Hydroponics
We have completed the first grow cycle and are happy to report that it works like expected. In this article the steps from sewing to harvest. Tuesday one week ago we started both the spotted peas and the salad mix which consists of garden cress, reddish, mustard, turnip and arugula.
We have completed these projects and everything is in perfect condition now. Every bearing and seal was replaced and despite some marks of 30 year service, it feels and operates like new again. By doing this ourselves, we now know every detail of the system, including how to shift the
Hydroponics
We have been growing microgreens for many years now and eat them every day. It was time to start a final design using all the experience we gained. I am including all the design files in this post but this isn’t particularly easy to print, but with a little
Electrical
Over the years we have experienced multiple incidents around electric winches, including recently while removing our forestay with furler and the winch wouldn’t stop, which happened multiple times. We also had winches start turning by themselves. All those problems are caused by malfunctioning winch control switches, which is why
We have had an engine control box in the engine room for the past 10 years and have learned that this is an item every cruiser should have. The main functions are assisting start and stop of the engine, connecting the alternator regulator, the original engine control panel (if not
These big 12V motors have brushes with two wires attached and the spring engages in between the two, making it impossible to “park” the spring in the side. Probably with two people there’s enough hands and finger to pull all four brushes aside to get the commutator in but
Back in 2005 we replaced our rigging in Trinidad. As part of the deal with Trinidad Rigging, I asked Jonas to be involved with everything like an apprenticeship to learn everything about our rig. He took it quite seriously, even had me buy and study the “Sail and Rig tuning”
Both the dual speed ELS units were in great shape electrically, with their reference voltage set at about 220A gear-switch and cutoff current (50mV reference voltage) which is correct for the 12V Ocean 66 winches. I removed the deteriorated and ugly rubber plugs for wiring them and closed the
Electronics
In the picture above the modifications that I decided on for modifying my Lewmar 58 single speed ELS control box from 12V to 24V. The important difference is that I went back to the original 12V contactor and added a LM2596 DC-DC buck converter that outputs 12V to power
Electronics
The Lewmar winches size 55 and up must have this Electric Load Sensing module while it is available as an option for smaller models. For Jedi it means we have these on our model 58 and the two 66’s. The ELS monitors the current to the winch and interrupts
3D
The nozzle hit the print during a production run for new Profurl foil coupler bushings/bearings which are hefty enough to bend this nozzle. I was surprised to find that the thermal paste was hardened and crumbling… with electronics it stays a paste forever but of course this nozzle reaches
Rigging
After rebuilding the gearbox for the Lewmar 44, we look at our big winches: one 58 and two 66’s. These have the same motor/ gearbox units. The two 66’s are our primary winches and the starboard winch was in a bad state when we bought this boat and