Thanks for these videos, really great to see the details of the Garcia Exploration 45. I wonder if you could do a video about the heating system on Snow Gum?
Crikey Paulo! Have you got my phone tapped? A major point of discussion/concern from me during build was the lack of Apple type interface with the Scheiber system. I knew I would find the Apple and Bluetooth interface with Victron systems to be helpful (and it has been), so the lack of this with Scheiber was worrying to me. But as it turns out, we haven’t missed it or needed it. We were told that any firmware updates would come via an SD card, but there haven’t been any. The system does what it does and it doesn’t do what it doesn’t do. What it does do it does well and what it doesn’t do it doesn’t do it all. Bill Gates doesn’t get a look at the back of a Scheiber panel either. I wish he could infect Scheiber with instruction writing expertise, as well as he’s injected all of us with tracking microchip disease, apparently. Ha! 🤪
Hi Paul. No, there wasn’t a way to use a phone or tablet as an extra display with this Scheiber system. However, it was easy to include an additional display/control panel within the network. Some owners have a second display mounted at the companionway, for easy access from the cockpit. You’re probably aware that some other systems on board this and other boats can be accessed via a linked phone or tablet. Our B&G Zeus3S chartplotters allowed our devices to connect and we used this capability a lot, eg, for watchkeeping and for monitoring our anchor swing patterns in rough weather, from bed. One thought I’ve mentioned before - this Scheiber control panel is not one that you’ll routinely be using, after it has been set up the way you want it. There’s a lot of interaction at first while you’re learning and programming, but after that the activity settles down and it gets touched less and less. This reducing level of use helps cope with the fact that it’s not a good screen to look at. Overall, it’s a good system, once you get the hang of it. The user instructions are ridiculously brief, but this adds to the sense of achievement when you do figure out how to make adjustments. 🙂 Regards, Rick.
@@scuman01 On this, a thought is to see if any other monitoring panels you have installed have the capacity to display tank or voltage levels. At one point we were using our Victron Cerbo controller and it’s Touch 50 display to show the third fuel tank’s level. We switched this around with the black water tank a few times, for testing glitches. It’s handy to have different ways to display values of sensors. 🙂
Hi Sergio. We have 1200 W of solar panels, no wind generator, no diesel generator, no hydro generator, no other kind of generator other than the engine’s alternator, which only gets used if we are motoring.. We have 900Ah of lithium batteries, with a Victron battery management system. As for autonomy, we spent summer in northern Scotland and the lowest our batteries got down to was in the 60% range. This included up to four weeks at anchor, with no visits to a marina. And when we did visit a marina overnight to do some shopping we didn’t even bother to plug-in to shore power. Spending winter in Cherbourg is another matter. Here it’s nice to have an electric fan heater to add some warmth. For this we need to be plugged in to shore power, other than for short bursts of warmth under inverter power. Shore power is needed to heat water in the boiler. While anchoring, we heated water for showers with our portable induction hot plate, from IKEA. 🙂
Wow! Very nice and handy system. It is so nice to see these tech videos of modern boat systems and Garcias approach to them. Thank you!
Thanks for these videos, really great to see the details of the Garcia Exploration 45. I wonder if you could do a video about the heating system on Snow Gum?
Good suggestion Stephen. Keep watching. 🙂
Impressive! Can the system be accessed via an iPad (networkable)?
Crikey Paulo! Have you got my phone tapped? A major point of discussion/concern from me during build was the lack of Apple type interface with the Scheiber system. I knew I would find the Apple and Bluetooth interface with Victron systems to be helpful (and it has been), so the lack of this with Scheiber was worrying to me. But as it turns out, we haven’t missed it or needed it. We were told that any firmware updates would come via an SD card, but there haven’t been any. The system does what it does and it doesn’t do what it doesn’t do. What it does do it does well and what it doesn’t do it doesn’t do it all. Bill Gates doesn’t get a look at the back of a Scheiber panel either. I wish he could infect Scheiber with instruction writing expertise, as well as he’s injected all of us with tracking microchip disease, apparently. Ha! 🤪
@@SailingSnowGum 🤣
Can you use your cell phone as a secondary or backup touch screen display for this type of setup? (wifi or local Lan?)
Hi Paul. No, there wasn’t a way to use a phone or tablet as an extra display with this Scheiber system. However, it was easy to include an additional display/control panel within the network. Some owners have a second display mounted at the companionway, for easy access from the cockpit.
You’re probably aware that some other systems on board this and other boats can be accessed via a linked phone or tablet. Our B&G Zeus3S chartplotters allowed our devices to connect and we used this capability a lot, eg, for watchkeeping and for monitoring our anchor swing patterns in rough weather, from bed.
One thought I’ve mentioned before - this Scheiber control panel is not one that you’ll routinely be using, after it has been set up the way you want it. There’s a lot of interaction at first while you’re learning and programming, but after that the activity settles down and it gets touched less and less. This reducing level of use helps cope with the fact that it’s not a good screen to look at. Overall, it’s a good system, once you get the hang of it. The user instructions are ridiculously brief, but this adds to the sense of achievement when you do figure out how to make adjustments. 🙂 Regards, Rick.
@@SailingSnowGum thanks Rick! We cracked (won’t take touch I put now) ours and we’re looking at alternate ways to access the fuel/water levels.
@@scuman01 On this, a thought is to see if any other monitoring panels you have installed have the capacity to display tank or voltage levels. At one point we were using our Victron Cerbo controller and it’s Touch 50 display to show the third fuel tank’s level. We switched this around with the black water tank a few times, for testing glitches. It’s handy to have different ways to display values of sensors. 🙂
As usual, superb work! Thanks! If you can... please let us know about energy generation... how much solar, wind, etc... and the autonomy. Cheers!
Hi Sergio. We have 1200 W of solar panels, no wind generator, no diesel generator, no hydro generator, no other kind of generator other than the engine’s alternator, which only gets used if we are motoring.. We have 900Ah of lithium batteries, with a Victron battery management system. As for autonomy, we spent summer in northern Scotland and the lowest our batteries got down to was in the 60% range. This included up to four weeks at anchor, with no visits to a marina. And when we did visit a marina overnight to do some shopping we didn’t even bother to plug-in to shore power. Spending winter in Cherbourg is another matter. Here it’s nice to have an electric fan heater to add some warmth. For this we need to be plugged in to shore power, other than for short bursts of warmth under inverter power. Shore power is needed to heat water in the boiler. While anchoring, we heated water for showers with our portable induction hot plate, from IKEA. 🙂
@@SailingSnowGum Wow... really nice! Many thanks! 😊