Category Archives: Work

Lego construction site and dead batteries

I’ve got 56 minutes left, then my laptop will shut down. And I cannot recharge it, because the ship’s batteries are DEAD. Dead ? You say.  – Well, yes – it seems so. Today I disconnected every single of our 6 months old AGM batteries and measured the voltage. It was between 12.8 and 12.7 Volt. That’s not much but it doesn’t mean they’re dead yet. The thing is: If we charge them, the voltage goes up and down as if there’s no battery connected: If the sun shines, we’ve got 13.5 volts, if there are clouds, we’ve got 12.6. If I try to connect something power-hungry the voltage goes down from 12.6 or whatever it is to 10.5 volts in a few seconds. This doesn’t look too good.

What I cannot understand: How can those 4x 100Ah AGM batteries that are just six months old already be dead ? We were connected to shore-power many times and the batteries have never been ‘used’ much. – Our battery monitor NEVER showed a charge less than 60% – and this maybe one or two times. I really don’t get it. If any reader of this blog has an idea how I could check the batteries or do anything about this situation – all input is very welcome !!

Posted in Hardware, LosLocos, Pics, Rancho Relaxo, Work | 5 Comments

Cool beer again !!

Today the kids left their home and stayed with the grandparents in the hotel. They’ll spend the afternoon at the pool, eat together and watch The Simpsons on TV.  – And the parents of those wonderful children spend the afternoon…. installing a new fridge !!!

Heh. Well we could have used the time in a better way. But this really was an important item on our todo list. The ancient ‘Combicool’ wouldn’t run on 12V anymore so we were running it via our inverter. That increased the power input again – and the fact that it was running 24hrs/day and the beer still wouldn’t get cold was just enough to get me started. The old unit was quickly deinstalled but getting the new cooler unit inside the fridge took me nearly 3 hours. I could only get in there with my head and one arm but had to drill holes, cut screw threads, mount the evaporator, etc…

But not too much later everything was connected and the new fridge was surring and cooling our precious liquids and refreshments. This will also cut down our power consumption by more than 50% since the fridge was actually using most of the power.

Oh – and I nearly forgot: No, we’re not in La Gomera. After a quick check of the rigging, we WERE sailing out of San Miguel but unfortunately part of the crew was not really feeling well and so we put into the next harbour that was the Marina del Sur. The good thing about that: This place is way nicer than the marina San Miguel and we’ve finally met the SY Nubia !

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Visit from the parents and a lot of work

Yesterday at 0400h in the morning we got into the car and with two sleeping kinds on the backseat, we drove to Santa Cruz to get Gui to the airport. We didn’t actually sleep that night since our friends from the SY Kira arrived around midnight and – well after a welcome drink (or two) it was already time to leave.

Gui will stay a week in Argentina to visit her parents. For me it’s the other way around: on the same day in the afternoon my parents arrived to stay with us for the next two weeks. They brought LOOOOOOOTS of presents and a big bag of food: my grandmother made ‘bratknoedel’ and lots of cookies. We got homemade marmelade and my sister made gingerbread for us. After unpacking and a taste of good austrian food we fell into the bunks.

Today was work day: I installed the rapaired gooseneck, the Kira brought with them from Lanzarote and afterwards started with the watermaker. We actually bought it in Germany before leaving but neither had the time nor the need to install it earlier. But now that the trips get longer and the atlantic crossing is nearing it’s time to get independent of the water hose. I placed the watermaker underneath the saloon bench and my father did a nice little control panel and made most of the electrical installation. In the evening the installation was complete. Tomorrow I’ll check everything for errors and maybe give it a try (but not in the harbour)…

In the meantime my mother was playing Lego with Viola and they went to explore the marina area while Bruno was with Tim and Klaus, helping to repair their wind generator. And it looks as if they succeeded this time !

Oh – and if you think the photos look a little better – it’s because now we’ve got a new and really nice DSLR camera ! YAY !!!

Posted in LosLocos, Pics, Rancho Relaxo, Work | 5 Comments

The steelboat owners nightmare

The hose that empties the water from 0ur anchorchain box was clogged so I used a thin wire to try and make it run again.

And run it did !! But it was not through the hose as supposed but somehow the hose broke right underneath the outlet and all the rust/saltwater soup emptied itself into the bilge. From there it flushed down until midships. Everything covered in stinky rusty mess !!! *AAAAARRRHG*

Well I cleaned it up again, dried it, put my LAST drops of BOB onto some parts where there could develope rust. And then I set to work to put a new hose. Of course I had to deconstruct moste of the kids’s cabin to gain access but in the end it worked.

The next day I put a bigger screw in the back of the steering wheel because the old one we wouldn’t trust anymore; the thread nearly gone. Put the track for the reefing lines 20cm more towards the aft (the ones on the side of the boom), deflated the dinghy, put away the anchor chain – in short: We’re preparing for our first bluewater trip.

Tomorrow we’ll stitch up our mainsail as the new one was not delivered in time and we’ll have to sail those 600 miles with our 30 year old main. *rrr*

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Diapershoes

They keep my feet dry and at the same time clean out all dirt from the bottom of the bilge: David’s Diapershoes (TM). Hehehe.

(Pre-scheduled post for less boredom.)

Posted in It's funny ! Laugh !, LosLocos, Sailing, Work | 1 Comment

Work day: lath floors for our berths

We need more space in our little home. And the easiest way to accomplish this is to tidy up and/or fix things that we carry with us but did not yet have the time to incorporate. So today Gui spent a couple of hours sorting through our extensive collection of medicine and put everything in order and stored it somewhere in our tiny bathroom. Before that we had all the doctor’s stuff in a big bag standing on the floor beside the toilet. ;-)

And me – I was cutting the wood for our lath floors that will bring more comfort to our nights at sea and (more important) air to our mattresses. It’s a little detail but quite important. And it emptied up about half a square meter of room in our quarter berth ! Mission accomplished.

Posted in Pics, Rancho Relaxo, Work | 1 Comment

New batteries and water faucets

Today we put the new waterhoses for drinking water, fresh water and salt water underneath the saloon floor. We also installed new water faucets in the galley and connected the new head to the saltwater inlet. There are a few pieces missing but the water installation is 90% complete (not counting the watermaker, that’s another project saved for later).

The first picture shows the top of the batteries with the 300A fuse right on top of it. That’s to get sure nothing bad happens, should the wires somehow break and shortcut. – In the end, all the batteries are in one big metal box. As you can see in the last two pics. – Actually you can’t because all the lead is inside the tank and covered with my wooden ‘boxes’ that hold the batteries in place. Now the only todo left is to connect everything together…

Tomorrow I’ll be in the office to get my tax files in order and sort out other boring paper stuff….

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Getting rid of the water tank

As I said, yesterday Wolfgang and me were removing the water tank. To cut it short: We succeeded !! Here is the water tank that was hidden under the saloon bench. We cut it open to see where it is bolted to the ship. The pictures were taken after about 2-3 hours of work:

We also had to cut the inlets and remove the rest of the saloon bench to get access to all sections where the tank was fixed to the hull. After about 7 hours of work the tank was removed. Yay !!

…and one hour later, the saloon looked like this:

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Hoses poposes

This week I have help from Wolfgang and the two of us have managed to strip all water hoses from the Rancho Relaxo:

And in the morning while I was with the tax accountant, Wolfgang managed to remove the old potty and replace it with the new Jabsco. He also removed the faucet in the bathroom and put the new Whale pump-faucet in the galley. This one will pump the drinking water from the little holding tank. The big old galley-faucet was also removed but as I forgot to order the replacement, I’ll have to go shopping tomorrow. – But we’ll need 30m of new water hoses anyway. In the meantime we’ve managed to once again make a big mess on board – but there’s no other way. Tomorrow when we’ll try to remove the smaller of the two water tanks the chaos will be even bigger ! (Yeah, and I’ll post pictures – be sure of that. ;-)

Posted in Pics, Projects, Rancho Relaxo, Work | 2 Comments

First results

The second week is gone…. A short week thanks to the visit in Austria and that stupid crash. But still I managed to finish a few things. The old chart plotter was ‘exchanged’ for a Raymarin via Ebay and last week I already did all the cabeling (what a mess !). Now it’s mounted and running. Looks actually quite good there – under the sprayhood. Now the only thing missing is the connection to the radar. But that is still waiting for the cable. Also missing is the Tridata which will be a  VDO (veeeery nice !). The sensors are already in place and so are all the cables. When everything is working, it will be interconnected via the AMAZING NMEA/Seatalk/RS232 converter which will deliver all data also to my board PC. – I’ll post pics as soon as that’s finished.

What else… Well the cabeling in the engine room is pretty much finished. The only things missing are the alternator and the charger for the wind generator which both will happen next week. In the meantime I activated the battery and tank display. The big red key is for the 2kW inverter – so it doesn’t empty our batteries when it’s idling…

Speaking of batteries: The old Diesel-tank is now storing energy in the form of batteries. Hehehe. Yeah. THAT’s a statement ! Four pieces of 100Ah AGM-batteries will end up in the tank. Which is perfect for the weight (deep down) and the tank ensures that the batteries are in a watertight box. – How convenient !

Also new: the two 100W – solar panels are active. I’m very happy with the way they are mounted but I’m nervous about the first locks. Hopefully I will not ruin them… Ah, and as you can see, Gui put the ship’s name on the sides. I think it looks quite good !

Also I brought a car load of new stuff to the ship. Next week the main focus will be on the water installation. I’ll replace all faucets and the electric pump will be replaced by a foot pump. The smaller of the two water tanks has to make room for the watermaker. But I don’t think, I’ll install it next week. This is probably something for underway.

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1st of May: My first day without work

Huh ? What’s that nice and cosy feeling ? Ah it’s the worker’s day ! And I for one will NOT drive to the office tomorrow – and that’s a first after 22 years !! But instead of starting my day with a long and nice breakfast, I’ll drive to our ship and start doing the new cabeling. Ayayay ! Well but still better than doing taxes.  – Which I also still haven’t finished. :-/ But there’s still four weeks left – so what’s the rush ?

And of course a few pics from my last day in the office. – The bounty invasion on my desk and lots of beer in the backyard. That was followed by even more beer in the Prater Garten and finished off with a few SG&Ts in the Klub der Republik. Mmmmh. What a beautiful last day at work…

Posted in Berlin, Freedom, Pics, Work | 4 Comments

Coquito Christmas sale – last chance

This weekend (Friday/Saturday) will be the final days of the Coquito Christmas sale. So whoever needs some nice handmade gifts for children – don’t waste time and visit us !

Coquito sale flyer

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Schon wieder ein Servercrash !

Und nochmal Serverausfall. Ich weiss nicht – irgendwie wollen mich meine Server zur Zeit testen, hab ich das Gefuehl. Letzte Woche der total-Crash von www.serverart.com, dann zweimal Servercrash beim Kunden und dieses WE schon wieder serverart.com ? Was ist denn da los ? Habe ich irgendwie Mr. Murphy beleidigt, auf dass er mir seine Gesetze nochmal deutlich demonstriert ? Naja. Der Ersatz-Server laeuft erst mal wieder. Mal sehen, wie lange…. Zeit wird’s zumindest mal rancho-relaxo.de auf einem neuen Server zum laufen zu bringen.

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Servercrash

Tja. Nun hat er also wirklich den Geist aufgegeben. Seit 1997 betreibe ich nun einen Webserver in Wien. Anfangs noch an einem Kabelmodem von zuhause, spaeter bei der Inode in einem kleinen Keller im 8.Bezirk, dann wurde daraus ein richtiges Rechenzentrum im 20. und letzten Endes wurde dann die Inode von UPC Telekabel geschluckt (was man durchaus auch am Service bemerken konnte, ja).

Die Kiste, die sich nun am vergangenen Freitag fuer immer verabschiedet hat war in etwa aus dem Jahr 2001 und hatte sich also schon abbezahlt.

Am Wochenende habe ich in einer Blitzaktion serverart.com, serverart.org, rancho-relaxo.de und einige Domains von Freunden nach Berlin kopiert und dort laeuft nun das alles auf einem lieben, kleinen MiniMac, der gerade ohne Aufgabe rumstand.

Sobald ich Zeit hab, werde ich den Server neu installieren und dann wieder in ein richtiges Rechenzentrum packen. Das wird aber wohl noch etwas dauern. Bis dahin laeuft unsere Website wohl etwas langsamer, da die Anbindung hier nur 10MBit ist. Tja. Aber immerhin haben alle Daten den Crash ueberlebt. Nicht auszudenken, wenn ploetzlich alle meine Emails (ja, ich hab fast alle noch, ab ca. 1998) weg gewesen waeren. Na und was erst die vielen Freunde gesagt haetten, die auf serverart.org ihr Emailkonto haben…. Schwein gehabt !

XKCD - devotion to duty

Original comic: http://www.xkcd.com/705/

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Coquito im Himbeer Magazin !

In der aktuellen Printausgabe des Himbeer-Magazin ist ein Artikel ueber Coquito zu finden – aber damit nicht genug ! Ploetzlich findet sich auf der Startseite des Magazins eine sehr nette Vorstellung des Modelabels und eine Ankuendung fuer den Sonderverkauf bei uns in der Wohnung, diesen Freitag und Samstag !

Und wer haette das gedacht – noch am selben Abend gibt’s die erste Anfrage eines Ladens, der gerne Coquito Sachen verkaufen moechte. Yay-woo !!

Hier der Artikel, so wie er heute im Web zu sehen war:

Himbeer Magazin - ueber Coquito

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Fuer Gui endet ein Lebensabschnitt

Nach 12 Jahren Studium in Paris und in Berlin, mit Abschluss in Philosophie, einem Intermezzo mit Deutsch-Franzoesichen Beziehungen und Fotografie sowie einem Abschluss in ‘Experimenteller Mediengestaltung’ an der UdK geht nun eine Uni-Karriere vorerst zu Ende. Anbei ein paar Fotos von der Abschluss-Pruefung an der UdK im Februar 2010. Gezeigt wurden drei Video-Installationen, ein Buch, eine Fotoausstellung, eine interaktive Installation und eine doppel-Projektion mit zwei synchronisierten 8mm-Projektoren. Super Sache ! – Und mit Auszeichnung abgeschlossen ! :-D

 

 Interaktive Installation    Praesentation

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coquito.eu – singuläre Kinderklamotten

Zur Zeit ist nur ein Flyer zu sehen. – Aber vorraussichtlich ab 1. Juni gibt’s unter coquito.eu den neuen Webshop von Gui mit traumhaften, handfgemachten Kinderklamotten zu sehen ! Yay !

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Ach ja. Fotos. Mas fotitos ! Viiiiiiele Fotos…

Und gleich noch ein paar weitere raufgeladen:

Neues vom Hausbau und Zuhause, in der Rancho-Relaxo (Prinzessin Viola lernt sitzen)

Dann folgen noch… Bilder von der Biennale in Sevilla und Grenada sowie ein paar weitere Fotos von Elektronikbasteleien. – Die bringen dann spaeter auch Licht in die Sache mit dem kaputten ‘Voltage regulator’ (s.u.).

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Arduino with broken voltage regulator

Just to post the two pics for reference…

Arduino with broken voltage regulator 1   Arduino with broken voltage regulator 1

Arduino with broken voltage regulator 2   Arduino with broken voltage regulator 2

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Neuen Drucker aktiviert: Epson DX-100

Nach langer Suche hab ich ihn auf Ebay gefunden und auch gleich zugeschlagen. – Der Epson DX-100 daisy wheel printer ist ein Stueck Computer-Geschichte aus den 80er Jahren. Im Gegensatz zu den Nachfolgenden Nadeldruckern, ist dieser Typ von Schreibmaschinen inspiriert und druckt die Zeichen mit Hilfe eines Typenrades auf’s Papier. Wunderbar anzusehen (und hoeren). Auch die Druckgeschwindigkeit mit 13 Zeichen pro Sekunde ist genial – zum Mitlesen. Hehehehe.

Hier der Link zu den Detail-Bildern + Epson DX-100 Video !

Noch ein paar Details zum Drucker: Verwendet werden offensichtlich Brother-kompatiblle Typenraeder. Mein Exemplar wurde mit ‘Letter Gothic 12′ geliefert. Derzeit bin ich auf der Suche nach einem Typenrad, das den vollen ASCII-Zeichensatz unterstuetzt. Leider wurden beim deutschen Letter-Gothic einige Sonderzeichen (@, | {}, []…) den (fuer mich) ueberfluessigen Umlauten geopfert.

Passende Farbbaender fuer den Epson DX-100:

Art.-Nr.    Beschreibung                        Preis
——————————————————–
7020         Farbbandkassette Film C schwarz      7,49 E
7025         Farbbandkassette Film C blau          7,20 E
7027         Farbbandkassette Film C rot          7,20 E
8020         Farbbandkassette Nylon                 10,20 E
ZRIBLIFTG1     Korrekturband                          6,97 E

Wie man auf den Fotos  15032008241.jpg – 15032008245.jpg erkennen kann, war der Gummi, der fuer den Anschlalg des Hammers verantwortlich war, defekt. Dieser wurde durch einen Raddiergummi + daruebergestuelpten Schrumpfschlauch ersetzt. :-D

Nun druckt er wieder !

Gleich dazubestellt: Endlospapier in A4 mit schoenen weiss/gruenen Streifen und durchnummerierten Zeilen. Yay !

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