperature" is a concept which could mislead. You will see the temperature at a particular point, plus or minus some imprecision. Although heat will flow from the warmer place to the colder, this doesn't always happen very quickly compared to whatever else is changing the temperature (weather up top, the drink down below). The temperature at points some distance away will differ. If you measure too far from the thing you're protecting then you risk under- or over- protection which are both more expensive than you wanted, in different ways. 😐 I expect that if the boat is out of water then things will likely be more uniform - and colder. However in the water, I've seen cold spots at the top of the cabin (where intuition says heat will rise to) and warmer down in the cupboards and just above the floor board, where my water pipes are boxed in. Yes, I have a Huawei 4G (5G?) router running off domestic 12V. It's on all the time and has to be factored into the power budget as such. It'll take less to run than an inverter on standby or running low-power 240V stuff. I would think that if the 12V always-on power budget is tight then having a small number of multi-function devices would be sensible. Modern microcontrollers are remarkably efficient, but that's not a reason to run a dozen of them each with their own 12V to 3.3V power supply.

That would do it, but probably it would also do me. In. This chap is (ironically) lamenting how difficult it is to get the stuff, I've given it a dose of fan heater and also quite a while behind the desiccant dehumidifier. It sounds much better and sprinkles properly again, so I've wrapped in parcel tape. If it goes again, the answer is not buy another cardboard container.

Fire is a thermal runaway. (All fire always? Maybe there are exceptions.) The reagents are sitting there. You provide a little shove and the subsequent reaction shoves the rest, until it's all going. Some can't be prevented, even by cooling to -180°C first. If you're interested in that kind of thing I recommend reading some of Derek Lowe's "Things I Wont Work With" This one I picked at random and hadn't seen before is a lovely example of his way with words. Things I Won't Work With: Hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane. Hexa-nitro = it has six NO2 groups stuck on it somewhere, like tri-nitro-toluene (TNT) has three = bad news already. Hexa-aza... I'll let him explain that. Isowurzitane, um yeah. "... There's a recent report of a method to make a more stable form of it, by mixing it with TNT..." Another graphic description of a chemical which is at once extremely toxic, borderline pyrophoric (auto-igniting in air) and tends to form explosive compounds: TIWWW: dimethylcadmium but if you want to start a thermal runaway reaction with almost anything, this is your kiddie: FOOF . Just please, not within a mile of anything anyone cares about. On the bright side it's not something you can make by accident. I digress - this might be a specialised taste for those who got at least an A-level in chemistry. But you're talking NMC thermal runaway in particular? The cell overheats electrically, and then... especially if it has been abused electrically by charging over the safe voltage... it will tend to overheat chemically as well. After that it vents the flammable electrolyte which catches fire. Other than the availability, what's special? You can do this with much greater safety and minimal cost with some bike brake cable (stainless steel stranded wire). Get a loop and put it in your ceramic chocolate block, then put the cotton/vaseline fire lighter in contact. Stainless steel's resistance is quite significant so a few volts at a couple of amps should bring a few inches of this up to red heat pretty quickly. After that you run away. 😁 The only difference between this and flaming petrol around the neck of a WD40 tin is that it's electrically triggered, and there are plenty of ways to do that. This chap is also good, but you might not want that in your stove, door open or shut. Sure. I won't dam your river either. 😉 Cheaper to run a propane pilot light and have a contract with the fuel boat? It's weird how "reduce, re-use, recycle" makes no mention of "just burn the stuff, it save us hauling it to the incinerator". Anyone would think it's a bit of theatre for psychological purposes, rather than a serious effort to reduce our impact on the environment. 😐 It is a good source of kindling but I guess some people can't tell what will produce toxic fumes? (Don't burn polystyrene or PVC) Oh and don't burn anything that's not defra approved. 🤦‍♂️

It's a potential solution - thanks. But not for me, too many diddy packets to open. Like MtB says, one of life's lowest-cost delights. Switching to soy sauce is another option, it's just right there but it's not what I wanted in lunch. It's currently sitting in front of Fanny McFanheater Face, plastic end further away. We shall see. Ah right, misconception! It's in the cardboard tube with plastic twizzly cap, which seemed like a good idea at the time. Maybe another answer is to get a proper salt cellar from the salt seller. A sea veteran one of course. I like this microwave, it's probably an antique - 1990s version, so likely to overheat if mismatched. I suspect there will be arcing, spitting and an attempt to burn the container unless ceramic. Something to try before drying the CDs I suppose. 😆 What surprised me about it was that reducing the input voltage with a variac also reduced the power consumption - meaning it could then run on the 1kW inverter. I thought the power consumption was governed by some integral magic of the magentron. Those things do my head in. I don't fuss about the shape of it, can't taste any difference. https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/losalt-original/007935-3777-3778 (duck, run & cover) Rumbled. I have a shoreline and no stove (yet).

On battery licking, it's the voltage that matters. Electroboom is a wonderful clown with this stuff - https://www.youtube.com/@ElectroBOOM/search?query=tongue (may cause cringing in horror!) Electric fire lighters are a thing. ebay, "fireplace tube igniter" Once it's electric and the fire is laid ready, then remote control is just a relay contact away. Maybe also a sign "machinery may start without warning". 😀 I don't know much about cobalt chemistry, but with NMC it's the electrolyte / solvent which is flammable (why not use vaseline/cotton wool? ah the NMC is free) and yes I would expect the ash to be toxic in some way. Not that anyone on youtube demonstrating battery fires seems to know or care.

One accident waiting to happen then might be, if you use your cauli-cupboard as an airing cupboard or drying room? Then it could become a wetting room by humidity or overflow. If the header is distant from the heat source, does one need some kind of steam blow-off valve? Air-r-jec valve? The idea of a boiling-mode failure having to blow the contents out of the whole system is scary.

I think sealed container is the answer - but tinfoil & parcel tape rather than another box around the outside. Putting salt in a cardboard tube isn't clever, unless you're the marketing department who know it'll get chucked out again and replaced. The cunning marketing department have me on that count too - can't get it out without destroying the handy dispenser box. Absolutely! I'm on shore line now, and would have proper heating before I would be onboard & without a shoreline. However I think the damage to this pot was done while it was wet but mild... before I had any heating on. There are several things that would benefit from a warm cupboard, but I'm not sure it's worth the faff of doing it. Not just the physical install, but to run only when mains is on. Another option I hadn't thought of is to keep the salt in the freezer. That's why my lead (Pb) test sticks are in there. All's good until an unscheduled defrost event, and cold weather can provoke that. 🤦‍♂️ That's the same, as I understand the purpose of the rice? One-shot moisture absorption, but rice being food-grade and larger grain can be mixed in. Thanks - I have done. After giving up buying CaCl2 refills I got a mixture of 3x white : 1x green/orange indicator type silica beads. I probably have enough to be able to dry it all once a year on surplus summer PV electricity. However the slow cooker is really the wrong tool for drying it in bulk. I know "in a tray in the oven" is a suggested way but really I want to do a bucketful at a time, so a fill-and-forget dryer is just another project on the scribbles pile. By observing the colour changes over time in a transparent container, I now see that only the top inch is accessible to moisture on a useful timescale - putting a jamjar full in the cupboard doesn't work very well. The same was true when drying it, but maybe even only ½" depth. What I haven't done is find a way to provide the surface area during absorption. The ideal would be a transparent perforated tube about 1" internal diameter, and heat resistant. All problems for another day, stashed at the back of my head. 🧠

Is there a line of products for filling the holes left when flue'd appliances are removed? Something that's not too troublesome to reverse? 😛

It was cranking for so long I had concluded it has an aux engine to crank the main. Expecting the block to stay hot seems like a bold design decision, surely there must have been some in-workshop kit for getting them started? OTOH I guess if one breaks down and is stranded out in the cold, the usual answer is send another engine to drag it back.

So let me get this straight... I stand on the frozen canal with the broom, and you're going to toss me an old AGM battery? 🏊‍♂️ Oh wait! I don't know what to do with the broom. You go first on the ice! 😛

Saw this and wanted to add one very specific and important warning - do not mix chlorinated solvents and welding. Or solid fuel stoves for that matter. In your paints you may not know what cocktail of solvents they contain. This guy is warning about welding near brake cleaning fluid -

Today's annoyance (if there could be only one!) is finding my new pack of table salt has gone soggy cloggy inside. I replaced the last one because it did that, and vowed to shut the little twizzler on the top instead of leaving it open. I keep some silica gel in that cupboard but it's a regular usage cupboard. Anyone have tips please? Other than to reduce my salt intake 😛 I'm currently casting around for a way to hold it at 50°C for a while, to see if that helps, but maybe the answer is to buy another and wrap it in tinfoil and parcel tape. Then keep the twizzly lid shut too. The frozen olive oil is something I was expecting. Stand it in front of the heater and it's fine again, no big deal... but it does bring me to thinking about where I would put a gently (electrically) heated cupboard. Down low makes sense for the benefit of heat released, but sharing roof & cabin wall makes sense for convenience.