Do-It-Yourself Illustrated

Having GPS (global positioning system) on board of cruise ship is a fabulous opportunity to feed curiosity about location, and speed of the ship and track cruise progress without asking crew rhetoric questions. In advance, the charts are also providing additional information about seascape, depth and surrounding landmarks and give you comprehensive clue what the name of the land merely visible at horizon, how far and how big it is.  And when else can you have opportunity to see yourself  in the middle of ocean with 4-mile abyss below?

I used to have my old small 10″ Toshiba Satellite as dedicated GPS unit before, on land in the car, but this was first time  to have it as navigation unit for deep sea voyage. Basically,  you would need any laptop with Windows on it, Garmin’s software and corresponding charts (Garmin’s BlueChart family of products, “BlueChart Americas” particularly) installed and GPS unit connected, all other job will be done by software components like MapSource and nRoute.

The GPS 18 USB is a 12 parallel channels , WAAS-enabled sensor (also it has serial configuration for RS-232 port), that includes mapping and real-time tracking software. Itself it also has strong magnet at bottom to flash mount it on any more or less flat metal surface. I also use the USB 6-foot extender cable to connect it without inconvenience of jumping over the cables. The sensor was located outside the suit on the balcony where it cannot be obstructed by walls or roof and only concern was not to brake the cable when you would like to shut  sliding door of the balcony.

And this is how it looks when you sail through Bahamas area. The screen-shot was taken at night, therefore it is negative with black background:

The Garmin’s unit is not NMEA unit, it uses proprietary protocol. Also, would be great idea to use their Bluetooth device to avoid cabling, but this will be the subject of the next endeavour.

There are few other software geo-mapping systems that are not so proprietary to the charts, for example Fugawi and MacEnc for Apple systems (iPhone included) and they can use wide selection of external GPS receivers.

Part 2 – AIS

Having increasing amount of HD resolution flicks, I have challenged my old media box more and more, until now, when I decided to upgrade it to the next step further. I got the notebook from my old computers pool, Toshiba Satellite 6100, that was not very useful due to the spoiled LCD (stripes of dead pixels) and broken CD-ROM drive. However, the processor and graphic chipset are good enough to handle even 720p resolution, so here we go !

The full story with pictures

If you want to install fireplace you always have a challenge with mantel regarding interior design – how it will look like. No doubt, here are a lot of good fabulous mantels at the market, but what if budget is limited and you want something special and modern?
As usually, use your basic handyman skills and do it yourself!

The frame comes first. In this case we use the standard technique for wall framing utilizing 2×4 wood studs, though aluminum could be used too and are even better. Actually, to ask installer about limitations of particular fireplace model in terms of mantel materials would be a good idea.
The trick you should consider making the frame, that if you are going to put something heavy, let say, 45-inch HDTV over the fireplace, this part should be really strong and reliable. In this project there is a piece of plywood that also gives your convenience of putting screws in any place, not just in the studs, so you will be not limited when positioning your home theater equipment.
Also, you should think about wiring and how you are going to connect your components together, otherwise the wires outside will not improve the look of the project. Make sure you have conduit or space at least 2-3 inches wide, that gives you possibility to pass standard power plug through it easy.
After frame is done just cover it with standard drywall and think about finish of your choice. This project took so-called “stone veneer” of NeoWall brand as a finish, it looks as well as natural stone siding.

Illustrated Guide How-To

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