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<p>Hi tim,<br/>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 9/27/20 2:07 PM, tim Rowledge wrote:<br/>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:8A398B94-C273-4B1A-B9F9-0BA69281A8F0@rowledge.org">On
2020-09-27, at 6:38 AM, Robert Withers
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:robert.withers@pm.me"><robert.withers@pm.me></a> wrote:
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">I finally got my sailboat! A long-term dream of mine, a bucket list item! I bought her last week and I leave Thursday with my mate Speedy, to sail her down from CT to NC. I will rename her SV Slosh outta Oriental, NC. WOOT! WOOT! WOOT!
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">Congratulations on getting your very own money slurping hole in the water :-)</pre>
</blockquote>
<p>Yes, I totally underestimated the upfront costs. So I will
distribute my fiscal load, month over month. Yes, I am retired! Me
and my dog are heading to open water! She is going to love
live-aboard, I think!<br/>
</p>
<p><img moz-do-not-send="false" src="cid:part1.439456F3.99FB5173@pm.me" alt="" width="244" height="183"/><br/>
</p>
<p>---</p>
I will approach my 1972 boat in the same fashion I approached my
truck. I bought a 1997 Pathfinder, the key feature being a manual
transmission. This turns out to be fairly rare in trucks, most are
sold with only an automatic transmission, these days. What a
horrible outcome! I like changing my own gears, thank you very much.
The truck being a '97, there were certain maintenance issues. As
well I had some upgrades I wanted (tow hitch!). My approach was to
generate 3 lists: maintenance list, upgrade list, exploratory list.
<br/>
<p>Doing the same with my boat, I will add weather instrumentation
to my upgrade list and to my exploratory list. My upgrade list
already has such items as gimbaled 3-burner/oven boat stove, air
conditioner, 15 W A/C generator, 12v refrigerator, battery
recharger and now includes a distributed Weather Station. It will
take time, but I will get there. I am just watching my money to
ensure my emergency funds and maintenance are well covered.</p>
<p>My monthly costs for the boat are $100/mo boat insurance and
$265/mo live-aboard slip fees. Yearly costs are haul, bottom paint
and zincs (~$2,000/year). My upgrade list is pricey!<br/>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:8A398B94-C273-4B1A-B9F9-0BA69281A8F0@rowledge.org"><br/>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">In thinking about her capabilities, on the water, I will always be curious about the weather.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">I understand knowing about the weather is quite important on a boat. Something about 100ft waves etc?</pre>
</blockquote>
Yes, especially if I follow through on my plan to sail to Morocco in
2022. Big Atlantic swell!<br/>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:8A398B94-C273-4B1A-B9F9-0BA69281A8F0@rowledge.org"><br/>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">Tim, your WeatherStation sprung immediately to mind. I found several websites, I am perusing, but I am a little lost on which hardware to get and bringing her up. [1][2][3]. Am I supposed to buy the OurWeather device?
</pre>
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<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">I'd be very surprised if the very basic stuff I bought would survive more than a few weeks at sea, it simply isn't that sort of quality. I can't imagine the lightweight plastic cup anemometer surviving the first heavy gust of wind!
So, that definitely means some research into what gear you can find that is suitably tough. I imagine it will not be cheap because nothing about a boat is cheap.</pre>
</blockquote>
Yes and so the weather sensing lands on my exploratory list! Not too
much is cheap. NC slips are cheaper than so and so...<br/>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:8A398B94-C273-4B1A-B9F9-0BA69281A8F0@rowledge.org"><br/>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">The plot and rotary dial displays are AWESOME! I'd love to have a rotary dial for both the barometer, as you have shown, as well as the anemometer. Perhaps on a waterproof display at the helm...that would be good.
</pre>
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<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">If you want to use any of the stuff I wrote you'll need to find some sensor hardware that has some variety of output that could be handled by a Pi or similar SBC - maybe even something like an ESP-32 board would be smart here. The cheap stuff simply uses a magnetic reed switch on the anemometer (grief, that's hard to type) and so you get to count pulses and have all the fun of sorting out de-bouncing etc. The wind direction vane does some sort of cockamamie resistor network and magentic reed switches that require an ADC and some rather hope-and-guess maths to work out where it is pointing - and only 8 options, so not very useful on a boat.</pre>
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<p>My boat may already have various meteorological sensors, that I
would just need to figure out how to interface with. I will fidn
out more this Thursday. From reading your WeatherStation page and
other sources, it is sounding like the data collection issue is
two-fold: A) communications interface and B) data format.</p>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:8A398B94-C273-4B1A-B9F9-0BA69281A8F0@rowledge.org">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">I'm told that all the smart people are using ultrasonic based sensors that use differential signal propagation to work out both the wind speed and direction with no moving parts. And apparently, can work out the rain density from the impacts of raindrops on the flat plate sensor. Cool stuff. The nearest I've seen to the mil-spec system a friend is working on is <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/weatherflow/tempest-a-revolutionary-personal-weather-system?ref=discovery_category_newest&term=weather">https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/weatherflow/tempest-a-revolutionary-personal-weather-system?ref=discovery_category_newest&term=weather</a></pre>
</blockquote>
<p>Alright, this is quite cool. I dug a bit deeper and found a site
to buy the Tempest device:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://shop.weatherflow.com/collections/frontpage/products/tempest">https://shop.weatherflow.com/collections/frontpage/products/tempest</a>.
This only sells the Tempest sensor device and a WiFi hub, no
battery backup. <br/>
</p>
<p>From the page you linked it describes an option: </p>
<h3 class="pledge__title">Tempest - Storm & Fire Ready Kit
</h3>
<p>This includes: "with Pro Hub and battery backup. Includes mobile
/ cellular communication fail-over during WiFi outages. Battery
backup provides power to the Hub for up to seven days. Includes a
prepaid data plan for at least 750 hours of continuous data
streaming during WiFi outages."</p>
<p>Perhaps there is some way to buy the Kickstarter package.</p>
<p>I also researched, briefly a weatherproof option for the RPi. I
found this: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.crowdsupply.com/openh/rubicon">https://www.crowdsupply.com/openh/rubicon</a>. Stackable
to include the hub and battery backup with the stackable option?
Perhaps. If the sensor is Wifi/Bluetooth, then this Pi may be
stored in the cabin. But the display,a at the helm, would need
weatherproofing. My curiosity is a weatherproof touch display at
the helm. On the exploratory list!<br/>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:8A398B94-C273-4B1A-B9F9-0BA69281A8F0@rowledge.org">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">This is all going to take some research with your boating contacts to find a good system. The downside is that any commercial system will almost certainly have its own display suff. You could do much worse than looking at <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://microship.com">https://microship.com</a> and contacting Steve; he has done this sort of thing for many years and may have parts to point to or even sell.</pre>
</blockquote>
Alright, lots to explore! I will save his contact!<br/>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:8A398B94-C273-4B1A-B9F9-0BA69281A8F0@rowledge.org">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">Once you've got sensors that can talk to an ESP or a Pi (so various digital connections or i2c or spi or even bluetooth?) you can consider getting the data to some other machine to display.</pre>
</blockquote>
Yes, this sounds the right approach! I read, I think in the Tempest
stuff, about a EU weather data standard.<br/>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:8A398B94-C273-4B1A-B9F9-0BA69281A8F0@rowledge.org">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap=""> It may be that your sensors can connect directly to that display machine, saving one step. For a home built display you might go with a Pi attached to their 7" multi-touch display inside a very well sealed box.</pre>
</blockquote>
<p>Yes, though it would be fantastic to have the touch screen (12"?)
available/accessible in the weather.</p>
<p><br/>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:8A398B94-C273-4B1A-B9F9-0BA69281A8F0@rowledge.org">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">I'm afraid this may take longer than 'by Thursday' :-)</pre>
</blockquote>
<p>That is for sure! I am excited to dig into it, over time!</p>
<p>Thank you for your guidance, tim! I look forwards to learning
more.<br/>
</p>
<p>Kindly,<br/>
Robert<br/>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:8A398B94-C273-4B1A-B9F9-0BA69281A8F0@rowledge.org">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">
tim
--
tim Rowledge; <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:tim@rowledge.org">tim@rowledge.org</a>; <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.rowledge.org/tim">http://www.rowledge.org/tim</a>
Useful Latin Phrases:- Tam exanimis quam tunica nehru fio. = I am as dead as the nehru jacket.
</pre>
</blockquote>
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