Sorry not to respond to all the comments on yesterday’s blog entry. I’ll try tomorrow morning, but tonight, I’m too tired.
I was up early and on the boat. We were trying to get the Simon system configured. I had to get the flow meters going as well as the new electrical system sensors. One would think it would be easy, but it ate the entire day.
As it turns out, there were several different problems:
1) There was an ethernet cable that needed re-terminated.
2) The data wires on all three of the electric sensors were wired backwards
3) No screens had been created, within Simon, to display the flow sensor data
4) The Simon screens were programmed incorrectly for the electrical sensors
I had never worked with the Simon system before, but their technical guy spent all day on the phone with me, and we figured it all out. By the end of the day, we had all my new sensors working. It was very cool to sit in the pilot house and see the new sensors in action.
Once we had Simon going, we moved the boat to Delta (a nearby shipyard), which took a couple yards, including the locks. It was a nice smooth trip, and gave me a chance to try some things out. I did hit one surprise though… When passing through a 47′ tall bridge, I thought it wouldn’t be a problem, in that I am only 44′ tall. Wrong. Unfortunately, I had bad data. I am really closer to 48′ tall! I heard the antennas hitting the bottom of the bridge as we passed under. No damage, but definitely in the “oops” category.
The boat is set to be hauled out tomorrow morning early, and should be back in the water by Wednesday.
When I left the boat tonight, I decided to experiment, and left the boat running off the batteries. Allegedly, the generator will start if the batteries get too low. I wanted to test this, so we’ll see what happens. I’m hoping this works. If so, it will be my standard way of running, and cut in half the number of hours the generator runs (and, cut in half the number of oil changes).
There are still quite a few small projects remaining to be done on the boat. There’s nothing that is a major issue, but getting everything done between here and Thursday seems a struggle. I’m heading north the first thing Friday morning.
I’ll relax as soon as I leave the dock (I hope!) Until then, things will be tense.
-Ken W
I was up early and on the boat. We were trying to get the Simon system configured. I had to get the flow meters going as well as the new electrical system sensors. One would think it would be easy, but it ate the entire day.
As it turns out, there were several different problems:
1) There was an ethernet cable that needed re-terminated.
2) The data wires on all three of the electric sensors were wired backwards
3) No screens had been created, within Simon, to display the flow sensor data
4) The Simon screens were programmed incorrectly for the electrical sensors
I had never worked with the Simon system before, but their technical guy spent all day on the phone with me, and we figured it all out. By the end of the day, we had all my new sensors working. It was very cool to sit in the pilot house and see the new sensors in action.
Once we had Simon going, we moved the boat to Delta (a nearby shipyard), which took a couple yards, including the locks. It was a nice smooth trip, and gave me a chance to try some things out. I did hit one surprise though… When passing through a 47′ tall bridge, I thought it wouldn’t be a problem, in that I am only 44′ tall. Wrong. Unfortunately, I had bad data. I am really closer to 48′ tall! I heard the antennas hitting the bottom of the bridge as we passed under. No damage, but definitely in the “oops” category.
The boat is set to be hauled out tomorrow morning early, and should be back in the water by Wednesday.
When I left the boat tonight, I decided to experiment, and left the boat running off the batteries. Allegedly, the generator will start if the batteries get too low. I wanted to test this, so we’ll see what happens. I’m hoping this works. If so, it will be my standard way of running, and cut in half the number of hours the generator runs (and, cut in half the number of oil changes).
There are still quite a few small projects remaining to be done on the boat. There’s nothing that is a major issue, but getting everything done between here and Thursday seems a struggle. I’m heading north the first thing Friday morning.
I’ll relax as soon as I leave the dock (I hope!) Until then, things will be tense.
-Ken W
3 Responses
Rod: I decided to NOT install the Broadband Radar. I really wanted to try it, but there just wasn’t time. Everyone has been working long hours to get the boat ready for our departure, and dumping another project on the team now would be too much. I had assumed it would have standard video output, but it is really meant to be sold as a peripheral to one of Navionic’s dedicated chart plotting systems. I would have had to install BOTH their radar unit, PLUS a chart plotter. Had their been more time, even with all of this effort, I would have done it, just because I’m curious to see if this really is something new and interesting, or just marketing hype.
My gut says that Broadband radar really is as innovative as they say. Perhaps next year I’ll find a way to install a unit.
-Ken W
Two days and a wake up until blast off! Thanks for posting Ken!
Enjoy your journey,
Ken:
have you had the new broadband radar installed yet? Comments?