Worth suggesting a "how i did it" forum?

[GHA]

Openplotter has a "how I did it" forum which works quite well >
OpenMarine - How I did it

Though that's a much more technical place with most focused on getting stuff working, might need some well defined guidelines & slightly heavier moderation on here to keep the bickering out & keep things positive.

Worth considering you think? Useful detailed posts can rapidly get lost in the depths of PBO forum..

I'd happily spend a little time creating some detailed posts which at the moment isn't too tempting on PBO as it can rapidly get derailed, for example > plotting ais target distance isn't too hard & really useful for antenna fiddling, might take an hour or so to write up if there was a deicated place to leave info like that ?

 

[GHA]

Well I thought it was a great idea and would happily spend time sharing anything found along the way. Maybe this isn't the place nowadays. Yet to see a "instructables" site just for boats. Though instructables does have a "boat" section.

"Practical Boat Owner's Reader to Reader
Share practical, hands-on information."
?

 

[AngusMcDoon]

Well I thought it was a great idea and would happily spend time sharing anything found along the way. Maybe this isn't the place nowadays.

It isn't. A post describing my latest YAPP project got zero responses...

Anchor watcher YAPP - remote boat monitoring from a mobile phone

Therefore, I've realized that there's no point posting about them here any more.

 

[LONG_KEELER]

I like the idea.
Also how about Scuttlebutt "Gold" for the over seventies , and Scuttlebutt "Smooth" for the more laid back forumities.

 

[RunAgroundHard]

Feel free to share your "Practical Boat Owner's Reader to Reader, Share practical, hands-on information” or not. You can choose to ignore posted replies.

The problem I see from these ideas is the benefit to me in managing data in the format you have indicated. That may be my Ignorance but if you can’t even post why I need to know about plotting AIS distance beyond what I read on my AIS, then you lose me there and then.

Similarly with AMcDs box of warnings transmitted remotely. There is utility in the idea but obviously not enough to whet peoples appetites.

I think you are right in that your skill and enthusiasm is more specialised and wasted on the many. After all we can’t even agree on a bit of dumb iron, hence your expectations on appreciating the esoterica of pi and digital networking is a step too far, by a country mile.

In other words, no, “how I did it” may very well be wasted in this place.

 

[GHA]

It isn't. A post describing my latest YAPP project got zero responses...

Therefore, I've realized that there's no point posting about them here any more.

That's quite a great pity really in what us supposed to be a technical forum.

 

[Stemar]

I like the idea.
Also how about Scuttlebutt "Gold" for the over seventies , and Scuttlebutt "Smooth" for the more laid back forumities.

Scuttlebutt "Grumpy old Farts"

 

[Sandy]

To be honest I prefer search YouTube for solutions for projects that I am doing on the boat.

I'm currently sorting out solar power and have spotted a bracket that solves my issue with hanging panels off the pushput in a video of a chap crossing golfe de Gascogne who had done what I am planning. A quick message and I have the supplier of the fittings. Rather than trying to describe what I want or what he had it was - where did you get these fittings?

 

[AngusMcDoon]

Similarly with AMcDs box of warnings transmitted remotely. There is utility in the idea but obviously not enough to whet peoples appetites.

I suspect that you have not been here long enough to see how things have changed. There used to be a lot of enthusiasm for these types of projects here. The anchor watcher thread that I linked to in #3 was the latest in a long line of similar devices of increasing functionality, this one adding communication via mobile internet that no previous incarnation had. All of the previous threads solicited interest, many posters commented how this was a useful device that added to their safety and enjoyment of sailing, and I made quite a few and sent them out around the world. Other DIY electronics projects were also enthusiastically discussed, like this one...

YAPP idea - MOB alert system

However, those days are now gone.

 

[RunAgroundHard]

I suspect that you have not been here long enough to see how things have changed. ...

I have been here a lot longer, well over a decade, in another reincarnation. I felt the same then as I do now. As I said, it is me, I don't really see the necessity of much of the digital data solutions offered. Personally, I want plug and play and have no interest in building electronics for sailing and I wonder if many do. More to the point, I am a big believer that data which serves no useful function is just an unnecessary overhead.

Please don't take this as a criticism of your skills, which I admire, or the functionality that you and others find useful.

Regarding the OPs point, I think Sandy, post No 8 sums it up well that there are other sources that perhaps best fit what is desired e.g. YouTube, Rod Collins Marine How To, AAC. Could it work here, maybe it could, but I suspect that YBW would not offer the moderation that such a channel would need to differentiate from the same old stuff? As a bold move to attract more users, and thus promote their brand, there is merit in that, as both Marine How To and AAC are subscribed and quoted as sources of sound information.

 

[laika]

I've realized that there's no point posting about them here any more.

If you stop the forum would be a poorer place. Your YAPPs have been one of the highlights of the PBO forum. Sorry I overlooked reading that one.

I don’t think we need a special “how to” forum: “How to” is fundamentally what PBO should be about. google-fu is required whether an interesting project is buried in a bunch of noise or buried in a bunch of other interesting projects.

And call me old school but I prefer to read a description of a project rather than sit through half an hour of someone droning on about it on YouTube.

Maybe mods could start relocating PBO posts not related to DIY to the motorboat forum or scuttlebutt?

 

[mrming]

Sadly I don’t have much time to build electronics projects for my boat, but I’ve often enjoyed reading @AngusMcDoon’s posts about his YAPPs (and about zipping around in his trimaran).

Perhaps it’s the still the after effects of the pandemic, but at the moment we seem to have a lot more “x elderly system in my new to me second hand boat has exploded” type posts. It would be easy to be grumpy about this, but, imo sailing needs new people to get involved, and if at least some of them survive the experience of a used yacht, they might end up the forum posters of the future.

 

[GHA]

It was a mistake joining in again.......

 

[laika]

It was a mistake joining in again.......

No it wasn’t! Your contribution was much missed. I was simply expressing an opinion that PBO is the right place even if there is stuff there which is misplaced. Even if you had a dedicated sub-forum, if you were thinking “I’ve got a new antenna…where was that article gha wrote a while back on AIS plotting?” You’d still need to Google “AIS gha site:forums.ybw.com”

 

[Neeves]

Personally I don't want any more electronic devices other than a chart plotter, wind and speed. The chart plotter has all the extras I need, like an anchor alarm. I do have other devices that are electronic, a barometer, but I also have an aneroid barometer, a compass, but I also have a magnetic one etc etc.

If someone developed a new gizmo that I thought I needed - I would not need it until it was sufficiently popular it was made by a regular marine electronics company.

To me sailing is meant to be simple.

The omissions noted, or the lack of interest noted are restricted to electronic supports systems of the type I don't feel the need - hence my lack of interest. The items in which I am interested, engine maintenance, how to make a soft shackle or use a LFR are neatly covered here. I recall a thread and a series of posts being critical of a member 'Coopec' who was fitting out his own yacht - it was true PBO from the ground up. He was criticised and made fun of because it was taking him so long. I thought the members taking pleasure from baiting him were bigoted bullies.

I'm sorry but with the YBW search engine I find the PBO section adequate.

The members here come from all walks of life many of them have no interest nor knowledge of programming nor electronics. If you want them to read your posts - you need to write them as if explaining to a 12 year old (as you might not understand the complexity of buying futures on the LME).

It might make the search function more useful if people titled their threads with a bit more thought and accuracy.


My granddaughter and I are making, well she is making (and I am funding), a device to measure the movement under water of a set anchor subject to wind, yawing etc etc. I don't for the life of me expect a single person to be in any way interested in the device. Its the last thing that I would make the subject of a thread - but I might summarise the results - if they are interesting (and even 'interesting' will be debatable).

I developed a device to self right an anchor - one member here, without trying it brought up all sorts of criticisms. Some people enjoy being critical and not being supportive - you need to have a tough skin and persevere - its now being made and people here are buying the device. The information on the device was open source, some made their own - I derive no income. Some people here are critical of light weight rodes - but a lot of people buy them.

It takes all sorts

If you have a good idea, you mention it sufficiently often, you make the idea simple - people will read - and if it is actually useful - some will follow.

Jonathan

 

[AngusMcDoon]

Personally I don't want any more electronic devices other than a chart plotter, wind and speed.

That's fine. Good for you. However, you miss the point of these projects. They are not necessary to go sailing. They might not add to the sailing experience in any way. The point of them is in the designing and making of them, learning about the technology, the feeling of having creating something however useful or useless it may be, and sharing the results and discussing trivial details about them with like minded others.

Some boaters like crafting beautiful things from wood using their chisels, router and lathe. Others like making practical things with their soldering iron. Still others like to become world experts on anchors. They are all unnecessary to go sailing, but if it floats that person's boat, then good on 'em.

 

[Neeves]

That's fine. Good for you. However, you miss the point of these projects. They are not necessary to go sailing. They might not add to the sailing experience in any way. The point of them is in the designing and making of them, learning about the technology, the feeling of having creating something, however useful or useless it may be, and sharing the results and discussing trivial details about them with like minded others.

Some boaters like crafting beautiful things from wood using their chisels, router and lathe. Others like to do it with their soldering iron. Still others like to become world experts on anchors. They are all unnecessary to go sailing, but if it floats that person's boat, then good on 'em.

My apologies

I had thought the focus was on electronics for leisure marine use. If the electronics are for other purposes, including personal gratification, I fail to see why the would be aired (at all) on YBW.

Silly me

Jonathan

 

[AngusMcDoon]

My apologies

I had thought the focus was on electronics for leisure marine use. If the electronics are for other purposes, including personal gratification, I fail to see why the would be aired (at all) on YBW.

Silly me

Contributing to a thread when it seems that your only interest in the subject is stating that you have no interest in the subject is odd behaviour rather than silly. However, it's mildly entertaining, so keep it up.

 

[laika]

If the electronics are for other purposes, including personal gratification, I fail to see why the would be aired (at all) on YBW.

Silly me

To re-state AngusMcDoon’s point in a different way…

Very little is “essential”. You don’t need a chart plotter. Some sail without depth sounder or electronic logs or autopilots. You don’t need to varnish or upholster make little boxes to hold your pencils and dividers. And if you want that stuff you can often just buy it. But each of us has interests, be they woodworking, metalworking, electronics or whatever. We embark on projects not because they’re essential but because they’re interesting, not to everyone but to us. Sometimes we create things that others think are useful too and want to replicate. Think AngusMcDoon’s many projects like the seatalk to nmea converter. Sometimes others don’t want The Thing but are still interested in the techniques.

Just because something is “non-essential” and is not universally interesting doesn’t make it “Not PBO” When I bought the magazine I didn’t make most of the projects described.

And think about the purpose of GHA’s proposal: it’s safety related and practical

So sure you might not be interested but others are and imho PBO is the right forum for it

 

[Neeves]

That's fine. Good for you. However, you miss the point of these projects. They are not necessary to go sailing.

I was more worried that the suggestion was that YBW and PBO should host debates

'not necessary to go sailing'

I applaud posts on electronics for 'things marine' - whether I'm interested or not - PBO is a sensible vehicle - but suggesting that YBW host a site for non marine electronics seems .....bizarre

You will be pleased to hear - I bow out of further discussion.

Jonathan