How-to articles
Panel-Mounting the Home Patrol Scanner
Keeping my ear to the ground… by Steven K. Roberts One of the central themes aboard this geeky ship is expanding the sensorium. I’ve always been fascinated by data collection in all its forms… not just sensors that reveal system health or the state of the environment, but real-time information that shifts my awareness into a much larger…
Read MorePackaging a Home Piano Studio Desk
by Steven K. Roberts©2007 – Nomadic Research Labs I wrote this when I modified a “Creation Station” desk to support my Roland RD-700SX and production tools. I have since moved aboard a boat and have a Kawai MP7 built into a piano drawer, but I’m keeping this piece alive for the collection of useful tips…
Read MoreBuilding a Feline Outhouse
Take it Outside, Kitty… Building a Boat Cat Litter Boxby Steven K. Roberts, aboard Datawake OK, so I admit it… I love this cat. Isabelle lives aboard with me, and her tubby cuddly awesomeness increases the quality of life in lots of ways. But even a quirky Russian Blue who pushes all the right feline buttons but lives…
Read MoreThe Datawake ADS-B PiAware Receiver
One of my obsessions over the years has been collecting data, probing the radio spectrum, sensing outside my limited visual and hearing range, and deploying probes to expand my awareness of the environment. This leads to recognition of patterns, better understanding of how things work, and the voyeuristic thrill of peeking behind the curtains of technology or human activity. Tracking…
Read MoreCat Scratching Posts for Boats
I can’t imagine living aboard without a cat, and Isabelle moved with me to Datawake after three years aboard Nomadness. She’s a constant joy, but there are still feline realities that have to be considered: dining, elimination, and scratching. All are challenging on a boat, given space constraints and the need to handle dynamic conditions. Telling a cat…
Read MoreBuilding a Heavy-Duty Piano Drawer
by Steven K. Roberts Nomadic Research Labs A key requirement for my floating lab/studio was to have a digital piano aboard, but limited space dictates a deployment system that lets it stow away when not in use. I designed the console around this, and built a piano drawer that can handle a quarter-ton. It was important that the drawer…
Read MoreThe Shacktopus Portable Power Cart
These are the voyages of the hand truck, Shacktopus. Her continuing mission… to seek out new loads and strange environments… to boldly blink where no one has blinked before. On a voyaging sailboat, stable power goes with the territory: a huge battery bank charged by isolated shore cable and solar panels, diesel genset with a…
Read MoreElevated Music Stand for Casio PX-5S and other Digital Pianos
After much research into the best digital piano for my boat (including many hours of participating in the Piano World forums), I chose the Casio Privia PX-5S. I am pleased with the decision; this is a 24-pound board with excellent touch and fabulous sound, no larger or more expensive than it needs to be, yet…
Read MoreThe Little Cod Boat Wood Stove
The season is turning, that’s obvious. We’re pinned down in Deer Harbor with a frontal system coming through… 30-40 knots tomorrow, a brief respite on Sunday, another blast on Monday. We parked here to rendezvous with Andrew of Navigator Stove Works and get the black-enameled Little Cod wood stove installed. The timing couldn’t be better.…
Read MoreMounting the FT-817 Transceiver in an Embedded Application
During the first “Shacktopus” project in 2005 (not the new one), I was integrating a variety of communication, data collection, and audio devices into a backpackable substrate. I put the project on hold to go shut down the old family home, then never got back to it… and now we have smartphones that do almost…
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