Wiring the Electric Motor

Once the motor was installed, Carter set about running the 1/0 welding cable from the batteries in the center bilge to engine room where the motor and controller are.  First he had to run large wires to the engine room, then create the connections for the control box.

Here the wires are in the mechanical room adjacent to the bilge compartment with the batteries.

From the mechanical room they pass thru a structural bulkhead and run under the

kitchen sink in the galley.

This shows the wiring under the galley sink and going thru the cabint behind the stove.

And finally they go thru another concrete and steal structural bulkhead into the engine room right at shelving where they connect to the controller and then to the motor. 

But first, Carter will finish preparing the control board. Here the controller is mounted on an aluminum heat sink before all the control wiring is connected.

Here, Carter is making a termination on one of the welding cables. Each one is pressed on with a hammer and then soldered for a good connection.

And then a piece of shrink wrap to cover up the messy connections.

Before he can finish the motor Carter has to reroute the fuel line to the diesel engine because it was in the way of the chain.

 

Not a lot of extra room to move around the engine but it could be worse.

 For a boat this is actually a pretty spacious engine room.

Close up of the motor with the wiring installed.

Here you can see the controller on the shelf with the electric motor on the left by the engine.

Just a few more details in the mechanical room and then we'll start her up!

Stay tuned.

The Electric Motor

While we are waiting for our sample linear actuator to arrive so we can put the finishing touches on the solar array Carter decided to focus on mounting the electric motor. This has been a high anxiety project because Carter wasn't sure exactly how he was going to do it. He has worked steady for the past week fabricating the mounting brackets and figuring out how to install the thing.

With an idea in mind he started out cutting two 1/4" metal plates for each end of the motor.

After shaping them to fit better he mounted two pieces of angle on each side.

Getting the mount lined up with the drive train was critical. There where a lot of weird angles with the hull of the boat sloping up and the drive line sloping down it was going to be tricky getting the shaft properly aligned.

He fastened a piece of aluminum to drive train sprocket to line up the support angle. This worked well.

Lugging the 100+ pound motor into the engine room was a chore.

But actually getting it mounted to steel supports in the engine room was a nightmare.

Blocking, shimming, drilling, bolting.

The chain lined up perfectly.

Dirty, sweaty, skinned knuckles, and sore back but success.

Now comes the hard part, wiring the darn thing up.

More Solar Power!

We are moving ahead after our near sinking by adding more panels to the array!  We now have installed 8 of the total of 12 panels and I am PLEASED to announce that we are totally reliant on solar power for the house power!  This is a huge milestone for us.  No more stinking generator! 

It turned out to be a fairly breezy day but not enough to stop the planned activities.  The panels have to go up starting today because we must make a very necessary trip to the marina soon.  Thankfully we had no mishaps.

Day 1 - February 26th  -  Port Side

This is where we left off...2 panels on each side.  In this picture you can see the scoffolding that Carter set up for himself to use during the installation.  The panel must be in the full upright position in order for Carter to get the bolts in, so scaffolding is a must.

Introducing our new neighbor, Cracker Jack.  He's such a cool boat dog.  His owner passed away and our neighbor Pat saved him from the pound, where the family was going to put him!  Pat's a lucky man.

Getting ready for panel #3.  Carter called in our friend Garrett to assist with the heavy lifting.

Panel #4 coming aboard.

Panel #4 goes up.  There will be 2 more panels to lay horizontal in the center but those will be mounted later because the support stucture will need to be beefed up.  The wood canopy structure will  be removed as it is being replaced with much stronger aluminum support structure. 

As always, Carter is making this up as he goes along trying to utilize the matterials at hand so there are some trials and errors. 

Despite the never ending challenges, Carter is  having a good time constructing his dream,

a ship that never stops for fuel,(NSF^2) and doesn't care which way the wind is blowing.

End of Day 1

What cha doing Diane?

Dinner?  Can I stay?

Even Momma Gater was seen cruising by the grill hoping for an invite for dinner! 

Ha!  I don't think so...

Day 2 - February 27th  -  Starboard Side

Started off the day by putting the existing 2 panels in the full upright position.

8 panels up!

Port side is lifted slightly to get maximum benefit of the position of the sun.

The last two panels  will be mounted in the center slots on each side at a later date once Carter has beefed up the support stucture a bit.

It was back to the metals shop for more of the aluminum for the support system.  As I stated earlier, most of the wood support is coming out.  Also, we will be installing linear actuators next to raise and lower the panels remotely from the cockpit. 

Near Disaster!

I'm told every boater has their own personal story of a very near disastrous event.  This is mine.  January and early February turned out to be a very busy time for personal issues involving travel.  This is where my story begins.

As part of our procedure for securing the boat upon our departure, it was my responsibility to insure the shower sump was empty and dry.  In order to pump out the shower suump you have to open a valve allowing the pump to eject the water overboard.  When this is complete you must close the valve or it will siphon water back into the boat.  Albeit, slowly, but, the water will come.  Figure out where this is going yet?........I failed to close the valve upon completion of the job and we proceeded to leave the boat for two weeks.  You read it right.......two weeks! 

It was late and dark when we returned and as I entered the boat I immediately knew something was WRONG when I heard my shoes making a squish, squish sound.

"CARTER, THERE'S WATER DOWN HERE!"

  

This is the carpet in the galley swimming in river water.

We got the lights turned on to see the entire back section of the boat soaked in river water.  We knew immediately what had happened and set about to pull up the floor boards over the center bilge compartment where the battery bank is stored.  The floor panels had soaked up so much water, for such a long time, that they had swelled.  Also, the water level was up to the floor boards creating a suction so strong the we broke both of the existing pulls trying to open the compartment.  Carter was forced to bring out a power tool (picture Tim the Tool Man here) to drill a hole in one of the floor boards big enough for us to get a handhold to pull it up with.  {Sigh}  It was a terrible situation and I caused it.

This is the battery bank and the back section past the white door is the adjoining mechanical room.

Submerged Batteries

This made our hearts sink.

 

The shower sump is on the left.  We had an extra pump, pumping from the battery compartment/mechanical room into the shower sump so that it could be pumped out of the boat.

Sickening isn't it?

As it turns out, the water had siphoned back into the shower sump, spilled over the wall into the battery bank, into the mechanical room, then overflowed into the galley area (since it was lower towards the stern) finally rolling down into the engine room and into the bilge where it was pumped out of the boat by the boat saving bilge pump. 

{{{{  ALL HAIL THE BILGE PUMP  }}}}}}

I do anyway! Saved my bacon!

If the bilge pump had failed, the boat could have sunk and we arrived just as the engine 12V batteries that run the bilge pump died! The lights where very dim because the engine batteries had dropped to 8Volts as the pump had been pumping so much while we where gone.  Although the engine room sump had recently been pumped out, as soon as we started the generator it began to pump again so apparently the batteries had just given up the day before we got back. That was a close one.
We worked until 2 AM that night/morning pumping the water out, wet vacuuming the carpets and hauling the batteries outside.  Anyone know how heavy a single battery is?  Approximately 80 lbs. and Carter removed 7 batteries that night while I wet vac-ed all the carpet and tended the pumps.  We were tired puppies that night.

The next day I spent moving the box fan here, there and everywhere drying out the carpet.  Carter spent the next couple of days cleaning up the batteries and checking them out.  He immediately purchased four new batteries to get us somewhat back on line and then upon checking out the old batteries discovered only one of the 6Volt batteries was actually killed. All the other batteries miraculously took and seemed to hold a charge. We used two of the 6 Volts to replace one of the the engine battery banks and reinstalled the 3 8 Volt batteries for our second 24V house bank.  He then cleaned up the existing batteries to see if any could be salvaged and as it turned out all but the one were OK, but we'll see how long they last. 

Lesson learned: Pay close attention to all the little details. 

But on a side note...Carter has plans for redesigning the shower pumping system so this can't happen but he just hasn't got to it yet.  Needless to say, this has now moved up the on the 'to do' list.

The carpet is dry and 3 of the 4 new batteries are ready to be wired up in the now cleaned up space.

Let the wiring begin.

 

Cleaning the old batteries

Each battery is approximately 80 lbs. more or less and Carter carried them all out...and back in.

  

All 7 batteries are back in.  Four are new and 3 are originals that have been cleaned up. 

We will see how well they hold up.

We are now back where we started and forging ahead with our regularly scheduled chores!  Yesterday, Carter constructed a scaffold in preparation for mounting the remaining solar panels.  Panel installation will be the next blog page and will be coming soon!

Once the panels are up, it will finally be time to take the boat to the yard for a much needed bottom job!  This includes bottom paint, inspection of the driveshaft and replacement of the cutlass bearing.  If we can manage more, we will paint the freeboards, the deck, and install the rub rail.  Whoo Hoo!  We'll see how far we get.

Now that will be a milestone!