The blog of the design, construction, and launching of the vessels "The Floating Empire", "Tesla's Revenge", and the shantyboat "Dragonfly", floating tinyhomes made from recycled or repurposed materials.
You know, today went rather well. Today dawned beautiful and rather cooler than the last few days. The new power controller for the motor turned up today. Disgusted with the thing WildernessEV sent us, I just went ahead and ordered one of these Chinese jobs for light electric vehicles.
What the hell? We gave it a shot.
The unit supposedly will handle 100A at 48 volts (they say 5000 watts). When it arrived I was rather surprised how light it was, but then realized that the old unit was one massive aluminum heat sink and this little guy has it's own fan.
Anyway, we hooked it up for a test, and behold, it worked fabulously. Wonderful control of the motor and no over heating, even using paltry 16 Ga. wires for the test.
And, yes, I know the wires are too small. This was a test to see if it worked, and it did.
Forward, stop, and back. It all functioned beautifully. We celebrated by taking a lovely afternoon kayak sortie and by making a great meal: grilled country ribs with fresh local tomatoes and corn.
All in all, today worked. Tomorrow, I'll go get some heavier wire for the installation and the iron for the motor mount.
Ugh. Okay, so this has been a week of progress and setbacks and frustrations and triumphs and not nearly enough alcohol. Let me say this up front: If you were ever considering it (and I know I've spoken kindly of them in a couple posts a few months ago) I don't recommend you do business with WildernessEV. We purchased most of the drive components from them, and are regretting it now. With the exception of some wire connectors and the motor itself (which was shipped from the factory directly), everything we received from them was a piece of utter crap. The motor controller, on careful examination, had been used and mounted before, and when we wired it up, it simply wouldn't power up. The throttle control had been wired with used speaker wire--no, I'm not kidding--and we never received the reversing contactor for which we paid, despite assurances from them. Now they won't answer emails or phone calls.
See this lovely motor? It's the only goddam thing they sent me that worked.
Live and learn. There's several hundred dollars I'll never see again.
So I bit the bullet and ordered a new motor controller and while we were waiting I figured I would go ahead and pull and mount the lug connectors on the 4ga power cables we need to power the motor. So right in the middle of doing that, there was a pop and a fizz and the smell of something burning and we suddenly didn't have a working 12 V system.
Sigh.
Place is a wreck while we drag new wiring.
This boat has been rewired something like three times, and each time the former owner LEFT ALL THE FREAKING WIRES IN PLACE FROM THE PREVIOUS WIRING JOB. As a result, in places there are wrist-thick bundles of wire. Somewhere in there is one you need. Get the picture?
I finally got pissed off, and we dragged half of our stuff out of the lazarettes and storage cubbies, ripped out lots of dead wire, and ran new, color coded cables for our 12v system. In the midst of that we discovered that the step down transformer that drops our 48V system to 12 volts for interior lighting, navigation, etc., was the WRONG UNIT, which is why it fried.
Sigh again.
So I've spent the last three sweaty days crawling through bulkheads and under cabinets running new wire. My knuckles look like I've been prizefighting and everything else hurts, but now we have working lights, working running lights, a working radio and depth finder, some lovely 12V and USB outlets in the cockpit, and a wiring system that can be comprehended in an emergency.
Finally got the Chartplotter mounted.
Ah well.
There is some good news. The new motor controller arrives tomorrow, and we got the motor mounts (big chunky neoprene things intended for an air conditioner compressor) yesterday. We'll be running a test of the motor and controller and then, the gods of electronics cooperating, we'll be doing the install of the motor and it's mount, for which I'll supply full details and pictures.
Today, since stuff was still in shipment, we took the day off. We went for about three or four miles of kayak ride down the Middle River (visiting our old shantyboat Floating Empire in the process, but I'll save that for another day), and tonight I'll be grilling some bison burgers with fresh local corn from Zahradka's farm and a tomato salad and a nice red wine.
Sometimes we have to remind ourselves why we do this.
Thought I would give you guys a quick update on some of our recent progress. Here's a shot of the 4.7 KW motor with the shaft adapters in place. I was delighted to see they actually fit.
The shaft adapters fit, wonder of wonders.
Here's one with the motor mount fitted. This thing is gonna be a beast to drag under the cockpit and hook up.
We've got a few nice, less than the center of the sun heat days, so I'm hoping to get all this stuff together and tested. Today we'll be attaching the connections to the motor controller and checking it out. Wish us luck.
The weather this year has been nuts (and I'm afraid that may be the new normal). We had something like 14 days of rain in a row, and now we're going into our eighth day of heat warnings, with heat indexes that have soared into the 116-degree (Farenheit, that is. That's over 46 degrees Celsius) range. Neither the wife nor I were raised with air conditioning (she in Wisconsin, me in Florida) and neither of us really like it. As a result, Tesla's Revenge like Floating Empire before it, has no AC.
yeah.
In any case, weather can change the way you deal with your daily routine, and living on a vessel and that much closer to nature, you feel it more. Wind knocks you around in the slip or at anchor, heavy rain makes conversations aboard impossible, cold can rather trap you aboard in winter. As with everything, you adapt, you take the conditions into consideration. It's a part of living aboard.
Now as to heat: you have to watch your butt with heat. It's exhausting. It, like extreme cold, makes even the simplest things more difficult, and like extreme cold, it can kill. I was returning to the boat yesterday and ran into one of our slip-mates. He looked like absolute hell. "I got sick." he said. He'd been working in the sun, re-doing his hull, sanding, painting. . .he got overcooked. It happens, but heatstroke is nothing to fool with. In our friend's case, he retreated to the cabin of his air conditioned boat to recover. Mulling on it, I realized, we don't have that option. So I thought I would pass along some of the ways we deal with the heat, some of the ways we modify our behaviours and schedules to make life livable.
First of all, it must be said, most of the year it isn't an issue. Water tends to come with it some lovely breezes and moderates the temperatures, even in the tropics. This week-plus blast of temperature has been an anomaly. Most of the time, spring, summer, and fall, the temperatures are moderate, the waters refreshing, and it's pretty pleasant. Sometimes, however, nature fails to cooperate.
We try not to be stupid. When the heat index is over 100, you're not going to be working on deck, or in enclosed, poorly ventilated spaces. I don't care how much you "need to get things done" or how much free time you may have to work on the boat, you're not immune to the heat. Worse, when you do get heat-affected, you tend to get stupid and make poor choices that are at best counterproductive and at worse, dangerous. When the forecast is "this week, expect the third ring of hell during daylight hours" you need to re-make your schedule accordingly. Do paperwork. Read. Nap. Just accept the fact that, living aboard, you live closer to nature and have to partner with it, even if inconvenient. I watch our beloved ship's cat Magellan in the heat. He naps up on shore in the shade and the breeze, or parks himself on the galley table in front of the fan. I make sure he has lots of water when he needs it. You need to do the same for yourself. If you're not behaving like your pets in the heat, you're doing too much.
Magellan is disamused by the heat.
One of the other reasons we have no AC is that Tesla's Revenge is all solar-electric, and power management is an issue. Air Conditioning compressors eat a lot of power (as does refrigeration ). We were afraid, with only so much deck space for solar panels, that the draw would be excessive. Fortunately, there are some simple, low power options. The market has recently be flooded with a plethora of USB powered fans that can efficiently provide you with spot cooling and can clip anywhere on the boat.
These little 5V USB fans can clip anywhere, take little power, and can make the difference between typing and sticking to your keyboard (which this one is doing at the moment).
Another great option is the venerable box fan. They don't eat up a lot of power, move a lot of air, and can flush the hot air out of your entire vessel. Just position at one end, open the hatch at the other, and let her rip.
A staple in pre-AC days, the box fan is still a durable and effective way of moving air about.
Nights can be a challenge. There are few things more unpleasant than being there in bed naked, uncomfortable, and bathed in sweat. Fans, of course, help. We have, at times, resorted to the "redneck air conditioner" technique of sitting an ice block (frozen water in bags from wine boxes work well btw) in front of a fan. It's short term and inefficient, but it works. The heat has led some folks to creating some great DIY versions that are far less wanky and more usable .
We've used a lot of other techniques, from soaking hats to draping towels over the fans. All of them work and can make your nights a little less miserable.
And remember, if things get nasty, you're on a BOAT for pity's sake.
MOVE! Go find some nice cove with a nice breeze and anchor out.
Stay cool, guys.
Of course, some cooling options are better than others. . . .