Introduction to the Microship Status Report Archives

by Steven K. Roberts
Nomadic Research Labs


The 1992 decision to replace BEHEMOTH with a computerized solar/sail
multihull launched me into a massive development project which has
consumed more than 7 years of my life... and changed form so
completely since the early days that some of these initial postings
alternate between being amusing and embarrassing. In the interest of
documenting the whole process, we are including the full series of
posted documents on the development of the Microship. This begins in
July 1993, and includes the full set of online postings and status
reports published during that time.

This period can be loosely considered the birth of the Microship
project -- a time of struggling with newly recognized design
trade-offs, refining the objectives, establishing sponsor
relationships, and defining the control systems. This is the
beginning of an incredibly complex project.

So join us now as we arrive in San Diego after a long quest for lab
space, excited at the prospect of building a massively technoid
sailboat in this sun-drenched beach town...


The Microship Project finds a Home!
San Diego, CA -- July, 1993.

Yikes. I'm actually looking at two years in one place and feeling
happy about it! Of course, as places go, this ain't too bad: a
funky summer sublet in La Jolla, my office in the UCSD engineering
building, my lab in the old campus bookstore, my fabrication shop at
Scripps Institution of Oceanography.... as well as Black's Beach, the
Mission Bay Aquatic Center, and a suite of essential life-support
resources... all within easy mountain bike or bus range. Life is
OK...

I've moved in here since my last report, and spend my days in a
now-familiar pattern: flicker reluctantly to life, pedal to the
office after filling my precycle mug at any of three espresso
spigots, and disappear for hours into design details, email, and
phone work until exhaustion signals midnight... then enjoy a quick
flute jam in the acoustic wonder of cavernous concrete before
pedaling home atop a shivering Vista-Light to collapse on the old
bikelab futon. Some days offer respite: textile-free bodysurfing or
bodywatching at Black's, flying a windsurfer or Hobie cat across
Mission Bay, or sweating my way along miles of tortured single-track
aboard the very antithesis of BEHEMOTH while seeking out killer hills
for pleasure. But there seems at last to have developed a balance
between the seductive nature of this place and the equally seductive
dream of aquatic nomadness (which takes work).

I'll assume you're aware of the basic objective of the Microship -- a
computerized trimaran that transports the whole BEHEMOTH concept onto
water. With that as a starting point, let me bring you up to date,
in a manner reminiscent of the "Notes from the Bikelab" series that
started in 1990 as a weekly project status report. The past
half-dozen or so issues have tended more toward adventure than the
underlying nomadic technology... but then, the whole point of all
this is that the two are inextricably intertwined, with no boundaries
between work and play, passion and pinouts, methyl ethyl ketone
peroxide and wanderlust. So now that I'm back to building strange
new machines instead of riding one around (or, um, hauling one around
on the show 'n tell circuit), I hope you don't mind the intermingling
of romantic rhapsody with desiccant regeneration procedures,
fiberglass Ku-band attenuation, and polyurethane foam deflection as a
function of density and composite layup thickness. Hell, this stuff
is FUN. Trust me...

I'm slowly accumulating volunteers among the student population here,
and in a way this will be almost the opposite of the BEHEMOTH
project. There, I had industry volunteers, people with deep
experience but little time. Here, I'll incur the added cost of some
teaching time and coaching, but from what I've seen, the intelligence
and focus of a student group can be formidable.

* * *

A lot of the work of the past month has gone into mechanical design
-- this is one of those wondrously complex projects in which
electronic component choice affects gross morphology, which in turn
defines constraints that affect the choice of electronics. Such
psychological race conditions can only be resolved by tweaking the
granularity knob until the correct solution congeals in a flash. Put
another way, I form a fantasy of the desired results and allow input
variables to float until an unanticipated combination satisfies the
fantasy-comparator, pretriggering a snapshot of the conditions that
yielded it before accumulated pondering-propagation delays introduced
conceptual drift. (This is not the design methodology you read about
in engineering textbooks, even though it's a good summary of life in
industry. Most textbooks promulgate the myth that structured methods
and sequential procedures will get you there. But beating trade-offs
requires inventing new rules to break, not bumping into the limits
imposed by old ones.)

Ahem. There I go again. What I was trying to say is that the past
few weeks have been a mind-stretching jumble of hatch placement,
antenna coexistence formulas, weight distribution, human convenience
issues, visibility, solar temp rise, salt-water exposure, modularity,
fiberglass characteristics, single-point failure potential,
hull-breach survivability, biological RF exposure, critical system
redundancy, cabling issues, manufacturability, serviceability, CE/CLR
relationship, and human factors engineering. Such things affect
desalinator capacity, radar duty cycle, future upgrade paths,
sleeping comfort, thruster power, dependence on shore resources,
spares inventory, visceral bliss, network expandability, and just
about everything else on board including where and how I go to the
bathroom.

(This is the kind of stuff that is going to have to be parsed into
finite projects for student teams by the end of the year... <shudder>)

And so, after all that, there are some changes to the structure as
postulated earlier. The hulls are still a trio of sea kayaks (a 21'
double in the center and two singles of indeterminate length), linked
by a very critical structure of box-section stainless steel that can
parallelogram sternward to allow transition into narrow-beam mode.
Atop these beam assemblies are 4x10-foot solar arrays, hinged along
their centerlines like bi-fold closet doors. 24 Solarex 30-watt
modules (720W total) are laminated onto foam-core composite
substrates, built much like rectangular surfboards. 35% of the way
back from the bow is the mast step, supporting a sloop rig (a jib is
a Good Thing on a multihull; else it's VERY hard to complete a tack).

Hatch placement is quite interesting, and involves some of the
hardest trade-offs of all. The outer hulls carry more or less
standard kayak deck plans, with gear hatches repositioned to avoid
interfering with the beam assemblies (AKA akas). The pilot's cockpit
(my home) is aft of center in the main hull, with my back close to
the after aka (those are about 8' apart, with the solar panels
cantilevered about a foot at each end). A Linear recumbent bicycle,
now enroute from flood-ravaged Iowa, may become the operating
position, supporting as it does all the hardware associated with
sitting and pedaling. The console is an uninterrupted Lexan sheet
covering the 4 main screens and lesser displays, shaded by a cowling
and mounted atop an already elevated coaming to allow pedaling
clearance. Steering is a pair of sliding armrests with split-QWERTY
keyboards (I haven't ruled out the recumbent's under-seat steering
with chord keyboard, but it doesn't FEEL right).

Directly behind the cockpit is a main gear hatch, bulkheaded to
contain swamping. Ahead of it, likewise bulkheaded, is the head. As
this machine veers further away from "kayak," it encounters more and
more the legal and practical issues that affect yachts -- including
lighting, anchorage, and sewage discharge....

All three areas named so far fit conveniently within the envelope
defined by the solar panels -- for this is also the tented area in
bivouac mode. If I'm on water at night, I'll cover this entire
surface with a 10x11-foot freestanding tent, unzipping the floor to
expose essential hull resources. (In blazing sun and harsh weather
while underway, I'll cover myself with a "bimini" that folds like a
convertible soft top.)

Forward of the head, there is a bulkhead and main beam mounting
platform that also includes the mast step. Forward of this is the
main pressurized electronics bay, Qualcomm satellite antenna, a small
gear hatch, and some glassed-in flotation foam. Aft of the after
beam assembly is the tower for a small Furuno radar antenna, then a
bulkheaded hatch for desalinator, water filtration and analysis, and
the air compressor/tank/filter/dryer. Distributed all over the deck
are antennas, radomes, grablines, cleats, and the myriad fixtures of
safety and convenience. Even here, we encounter fascinating
constraints -- like the spacing between any two whip antennas being a
minimum of three times a quarter-wavelength of the higher frequency.
(And I thought the BIKE presented interesting problems!)

I'll leave it at that for the moment... many other components are
shaping up, but I learned from BEHEMOTH that premature publication of
description is a prescription for contrition upon retrospection...



Project Updates: July, 1993


NOTE: Most of this is derived from material transmitted via email to
the Microship project participants and selected sponsors. It is
important to remember that this is a real-time reflection of work in
progress, and as this series proceeds, many statements made herein
are guaranteed to be rendered obsolete. The good news is that this
contains a wealth of developmental data, vendor information,
brainstorming sessions, and trade-off analysis that is often lost in
retrospective documents. But please do not consider anything in this
series to be a final specification until it has been so stated.

As we begin, I'm proceeding on the assumption that the Microship will
consist of three sea kayaks configured as a trimaran...

-- SKR



7/9/93

Spoke today with Joe Sedivec of Seda Kayaks, who is a Czech émigré
and claims to be the first US sea kayak builder. He's in National
City, south of San Diego, and we have a meeting 10:00 Monday (just
before he leaves for the LL Bean kayak symposium in Maine). I can't
tell yet if he'll be interested in sponsorship, but he does seem very
interested in ideas and publicity, and has worked with universities.
He's also local, has a good fab shop, and can deliver hulls alone or
other subassemblies... so this should be worthwhile. I'll take him
literature. Need to speak with some kayak people and get a feel for
his reputation for quality and seaworthiness, etc.

Also exchanging email with Dave Wright re solar wing assemblies. He
agrees that glass over Airex is best, and suggests using diode
isolation from each panel into charge bus to solve shading and damage
problems.

I'm thinking about self-steering rigs, and the trade-off between a
vane design such as the Miranda shown in Roth's "After 50,000 Miles"
versus electronic/servo. Electronics can fail at sea; the vane is
simple but bulky.

In the training dept., I've elected to do Lasers on a 1-1 basis with
Gary Reichel, and do the minimum necessary at Mission Bay Aquatic
Center to allow boat rental. Holder (advanced) class probably will
be cancelled, since it's mid-week. I'm scheduled for Windsurfing
this weekend, and Hobie starting 7/24.

I'm planning to begin setup of my electronics shop (old bookstore)
this weekend, if we can pull ourselves away from sailing and Black's
Beach. It may become my home base on campus -- easier to secure,
funkier, and all mine as long as I need it. It's also small and
rather inconvenient to the engineering building. Will need to get
the existing phone line extended there as well.

Also, although I'm certain about kayak amas, before nailing down a
center hull spec I'm trying to figure out whether something other
than kayak shape might be better. Perhaps a V-hull to reduce the
need for a leeboard? More space? A place to go below? A few
staterooms and work areas <slap!> Oh, sorry, got thinking about F/27
and F/31 again.....


7/14/93

Had a great, though brief, meeting with Joe Sedivec of Seda Kayaks
Monday (he's off this week to Sea Kayak Symposium in Maine). I don't
believe he will be willing to sponsor boats per se, but may provide
them at a token cost especially if I get a manufacturer to donate the
glass/kevlar/etc. The Tango double (Cap 500 lbs, LOA 21', Beam 29",
Depth 14", Weight 95lb fiberglass or 76 lb kevlar) and Viking singles
(Cap 350 lbs, LOA 16'6", Beam 25", Depth 13", Weight 52 lbs fg or 38
lbs kevlar) seem like good choices, with possible alternative faster
but narrower singles in the form of the Glider (Cap 375 lbs, LOA 19',
Beam 22", Depth 12", Weight 66/45). The Glider is more a racer, and
provides less platform for the folded solar panels... also, my kayak
cruising will probably be more of the placid touring style in which
stability is preferred to zip.

Anyway, he's in National City, and we'll get together next week after
he returns from Maine. He has project package #12, plus some media
copies. His reaction to the package suggests that all sponsor
packages should be assembled like this, with plastic covers and
custom cover sheet including contents list.

Good telcon Monday with Bill Rever at Solarex. He agrees that the
best approach is custom-fabricated panels without the .090" aluminum
substrate, cutting system weight drastically (aluminum has the same
density as granite, y'know -- and with standard panels the 80 square
foot array would have .6 cubic foot of completely superfluous
aluminum which would weigh exactly 99 pounds).

Anyway, since we don't need the normal packaging, this also
eliminates the border area used for mounting holes and grommets, and
it may thus be possible to cram in a few more cells. The big issues
now, from the Solarex perspective, are cell layout, spares inventory,
serviceable lamination technique to the foam-core, thickness of
Tedlar sandwich, and electrical termination. The latter is
especially critical, since we need to get wires out of a very flat
object without allowing aqua regia (seawater) to wick in. He
proposes some kind of a bus rail or channel along each outer long
edge to protect the terminations (and house the diodes and sense
lines), though I'm very wary of anything that can trap water. This
will be an extremely harsh environment, exposed to sunlight,
saltwater, flailing feet, thermal stress, flying fish, folding mode
changes, and rough handling when disconnected from the boat. I'm
tempted to recess the substrate mold and run all this stuff down --
or perhaps capture it in a raised wall that doubles as one boundary
of the rainwater catchment surface and triples as a grabrail for
safety.

In the education dept., I've just finished "After 50,000 Miles" by
Hal Roth, an excellent commentary on the issues of full-time cruising
(dated 1976 and not totally relevant to the Microship, of course, but
useful). I'm now into "The Fiberglass Boat Handbook" by Wiley, which
is providing lots of insight into materials, layup techniques, and
structures.

Attempted call to my GPS sponsor at Motorola, who is out until 7/26.
I wanted to swap Traxar for new model, get the Core unit to aid in
deck layout planning, and revive the contact with Radius division
which may sponsor Marine VHF and GMRS handhelds. (RE the deck
planning issue, one of the things we MUST do soon is get all
deck-mounted devices in-house, since this will impact packaging.)

Telcon today with Steve Salman, referred to me by Jean Polly for info
on ham radio data links to internet (told him re AMTOR/APLINK). He's
preparing to cruise around the world in a 40-foot yacht, and will be
here in October. We talked of nav aids and such, and he's a strong
believer in my having a small marine radar unit, even if mounted low
(though I'd probably want to erect an absorptive barrier so I can
hide my body behind a blind spot to prevent biological damage...).
This could be a packaging nightmare, but is worth exploring.
Contacting Furuno tomorrow re their 1621 LCD micro-radar, which has
an 8.8 pound radome and a 6" diagonal LCD in a 2.6" deep case.

Req'd data from Astro Flight on efficient DC motors (Venice, CA) for
the thrusters. My earlier assumption that we would use variable
reluctance might not be too sensible -- they are overkill with their
ability to act as brakes, steppers, generators, variable-torque
motors, etc.

Another thought re beam assemblies: efficient sailing may suggest
the need to have the windward float (outrigger) flying. It might be
possible to add a mode whereby they can be cranked up a few degrees
instead of always lying parallel to the waterline plane...


7/15/93

Last night worked on sponsor database... still fretting over suitable
platform. ACT! is feature-rich but annoyingly cumbersome at times,
with at least one nasty bug and extreme resistance to convenient
importing. Yet it does interface smoothly with GeoQuery, which is
why I have it. TouchBase, which I've been using, is brisk and
efficient, but doesn't support Apple Events or provide the contact
management features. <sigh> The problem is keeping track of myriad
relationships with ~500 companies and individuals associated with the
Microship project, as well as my much larger PEOPLE database of
nearly 5,000 contacts which must eventually be geocoded for
integration with the boat's mapping and navigation system.

Just received a box of sample rigid polyurethane foam blocks from
General Plastics in Tacoma, to whom I was referred by Clark Foam
which no longer sells stock slab. The product line is called
"Last-a-Foam" and includes material with densities from 3 to 40
pounds per cubic foot. This is the core material for the solar panel
substrates. I have detailed spec sheets and samples of 6 densities
here for anyone who wants to take a look... the plan is to follow up
on last week's contact with Skip Frye Surfboards to find a fiberglass
shop willing to vacuum-bag layup the panels once we have precise
dimensions and attachment point specs. (This is so much like
surfboard design that it would be foolish to reinvent the wheel...)
I'm thinking of four 2x10' panels, although the foam only comes in
standard sizes up to 4x8'. Theoretically, it's not really critical
structurally, so given a suitable joint, using two pieces shouldn't
matter.

Telcon with Kevin at Marine Electronics in Hartfield, VA
(800-654-9251). They are US dealers of the Furuno 1621 LCD
Micro-radar, and specs are enroute. He also feels that full or
partial sponsorship is likely (the retail price is a surprisingly low
$1350). Antenna height is not critical since we care about things
within nav range anyway (each additional 10' only buys about a half a
mile), though I would want it either above my head or hobbled with a
blind spot by an absorber so I'm not getting irradiated (though it
might warm me on cold days....). Power in transmit is 30W (12V).
Physical packaging would permit excision and console mounting of the
6" diagonal LCD, with the user interface emulated by control system
software.

Perhaps this radome and the Qualcomm one could be integrated into a
single column, since this looks at the horizon and Qualcomm looks at
the 20-60 degree elevation range.

Must go sailing. Life's a reach, then you jibe....


7/16/93

TJ Tyler comments on my notes about foam-core in yesterday's report:

"Well, I am curious about only being able to get 4x8" sizes.
Especially considering you were talking with the people at Skip Frye
Surfboards. Skip specializes in long-boards, and many of those
boards are over 8'. If you talk with the right people, you should be
able to find nice, 10' lengths. Also, since when did Clark Foam stop
selling blanks? We got some stuff from them not long ago for our HPV
fairing. I find that equally odd."

Also, Dave Wright in Santa Cruz responds to an earlier letter
requesting his comments on vane versus computer-controlled steering:

"Vane steering is the way to go as far as reliability is concerned,
but I think you are confusing big boat needs with what you are
building, which is a daysailer, despite your imaginings to the
contrary. If you want to overnight then get something that has a
cabin, otherwise forget it. Don't build BEHEMOTH rev 3."

I'm not so much interested in remaining under sail overnight, but in
having something singleminded and tireless take the helm for a while
to let me relax, work, video, etc. I'm not at all interested in
ocean crossings, though there may be some long reaches now and again.
It'll be a while before I'm confident enough to go to sleep while the
boat is in motion, at least if I'm alone on it!

BTW, re the overnight issue: I firmly believe that it is necessary
to sleep on the water sometimes -- most likely when there's simply no
friendly place to beach it and camp. I've learned this from
kayaking... the best areas are developing pitched battles between
hordes of waterborne explorers and fiercely territorial coastal
landowners who write nasty letters to magazines when someone slips
onto the beach to take a break. My on-water bivouac mode involves
tents on solar panels.

In other news...

Long, sweaty day. Thanks to the help of TJ Tyler (Mechanical
Engineering) and Mark Overbaugh (an 11th-grade volunteer) -- then
later a whole horde of TJ's friends -- the electronics lab in the old
bookstore now contains everything that was in the mothership and much
of what has been stored at Scripps "Seaweed Canyon" (which will be
used for fiberglass and large fabrication work). Disassembling the
mobile lab was rather painful, but this will be much more useful.
The new lab is not at all set up yet, but the components and major
furniture are now in one room... having technical workspace will help
a LOT. First steps, irrelevant to this mailing list but important to
me: security, phone, and decent lighting. I'll comment occasionally
on this overhead, but not bore you with details.


7/17/93

I've spent the whole day building databases. After agonizing over
the ACT!-vs-TouchBase issue for a few weeks, I talked with my manager
(Barbara Chase) today and she suggested FileMaker Pro. After she
stepped me through it on the phone it started to look rather
appealing, so I spent the afternoon and evening building the
structure of the new Contacts and Products databases.

This sounds like boring business stuff, but this is the core data
structure that will provide geocoded human contacts to the
Microship's mapping system, as well as put all my 4,500+ contacts at
last into one place (including sponsors). And this central
repository of people is now linked via a simple script to the
database of system components, so we can look at the record for the
life jacket, for example, see its weight, value, spares inventory,
notes, and other specifics... and also display a link from the
relevant sponsor record (Extrasport) for contact information.
Hopping over there for more details, we see all the details of the
business relationship, as well as flags for hospitality invitation
and a dozen or so other interesting specifics. This solves the
problem of multiple records for one company name confusing things,
and eliminates my traditional pair of overlapping databases for
people and sponsors with the attendant loss of synchronization when
addresses and contacts inevitably change over time.

Now all we gotta do is import the data <panic>...

FileMaker Pro is quite elegant, by the way... amazingly flexible in
all respects at the creation end. I have yet to see how briskly it
handles large files, but I'll be pleased to get rid of ACT!, which
has proven itself clumsy and confusing, heavily feature-laden for
contact management yet lacking some real basic database essentials.


7/19/93

Coffee conversation with TJ today has rekindled the nomadic community
idea -- over the years I've had quite a bit of interest from people
who want to travel as a sort of high-tech nomadic tribe. I'm
thinking of a little standard waterproof box that can fit any kayak,
pedal-craft, or small sailboat -- providing connectivity to a
wireless network linking all the boats and delivering status data,
basic navigation, security, email to and from the Microship satellite
Net gateway, etc. That plus marine VHF and a simple solar power
system should allow anyone to plug in to our nomadic aquatic
community without a major packaging and development project. Now
here's an extra motivation for working on this system... for those
with a yen for adventure, the 2-year development effort could pay off
with adventure! A few years ago I published a "Call to Nomadness"
that described how this could work with a number of bicycles, and had
80-100 responses from people who wanted to explore it.
Unfortunately, it was just too much for one person to manage, and
thus never happened... but here in the University environment, it may
be more realistic since there will be other people involved from the
start.

* * *

I made the formal proposal to Autodesk for a copy of AutoCAD Release
12 for Macintosh... they told me a few months ago that it would be
easiest if I could give them a University address. I dragged my
feet, trying to decide whether to go with Mac or DOS, but TJ pointed
out that DOS versions are readily available around campus if I need
them so I might as well use what feels good.

* * *

In the interest of nailing down enough of the mechanicals to begin
some serious design work, I'm trying to identify all console and deck
components that will in any way affect the fiberglass work. Here's a
preliminary list... the first is limited to console devices, which
will be mounted on a flat panel screwed into a gasketed, pressurized
nacelle. The second list includes items that are actually on the
deck itself.

Console devices:
Marine VHF control cluster
Displays:
Macintosh LCD (active matrix, maybe color)
Color video monitor LCD
Control system LCD (probably low-power DOS for simplicity)
Radar LCD
Digital Panel Meter, cycling though key measurements
Clock
Switches:
Running and anchor lights
Chart/console light
Bilge pumps for each hull
Guarded EPIRB
Control system power
Wake-Mac pushbutton
"JATO Mode" -- all power to thrusters

(BTW, it may be worthwhile to consider "reflective" LCD packaging
inside deep nacelle to minimize solar temp rise and lower the overall
cockpit coaming profile. Also, some components may be mounted INSIDE
the cockpit for tamper-resistance or clutter-minimization. A further
thought: all LCDs mount behind a single smooth Lexan panel with no
openings, with a different sub-panel for the few controls. Easy to
change as computers and display technology evolve... no waterproofing
or thermal cycling headaches... simple... pretty.)

Deck fixtures and major mechanicals (center hull only):
Antennas:
Qualcomm satellite radome (abt 12" dia), poss under glass
Radar antenna on raised pole (enough to clear my head)
(mizzen and self-steering mast with antenna on top?)
HF Vertical antenna (sloper to mast?)
2m/70cm/marine/RF-LAN/scanner/differential/cellular whips
EPIRB
GPS
Microwave motion radome (poss inside fiberglass)
Radar detector/DF antenna
Console assembly for each cockpit
Keyboard, rudder controls, etc.
Deck compass (backup - electronics fail!)
Running lights (including bi/tricolor on mast)
Speakers
Water server spigot, intake, and manual pump (prob in cockpit)
Environmental sensors as needed (minimal deck impact)
Manual bilge pump
Compressor intake (bay pressurization)
Diving compressor I/O ports
Boom microphone on console cowling
Main Electronics bay (lift-out pressurized box on umbilicus)
Gear stowage hatches (2)
Tent mounting fixtures
Video head/turret
Cleats, U-bolt for security, grablines, etc.
Receivers for folding beam assemblies (amas)
Crane-lift eyebolts (4 - probably about 1' out on beams)

Most lightweight gear, clothing, food stores, and the like will be
stored in the standard hatches of the outer hulls. Center hull will
be busy with systems, flotation compartments, human space, pedals,
easy access gear, emergency supplies, water processing, etc.

* * *

Early this evening, TJ and I built a full-size "drawing" of the
Microship with masking tape on the patio outside my office. Very
instructive... being able to walk around it and FEEL the dimensions
goes a long way toward developing the overall layout.

Issues now are placement of hatches, mast, and beam attachments. Do
we need a large electronics bay, or a small one? If it is to support
two people full-time, how do the cockpits coexist? Should it be
designed for one, but accommodate a passenger without major support
facilities (a rumble seat)? What happens in the cracks between solar
panels and inward-curving hulls? Having a full-size layout greatly
facilitates decisions like these.


7/21/93

Spoke with Karen Parks of General Ecology re water filtration, and
she suggests their Base Camp model in series with a bypassable
reverse-osmosis desalinator. The Base Camp is 60 oz., handles 2-4
pints per minute, and required filter service or replacement at about
1,000 gallons. We're sending a proposal. (The thought of a reliable
water processing system on board is very alluring, especially after
reading the news about Mississippi River flood victims in the
midwest!)

I also spoke with Dave at Village Marine Tec re their reverse-osmosis
desalinator. The catch with these is that they require about 800 PSI
for seawater conversion, which means heavy hardware. Eliminating all
cabinetry and overhead, they can get their "Little Wonder" unit down
to about 30 pounds. <shudder>. Anyone know of a lighter way to do
this that still lends itself to system integration?

Autodesk responded with a solid YES to the AutoCAD proposal, and
Release 12 for the Macintosh, as well as AutoSurf surface modeling
software for DOS, is on the way. Refined the full-size CAD
(Concrete-Aided Design) layout on the patio... preliminary
arrangement of hatches and major deck fixtures now established.


7/23/93

Sponsor news: Spoke with Steve Hansel of Linear Recumbents in Iowa
(along the river, but enough uphill that he's not flooded, in case
you were wondering), and he is shipping a bike for the project.
Reason: I'm thinking that the cockpit should consist of receivers
glassed into the hull and a drop-in recumbent bicycle for seating and
pedaling. In land mode, I'll just pop out the bike, attach wheels
(stowed somewhere!) and pedal away. Dave Berkstresser suggests
having the aluminum parts, including this bike frame, treated with
the "Tufram" or "Everslide" processes, which involve hard anodizing
with a Teflon seal suitable for salt water.


7/26/93

I'm having discussions with the campus police about security -- they
describe the bookstore building as a "sieve." Clearly, I'm going to
have to spend some money on locks and additional security systems,
including a remote monitoring system that lights a status indicator
in the police dept. It all feels pretty scattered now, with my
operation spread over three mutually distant sites... I'm hoping to
expand soon into a single space that can hold everything. This will
become particularly messy when boats are on hand and we're trying to
build molds, do drawings, fit components, and plan layouts... I
wonder if it will all get shoehorned into the lab to minimize
running-around time?

AutoCAD Release 12 for Macintosh arrived today, and it wants System
7.1, external monitor, and at least 30 MB of free disk space. Might
have to dedicate my dormant SE/30 to this... I need to find someone
who wants to do the configuration and installation. I think this
would overload the PowerBook, which is my management and
communication machine.

Bob Heil of Heil Sound (microphone guru) suggests one of their
elements in a small stub/boom, waterproofed with mylar, mounted
directly on the console and aiming at my face. I contacted him to
inquire about alternatives to head-mounted and hand mics, both of
which would probably get trashed in the marine environment. Sending
lit.

Had private lessons yesterday on Hobie 16 catamaran... off sometime
this week for a reality check in the form of sailing one in the
ocean. I'll be paying particular attention to effects of high sail
aspect ratio, multihull behavior in swells, general cross-member
stresses, fore-aft hull trim and its effects, and what happens at the
edge of panic if we start to lose it. None of this will be quite the
same as the Microship, but the Hobie is the closest thing readily
available for initial hands-on training in real conditions.

On the hull-design front, I spoke today with Joe Sedivec of Seda
Kayaks, and he basically agrees to do the boats if I get about twice
the required materials donated (or pay for labor and get the required
materials donated). Small company... sponsorship not likely. In
other words, he's willing to sell me boats, albeit in a
non-traditional fashion. He provided a list of major
fiberglass/kevlar vendors:
DuPont Kevlar
Clark Schwebel
Burlington
JP Stephens
Hexcel
Owens-Corning
We need about 200 pounds of raw material total for the three boats.

I also spoke with Matthew at Current Designs in Sidney, BC (Brian
Henry, pres., is kayaking in Greenland), and got some dimensional
info on their present kayaks as well as large-capacity "Libra" double
under development. In general, I'd prefer to work with a
high-visibility, high-quality vendor like this, though Seda is local
and has been around a while, keeping costs down with manufacturing in
Tijuana. Local vendor could be useful when it comes to all the weird
deck issues on the center hull...

I'm trying hard to nail the overall mechanical design so it becomes
possible to spec hardware... this evening has mostly been spent in
consideration of major component placement. One problem that I've
overlooked until now is waste management... there are "No Discharge"
areas all over the prime boating areas, and enforced legal
requirements for holding tanks. (At some point, this is going to
stop looking like a kayak, and will no longer fall through the legal
cracks affecting running lights, sanitation, berthing, licensing, and
so on.) The traditional kayaker's approach of an ammo box and some
plastic bags is not particularly appealing for extended travel, nor
can I assume easy beaching whenever necessary. I believe the answer,
as insane as this may sound, is a small marine head (about 20 pounds
for the littlest one in the West Marine catalog) located in the hatch
just aft of the mast. A small bimini (or the main tent) covers this
area, and without getting too detailed, it appears that the geometry
is about right. This leaves the main gear hatch behind the cockpit
available for packs (as well as both outer hulls, of course).


7/27/93

Telcon with David Phemister, resident wizard at Larsen Antennas.
He'll provide whatever whips needed; I'm sending him a list.
Although they don't have a marine product line per se, their stuff is
vastly better in RF performance than the common marine antennas.
Dave advises glassing in ground plane (copper mesh OK, same as I'm
using in hull for capacitive coupling to seawater) as well as
provision for physical connection to it at antenna mounts.

Rule of thumb for inter-antenna separation: a minimum first odd
multiple of a quarter wave at the highest operating frequency.
Example: UHF and VHF separation should be at least 3 times the
approximate 6" wavelength of UHF; cellular works out to about 10.5"
from its nearest neighbor. Violating this results in bad matching,
shadows, reflection, and other nasties.

FYI, they now have a 14db 7-element cellular yagi to replace the 10db
6-element unit I used for a while on the bike. This is relevant to
offshore cellular use, extending effective range of a 3-watt phone to
well over 100 miles (I tested the other one to about 130 miles under
perfect conditions).

Telcon with my GPS sponsor at Motorola (Automotive Division,
Schaumburg, IL): he's sending the new CORE GPS receiver for boat
installation as well as the upgraded Traxar to replace my handheld.
They will both interface with a differential receiver, yet to be
marketed, but he'll send specs on packaging and antenna mounting so
there won't be any surprises (the receiver is a very low freq., like
256 kHz). Issues on the CORE include cable length (15' coming for
tests, but probably too long... very hard to splice since it's an
active antenna), and antenna mounting (they don't have the low
flush-mount like Trimble does, but are optimized for relatively
fragile marine pole mount, which I don't really want).

Also, I've been referred to the right contacts in Motorola for
handheld GMRS transceivers for utility use and the Triton series of
Marine VHF. These are notably bigger and heavier than Icom's, but
have some of the best specs in the industry. We'll look into remote
panel operation.

Telcon with Donna of Skip Frye Surfboards led to contact with Jay
Livesay, boatbuilder. He may become involved in the fabrication of
the foam-core panels, but says I should contact Corsiar Marine (maker
of the F/27 trimaran) if I want the ultimate in local high-tech
composites wizardry.


7/28/93

I had a very good meeting with Yvonne Andres, of the NSF-sponsored
Global Schoolhouse Project. We're identifying a number of ways the
Microship adventure can be integrated into K-12 curricula
(environmental monitoring, video conferencing, interdisciplinary
project development, sociological and cultural issues, nomadic
connectivity, internetworking, lifelong learning, etc.), and will see
if there's a way to make it happen without severely impacting my
time. If all goes well, this could translate into some funding...
altruism is a fine thing, but time and money are scarce (and
interrelated) resources. I'll keep you posted.

Qualcomm is receptive to the new satellite station proposal, and
we're now working on details... more as it develops. I'll probably
get mechanical samples in the near term for packaging design, using
the existing bike installation for network tests... then swap when
the Microship starts to go live.

Did some research this evening into air filtration and drying for the
equipment bay pressurization system -- looks easier than I thought.
The massive McMaster-Carr catalog lists at least one small desiccant
filter that can be regenerated by heating to 350 degrees (that's what
the Outback Oven and Peak 1 stove are for, right?). Looks like the
system will consist of an inlet filter, compressor, water/particle
filter, air tank, gauge, and regulator down to the 3-4 psi we'll want
for the bays. This is fairly high-volume, and some P-V calculations
will be required to properly scale the components. I'd like the tank
to carry 100-150 psi for other applications, with regulators as
needed. It must be sized to keep the pump from cycling endlessly on
otherwise idyllic waters...


7/29/93

Another good apps engineering discussion with Solarex today. One of
the unfortunate effects of solar panel design is that they work
optimally when cool, and must be derated in voltage output (about .4%
or about .08V per degree-C) at elevated temperatures since they're
about 90% absorptive. Since the Microship array will be mounted on
insulating foam-core, we can expect operation around 30C above
ambient, or 12% derating. (In other words, for best performance,
don't put your solar panels in sunlight!)

There are other issues, though. First, these will be VERY HOT
surfaces in full sun and still air, something I can confirm from
BEHEMOTH trailer experience, and I'll be sitting right between them.
They could run as high as 80 deg C! During long static spells, I
could cover them with white cloth, which would still allow battery
trickle charge without the unpleasantness of the high temperature
(which accelerates diffusion effects and other life-shortening
phenomena as well). Also, we must be sure that the composite
structure itself can withstand these temperatures, as well as the
stresses of cycling.

Also, further discussion of termination suggests avoiding the rubber
contact blocks as are used on the bike's solar panels, and instead
bringing leads out the back with an RTV seal. This dictates a
shallow trough in the substrate, suitably glassed and foam-filled,
that carries the power bus, isolation diodes, and sense circuitry.