MacGregorSailors.com

Sheppie62 wrote: ↑Mon May 02, 2022 1:11 pm This should keep you boat safe

Nahhhh…..
Didn’t work out very well if I recall…. Most of crew and boat were worse off at the end than at the beginning…

Best Regards
Over Easy
fudt

Russ wrote: ↑Mon May 02, 2022 3:15 pm Got the Boat-Cam installed. It's consuming about 1.8 watts. The cell phone it's tethered to via WiFi hotspot is another .5 watts. The 100W solar panel should be able to serve it well. I upgraded to a MPPT solar controller which is very cool. It has bluetooth so I can also remotely monitor battery and charging status as well as historical data.

Okay...next up. Get the boat wet.

Looks good. Is it always recording or just when it sees motion?

Be Free wrote: ↑Tue May 03, 2022 9:01 am Looks good. Is it always recording or just when it sees motion?

I can be set to record constantly. My concern is that will use more power (encoding). So I have it set to just record motion events. It then sends me an alert to the phone.

I'm pleased with this $36 camera. The app is robust and easy to configure. Highlander's camera is probably superior. But for the price, this will work nicely. I'm mostly concerned about nasty Thunderstorms and checking on the boat remotely. Marina is 90 minutes away and in the past our floating dock has seen some damage.

Russ

very nice , hope u hooked up that 12v timer to the cell ph charger so as not to cook ur cell ph batt , I changed my charge time from a 2hr charge every day to a 1hr charge every 12hrs as I found if their was a lot of activity around my dock & boat the ph batt would die after 20hrs & I,d loose my hot spot , so this should work better once I install the P/T cam I may have to increase the charge times , but I,m gonna check my ph again to make sure their is no unwanted app,s running the bat & data down

BTW , Did I just see a mouse peeking outa the top of ur entrance hatch



Just thought I,d bring that to ur attention
I see a no no U leave ur head sail on ur furler all winter , all my sails get aired dry & packed in plastic bins inside storage for the winter
J

Highlander wrote: ↑Tue May 03, 2022 11:45 am Russ

very nice , hope u hooked up that 12v timer to the cell ph charger so as not to cook ur cell ph batt

...

Just thought I,d bring that to ur attention
I see a no no U leave ur head sail on ur furler all winter , all my sails get aired dry & packed in plastic bins inside storage for the winter
J

I haven't hooked up the timer yet. In fact the charger isn't permanently wired yet. I'll do that next. However, the "boat phone" is an old phone with the screen coming off and battery already ruined. But it works as a WiFi hotspot. I'll charge it every 12 hours.

I do leave the headsail on and strapped to the mast. However, it's been covered in a tarp all winter protecting it. I just uncovered the boat and getting ready for the season.

Ahh...that mouse has been evading me. I'll get him.

Hi Russ!

Justaheadsup…..
Old phone batteries can short as I’ve seen happen!
Make a really nice flame for about 5 minutes that even an ABC Extinguisher didn’t put out!
Turns out he had the phone for about 8 years and had noticed the back case was just slightly swollen but kept using it anyway.
The battery useful life was expired and it had developed an internal short which led to the catastrophic failure.
Fortunately this happened in an open area where he was able to drop the phone on the concrete.
He wasn’t using it but was kept in his front pants pocket.
Aside from the jokes about roasting chestnuts on an open fire and making a Gawd awful mess with the ABC extinguisher this had a relatively benign outcome.



While this is a mechanical puncture of a cell phone battery something similar happens when an old Li Battery heats up when charging or swells with age and developers an internal short. The foil and isolators sheet are incredibly thin in these batteries and it doesn’t take much to distort and possibly short internally.

The other thing is even when discharged the lithium is still very reactive if exposed to air (such as with an old swollen battery breaking it’s casing.



Just a note of reasonable caution when dealing with old Lithium batteries.

Best Regards
Over Easy

That,s usually due to over charging or improper handling , Thus the reason for using a timer on ur cell ph charger to prevent this happening also if u see a cel ph batt swelling up it,s shorting & will need constant charging which should tell that batt needs to b removed from said cell ph or other appliance & recycled ! & replaced with a new batt !
I,ve heard of Laptop batts catching fire also , thats why u can,t put them in ur check in luggage on air planes must go with ur carry on & one of the main causes of that is that people leave their lap tops on charge constantly while using them as a desk top computer instead of turning on the smart charge feature on ur lap top which will monitor ur lap top battery & charge it as required when needed while plugged in ! also known on some lap tops & tablets as Batt safe/save mode or other Batt charge mode !
constant full charging will deplete ur cell ph / tablet / lap top batt life by 50% or more

Did u know that toasters & Mico waves r the biggest cause of kitchen fires when no bodies home , I had a built in micowave two yrs old catch fire while not in use apparently turned itself on while mty first time they repaired it 10 months happened again they offered to replace it I said no thx I,ll buy another appliance from another manufacturer I,m not just talking about smoke, actual flames melting the mico inside smoke alarm going crazy lucky I was home both times so when u go away for any length of time un plug them

J

Hi Highlander!

Yes and Yikes!

Yes, most Lithium batteries catch fire while charging as you mentioned. It is when there are more things available to go wrong.
The others catch fire due to age ( actual chemistry and cyclic charging effects…both infrequent and hyper frequent charging )

Charging:
Seems that there can-be both good and bad sides to charging.
The sitting battery that maybe is deeply discharged and then gets rapidly recharged not only can get hot it also mechanically stresses the battery structure.
The minimally discharged battery that is always frequently on the charger is more chemically stressed which changes the chemistry and damages the thin film structure.

Yes, limiting the time the charger comes on is much better and would reduce the window of opportunity for things to go awry!

Old age:
The chemistry changes and structural degradation catches up over time ( to batteries as well as us ).
There are expiration dates on some Lithium batteries now I understand.
(Funny that the weakest battery structures and lowest quality “pouch type” Lithium batteries are imbedded with childrens toys are also often non serviceable and are apt to be simply tossed in the broken toy garage/basement/closet/attic pile for perpetuity )
If the inner chemistry is exposed to air and/or moisture the lithium reacts. Hopefully slowly and only fizzles.)

That’s where using old and potentially damaged/stressed cell phones and batteries has concern.

Yikes! Now that microwave and toaster aspect is a big problem.
Glad you were home and nothing more serious occurred when yours microwave went south!

Our built in microwave is also wired in with the the range and oven which only can be switched off at the breaker.
Mother In Law used to have a ‘ghost’ in her blender.
In the strangest times, often in the weirdest times, it would turn itself on at whatever speed it felt like!
(She was quite ‘religious’ about unplugging all her appliances when not in use!)
Sounds like she was on the right approach there.

Problem is there are so many appliances that are ‘smart’ nowadays that require initialization (generally to set up the time but some are WiFi and Bluetooth enabled) that turning them on/off can get to be a hassle.

Thanks for the heads up!

Best Regards
Over Easy
fudt

Here’s an interesting ‘security bolt’ idea

I’d be pretty paranoid leaving anything on aboard a stored boat. On mine. The anchor and trim lights are wired outside the switch panel panel, so I can shut everything else off at the battery. 1 dc accessory plug is also live, into which I plug an electronic pest repeller which seems to work well. I fold the main solar panel
down, and leave the smaller ones to maintain the battery. Waiting for a manufacturer to offer a self contained solar camera which will snap a low Rez picture to send, and keep a higher one in storage if desired. Hopefully I could locate a discreet place to aim it at the boat.

Ix

OverEasy wrote: ↑Wed May 04, 2022 11:12 am Here’s an interesting ‘security bolt’ idea

Seeing the process Is very interesting, thanks for sharing that.

Hi Sheppie62!

Glad you enjoyed it!
Just wondering what interesting things the people on this forum could make via the lost wax process.
Doing it with a 3D printer via a “home” foundry is sort of interesting.
(In High School we had an excellent structured industrial metal shop program part of which involved precision casting.
Aside from the standard one and two part iron and sand molds I branched out into lost wax via carved styrofoam.
Made aluminum pin vices for fly tying with imbedded steel threaded components which were an interesting set of projects.
Later professional life had engineering of SST precision components that were densified via HIPPing for high vacuum environment, satellite components in beryllium copper, and high temp aerospace alloys for turbine engine blades, vanes, and shrouds.)

Aluminum casting can be something that one can do with relatively low costs (but a lot of safety concerns…it IS molten metal.
Just another way of opportunity to get something accomplished.

Best Regards
Over Easy
fudt

So far I’m impressed with this cheap little camera. We FINALLY got Luna launched and setup in her slip.

The camera doesn’t seem to have many false triggers from rocking etc.

I’m not using it for security. Mostly to check on the boat after storms (we are 90 minutes away) and to see what the local weather is doing before heading up there




Night

Lookin Good Russ

J

Highlander wrote: ↑Wed Jun 22, 2022 4:05 pm Lookin Good Russ

J

How is your point and tilt camera working for ya?

I set this to record. I'll report on the chatter dockside later.