Category: Sailing
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Decoding ‘scope traces, adding a SmartShunt
With the Titan battery connected to the Victron, I’m able to see what the battery monitor deems to be the current flow out of the battery, with the SmartSolar potentially offsetting up to about 5A of draw on a sunny day. What I can’t see is what’s coming off of the starter battery, and I…
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Cerbo GX MK2 and Blue Opal
For the longest time, I’d avoided going the Victron hardware route – they seemed pricey for the offering, and I wasn’t sure I could make good use of the functionality on Blue Opal. I experimented with running the Venus large image on a Raspberry Pi at one stage, while I was trying to get the…
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A leaky battery – cleaned
Went back today armed with more baking soda, and found that the overnight soak had actually neutralised most of the acid. There was a bit of fizz on a piece of wood that forms a brace point under one of the panels, and with that neutralised and rinsed, I just had to dispose of the…
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A leaky battery
In 2023, I replaced the starter battery for Blue Opal with a smaller 80Ah one, as the 105Ah was having problems. Said problems included finding out that there was acid on the bottom of the battery when I placed it on the mat that protects the top of the companionway. What I didn’t twig at…
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Tuesday Racing
K and I went for a walk after my working day finished, and we had some sunshine and clouds for our walk out on the West Pier of Dun Laoghaire. It seems the racing from the hut doesn’t use sound signals any more, so next time I’ll have to take a VHF radio with me…
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Investigating the engine RPM drop
Monday afternoon after work seemed as good a time as any to do the start of the investigation. I’d already contacted the marina yard manager, and the mechanic is on holiday this week, so I may as well do some fault finding and provide details so the yard can work faster. The diagnostic list was…