Blog articles tagged electrics

Recent articles

25 Apr 2017

Ubuntu 16.10 LXC host on ZFS Root, with EFI and Time Machine

Still completely unrelated to boats, but I needed somewhere to put this. Here is a blow-by-blow guide to installing a minimal Ubuntu 16.10 to a ZFS root, booted from EFI, which as used as a LXC host to act as an Apple "Time Machine" destination.

mike 25 Apr 2017 at 17:20

14 Mar 2017

How to connect any serial device to the internet

A completely generic script that will proxy serial devices over HTTP, turning USB-things into internet-things.

mike 14 Mar 2017 at 23:00

26 May 2016

The Engine

The setup of the Yamaha F9.9 engine - I replaced the Yamaha 703 control box with a flush mounted equivalent and some custom electronics, and linked the engine to the tiller (and a rudder angle sensor for good measure)

mike 26 May 2016 at 16:25

26 May 2016

The Boat Computer: a tragedy in six parts

This article is 500 words of rant, covering in excruciating detail the five computers I destroyed or discarded before settling on a sixth that actually works - a Raspberry Pi 3 with some UUGear hubs. Likely nothing of interest here unless you're installing a low-power computer in a vehicle and need lots of USB devices.

mike 26 May 2016 at 13:06

29 Jan 2016

Electrics, part 2 of ∞

Power switching I've had this installed for about a year now and it's working very well, so I'm finally prepared to go public - while there are a few changes I would make, the system works. I've previously outlined the broad design goals. This one will focus on the implementation. I wanted every circuit to be switchable manually or from a computer, and to be able...

mike 29 Jan 2016 at 12:06

05 Jul 2015

Electrics, part 1 of ∞

Design Overview I gather there are two approaches to boat electrics, minimal and complex. It's fair to say I've gone for complex. I had several goals at the start of this project. I want to be able to get as much data as possible in an open format and crunch it. At the time that meant NMEA0183, as the protocol was easy to work with (and extend) with relatively ...

mike 05 Jul 2015 at 23:20

31 Mar 2015

LiFePo4 battery

This article is turning into a bit of a long story. It was originally published on 31st March 2015, but there are lots of updates since then. Check the bottom for new content. Latest update is 7th September 2015 Part of the fun here is playing with new technologies, which includes Lithium Batteries. As any fule know those are the ones that explode, are horrendously expe...

mike 31 Mar 2015 at 01:06