dmr

Since we have relocated our "winter canal" from the K&A to the Rochdale I have very much changed my thinking about "short distance CC'ing. Canals need boats, amd especially they need good boaters. A good boater is anyone that adds a bit of life to te canals and does not antagonise the locals. The only real issue is massive overcrowding that prevent other boates from visiting the area, and even this is a relative sort of thing. Trying to encourage or even force boats to move a longer distance is not a good way to tackle congestion. CRT are a bit limited by the waterway act but with a bit of thought and luck there are probably better approaches. Some places are popular and will always be busy even without over stayers. Stone springs to mind. I am with Goliath on this, its ok if its difficult to find a mooring, or a long walk to the pub, its only a real problem if you go somewhere and there is just nowhere to moor. Visiting places that are popular and rammed, and then moving to the lonely widerness, is all part of the fun.

Nah, Ive just paid £4.80 for another one of the Cloudwater beers and it was very good, but still lots of stuff at £3.80.

I didn't mean hunting, just the speed jumping between the two adjacent "digitisation" states due to the low speed resolution and some sort of noise, not an issue but it just looks bad. Likewise Zeus only displays and logs temperature to a 1 degree resolution but it holds that temperature really well so its internal measurement must have more resolution (or averaging). I just don't like seeing digitisation steps 😀

Many many years I had the use of a minicomputer that had ROM chips based on real OTP fuses, and the myth is true, over time the blown fuses really do grow back and make some horrible bugs. The Zeus rpm does bounce between two adjacent values, just like yours, so if I have set a speed dependant duty cycle limit that bounces about too, no real problem but it looks a bit messy on the logged data.

You will note that in my plot a few posts back I was really lucky because current, duty cycle and temperature all fit very nicely on the sames Y axis.😀 I note that your speed resolution is low, just like the Zeus. It should be possible to do much better, especially if the controller has a counter/timer, but this will depend on both hardware and software detail. I do not yet know if Zeus is going to handle end of charge detection correctly as a low current could be due to a fully charged battery OR potentially due to the engine speed dropping and not taking account of low speed duty cycle reduction. I suspect our market is very small and most sailing boats will not see as much big speed changes as canal boats, but there is always mooring manouvers so it should be ok. I think I read that the Wakepeed can go into a zero current mode rather than a zero charge/float mode, dunno if the Zeus can do the same. A liitle job later this week is to get a proper ignition light working. I reckon a relay on the old ignition wire will do this. (output from diode trio activates a changeover relay and breaks the indicator light drive. Neater than a big resistor.)

NBTA are very good at getting publicity for their (one) side of the story, and it works. During all those little conversations that we have with the public at locks I have during previous campaigns been told "CRT are going to evict you all if you don't travel 100 miles every month" (or whatever). And evicting attractive young professional couples with children, or disabled old men 😀, is a much better story that the 1995 waterways act and a funding gap etc.

Its a real problem, most modern car radios are all about bluetooth sources and working hands free with the phone and streaming spotify from the phone. Actual radio reception is an afterthought. and I share yiur frustration about finding the on-off switch. Am currently listening to radio 4 streamed from the internet to the PC and sent via an optical cable to the bookshelf speakers, 😀 I was defeated by the radio but will try again in a couple of days.

Coming up the Rochdale through Newton Heath year before last we had eggs thrown. Somebody said the locals have gone soft, they used to throw bricks. Going towards Wallsall we got stuck on shopping trolleys under the bridge to the supermarket. Locals on the bridge started to tear up bread and throw the bits at us, a bit like feeding the ducks I suppose. At Gas street the chef in the hotel wrapped all the breakfast leftovers in tinfoil and threw them at us, some went in the cut but we caught most of it.

Skinners Union made some lovely carburetors, but those electric fuel pumps with the funny springy thing at the bottom did have a few problems 😀.

Speak to somebody who knows about these things. Some reads/grasses can be good, and might even make a home for a water vole. Others can take over the canal and so be really destructive.

Yes, the 1E (rotational frequency) component is actually a pitch. Many off the shelf 3 cylinder engines will have an out of balance flywheel and front pulley to turn half of this into a yaw as a best compromise. A proper (automotive) design would establish the sensitivity of the vehicle structure to the various force inputs and design the mounts and pitch/yaw split correctly. This is also sometimes done on big plastic boats but I don't know if it has been tried on a narrowboat, it would be an interesting project. Balance shafts use/waste a bit of power and would have limited gain on a three due to the various frequencies, they work a treat on the I4 (standard inline four cylinder engine) as this has one major harmonic (but do have to run at twice engine speed). Traddy boats have a rigidly mounted big heavy engine, I don't know how well a lighter modern regidly mounted engine would work but suspect boaters who choose not to have a "proper" engine aspire to near xero noise and vibration so mounts are the way to go. Putting the engine right at the back of the boat is probably good for noise but maybe not optimum for vibration.

In a modern car one or more mounts are often quite high up to give a "neutral axis" installation where the mounts are on the axis about which the engine wants to rotate. In boats the mounts are low down and not "designed" so more engine movement is likely. The three cylinder engine is quite difficult as it produces two harmonic series, one at the firing frequency (1.5 times rotation) and one at rotation frequency, so its difficult to steer clear of all the resonances.

I like a boat with an engine room, Jims boat doesn't even have an engine 'ole, its just got a big white thing stuck on the back 😀. Have helped a friend up the C&H in a 55 footer, I really would not fancy doing those locks in a 60 footer. Got a bit restless with the home moorer stuff so having a few days out, left the mooring at 9:30 yesterday morning and sitting in the Golden Lon with a pint in hand before 3, I reckon we could almost keep up with the hire boats.

Yes, we do have a liitle pang of sadness each time we turn let coming out of the Leigh branch, but even more as we pass the turn to the Rufford Arm. Still dream of a second "Northern Boat" but think two boats is just too much maintanance. Have invested in some premium bonds 😀 ...........and we do do the Manchester 18 twice every year 😀