Naval Yachts is a beehive of activity this past week with a big push for launching two other boats in the shipyard. One particularly exciting one for Naval is the the first GreeNaval boat to be launched, their GN60 all aluminium 18m/60ft hybrid electric powerboat whose build began about three years ago just before Möbius. The second boat is a complete refit inside and out of an all steel 16m/54ft sailboat originally built in the 1980’s. Unfortunately this means that most of Team Möbius members have been called on to work on these two boats as they are both due to launch by the end of this month but hopefully they will return soon and progress can resume on our already long delayed launch.
However the remaining Team Möbius members are literally working overtime and weekends so progress on XPM78-01 Möbius is still being made so I have lots for this week’s Show & Tell progress update so let’s jump right into all that.
HOUSE BATTERIES:
Our Lead Sparkie aka Electrician Hilmi had Selim assisting him with pulling some more cables and wires such as these huge cables which connect the 24 FireFly Carbon Foam L15+ batteries to the Main DC Distribution Box seen here and where you may recall they left off last week.
The overall House Battery system is shown here and consists of four individual “battery banks” formed by connecting six of the 4V @ 450Ah FireFly Carbon Foam batteries together in Series, Positive to Neg, which is abbreviated as 6S in electro-speak. 
And here is what 6S looks like in reality when six 4V @ 450Ah FireFly batteries are connected in Series.
* NOTE: If you look closely at this photo (click to enlarge) each of these FireFly L15+ batteries are actually TWO 2V cells inside of one case. This is a very smart way to do things because by simply changing how those black covered copper bars are connected, each cell can be either 2V @ 900Ah OR 4V @ 450Ah, your choice. We are choosing to configure each L15+ as you see here so I will always refer to each L15+ as a 4V @ 450Ah battery .
** TINY TECH TALK (feel free to skip over if not interested)
Series vs Parallel connections:
Each of these four 6S banks are subsequently connected in Parallel, Positive to Positive, Neg to Neg, abbreviated as 4P so the total House Battery is 6S4P:
- 6S = 4V x 6 = 24Volts @ 450Ah
- 6S4P = 4 x 450Ah = 1800Ah @ 24V
When connecting batteries in Series the VOLTS of each battery are added together while the amps stay the same so each 6S bank is
- 6 x 4V cells = 24V @ 450Ah.
As per the House Battery schematic above, the four 6S banks are then connected together in Parallel or 4P where the AMPS are now cumulative and the Volts stay the same so the total House Bank is abbreviated 6S4P and totals 4 x 450Ah = 1800Ah @ 24V. Volts x Amps = Watts so that equates to 43.2kW aka a LOT!
Protecting Wires vs Consumers:
Fuses and circuit breakers can be used for two very different purposes depending on WHERE in the circuit they are installed. if they are installed at the very beginning of the power SOURCE such as a battery or inverter, then they are protecting the WIRE from what is known as Overcurrent Protection. If the fuse is instead installed close to where the consumer or appliance is connected then they are protecting the Consumer/Appliance. It is possible to have one Fuse/Circuit breaker do both by installing it at the very beginning of the circuit aka power source but this means that the amps would need to be the SAME for both the total amps carried by the wire AND the total amps required by the consumer. Therefore this only works in the case where the whole circuit is serving just one individual consumer so that the amperage rating of the fuse matches both the limits for protecting the wire and protecting the consumer.
Putting all that theory into practice, let’s take a look at the case of fuses used for Overcurrent Protection of the batteries and their cables. In this photo you can see that Hilmi and Selim have installed these large T-class fuses directly to the Positive output of this 6S bank using a thick copper flat bar.
The batteries are the very beginning of the circuit so these fuses are being used for Overcurrent Protection of each Red 120mm2 / 5/0 AWG cable. If as is often done when wiring batteries, no fuse is used and the Red cable is connected direct to the Positive battery post then there would be NO protection of that cable as it makes it way from the battery to the Positive Bus Bar inside the Main DC Distribution Panel.
With the potential of 24V @ 450Ah a short circuit on this positive battery cable would be VERY bad and a fire all but guaranteed. Hence we use Overcurrent Protection on all our wires and cables.
This adds a degree of expense and complexity but when Safety is involved all other factors take a back seat.
AFT DECK WINCH:
Back in the Workshop looking up at the ceiling right behind the end of the Engine Room Enclosure, we find another job that Hilmi and Selim completed this week by connecting the 24V power cables to the big Lewmar EVO65 winch up on the Aft Deck. This winch will get quite a workout as it is how we lift the Tender off and on the Aft Deck and we’ll cover that more in the coming weeks as the Davit Arch gets built.
As you can see, the motor and gearbox assembly tuck up nicely in this space which will be even more protected with the AlucoBond ceiling panels are put in place.
N2K NETWORK & MONITORING:
On the Starboard/Right side opposite the Winch Hilmi has mounted this Junction box to house some of the connections of the wiring in the Workshop for some of the 24V consumers such as the Maretron Black Boxes and Workshop lights.
Every wire labelled at both ends of course.
Zooming out a bit to get the bigger picture you can see how this newest junction box sets nicely up in the boxed corners that wrap all the way around the perimeter of the Workshop and how well that beautify big overhead hatch brings in all the light and fresh air. The large rectangular AL bracket will soon have the DC Distribution Panel mounted to it and all those large Red/Black/Yellow/Green cables will go in their to connect up to the Positive and Neg bus bars, circuit breakers and fuses.
Speaking of which, that DC Distribution Panel for the Workshop showed up this week so we now have all three of these Distribution Panels, two of which you’ve seen in previous weeks with one up in the Forepeak and the Main one down in the Basement.
All the cable glands have been pre-installed for all those cables you saw in the photo above and keeps each cable both securely mounted with a waterproof connection. You will be seeing more of this panel as it gets mounted inside the Workshop and Hilmi starts connecting all the cables, wires, fuses and circuit breakers.
Panning to the Left to this area above the Fuel Manifolds, these are some of the Maretron BB’s and one of the bluish multi-port N2K blocks on the far Right where the N2K backbone connects with the larger Blue cables such as the one visible on the far Right. The small white wires are coming from the various Maretron sensors for things like temperature, pressure, fuel flow, WIF Water in Fuel, etc..
TRANSDUCERS:
Making a nice transition from electrical to aluminium “hotworks”, I finished up the design for this fairing block for the Aft Depth and Bottom Discriminating sounder and Uğur transformed it to solid 30mm thick aluminium in literally minutes.
The Black plastic transducer I’m holding is a Furuno 520-5PSD Bottom Discriminating Sounder which connects to a dedicated Furuno BBDS1 Black Box and then
sends the data and graphics like this out via Ethernet cable to our boat computers and the TimeZero navigation software. These sounders are most commonly used by commercial fishermen but having all this detailed information about the contours and materials below us is eXtremely valuable to us for checking out the best anchorage spots.
While very powerful, these BD transducers are very sensitive so they need to be well protected where they are exposed on the bottom of our hull from debris and possible groundings. Strangely enough bubbles are the biggest “enemy” in terms of getting maximum performance from this and any depth transducer as they interrupt the pulsed sonar signals being sent and received by the transducer.
This boat-like shape helps accomplish all these tasks; protects the transducer and smooths out the water flowing over the bottom surface of the transducer.
Equally critical is having the bottom surface of the transducer being parallel with the waterline so that the sonar signals are pointing straight down so we tacked the front end to the place on the hull we had strategically chosen and then used the laser level to get the bottom surface eXactly parallel with the “ground”.
Even though we had chosen a spot on the hull that was relatively flat there was still a good sized gap at the Aft end where the bottom plates start their sweeping curves up into the prop tunnel.
However it only took Uğur minutes to quickly cut some small triangular shapes of 5mm AL plate to fill that gap and then start laying down the first passes of weld to make this all integral to the hull.
Uğur will lay down at least one more bead of weld and then we will grind the block to an even more hydrodynamic shape and finish it up with epoxy fairing putty when we are prepping the bottom for the epoxy primer preceding application of the silicone base InterSleek 1100SR Foul Release bottom paint we are going to use.
One additional detail we designed in for an extra bit of safety with anything that is a penetration of the hull is that I had Uğur weld in a matching boat shaped piece of 5mm thick plate to the top of this 30mm thick boat shaped block before he tacked the whole block to the hull where it touches on the far Left/Forward end. Click to enlarge this or any photo to see this 5mm plate and then the thicker 10mm hull plate above it.
Mr. Gee Mounting System
In last week’s Update I outlined the design I came up with for mounting the Gardner and the Nogva to the beds in the Engine room using large anti-vibration mounting “feet”. This week I finished up those design and construction drawings and Uğur got busy the brackets for Mr. Gee’s four “feet” and the two for his best buddy the Red Nogva CPP Servo Gearbox.
For the front Gardner mounts we need to extend or widen the inside of the Engine Beds a bit where the motor mount feet attach and for the Nogva feet we need to add an underhanging mounting bracket to the beds on both sides.
To help with your orientation in the real world, here is a shot standing up on the Aft Deck looking straight down into the Engine Room. The two long parallel Mounting Beds you see in the rendering above are what you see here running from top to bottom in this photo. Stern is at the top here so that is the Aft end of the Engine Room Enclosure at the top of this photo and out of sight at the bottom is the WT Bulkhead with the Guest Cabin on the other side. Two large transverse Frames # 18 & 19 rare what you see spanning across between the two beds. 
Inside the ER looking Aft I’ve been busy laying out the exact locations for the mounts. Getting the location of these engine and CPP mounts eXactly correct is eXtremely critical to the overall performance of the propulsion system so even though I’ve modeled every component very precisely in Fusion 360 3D modeler, I double, triple check all the numbers and geometry using independent hand sketches and pulling off real world measurements with tape measures, laser levels and machinist squares and then transferring this all to the aluminium with labels and lines on the masking tape I’ve put down along the beds.
The red flange halves up at the top are the zero reference or base plane that I have used for all my models and measurements as this 2 part flange is where the prop shaft connects to the output flange shaft of the Nogva CPP Gearbox. When it comes time to align these mating flanges we have to get them to be less than 0.002”/0.05mm. For reference a human hair is about 0.07mm in diameter so we don’t have much room for error when it comes time to align the Engine/Gearbox with the propeller flange.
Uğur has cut all the 25mm / 1” thick AL plates to size and prepped them for full penetration welds with the large 45 degree chamfers to form a deep V gulley for his MIG welding passes.
I really enjoy working so closely with Uğur and with all the modeling, measuring and marking done and all the plates cut and prepped time now for Uğur to start tacking them in place.
For orientation, the Door into the ER in the upper Left corner and the angled walls of the ER point to the Stern which is on the far Left.
The aft most mount for the Nogva Gearbox required this stringer be cut away where the mounting bracket plates will be and to provide enough room for the MIG gun to access. New stringer plate will be welded back in again after the mounts are all done.
At the opposite front end, the supports for the bed extension required these slots be cut in the stringer under the 25mm thick Mounting Beds.
With all the interfering stringers cut away and slotted, Uğur could start tacking in the mounting plates starting with this vertical brace for the Stbd/Right Nogva Gearbox undermount and get it perfectly lined up with the reference lines I’ve marked on the bed surfaces.
He soon has both vertical braces tacked in place.
and then tacks in the horizontal base mounting plate. My hand will give you a sense of size and scale. Mr. Gee weighs in as a svelte 1400kg/3100lbs and the Nogva CPP adds about another 250kg/550lbs so these mounts need to stand up to several decades of support for over 17-1800kg / 3750-4000lbs of vibrating propulsion goodness so I am over engineering these beyond even my usual eXtremes.
BTW, Mass is also a big help in reducing vibration and noise so there is that added benefit as well.
At the front end of the beds this Stbd/Right side bed extension is also now all tacked up and perfectly leveled ready for one last check with the laser level and straight edges before final welding begins.
Soon all four mounts, none needed for the two in the middle, are all tacked up, checked and ready for welding.
Front Bed eXtensions fully welded ready to be ground flat and flush.
As are the rear two undermounts with the stringer plates now added back in.
And here is a Birds-eye view looking down through the big ER Hatch on the Aft Deck.
Meanwhile, one floor up in the “Fitting Room” in my Workshop, I’ve been busy getting Mr. Gee’s new mounting brackets which we finished building last week, all fitted and installed on Mr. Gee himself as we prep for the big day of lowering him into his new home in the ER onboard Möbius.
These are the Aft two mounts that sit in the middle of the ER Beds. The huge flywheel is also being prepped to mount to those six bolts on the end of the Crankshaft.
Seen from the front side and with the anti-vibration “feet” in place, this is what the finished Aft Mounts look like.
Front Right mounting bracket and foot test fit and good for final torqueing.
On the Front Left mounting bracket I have incorporated this extended base plate where I will soon be mounting the big Jabsco sea water impeller pump that provides all the cool seawater to flow through the heat exchangers for the engine coolant, engine oil and Nogva Gearbox oil before exiting out via the wet exhaust system and back into the seal. 
In the photo above, the PTO or Power Take Off drive can be seen on the far Left here and then viewed through the two holes in the vertical mount brackets. I’ll be making up a SS drive shaft that will attach to that PTO end and go through those two holes in the mount and then be attached to the shaft of the Jabsco pump. Should make for a very robust and reliable drive setup for this critical pump.
Mr. Gee’s FLYWHEEL;
Mr. Gee’s feet were not the only thing I’ve been massaging this week, I also finally made the time to finish prepping the purposely “obese” flywheel option that Michael at Gardner Marine Diesel kindly provided for us. This mass helps to further even out the legendary eXtreme smoothness of all low revving Gardner 6LXB engines and make Mr. Gee a real smooth operator to quote Sade Adu’s great song.
Many months ago I had sent this flywheel out to the CNC Machine shop next door to have that recess with the 8 M-12 threaded holes machined and now I needed to remove these no longer needed bolts and bearings that are used for mounting a traditional Gardner gearbox.
The outer circumference of the Flywheel also serves a critical function by having these precise marks that are used for setting the timing of the fuel injection pump. There are three sets of these precision marks and this one is for setting the injection timing of #1 cylinder. I have filled these stamped in marks with fluorescent Green paint to help make them easier to see through the timing window in the outer aluminium Flywheel bell housing.
I sanded these areas down to leave the Green paint just filling up the letters and masked them off before spraying on the primer and topcoats.
As always, all the time in painting comes from the prep work so after months of that it only took a few minutes to spray on the first coat of primer.
Followed the next day by the final topcoat of aluminium paint.
A bit eXcessive for an item that will never see the light of day? Perhaps, but with our last boat having been all steel and Neil Young’s refrain of “Rust never sleeps” echoing in my head, I try to do anything I can to prevent rust happening ANYWHERE on my beloved new boat Möbius! Call me crazy if you like, you’d be in the majority, but I’m a very happy and rust free nutcase!
My anti-rust fetish had me take the time to sand blast the six anti-vibration feet so I could paint them while I had my spray gun out and the aluminium silicone paint mixed up, 
And shot them at the same time I was shooting the Flywheel so they are now all ready for installation.
Final step was to insert this aluminium SAE14 Centamax 1600 drive plate into that recess I pointed out earlier and torque down the eight hardened M-12 bolts.
When it is time to connect the Gardner to the Nogva Gearbox, this rubber flex drive which is bolted to the input shaft of the Nogva, will slide snugly into all those matching U shaped grooves in the AL drive plate that is now bolted to Mr. Gee’s Flywheel. This is one more very significant component helping to make Mr. Gee such an eXtremely smooooooooth operator.
This is Exhausting!
The last bit of TLC for Mr. Gee was getting these stainless steel flexible exhaust bellows machined and welded so we can start installing the Halyard exhaust system. These SS woven mesh connectors work really well by absorbing any vibration or movement between the Gardner engine and the dry stack SS pipes running up and over the Gardner on their way to the Halyard Combi Silencer/Separator.
The round SS flange faces up and this is where the first vertical dry stack Halyard pipe attaches.
And the bottom square flange bolts to Mr. Gee’s exhaust manifold. You will be seeing much more of this once we start installing the Halyard exhaust system later this month.
Why Drop Your Drawers When You Can SLlllllliiiiiiiiide Them Instead?
We kept dancing to Sade’s Smooth Operator song throughout the week and that certainly included all the work that Omur and Selim were doing in the Main Cabin and the Galley.
Omur continued installing all the beautiful Rosewood drawers in the Master Bed Platform with their super smooth operating Blum drawer slides.
As you may notice, our Chippies aka Cabinetmakers, went a bit overboard last year when they started building the first drawers for XPM78-01 Möbius and made EVERY surface out of Ro$ewood so my pocketbook and I needed to reign them in a bit and use the very nicely contrasting Beech for the insides and undersides and unseeable surfaces of all the rest of the drawers and drawers they subsequently made.
But as you are seeing here in the Master Cabin, all the drawers in the King Bed Platform are Rosewood throughout.
All the other drawers and doors in the Master Cabin and throughout the rest of the boat have this very lovely contrast of colour and grain between the dark swirling Rosewood and the honey coloured Beech. Thee upper four drawers in this Bureau of Drawers beside the Master Bed Platform show this well.
The upper four are slide out drawers whereas the bottom four where the hull curves in and makes them narrower have fold down doors. The outer faces will soon receive their Gray/Green leather covered fronts.
I covered these AbFab Blum bottom mounted drawer slides ad nauseum last week so I’ll leave you to go check that out if you’d like and just point out that this is a good shot at the underside of one of the Bureau drawers to show how these slides and their cushioned auto-close mounts work.
and here is an interior shot of one of the sliders in one of the bed platform drawers.
Looking rearward to the stairs leading up to the SuperSalon, these are the six drawers along the Starboard/Right side of the Master Bed Platform.
And these are the five drawers on the forward facing end of the Bed Platform.
Last 2 drawers in the Master Cabin are the two Omur in front of Omur located underneath the Vanity Sink at the very front end of this Cabin. 
Omur soon has both drawers all mounted as well s the door on the Medicine Cabinet above the sink.
The Rosewood doors along that Starboard side open up into very large storage shelves with hanging lockers and the Washing Machine behind what will soon be mounted Green/Gray leather covered drawers above the BHL Handhold.
Difficult to fit it all into one photo but this shot standing in front of the Vanity sink provides this perspective looking down those doors on the far Left and along the Bureau of Drawers and the Bed Platform on your way to the hanging locker on the Left just before you start up the stairs to the SuperSalon.
Speaking of which this view looking straight down those stairs from the SuperSalon lets us see that Omur has also now installed all the solid Rosewood nosing on each of these stair treads.
The solid Rosewood nosing and intake air grills for each of the stair treads came back from the Finishing Shop with their multiple coats of PU varnish all rubbed out to a beautiful matt sheen.
Omur soon had these all fully installed and awaiting the installation of the final flooring which will be planks of click-lock high end vinyl.
MAIN HELM STATION:
Upstairs Omur and Selim continued to make good progress installing the Main Helm Station which we saw them begin the previous week. The hinged Dashboard is now back from the Upholstery Shop along with the mounting panel for the two 19” touch screens and the cut-outs for the switch panels are in the angled wall on the Right side of the Helm Chair.
I was finally able to get a photo of Sinan our Mater Upholsterer standing beside the latest round of ceiling panels for Möbius as well as the three Black Leather covered Dashboard pieces.
This is the basic layout that Captain Christine has come up with and is now in place. Kobelt Throttle/Pitch control levers bottom Right, Furuno Jog Lever to its Left and then the Gray cover is hiding the Furuno 711C AutoPilot Head.
Above the Jog Lever is the Maxwell Windlass Chain Up/Down switch with the round Kobelt Pitch Angle gauge to its Right and the ACR Pan/Tilt Searchlight control in the Upper Right corner. The empty hole beside is waiting to be filled by the Vetus Bow Thruster Joystick that has not yet arrived.
The hole on the far Left corner will have a smooth radius ring on it and will allow the Standard Horizon RAM4 VHF mic cord to coil up in the space below.
Vertically mounted on the Right wall is the Nogva Clutch & PTO control switches and the empty rectangular cut-outs will soon have the switch board mounted to control all the exterior flood/search lights and the High Water Bilge controls system.
Up on top of the Right side angled wall, that Black Kobelt panel is the Kobelt control station to give control to either the Main or the Flybridge Helms OR give control to this Kobelt 7176 WalkAbout Controller which we are eXtremely eXcited to try out soon. This is a corded remote control which can plug into a receptacle here at the Main Helm or up in the SkyBridge Helm and the 10m/33ft cord then allows us to “walk about” almost from stem to stern with this remote. It is eXtremely multi-functional as the two levers on the sides control the Pitch of the prop and Throttle of the Gardner and then up on top we can control the rudder, the bow thruster and the CPP Clutch. With this in hand we can pretty much control the whole boat while standing anywhere on the boat from the very aft end of the Swim Platform to up on the Bow.
In addition to giving you an overview of the whole front end of the SuperSalon and the Main Helm, all those wires hanging down from the ceiling indicate that Hilmi and Selim have been here putting in all the power cables for the LED lights overhead.
Most of all though, Christine and I are already fantasizing about sitting in our super comfy Llebroc Helm Chair up here and gazing out through these 360 degrees of windows as we head out towards our next great destination.
Come on Team Möbius, we are counting on you to get us there ASAP!
SuperSalon gets Superer!
It is a hard area to photograph well but the “doghouse” overtop of the Entryway from the Aft Deck into the SuperSalon is shaping up very nicely thanks to Ömür’s hard work.
This shot is looking straight up while standing on the Entryway Stairs. Omur now has the very nicely done Rosewood Hatch liner installed and Sinan has finished the first of the intricate snap in White leather covered ceiling panels on the Right here. More to follow soon.
Here is a different perspective on that same area looking in through the Entryway door on the Aft Deck. The Black Corner Box running across the upper ceiling area will have a snap In/Out panel to give us access to the various electronic gadgets that will live inside.
The SkyBridge is on the other side of the far right side here and ……. 
…… if I now climb up to the SkyBridge you can see this same Hatch liner from up here and get better oriented.
Walking a few steps forward in the SkyBridge and looking back at this same Hatch you can see where the SkyBridge Helm Chair will set in that space to the Left of the Hatch. We have oriented this Hatch lid like this to make it easy for us to pass things back and forth from the Galley and the SkyBridge and to make it easy for us to talk back and forth when we are in these two areas.
GALLEY:
Can you guess where these three little drawers are bound for?
Well, I guess the heading of this section makes that easy to guess that they go HERE on the “peninsula” in the Galley that runs parallel with the walkway as you come down the stairs from the Entryway door.
One of the main themes Christine and I prioritized as we worked through the design of XPM78-01 Möbius is what we refer to as “Diversity” by which we mean having a lot of different options for different aspects and areas onboard. in the case of the Galley that means a lot of diversity of size and shapes of drawers and doors so have a look around and see how this design diversity is manifesting itself in the Galley.
BTW, the tall skinny area in the middle of this set of different sized drawers will also be a pull out “drawer” that has no sides and just a series of shelves to store things like spices and condiments and utensils that you can easily access from the side.
Drawer Diversity continues over here on this set of drawers on the Window side of the Galley countertops forward of the double sink.
And yet more different sizes and shapes of drawers here on the other “peninsula” running along the back of the Dining Settee on the other side.
A bit difficult to see through all the construction but you can see how all the Garages atop the Turquoise marble countertops are also different sizes and depths for yet more diversity of our storage. Our hope is that having all these different options will allow us to optimize all these storage areas and enable us to find the Goldilocks just right spot for everything we want to store in our Galley.
Also eXciting for us to see the big double sink be permanently set into the marble countertop. And yes we heard all your questions and recommendations for a undermounted sink instead and we may well agree with you for the next boat, but we are very happy with this top mount and thing it will work well for us.
The large main faucet has a removable spray head with a very effective magnetic holder to keep it in place when not being used. The smaller faucet on the far Right is just for cold drinking water which comes from its own 150 Liter tank that is completely independent of all other water tanks for an extra bit of safety should it ever happen that all six of our integral water tanks should be somehow contaminated.
Highly unlikely as they are all filled from our 150L / 40 USG per hour Delfin Watermaker, but just in case ………………
Whew! Even when shorthanded the rest of Team Möbius still makes great progress and we get closer and closer to Launch Date!
Oh, and one last bit or eXciting news, look what we just received!
Holy Pinocchio!
It is NOT a Fake News lie that XPM78-01 Möbius is now a “real boy” as she is fully and officially registered in Jersey and the British Ship Registry!
I realise that this might seem like “just a piece of paper” to many but to us this is such a big milestone that makes our dreamboat seem all the more real and tantalizingly close.
Thanks as always for joining us on this grand adventure and PLEASE add your questions, comments and suggestions in the “Join the Discussion” box below.
Till next week, same time, same Bat station this is your cub reporter Wayne and Christine’s Loving Owners Representative signing off.
-Wayne
Congratulations again on a big milestone and lots of little ones too!! 🙂
Hi Wayne,
With apologies for the geekery, but you won’t have your Furuno main radar’s control panel in the main front panel?
Hi Carl – Apologies for not getting on your comment sooner. Wayne and I are both struggling to keep up with our huge To Do lists as we do everything we can to speed up the progress.
As the designer of our helm, I hope it’s okay if I step in and answer this for you. Yes, we will have our FAR 1523 Radar keyboard on here, but we decided not to make it a fixed mount. The cable will go through that hole at the top left, and the keyboard will rest there at the center top. Later, if we decide leaving it loose isn’t working, we can screw it into place, but we will have a better idea of the location that works best for it.
We also have a Furuno MCU004 unit for controlling the screens displaying our TimeZero software. It connects to the computer via USB and its cable will be running out that same hole. We’re also leaving it loose and considering that we might later want to figure out a way to mount it on an arm of the helm chair.
And we also have a Logitech wireless keyboard along with a large trackball unit that are both Bluetooth, and they will need space to rest on the dash. So while it looks like we have a paltry few items jammed together on the right side of the dash, the extra space will be filled with the wired and wireless devices that are not permanently mounted.
Hey Carl. No apologies ever needed for geekery, both Christine and I LOVE swimming in the deep end of that pool.
Good catch and question about the Furuno Radar control panel and I should have mentioned that in the post. We have a FAR1523 for our main Radar and we went with Furuno’s “Black Box” version as we have also gone with an all computer based nav system on Möbius rather than MFD’s so we therefore have the dedicated FAR1523 keyboard which will be plugged in there on the Main Helm and up on the SkyBridge. This is why there is that large hole in the upper Left corner of the dashboard for the coiled cord of the FAR1523 keyboard to pass through. We prefer this independent keyboard setup because it allows us to have the keyboard wherever we want and always right at our fingertips. We also have the same independent setup for our trackball and use Furuno MCU004 remote controls for manipulating anything on any of our many monitors in view at the helm stations.
Having these all be independently wired and “desktop” style rather than permanently mounted let’s us move these various controllers to wherever we are. I will for example be modifying the armrests on our Llebroc helm chairs to have these kinds of movable devices mounted there and be literally at your fingertips when you are seated there. Or over at the dining table, or ……………………
Thanks for all the work keeping this blog organized and documented. I have learned a lot about fabrication. And i love my Turkish Vicem even more.
Hi there Richard, thanks for stopping by and for the very kind comment. It is great motivation for two ex teachers like Christine and myself to know that our work on keeping up this blog is helping people like you and our many other followers to learn along with us. Once a teacher always a teacher right? 😉
And good to know that your Vicem is continuing to put a smile on your face. We can’t wait to join you in the water soon!
I considered using the L15 batteries in my boat, but they were just to tall for my space. I think they’re one of the best non-LiFePO4 battery choices you can make right now. I especially like the little copper bar they came up with for the class T fuse to be mounted to. It seems like there would be an industry standard for that already, but there doesn’t seem to be!
I also love seeing the NMEA 2000 network growing in your build. I would do exactly the same thing if I were building from the ground up – sensors on anything and everything possible to make sure I had complete visibility into what was going on. Can’t wait to see the finished product!
Hey Steve! Thanks for stopping by and sorry to hear about your most recent bout of “mal de mere”, helps keep Christine and I SO very grateful that we got lucky in the lottery of life and don’t seem to be affected. All the more testament to your conviction and love of the life aquatic so kudos to you. It is getting through “storms” like this which make those grins on our faces SO large and the joy so deep when we are enjoying the views from our decks in a way that those who don’t share such experiences just can’t understand or appreciate.
Great to get your added commentary about the L15+ Carbon Foam “FireFly” batteries we have gone with on XPM78-01 Möbius. In our case we had plenty of room for them by design as we originally thought we were going to use OPzV traction batteries which are even taller and larger than the L15+ and then their weight is actually a “feature not a bug” for us because we use the battery lead weight as part of our ballast for the boat. I fully realize that this is not the case for most boats where space is at a premium and weight is a problem so the energy density of LiFePO4 make a lot of sense and are gaining popularity as a result. These metrics seem to be better understood more and more however what I don’t see as much awareness of is what I see as one of the biggest benefits of Carbon Foam vs LiFePO4 or other lithium derivatives which is how “robust” or fault tolerant the Carbon Foam types are. Again, this all needs to be based on the use case of any given boat and owners but for us the fact that it is nigh on impossible to “kill” a CF battery and that they can be left at pretty much any SoC for long periods of time with seemingly no loss in overall performance when they are next fully re-charged. CF batteries are also much more tolerant of very cold temperatures and we do have the Arctic and Antarctic calling our names quite loudly so that was an additional factor in making the L15+ CF batteries the Goldilocks choice for us.
Good too to get your thumbs up on the short copper “Z-bars” that we are using to mount the T-class fuses direct to the positive posts of the four different 24V battery banks. Pretty close to zero voltage drop through these thick solid copper bars and we did some testing to make sure they were very rigid when bolted to the FireFly battery terminals. Those being nice flat bolt on terminals rather than the round post type was a big help in providing a strong flat and flush surface for these copper bars to rest on and be attached to and we will also add some supports for the big 120m2 cables that come off those T-class fuses just to make extra sure everything closed up in those hull integral battery compartments stay immobile and trouble free.
And yes, both Christine and I have jumped into the deep end of the N2K pool and we’re enjoy it so far but it sure is a DEEP pool and we are SO thankful for all the great “swimming lessons” you provide through your “Seabits Steve” blog which we read and re-read all the time and will do more as we get into commissioning all our N2K based gear and then start adding more, working up more and more rules and alarms and screens for our Maretron N2K View. Down the road a bit we are already looking forward to joining you and all the others experimenting with other forms of control and monitoring using the likes of SignalK, Graphena (sp?) and perhaps some Raspberry Pi and other electronics. For Christine and I our love of our aquatic life is much more so centered on the fabulous learning environment this creates than on “just” the boating aspect to our forays into the N2K and other worlds just deepen and add to the ways we can feed our insatiable learning addictions. 😉
-Wayne
That Gartner is starting to look better and better with every update! Maybe when you get it (him?) running, you can post us a sound file to listen to! 🙂
BTW, there must be a reason for rather unconventional way of wiring the battery bank? I would think keeping the wires shortest possible and not crossing would be the normal way to wire it, would it not?
Like this:
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cWkHdurr6c0/maxresdefault.jpg
or
https://image.made-in-china.com/202f0j00jSiavZgIAOrP/1-2V-80ah-48V80-Ni-CD-Battery-Bank.jpg
Hmmmm, I need a bit more details to help me understand how the wiring of our battery banks are “rather unconventional”? I think our setup is the very same as shown in the two links you provided for those OPzV type batteries. Each of the 2V cells contained within each FireFly L15+ battery are interconnected in Series with as short a length of copper bar as possible to join each 2V cell and make each battery 4V. Then we use 120m2 cables, again as short as physically possible to connect each of the six 4V batteries in Series to create four independent 24V @ 450Ah which are then in turn connected directly to the Pos and Neg copper bus bars above using 120m2 cable that are all as short as possible to get there while still keeping the total battery cable lengths the same for each bank.
So I must be missing something and not seeing what you are so I look forward to learning more about what you are seeing and would recommmend as a better way of connecting these batteries.
Thanks as always for all your helpful comments and suggestions in making XPM78-01 Möbius even better Andy.
-Wayne
I just meant more conventional wiring where the wiring distance is minimised by laying out the batteries with terminals next to each other and where the different potential wires do not cross each other, like in the pictures I linked.
No biggie, just was curious.
Also do you plan to monitor the voltages / temperatures of the individual battery cells or no?
Would give a good indication and pre-warning for a failing cell, I think.
Over time I might add 24 N2K temp and voltage sensors to monitor each of the 24 L15+ batteries Andy but for this first version I’m just monitoring each bank of six L15+.
More is most often better when it comes to monitoring but I am also keenly aware that “perfection is the enemy of the good” and that every additional “feature” extends the time to Launch date and sometimes “good enough” is just that. So as I commented on in this week’s most recent XPM78-01 Möbius Progress Update, it is a constant balancing act to do “just enough and not one bit more” to poorly paraphrase Einstein in order to get us in the water and back to cruising the world ASAP. We will then have a lifetime for experimenting, improving and learning as we “roam to know” one nautical smile at a time.
-Wayne
Dear Wayne
Looking at the engine mounts of your Gardner/Nogva combination, I was wondering if a thrust bearing/constant velocity device (i.e. Aquadrive) would be possible to install to further reduce alignment issues and vibrations. It seems to me that with this CCP you are forced to directly mounted the shaft to the Nogva gear box and the propeller thrust is transmitted via the engine mounts to the hull. Is this correct?
Best regards, Markus
Hey there Markus, thanks for the observations and questions. Prior to making the decision to go with CPP I too had assumed that we would for sure have had a top quality thrust bearing with a constant velocity or CV type of setup in our drive train such as an Aquadrive. However as you surmised this is not possible with our Nogva CPP propulsion just as you describe. As you are now seeing in the recent Möbius weekly Progress Update posts, the pitch of the prop blades is changed by a push/pull rod that runs down the center of the prop shaft itself and is moved forward and aft by hydraulics in the Servo Gearbox which we control with a lever at the helm. Therefore the prop shaft has to be directly coupled to the Servo Gearbox with this push/pull rod threaded into the end of a “piston” that lives in the center of the output shaft. Then the Gardner is coupled directly to the Nogva CPP Servo Gearbox so in the end our propulsion system from prop to engine is one single solid physical unit. I briefly entertained NOT coupling the engine and the servo gearbox by putting a space between them so that there could be a cardon shaft/CV type setup with a jack shaft coupling the Gardner to the Nogva. However this would have added about a meter to the overall length of the propulsion system and I decided the benefits were not worth that change.
I did work with the engineers at Nogva to work out that they do support and recommend the use of flexible mounts or “feet” for the engine and the Nogva Servo Gearbox. Given that sound, or lack thereof, is a huge factor in the Comfort category of our top five priorities for the design and build of this XPM, reducing any noise and vibration from our propulsion system was a high priority for us so I decided to use flexible mounts/feet for Mr. Gee and the Nogva. The past 2 weeks we have started to do the alignment of the whole propulsion system so you will be seeing much more of these flexible mounts I’ve chosen. It took a LOT of research but I was able to come up with a combination of mounts that could provide the elusive combination of strength, vibration reduction and thrust transfer. The four feet that attach Mr. Gee to the massive 25mm thick AL engine beds are all the same with what I hope will be the Goldilocks combination of strength to handle the weight and torque Mr. Gee will demand of them and then there are a very different set of mounts/feet for the Nogva CPP that also absorb vibration well AND are specifically designed to transfer the thrust of the prop shaft to the frame of the hull. And given that Nogva and other CPP systems are built to also be installed with solid connections, directly bolted to the hull, the Servo Gearbox has internal thrust bearings and construction to handle these loads as well.
As you can imagine I am VERY much looking forward to testing this all out in our initial sea trials to see how it works in reality! So I will be doing lots of testing and observation to see how much movement we get as you put the torque and thrust to the propulsion system, how much vibration makes it through to the hull and I will also be checking the sound levels with a decible meter in different locations on Möbius, inside and out and under all the different scenarios from at anchor to under full acceleration, big seas and small, etc.
Stay tuned for all that data in the hopefully not too distant future.
-Wayne