When did you last check your wiring ?

One for my records but some may find it interesting .....

I blogged a few weeks back about my Smartgauge error codes and my concern I had not got the best performing battery bank in the way I had it connected. Halfie off NB Jubilee reminded me of something I'd seen before from the guy who invented the Smartgauge -Gibbo.  

My set up was worse that the one below in that:

• I was putting feeds in and taking load out from different points on the three bank battery set up
• I had wildly different lengths of interconnecting cables
• My 'third' battery was remote and not installed in a way it would pass the BSC
• I was getting E11 errors where the Smartgauge was activating the relay to connect the starter and leisure batteries together but still reading different voltages
• this can only be if the relay is not working or
• The cables on the two banks are so different there is voltage drop and the banks show different voltages....hence the error 

Back to best practice .....

From the Smartgauge web site... 

If we draw 100 amps from this battery bank we will effectively be drawing 25 amps from each battery. Or so we think.

In actual fact what we find is that more current is drawn from the bottom battery, with the current draw getting progressively less as we get towards the top of the diagram.

The effect is greater than would be expected.

Battery internal resistance = 0.02 Ohms
Interconnecting lead resistance = 0.0015 Ohms per link
Total load on batteries = 100 amps

The bottom battery provides 35.9 amps of this.
The next battery up provides 26.2 amps.
The next battery up provides 20.4 amps.
The top battery provides 17.8 amps.

So the bottom battery provides over twice the current of the top battery.

So I decided to move out the starter and put it into a proper battery box  - plastic and lidded leaving the area free for my third leisure battery. In moving them about I then made up and crimped and heat shrinked new leads all the same size (length and girth  - AWG American wire gauge '2' or 35mm2 ) 

Method 2 All that has changed in this diagram is that the main feeds to the rest of the installation are now taken from diagonally opposite posts. It is simple to achieve but the difference in the results are truly astounding for such a simple modification. The connecting leads, in fact, everything else in the installation remains identical. Also, it doesn't matter which lead (positive or negative) is moved, Whichever is easiest is the correct one to move. The results of this modification, when compared to the original diagram are shown below. Only that one single connection has been moved. After this simple modification, with the same 100 amp load.... The bottom battery provides 26.7 amps of this. The next battery up provides 23.2 amps. The next battery up provides 23.2 amps. The top battery provides 26.7 amps. This is quite clearly a massive improvement over the first method. The batteries are much closer to being correctly balanced. H

So this was the before with the starter at the top...

This is  now all three leisure batteries connected  - tidy and hopefully efficient. Once challenge is getting all the connections onto the battery terminals. I couldn't so I nipped over the Streethay and brought two terminal clamps (did you ever realise the pos and neg posts are a different girth?) 

The starter sits in its own box now by the side of the engine. it is still all connected to the split charging relay but with the advantage of much of the Samrtbank wiring and control box now living safely in a sectioned off part - quite tidy. 

Problem is when I got back to the boat today I still had an E11 code - I am thinking the relay may want its contacts cleaning - or the boat a good run - I will do the latter first !

Now the scary bit....I found this wear and damage on the main 12v pos feed off the batteries ...!!

On Waterlily we had electrical problems due to a wire shorting out in the engine hole, this could have given the same effect but much worse!!

I was able to trim back to decent cable section and remake the connection.

So I may have to remove the relay and check it but I am hoping a nice deep charge from an extended cruise will sort it all out !!

The longest day and come to Fradley

So the latter first....

Part of my long day yesterday was a 6am start to drive to work from the boat - 20 miles. What a difference a few days makes, during the school holidays Fradley was a hive of boating activity. Yesterday at first light and some mist.....

Also there are currently 5 moorings on our stretch that are up for auction, buy now or will be up soon. I don't mind if you do not come as our mooring prices are based on the going rate so as the rates are lowered to get moorers the lower our mooring rates in the future - do you believe that?

Early in and early away from work then collect the dog/cat then off to the Seven Bridge to collect the stove I brought on Ebay....

Percy came with a 'Brake van stove' and I have been seeking one out ever since the old one rusted through .... I took this photo of one in situ when we walked the Cromford canal recently - it is in a brake van at the bottom of High Peak junction where the boats and wagons used to tranship cargo....

From the Seven Bridge (well a small village just below it ) I drove another two and a half hours to the cottage on the south coast. The trip took me through some epic thunder and rain storms with fork lightening and torrential rain and flooded roads. So, 270 miles for the day, but at least I have a back stove. Just need to get the stove pipe sorted then I can go winter cruising in warmth !!

What am I .....?

I have more and more specific tools on my boat now. 

It is a hydraulic crimper. As you will have seen from one of my other posts I want to get my battery bank install tidier and more efficient for winter. Being off grid means you really need to have an efficient and reliable power install. Mine is tidy but not efficient so it will be adjusted to give all the three leisure batteries the best connections and the best layout to ensure no extra resistance is added that depletes the charge and overworks certain batteries. 

Just after I got Percy I swapped out the old split charge diode system and put in a Smartbank system. I spend a few quid on getting cables made up and they were best guesses for length. This tool will allow me to make up my own cables to the minimum length using the existing cables plus some crimps I have ordered from ebay.

I am going to install the starter batter in its own battery box allowing me to have all three leisure batteries in a line in one place to aid the connectivity. 

I'll report back with photos when done !

Beauty at both ends of the day

The days aboard are precious at the moment, mostly because I know what is coming  - I hate the long dark nights as I am sure do most but when living aboard you really understand the changes in the seasons.

I am still able to sit out in the evening and the mild September start allowed a beautiful evening star watching

You can see my company for the evening.

TV was the stars in the sky....I selected one at random and used an app on my iPad to tell me it is Alpha Ursae Majoris - Dubhe.....The star's traditional name, Dubhe, comes from the Arabic phrase "zahr ad-dubb al-akbar", meaning "the back of the Greater Bear". It is known as the First Star of the Northern Dipper or the Celestial Pivot in Chinese. Dubhe is the official star of the State of Utah.

Now the really mind blowing fact....

The light I am seeing tonight started out 124 years ago....

1892 and what was happening in 1892 when this light was emitted......
Monarch – Victoria
Prime Minister – Robert Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury (Conservative (until 11 August), William Ewart Gladstone (Liberal) (starting 15 August)

Events 14 January – Death of Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence, second in line to the throne. Next in line is his younger brother Prince George (later George V).

February – Scottish Universities Commissioners publish an ordinance authorising Scottish universities to provide for the education and graduation of women for the first time.

6–8 March – "Exclusive Agreement": Rulers of the Trucial States (Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Ras al-Khaimah and Umm al-Quwain) sign an agreement by which they become de facto British protectorates.

15 March – Liverpool Football Club founded by John Houlding, the owner of Anfield, who decided to form his own team after previous tenants Everton left Anfield in an argument over rent.

19 May – British troops defeat Ijebu infantry at the battle of Yemoja river, in modern-day Nigeria, using a maxim gun.

22 May – British conquest of Ijebu-Ode marks major extension of colonial power into Nigerian interior.

24 May – Prince George of Wales (later George V) becomes Duke of York.

25 July – The Community of the Resurrection, an Anglican religious community for men, is founded by Charles Gore and Walter Frere, initially in Oxford.

27 June – Small Holdings Act empowers County councils to provide smallholdings for sale or rent on easy terms.

4–18 July – General election: Unionist government loses its majority, but remains in office.

14 July – Official inauguration of the Liverpool water supply from Lake Vyrnwy. The Vyrnwy dam is the first high masonry gravity dam in Britain.

11 August – Robert Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury loses a vote of no confidence in his government.

18 August – William Ewart Gladstone becomes Prime Minister at the head of a Liberal government with Irish Nationalist Party support. The Queen vetoes the appointment of the radical Henry Labouchère to his Cabinet.

26 August – An underground explosion at Parc Slip Colliery, Aberkenfig, Glamorgan, kills 110.

2 September – Everton play their first game at their new Goodison Park stadium following their exit from Anfield earlier this year. Their first game at the stadium ends in a 2-2 draw with Nottingham Forest.

3 September – Three years after the formation of the Football League, a Second Division is created. Its 12 members are Small Heath of Birmingham, Sheffield United, Darwen of Lancashire, Grimsby Town, Ardwick of Manchester, Burton Swifts of Staffordshire, Northwich Victoria of Cheshire, Bootle of Liverpool, Lincoln City, Crewe Alexandra, Burslem Port Vale of Staffordshire and Walsall Town Swifts.

December – Following a merger of Newcastle East Football Club and Newcastle West Football Club earlier in the year, a new name is given to the club: Newcastle United Football Club.

7 December – Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co, a leading case in English contract law.

21 December – Brandon Thomas' farce Charley's Aunt begins a record-breaking London run at the Royalty Theatre (following a pre-London opening at Bury St Edmunds on 29 February)

Publications

Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes collection The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (book publication 14 October).

George and Weedon Grossmith's comic fiction Diary of a Nobody (book publication).

Rudyard Kipling's poetry collection Barrack-Room Ballads.

Michael Field's poetry collection Sight and Song.Births

3 January – J. R. R. Tolkien, professor and author of The Lord of the Rings (died 1973)

9 March – Vita Sackville-West, poet, novelist and gardener (died 1962)

13 April – Arthur Harris, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of RAF Bomber Command during World War 2 (died 1984)

3 MayGeorge Paget Thomson, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1975)

11 May – Margaret Rutherford, actress (died 1972)

13 June – Basil Rathbone, actor (died 1967)

8 July – Richard Aldington, poet (died 1962)

11 August – Hugh MacDiarmid, poet (died 1978)

14 August – Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, composer, music critic, pianist and writer (died 1988)

6 September – Edward Victor Appleton, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1965)

5 November – J. B. S. Haldane, geneticist (died 1964)

6 December – Osbert Sitwell, writer (died 1969)

21 December – Rebecca West, writer (died 1983)

Deaths
January – Doncaster, racehorse (died 1892)

14 January – Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence, second in line to the throne of the United Kingdom (born 1864)

21 January – John Couch Adams, astronomer (born 1819)

31 January – Charles Spurgeon, preacher (born 1834)

19 April – T. Pelham Dale, Church of England priest prosecuted for Anglo-Catholic ritualist practices in the 1870s (born 1821)

18 July – Thomas Cook, tourist pioneer (born 1808)

06 October - Alfred, Lord Tennyson, author, poet (born 1809)

11 December – William Milligan, theologian (born 1821)

Who needs TV and don't we all feel a little more insignificant !!!

Mornings are also very quiet and tranquil. I walk Leia to Common lock and back. This morning there was an early boater - the same boat who went past late last night in the darkness. An Aqua boat returning to Mercia for tomorrow morning (Sat) no doubt.

I need to sort out a coal delivery I have a week s worth and it will last this time of year, I have not lit the stove yet but when this lovely warm spell ends Autumn will come tumbling through.

My batteries and the Smartbank error code E11

Working through a little electrical challenge at the moment aboard Percy. I have been returning to the boat and the Smartgauge has been flashing E11 up on its display.

The Percy battery install - there is a third leisure battery remote for the other two.....

I did spend some time drawing put the cable runs so will try and put it into a proper drawing for me (you) to understand.

From the manual ....

E 11 SmartBank has attempted to operate the split charge relay but SmartGauge is measuring different voltages on the 2 batteries. This would indicate either a faulty relay or faulty relay wiring. In either case, split charging is probably not taking place.

E11 can be disabled is to prevent nuisance error reports in poor installations where the cabling between the 2 battery banks is insufficiently sized.

Two issues... the error and on reflection the way I have the leisure batteries connected.

The former (E11) could be being generated as I have a remote 3rd leisure battery, connected to the other two via the same thickness of cable - but longer at just a metre.... I am wondering if this extra connection is not allowing the reliable combined voltage for the three leisure batteries. I guess the simple check it to take this third battery out of the set and see if it removes the E11 error, on reflection I think it was about the time I added this battery that I got this error.

I spend a good time on Saturday (while it was raining) reminding myself on how the install is all wired together as I may need to disassemble the wiring to check the relay. The problem with sorting 12v out is you are dealing with live feeds and have to be sure you do not short out the leads while moving them and there is a lot of metal close by !!

Looking at the wiring I think I can improve on it..... subtle but it may help and I can check the relay out at the same time.

More thinking time required  - but as the fishing is now getting less in the evenings I should redirect my efforts to have the best charging and electrical storage possible for the winter.

Resources and reality

Small post today after returning to the house from the boat. Circumstances meant we passed the use of the house to a little family more in need than us for a few days.

It meant Rachel came up with the dog and cat late Thursday and I was fully aboard all week. We are obviously not in boat conserve mode as we dropped the batteries to 54% (a light got left on all day and the solar did a decent job of protecting the batteries while keeping the fridge going) a cassette got filled in 36 hours and we burnt through 25gb of data in the same 36 hours.

Now back in the house lamps are on, washing machine doing its cycles, oven (electric full on  - both ovens ) radio entertaining us and the internet just being taken for granted at 70mbs unlimited.

Boat living takes a certain discipline..... and it soon gets forgotten !