I previously called these gadgets a scam or at least a barely allowed trick and I did receive some feedback on that, asking if a company like Victron really is selling a scam product so let me put this into context with this post: I call these gadgets scams or
You can buy a LIM for $1000-$2000, which is a great deal for a hospital operating room but a bit stiff for a sailboat where nobody dies when AC power is disrupted. A couple remarks before diving in: the diagram above is conceptual, not an actual schematic, which requires
In part one we arrived at the input bus where incoming AC power, if any, is present. This incoming power is used to charge the batteries and/or to feed the distribution panels for use throughout the boat. Multiplus inverter/chargers I recommend two identical units that are special-ordered from
For these posts I am using a diagram that closely follows our actual installation aboard Jedi. In this post I discuss the input side: the shore power and generator inputs, the transfer switch, the input bus and the P conductor busbar. I present a detailed description of an installation that
Now that we have solar arrays, lithium batteries and good electronics to run everything, it is time to upgrade the AC part of our systems to a safer and better setup. This better system is insulated floating power distribution, like used in hospitals, war ships and commercial ships and other
We are aboard the Nieuw Statendam, a Holland America Line Pinnacle Class ship, traveling from Florida to Rotterdam. This ship has Starlink and we have the entry level wifi package that allows email en web browsing. So that’s great to try everything we set up on our MacMini back
Cloud data became popular with the introduction of Dropbox and today we have iCloud, Google Drive, OneDrive etc. that are all massively popular. While everyone accepts their small print conditions without even reading them, we know from sources like Snowden that governments do mass data surveillance including hacking and threatening
We run several websites on our MacMini, each with it's own URL, like http://blog.sv-jedi.org/ and http://files.sv-jedi.org/. With only our router having a public IP number, this means that in DNS these names all point to the same IP number, which is on
WireGuard was created by Jason A. Donenfeld and first appeared around 2015 as a new kind of VPN: lean, fast, modern and strong cryptography. it was added into the Linux kernel in 2020 and into the Mikrotik routers in 2022. Every serious router has it today. When your router has
The ISP we currently use for our VPN hub is Spectrum Cable. We get 700Mbps usable download bandwidth and their cable modem has a 1Gbps Ethernet port that provides us with a public IP number with DHCP. This is connected to our WAN port on the Mikrotik router. A public
Music is a large part of our lives. We have a large music collection that we prefer over any online streaming platform. In the past we converted everything to lossless digital format and used Squeezebox, Logitec and Sonos, progressing as they ceased to exist. For the last couple of years
Our experiment with growing hydroponic callaloo was a big success. This vegetable can replace spinach while growing in tropical climates and, using hydroponics, it can grow without soil aboard a sailboat. These plants can grow very large when it isn’t topped and harvested regularly. We put four in a
3D
This is the first CAD 3D design that I'm sharing on my blog. It's very useful as a tool if you need to secure a seed phrase in the safest way possible, which is stamped into stainless steel washers. You simply put the washers on a
Network
I am writing this post sooner than I planned to and the reason is that I discovered that after telephones and drones, they are now also banning simple retail wifi routers. The Orwellian future isn't future anymore... After a lot of testing and spending lots of money on
Electrical
Finally received everything I needed to finish this project. The pictures above and below show every wire and every connection. I used a Wago for the black wire running back to battery negative or busbar because that wire needs to be installed after we mount this module where we need
News
When our provider ceased operations, we lost our blog. These interruptions keep happening and we got tired of it so we decided to do everything ourselves. This new blog now runs on our own MacMini server, connected to our cable Internet ISP. This will also replace our Facebook page that
Hydroponics
Testing the new Kratky grow pod with spotted pea microgreens seems to be going pretty good
Electronics
During my time as an ISP I used to have a datacenter filled with rows of 19” cabinets that housed servers, disk systems and routers as tall as a fridge. Today I got my newest setup online: a small shelve with the smallest server I ever had, a tiny MacMini
Electrical
I designed a mount for the Blue Sea Systems Remote Battery Switch (RBS) that includes a junction box, fuses and communication ports for remote control.There are two RJ11 modular jacks that can be used in a daisy chained configuration that includes multiple RBS modules, multiple remote switches and multiple
Hydroponics
Here is our next generation of the hydroponic micro greens grow pod. I think this will be the final version: it’s a Kratky setup that you setup to go from seed to harvest in one go. It has a reservoir that has just the right amount of water to
Woodworking
Ceiling trim with two coats of varnish. It needs a light sanding followed by a third coat but the varnish is still too fresh for sanding so we’ll let it cure a bit more. We did receive the fasteners we selected and I think they look great! The strange
Electrical
Engine start inrush current measurements.The scope is at 50mV/div. The shunt is 50mV for 500A. On the time axis we have 200ms/div. We see around 60mV so 600A inrush, quickly reducing to 300A after 200ms and the engine is running after 800ms.This is a large 5.