Talbot
Active member
I am also interested in a group purchase of the whole system and would need 4 systems.
Building the Ultrasonic Antifouling Kit from Jaycar
- Thread starter Norman_E
- Start date
I am also interested in a group purchase of the whole system and would need 4 systems.
Quidi Vidi
New member
Me too but i only require 1 whole system
Thalamege
New member
Component Listing
Hi, did you manage to get a component listing for the Ultrasound project, I have just produced a couple of boards and intend to source the components in the UK. If you have, would appreciate a copy
Cheers
Richard
Hi, did you manage to get a component listing for the Ultrasound project, I have just produced a couple of boards and intend to source the components in the UK. If you have, would appreciate a copy
Cheers
Richard
nigelmercier
RIP
- Joined
- 20 Jun 2007
- Messages
- 16,234
- Location
- Live in Kent, boat in Canary Islands
PM me.
gecsr1
New member
Just wondering if this kit works and does the job intended.
I would be interested in buy and building a Jaycar kit if t works.
I checked here in the US and the kit is 155.USD with 40. USD for shipping
thanks
I would be interested in buy and building a Jaycar kit if t works.
I checked here in the US and the kit is 155.USD with 40. USD for shipping
thanks
photon
Member
2 Jaycar Kits for sale in UK
Due to a mix-up I now have 2 complete Jaycar Ultrasonic kits for sale: £100 each plus P&P if anyone is interested?
I can confirm that these kits are relatively simple to build as all the posts here confirm. Please PM me if you are interested.
ONLY ONE KIT NOW, Just sold one to Forum Member. Thanks
Due to a mix-up I now have 2 complete Jaycar Ultrasonic kits for sale: £100 each plus P&P if anyone is interested?
I can confirm that these kits are relatively simple to build as all the posts here confirm. Please PM me if you are interested.
ONLY ONE KIT NOW, Just sold one to Forum Member. Thanks
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gecsr1
New member
I assume that yiu have built theses kits before? Have you installed any? do they work?
so is the price in USD like 160.00
carl170
Member
pcatterall
Well-known member
Are there not some 'long term test' results due around now?
snooks
Active member
I can't comment on the JCar Kit, I was using Ultrasonic Antifouling's Ultra 10 and after my first year there was less fouling using antifoul and US than just antifoul alone on Pixie than the previous year, but I sailed further in different waters, but other owners I have spoken to have reported the same. It was written up in Yachting Monthly a few months ago.
Biggest problem was finding power to power it 24/7 as the US antifoul uses around 16 amp hours in a 24 hour period. If you can add some sort of low voltage cut out into the system it will save the US running your batteries down to nothing.
The Ultra 10 from Ultrasonic Antifouling appeared to work, and I feel a bit uneasy about these kits, only because if they don't work then there will be doubts cast about the whole US theory. Just like all paint isn't the same, neither are all Ultrasonic Antifouling units
Fr J Hackett
Well-known member
There are several of us that have built the kits within the last 3 months mine is installed and running as I guess are others so no results will be available untill about October of this year as to their effectiveness. there will certainly be one used in the Eastern Med. mine on the UK East Coast and the others in different locations. I guess there will be different modes of use, mine this year will be on last years antifouling simply cleaned down others may choose to renew their antifoul.
The premiss that a couple of us have adopted is that at a couple of hundred pounds sterling if they work great! if they extend the effectiveness of current antifouling systems good! if they don't work well it was worth the punt and passed a couple of winter hours building the kits and argueing the point, £200 lost not the end of the world.
The Jaycar system claims a peak current consumption of 3 Amps and either 200 or 300 mA /Hr overall so say 8 amps per day per unit. To meet this I have installed a 50 Watt solar panel which with a total battery capacity of 360 A should allow several weeks continuous running before I have to resort to charging the batteries from shore power etc, I did not want to leave my batteries on permanant charge. There are obviously other methods of dealing with powering the systems some of which are discussed in this thread. The Jaycar system does have a low voltage cut off to avoid completly discharging your batteries. The system claims to operate on putting out a pulsed discrete but broad spectrum of ultrasound which it is claimed disrupt both the cell structure of algea and prevent its attatchment thus removing the primary link in the food chain hence no secondary growth of fouling barnacles etc. That seems to be the commonly accepted mode of opperation for all the systems in use and the original research done many years ago.
Hope that answers some of your questions.
The premiss that a couple of us have adopted is that at a couple of hundred pounds sterling if they work great! if they extend the effectiveness of current antifouling systems good! if they don't work well it was worth the punt and passed a couple of winter hours building the kits and argueing the point, £200 lost not the end of the world.
The Jaycar system claims a peak current consumption of 3 Amps and either 200 or 300 mA /Hr overall so say 8 amps per day per unit. To meet this I have installed a 50 Watt solar panel which with a total battery capacity of 360 A should allow several weeks continuous running before I have to resort to charging the batteries from shore power etc, I did not want to leave my batteries on permanant charge. There are obviously other methods of dealing with powering the systems some of which are discussed in this thread. The Jaycar system does have a low voltage cut off to avoid completly discharging your batteries. The system claims to operate on putting out a pulsed discrete but broad spectrum of ultrasound which it is claimed disrupt both the cell structure of algea and prevent its attatchment thus removing the primary link in the food chain hence no secondary growth of fouling barnacles etc. That seems to be the commonly accepted mode of opperation for all the systems in use and the original research done many years ago.
Hope that answers some of your questions.
gecsr1
New member
Thank You Much for the explanation, I am in San Diego, Ca. and have a power boat. I keep my boat 28' in what they call a bottom liner with no anti fouling paint, we use swimming pool chlorine to sanitize and keep the water from growing algea. ( www.armoredhull.com) if you want to see what a bottom line is. ) My liner is about to be replaced and that's why I was looking into this. I can buy ready made ultrasonic unit but they are very expensive. And no one really says that they work or not. I did talk to a rep from a company in Canada and he swears by them. but can not produce a data. Everyone in the United States say they are" Snake Oil" to good to be true and just another gimmick. But it sorta makes sense to me . I found this thread searching the Internet. and go a price from Jaycar which in US Dollars is 155.75 plus 40.00 for shipping to the united states. I guess Jaycar is in Australia.
Hope to hear back....
Gary
Fr J Hackett
Well-known member
Hi Gary
Yes Jaycar is in Australia they are big into supplying the hobby market and have a very good reputation in Australia. The price you quote is comparable to the costs for buying from them and shipping into the UK. According to their build instructions you would only need 1 unit on a 28 foot boat so not a big investment. If you search this forum you will find much the same as the US with people saying it's snake oil but for $200 it's worth finding out for yourself. There are also a couple of threads that seem to show that ultrasonics does work but the system quoated was one of the expensive ones.
Playtime
Active member
One variable that has a huge influence on antifoul effectiveness (IMHO) is the usage pattern for the boat.
If the boat is used regularly and covers big mileages, especially in any boisterous conditions that will effectively 'scrub' the hull, the antifoul will appear to be more effective than if the boat sits quietly on its mooring for most of the summer.
It is almost impossible to run a control experiment/trial on real boats for a system like US antifouling so any initial results will, at best, be somewhat subjective. Maybe, after a few years, a sufficient body of evidence will build up one way or the other, but, until then, the jury will be 'out'!
That said, I will be following the 'subjective results' with interest as I want to believe it's not snake oil.
A cheap and truly 'green' antifouling system will indeed be most welcome.
gecsr1
New member
One variable that has a huge influence on antifoul effectiveness (IMHO) is the usage pattern for the boat.
If the boat is used regularly and covers big mileages, especially in any boisterous conditions that will effectively 'scrub' the hull, the antifoul will appear to be more effective than if the boat sits quietly on its mooring for most of the summer.
It is almost impossible to run a control experiment/trial on real boats for a system like US antifouling so any initial results will, at best, be somewhat subjective. Maybe, after a few years, a sufficient body of evidence will build up one way or the other, but, until then, the jury will be 'out'!
That said, I will be following the 'subjective results' with interest as I want to believe it's not snake oil.
A cheap and truly 'green' antifouling system will indeed be most welcome.
Yes I am looking forward to hearing about the results...
In the summer the boats need to be cleaned almost every month,, due the the warm water ....and the bottom of my boat is not painted ( although its in a bottom liner , explained with link) I was hoping this would eliminate the bottom liner and also eliminate painting the bottom of the boat. as the boat liner is nearing replacement at a cost of 3 grand. and painting the bottom does slow the boat up and more friction and more fuel consumption.
Gary
Silent Lady
Active member
Finished One
Managed to find all the bits in the end. Logic board from Australia. Coils and other bits from Farnell and Maplins. Worst bits to find were the transducers. Had a lot of fun just sorting the bits so ordered enough for two. First one up and running today until I blew an electronic power supply so taking a 12v battery into work tomorrow, See if we can blow that up. The Pic chips were easy to program and the little step up transformers have worked very well. Had my scope on the output and it certainly looks good. Hope to get time to finish second one next week. Just got to get the transducers mounted to the hull and see what happens. Not sure just yet how to power them. Toying with the idea of a seperate circuit from shore power so I can leave it on when not on the boat and have it off when we are.
Nearly forgot. Logic Boards £20 for 2. Transducers £35 each. Farnells £43. Maplins £32 + need a case and power supply so £165 for 2 which is not bad considering the fun I have had trying to find the bits. Perhaps next time I will just buy a kit
.
Managed to find all the bits in the end. Logic board from Australia. Coils and other bits from Farnell and Maplins. Worst bits to find were the transducers. Had a lot of fun just sorting the bits so ordered enough for two. First one up and running today until I blew an electronic power supply so taking a 12v battery into work tomorrow, See if we can blow that up. The Pic chips were easy to program and the little step up transformers have worked very well. Had my scope on the output and it certainly looks good. Hope to get time to finish second one next week. Just got to get the transducers mounted to the hull and see what happens. Not sure just yet how to power them. Toying with the idea of a seperate circuit from shore power so I can leave it on when not on the boat and have it off when we are.
Nearly forgot. Logic Boards £20 for 2. Transducers £35 each. Farnells £43. Maplins £32 + need a case and power supply so £165 for 2 which is not bad considering the fun I have had trying to find the bits. Perhaps next time I will just buy a kit
.
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greenalien
New member
I'm sufficiently intrigued by this idea that I've ordered a kit - however, I was wondering if the device has to operate continuously, or could it be switched, say, 5 minutes on, 5 minutes off - or maybe even 5 minutes on, 10 minutes off - or some other duty cycle - the idea being to reduce power consumption without compromising effectiveness. It would be easy to sort out a low power consumption electronic timer to do this, any thoughts?
Silent Lady
Active member
Ultrasonics
Think you might find that it has to be constant'ish. The unit I have built runs through 20 - 40 khz and then stops. Waits and then does it all over again. I suppose you could ADJUST the code in the Pic chip to allow a longer delay between cycles. What it does is destroys the plant cells so that it is the waste of time anything else latching on as there is nothing to eat. We have coppercoat and will see if this will control the weed. Bit noisy as you can here the transducers when they get hit with 700v AC at 40mhz so you can imagine what the plants feel like
Think you might find that it has to be constant'ish. The unit I have built runs through 20 - 40 khz and then stops. Waits and then does it all over again. I suppose you could ADJUST the code in the Pic chip to allow a longer delay between cycles. What it does is destroys the plant cells so that it is the waste of time anything else latching on as there is nothing to eat. We have coppercoat and will see if this will control the weed. Bit noisy as you can here the transducers when they get hit with 700v AC at 40mhz so you can imagine what the plants feel like
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elton
Well-known member
kHz surely?
greenalien
New member
How long is one cycle, and how long is the pause between cycles?