Bird poo and tack tick

H4B

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Anybody had this problem.

Wind transmitter not transmitting.
Looked up at mast top, to see starlings perched on transmitter. My theory is that they have crapped on the solar cell and flattened the battery ,hence no signal.
Do you think I am right.? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gifI have not been up the mast yet not sure whether t o take screw driver or damp cloth.!
 
Yes I believe you could be right - similar thing with solar led we used.

A shotgun is more apporpriate but make sure your equipment is not in the background.

Does the panel have any ideas for ridding yachts of seagulls and crows that perch other than hanging one in the rigging as a signal others are not welcome
 
I have the same problem. I am thinking of hoisting a box to the top of the mast that would emit at high volume an intermittent high frequency sound pulse. Do you think this would work? The only thing that I know they don't like is a tap on the shrouds. I don't think you need a deterrent for long. They will soon learn and find another mast that is more comfortable!
 
After having my new deck and black (although they appeared white!) sprayhood and sail covers shat all over constantly on the Orwell I bought one of these:

http://www.kemo-electronic.com/en/module/m161/index.htm

Dirt cheap. Fitted it in a waterproof box and when I leave the boat I plug it into the cigarette lighter socket and leave it under the sprayhood. So far it's worked 98%.

Kemo also do some other nice little gadgets, like rodent scarers, Marten shockers (!) and a twilight switch that I wired up to my anchor light so it comes on at night automatically.


Good luck!

No connection BTW
 
Thanks for that. Although it surprises me that birds respond to ultrasound. I was under the impression that birds only responded in the audio spectrum.
 
I've sailed on a couple of boats with Tack Ticks and both suffered from intermittent communication problems.

On one, the theory was that the crew's mobile phones were the cause and insisting that they all turned them off seemed to improve things a lot. We speculated it might have something to do with Bluetooth.

On the other, the engineer who came out suggested that the carbon fibre was the cause of the problem.

Assuming your Westerly Fulmar isn't built of carbon fibre/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif you might want to try turning all phones on board off to see if that improves matters.
 
Hi,

is the transmitter not even showing up as a node when you go into the service menu on one of the intruments?
If it shows up it will tell you it's charge as well as signal strenght, so you can see if the solar cells are the problem.
I doubt that the birds covered the whole cells completely up...

Regards,
jow
 
Do you have 2 wind intruments together? On early Tack Ticks, one unit could interfear with another making it appear that one was not working. Remove one of them away a few feet and see if it starts working. I have this problem with mine.
 
Some bird are just cheeky:

DSCN1243.jpg
 
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