Clear Silcone

Sola Lights

Since this was my first year of boat ownership, I wanted to put lights up for the holiday season. I put them up in mid November and took them down in early January. I used three strings of lights, one at the forestay, and one on each of the backstays.

I have a full canvas cockpit cover, which meant that one of the light string connections could be out of the weather inside the cockpit, but the other connections would be outside.

I ran a single string up the forestay with the plug at the base, dropped into the anchor locker so it wasn’t sitting on the deck. I ran an extension cable from the cockpit over the deck to the anchor locker.

I joined two light strings together and used the main halyard to pull them up the backstays.

Clear RTV Silicone Sealant 66B

I had this tube of silicone sitting around so put a small bit on the flat part of each outside plug before connecting them. It seems to have worked well because it was still intact when I took the lights down, and the lights were still working properly.

After separating the cables, peeling the used silicone away was easy.

I’d done this treatment for the end plug on the forestay that was raised to the top of the mast, the join with the extension cable at the bottom of the forestay, and the joint of the two strings at the top of the backstays.

Govee H5182 Dual Probe Bluetooth Meat Thermometer

Govee H5182

Because I can’t seem to stop playing with the Govee line of Bluetooth thermometers, when this model came on sale for less than $20 I added it to my Amazon cart.

I knew that the Bluetooth protocol would be different purely based on multiple sensors, but I wanted to play with it anyway. With less than a month since I’d previously figured out a device, I was able to figure this one out in less than an hour, though I still don’t know the battery strength indicator in either this or the H5183 I decoded last month. I’ve added the code to my monitoring program https://github.com/wcbonner/GoveeBTTempLogger/  but have not yet published the changes. The existing code is designed around a single temperature, humidity, and battery reading per device. Even the H5183 broke the model slightly because it has two temperatures, current and alarm, and no humidity. I’m rethinking my data storage to be able to be more expandable, while still being backwards compatible as far as the log files, and will publish the new code when I’ve got it working.

This unit has the advantage of a display over the H5183. It can be used without connecting to a phone at all. You can turn it on, set the alarms, and monitor what’s going on. The one thing I did not figure out how to do using the buttons was to change the display from °F to °C, which I wanted to do to simplify debugging. Using the app I was able to update the settings and view the details.

Govee H5182 Settings

Details from Amazon:

• Remote Monitoring: With this wireless grill meat thermometer, you can spend less time waiting and more time multitasking within a 230ft Bluetooth range, Pull out your phone and check the meat temperatures of your grill, smoker, and oven at any time
• Meat Temperature Settings: Govee Home App offers USDA-recommended food temperatures with various doneness levels for foods such as beef, lamb, chicken, pork, turkey, and more, Grill more efficiently, whether you’re a beginner or a professional
• Smart Alerts: Avoid the risk of overcooking your food, Once your preset temperature is out of range, your meat thermometer will beep and send an instant notification to your phone via the Govee Home App
• Food Grade Probes: Our food grade 304 stainless steel thermometer probes have an accuracy of ±1.8°F/1°C to reliably monitor the doneness of your food (under 302℉) ,*Please remember not to touch the probes immediately after use
• Easy to Place: This Bluetooth meat thermometer has a strong magnetic backing and a folding stand to easily set up on the grill, smoker and oven when barbecuing, There is also a large backlight screen to make it easier to read at night

There is also a single probe version of this thermometer. I expect it works similar to this unit, but the price savings made it less interesting to me since I already have the H5183 in my kitchen.

Govee H5181

Govee H5074 and VPD data

I was playing with a couple of brand new H5074 devices and realized that the iOS app now includes two new charts, Dew Point, and VPD.

VPD

The new devices report as hardware version 2.00.01 firmware version 1.00.01. My older devices all report hardware version 1.00.01 and firmware version 1.01.00.

The pressure and dew point are available in both the new and old H5074 devices, but not with any of the other units I’ve got connected. (H5177 or H5075)

I’ve not been able to find details on the data. I don’t know if it’s packed into the BLE advertising data, or only available in the connected download data.