you might like to know more about the inner working or how the vessel ‘ticks’.
(A bit technical though…)
Battery Control Panel
In use, two 60 watt solar panels are ganged together to form one bank of charging power. Another two 80 watt solar panels are ganged together to create a second but more powerful bank of charging power. These two banks of charging power can be assigned to charge the two banks of batteries via a rotary switch marked ‘batt 1’ and ‘batt2’.
If one battery bank is running down, simply turn the rotary switch to that battery bank. ie. ‘batt 1’. In this situation the two 80watt solar panels are diverted to charge ‘batt 1’ and the two 60 watt panels will continue to charge the other battery bank. Simply switching the rotary switch over to ‘batt 2’ will reverse the charging situation. In this way all batteries receive a continuous charge but you can divert the higher charge ( 2 x 80 watt solar panels) to whichever battery bank may be running low.
During periods of no sun (at night or on cloudy days) the small Air Marine wind generator comes into play and provides charging to either battery bank via two white switches. If there is no wind, battery charging can still be achieved with a small Honda 1 Kvh petrol generator supplying power (through the ‘Electrical Intake’) to the built in battery charger. Again, that battery charging may be assigned to whichever battery bank needs the power first. The two battery banks are made up of four six volt, 225AH low maintenance, deep cycle batteries. The four batteries are wired as two separate pairs, each in series to form two very powerful 12 volt battery banks and this is the recommended best situation for using batteries with solar panels and wind generators. In addition to that ‘best’ situation is Shekinah’s dual power supply (4 x solar panels / wind generator), dual power storage (2 x battery banks), a third alternative is a petrol generator to run the built in 14 amp charger and a fourth alternative is Shekinah’s two Yamaha 9.9 HP motors which also provide charging to each battery bank. The port motor supplies charging to Batt 2 and the Stb motor to batt 1. Shekinah’s electrical system also incorporates the American ‘Pro Star 20’ solar charging controller (The large white unit in the middle of the picture above) which is designed to protect all parts of the system but especially the (very expensive) batteries from overcharging.
.
.
‘Shekinah’s Electronics’
Now we’re getting really technical (smile)
The electronics systems on Shekinah are those systems that provide for navigation, communications and ship’s situation.
Navigation includes;
- The Primary GPS – Garmin GPS 128. This is our main standalone GPS. We have also set this up with a ‘D’ sub connector which then communicates with electronic charts in our laptop computer. The Garmin also provides a variable anchor alarm and ‘man overboard’ position indicator via a button at the steering station.
- Philips ‘ap Navigator GPS’ is a spare.
- Raymarine
- ST4000 wheel autopilot (seatalk and nmea capable)
- ST60 Tridata (speed/depth/log)
- ST60 Wind Indicator.
- Furuno 16 mile radar with guard zone.
- Electronic hand bearing compass
Communications Includes;
- Top of the range Codan HF radio with HF Modem – this unit allows for International phone connect through the handset, scanning of multiple groups of frequencies, sending and receiving of emails and many other special features as demanded by world military organisations. Codan is the recognised ‘Rolls Royce’ of communications.
The system is complete with ‘E’ plate (Earth Plate for electrical grounding) and a radio aerial built in to the port mast back stay.
Shore side phone system with 2 fixed phones in the galley and the bridge deck cabin. Includes all cables to connect to a marina land based (Telecom) phone system.
Fixed VHF installation (GME Electrophone GX552A) plus a waterproof hand held VHF for when crew goes ashore and needs to remains ‘in touch’. (Garmin submersible VHF 725e).
Fixed 27 Mhz. radio (GME Electrophone GX287A). For possible communication with small club sailing events.