Hmm, looks interesting, there is a lot of wacky stuff available from the far East, some of which does actually work quite well.
From the diagrams in the full description page, it should work. I'd be inclined to download the app first and see what it's like, you'd be dependent on using your phone to control the AP, so you need to see what the interface is like and whether you'd be happy using it in that way.
—
Rick Jones (Treasurer), former 26X & 19 owner, Isle of Wight
That's ridiculous, how can they do it at that price? It's worth punting a fiver just to check it out, it may well do the job.
My main concern would be longevity, it won't be marine-hardened, and exposure to a damp salt atmosphere can play havoc with relay contacts and PCBs (though the same would apply to the other relays I suggested).
I'll be very interested to know the results!
—
Rick Jones (Treasurer), former 26X & 19 owner, Isle of Wight
Have had a good afternoon working on the AP install, have added a couple more pics and some comments on in the gallery.
As this is definitely a Budget mod I'm now looking for a cheap way of getting wind direction into NMEA 0183 form for the AP to enable me to concentrate on trimming, restfully, when on long coastal passages. Looking forward to a trip to The Isles of Scilly ASAP.
Any ideas?
I'm not concerned about wind speed, just direction.
—
MacGregor 26M 2009 - Sky's the Limit - Suzuki DF50
Wireless remote arrived yesterday, fitted it this morning and it works fine.
Cutting the engine well liner was horrible but effective - I had to choose mask OR glasses as both meant the glasses got steamed up and I couldn't see. I opted for glasses and held my breath for each bit:)
Disappointed to find that gap between liner and well wasn't as big as expected so I'll have to plane down my shelf upright. That's not a problem but I see that now I will only have 6" x 3.5" of liner to secure the wood to - i.e. That will have take the twisting strain imposed by the 77kg (max) ram.
Regarding my need for a wind instrument, I've discovered that the NASA Clipper Wind mast-head unit (i.e. Without display/control head) available new for £99, does actually put out NMEA 0183 and can be calibrated by shorting the NMEA 0183 + wire to GND after placing unit in straight ahead position.
Only issue is that it puts out the MWV sentence whereas the Raymarine autopilot only accepts VWR - very annoying.
—
MacGregor 26M 2009 - Sky's the Limit - Suzuki DF50
Following on regarding the NMEA 0183 communications issue between the NASA clipper wind and the Raymarine st2000 autopilot it looks as though the best solution (assuming you don't want to experiment with Raspberry pi or Arduino - which I looked into and found to be too complicated for me) is the Brookhouse standard multiplexer unit.
This is a highly programmable multiplexer and although they provide a high level programming language available to users (via PC notepad) they also offer to ship units pre-programmed with the very "MWV" > "VWR" conversion that this situation needs. Cost is £160 & p+p (min £10)
This makes the total cost of sailing to the wind £270 which is far more than I paid for my entire AP install so I'm not in a hurry - will wait and see if I need it. Compared to Raymarine's own i60 wind system which costs around £800 it's very reasonable though.
On a separate note I finished the AP install today and calibrated and sea tested it. Very, very pleased indeed, well worth the effort.
I've still got some fine tuning to do and pics to take but it's almost fully functional.
One big plus is that the slack in the rack and pinion steering system is bypassed so you don't get the constant hunting that's often involved.
Also a concern had been that the motor was at risk in situations where the ram was being butted up against limits - see the Ram Travel Limiting thread. In practice however only small rudder movements are called for by the unit so it's been a moot point so far. Things may change with the introduction of weather or lee helm but my view is still that, far from being a problem, this will turn into a useful sailing training tool and end up as a real non-issue.
I had planned to write up this mod in detail but since it's already been done far better than I could by BOAT on the Cousins' forum I'll leave it. The only real difference is my breakout wiring from the unit to enable hard-wired and wireless remote controls. I've detailed this in the gallery.
—
MacGregor 26M 2009 - Sky's the Limit - Suzuki DF50
Ok, with the boat out of the water and with pretty much all my winter work done, I couldn't resist opening my xmas presents early.
What I got was:
1. A NASA Clipper Tactical Wind Transducer - the one with the orange vane (puts out NMEA0183 directly; the normal version requires the associated instrument to do that), and
2. A Raymarine E85001 NMEA0183 > SeaTalk converter
Total cost was £200.
A fair bit of convoluted wiring was involved and, since it's all located on top of the steering tie bar, it helps if your middle name is Houdini.
Getting the wiring down the mast, from the wind vane was, thankfully, very easy as the previous mast lighting upgrade installer had kindly left his fish string in place.
Also I took the opportunity to replace the 4-wire through deck mast base thingy with a 7-pin unit which simplifies things; it was a bit scary drilling a 3/4" hole in the deck with a masonry bit (all I had of that size) but it did a neat job.
Another plus was finding I still had a couple of spare wires in one of my many Cat-5 cables running up the binnacle. So it's an easy job to connect the NMEA0183 (repeater) Wind output from the E85001 up to the Garmin chartplotter (on top of the binnacle) which should display wind speed and strength, when I want it.
Looking forward to trying it out on the water in April.
—
MacGregor 26M 2009 - Sky's the Limit - Suzuki DF50
Just an update on the continuing story of the tiller pilot install below deck.
Got "Sky's the Limit" back on her mooring last week and took her out for a shakedown trip yesterday.
I had installed the NASA tactical clipper wind transducer during the winter and, as it didn't seem to work properly with the autopilot on land (horizontally:)), I was extremely pleased to find that it worked perfectly on the water.
Not only did I get the choice of apparent or true wind speed and direction appearing on the binnacle chartplotter, I was rewarded with a boat that happily steered herself "on the wind". I could really get the sail trim perfect and then sit back and watch as boat kept herself on that same wind angle, I was tickled pink.
A bonus is that you can do any required dodging, with the mini wifi fob, from any spot on the boat (eg. Sunbathing on the bow) and then, when dodging is over, just a couple of clicks and it reverts to the previous wind angle.
A fun test would be to sit in the tender, being towed by the Mac, steering with the fob. I know that sounds loony but it would be fun.
Guess I'm getting excited about the coming season, I feel a little light-headed.
—
MacGregor 26M 2009 - Sky's the Limit - Suzuki DF50
Hmm, looks interesting, there is a lot of wacky stuff available from the far East, some of which does actually work quite well.
From the diagrams in the full description page, it should work. I'd be inclined to download the app first and see what it's like, you'd be dependent on using your phone to control the AP, so you need to see what the interface is like and whether you'd be happy using it in that way.
Rick Jones (Treasurer), former 26X & 19 owner, Isle of Wight
Well I carried on googling and it turns out that there is a fob version of this available (comes with two fobs, just like Madman Marine) which is only £4.98 - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12V-4CH-Channel-200M-Wireless-Remote-Control-R...
MacGregor 26M 2009 - Sky's the Limit - Suzuki DF50
That's ridiculous, how can they do it at that price? It's worth punting a fiver just to check it out, it may well do the job.
My main concern would be longevity, it won't be marine-hardened, and exposure to a damp salt atmosphere can play havoc with relay contacts and PCBs (though the same would apply to the other relays I suggested).
I'll be very interested to know the results!
Rick Jones (Treasurer), former 26X & 19 owner, Isle of Wight
Exactly, but I didn't fancy waiting until August for it to arrive from China.
However my daughter just gave me a Father's Day present of an Amazon voucher so I found it on Amazon, only a few quid more but arriving on Wednesday.
MacGregor 26M 2009 - Sky's the Limit - Suzuki DF50
Have had a good afternoon working on the AP install, have added a couple more pics and some comments on in the gallery.
As this is definitely a Budget mod I'm now looking for a cheap way of getting wind direction into NMEA 0183 form for the AP to enable me to concentrate on trimming, restfully, when on long coastal passages. Looking forward to a trip to The Isles of Scilly ASAP.
Any ideas?
I'm not concerned about wind speed, just direction.
MacGregor 26M 2009 - Sky's the Limit - Suzuki DF50
Wireless remote arrived yesterday, fitted it this morning and it works fine.
Cutting the engine well liner was horrible but effective - I had to choose mask OR glasses as both meant the glasses got steamed up and I couldn't see. I opted for glasses and held my breath for each bit:)
Disappointed to find that gap between liner and well wasn't as big as expected so I'll have to plane down my shelf upright. That's not a problem but I see that now I will only have 6" x 3.5" of liner to secure the wood to - i.e. That will have take the twisting strain imposed by the 77kg (max) ram.
Regarding my need for a wind instrument, I've discovered that the NASA Clipper Wind mast-head unit (i.e. Without display/control head) available new for £99, does actually put out NMEA 0183 and can be calibrated by shorting the NMEA 0183 + wire to GND after placing unit in straight ahead position.
Only issue is that it puts out the MWV sentence whereas the Raymarine autopilot only accepts VWR - very annoying.
MacGregor 26M 2009 - Sky's the Limit - Suzuki DF50
Following on regarding the NMEA 0183 communications issue between the NASA clipper wind and the Raymarine st2000 autopilot it looks as though the best solution (assuming you don't want to experiment with Raspberry pi or Arduino - which I looked into and found to be too complicated for me) is the Brookhouse standard multiplexer unit.
This is a highly programmable multiplexer and although they provide a high level programming language available to users (via PC notepad) they also offer to ship units pre-programmed with the very "MWV" > "VWR" conversion that this situation needs. Cost is £160 & p+p (min £10)
This makes the total cost of sailing to the wind £270 which is far more than I paid for my entire AP install so I'm not in a hurry - will wait and see if I need it. Compared to Raymarine's own i60 wind system which costs around £800 it's very reasonable though.
On a separate note I finished the AP install today and calibrated and sea tested it. Very, very pleased indeed, well worth the effort.
I've still got some fine tuning to do and pics to take but it's almost fully functional.
One big plus is that the slack in the rack and pinion steering system is bypassed so you don't get the constant hunting that's often involved.
Also a concern had been that the motor was at risk in situations where the ram was being butted up against limits - see the Ram Travel Limiting thread. In practice however only small rudder movements are called for by the unit so it's been a moot point so far. Things may change with the introduction of weather or lee helm but my view is still that, far from being a problem, this will turn into a useful sailing training tool and end up as a real non-issue.
I had planned to write up this mod in detail but since it's already been done far better than I could by BOAT on the Cousins' forum I'll leave it. The only real difference is my breakout wiring from the unit to enable hard-wired and wireless remote controls. I've detailed this in the gallery.
MacGregor 26M 2009 - Sky's the Limit - Suzuki DF50
Ok, with the boat out of the water and with pretty much all my winter work done, I couldn't resist opening my xmas presents early.
What I got was:
1. A NASA Clipper Tactical Wind Transducer - the one with the orange vane (puts out NMEA0183 directly; the normal version requires the associated instrument to do that), and
2. A Raymarine E85001 NMEA0183 > SeaTalk converter
Total cost was £200.
A fair bit of convoluted wiring was involved and, since it's all located on top of the steering tie bar, it helps if your middle name is Houdini.
Getting the wiring down the mast, from the wind vane was, thankfully, very easy as the previous mast lighting upgrade installer had kindly left his fish string in place.
Also I took the opportunity to replace the 4-wire through deck mast base thingy with a 7-pin unit which simplifies things; it was a bit scary drilling a 3/4" hole in the deck with a masonry bit (all I had of that size) but it did a neat job.
Another plus was finding I still had a couple of spare wires in one of my many Cat-5 cables running up the binnacle. So it's an easy job to connect the NMEA0183 (repeater) Wind output from the E85001 up to the Garmin chartplotter (on top of the binnacle) which should display wind speed and strength, when I want it.
Looking forward to trying it out on the water in April.
MacGregor 26M 2009 - Sky's the Limit - Suzuki DF50
Just an update on the continuing story of the tiller pilot install below deck.
Got "Sky's the Limit" back on her mooring last week and took her out for a shakedown trip yesterday.
I had installed the NASA tactical clipper wind transducer during the winter and, as it didn't seem to work properly with the autopilot on land (horizontally:)), I was extremely pleased to find that it worked perfectly on the water.
Not only did I get the choice of apparent or true wind speed and direction appearing on the binnacle chartplotter, I was rewarded with a boat that happily steered herself "on the wind". I could really get the sail trim perfect and then sit back and watch as boat kept herself on that same wind angle, I was tickled pink.
A bonus is that you can do any required dodging, with the mini wifi fob, from any spot on the boat (eg. Sunbathing on the bow) and then, when dodging is over, just a couple of clicks and it reverts to the previous wind angle.
A fun test would be to sit in the tender, being towed by the Mac, steering with the fob. I know that sounds loony but it would be fun.
Guess I'm getting excited about the coming season, I feel a little light-headed.
MacGregor 26M 2009 - Sky's the Limit - Suzuki DF50
My brain just exploded trying to work out the correct signals for a sailing vessel, making way, towing and not under command all at the same time !!!
(Rule 27 g is the get out clause)
Dave.
Dave Newton Sailbadthesinner
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