To solve some engine oil overheating problems on board nb Tanya Louise, we decided to replace the air-over-oil cooler, with an water-over-oil cooler, with separate cooling drawn straight from the canal, as the skin tanks are already overloaded with having to cope with not only cooling the engine coolant, but also the hydraulic system oil as well.
These units aren’t cheap in the slightest, but the construction quality & engineering is fantastic.
Tube End Plate
Unbolting the end cover reveals the brass tube end plate, soldered to all the core tubes in the cooler. An O-Ring at each end seals both the end cover & the interface between the tube plate & the outer casing.
End Caps
The end caps have baffles cast in to direct the cooling water in a serpentine path, so the oil gets the best chance at dissipating it’s heat to the water.
Tube Stack
The oil side of the system is on the outside of the tubes, again baffles placed along the stack direct the oil over the highest surface area possible.
Outer Shell
The outer shell is just a machined alloy casting, with no internal features.
In the process of going through the boat mechanically, ready for this year’s cruising season, some damage was discovered on the face of the main hydraulic propulsion pump that drives the propeller.
Face Damage
Here’s the front face of the pump, with it’s drive shaft. The circular ridge isn’t supposed to be there, it’s meant to be completely flat.
The central hub of the Centaflex coupling managed to loosen itself on the shaft (they’re pretty badly designed), and when the steel hub moved backward, it ground a very nice recess into the cast iron pump housing.
This managed to get deep enough where it compromised the circlip groove that holds both the oil seal & the mainshaft thrust bearing in place.
Spacer Ring
To save a considerable amount of cash (replacing the entire base casting of the pump would be hideously expensive), a 6mm ring was machined from steel, to hold the seal in place.
The face of the pump was then drilled & tapped for M5 screws.
Plate Fitted
Above, the repair plate has been fitted, with the spacer ring sandwiched between it & the oil seal, securing everything in place.
Having a replaceable wear plate screwed to the front of the pump also allows for easy future repair if the coupling moves again.
I’m no fan of power inverters. In my experience they’re horrifically inefficient, have power appetites that make engine starter motors look like electric toothbrushes & reduce the life expectancy of lead-acid batteries to no more than a few days.
However I have decided to do a little analysis on a cheapo “600W” model that Maplin Electronics sells.
Cover Removed
After a serious amount of metallic abuse, the bottom cover eventually came off. The sheet of steel used to close the bottom of the aluminium extrusion was wedged into place with what was probably a 10 ton hydraulic press.
As can be seen from the PCB, there’s no massive 50Hz power transformer, but a pair of high frequency switching transformers. Obviously this is to lighten the weight & the cost of the magnetics, but it does nothing for the quality of the AC output waveform.
DC Input End
The 12v DC from the battery comes in on very heavy 8-gauge cables, this device is fused at 75A!
DC Fuses
Here’s the fusing arrangement on the DC input stage, just 3 standard blade-type automotive fuses. Interestingly, these are very difficult to get at without a large hammer & some swearing, so I imagine if the user manages to blow these Maplin just expect the device to be thrown out.
Input DC-DC Switching MOSFETs
On the input side, the DC is switched into the pair of transformers to create a bipolar high voltage DC supply.
High Voltage Rectifiers
The large rectifier diodes on the outputs of the transformers feed into the 400v 100µF smoothing capacitors.
As mains AC is obviously a bipolar waveform, I’m guessing this is generating a ±150v DC supply.
Output MOSFETs
After the high voltage is rectified & smoothed, it’s switched through 4 more MOSFETs on the other side of the PCB to create the main AC output.
The label states this is a modified-sine output, so I’d expect something on the scope that looks like this:
Inverter Waveforms
Modified-sine doesn’t look as bad as just a pure square output, but I suspect it’s a little hard on inductive loads & rectifiers.
However, after connecting the scope, here’s the actual waveform:
Actual Waveform
It’s horrific. It’s not even symmetrical. There isn’t even a true “neutral” either. The same waveform (in antiphase) is on the other mains socket terminal. This gives an RMS output voltage of 284v. Needless to say I didn’t try it under load, as I don’t possess anything I don’t mind destroying. (This is when incandescent lamps are *really* useful. Bloody EU ;)).
About the only thing that it’s accurate at reproducing is the 50Hz output, which it does pretty damn well.
System Microcontroller
As is usual these days, the whole system is controlled via a microcontroller.
I got one of these to test since I’ve been in need of some small DC pumps for fluid transfer use. At £2 I can definitely afford to experiment.
DC Motor
On the eBay listing, these pumps are rated at 3-12v DC, (I thought that was a bit wide of an operating range), I looked up the motor, an RS-360SH on Mabuchi’s website, they only have models in this range rated at 7.2v & 24v. Judging by the size of the windings on the armature & the fact that after a few minutes operation on 12v it gets rather hot, I’m going to say this is the 7.2v motor.
Pump Gears
Removing the screws releases the end cover & the pair of gears inside. This operates like any other hydraulic gear motor, albeit with much wider tolerances. It has no capability to hold pressure when the power is removed, and can be blown through easily.
Flow & pressure under power are quite good for the pump’s size, even though it’s noisy as hell.
It’s time for the final part of getting the boat’s engine & drive back together, now I have the new coupling hub. I decided to address one of the issues with the pump mounting while I had everything in bits. When the hydraulic drive was installed, a custom plate was laser cut to fit the pump stack to, as we had no bellhousing with a standard mounting pattern.
Even though this plate is 10mm steel, under full load it actually bends – so to strengthen it along the long edge, I have welded a pair of ribs to the plate.
Pump Mounting Plate
The mounting plate as removed from the mounting brackets. The slotted holes at the sides allow for some movement to adjust the position of the pump & flywheel coupling.
Prepared For Welding
I ground off the paint & grease with an abrasive disc, and am replacing one of the pump mounting studs while I’m at it.
Strengthening Ribs
Here’s the plate after welding. a pair of 10mm bars have been attached along the edges, this will give the mounting significantly more strength on the long axis & prevent any deformation.
Pump On Hoist
Here the plate has been loosely mounted on it’s brackets, & I’ve got the pump stack with it’s associated tangle of hoses on the chain hoist. This unit is very heavy on it’s own – a 2 man job to lift it into place on it’s mounts – with the very stiff hydraulic hoses attached & filled with oil it’s absolutely unmanageable.
Lining Up The Mountings
Here the pump is being jostled into place. The central hole in the mounting plate is a very snug fit, if the pump doesn’t go in exactly straight it will jam & cause damage to both parts. The mating hole in the coupling hub can be seen here – it’s not quite lined up yet.
Almost There
We’ve got about 10mm to go before the pump is seated. It’s held in place with a pair of large studs & nuts.
Coupling Connected
Here the pump is fitted enough to get the main mounting bolts into the coupling. These are torqued down to 150ft/lbs – a difficult thing to do considering the restricted space in the engine bay.
Flush Mounting
The pump has been pulled down onto the plate evenly with the mounting studs, and is now completely flush with the plate. As can be seen, I didn’t bother tidying up the welds with a grinder, they aren’t in any visible place in normal operation, so it didn’t warrant the effort.
Pump Refitted
Finally, the control cable is reattached to the pump’s control lever & everything is installed! A short test trip proved that everything was stable & no undue movement of the pump or coupling was noticed.
Regular readers might remember a previous post about the fiasco we have had with a hydraulic generator, and in particular one person by the name of Mike Webb.
Well here we are a year down the line. The generator still doesn’t function properly, as other things have taken priority, but this is being remedied this week with a replacement hydraulic powerhead. (Correctly sized to 6cc this time, not 11cc).
I even finally got a response from Mike, most likely due to my previous post & the negative publicity that would have brought. In July Mike wrote this:
Good Morning Ben,
I have read your article on the above website, not entirely sure what I can say.
I do however sincerely apologise for the way I handled things, I could give numerous reasons, but I guess they are not your concern, I behaved badly and I am disappointed in myself for treating anyone in this way.
The business has now folded, the domain name www.hydraulicgenerators.co.uk and related products are now owned, manufactured and sold by another company.
My only hope now is that I can in some way repair the damage that has been done and hope that somewhere within yourself you can find a way to accept my apology and forgive me, I am genuinely not a bad person but circumstances outside of my control at the time led me to act in an inacceptable way.
I can understand how you feel, I was defrauded out of a considerable amount of money a while ago and seeking revenge has not been far from my mind for a considerable time, but it won’t get my money back, it won’t undo the damage that has already been done and whilst I might feel better about it for a short while, I have found it difficult from a personal perspective, as, whilst you may cast aspersions about me, my conscience and I do have one just won’t allow me, I can’t help myself from thinking of the other people that would be impacted upon that are otherwise innocent and I know in this particular instance there are several.
I can only hope that you accept my most sincere apology.
Right then. Where should I begin.
No Mike, I will never EVER forgive someone for, what was in my eyes, a deliberate act of fraud & a complete refusal to co-operate.
Now, being the resourceful person I am, and my ability (like anyone else with brains), to find out the registrar of domain names, have discovered the man is yet again lying. Company folded? I think not my son.
Two other domain names have popped up with Mike’s name on the Registrar details: ukgenerators.co.uk
shop4generators.co.uk
(For completeness, here are the full registrar details, just in case things change after I publish this. This information is correct as of 9/12/14)
Domain name: ukgenerators.co.uk
Registrant: Mike Webb
Registrant type: UK Individual
Registrant’s address: <REDACTED>
Data validation: Registrant contact details validated by Nominet on 10-Dec-2012
Relevant dates: Registered on: 02-Jun-2005 Expiry date: 02-Jun-2015 Last updated: 27-Jun-2013
Registration status: Registered until expiry date.
Name servers: ns1.hostpapa.com ns2.hostpapa.com
WHOIS lookup made at 16:55:43 09-Dec-2014
Now for someone who is obviously attempting to tell me that he has no money or resources to reimburse us for the utter hell we have been put through in this situation, seems to be doing pretty well for themselves, in the same business that has apparently ‘folded’.
You have a shiny new logo & business name, and yet apparently have ceased trading?
Now, having been part of a firm during a takeover/company sale, domain names are usually immediately transferred into the name of the buying company. Not in this case it seems. All domains are still registered to you.
Your LinkedIn account still has you as being in the business, along with your Twitter account & YouTube account.
Not to mention, that one one of the aforementioned sites (the original hydraulicgenerators.co.uk), Mike’s E-Mail address is still very much visible on the front page E-Mail Link!
If this is the case, then Mike Webb is in fact operating illegally.
Mike, if you do read this, I AM NOT AN IDIOT. All I asked was that you put things right, so we would have a WORKING GENERATOR.
So far all this has cost is time & money, and I certainly don’t like being conned.
However I feel it is my duty to make sure that anyone who ever has the misfortune of dealing with you knows exactly what you have previous form for doing.
Legal notice:
All information contained in this post is correct as of 9/12/14. Information will be kept up to date & factually correct to the best of my ability.
Stay tuned for the final chapter in getting this generator fitted & working.
While sourcing the main propulsion hydraulic system for nb Tanya Louise in the summer, we thought that it would be convenient to have an on board generator that didn’t require dragging off the boat & highly explosive petrol to operate.
As the hydraulics were already being fitted, we decided to add a hydraulically driven generator to solve this issue.
And this is where the problems began…
We were referred to Mike Webb of hydraulicgenerators.co.uk to supply the equipment required for this part of the project, this was to include the alternator itself, hydraulic motor to drive the alternator, the required adaptor plates to mate the motor to the generator head & a control valve block to regulate the oil flow & pressure to the motor.
After a phone call to Mike on 16-07-2013 to discuss our requirements, we settled on a system. I received the following E-Mail the next day from Mike:
Good morning, reference our conversation, Martin from BSP has given me details as to what he will be supplying, on that basis and in light of the special price I have offered, this is what I propose to supply,
1 off New 8kVa – 7kW Hydraulic driven generator 220v single phase 50hz c/w flow control valve, pressure relief valve and on/off solenoid valve, Martin did say that the engine idle is between 1000 and 1200 rpm and max speed is 3600 rpm, valves will be rated accordingly. I have the alternator and parts available now, in order for me to be able to offer this at a significantly discounted price of £ 1.200.00 nett, I will need to utilise the components I have in stock now, so I will need payment asap, delivery will be approx. 7 days, primarily due to the fact that the coupling is fabricated to suit, I can either deliver the unit to you when ready or BSP or hold onto it until everything else is in place. The alternator is a Meccalte S20W that I bought for another customer a few weeks ago, but he cancelled and I don’t have, at this time, anyone else interested in it, so either I do a deal with you at the above price or wait until someone else comes along and wants the unit.
With regards to installation, let me know if you need any help, but it would be best to install when the engine is being installed and the rest of the system hosed up, I assume BSP will be sorting this, in which case I’ll liase with Martin.
I trust that this meets with your approval and look forward to hearing from you.
At this point an order was placed with Mike, & the money transferred so he could begin building the unit for us. As can be seen from the E-Mail, a lead time of 7 days was stated.
After a few phone calls over the following month, firstly being told that the custom parts to mate the generator to the motor had not come back from the engineers, I sent another E-Mail to Mike on 10-09-2013, and got no reply.
Following another phone call, I was told that the generator had been shipped, however Mike would not give me any tracking details for the shipment, and would not initially tell me who it was shipped with.
Again the generator didn’t turn up.
More phone calls ensued & I was told at this point that the shipping company had been confused by the address given, shipped back to Mike. At this point I was informed that the shipping company had actually LOST it. Several more phone calls later I was promised that a replacement generator would now ship no later than 08-10-2013. A follow up E-Mail two days later also generated no reply.
At this point I was beginning to wonder if I would ever see the goods we had paid for, but finally a shipment arrived from Mike
~15-10-2013, over TWO MONTHSafter our promised delivery date. However, even having been delivered, all was not well with the goods.
Generator Pallet
Above is the generator supplied. No mounting bracket, no integrated valve block, in short, nothing like what was described in Mike’s documentation & website. The original documentation is available here for reference: [download id=”5564″]
As can be seen, there is an open port on the side of the valve block. This is where the ON/OFF control solenoid valve is supposed to be located.
After several more unanswered E-Mails & phone calls, I had to get somewhat more forceful in my messages, as now Mike had begun outright lying about what was specified in the original order. In which that there was no solenoid valve required. So the following E-Mail was sent 21-10-2013:
Mike,
Having had a conversation with Martin, about him attempting to contact you regarding what you have supplied to us, I need this resolving ASAP now, as I am being held up by the fact that there is an open port on your valve block where the solenoid control valve is supposed to be located.
As it stands the valve block & therefore the generator you have supplied to us is useless for it’s intended purpose & I will be seeking legal advice on this matter if a resolution cannot be made this week, considering you have not replied to any E-Mail I have sent since the unit’s massively delayed arrived.
In your original correspondence it is certainly indicated that this valve was to be fitted, which was also Martin’s instruction to you.
I await your expedient response.
This threat of legal action actually spurred a response from Mike, who finally replied with the following on 25-10-2013:
Ben,
Sorry about all this, I have been away and down with a bug for the last week, I will sort this today and will have the required parts shipped to you on Monday for Tuesday delivery.
Regards
Mike
Another promise of a delivery date, so I waited a little longer, until the Friday of that week. Still no delivery. No surprise there then.
(I didn’t believe the story about illness either).
At this point I again attempted contact, but got nowhere, even with legal threats. So I’ve given up completely on this & been forced to source the parts elsewhere at extra cost.
This company is not the one to go to if you require a hydraulic generator unit for any application, as you’d be lucky to get any part of what you order on time, if at all.
Operations are run by an all out liar who seems to be happy to accept money but not ship the goods that had been paid for.
Mike having explained to me that the shipping company had lost a generator, and he would have to build me another one to replace it also does not make sense, as in the initial phone call & mail he stated that the Meccalte generator that we eventually received was a single unit that was specially ordered for another client, and the factory build date on the unit certainly gave away the fact that the generator head had been sat around for some considerable time before I came along & made a purchase.
Hopefully this post will get a high Google ranking, to ensure that anyone else who happens to be looking for a similar piece of equipment does not have the misfortune to trust this man.
We were referred to him on good faith & unfortunately in this case it did not go well.
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