Another new electrician :(

[bizzard]

I'd cross examine Helen about Trojans.

[Tony Brooks]

1 hour ago, LadyG said:

There was previously,  a car radio fitted in the boat, , it died, and I had no 'code', so it seemed better to buy something that looked better, else it leaves a great big hole in the control panel, there are two loudspeakers, at the moment , but the radio is not connected to an aerial, so not much use, The radio is designed to have four speakers. There is wiring for four, but one was removed by another electrician.

This new electrician agreed to change the batteries and install the radio, I can't do it, or I would not ask him to do it, he's the electrician, not me. Thank God it's not a difficult job!

 

It does not have to run four speakers (front and back in a car) although you may have to set the fader so the disconnected speaker feed is not trying to operate at maximum volume leaving the  existing speakers with no drive. The second pair are useful full for another "room" like an aft galley or a bedroom.

 

Batteries - the ones you have should be perfectly serviceable although if you abuse them they might not last  as long as some more expensive ones. But if you abuse expensive batteries they are likely to fail nearly as fast as cheap "leisure" ones so back to keeping the fully charged for  as long as possible and minimising the time they are left  partially charged.

 

 

[Tony Brooks]

44 minutes ago, Jerra said:

Not being terribly up on my physics I am getting confused by terminology.   I have always understood leisure batteries as in those used for caravans etc to be a form of deep cycling battery.   When you say deep cycling batteries do you mean traction batteries which I understand may be a slightly different form of deep cycling or perhaps it might be better to say deeper cycling.

 

The batteries often referred to a "leisure" batteries are often constructed like starter batteries (many thin plates) but may or may not have extra plate support or pocketing. I got about six years out of Exide Leisure batteries and they were still giving adequate performance. Deep cycle will normally have fewer but thicker plates that may well be in glass fibre pockets to help hold the paste on the plates. AGM have the plates surrounded by acid jelly so that helps hold the paste on the plates.

 

The problem with LadyG as see it is that she is trying to buy her way to a longer battery life without ensuring the basics are working properly to support that potential longer life. Its an all too common mistake

3 hours ago, Hudds Lad said:

Have any of you who are offering help considered you may be on "the list" so your replies are not being seen?

 

In which case it's hard to reply to questions you don't know are being asked, this is the flaw in blocking people.

 

As far as I am concerned that is the OPs problem but my (and others') replies may help other boaters with similar problems.

[Chagall]

Are you really sure you need the car radio, and an aerial and the bother of connecting to existing speakers with wiring that sounds suspect?  

 

You have a modern tablet I think?  it is quite likely bluetooth enabled.  You could, with the refund from the car radio, buy the speaker I linked to earlier (thanks Alan for the short link https://www.argos.co.uk/product/7657061 or a budget similar) and get radio or music via your tablet and bluetooth it to the speaker.   The speaker is fantastic, you can take it wherever in the boat and the sound is much better than car radio speakers.  

 

 

.....edit to add, Id drive over and show you how it works with the speaker I have, but don't ask me about batteries! 

 

 

Edited May 13, 2021 by Chagall

[LadyG]

5 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

It does not have to run four speakers (front and back in a car) although you may have to set the fader so the disconnected speaker feed is not trying to operate at maximum volume leaving the  existing speakers with no drive. The second pair are useful full for another "room" like an aft galley or a bedroom.

 

Batteries - the ones you have should be perfectly serviceable although if you abuse them they might not last  as long as some more expensive ones. But if you abuse expensive batteries they are likely to fail nearly as fast as cheap "leisure" ones so back to keeping the fully charged for  as long as possible and minimising the time they are left  partially charged.

 

 

Yes there are two speakers in the front, but I'd like one , or two ,( there is wiring for two), but little space in the engine room, 

I have no reason to think I have abused my new batteries, and the old ones had a long life, I just wanted the best for my bucks, so I'd never have to replace them, I was working to an eight year plan, but C has blown all that cc and occasional shorepower to bits,

[roland elsdon]

15 minutes ago, bizzard said:

I'd cross examine Helen about Trojans.

Its amp hour not orsepower whats the issue. Dont bear gifts.

[Slim]

2 hours ago, haggis said:

I think it might be G & T time ?

Be reasonable, Scotch

[Iain_S]

2 hours ago, haggis said:

I think it might be G & T time ?

But is there any ice?

[roland elsdon]

In built solar. Replaced batteries after7 years last week.

[LadyG]

26 minutes ago, Chagall said:

Are you really sure you need the car radio, and an aerial and the bother of connecting to existing speakers with wiring that sounds suspect?  

 

You have a modern tablet I think?  it is quite likely bluetooth enabled.  You could, with the refund from the car radio, buy the speaker I linked to earlier (thanks Alan for the short link https://www.argos.co.uk/product/7657061 or a budget similar) and get radio or music via your tablet and bluetooth it to the speaker.   The speaker is fantastic, you can take it wherever in the boat and the sound is much better than car radio speakers.  

 

 

There was an existing radio set up, I removed the set cos it died, and the new one looks great, but there is no aeriel, who would guess, I mean it's the electrician's job, not mine , lol

I can't get internet signal, easily where I am, that is to say, below the level of the surrounding land.

I don't have any desire to download music, or dongle or any such thing, not bluetooth, or anything, I have a tablet which won't connect to internet at the moment, well it does occasionally. Unreliable. I have run out of allocated data this month due to these problems.

I have a phone, which I don't particularly like, it needs charging every two days, and demands constant tlc, which I am not prepared to give.

I just want to turn on the radio, find a suitable radio band, and leave it to play, much easier than constant messing with routers , tablets, laptops, phones. 

I find a tablet can only do one thing at a time, which is no use, as here I am on my laptop, playing bridge, posting all sorts of moans on here, and watching poirot, searcing Ebay, and so on, well I could if I wanted....

 

23 minutes ago, Slim said:

Be reasonable, Scotch

Run out of Scotch, not had my grocery delivery this week, I thought I'd cut back on whisky, maybe try summer cocktails, I've got some of that Spiced Rum I bought when it was on offer, it's OK in cocoa.

Edited May 13, 2021 by LadyG

[Chagall]

12 minutes ago, LadyG said:

I can't get a signal, easily where I am, that is to say, below the level of the surrounding land.

I don't have any desire to download music, or dongle or any such thing, not bluetooth, or anything, I have a tablet which won't connect to internet at the moment, well it does occasionally. Unreliable.

I have a phone, which I don't particularly like, it needs charging every two days, and needs constant tlc, which I am not prepared to give. 

I just want to turn on the radio, find a suitable radio band, and leave it to play, much easier than constant messing with routers , tablets, laptops, phones. 

 

Okay, fair enough, lets hope the guy comes back with an aerial and gets it connected. ?

 

 

 

Edited May 13, 2021 by Chagall
bl**dy stupid word aerial! ...now corrected!

[David Mack]

21 minutes ago, LadyG said:

There was an existing radio set up, I removed the set cos it died, and the new one looks great, but there is no aeriel,

Are you sure there isn't an aerial there, but perhaps not connected to the new radio? Without an aerial, how did the old radio work?

[sueb]

Life has got far too complicated. My sky box has failed. It will take a week to replace. I'm getting suggestions on running the tv from my laptop or mobile  phone. It's all double dutch so I have sympathy with LadyG. 

[Jerra]

40 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

The batteries often referred to a "leisure" batteries are often constructed like starter batteries (many thin plates) but may or may not have extra plate support or pocketing. I got about six years out of Exide Leisure batteries and they were still giving adequate performance. Deep cycle will normally have fewer but thicker plates that may well be in glass fibre pockets to help hold the paste on the plates. AGM have the plates surrounded by acid jelly so that helps hold the paste on the plates.

 

The problem with LadyG as see it is that she is trying to buy her way to a longer battery life without ensuring the basics are working properly to support that potential longer life. Its an all too common mistake

 

As far as I am concerned that is the OPs problem but my (and others') replies may help other boaters with similar problems.

Thank you.   That makes things a lot clearer.

[Tony Brooks]

7 minutes ago, David Mack said:

Are you sure there isn't an aerial there, but perhaps not connected to the new radio? Without an aerial, how did the old radio work?

She said it was a DAB radio and had a "stick on glass" DAB aerial but it had fallen off. The new radio is AM/FM only so won't work on a DAB aerial.

[Tracy D'arth]

Why buy a AM/FM set when you were happy with a DAB?

The lady must take some responsibility to research what she wants and buy the right gear instead of blaming others for her shortcomings.

[Tony Brooks]

43 minutes ago, LadyG said:

Yes there are two speakers in the front, but I'd like one , or two ,( there is wiring for two), but little space in the engine room, 

I have no reason to think I have abused my new batteries, and the old ones had a long life, I just wanted the best for my bucks, so I'd never have to replace them, I was working to an eight year plan, but C has blown all that cc and occasional shorepower to bits,

 

Your radio is a stereo radio so really needs at least two speakers but you should have those in place already with their cables hanging around near the radio cavity. If the electrician was getting beeps the speaker(s) are connected. A suitable aerial should fix it at least for FM.

[Chagall]

30 minutes ago, LadyG said:

 

I find a tablet can only do one thing at a time, which is no use, as here I am on my laptop, playing bridge, posting all sorts of moans on here, and watching poirot, searcing Ebay, and so on, well I could if I wanted....

 

Then the laptop will also play the radio stations et cetera, and whilst you play bridge ... have you tried finding the radio stations on it?  https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds   lap top speakers are not usually great quality, but your laptop is also quite likely bluetooth enabled for external speakers.   https://www.techadvisor.com/how-to/desktop-pc/how-check-if-your-computer-has-bluetooth-3677730/ 

[Iain_S]

1 hour ago, LadyG said:

I'm sorry, but I can only see a few cables, and the battery ones are fat, most of the others are not visible, and I have no means of measuring them. I don't think it is anything to do with size, the boat has been working for twenty years, the only recent wiring was the change over of bow batteries, which was described as a simple enough job , and the install of the media / radio, in the same place as the previous one, I removed the old radio,  and labelled the fuse cables, two thinnish cables, and labelled the power switch, again fairly thin cables. Electrician could not find aerial , I don't know if he expected one of these big jack plug one used to get on car radios, when I was doing things like that. He says he will bring an aerial. The previous radio had DAB facility, but there is no mention of that in the new instructions.

There won't be. According to the specs, the radio has FM and AM, but not DAB. It has USB, but not Bluetooth. It also has an ISO connector, so, unless it came with an ISO harness, it would be a bit awkward connecting it to assorted cables. It will definitely need an aerial:, which will need a plug which looks like the standard old type, judging by the picture on the JVC site. The aerial lead will need modification as per Tracey's post above to avoid it passing current under fault conditions.  

 

 

[Tony Brooks]

Just now, Tracy D'arth said:

Why buy a AM/FM set when you were happy with a DAB?

The lady must take some responsibility to research what she wants and buy the right gear instead of blaming others for her shortcomings.

 

But you have to know a bit about these things. I bet more boaters don't know DAB aerials and FM radios don't work and DAB radios and FM aerials are also likely to have major problems. I think despite her protestations of boating experience she may not have the knowledge she really needs.

[Tracy D'arth]

1 minute ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

But you have to know a bit about these things. I bet more boaters don't know DAB aerials and FM radios don't work and DAB radios and FM aerials are also likely to have major problems. I think despite her protestations of boating experience she may not have the knowledge she really needs.

We all start out with no knowledge but the bright ones amongst us learn from experience and from others. But when folk won't or don't want to listen they learn nothing.

[Alan de Enfield]

27 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

We all start out with no knowledge but the bright ones amongst us learn from experience and from others. But when folk won't or don't want to listen they learn nothing.

 

Some will just never take any responsibility and just expect everyone to run around doing it all for them.

 

 

 

[LadyG]

51 minutes ago, David Mack said:

Are you sure there isn't an aerial there, but perhaps not connected to the new radio? Without an aerial, how did the old radio work?

DAB of course, it only worked sometimes, then died.

Or maybe cunning wiring was making the steel hull the aerial, it is possible some critical bit of bodge wire fell out of the back of the radio causing it to die, who knows.....

The guy spent an hour proding it with a multi meter, but it never got a signsl from the ether.

Edited May 13, 2021 by LadyG

[Ianws]

If you read this thread fresh from start to finish (I've been at work) it is surreal. Question, answers asking for more info, replies ignoring / not answering those  replies and asking new questions etc.etc. I'll ditch this one.

[LadyG]

2 minutes ago, Ianws said:

If you read this thread fresh from start to finish (I've been at work) it is surreal. Question, answers asking for more info, replies ignoring / not answering those  replies and asking new questions etc.etc. I'll ditch this one.

You give up too easy

3 minutes ago, LadyG said:

DAB of course, it only worked sometimes, then died.

Or maybe cunning wiring was making the steel hull the aerial, it is possible some critical bit of bodge wire fell out of the back of the radio causing it to die, who knows.....

The guy spent an hour proddng it with a multi meter, but it never got a signal from the ether.

 

What is important, is how could someone changing the bow batteries combine that battery bank with the stern battery bank, can we assume it's not relsted to the radio? Omg, I'm hysteric, and Ive only had one tot of that spiced rum!