Thanksgiving 2009

This is 1 long day in my life, and probably 1 that I would remember at future thanksgiving. I thank God that 2009 had been better than 2008.. cos we didnt get turkey last year.. For us, and like many other people, 2009 has been a year of slow recovery from our financial diaster of 2008. This year, we find ourselves in the right mood and have a little extra to celebrate with a turkey.

Weighing in at 9.5lbs, our very own little turks

What do I know about turkey cooking? Its not in my culinary skills set. So its all up to Doug.. and he makes the best turkey meals that I ever had.. 🙂 After 5 years, .. u would think that I learn a thing or 2 .. nope.. …

Stuffing with real fresh water chestnuts. They were great!

Some people find it amazing that we can cook decent meals onboard a small boat like Calliste, a 28ft BCC. Its incredible that we even have a good old marine oven and stove that would fit a small turkey.

A fun picture of Doug and turks

Doug had fun with the turkey preparation. We are all in pretty good spirits today.. 1 day later than the actual thanksgiving. A day off from work for Hari Raya Haji that we conveniently renamed Thanksgiving.. 🙂

Turks stuffed and sealed with pins.

Turks stuffed and sealed, ready for baking. ..

Golden brown turks! The skin was sooo gooooD!

.. After 3hrs of baking… yes it took all that time.. surprised? We were!

BTW, we are firm Norbest fan. Never a Buttonball for us! The red popup button indicator for fully cooked turkey is a must! And it works! All the time.

Building your own LED light Part 2

The end product.. Looks cheap, but its made mostly with recycled stuff.

(Continue from part 1…) Sorry for the delay.. was distracted by my other project.. the Yuloh oar making and testing took more time than anticipated.

Now that the LED circuit design is done and protyping is complete with satisfactory results, its time to make the fixture. In the spirit of being “eco-minded”, I try to use as much recycled stuff as possible.

The casing

I had 2″ x 3″ pieces of clear acrylic sheets left from a previous project that I use for a window, then I cut a piece of 1/8″ ply, same size as the acrylic window. Then, prepare strips of 1/8″ x 1″ corrogated plastic sheet for the edging and have some vinyl stickers handy by. ..

Or you might wanna use a casing from a old light fixture.. its easier.. 🙂

Layout plan using prefabricated PCB

Building the circuit

My placement differs from the diagram.

Here, I am using general purpose PCB board to build this circuit. 1st, plan the layout. My target board size (constrained by the 2″x 3″ window) is 1.5″ x 2.5″. Place the components on the board, arrange it as shown here. You can have your own placement ideas, just follow the design concept that I wrote about in part one, and keep in mind these 2 things below:

Look inside the lens. Supply positive to the smaller surface.

1) LEDs do have polarity. If you got it wrong, the LED could burn… so try to be careful about the placement. Inside the clear LED lens is a big plate and a small plate. The small plate should always be more positive than the big plate.

Pre-fab PCB board.

2).Lines on the PCB board are copper under green PVC preservative film and the bronze dots with holes in the middles are for pins of the component to stick thru and for soldering contact to the underlying copper strips. The lines on my layout plan correspond to these copper strips on the PCB. When making your layout plan, take these strips into consideration, like I did.

some electrical toos.

To successfully build this PCB, you will need some skills with soldering and have a few basic tools for cutting the board, trimming the leads… etc.

LED lightup testing. It works. Pretty nice huh.

LED light boxed up.

After soldering in the components, test it. Make sure it lights up before boxing it up.

And here is the box, all built up. On hindsight, I realize that I should have taken pictures of the box building … but was too eager to finish..

Sculling Eleanor… finally!

4weeks ago, I was wondering what does it take to scull Eleanor? Today, I know. The answer is Desire, Determination and Willingness to try. I mean, it sure is difficult to maintain a positive attitude after 4 years, 8 different setups.. Finally here we are, sculling Eleanor.. achieving 1.5kn. With the setup fixed, fine tuning is next on the list, hoping to achieve that 2kn.

A new setup. Golf ball pin mounted on the transom.

I found much information on sculling online to be very useful, but I guess the setup needs to be different for a boat like Eleanor..

Some people found that they were able to scull with a modified oarlock mounted on the transom, and they proved that it worked for them. I gave that a go, but the energy to hold the oar in place and swinging left and right with the right wrist twisting was too much. I was pretty much frustrasted with using too much energy and going nowhere. In my design, I want the oar to stay in place such that all my energy will be efficiently used in pushing the handle.

Pipe endcap used for a cup, mounted on the underside of the oar handle near the joint

That means, the oar should be mounted on a pin of some sort. 1st, I tried mounting the pin ( a bolt with a golf ball end on the oar and the cup on the transom. That worked well for the purpose of not wasting energy. Then I found that mounting the pin on the transom and the cup on the oar worked better.

Oar with 150 degree bent

This oar was built with scrap wood that we gathered from recycle bins and those that were just laying around. The handle is 1.75″ x 1.75″ x 6′, stem is 1.75″ x 1.75″ x 5′ and blade is 1″ x 6″ x 4′ tapered. 1 bolt joint the handle to the stem, and the plywood cheeks makes it more sturdy. The blade is screwed onto the stem. In this picture, the blade was screwed on the underside, but we changed it to the upperside and I like it much better.

Picture says it all, the oar was bent too deep.

This is how Eleanor looks with this setup… I couldnt get the leverage that I was needing from this overbent oar. A slight twist of my wrist, and the oar goes from 1 side to the other. Its only thru testing that we learn what works and what dont.. right.. Okay, resetting the angle to 165 degrees.

Setting a new angle in the oar..

The new angle works very well… IMO.

Eleanor sculling away from her berth

How does this look to you? Better? I hope. In my left hand, I am holding another golf ball pin that gives me control over the blade facing. It saves my hands from holding to tightly over the handle for the twisting motion. I like this better than using the lanyard.

Pull stroke.

Thats me taking Eleanor away from berth by oar. My GPS recorded a steady 0.8kns and a peak of 1.2kns. Thats a good improvement using this crude prototyping setup. Me thinks that I will gain another 0.5 kn with more fine tuning on the blade shape and practice will hone my muscles to be more effective in my strokes. Doug recorded a peak of 1.7kns, but having to expend way too much energy getting there..

I am looking forward to comments and ideas on better sculling setup. Please share your experience and sculling stories with me.

Why should boats have EYEs.. ?

Just why do people add eyes to their boats? …Hmm….?

There are many Asian folklore about boat needing eyes. The Chinese believe that every boat needs eyes to safely bring itself and its crew back to port in heavy weather. Some believe that eyes on a boat ward off demons… could it be that demons lure the boats away and never to be seen again?

Eyes on Asian boats.

……………So its a folklore thingy, but hey.. maybe eyes do add a little something to boats… In the past era, all the boats in a Asian harbour have the same “eyes”. That makes it easy to identify the non local boat in the harbour. I did a little Google research and LOOK! at all the different looking “eyes”. I wonder if they is 1 artist in each port that specialize in eye painting during that time..

Eye of horus

Well, this the modern adaptation for yachts.. 🙂 Precision cut with vinyl sticker material that is waterproof and UV resistant. Low maintenance, high durability.

Eyes with Vietnam origins. Custom order and a fun one for me.

So what do ya think of these new eyes? Am thinking of eyes for Eleanor too.. 🙂

Building your own LED lighting part 1

I have been fascinated by LED lights since my 1st contact with them 20 years ago, mainly the small greenish light on the computer casing that indicates power on and another for HD spinning… 🙂 These little lights have been serving that application so well, that its still being used.

Calliste head illuminated by forty-eight LEDs

But they have certainly come a long way since its invention. The radical changes to its brightness and colors in the past 10 years, made it useable in many more applications like traffic lights, flashing signages, decorative lighting, automotive lighting, etc … Most interesting to me, small space lighting.. because the common LED light is very narrowly focused, it does not diffuse well for lighting a room, but new LED lights are being introduced at a very fast rate and soon it will be possible for the indoor room lighting that is affordable to most people. I mean.. now it is available, but not that affordable to most. .. and me.. I refuse to afford 1 sensibulb for US$40. Maybe there will come a time when the price will drop to $10.. but in the meantime, using all my education and experimental skills, I am building my own LED cabin lights for Eleanor.. and maybe Calliste, if Doug approves.. 

I am also hoping that my blogging about it will help fellow sailors switch to these “Amp pinchers”.. .. its really quite cheap if you know how to build it yourself.

LED electric 101

Quick and easy way of trying out my designs.

I classify common LED as 1) between $0.10 to $0.50 ea. 2) available in small quantities (< 1000 pieces). 3) operates at voltage and current range of 2.5-3.5V, 5-100mA.

This picture shows my testing setup. The board with holes is commonly known here as the “breadboard”.. not sure how it got its name.. It is the greatest tool in my electric work kit. Just plug in the resistors and LEDs, and only 2 jumpers in my 1st setup. If you buy this board, read the instruction on how to use it properly.

12V LED circuit. These values are calculated. Real circuit values will differ due to operating tolerance of each component.

Here, I am trying to build a cabin reading light on Eleanor. This light fixture will be connected to a 12V battery. Using this 12V input, I want to generate the optimum amount of reading light with the least energy consumption. The question is, how many LEDs do I need and what current do I supply to the circuit to produce the light that I want?

I start out by testing a series 4 LED setup for 12V and supplying 20mA. The series 4 LED setup is the most efficient for 12V as each LED will be supplied with the optimum 3V voltage (as spec’ed), and the V drop across the resistor is a minimal 0.2V. Since this test is only 1 row of series 4 LED and my target current is 20mA, I calculate the resistance for this circuit using this formula: R= V/ I(target) -> R = 12/ 0.02 -> R = 600 Ohms. The result from this test gives me a initial feel of the brightness of 1 row 4 series LED. Note: 20mA = 0.02A, use 0.02A because the unit of measurement of the formula is A!

Next, I increase the target current to 50mA. Using the same formula: R= 12/0.05 -> R = 240 Ohms. I like this light color and intensity much better. Note, the optimum performance of these common LEDs is in the range of 20 to 30mA. 50mA is not the optimum, but I like it, so I use it.

Now, its a matter of increasing the number of LED rows to achieve the brightness that I want. The key here is, to increase in rows of series 4 LEDs and to adjust the resistance for maintaining 50mA. For adding rows, I apply the principle of current divider in this circuit. To supply 50mA to each row, that means total current across the resistor should be (number of rows) x 50mA. For example, 4 rows  series 4(thats 16 LEDs in total) at 50mA each, total current will be 4 x 0.05A, = 0.2A. To supply 0.2A across the resistor, R= 12/0.2 -> 60 Ohms.

Get the picture? Use this sequence of thinking. 1) What is the supply voltage? 2) How many LEDs will the supply voltage support in 1 row? 3) Determine much current to supply and how many rows is needed to get your desired brightness.

Alright, I am satisfied with the 4 rows series 4 setup. Now I am ready to make this fixture. I will post the making of the light fixture later.

How does this LED light compare to other lighting options? Lets see. A 9W flourescent draws 0.8A and produces 400 lumens. My setup here draws 0.2A and produces 128 lumens(estimate from 16 x 8lumens specified in spec). The 9W light fills the cabin better, but the LEDs is a great flicker free reading light for a small area and it uses 1/4 of the current for the 9W light. I would probably be able to light the cabin effectively using 4 LED light fixtures because it produces a 512 lumens brightness in total, but it should be distributed to be effectively. I mean, if all 4 LEDs are mounted together in 1 spot, the light is very bright and focused on 1 area. I find that it is more effective to mount them separately. .. Will show how its setup on Eleanor .. later.. when I finish.. see, I am just posting after every stage of my testing here..

Sculling Eleanor – what does it take?

I had been wanting to scull Eleanor since many years ago, but all my previous setup were just not right.. and I had no idea what was wrong. .. There were nobody that had any real sculling experience that I could understudy around me. Internet info was as good as it gets, but not enough to help me understand whats wrong with my setup or my strokes. .. It was pure good luck that, after 3 yrs of not thinking about sculling, I discover a sculler among our midst!

1st prototype with sculling oarlock.

My sculling lesson with Terry rekindled my interest in sculling Eleanor. It was a matter of setup and strokes. Now that I am getting the strokes right practising on a dinghy, next step is to figure how to make it work on Eleanor. 19ft and 1 tonne, that makes sculling Eleanor alot more dependent on setup. I mean, sculling is possible, all it takes is either superpower or super efficient setup for the small size little o’ me.

Sculling near the aft, short pivot distance, small leverage = high energy needed for each stroke

This is our 1st setup, 1 weekend after my sculling lesson. We could scull Eleanor using this setup, but it is very slow and very tiring.

Sculling from midship, better leverage but oar has tendency to dig in, resulting in overhead sculling

Not something we could keep doing for 15mins.. and not sure if we were making any real progress at all..

Oar pin with golf ball for pivoting

Using this setup, we analysed what could be done to improve the strokes with alot less effort. 1) A lot of energy is spent on keeping the oar in the right balanced location in the oarlock. The oar has a tendency to slide, and so I have to work to counter. 2) Adding a oriental lanyard may help “cocking” the oar and keeping it in place, such that I am not sculling with hands above my head.

Sculling in action.

I recognize that, the 1st step to efficient sculling would be to not waste energy balancing the very heavy 14ft oar. A oarlock design that fixes the position of the oar will be the 1st improvement that we should work on.

After 1 week of internal brain storming, this is my new setup. Using a long bolt, golf ball, thick walled PVC pipe section and small PVC pipe to cover the threads. Setup the large “pin” as shown. Attach the large “pin” to the oar, fixing the position of the oar at my most prefered sculling seat position. The sculling base is a piece of Aluminium plate, stuck onto wood with a 2″ wide, 3″ depth hole. The base is mounted onto the utility bolt studs that was meant for a swim ladder. This is just a mock up and every material used were just whatever we had in stock.

Our 2nd setup worked much better. We were definately making progress, albeit slow… at 0.5kn (measured using the GPS). In this setup, it was easy for me to get into the swing of things and I could scull a solid 1hr without getting 1/2 as tired as before! That was the good news.

There were afew things that surprise us. We never thought, that the slight curve on Eleanors’ transom would make a significant difference sculling blade angle. The starboard angle was alot more than the port angle as a result of the slight tilt. That was enough to give Eleanor the tendency to veer starboard and we could not compensate for it using the tiller… but possibly a slight modification to the base would be enough to change that. The other surprise was, that the oar had too much buoyancy and so the oriental lanyard didnt work. We pull on it and the oar jump right out of the water. hmm…

Okay, so we get a 0.5kn with this setup. My target is 1.5 to 2kn. We will be back to testing after some tuning.. come back again next week if you are interested to know what we did and how it performed.