I have added several new projects and concept articles on the website since my last commentary. I hope you enjoy them. In Michigan, there is little else to do in the winter boating-wise, other than recapping what has been done, and what is to come for the next boating season. Since there are so many new articles, I am listing them here rather than having you look for them:

Navigation Projects:
• FloScan FloNet NMEA-2000 Fuel Flow system Add On project.

Electronic Projects:
• Mounting a portable GPS unit in a small boat.
• Creating small permanent waterproof electronic modules.

General Projects:
• Naming (and lettering) your boat.

Project Concepts:
• Proper Wire Splicing, Terminating, and Pulling Techniques.
• Wire Sizing Calculator.
• Making a NMEA-0183 connection between a Chartplotter and VHF Radio.

Other Topics: You may have noticed that I added new topics to the top-line menu that are not quite boat-project related:
• Router Superstation
• Photography Backpack
• Caribbean Cruising

This website's main focus will always be boat projects, however even fanatic boaters have other interests. Mine are cruising the Caribbean with my wife on a cruise ship, woodworking, and photography. Actually, the Router Superstation could be thought of as a boat project as it can indeed be used in constructing wood items for your boat.

Murphy's 14th law states; "You can only improve something so much; any further attempts at improvement will break it". There sure seems to be some truth to that argument, and as boat-owners, we need to be mindful of it - and not do things on our boat just for the sake of doing them. However, if we are fixing a problem, or genuinely improving something to make a task or life itself a bit easier, I don't think Mr. Murphy would mind.

In that regard, I came across a couple of really neat and useful items that fit in perfectly with our concept of boat improvement here at Boat-Project.Com. Onstate Technologies, a small company based in Canada, produces a couple of electronic circuit boards. One is for a LED bar graph to monitor the boat's battery voltage, and the other is a battery-disconnect circuit; disconnecting a load when the battery voltage is too low.

These circuit boards do require you to obtain the electronic parts yourself and solder them into the board, but that is what boat projects are all about. Any of the on-line electronics parts houses, such as Digi-Key or Mouser will probably have all of the parts you need. Also, Onstate does have a Digi-Key parts-list as well as instruction sheet. I recently purchased several of these circuit boards myself, so I'll show you to use them in an upcoming boat project.

One idea I came up with is perhaps a battery disconnect for your stereo system; say you are anchored out somewhere and as we all like to do on occasion, and listen to the on-board stereo. But what we don't want to do is kill the battery with the stereo so that we cannot start the boat. So why not use a battery disconnect circuit on the stereo to shut it off when the battery reaches a certain level of discharge?

A link to the PDF instruction sheet for the voltage indicator is provided here.

You can find Onstate Technologies here. However, they maintain a storefront at eBay, and sell the two circuit boards there.

Onstate Technologies eBay Store

The circuit boards are only a couple of dollars each, and the electronic components should not cost more than $10 or so. Therefore, there is a minimal investment in this project. One caveat I should stress, and this is with any item such as this that you construct; is to generally avoid putting them into an engine room, due to ignition proofing requirements. While the project may be safe in your mind, unless you spend a lot of money to ignition-test it, it's not safe.

At any rate, look for these little gizmos to be included in forthcoming projects.

I recently had a comment via eMail about my Automatic Fire Extinguisher project; whether it is better to have the indicator light on when the extinguisher is ready, or on when it has been discharged. While I can see advantages to both thoughts, this decision has already been made by the USCG. The USCG requires that an Automatic Fire Extinguisher have an indicator that shows when it is charged and ready for use. This is typically done as part of the ignition wiring in the boat; where the indicator is on any time the engine's keyswitch is in the on (or run) posiiton.

Of course, you don't really need any indicator at all if you wish, but if you want to count the automatic system as one of your on-board fire extinguishers, it does need to have the USCG required indicator. I recommend this approach.

Thanks for the question. If you would like to ask a question, comment, or critique something you see on this website, don't hesitate to send an eMail via the link I have provided on the top-line menu.

Thanks;

Al