Battery meter installation followup

I finished the installation of the battery meter. This post is for pictures of the install and notes if anyone else wants to do the same thing.

I was able to borrow a phone end crimper from a friend. Ten RJ12 ends were $1.29 from Fry's. I tested the cable to make sure I knew how to wire it before clipping off the end and running it through he bulkheads.

A few wire ties and it's all done.

Meter installed

Shunt mounted on the starboard side. Main switch (red) on port side.

In this photo you can see the blocks I put in to hold the battery in place

A better shot of the shunt

The Victron BMV-700 is a small meter. Requires a 52-53mm hole. I used an adjustable hole drill bit. I tested for measurement on a scrap piece of MDF until I got the right size.
When drilling a hole with the adjustable hole saw bit, I found it easier to cut the hole about 1/2 way through the plywood, then put a sharp jigsaw blade in a vice-grip and cut the circle piece out manually.

The build quality of the BMV-700 is ok. I worry about it in the marine environment but it should be ok.

Battery meter installation

I always worried about my battery failing if I depleted it fully. I know it is a 79Ah battery, but I never was able to figure out the amperage load when running the motor. I did install a voltage meter in the cigarette lighter/auxiliary port, but a voltage meter is a poor battery gauge.

I know about battery state of charge meters from some of the investigation I had done into building an electric car. A state of charge meter monitors all power coming out and going into the battery. Since it knows the capacity of the battery, it can monitor and alarm when the battery is at 50%, the rough safe zone for battery usage.
After some investigation, I decided on Victron BMV-700.

Since I had designed the circuit and done all the electrical work, I knew how to wire in the SoC meter. It's a simple shunt that goes inline on the ground side of the battery and a long cable with RJ12 telephone jacks that goes to the meter which should be mounted someplace visible.

I've now over drilled all the mounting holes and drilled the through holes for the RJ12 control cable.

After the epoxy cures, I'll mount all the equipment and test everything.

The meter will be on starboard side of B3. The hole is above the hatch.

The shunt (black lead) and the meter just outside the battery well. You can also see the grey control cable in the back.

I'd like to cut that control cable but I don't have an RJ12 crimper. Anyone have one I can borrow?

Electrical completed and tested

I got the electrical system all assembled and tested. I put waterproof LED strip lights on the cuddy ceiling for reading and night lights. They take very little energy and shouldn't drain the battery.

LED lights in the cuddy

Here's a shot up to the back of the circuit panel. The bus bar is attached to the mast box and has wires leading to the back of the circuit breaker box.

inside the cabin, before zip ties

I tested the motor setup and that works just like it should.

The only electrical I have to do now is to figure out how to wire up a mast light and a solar charger for the battery. 

Finally, I mounted a hand pump under the seat for emergencies.

Hand pump mounted 

Deck doubled & flipped

Sunday I spent a lot of time on the boat. It felt like I got a lot done but I don't have much to show for it.

First, I drilled countersunk holes to hold the deck down. I worked from the front to the back and it all lined up nicely. I had to do some filing with the shinto rasp on the ends just to make sure they fit well.

After that was done, I screwed it down. Then I used 1x6 scrap VG fir that I had laying around from a house project to make doublers for the deck cleats. This took awhile to rasp them down to just the right shape. Luckly, 5 1/2" pieces are pretty close to the spacing of the gunwale & inwale near the aft. Near the fore, I had to take about 3/4" off with the table saw.

I put the pieces where I wanted them and they fit in snug, so I drove 2 drywall screws to hold them in place.

Then I flipped over the deck and laid it back on the boat. I glued up the pieces and re-sunk the screws to make sure they were aligned properly. Clamped them and let it cure for a few hours before pulling the screws before it completely set up.

Glued doublers

Doublers

I also did some dry fitting of the cabin sides. It's starting to scare me that I'm near to closing up the front cabin and losing easy access to the interior.

I will need to make a decision about the nav lights soon. I can't find any nav lights that I really like, so I'm considering an LED flashlight instead. I don't plan on doing a lot of night sailing, so it might be just fine.

I plan to complete the sides and the cabin top, then flip the boat over and glass and paint the bottom before flipping it over and finishing the final bits like the cockpit coamings. It's still 3-4 weeks before I can flip her.

CG Nav lights regulations?

According to USCG regulations, the red and green side marker lights need to visible in a 112.5 degree arc (90 degrees from the fore + 22.5 degrees abaft). The sidelights also need to be visible for only 1 mile per rule 22.
Per rule 25, I only need sidelights and a stern light, but a combination mast light is acceptable (25b).

I would like to mount waterproof LED strip lights for nav lights on the bow. The problem is the 112.5 degree arc running abaft.
The plan is to route some slots in some mating wood pieces that wrap around the bow.  I've got a crude drawing below. After a second look, I think the bow transom mounted piece would go all the way to the top of the bow curve, just for esthetics.

A way to mount LED strip lights for 112.5 degree arc.

Does anyone know if strip lights are acceptable by the USCG? Since the regs don't actually say that only single point lights are acceptable, I would think LED strip lights would be acceptable. I'm sure the visibility of the lights are good to 1 mile and probably even good to 2 miles.

Seats glued down

This is a major milestone, the seats are glued down. It took awhile to get it all done.

First, I finished the wiring to the motor on the port side. You can see the wires run along the inside. The connector at the back is not installed yet.

Wiring runs to the back of the boat

This is the end of the wire. I have a brass through hole fitting for it.

Closer shot. You can see the hole for the motor connector plug.

Saturday I decided where the motor remote control would come through the seat and drilled the hole for that. Since I can't cut the connector off, I had to use a cable clam to go through the seat. The connector is very large and needed a 7/8" hole through the seat.

I glued a doubler on the seat and drilled the 7/8" hole through.

Then I coated the bottom of the seats.

Bottom of the seats coated. And the footwell cover and the sole doublers.

Saturday evening, I recoated all the pieces. They were ready to be installed Sunday morning, if still a bit tacky.

Sunday I started gluing the seats down. I don't have a lot of shots of the actual glue down. Just make sure that you have the seats dry fit very well before attempting the glue down.

I had sanded all the cleats. Saturday evening and Sunday morning, I recoated all the cleats. So everything had a nice new coat of epoxy on it before the actual glue down.

Using buckets of water and boxes of tiles to weight down the seats.

After I got the seats glued down, I wanted to glue the transom doubler that will be used for the motor mount. I glued that in along with the small plate that backs the socket connector for the motor.

The blue spreader clamp holds the small plate for  the motor connector.
To the left, you can see the transom doubler.

A lot of clamps holding the transom doubler.

It was a real pain clamping in the transom doubler, but I got it. I used the same trick of a cross bar spreader and a small spreader perpendicular pressing against the piece. You can just see it at the bottom of the above shot.

I had some gaps along the outside edge of the seat. After it was glued and weighted, I put tape under the seat to block the cracks. Then I ran a pre-fillet. I don't think a pre-fillet is a real thing, but the idea is that I used some thickened epoxy -- not quite as thick as fillet mix -- and forced it into the cracks as best I could. I pushed that down with a finger and let it cure for just awhile. I had the garage about 70 degrees with the oil heater, so it didn't take too long to firm.

Then I ran a real fillet all along the edges and cleaned with a gloved finger a few hours later.

I was not able to fillet right near my complicated clamp setup at the back. I'll get that later.

Starboard side is glued.

Painted under seat wells, electrical for motor

Last Friday, I painted under the seat wells. I had to buy a new pint of RustOleum White Satin 7791. I think it's the same as the White gloss 7792. I like the satin better, but it's hard to tell the difference in the light and I think it will be impossible to tell the difference in the dark under the seats.

I used white of course because it should make it easier to see under there.

Although, thinking about it now, I have purchased a waterproof LED light strip. Maybe I should wire those up under the seats. The port side would be easy, I'd just have to run some 18awg marine wire that I have and rig up a switch. The starboard side has the centerboard trunk and would require drilling a hole through B4, running the wire under the starboard front hatch, then drilling another hole to run the wires back into the seat well.

I'll consider that this weekend. 

I decided to buy a connector for the motor so that I could easily remove the motor from the rear of the boat. West Marine sells a more expensive version of MinnKota's connector. I bought one of those and installed it in the aft transom.

MKR-18 socket.
Notice also that I trimmed the planks.

It looks nice and will be easy to connect and disconnect the motor when needed. I'll have to find a way to lock the motor so that no one steals it. I think a brass padlock will work.

The motor and the connector.

I didn't get any pictures, but I did wire the motor to the plug. I still need to heat shrink it to finalize it, but it will definitely work.

I also ran the wire under the seats and decided how the connector will look. In the picture below, the small steel ring is the through hole for the motor wire and you can se the back of the socket.

Wiring pieces. I still need to epoxy it all together.

Here is another shot with the wire through the hole.

Wire needs to be stripped and connected later

This weekend, I plan to drill a hole for the motor remote control and drill all the holes for the cable clam connector. I think that will go just fore of B5. I will velcro mount the controller under the decking. 

Once those decisions are made, I can finalize the under seat wiring and start epoxy coating the bottom of the seats in preparation for gluing them down. I'm excited for that step.

That frees up some other jobs, such as gluing the motor doubler and drilling the holes for the motor rails.

It also means I can start on the deck.

A final note: Beware drill bits from Harbor Freight. I needed a 1 1/8" drill bit for the socket, so I picked up a set of 4 spade bits. They were all horribly bent. I was able to drill my holes, but a lot of shaking happened. Unacceptable. I'm going to take them back when I get a chance.

Aft sole filleted; electrical mounted and done

This morning, I was able to fillet aft sole. As long as I was there, it was easy to get the transom doubler mounted. Again, I had to abuse clamp, but that was pretty easy.

It will need to be coated.

Filleting and transom doubler glued

The fillets sagged a little bit on the vertical surfaces and where there were no cleats under the sole, so I'll have to touch it up, but that shouldn't take too long.

Fillets done

I was also able to mount the electrical components. I think this looks very good. I was even able to test the circuit breaker switches to see that they worked.

The components mounted

Above you can see the circuit breaker is mounted between the motor controller and the bus bar.

Below, you can see that I got the bus bar mounted and the wiring to the switch control panel installed.

Bus bar on the mast box

The back of the switch

I'll have to remove the switch because I still have work to do on the aft side of B3.

Aft sole glued and electrical mount points drilled and filled

I wanted to work on the boat all day today, but the day job interfered.

This evening, I glued the aft sole down. I sanded down the cleats, painted the edges of the sole and the cleats with epoxy, then put a bead of 610 on the cleats. Then I laid the sole down and put water buckets on for weight.

I have sole.

I also did some more layout of the electrical components and marked up my drill spots for the screws. I want to drill oversize holes in the wood and drive the screws into wood flour epoxy mix rather than into wood.

The first thing to do is to lay it all out and mark. When that was done, I drilled the holes. Some went though and some just went in a little ways depending on the screws I will use.

Moving the components out of the way.

Here are the holes, left to right:

• single through hole for the motor power cable
• 4 holes for big screws to mount the motor controller
• one large hole for the cabled remote
• 2 small screws for the 60a circuit breaker (towards the bottom)
• 2 screws for the bus bar

In the picture below, there is tape over the filled holes. I fill them with a disposable syringe to make sure the wood-flour thickened epoxy goes all the way back. There is scotch tape over the front and back for smooth edges.

Holes drilled.

As long as I was playing with cable, I mounted some nylon cable clips. In the picture below, the jacketed cable is clipped to the cleat above. Once the hatch goes on, this will be well protected.

cable tied up.

I also tied the cable below the hatch.

running under the hatches.

And then up the cabin interior.

That cable runs to the switch panel. Before it goes to the switch panel, I'm going to add a small bus bar just like the one in the battery well. 

In the shot below, I've drilled the holes, but not through the mast box. I have small screws that do not go through the 9mm plywood.

The cable will terminate at the bus bar, then jump to the switch panel

Here's a close up shot of the tape over the filled holes:

The top one looks like it has a bubble. It won't matter.

Since I had some wood flour epoxy mixed up, I filleted the plate under the port seats that I used as a doubler. I didn't get a picture of that. I't will need to be sanded and coated, but I can worry about that later.

Preparing for sole glue down; electrical mounting

Tonight, I painted under the aft sole piece.

Paint, not primer

I also touched up the underside of the sole with epoxy. It's now had 2 very thick coats and 3 around the edges of the doubler. Tomorrow sometime, I'll make sure the paint is dry in the well, then I'll glue it down. I'll use 5 gallon buckets filled with water for weights.

Underside of aft sole. The doubler plate will have a hatch

I had made up my mind last night about the electrical components and where to mount them, but I needed a doubler plate to make sure that the screws don't go all the way through. Tonight, I found a piece of scrap from a hatch that was just about perfect. I had to figure out how to glue that in; I just abused a couple clamps.
I used a whole tube of 610 epoxy for the floor plates in the foot well, I've used about a 1/2 tube for the sole doubler above and the plate below. I'm going to need some to glue down the sole doubler. I better buy some more.

The plate is pushed in with spreaders

Further away shot. You can see it will be a mounting plate

I'll have to fillet that plate tomorrow sometime. I'll coat it more when I coat inside the seat wells.

Electrical and priming the aft sole well

Since i have the battery well primed and painted, I can start to install the electrical. I have been crimping connections in my idle time, but haven't really completely prepared for this.

Tonight, I mocked up the install. I put in the battery case and mounted most of the components with double sided sticky tape. Most importantly, I verified that I can get the battery in and out of the well through the hatch.

Everything  in a mess. It won't be when it is all in place.

The battery sits at the back of the compartment in it's case. The strap goes over the case to hold it in place. The white jacketed wire with the grommet stuck on it is the 10AWG wire that goes up to the switches on the front of B3.

The battery connections

The battery has a terminal lug 75A fuse that cost a pretty penny at West Marine. I hope it doesn't blow because it's not a cheap replacement. You can also see the red/black pair that is the battery charger connection. The dipole connection is just out of the frame. It's the one that looks like a flat trailer connector with 2 opposing bullet connectors. I'll modify my charger to remove the clamps and add the mating connector.

Mains switch, bus bar and motor controller

There is a red 300A switch that is the mains switch. A positive/negative bus bar comes off the switch.  The bottom 2 leads are from the battery -- the negative goes straight to the battery, the positive goes through the switch.

The green wires are positive leads that connect to the white jacketed pair that go up to the switch panel.

The motor controller

Here is the motor controller. It's rather heavy, so I want it mounted low. I'm going to have to drill 2 holes for the wire that goes to the motor and the wired remote control. Those will go into the port seat and will then have to route back. That means the motor will be mounted on the port side of the transom.

Primed the aft hatch

Also tonight, I primed the aft hatch. I didn't get a picture, but I coated the bottom of the sole there one time. My plan is to glue that down later this week and cut the hatch later. I'll be hopping in and out of the boat for the foreseeable future and I don't want to come down hard on the sole and break it.

I should have thought about that for the other sole hatches, but they don't see as much foot traffic.

Motor from Gig Harbor Boat Works arrived today

Today I got the motor from Gig Harbor Boat Works.

I had ordered the 55lb thrust motor. It turns out it is what I figured -- an engine mount motor from MinnKota and a custom fabricated bracket. The bracket is 2 aluminum u-channel pieces with mounting holes and a black heavy phenolic engine mount that slides in the u-channel.

The mounting bracket in the channels

Another view

I'll have to figure out how low to mount the bracket. I'll also want to figure out a way to make a stop so that the engine and mount can't fall all the way out.

The motor. It's quite large and heavy.

The controller. The remote control is upside down.

The bracket attached to the motor

Unfortunately, the controller did not have a circuit breaker or fuse. It's almost like they expect you to hook it up without a circuit breaker. The manual says the USCG requires circuit protection, but they don't actually include any. I picked up a simple 60a circuit breaker switch. I'll install that inline before the motor.

My circuit diagram has not changed. I've added a simple bus block that will be located near the circuit breaker panel switch, but that is just for convenience later if I have to wire something else.