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Offline Herr R aus BTopic starter

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Electronics at sea
« on: June 05, 2018, 10:37:31 am »
When travelling as a passenger on a container vessel, you sometimes get plenty of time between ports - so it's a good idea to have a minimalistic portable lab at hand to for instance finally code a proper I2C implementation for the balcony watering system back home... I didn't dare to take an EEVblog multimeter with me, but therefore I have a solar driven waving queen... Nice :-)
« Last Edit: June 05, 2018, 11:46:55 am by Herr R aus B »
 
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Offline gildasd

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Re: Electronics at sea
« Reply #1 on: June 05, 2018, 10:46:15 am »
An onboard mini lab is also in the plans here...

I sail on a cable layer, so 12/12h, so I don’t have as much time as on a “cruise” vessel.

My next plan is to simply learn I2C with an Arduino mini.
I'm electronically illiterate
 

Offline Herr R aus BTopic starter

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Re: Electronics at sea
« Reply #2 on: June 05, 2018, 11:47:34 am »
Good luck! :-)
 
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Offline ivaylo

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Re: Electronics at sea
« Reply #3 on: June 06, 2018, 06:47:42 am »
Why are you a passenger on a container vessel?
 
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Offline Cyberdragon

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Re: Electronics at sea
« Reply #4 on: June 06, 2018, 07:11:05 am »
I'd beware of those batteries and ancient capacitors having fun times all over your stuff.
*BZZZZZZAAAAAP*
Voltamort strikes again!
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Offline gildasd

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Re: Electronics at sea
« Reply #5 on: June 06, 2018, 08:18:03 am »
Good luck! :-)
Being on an Offshore ship, i am jealous of your open window and being able to do electronics in a cabin.
Here you need a permit to charge your phone...
I'm electronically illiterate
 

Offline Beamin

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Re: Electronics at sea
« Reply #6 on: June 06, 2018, 04:32:05 pm »
Is there a limit to how much stuff you bring on board? I would bring a 30-06 to pick off Somali pirates and an ak for close range/over the side. Baffles my mind how big ships don't/can't have at least some guns on board or a way to hide them just in case. How long is the voyage from where to where? Do you work on the boat?

What would be really cool is an SDR or a SW transceiver with big spool of wire for improvised antennas. You would have a really good location: relatively elevated over a perfectly flat ground plane miles from most transmitters. VLF might even be possible depending on how much 60hz hum there is. Is the engine from the ship electrically noisy? I guess ground wouldn't be a problem as there would be metal everywhere.

Every try to coble together a DIY emergency beacon on a swaying life raft while trying not to make holes with a hot soldering iron?
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Offline gildasd

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Re: Electronics at sea
« Reply #7 on: June 07, 2018, 08:43:37 am »
Is there a limit to how much stuff you bring on board? I would bring a 30-06 to pick off Somali pirates and an ak for close range/over the side. Baffles my mind how big ships don't/can't have at least some guns on board or a way to hide them just in case. How long is the voyage from where to where? Do you work on the boat?

What would be really cool is an SDR or a SW transceiver with big spool of wire for improvised antennas. You would have a really good location: relatively elevated over a perfectly flat ground plane miles from most transmitters. VLF might even be possible depending on how much 60hz hum there is. Is the engine from the ship electrically noisy? I guess ground wouldn't be a problem as there would be metal everywhere.

Every try to coble together a DIY emergency beacon on a swaying life raft while trying not to make holes with a hot soldering iron?
When a ship from a responsible company is within 200nm of a pirate area, I can assure that there is sufficient firepower onboard to invade a small country.
I can’t be more specific than that for obvious reasons!

I mostly do cable laying and trenching. So we use redundant dynamic positioning to do things very precisely on the bottom and near platforms. My last jobs were in Canada, North Sea, Iceland, UAE.

Emitting radio is very touchy, there are a lot of antennas on a ship and in the field around us.
This is an environment that way more regulated than one might think.
Also, any interference or energy level high enough to create the smallest spark would get you instafired.
I'm electronically illiterate
 

Offline Rick Law

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Re: Electronics at sea
« Reply #8 on: June 08, 2018, 05:08:04 am »
Why are you a passenger on a container vessel?

You may not be aware, besides the possibility of the OP being an employee on the ship, he could be a passenger also.   It is a good way for a different style travel or for low cost travel.  Depending on local laws, not just container ships - many freighters of all sorts carry paid passengers for extra money as well.

Actually, in Michael Palin's travel shows (Around the World in 80 days, Pole to Pole, etc.), he did quite a bit of being passenger on a freighter (using facilities normally for paid passengers).   But of course while he was making a TV show, he was not exactly like a normal regular passenger.  He got picked up (or dropped off, or both - forgot which) by The US Coast Guard.  USCG doesn't take passengers for money, but Michael Palin making a show was of course special and worth the trouble for the PR value.
« Last Edit: June 08, 2018, 05:10:18 am by Rick Law »
 

Offline Herr R aus BTopic starter

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Re: Electronics at sea
« Reply #9 on: June 13, 2018, 07:15:36 am »
Why are you a passenger on a container vessel?

Because it is fun, you get to see a lot, have a much better accomodation, than on a cruise vessel, can always sit on the bridge, watch maneuvering, talk with the officers and dont get molested by any animators, drunk tourists or other stuff :-) if you wanna see, how that is, look here:

https://www.facebook.com/HerrRausB

that was my last trip (rotterdam, porto, setubal, dublin, liverpool, porto, setubal, lissabon, tilbury, dunkerque, rotterdam) - just returned ;-)

as specially for information on life aboard:

accomodation --> https://www.facebook.com/HerrRausB/posts/373451559809475
ship --> https://www.facebook.com/HerrRausB/posts/375619919592639
self supply --> https://www.facebook.com/HerrRausB/posts/375139049640726
board life --> https://www.facebook.com/HerrRausB/posts/375153932972571
« Last Edit: June 13, 2018, 07:39:30 am by Herr R aus B »
 

Offline Herr R aus BTopic starter

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Re: Electronics at sea
« Reply #10 on: June 13, 2018, 07:16:32 am »
Is there a limit to how much stuff you bring on board? I would bring a 30-06 to pick off Somali pirates and an ak for close range/over the side. Baffles my mind how big ships don't/can't have at least some guns on board or a way to hide them just in case. How long is the voyage from where to where? Do you work on the boat?

What would be really cool is an SDR or a SW transceiver with big spool of wire for improvised antennas. You would have a really good location: relatively elevated over a perfectly flat ground plane miles from most transmitters. VLF might even be possible depending on how much 60hz hum there is. Is the engine from the ship electrically noisy? I guess ground wouldn't be a problem as there would be metal everywhere.

Every try to coble together a DIY emergency beacon on a swaying life raft while trying not to make holes with a hot soldering iron?

to put it short - i am european and i dont like guns. got it? thanks :-)
 

Offline Herr R aus BTopic starter

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Re: Electronics at sea
« Reply #11 on: June 13, 2018, 07:18:35 am »
I'd beware of those batteries and ancient capacitors having fun times all over your stuff.

batteries were new, caps have there own compartment, and there is not always a problem and a threat anywhere :-)
 

Offline Herr R aus BTopic starter

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Re: Electronics at sea
« Reply #12 on: June 13, 2018, 07:24:53 am »
Good luck! :-)
Being on an Offshore ship, i am jealous of your open window and being able to do electronics in a cabin.
Here you need a permit to charge your phone...

well, the security regulations on offshore vessels and rigs might be much more paranoid - maybe even for a good reason... anyways - this was just a small container feeder (800TEU) and i had the owner's cabin, which is supposed to meet certain standards. captian and officers all russian and ukrainian - regulations? no! improvisation! ;-) at one time one big bolt / rod of four holding one of the nine cylinder head caps broke - i am talking the main engine - well, who cares, reduce to 50% and hope for the best to reach the next port :-) which worked out fine and actually there was no need for emergency protocols or whatever - just someone had to constantly wipe the oil spilling out the cylinder head :-)

« Last Edit: June 13, 2018, 07:46:26 am by Herr R aus B »
 

Offline Herr R aus BTopic starter

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Re: Electronics at sea
« Reply #13 on: June 13, 2018, 07:30:08 am »
Why are you a passenger on a container vessel?

You may not be aware, besides the possibility of the OP being an employee on the ship, he could be a passenger also.   It is a good way for a different style travel or for low cost travel.  Depending on local laws, not just container ships - many freighters of all sorts carry paid passengers for extra money as well.

Actually, in Michael Palin's travel shows (Around the World in 80 days, Pole to Pole, etc.), he did quite a bit of being passenger on a freighter (using facilities normally for paid passengers).   But of course while he was making a TV show, he was not exactly like a normal regular passenger.  He got picked up (or dropped off, or both - forgot which) by The US Coast Guard.  USCG doesn't take passengers for money, but Michael Palin making a show was of course special and worth the trouble for the PR value.

right - during my world trip in 2012 i went from new zealand through the panama channel to philly on a panamax vessel - it was just all relaxing and nice :-)

and for some ppl it is the only way to cross continents - i had a co-passenger. she was from france and severely frightened of flying. she wanted to be in australia for one year, but couldn't take the plane to get there. so she took a train from france to moscow, than took the transsib to wladiwostok, from there a ferry to seoul and then a container vessel down to australia - went back on the panamax vessel all the way to le havre - you just need a little bit more time (NZ --> USA = 3 weeks) :-)

see http://blogs.herrrausb.de/worldtrip2012/
« Last Edit: June 13, 2018, 07:32:03 am by Herr R aus B »
 

Offline Circlotron

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Re: Electronics at sea
« Reply #14 on: June 13, 2018, 07:35:13 am »
Why are you a passenger on a container vessel?
have a much better accomodation, than on a cruise vessel,
I was thinking maybe the containers were economy class cabins  :o
 

Offline Herr R aus BTopic starter

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Re: Electronics at sea
« Reply #15 on: June 13, 2018, 07:45:21 am »
Why are you a passenger on a container vessel?
have a much better accomodation, than on a cruise vessel,
I was thinking maybe the containers were economy class cabins  :o
yeah . the next step in the tiny house movement... :-) and btw - economy class cabins usually offer less space then a 40ft container :-)
 

Offline Beamin

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Re: Electronics at sea
« Reply #16 on: June 14, 2018, 05:55:21 pm »
Why are you a passenger on a container vessel?

Because it is fun, you get to see a lot, have a much better accomodation, than on a cruise vessel, can always sit on the bridge, watch maneuvering, talk with the officers and dont get molested by any animators, drunk tourists or other stuff :-) if you wanna see, how that is, look here:

https://www.facebook.com/HerrRausB

that was my last trip (rotterdam, porto, setubal, dublin, liverpool, porto, setubal, lissabon, tilbury, dunkerque, rotterdam) - just returned ;-)

as specially for information on life aboard:

accomodation --> https://www.facebook.com/HerrRausB/posts/373451559809475
ship --> https://www.facebook.com/HerrRausB/posts/375619919592639
self supply --> https://www.facebook.com/HerrRausB/posts/375139049640726
board life --> https://www.facebook.com/HerrRausB/posts/375153932972571

I don't have facebook I refuse. But anyways do you have to know a guy to do this or can a normal person do this? If I wasn't tethered to my doctors office once a month to stay alive I would be on the phone setting this up right now. I don't have a job! why not! Do shit now while you can, you won't be able to at some point and that point may come early in life.
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Offline Herr R aus BTopic starter

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Re: Electronics at sea
« Reply #17 on: June 16, 2018, 06:57:14 am »
I don't have facebook I refuse. But anyways do you have to know a guy to do this or can a normal person do this? If I wasn't tethered to my doctors office once a month to stay alive I would be on the phone setting this up right now. I don't have a job! why not! Do shit now while you can, you won't be able to at some point and that point may come early in life.

yeah - refusing FB worked fine for me for some years ;-)

anyway - you dont have to know someone who knows someone - you just have to find an agency specialized on this... I did a brief search and found this in the U.S --> https://www.freightercruises.com/voyages.php - as for the question, if a normal person can do this - yes, sure, why not? as you are one of the rare females here, you might wanna keep in mind, that on a container vessel you usually wont find females - neither officers nor crew. female officers are simply rare to find on ships, there are some on maersk vessels, but they still are the minority. which doesn't mean, that there are no female pessengers traveling on their own. if you can cope with only men around you, that's fine. usually those are very friendly and wont molest you :-) the only limits are age and general health. here in germany you have to present a medical approval when being over 60 years old. generally, if you are handicapped in any form, you better stay off those vessels. only bigger vessels are equipped with eleveators, stairways usually are narrow and steep, and the entire environment is a heavy duty working environment with the expactable risks of injuries and accidents - be sure to ruin your clothing and catch some bruises especially in heavy weather. oh - yes - if you know, you get seasick, better leave it - no stabilizers available :-) otherwise you might also enjoy experiences like that here i filmed on one of my trips to the canaries

 https://youtu.be/PLbzDU7R-JE :-)

as for the clothing - this turned out to be cruicial - i always take one pair of clothing with me, that can be thrown away afterwards. there are all kinds of grease, smeer, oils and dirt on deck - you will never be able to get rid of any stains caused by that stuff again :-) generally i take sloppy slutty stuff for board life and one set of civilized clothing for going ashore. you will find out, that officers on cargo vessels barely wear shiny polished uniforms but instead sneakers, jogging pants and comfortable t shirts or jumpers... these ppl are just oboard for working, sometimes dont get sleep for more than 24 hours, etc. being well dressed aint the priority at all :-) and you dont need to take too much stuff with you, as all vessels have a laundry room that you can use depending on the laundry machine's schedule. bring some washing powder :-)

As life aboard is not like on a cruise ship, you might wanna read this here to get an idea, what you can expect, and what you are expected to behave --> http://www.transitionsabroad.com/listings/travel/articles/travel-by-cargo-ship-around-the-world.shtml

you might wanna search the internet to find a travelling agency suiting your needs - just look for cargo ship travel or something... the ship companies themselves rarely deal with passengers directly, as they are logistics companies and dont have the time and ressources to handle the passenger related stuff - thats why they source that out to specialized agencies. the only company directly handling passengers i know off is hamburg süd - but as the name implies, they are based in hamburg / germany and i dont know whether they also deal with passengers from other countries... have a look --> http://www.hamburgsued-frachtschiffreisen.de/en/freightertravel/index.jsp

and as you refusing FB - i have some of the other container vessel trips here on my blog pages - gives you an idea, how life aboard looks like and what you can experience when going ashore...

going from northern europe down to the canaries and northern africa: http://blogs.herrrausb.de/fotoblog/?page_id=5850

xmas and new year between hamburg and the baltic sea on my favourite ship: http://blogs.herrrausb.de/fotoblog/?page_id=4152

going into the ice / frozen baltic sea: http://blogs.herrrausb.de/fotoblog/?page_id=1481

going from new zealand through panama channel to philly on a larger vessel: http://blogs.herrrausb.de/worldtrip2012/?page_id=1050

if you have more questions for hints feel free to contact me via PN - unless this is interesting to more ppl and wouldn't be regarded being too much off topic eletronics-wise ;-)

regards

axel
« Last Edit: June 16, 2018, 07:38:07 am by Herr R aus B »
 
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Offline Beamin

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Re: Electronics at sea
« Reply #18 on: June 18, 2018, 01:30:46 pm »
In the video the waves were 10 feet high or 10 meters? Do they use feet and knots at sea?
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Offline Herr R aus BTopic starter

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Re: Electronics at sea
« Reply #19 on: June 18, 2018, 03:54:44 pm »
In the video the waves were 10 feet high or 10 meters? Do they use feet and knots at sea?

the waves were 10-12 meters - the measurements and units at sea are as strange as the imperial ones - even though they are a little bit more on the logical side :-) distances are measured in nautical miles (1nm ~ 1,8km whereas 1ml ~ 1,6km), speed is measured in knots, where 1kn = 1nm/h. 1nm equals 10 cables or 1000 fathoms, where 1 fathom once was derived from twice the arm length of an ordinary seman. fathoms are merely used for measuring the depth under the ship, less for distances.

:-)
 

Offline schmitt trigger

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Re: Electronics at sea
« Reply #20 on: June 18, 2018, 04:11:43 pm »
There is a Spanish saying:

Quieres conocer el mundo sin dinero? Marinero!

You want to know the world without money? Sailor!
 

Offline gildasd

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Re: Electronics at sea
« Reply #21 on: June 19, 2018, 07:11:05 am »
On advanced vessels, we still use Kn and Nmiles, but in reality, everything is done in metric...
I can’t imagine doing a survey in feet, doing the dynamic positioning in kn and Nmiles, laying the cable in feet and thus terrestrial miles per day, while doing fuel burn estimations in long tons, cubic feet, cubic milli-inches, fraction of pints, Fahrenheit, PSi and BTU’s!

SI all day, every day!

I mean, imperial is doable, but it’s allready easy to err in metric... imperial would be a pain, especially the fuel reports.
And mistakes are not counted in farthings or half-guineas when topping up a couple of tanks is 230 000$.

(Disclaimer, I do wood work in Imperial, and find in better than metric in that use, I am not a worshiper of either system.)
I'm electronically illiterate
 

Offline ivaylo

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Re: Electronics at sea
« Reply #22 on: June 19, 2018, 07:29:00 am »
One nautical mile is one minute of latitude. So it will be a while before we go metric here. Don’t get me wrong, a fan of metric here, but this is what you need for fast navigation calculations, speed of boats and aircraft are in knots, etc...
 

Offline Ian.M

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Re: Electronics at sea
« Reply #23 on: June 19, 2018, 07:58:44 am »
As Ivaylo just pointed out, the maths for navigation just works better and is quicker in knots and Nautical miles, and also the charts coordinates are in degrees and minutes (and decimal minutes) of latitude and longitude, so converting to/from S.I. speeds and distances would be an extra step with accompanying risk of $EXPEN$IVE$ error, so Knots and Nautical Miles will be the preferred units as long as paper charts are still produced for commercial use.

Usage of fathoms is just about totally obsolete except in US waters, where you are more or less forced to use them as NOAA's metrification program is basically stalled so charted depths are in fathoms and feet and heights and vertical clearances in feet, except for a very few areas primarily in the Great Lakes where metric charts have been issued.
 

Offline Herr R aus BTopic starter

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Re: Electronics at sea
« Reply #24 on: June 19, 2018, 02:27:36 pm »
One nautical mile is one minute of latitude. So it will be a while before we go metric here. Don’t get me wrong, a fan of metric here, but this is what you need for fast navigation calculations, speed of boats and aircraft are in knots, etc...

i didnt't want to start another war on metric vs. something :-) as i said, the nautic measurements are more on the logical side, as they really all swirl around that 1.852... :-) as for imperial... well... :-) i still listen to my old vinyl records from time to time... ;-)
 
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