Yet
again it was too breezy to tune the rig or play with the sail wardrobe
so it was more fixing, fettling and fiddling below decks.
The first order of business, after breakfast, was to repair the broken connection on the engine bay fire alarm circuit.
Arguably, the fire alarm is a slight overkill but having had an electrical fire on a narrowboat years ago is a comfort to have it. It's slightly less cu omforting to discover that the circuit doesn't fall safe (a broken connection should ideally sound the alarm)
With that sorted, we set about another me detailed look at the perplexing failure of the NMEA multiplexer to transfer AIS data. Eventually, after Rik got his oscilloscope out and had a good look at what was actually going on, we found that the output from the NASA AIS receiver is not compliant with RS232 / 423 specs.
Not much we can do about that really (well we could with some custom buffer circuitry but it's not worth the bother as I plan to replace the receiver with a transceiver in the not too distant future)
That had wasted a good part of the day so we set about offloading our gear and tidying up. Lastly we chucked some more stuff in the store and parted company to head home
It's only a fortnight until I'm back aboard with the family and just over a month to our annual epic cruise so we've not long to wait until the fun starts. Can't wait!
The first order of business, after breakfast, was to repair the broken connection on the engine bay fire alarm circuit.
Arguably, the fire alarm is a slight overkill but having had an electrical fire on a narrowboat years ago is a comfort to have it. It's slightly less cu omforting to discover that the circuit doesn't fall safe (a broken connection should ideally sound the alarm)
With that sorted, we set about another me detailed look at the perplexing failure of the NMEA multiplexer to transfer AIS data. Eventually, after Rik got his oscilloscope out and had a good look at what was actually going on, we found that the output from the NASA AIS receiver is not compliant with RS232 / 423 specs.
Not much we can do about that really (well we could with some custom buffer circuitry but it's not worth the bother as I plan to replace the receiver with a transceiver in the not too distant future)
That had wasted a good part of the day so we set about offloading our gear and tidying up. Lastly we chucked some more stuff in the store and parted company to head home
It's only a fortnight until I'm back aboard with the family and just over a month to our annual epic cruise so we've not long to wait until the fun starts. Can't wait!
I hope you are enjoying planning the cruise for your family. It is good to do on windy cold nights.
ReplyDeleteIf I had an electrical problems such as you had I would have been lost. I remember an using oscilloscope in school. When I say using one I actually mean it sat there in front of us. What it actually did was a black art.
Enjoy the cruising.
We are somewhat overloaded with electricity know how with diplomas and degrees in electrics and electronics amongst the crew :-)
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