Ramblings

  • Further work with the Sterling ProSplit R

    Further work with the Sterling ProSplit R

    Sunday saw more work on the installation of the ProSplit R; I had already got all of the terminals wired up by Saturday, or so I thought. However, it turns out that I’d missed the part in the instructions about the positive terminal that needs a take-off from the D+/61/L terminal of the alternator (as…

  • Sterling ProSplit R mounting template

    Sterling ProSplit R mounting template

    When documenting the various power cables that run through Blue Opal, I checked the output voltage of the alternator, and the voltage flowing in to the batteries. There was approximately a 1V drop, which comes from the diode splitter that was fitted years ago. Since I’m not in a marina, or otherwise on shore power,…

  • Poking a BT Mini Broadband Hotspot 600

    Poking a BT Mini Broadband Hotspot 600

    The signal from my broadband router is pretty poor by the time it reaches the bedroom at the other end of the apartment, so a number of years ago I bought a BT Homespot 600 (mini edition). It does the job, though various devices (mostly those by a certain fruit company) think that they should…

  • New fender ropes

    New fender ropes

    The collection of fenders for Blue Opal had everything from 4 mm braid on braid (a recent acquisition after the storms that went through Ireland) to 10 mm three-strand. Some of it was stiff, another was completely frayed. A nice little job today, while I was off sick, was sitting down with a length of…

  • Adventures in ESP8266 land (1/n)

    Adventures in ESP8266 land (1/n)

    Given Blue Opal’s data network is linked to a ShipModul that beacons the data on a wireless network, I felt like it would be kind of neat to build my own data logger that can log all the data that the ShipModul is broadcasting. As mentioned in another post, I currently use iNavX on an…

  • Spring sail, and the autohelm is borked again

    Spring sail, and the autohelm is borked again

    The replacement bulbs for the head and engine lights have arrived. Alas, I found out today that while I got the size and fitting type right, I hadn’t noticed that the existing bulbs are the ones with two contacts on the bottom that twist in to place when the bulb is locked into the bayonet…