Patience.....

Just a few minutes ago, I posted this photo on my facebook timeline.......

already, several people have 'liked' it.

 But I say....have patience.....

 The best....is yet to come!

Things That….. Did Not Work Out. Scott Zweisel ‘Titanium’ Crystal glasses

We live on our boat. And we want to LIVE, not CAMP. So some things we just draw a line at. Things like Paper plates, and Plastic Cups. Did have one set of Acrylic water glasses, but tossed them after a couple of years when they got all crazed.

So, we have china plates, metal silverware. Glass 16oz ‘Pint’ Beer Glasses, and several sets of Scott Zweisel ‘Titanium’ Tritan Crystal glasses. We purchased these as they were advertised (and demoed, see some of the Youtube videos!!) to be highly break resistant.

Well, we are on our 4th set of Scott Zwiesel products, and am sad to say am not impressed with the glasses (e.g. the 9.6oz Whiskey glasses). We have a set of Wine glasses and Champagne flutes – these have held up OK. But I have not dropped them in the sidewalk like their demo video shows. However, we have just about worked through our 2nd set of tumblers. All have broken under ‘light use’ while washing them by hand. Just like this one pictured here. A pity as we really do like the glasses, their size and weight are just right.

Will say we have lost a couple of wine glasses as well – one when washing, hit it just the wrong way against the sink, and the other when it fell 2’ onto the top of the cast iron stove. Well, maybe if it has been a concrete surface as opposed to cast iron the glass would have survived?

These are a pleasure to use, and have been very happy with them in that regard. But we have not seen the ‘indestructible’ nature from them. For our next round we will get a good set of regular glasses, as these do not seem to be worth the premium one pays.

And no way will I be reduced to drinking from Plastic! Awk, a good single malt in an Acrylic glass? Might as well add some Coke in there. . . .

It’s a NERD thing..

Last night I did something I have not done in a very long time – pulled an All-Nighter. Kristi was a bit lonely last night, but stopped checking on me after about an hour. And as time went on, it was almost 0400 (4:00am) when I checked to see ‘How Late It Was’. Might as well keep going. A TRUE All-Nighter!  Only the True Nerd can know the rush of chasing down details, having them point to another are of change.  Moving to it, and solving that one.  Then there is that other thing I thought of while doing this prior thing....  Ya, Nerd Nirvana!


See, I had downloaded KiCAD and was playing with it. Running through a couple of step-by-step examples to see how the whole schematic to PCB layout tools integrate. Have to admit, this was all new to me. Though I have designed a few circuits in my day (well, ‘back in the day’ more like) I used a drafting board and pencils. Then we sent it out to a house to have the PCB laid out. Unless it was a small one, in which case I busted out the light box, Mylar, and the Stick-on things! Oh What fun!

As last night progressed I started putting down the basis for the Kubota alternator regulator I have been thinking about. One to be based on an Arduino Uno micro-controller. Over the past weeks I have collected potential solutions for the various parts. How does one read the Amp shunt, want to be able to sense temperature of not only the battery but the motor for fault shut down. And did you know there are some not too common best practices behind reading the volts of an alternator? It involves syncing with the armature!!!

Well, here is what I ended up with today. What I call a ruff framework for the controller. It does not have the DC power supplies in, many of the circuits are value-less as I need to finalize what frequency I will be using for the field drive and adjust RC filters. There are also some additional filters that can go into the Amp shunt circuit, need to dig into that. Plus overall ESD hardening and protection. AND I need to go back and see if  the snippets I pulled over the past few weeks actually will work and/or are efficient designs…

I also need to re-assign the pin outs into the Arduino controller – last night I just ran a wire to the nearest Analog or Digital pin, without regard to if those pins can actually produce a PWM signal, or accept an interrupt. Just Analog or Digital, no level of detail beyond that.

But though I would put up what I have. Next few weeks I will tackle the above issue, and then decide where to go with this play-thing.

Homecoming

We have said before, that perhaps the thing we miss most about the cruising lifestyle is not having a 'home'.

It was first noted and expressed, perhaps, when we returned to Lion's Ferry on the Snake River, when we were 'recognized' by the staff on our trip back downriver.  (To read about THAT experience again, and the comments...go to http://mvvikingstar.blogspot.com/2010/10/missing-my-people.html)

Maybe our 'home' is now San Juan Island, because our coming back began this morning when we went to Roche Harbor to the Lime Kiln Cafe for donuts.  We pulled open the door, and before we even stepped inside, we saw a familiar face.  Steve-from-the-Power-Squadron/security-guy-for-the-Port-of-Friday-Harbor was in line ahead of us!  Unfortunately, he was wearing a sling, and we heard that he'd had shoulder surgery and had subsequently retired from his Port job.  BUT, it was great to be recognized by someone!

Then, as we came in to Friday Harbor, we saw a man on the dock, waving!  He was waving at US!  It was another Steve, a new friend we met at Reid Harbor on Stuart Island, come to welcome us back to Friday Harbor and share some information he had about finding Port Orford Cedar.

We visited our favorite coffee shop, the Bean, of course!  And then on our walk back to the boat, we heard someone yelling, several times, 'HEY YOU!', and we finally turned around and saw friend Samantha chasing us down from the Windemere Realty office.  Samantha also attends St. David's Episcopal Church which we attended last winter, and she lent us her pickup truck for a very good day! (http://mvvikingstar.blogspot.com/2012/02/day-in-pictures.html)

Back at the boat, we call friends Art and Raye, and their daughter Shawn answers the phone 'Welcome Home!' when she hears who it is.

Awwww.  It is SO nice to be in familiar surroundings with familiar faces.  I admit I am missing the 'home' of my kids and grandkids (today is grandson Troy's 8th birthday)....but it is still nice to have this sense of homecoming today.

Wildlife

We had a couple of wildlife encounters today, and when I went to upload photos from the camera, this guy was still stuck in the camera!  He is a surf scoter that was taking a bath in the fairway at Cap Sante Marina in Anacortes earlier this week. I think they sure look interesting with their funny shaped orange bills.

We are presently at Reid Harbor on Stuart Island.  This afternoon I saw a man drifting in his dinghy, holding out a camera, and I thought he was video-taping something.  After a moment, curiosity got the better of me and I took a closer look, and then I went for my own camera!  An otter was frolicking on the grass above the water.

Moments after he slipped in to the water, Al and I were relaxing inside Viking Star, when we heard/felt a thump!  Al was reading in the aft cabin and I was in the main cabin.  Al hollered 'Kristi, are you up there?'  We thought someone might have bumped us with a dinghy, or come aboard the boat!  Actually, we WERE boarded!  We had to shoo this guy off the dock yesterday afternoon, and today he came back for more.  He was ON the boat, checking out the containers on the back deck, the ones we put our overflow garbage into.  Al chased him around the boat, and literally scared the pee out of him.  He wasn't in any hurry to go up the ramp, though.  Al stomped his feet and clapped his hands at him most of the way to land.  Poor guy.

And here is another reason we do what we do:  Preview for tomorrow's full moon.  The water was so calm that these pictures turned out better than they do sometimes.  And since I don't know what tomorrow's sky conditions will be?  Here you go with tonight's shot.

Say Hi to Arduino!

Arduino Uno

In a prior life I was a Major Nerd. MAJOR Nerd. Much of my early life centered around a single board computer which used at its core the CPU used by the first Apples. This system was known as a KIM-1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KIM-1   Over a period of years I extended this system, added memory. Interfaced it to a TV display, a Selectric type writer, some surplus 8” floppy drives and then wrote my own Operating System. Wow, what a life….






Fast forward 35+ years and now we have this – Arduino Uno. Arduino is one of handful of small computer / development systems out there. Mostly they are designed for things like robotics, or education. Today I spent some time setting up the environment, and even writing my 1st program – the Classic Hello World! (And ya, that is Niko sitting on top of the COM19 terminal window. Nerd On!)

I am the Programming Stud!

Boy, what a difference. This device uses a variation of object.c, while KIM-1 used Machine Code. I still remember that Hex code A9 translate to LDA - “LoaD the Accumulator immediate” in 6502 machine code. Today there is no hand coding, no hand typing in, etc. And this Uno cost under $20. In today’s $!    I will not share how much I had into KIM…

This has been a trip down Memory Lane. All day I have been playing with it, blinking lights, typing strings, lots of small things. The reason I purchased this is I am not happy with the voltage regulators I can find for our Kubota generator. I want one that can maximize the energy produced, which means it needs to monitor and adjust the Amps produced as well as the Volts of the alternator.  In addition, I want one that will reduce the alternator output when the watermaker is running (right now I just turn off the alternator).

This could be a fun project, and who knows I might even add some other automation. Example, perhaps I can slow down the Kubota motor as the battery starts to become fully charged. Maybe Auto starting? Ah, lots of possibilities.

But for now, I will be happy just saying Hello World.

Storm on Blind Bay

Last night we stowed things as if for passage, and went to bed expecting to be woken around 4 AM by big wind and waves.  Yesterday's forecast said waves 'out there' were to reach 6-8 feet!

But we woke at 7 AM after a full night's sleep.  This morning's forecast is much downgraded, with the peak wind and waves (5 ft) now expected this evening.  Al asked if we should consider making our move today, but I said I would rather stay put for now.  Part of our purpose for coming to Blind Bay was to 'test' how we would fare in rougher weather.

So tomorrow, after Al completes his work phone calls, we will move across to Orcas Landing to provision, and visit the Post Office.  We have tax items to mail, and an all-important birthday gift for grandson, Troy!  And then perhaps we will see if the docks are present on Jones Island.