Category Archives: Electrical/Electronics

Customizations, Electrical/Electronics

Raw Water Alarm

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Today I installed the raw water alarm.  I purchased this unit, which has a temp sensor which straps onto the exhaust hose after the water injector.  If it gets too hot, it closes and completes a circuit to ground, just like the engine oil and temp alarms.  The idea is to warn me of the loss of cooling water before the uncooled engine exhaust cooks the exhaust hose and/or muffler.  This happened to me on a charter boat in the BVIs in January.  Black smoke billowing out of the engine room is no fun!

http://www.borelmfg.com/products_alarm.htm

There was room in my engine panel to install this, and it is shallow enough that it fit even in the center where the pod is shallowest to fit around the pedestal.  Hopefully the pictures below come through:

Cut  a 1-7/8″ hole in the panel

From the back, wired the + to the power terminal

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Electrical/Electronics, LED

Led Lights, T- molding

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Over the winter I replaced the overhead spots with LED spots. The ones I used were purchased from Amazon and are “Torchstar” 4 watt, MR16, 3200K, warm white. I am very happy with them and they cost $7.50 each. The bulbs stuck out about a 1/4″ and I had to make a small mod to the ficture to make them flush when installed but not alot of effort.

It is interesting the fixtures are rated at 10 watts, which is printed on them, and the bulbs that were in them were all 20 watts.

I also replaced the G4 base bulbs in the clamshell bulkhead lights with LED’s available at Bulbs.com. Item 770510, G4 base, 0.6 watt, warm white, at $7.69.

I also needed to replace the “T” molding around the wet locker in the shower. I bought 40 feet of it from “T-molding.com” 9/16″ white, flat, nintendo, for $20.00.

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2012, Customizations, Electrical/Electronics

iPad to Raymarine E80 Connection – Additional notes

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The final version of this article has been sent to Mainsheet for publication and also added to this website.  The following are notes that were not part of the final document but which may be helpful.

Notes:

– I experimented with two different WiFi routers for this installation, with mixed results. I used a $30 Netgear router and a $120 D-Link router. They both work very well at home, but the Netgear router proved unreliable onboard the boat. Connection to the iPad took 30 to 45 seconds and frequently failed. Also, the NMEA data stream was slow and sporadic. Since it worked well at home I suspect that the Netgear router is more susceptible to electronic interference than the D-Link router when placed behind the nav desk with all the electrical wires and other electronic equipment.

– The following Raymarine article describes the process of adding a WiFi router downstream

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Customizations, Electrical/Electronics

Antennas/Amps for WiFi, Aircards, Cell Phones

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I am seeking advice/experience from the group on the purchase of marine antennas to improve the reception range for wifi, aircards, and cell phones. I have read enough and talked to a few vendors (Wilson) to understand the myriad of products but not sure what will work best at the least cost. Also, I realize there is not a single antenna for all devices – aircards and wifi since they receive/transmit “data” may work fine without an amplifier; whereas, an antenna for a cell phone (voice) may need an amplifier to get the expected results.

I currently have the Verizon mifi hotspot (4510L) because Verizon seems to have the best overall coverage on the east coast. This works well but I would like to improve the reception when in remote locations where a weak verizon signal exists. Another case is when moored or docked at a marina that has wifi

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2012, Customizations, Electrical/Electronics, Electronics

iPad-Raymarine Integration – NMEA-Seatalk-WiFi

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NMEA and Seatalk routed via WIFI

I might have this figured out.

Navoinics for iPad:
Connects to Raymarine NMEA and Seatalk streams via standard WiFi router
Upload/download waypoints and routes
No real-time instrument repeater
Navionics charts included in price
$35 USA. $50 USA & Canada

INavX:
Requires hardware such as iMux for WiFi and to translate Seatalk to NMEA – $250 approx
Supplied with NOAA raster charts. Navionics or others are addl $50 approx
Upload/download PLUS real-time instrument repeater capabilities
$50 with NOAA charts

I’d appreciate any corrections to the above. It would be nice to find out that the less expensive Navionics will repeat instruments, but I have not found any evidence of that.

Users report that iNavX has much better functionality overall. Even at $350 for the total package it is relatively inexpensive compared to the cost of an ST70 Multi repeater or a below decks chartplotter, assuming

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2012, Electrical/Electronics, Electronics

iPhoneSailing – iPad

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If you are interested check out the forum at iphonesailing.com. That’s where I found the answers to many of my questions. Both the iNavX and Navionics users on that forum were very helpful in clarifying the hardware and software required to interface both apps to the E80. Also, there is much good info regarding the capabilities of each app.

Jeff Church

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2012, Electrical/Electronics, Electronics

iPad-Raymarine Integration

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If there’s one thing I’ve learned, you can’t have a productive technical conversation based on fuzzy hypothetical options, and shifting objectives.

I can find no evidence that the mobile Navionics application “understands Seatalk”. What may be misleading is that the Raymarine Raytech RNS software, which “understands Seatalk without a mux”, uses Navionics charts. Brookhouse also stipulates the Program iNavx as a requirement for using their iMux combiner, again using Navionics charts. Navionics Mobile supports Plotter Sync which enables the wireless exchange of waypoint and route data. The following link is to a YouTube video by Raymarine which clearly demonstrates what is exchanged.

I don’t share the assessment that the Brookhouse iMux is for “somebody who is starting from scratch.” It was designed, built and is marketed to address the question and requirement you initially detailed…”Is it possible to access Seatalk information on an iPad thru its wifi connection and either

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2012, Electrical/Electronics, Electronics

iPad – Navionics and Raymarine

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I did a little more research. Called Navionics and Raymarine.

Navionics says that their iPad app is primarily intended as a stand-alone app and told me to contact Ray regarding interfacing with a chartplotter. That seemed odd considering that Navionics developed Plotter Sync and incorporated it into their app less than a year ago as an interface to Raymarine plotters.

Ray says that they have “stepped away from Plotter Sync” because it was not reliable. I suspect that another reason might be that it competes with their new E7 chartplotter’s WiFi connect features.

My takeaway is that the Navionics app is probably useful as a nav tool and it MIGHT interface, but since I’m looking for an instrument repeater I’ll be looking at the iNavX app instead. iNavX is a bit more expensive, but it gets good reviews from folks who are using it as a plotter and real-time repeater

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2002, Customizations, Electrical/Electronics, Mainsheet

Electrical Power Upgrades, Electrical Energy Independence

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Electrical Power Upgrades, Electrical Energy Independence
Earl Poe, Warren Elliott
3/20/2002
Hull #: 140

S/Y Angel’s Wings, hull number 140, spends a great deal of the sailing season anchored in remote coves on a beautiful kentucky lake. Her captain and first mate are people who hate to run the engine which tends to ruin the quiet, summer lifestyle, not to mention scare away the roosting bald eagles, osprey, and deer. Supplemental sources of electricity had to be found. Over the past two (2) seasons, we have added solar panels, a wind generator, and replaced our tired 4D batteries with four (6) volt golf cart batteries. First, we chose to mount two (2) flexible uni-solar model #usf-32 solar panels on top of the canvas dodger (photo 1). We ran the wiring though the coach roof (photo 2), down to the starboard wire chase, and back to a solar regulator mounted behind

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