A Couple of Projects

 Well, if you have read through my blog, you probably have a good idea of the amount of maintenance required to keep a boat going.  And this post will be no exception.  It still amazes me how many new issues appear when you leave a boat sitting for even a short period of time.  So, upon returning to the boat I had a list of minor things to address (for example, some running rigging needed to be replaced and some leaks needed to be addressed) and a couple of bigger projects.

The first project was the inverter.  As I mentioned in my previous post, my old Xantrex Freedom Marine inverter decided to give up during our spring shakedown cruise.  I pulled the unit and did some troubleshooting and found a blown internal fuse.  I tried replacing it, however the fuse immediately blew when attempting to start it up...so something in the internal circuitry has obviously failed.  I guess I could try repairing the unit, but it is 30+ years old and there are newer options out there that provide pure sine wave output and are more efficient.  It made the most sense to replace.  Of course, I don't want to rewire the boat, so in addition to finding newer technology, I needed to find one that would fit in the available space.

I narrowed my search down to two or three options that would fit, were at least theoretically suitable for the marine environment, and would provide pure sine wave output.  Two of the options could be found listed on marine supplier websites with prices north of $1500.  The third option was from Renogy, a company that is more well known for solar and off-grid land based setups, but claimed their unit was marinized and could handle the more corrosive environment found on a boat.  The fact that their unit was also 1/2 to 1/3 the price of the others, I decided I would give it a try.

Renogy 3000w pure sine wave inverter
(Image from Renogy.com)

The unit was a bit longer than my old one, fortunately, that was the one dimension where I had a bit of extra space.  Otherwise, it was a direct replacement as it specified the same gauge battery cables and fuses and was a mostly drop-in replacement.  Wiring was pretty straight forward, and other than finding and replacing a poorly crimped cable end on one of my cables, the unit itself wasn't too difficult to install.  The unit comes with a remote panel, but unlike the Xantrex, it is not very informative, just a switch with a couple of status LEDs.  A remote that mimics the on-board display would be a better option, and hopefully they will consider making one.  The remote was also smaller than the Xantrex, so I had to custom fabricate a plate to mount the new remote where the old one was.  Fortunately, this was easy to accomplish by purchasing a 3-gang black switch plate from the local hardware store and making a few modifications.

Other than the remote display and a couple minor quirks, so far I really like the unit.  Unlike the Xantrex, it has a very clean, pure sine wave output. Things like my induction plate and microwave are happier about the supplied power.  It also switches over to inverter power much faster than the Xantrex, so the microwave clock doesn't need to be reset and the TV doesn't even flicker.  The most annoying thing about it is that the battery charger cannot be disabled when the unit is on and the AC circuits downstream of the inverter are not active in bypass mode when the inverter is off.  These are minor issues and easy to work-around, but would be nice features to add.  Given I could buy 2 or 3 of these for the price of the others, to me it is a worthwhile tradeoff.

Another bigger project is replacement of my old chartplotter.  The main reason for its demise is that the prior owner of the boat did quite a hack job when installing that resulted in a large hole behind it and so I never removed it from the helm.  I could possibly replace just the screen and maybe the seals that caused the current problem with the unit, but just like the inverter, the entire unit is older and I suspect other internals are likely soon to have problems as well.  I could buy a new unit from Garmin that would be mostly a drop in replacement with the same 8" display, but that will set me back about $2k...not to mention I'm not a huge fan of Garmin.  

The other option to replace the chartplotter is to essentially build my own.  There are a couple of open-source software packages out there that are capable of replacing an existing chartplotter and can better integrate most of my Garmin and Raymarine instruments.  For the cost of a Raspberry Pi computer, a touchscreen display, and a few other electronic bits, I could have a more capable chartplotter than what I have now.  All that for what should come in at under $500 and some of my time.

Openplotter running on my Raspberry Pi.

I decided to go this route and have been working on the solution for a little while.  I'm using OpenPlotter, which includes the OpenCPN chartplotter software, SignalK for data integration, and a variety of interfaces to deal with a variety of instrument data.  Above is a picture of my working system on a 15" touchscreen display that is temporarily hooked up to my boat instruments.  You can see current wind, depth, location, direction, speed, pitch and roll information.  You can even see the AIS data from a few nearby boats in the marina.  Not displayed but working is the radar information and overlay.  Since the computer isn't mounted yet, the sensors aren't fully calibrated so some of the information like pitch and roll are a bit off...but it is sufficient for proof of concept.  And for the first time since I've owned the boat, I can now send route data to the autopilot.  The only thing I haven't figured out yet is how to get more detailed sonar information as Openplotter doesn't seem to have a means of supporting a fish-finder type of sonar.  This solution will also be setup so I can easily detach the display and store it inside.

The final bigger project I'm working on is my refrigerator.  Over the past several years it had started developing an issue where the compressor made multiple attempts before it successfully started.  Originally, this was infrequent, but more recently it has happened with increasing frequency to the point that it was no longer reliable.  While looking into the issue I noted that the compressor was rather old and had significant surface corrosion.  Apparently the original controller had failed at some point and was jury-rigged with one from Alder Barbour.  So, my best guess is that either the controller or the compressor was the likely the current issue...of course, that makes up the vast majority of the system.  As a reliable refrigerator is necessary for any longer trip, I decided to bite the bullet and replace the whole system.  New systems have more efficient compressors and often come pre-charged so at least I won't need a refrigeration technician to come install it.

Seafrost BDxp Refrigerator system
(image from Seafrost)

The original system was from SeaFrost. Not wanting to significantly alter the setup, I decided to go with them again.  After talking with someone from SeaFrost (I think it may have been the owner), I decided to get the upgraded version with a bit higher capacity.  The belief is that it should be sufficient to store ice cream (something that was just a bit beyond the ability of the old system).  The old setup of the refrigerator is what is known as a spillover system.  Some of the cold of the freezer "spills over" into the refrigerator side through some holes to provide refrigeration.  While this does work, it does have some drawbacks.  There was a tendency for items at the bottom of the refrigerator section to freeze while the top was barely within the safe zone for a refrigerator.  With the increased capacity of the new system, I think this issue might become worse.  So, I also intend to alter the spillover system by adding a duct, small fan, and temperature control in hopes that it will better meter the temperature of the refrigerator as well as provide a bit of air circulation to keep the temperatures a bit more uniform.  

So, those are the bigger projects currently going on or completed.  Hopefully they all will be done soon and I can head south and to the Bahamas.