Project Updates
- stevelewis21
- Jun 16
- 7 min read
This weekend was a working weekend. We flew our friends Jonathan and Malinda in from Maine to help with a couple big project items. Starlink install and Inverter/Charger swap out.
Friday was busy as Chris's brother needed to get to the airport. While Chris drove Brian to CLE, the rest of us went to visit my parents since they had not seen Malinda in quite a while. It was a very nice visit and I was happy to see that Mom was having a good day. Chris arrived and we all shared time together. We left my parent's apartment and we headed home to pack the remaining items we needed for the weekend on the boat. We all piled into the truck, including Rudy, and headed out to the boat. We loaded in and the girls headed over to West Marine and Bassett's while the boys stayed at the boat and started to work.
First task was to remove the TracVision M5 satellite dome. We will reuse the round base for the starlink mount and reuse the cable runs for the starlink cable. I had done the reading of the M5 installation guide so that we knew how to back it out. Remove the dome, remove the mounting bolts from the base, tip the unit over and remove the cable connections. There was a "dead" beehive in there so we brought out the shopvac and cleaned things up before we started the install of the starlink. The girls had called and we asked for 1/4 inch thick starboard. They only sold prepackaged sizes so we had them buy 12x27. That was th correct length and width but it is a bit thin so it flexes too much. We went back a few times over the weekend and we bought the 1/2 inch thick piece and will swap it out some time soon.
We sized up the holes and locations on the mounts and made a pattern and marked it up on the starboard and drilled holes and cut out a hole to pass the starlink connector and cable. Could have used a hole saw for that. I will bring that out for the replacement of the starboard thickness. The next task was to pull the existing cables back through and see if we could get the starlink cable in there as well. There were 4 cables that needed pulling back through from the satellite dome so we used one of them as our pull for the starlink cable to go through the flybridge console. We removed the drip guard and did the work. Now we needed to pull those same 4 cables back through the cable chase from the flybridge console into the pilothouse wall. That was done gently so that we could figure out where things ran through so that we could figure out how to best get the starlink connector through the cut of the plywood barrier. It took some fussing around but we found the proper gap, ran the electricians snake, taped the starlink to it and eased it back through with a little jiggling to get through the narrow area. We had success and pulled through enough of the starlink cable to make the run down the pilothouse wall chase and out under the electrical panel. There is a compartment down there that now holds the Starlink computer and the starlink ethernet cable runs back up the chase and out. We still need to drill/cut a passage for the power and network cable but it all came together, got plugged in and it works quite well. We have some finalizing work to do but the hard part is done.
We celebrated with some wine and then Malinda made dinner. Salmon Surprise! We finished dinner and then played a round of Hearts. Off to bed. It rained all night and the dripping water that rolled off the pilot house roof onto the side walkways made new noises. we are still learning the sounds this boat makes.
Saturday arrives and we are going to tackle the inverter swap out. Why are we doing this?? The current inverter/charger works but it is an older unit that provides a step wave output. Meaning it is a very dirty wave form on the AC output. Sensitive electronics, like the starlink, need a pure sine wave so in order for the Starlink to work long term we needed to swap out for a new Xantrex 3012 inverter/charger. 3000watt 12Volt. We went with what we thought would be a direct replacement. The FreedomSW 3012. More on that later.
Our first objective was to survey the entire process by sight and walk through our movements so that we could get the old unit out and the new unit in and know what we needed before we did things. So we climbed down in to the engine compartment and made our way back to the battery boxes and inverter. It is a tight fit but we measured things and we had space to get the old one out and the new one in without having to move the battery boxes. That is important since the batteries are 8D in size and weigh over 150 pounds each. Not an easy thing to do by any measure. So we were good in that regard.
Time to get started. We disconnected shore power and shut down everything and turned off the battery switches. Note to self. Our DC system has fuse protection as opposed to breakers. I need to find the spares for the big buss fuses on the aft bulkhead. Those are important as the whole boat DC system uses those. At some point it will be worth having that redone to have large breakers instead of fuses. That will also allow re-routing of battery cables to for a more direct path.
We disconnected the old inverter and lifted it out. That was NO WHERE NEAR as hard as I thought it would be. Jonathan got it out and over the battery box and I took it from there and moved it to the stringer and then out the engine room and into the salon. Time to take a break and look at the new unit and map out connections and orientation. We measured the holes in the chassis for fastening it down. The new unit is a fraction of an inch larger in each dimension so we need to turn it 90 degrees. That means the battery cables need to move and the grounding cable needs to be a few inches longer. Off to West. Marine for the fourth time this weekend for things we did not have. Random supplies that were needed in the project. I was able to buy 6feet of green 8AWG stranded wire and we have the connectors. Once I got back I made the wire by moving the connectors from the old cable to the new one. Jonathan had marked the new length on it so I made it to the proper length and terminated the connections.
All of this took quite a while as it is a very tight fit down there which makes doing anything a time consuming effort because you have to slowly move your body into positions that are in need of someone that is flexible. That is NOT me.
In the end it was time to connect the batteries. That did not go as planned. It was my thought that since we disconnected both the paralleling cable between the two boxes and the cable to the inverter and there was no sparking then it should go back together without sparks. Sparks mean current is trying to flow. So when Jonathan touched the connectors of the cables to the batteries and there were sparks, that was a surprise. Looking back on it, I surmise that the new inverter was charging up its "innards" like capacitors etc.... So each time he tried the sparks were a bit less. In the end we disconnected the negative battery cable from the inverter, connected the positive cables to the batteries and then in one quick motion, connected the negative cable back to the inverter. I could not see it but the sparking was minimal, the unit powered up and then shut down. Which is why I surmised that the innards were being filled with electrons..........
Once all of the connections were secured and lids were replaced and strapped down and we cleaned up all of the tools and stuff that needed to be thrown away, we opened the manual and went through the testing procedures. Test that the inverter works and powers a small device. We plugged in an iPad to its wall charger. That worked and so did the new display which gives us a lot of detailed info about AC and DC voltages and currents flowing through the unit. I like the additional info. Next test is to reconnect shore power and see how the charger portion works. That all went well.
Time to clean up, get some of the tools out of the way and throw out the waste material. Once all of that was done, we opened a very nice bottle of red wine and celebrated our collective success. Time to cook dinner!
I enjoyed the wine then started preparing dinner. Steak Stir-fry. Chris had cut the peppers and onions. I needed to light the stove, cut the steak and cook. We enjoyed the meal and then cleaned up.
I got up Sunday morning to walk Rudy around 6am and on our return we met Jonathan on the way to the bath house. He indicated that the flights were delayed and messed up a bit. I made coffee once we got back to the boat and they looked at the travel options. In the end we dropped them off at the airport at the original time and they were able to change their flights to a more direct routing and they got home earlier than originally planned.
I was tired, in a good way, and satisfied with our accomplishments. A Fantastic visit!
Out an back to 16..............
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