Birthday Venue

Well today we were back on the boat. Not to work, but as the venue for the birthday party. It was way to nice a weekend to do any work. So happy Birthday Dad. I hope you liked the day.

Next weekend may be the first I have back on the boat to work. So looking forward to that. Lots to do. Need to complete the wiring in the Radio room and start on dismantling the battery chargers into smaller bits to enable me to carry them off the boat.

Hopefully back to a 3 day work week in a few weeks time leaving 4 days clear (probably not every week) to get on with the job.

Lights

I spent the morning trying to sort out why the system would not light up.  It turns out the connections are not as intuitive as I thought.  But a few words of advice from Martin at www.ledlightingproducts.co.uk and it all lit up.    Getting the enttec ethernet DMX controller recognised was difficult but it turns out the MAC firewall was blocking it from being seen.  Quickly resolved that and then had the lights going on and off from the laptop.


A transfer of the whole system onto the wireless network and downloaded the luminaire software for iPad.    Now all the lights are happily working from the iPad.


Thanks for all your help Martin.  I am sure I will have another million questions when I start to extend the whole thing to multiple rooms.

And check out the movie below

Lights, action, camera

Firstly welcome to my new followers.  At 7 its not quite up there with Stephen Fry's following but its a start.

At home is sitting a box with some goodies in it.  Should be the ethernet controller and the lights.  Can't wait to get home, unpack it and see if I can set fire to the flat :->

Ipad at the ready.  Some test software at the ready.  Hopefully there are some cables in the box!

First hot day

And boy was it hot on the ship.  What I experienced in the cold is nothing compared to the over the wheelhouse turns into when it is sunny!  Insulation should help fix that.  And perhaps a reflecting paint on the roof.

Not a lot achieved today.  Completed the labelling of the cables and they are all ready to go in the junction box.  Cannot believe the cost of the label cartridge.  £19.  If you buy one.  Or, you can buy a completely new labelling machine AND it includes a label cartridge for £17.  Unbelievable waste and Brother should be prosecuted for encourage such reckless consuming.

So I now have two label machines.  And no doubt in the near future 3.

What no tape!

My heart was not in it today but I went anyway.  I thought I would have a go at some of the radio room.  Stopped off at B&Q for some 10mm bolts to bolt the ballasts on with.  I also purchased some different sizes of trunking and flexible conduit to see what would work on the ship.

Managed to bolt the ballasts on.  Not too difficult.  Drilling 10mm holes with my new drill bit went relatively straight forwardly and mounting them was just an exercise in brute force to lift them and bolt them on at the same time (could do with 6 hands to be honest).  But it went ok.  I then placed the large plastic junction box in the appropriate place and ran all the cabling down one wall.

But to cut the cables at the right length I had to relabel them.  And as usual, just when you need it, the tape ran out!  So that was the end of that exercise.

Next up to the wheelhouse.  Time to move the power supplies (battery chargers).  I had tried already but they were simply too heavy to even move due to the VERY large transformers.  So I stripped out the transformers ensuring I labeled the cables and photographed the layout.  With these removed (I could just about lift one on my own it was so large) I could move the cabinets albeit not very far and certainly not down the stairs and off the boat.  But they are now away from the wall so the brackets can be removed.  It also freed up one of the portholes.  I now have the choice to fit 2 more square portholes on that side.  Decisions decisions.

The last bit of good news was that the mess hatch had been cut by Dave and he had filled most of the small holes.  The hatch really does make a big difference to how open that space now feels.  I was nervous about it but it turned out to be a good call.

The load ballasts now bolted to the wall.

Cabling now run down to the new junction box

Cabling starting to look a bit tidier.  Time to get out the cable ties and then it will look a whole lot better.

The transformer layout in the power supplies

The chargers now free of the wall

Spent an hour removing the old fire systems.  

Option to put back in a porthole or two

All quiet

Not been on board working now for quite a while.  Guests last weekend and father's day gave me a weekend off.  But back to the grind tomorrow.

Have acquired some hole cutters to cut 20mm, 25mm holes in the steel for the electrical conduit.  Looks like it could be hard work.  Lights are due to be delivered on Tuesday which will give me a few days to sort out the wiring.

Jobs for this weekend will need to include a go at mounting the load ballasts for the fog horns and lights in the radio room and then buy some junction boxes to reconnect all the wiring up.  Depending upon the weather I may well start to thin out the wiring going up into the lantern.  That would bring the radio room into a ready state like the mess where I can start to put things back together.  If I achieve that (unlikely) I will relocate the remaining batteries from the battery room, remove the fire supressor and have that room finalised for the rebuild.

That would leave some minor bits to remove from the wheelhouse and a few bits to get out of the kitchen and the boat will be mostly ready to start the fit out.  Eeek.  no pressure then.

Test Lights

I have ordered the first set of RGB LED lights and controller and also the iPad to control them.  Should arrive next week.  I think I will do a dry run in the mess to gauge the wiring needed.  Then I will sort out a test rig for the KNX.

Lots to do.

Tidy up

Sunday is a day of rest.  Not for me though.  But the rules say no noise on Sunday's so that means a day off power tools.  I spent most of the time this morning marking out the new hatch between the mess and the galley.

As I explained before, it is almost impossible to mark out on the wall.  So I bought some grid marked (mm grid) and used a long rule to cut out a perfectly square and measured piece of paper to stick on the wall to show where the hatch will go.  It looks a little out when compared to floor and walls and ceiling but at the time the boat was floating and the door steps were all perfectly level.  So if the door steps are level then making the paper level ensures that the hatch will match (sorry) the doors when floating.  I can then align the ceilings and walls to make things look square.

The afternoon was spent draining the muck out of the battery room.  The downside was that the flood occurred all over the really really heavy nicad batteries.  Nice combination of very very heavy batteries (3 times that of typical car battery) covered in diesel water, silicon grease and battery acid.  They had to go.

So a hour or so of carrying 19 batteries out onto the rear deck and then covered then in ply to keep them out of the sun.  Then mopped up the flood and left it to dry.

Final job was to pack up all the tools and the boat is back to clean and ready for the next round of fun.

Rubble Trouble

The kitchen floor came up easy.  The rubble it produce filled 20 rubble bags.  That really finished me off.  But the kitchen floor is now visible for the first time in over 50 years.

The job.  These are the kitchen 'before' photos.











I have to say that I expected some chisel bits a LOT smaller than what I found in the box.  I serious think  you could dig up your road with this thing.





I started in one corner and tried to work my way out.  There were some awkward bits because some of the original shelves and boiler stands were welded to the floor and then concreted in leaving the stubs in the concrete.  But this corner took no more than about 10 mins work.

Eventually all the floor was turned to rubble. Lots and lots and lots of sharp tile filled rubble.

Time for a break and off to buy 20 rubble sacks.

The swan swimming around outside reminded me why its good not to dump diesel into the water.  Its not a great photo but it was perfect white against the grey of the day.

Many hours of clearing rubble and hey presto!  A kitchen floor.

The down side of the tool is the blisters.  This one is my record!  And this was with wearing heavy duty gloves.

Some of the kitchen floor was quite rusted.  Not a surprise really.  There was no moisture barrier between the concrete and the metal so water that did get under just sat.

This is the old raised cooking area.  I think this will need to be removed.  It will make life much easier when it comes to doing the kitchen.

One of the parts of the floor had delayered quite a lot.

Some of the original shelving metal that was embedding in the floor.  This will all need to be cut off too.