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It's been warm so I cranked heat up in Odyssey and started my spring project early.

Starting with 4 golf cart batteries and a start battery in each hull. The golf cart batteries are Trojan T105 6v 225ah wired in series parallel for 12v 450ah each hull or a total of 900ah 12v. Only drawing them down to 50% has given me roughly 450ah usable.

I am keeping the start batteries, but replacing the house batteries with 4x of the new Renogy Rego series batteries, 12v 400ah each of lithium for a total of 1600ah 12v. They are Bluetooth, rv-c can bus, and self heating.

Staring with 6x 100 watts of flexible solar panels run parallel through a single MPPT controller. (It's tracking said my best production day last year was in June with 2400watts produced in 24hrs)

I am replacing the solar with 4x 550watt bifacial glass panels and 2x of the same 100watt flexible panels.

5x Victron 50amp MPPT controllers, one for each of the glass panels and 1 for the two flexible panels run in series.

1 new Victron Cerbo Gx with 7inch display. (The display is on a HDMI and USB cables from the Cerbo which is mounted back with the electronics. The display will be mounted at the nav station.

2 new Wakespeed ws500 smart alternator regulators. These receive battery amps, temp, etc... from the batteries over the can bus. They also have a shunt on the alternator cable and a temp sensor on the alternator itself. It is amazing what these things can do, protecting the batteries and alternators is the primary focus for me, but they can do a lot more. I won't use it, but their whitespace programming will sense when the engine needs power for the prop (starting movement, getting on plane, etc... based off custom rpm settings) and will take the power curve and prop curve and only ask the difference from the alternator. This is especially useful for under powered sailboats and RVs.

With all the devices I have going into the victron Cerbo Gx I'm installing a powered (by 12v) USB hub for more inputs. I already have a victron multiplus inverter/charger so it will be connected to the screen as well and the main display will show me battery levels, and house loads as well as solar, generator and alternator outputs.

I am installing some fans in my fridges and freezer to hopefully keep them from frosting up as much and a new thermostat in one of them as well. I have a few wireless temperature sensors that communicate with the Cerbo so I can check the temperatures in them without opening the doors.

All of this going through the Cerbo Gx is then accessable to me online wherever I am, including all the nmea 2k insterment data such as gps location, wind, speed, etc...

With 4x the solar and 4x the usable battery amp hours, I'm hoping we can run everything around the clock without worrying much about management. Fridges and freezers, fans, heaters, inverter, starlink, etc... if it is looking really good then I'll play with induction cooking and see how that goes.

The house and start batteries were under the rear bunks, but 2 of the Renogy Rego batteries won't fit where the 4 forklift batteries did before. My plan was to cut out the start battery box and move it back about 2 feet, tight but should fit though some of the plumbing and wiring from the bathroom pushes up into that bay, so without cutting I can't be positive it will work.

I cut it out, then cut out the house battery box as I need to make it about an inch deeper as well as longer. I discovered that the area behind the steps up to the bed was much bigger than I realized and there was a lot of wasted space there. So my current plan is to drop the start battery down below the house batteries, seal and vent it, then put the house batteries in.

This has a hidden benefit in that it makes winter storage easier. I can remove the lithium and bring them inside and the start battery is close enough I can switch it over for a surge buffer when on shore power. The inverter charger isn't supposed to be subject to 12v loads without a battery installed.

2 of the glass panels will go on the coach roof. And two will go on a stainless tube frame off the back of the coach roof above the rear deck/walkway. It's a little awkward as I need to keep the center open for the dinghy derrick (line from the top of the mast over an extendable beam inside the boom run from the electric winch) so it will be two stainless frames one on each side. The forward edges attached to the top of the coach roof behind the traveler track, the outer corners will have a vertical post beside the transom steps and the inner corner will have a diagonal brace to existing posts holding up the coach roof. They need to be stronger than just the solar and wind as I want to be able to hang hammock chairs off of them as well.

Wow! Well done sir! I may have to come see her. A side trip to Lake Clark wasn't in the cards last summer (we were too early for the bears at Brooks Falls), but it sure is a trip with a magnet pulling on my mind.
As usual, your work is top notch and we'll researched.

Well, I'm going to look up the rego. My system is similar, but smaller and I use the app for the cerbo vs a screen.

My batteries are 2 63 pound gr27 agms and I have room for two more, but have only drawn them down once. A small ac unit would be nice, but that would kill the two.

I've been so busy with the hulls; there has been little time for working on other things. I have a window leak that needs attention more than anything.

Winter here has been mild, too.

Good luck. My solar has been quirky; probably ought to have separate controllers to really make sure they are both producing. My solar panels are 106 pounds for 640 watts, but with the small battery bank; they've never produced more than 2k.

I'm interested in the Wakespeed ws500 and will read with coffee this am. What engines are on your boat if I may? Are they inboard?

cape man wrote: ↑Sun Feb 18, 2024 6:22 am Wow! Well done sir! I may have to come see her. A side trip to Lake Clark wasn't in the cards last summer (we were too early for the bears at Brooks Falls), but it sure is a trip with a magnet pulling on my mind.
As usual, your work is top notch and we'll researched.

This is a good place to fly to Brooks from as well as a couple other cool fly out tours. We are a lot closer than Anchorage or Homer so the tours from here usually beat the crowds.

Would love to see you out here! Could put you up in our BnB for a few days free or a heavy discount on Odyssey, unfortunately we are still at the stage where we have to make money with her.

fallguy1000 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 18, 2024 9:56 am
I'm interested in the Wakespeed ws500 and will read with coffee this am. What engines are on your boat if I may? Are they inboard?

The Rego are about 110lbs for 400amp hours.
I primarily chose them because of the self heating. But price played into it as well, I got in on their initial pricing which is about half what they are listed for now. (I paid 1600 each.)

If you don't need heating I think you could find cheaper drop in options that still have Bluetooth and can bus communications.

I have 54hp Yanmar diesels with sail drives. They each have 2 alternators, one internally regulated for the start battery and a 160 amp for the house batteries.

The Wakespeed is amazing. If you have the time and enough coffee they have 2x 4 hour seminars on YouTube I would highly recommend.
The first is titled Wakespeed 101 and the second is Wakespeed 202. 8-9 hours I watched them in consecutive evenings and was impressed.

Since you have the Cerbo, you could use a victron to nmea2k adaptor cable and get some of the info on your plotter. I'm not sure yet as it's not my primary goal, but might be a beneficial side effect of what I'm doing.

One of the things I liked about the Wakespeed siminars is it kind of demistified all the can bus protocols for me. I wouldn't say I'm at amateur level yet, but starting to wrap my head around it. Nmea2k, RV-C, Seatalk, etc are all similar enough they can share some or most of their messaging, you just need adaptor cables or splice in your own, and know which wires are which.

fallguy1000 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 18, 2024 9:56 am
Good luck. My solar has been quirky; probably ought to have separate controllers to really make sure they are both producing. My solar panels are 106 pounds for 640 watts, but with the small battery bank; they've never produced more than 2k.

From all I've read it's best to have separate MPPT controllers for each panel if there is any chance of shading. Less important with the newest and most expensive panels maybe.

The panel voltage should be higher than your battery voltage. 18v might be marginal for a 12v system, but you can get around that by wiring two in series to provide the controller from 36v from the panels.

I don't know enough about AC to know what size bank you would need to last overnight without a generator running. My diesel heaters doent draw much electricity and God runs my ac for free.

The 8guage x 5/16 lugs I needed to finish installing the controllers came in yesterday. Landon started the heat in the boat after school so it was pleasant to work in when I got home. Cut the first cables coming from the controllers to length for attaching to the bus bars. Got out the lugs and my fancy new swedger which has already done a really nice job on the 4/0 lugs.

From the panels to the breaker/switches and switches to the controllers is higher voltage and requires 10 gauge, but once controlled down to 12v requires 8guage. The cable seemed loose in the new lugs, and then the lugs didn't swedge very nicely at all. Got it "ok" and started on my second (of 10, 5positive and 5negative) and it still didn't seem right.

Twisted the cables around a bit till I found markings and they are 10guage routed to the bus bars. I had forgotten and thought everything was 8guage and hooked the controllers up with the wrong cables.

It took me almost 4 hours to remove all the controllers from the back wall of the void "cabinet" where I had installed them at the edge of my reach and rewire them and install them back. The 10 gauge to the breakers are slightly shorter now so had to cut the corner vs as nicely bundled back behind like I had intended, but it doesn't look to bad, and it's back behind where no one will see anyways, just my sensibilities.

Still need to secure the communication cables and cut a lot of zip ties, but almost done back in there. I had installed the 7in screen at the nav desk the night before so that's looking pretty good too.

It's pretty frustrating when you expect to get in a productive night's work and end up slightly behind where you started after 4 hours.

You must not have taken pictures of the bad parts, because that all looks good.

pee wee wrote: ↑Sat Feb 24, 2024 8:44 am You must not have taken pictures of the bad parts, because that all looks good.

Hehe no, I was to frustrated with myself for pictures. But really tidy 10guage looks as nice as tidy 8 gauge. Until it gets too hot

I finished getting it all back together last night and powered on the system. Pretty exciting, the Cerbo works well and connected to my house starlink (boat starlink is on hold for the winter) updated and started showing power flow in the screen and phone app and laptop 'remotely'. No solar installed yet on the roof, but the chargers are wired and reporting 0watts like they should, however only 4 of the 5 showed up... 5 showed on local Bluetooth but only 4 wired to the controller even though I had communication cables to all of them.

Unplugged one at a time from the USB hub to figure out which one it was and plugged it into a different port but no luck. Got a different cable and plugged it into the controller but the socket felt weird so snuck back my phone and took a picture of the socket.... One pin was bent over :/

Unscrewed it from the back wall and was able to perform surgery through the speaker hole access I've been working through and got the pin back straight and plugged in, now all 5 report properly.

Next up a lot of tidying and running communication cables for the batteries and alternators controllers and powering on the plotter to see if it sends info to the Cerbo. I need a USB extention for the smart shunt still but was able to make it stretch for testing by routing through the steering and autopilot chains (not a good permeant solution)

Here is what it looks like in the app on my phone and a widget on home screen.

pee wee wrote: ↑Sat Feb 24, 2024 8:44 am You must not have taken pictures of the bad parts, because that all looks good.

I just went out to turn on the heaters and took a couple "bad pictures" for you.

The mess in front and behind me

The TV sits above the nav desk but it's removed for access. I still plugged it in and can have a basketball game going while I work.

The void above the ice maker where I installed the controllers is about 24"x24 and access is through the speaker hole in the front or through a door at the desk then over a small wall. No matter which way I go in it's awkward and often an arm from both directions working blind. Probably why I bent that communication port pin.

Tell us a little more about Lake Clarke, how close it is to any salmon fishing, what kind of fishing is there and the price for renting the boat for a week or 5 days, etc.

fallguy1000 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 24, 2024 8:37 pm Tell us a little more about Lake Clarke, how close it is to any salmon fishing, what kind of fishing is there and the price for renting the boat for a week or 5 days, etc.

The salmon run in Lake Clark Northern Pike, lake trout, grayling, etc...

I don't have many good fishing pictures, but take a look at the video at the top of this page for a lodge that is opening up on the lake here.

https://lakeclarklodgealaska.com/experi ... ional-park

There is a good list on the Park website as well for the kind of fish here.

https://www.nps.gov/lacl/planyourvisit/fishing.htm

Our list prices for full charter up to 6 guests including everything except for flights and alcohol is $16k for 3night/4day and $24k for 6night/7day starting on Sundays and Wednesdays. Anyone from this site would get a good discount off that, and we can do by the cabin if needed as well, but it's cheaper per person if 6 rent the whole boat. That's crew, chef, food, internet, etc... they also act as guides for the shore excursions. We don't do bareboat rentals, our crew is always with it rather that's me or hired.

That's cheaper per person than a lot of the lodges around here, but we don't do any fly out stuff, it's all on the lake here so kind of an apples to pears comparison.

For hardcore fishing one of those lodges would be better, but for a relaxing adventure with something for everyone I think we are the better choice.

Of course we can still focus on fishing if that's what the guests are looking for.

It sounds awesome, but I'd have a hard time getting 6 people. I want to do salmon and grayling.

fallguy1000 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 26, 2024 8:14 am It sounds awesome, but I'd have a hard time getting 6 people. I want to do salmon and grayling.

Perhaps a BBC group will fall together for an epic meetup here at some point
Knowing you are interested I might message you at some point if we have a partial boat booked that alligns with your interests.

Wakespeed regulators arrived yesterday.
Landon heated the boat for me after school and I went out after a quick dinner to do something productive. Had one last firmware update I thought I would do quick first. The Multiplus inverter/charger. It had a warning that it would reset values to default and I would need to download config file before up update and upload it again after. Simple enough right?
Update went smooth and went to update the config afterwords and clicking on the upload button on the app wouldn't let me select a file. I googled a bunch and couldn't figure it out. Meanwhile the inverter was working fine but the charger wasn't charging the single start battery I have wired into the system while I'm changing everything over for the new install. Loads were coming half from the battery and half from shore power.

I shut off the heaters and lights and went into the house and used my laptop. It seems the configuration can only be done on a laptop and easily created a new configuration file with a battery profile and uploaded it and everything was working and charging properly again. (Now I know I'll need to do that when I plug in the new batterys as well)

I don't have any solar installed yet but it's interesting looking around the app which has a solar irradiance forecast (I assume based on gps* location?)
Panels are rated at a "peak solar" rating of 1000w/m2
So 200 means the panels would put out about 20% of their rated power. So 3hrs over 200 would give me about 60% of rated power for today if I had them installed. 2400 * 60% = 1440wh

These things always get me thinking about ideal off-grid power management here. Solar isn't very practical in the winter here. But it's cold in the winter here, so a combination of solar and diesel generator with heat recovery loop instead of radiator seems ideal to me. Our village power plant which I work part time for heats the community building (clinic/post office/firetruck garage) as well as the school and teacher housing complex all with waste heat.

*GPS - the cerbo recognizes the raymarine devices but I couldn't figure out how to get any of the data from them. I plugged in a USB GPS dongle to the USB hub and the Cerbo sees it fine, so may just leave that installed. It also seems my raymarine plotter may be too old to show the html5 "apps" from the Cerbo, but like I had mentioned earlier that wasn't my goal with the system so I won't put much effort into that until all the practical stuff is done. It uses lighthouse 2 operating system and I believe they want light house 3 or newer for the html5 apps.(I think) but supposedly it's pretty much plug n play for the newer main brand plotters/mfds.

I installed a Raymarine Axiom 9 and a Furuno tzt12L in the same place. The Raymarine would not pickup GPS with an antenna, so I backfed it with the Furuno data which is flawless thus far, no antenna.

The river is too small for me to setup my autopilot full config, but I can run the AP on a small course like straight lines a mile away once we get to wider river areas.

I have Cerbo on my boat and a wifi. The nicest thing about my boat is I can check systems status from home and check security cams as well.

What do you have for cameras? They feed into your Cerbo or they are a separate system?

I started removing more old cables tonight. The old battery monitor shunts and battery temp sensors. Such a mess with such long runs, but I don't want to leave a bunch of chopped off wires everywhere.

After pulling the sensors for fun I plugged them into the Cerbo all in the same location as the new ruuvi sensor that is supposedly calibrated from the factory. They aren't very close, but I'll leave them for a day or two to see if they equalize or if something is really that off.

No pictures.... Just wads of wires and cut zip ties.

narfi wrote: ↑Wed Feb 28, 2024 1:15 am After pulling the sensors for fun I plugged them into the Cerbo all in the same location as the new ruuvi sensor that is supposedly calibrated from the factory. They aren't very close, but I'll leave them for a day or two to see if they equalize or if something is really that off.

Well this morning it looks like they still have a pretty good spread, toyed around with the victron widgets enough to overlay all 4 sensors on one graph.

One probe is still wired and reporting directly to the multiplus (had been on the starboard battery bank) and then the 2 for the old battery monitor that had one on each battery bank now wired directly into the cerbo gx for testing and the brand new Bluetooth Ruuvi sensor which also gives humidity and pressure readings.

I 'think' the Ruuvi looks right and the multiplus is low and the two from the battery monitor are high. (thats also how it felt last night while working in there, I still had my jacket on, so pretty sure it wasn't close to 70)
Looks like we are hitting another cold spell, so I probably won't waste diesel heating till this weekend.

Cameras are not related to Cerbo. They are Reolink and I wish they had a zoom feature.

TIL there is black 5200

Rewired the heating system with a relay controlling the thermostats and fans.

Before I had two control units, one for each diesel fired espar heater. Then 3 thermostats in each hull for a total of 6 thermostats running 6 radiator heating fans, each with their own power switches.

So to turn on heat I would turn on the boilers (2 switches) then turn on each of the thermostats in the rooms I wanted them on in (up to 6 more switches).

Now instead of having to go to each room, I can just turn the two boilers on and as long as the thermostat switches are on, the relay turns them on as well.

The boiler controls can be set with timers, so now I could set the heaters to turn on an hour before we plan to wake up and everything will turn on without any input from me.

I had briefly considered figuring out how to use the relays with the Cerbo to turn it all on. But that's a little too much and I don't want the temptation to turn on the heaters when I'm not there

Have a 25amp fuse powering each each of the relays and there is a control wire from the heater intended for this use so was pretty easy to setup.

Cut a little more into the area for the starboard battery box. It will be pretty tight against the curve of the hull on the aft corner. I think I'll cheat it out a little so the box isn't square to ensure I have enough room for the base of the battery there.

The box tapers a little so no worries at the top, just the bottom. The issue is because the 4/0 cables out one end and the communication cable plugs out the other end require a lot more space than a traditional battery.

I'm making the box 48" long and will cut holes in the ends for the communication plugs to stick through.
The batteries are just 18" long each but with the cables I'll need most of that 48" (I could get it in 42" with the plugs out the ends of the box but want a little room to play)

Cut out the new base for the starboard battery box. Took turns grinding on it and the cabinet frames until it fit as well as it will.

Tweeks to make it fit.
It's about 3/4 to an inch off square to the bed and original battery box.
max 1 inch cut off the corner conflicting with the hull tapered back about 13inches.
Ground the underside away at a taper to fit tighter against the hull.

This leaves 11" at the tight end, the side will be up the hull slightly there so 3/8 for the one side panel still leaves just over 10.5 inches if the battery was shoved all the way into the end of the box which it can't because i need to be able to access the communication ports.(The battery is 10.5in wide but slightly narrower at the feet)
Ground down the flanges on the start battery box enough to fit it down in its new location. Looks like it will work well. Just need to install an end plate on it and decide how I'm tabbing it to the sides.

Glued the end plates on the start battery boxes. Will grind fillet and tape it once cured.
Not sure why but I'm struggling a bit more with paralysis by analysis than I normally do. I just need to start doing and stop thinking. I can always grind away any mistakes.

I think I got over my mental block maybe...

Id been struggling with how to splice the extra few Inches to the bottom of the sides of the battery boxes once I have the new base glued in. Tonight I realized I don't need to. I cut the old completely out and will make full height sides new.

Probably should have built new start battery boxes as well, but they will be mostly hidden and I'm kind of committed now. Maybe I'll change my mind tomorrow though, but for now I'm sticking with reusing then down underneath.

Didn't realize how low I was on vinylester so have some coming from a local shop in Anchorage. (Hopefully Jeff and Reid can forgive me)

My wife would be horrified at how dusty I've made it and has said she won't step inside till I've cleaned up. (Plan is to repair some minor cracked fairing/gelcoat in the cabins and paint anyways)

Yes, a little dusty Narfi!!! Great work!! Jeff

Jeff wrote: ↑Tue Mar 12, 2024 9:04 am Yes, a little dusty Narfi!!! Great work!! Jeff

Thanks!!

Built up 4 sets of matched length battery cables. Anderson connectors to go to the batteries and 3/8 lugs to the bank bus.

Taped the exterior of the end plates for the start battery boxes but forgot to take a picture.
Perspective is weird, the picture looks like a little bundle of wires, but it's a heavy pile of 4/0 copper.

A couple nights ago I taped the inside of end plate I added to the start battery boxes. Last night gave them a light sanding and some fairing material. Don't want to put too much effort into them but need smooth enough I can wipe them clean if anything spills.

Not worrying about the outside of the boxes, they will be completely closed off and unaccessible.

Glued in the tabs I will hang them on down between the cabinets. Not 100% on the geometry but pretty sure it will work out :p

I think I've forgotten how to take my daily pictures.
Working on the boxes still. Figured out a method to glass them in without access to the underside, kind of a rube Goldberg approach but should work. Built a lip on the boxes and will install a lip under the bunk that the lip can hang on. They will be supported all around the top by that lip then by the two cupboard bulkheads from below as well as the hull at one end. If it was just the lip supporting it all, I wouldn't like it, but with the entire scheme making it integral with everything it should be ok and look good as well.

Start boxes are glassed in below.

Sanded and routed the outside of the boxes today in prep for glassing the exterior of them before hanging then in place. Had some emails come in so had to call it a night before I could start glassing though. Back at it on Thursday.

Had a weird conundrum with wiring the regulators. The on/off signal wire is supposed to come from the ignition. But the ignition is powered by the start battery and the regulator is supposed to control the house battery alternator.....
I wasn't sure what to do so contacted Wakespeed and they said it doesn't matter, it just needs the signal and should work fine.