dmr

Just had a look at mine and the gap is almost as big as yours. I used fire-rope, its available in some quite big sizes, and then high temperature silicone. I have found that fire cement cracks after a short time. The silicone on mine is coming a bit unstuck so will likely need redoing before this winter, but its been on there for several years without problems.

Having just pent a few days in Brum, I am amazed at how much the locals can carry on an electric scooter,

We know that two pack sticks on to bare shot blasted steel very . There are now a fair few boats about (mine included) that were done ten years ago. There are two types of Zinc undercoat, the painted on stuff like Zinga, and the hot sprayed stuff done at Debdale. It would be really good to get some honest feedback from people who had these two treatments done a number of years ago, especially from boats that have seen a lot of use. I have heard it said that the Debdale zinc provides adequate protection by itself and the epoxy is really only only a cosmetic finish, but I would like to know more. I have a vested interest here as am thinking about getting Debdale to do our baseplate.

No No No, you've got your Bars all confused. This is the Worcester bar which is a narrow bit of canal. It is right outside a sort of Bar but I don't think thats why its called a bar 😀. Last night I went in a bar called the Flapper, which is also next to a narrow bit of canal but thats called a lock. This evening we are going to a bar called the Craven Arms but might move on to the bar called the Flapper later. Tomoro we will go to the Worcester Bar in the boat and then out to Alvechurch. This will involve some narrow bits of canal that are not called bars.

I've already fact checked this one, my dog says it makes no sense at all. (actually she said its total bollocks but this is a family forum so I can't say that 😀)

Its hard to answer that as different boats appear to consume anodes at very different rates. Do you know when it was last replaced?

Maybe we could start a new section on this forum where CRT could post the proposed wording of all signs and we could proof read and fact check them? They could make a very small payment for this service to help the forum finances 😀 I doubt that many locals will worry about the cycling to Lancaster sign, but there are sign errors elsewhere which do do some damage to CRT credibility.

In Brum at the moment. By the bar there is a big blue sign saying that Brum has 100 miles of canals, more than Venice (good). and also that they link to a connected system of 2000 miles of canals (good). and so its possible to walk or cycle all the way to Lancaster without leaving the waters edge. So is this true? Is this yet another example of lack of knowledge from a CRT desk jockey? or are they correct and setting a really clever trap for complaining boaters? 😀

I am surprised at how many boats I see with no top on the exhaust except for the splitter, even in significant rain.

Looks like you are correct, thanks. Looks like the hardware and software were both available and that it was initially based on an Arduino but moved to something bigger and better. Went "private" in 2019. After a quick bit of www...... This was a project from a full time liveaboard in America. One of several projects. Although open source (hardware and software) it was down to one man rather than a team. It sounds like he had no great past expertise in alternator controllers but rapidly became quite an expert. It was originally Arduino based but moved to something with more power. Balmar were taken over by some sort of investment company and their main marketing man (who was probably not happy about this) suggested starting a new company to comercialise this controller and this became Wakespeed.

I have designed an analog PID position control system in the distant past. It did some very odd things. It would setlle with a slight error (due to friction) and then do a nudge as the "I" term integrated that small error enough to get it moving again. An alternator controller is to some extent a sampled data system because of the voltage ripple. A modern system will sample the voltage at the same point in the ripple cycle. I think you made a good choice in getting a chip to do the voltage control. The Wakespeed needs a phase input, maybe just for speed or maybe for voltage sampling. Adverc shave the numbers off all of their chiips so I don't really know whats inside it. A good approach might be to get a Wakespeed and BMV now to work with the Trojan bank, learn all about them, and then move to Lithium when the Trojans need replacing.

Looking at the Wakespeed docs, there is an option to shut it down from a relay or similar so a BMV could be arranged to stop it an any desired state of charge? So as long as the BMV stays in synch there should be no need for the battery BMV to ever do an emergency disconnect so no real need for the lead acid buffer. Its interesting that for many years much of this forum has said never mix old and new batteries, but many are now happy to put a lead acid into a hybrid Lithium system with the great liklihood that one day that will be an old lead acid in a relatively unaged lithium system, and no easy way to detect the state of health of that lead acid. Transorbs look like a better approach to handling the surge voltage, but won't solve the problem of the lights going out 😀

Yes, Storage mode, that is the word I was looking for. I think sometimes maintenance is used to mean equalisation but not sure about that?

I think Wakespeed only does CANbus rather than Victron, but they are pretty similar???? A good project would be to make a "system integrator" box based on a micro controller, a bit like an open source version of the Victron system. This could talk to the batteries and the various charge devices using VE bus and CANbus etc, and have a good display. But there is still the issue that most battery BMS systems only do Bluetooth. Trouble is I just don't have any time. Took last year off to build a mooring so neglected the boat a bit. Next year need to come out of the water to do the baseplate, an engine rebuild (or replacement), quite a lot of painting, and investigate a big land based solar setup at the mooring. And I am still doing a bit of software writing to earn a bit of money. And I want to go and look at the Lee and Stort and Wey 😀

Getting a bit electogeeky here, but I am not sure about PID. The Adverc manages to do a tight voltage control and I suspect its actual control loop is analog and also not PID. I suspect it can be done with high loop gain, a biggish time constant and maybe an over-ride of some sort to prevent over voltage on step changes. I would hope that the Wakespeed (or Alpha Pro) gets the voltage control right. (and also the Victron stuff). I did find an article on the www a while ago from the bloke who designs alternator regulators, it is quite a challenge.