Vira - Sailboat rebuild, Irwin Citation 34

 Engine, electronics.  Finished installation of the engine monitor.   I like simplicity of my Yanmar 2QM20 , it does not need even electricity to run, BUT i am engineer and want to be sure engine is OK and to be able to monitor it and catch any issue BEFORE it grow to PROBLEM. I am using Open Plotter software on the board and decided to get important vitals from the engine  to Signal K  server to be monitored. I have designed Engine monitor "box" electronics and used SenseESP open source project   as software base for my device. What I can monitor with it? Tachometer     Tachometer sensor input     Tachometer amplified signal output Analog sensors Power voltage Alternator output voltage Engine oil pressure sensor  Two tank level sensors (not connected yet) Throttle position (not connected yet)  Alarms Oil Pressure alarm input Coolant overheat input Low coolant level input Low oil level input (not connected yet) Water...

Engine Installed heat exchanger. Decided to mount it above the wet muffler keep it as close to engine as i can and mount it leveled and keep it high enough to make air naturally run out of engine. To install it there I made a  mount and screw it to the engine compartment wall. 2 hours to put it tight, but stand off of exhaust.I have about 2 inches clearance from wet exhaust hose. Little straggle to find place for coolant expansion tank. For now I put it to the wall little bit right from picture view area. Connected transmission control and engine stop cable. adjusted idle RPM and accelerator cable to do not interfere with idle speed screw.  Temporary installed engine monitoring controller.  Controller designed to collect engine data and transfer to SignalK server. Then I will be able to indicate all on the cockpit display. For now it is very important to monitor engine temperature to confirm the engine is working without overheating and thermostat works correctly. I plan ...

 Interior Cabin sole gelcoat (Floor ) cleaning. Still thinking about to keep original gelcoat on cabin sole and built in cabin "furniture".  During 40 years and and my and not only my repair activity  "white" floor was used actively and had was weathered pretty much. Fortunately gelcoat  layer is pretty descent, so I decided to sand it to clean polish and wax it. Easy to say, but it is a lot of work. about 10 hours work on the floor with 3 types of sanders and manual sand blocks.  sanding order 120 grit, 240, 320, 400, 600. After 600 plastic still have satin look, but it is really smooth.  There several places where gelcoat was too thin and I sanded th the glass. Yes, it is some imperfection , but I would rather left them as is. I processed all "white" parts on the floor in the cabin. Wood covered areas (as you remember we removed all rotted plywood) does not require so clean sanding and cleaning, just 80 grit sand to remove old glue and make surface prepa...

Engine instruments I have designed Engine monitoring module. It is based on Opensource SensESP project . More details  about open source project here: https://signalk.org/SensESP/pages/getting_started/ https://github.com/SignalK/SensESP   I have bought relatively cheap 4000 RPM tachometer with M16 sensor on AliExpress, for  my 2MQ20 engine, however it appeared, that sensor signal is not strong enough enough to get it work stably on RPM >1200.  https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256807066465803.html At any case I planned to make engine monitor module and connect sensor to it, and then to tachometer. What I had to do - add signal amplifier/filter circuit to monitor module to feed physical instrument with strong enough signal. My engine monitor board design:    What features implemented on the board? Sensor - Starter battery Voltage Sensor - Alternator output Voltage  Sensor - Throttle position (potentiometer input) Sensor - Fuel Tank "1" level (ADC input...

Morning spent Making order on things on a boat to have less mess on the floor :) Main thing was done is making order with wires inside wheel pedestal, connect depth sounder and Log to Open Plotter computer, so no more need to get on the floor to get readings on the knees. (previous owner put instrument too low on the pedestal, so it appears almost unusable). My dshboard now.   Then afternoon I had a nice sailing in steady wind of 10 kts south. in 4 hours we did 15.2 NM with average speed 3.2kts and top one 6.5. My hull speed is 7.0kts. So we was close enough if count the last cleaning I did in September. During sailing boat points pretty well.   Short  video from this trip.  Link here . On one on Close hull tacks. 6.35 kts on beam reach.  Top was higher. Little relaxing... Getting home at night Still under sail. Wind dropped to 5-6 kts but still there. Full moon helps a lot. Night sails  

Wind instrument     Wind instrument prepared to be installed on mast top.   Small white box is WIFI camera looking ahead from mast top height. view angle is 120 degrees.  It take about 20mA power at 12V, so I combined it's power with instruments  lines. Mount was made about year ago To install it I need to drill hole in the top joining plate and tap thread there to crew the mount on the top of mast. Shape of mount was made to sit tight on the vertical bars and be screwed by one screw  sitting vertically. Installation did not went easy, first day, my friend did his best (he is better fit to climb on the mast) to help me, but it appeared it was first thread  tapping in his life. So we resulted with broken tap on the top of the mast. Next day I went up , he spare me down. I broke tap to flush and drilled hole 10mm forward, tap, screwed as everything was planned. BUT.... we spent about 2 hours to fish wire down through the mast. Cable itself is no heavy e...

 Electrical, and small things. Picture of the day :-) Open plotter runs on installed hardware. Inside electronics compartment What was done? Installed Raspberry box power.  Installed Raspberry box. Tested (unsuccessfully) IMU (looks like connection was bad). Routed wires from pedestal to nav table Added Resistor boards to maintain lower brightness on indication LEDs on main switch box . Connected remote control to deck lights. Installed "secondary" GPS. Found place for it to work through deck (single layer deck part).  Checked dual screen configuration, looks like I will need to add HDMI splitter to make effortless display mirroring between cockpit and nav table. Cockpit display and Raspberry cross powering each other over HDMI. Issue will be fixed with splitter. Ran engine to check idle speed and Full throttle RPM. Measured Idle - 850 RPM, Full (but not full) throttle 2800 RPM. Engine runs stable but pretty strong white smoke. Need to confirm how it smells (oil or water)...

Navigation Removing leaking window port and prepare bed for new 15" 600-800 nits touchscreen. It will work in parallel of main nav station, secondary screen (7" 1200 nits) will be on nav pod (maybe another raspberry, but not sure)  Pulled port out, it was no watertight at all, as soon as i took screws it fall out from hole. Cabin wall is not flat. To be able to install screen I would need to make flat surface from the cabin side. I put thickened epoxy and compressed with 3/4" MDF plate wrapped in freezer paper. External view After plate removed I see couple wrinkles. However i think they should not be a problem to adhere screen to place. Hole is temporary closed with PVC masking tape to prevent water ingress. Internal rectangle - display  frame. Display opening will be cut by template in cabin plastic. Window opening will be enlarged about  2.5". I do not anticipate issues with structural integrity. Galley  Decided to redo galley front side. there will be new drawer...