40+ and My Error

Today the mercury has exceeded 40C.   When we woke at 6:30 Jan immediately closed all the window covers and turned on two air conditioners .  The house is cool, but it’s a scorcher outside.

I checked the output from the solar array on the roof.  We are producing more solar than we consume.

 

Dark green is solar production and light green consumption

I made a couple of brief trips outside to work on projects.   Every day I managed to calculate the capacity of one cell from the salvaged e-scooter battery.   Using the battery conditioner I fully charge the cell.  Then it’s fully discharged to calculate its capacity.  I write this on the cell before fully charging it again.  The process is repeated with a new cell every day.

Waiting for processing

 

Processed

A new 18650 lithium cell should have a capacity of 2400mA.   Thus far mine range between 2247 and 1067mA. 

Earlier this year my brother gave us a sucker from his passionfruit vine.   I built a trellis and planted the vine.  It’s gone berserk and is producing fruit.   Jan is so impressed she bought a second vine.  A different variety.  The free vine is supposed to produce a yellow fruit  whilst her new vine is named Black Nugget.  No prize for correctly guessing it’s colour.  Of course that meant I needed to make a second trellis.

 

Black Nugget

Whilst buying the vine Jan decided to buy a Loquat tree.  We decide the only suitable location was the front lawn.  I didn’t want to damaged the buried water reticulation pipes and carefully examined the lawn before deciding on a suitable spot.   Yes…my first spade blow cut a pipe!

The last outdoor project was to work on a camera mounting system for the bike.

After looking at the 360 video recordings from my Europe cycling holiday several things are apparent.   I didn’t take enough footage.   There are probably two reasons for this.  First, I was too focussed on riding and physically seeing everything (ie; I forgot to record).  Second, it was too much effort to stop and move the camera around on the bike along with turning it on and off.  I need to learn how to secure the camera in multiple positions before my next cycling trip.  Remote control of the camera would be a major advantage.

Another issue is the quality of the recordings.  Whilst I managed to polish out the scratch on the camera lens this must have resulted in it being slightly distorted.  At certain angles in bright sunlight there is a halo in the recorded image.

On a more positive note I’m slowly learning how to edit 360 video recordings. 

We are three days from Christmas 2024.  It will be another quiet day for us.  I suggested to Jan we go for a drive and find a quiet shady spot where we can eat marmalade sandwiches for lunch.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you.  Stay safe over the festive holiday season!

More on the Darned Swimming Pool

After some long range communication I believe I have convinced the people who manufactured the swimming pool control system that the fault is in their control box.

I write ‘long range communication’ because they no longer have a presence in Western Australia.  Their nearest office is almost 4000km away in Melbourne.

The problem is the pool wasn’t making any chlorine.  It’s a salt pool and the salt in the water is split into sodium and chlorine by electrolysis as it passes through the chlorinator element.   They sent me a replacement chlorinator element ($451) to solve the problem.  However this created the opposite.  The pool was being over chlorinated.  So high in fact that it would be unsafe to swim in the pool.

I started to get tired of the long range communications and decided to dismantle the original chlorinator element.  It’s slightly more than a year old and therefore out of warranty.

On pulling it apart I found the following

Definitely stuffed!!!!

Now it shouldn’t be this bad.  The chlorinator element is supposed to last 3-4 years before needing replacement.  My guess was something had prematurely aged the element and it was now doing the same to the new element they had recently sent me.

I’ve been able to convince the pool company there is a fault inside the control box.  Probably a printed circuit board (PCB).   The control box isn’t controlling the production of chlorine and the element is running continuously.  They have agreed to send me a replacement PCB ($200). 

All the additional costs could have been avoided if they still had a presence in the State.  A site inspection and some testing equipment would have identified the root cause more rapidly.   

A Leak!

After a busy Saturday morning I was sitting anticipating a relaxing afternoon reading my eBook when Jan exclaimed “Water is pouring out of the Air-Con!”  That was a surprise as I decommissioned the water evaporative air-con system five years ago.  Our current systems (3) are refrigerated split-cycle units.

Water was indeed running out of the old 5kW air-con head unit in the dining room.  As there is no water connection to the system it was obvious the water was the waste product from the cooling mechanism.   The principle of the system is similar to a fridge.  The outside unit contains the compressor and a large fan.  Hot gas from the head unit on the wall inside the house is compressed to extract the heat.  The pump then sends the cool gas back to the head unit where it runs through a radiator.  A fan in the head unit sucks hot air from the room over the radiator where it’s cooled and recycled back into the room.  Moisture is captured from the hot air during this process.  It drips down the radiator blades into a horizontal trough at the base of the head unit and then piped outside through a drainage hose.

The drain hose must be blocked causing the water in the trough to overflow.

Getting the front cover off the head unit took some time as I didn’t want to break anything.  Now I know how it fits removal will be much easier in future.

The drain hose [C] connects to the head unit [B] at the left end.  The radiator trough runs along the front of the head unit [A]

Peering into the drainage hose I could see it was blocked with mould.  I squirted mould remover down the drain hose and along the trough.   After waiting 30 minutes I checked the drain hose and the blockage had gone.  A blast of air from my lungs helped it one its way down the pipe.

Reinstalling the cover and blades on the head unit was quickly done now I know how it is assembled.

Hopefully we have saved some money by not requiring the services of an air-con serviceman.

A Close Call

Reader you may recall that only two posts ago I mentioned I’d realised I didn’t have a spare wheel bearing set for the outback trailer.  I decided to purchase a set and used them to replace the trailer right side bearings, keeping the old bearings as spares.   Only 12 months ago I repacked the left side bearings so didn’t bother with them.

On Sunday I took the trailer down south on a fishing trip; collecting Ken on the way.  We were two thirds of the way to our destination (250km) from home and 40km south of Manjimup when the low fuel light on the dash illuminated.

Ken and I agreed we would stop and add two 20 ltr jerrycans of diesel.  Whilst doing this I walked around the trailer noticing a very hot smell from the left side.   The left tyre was hot and the steel too hot to touch.  Did we have a dragging brake? A check of the trailer handbrake cable indicated it was lose.  Obviously not a dragging brake!

I then walked 6 metres to the rear of the trailer and looked back underneath.  The right wheel was vertical but the left had a distinct lean.  Something was seriously wrong and the most obvious cause was a failed wheel bearing.

The wheel was too hot to work on and we decided to camp for the night giving the wheel a chance to cool.

I had spare bearings <phew> but what if there was damage to the stub axle?  That would be a more serious problem.

The next morning the wheel was cold.  After removing the tyre and rim we found the problem.  It wasn’t just a failed bearing.  The brake drum had sheared in front of the back bearing.

 

The new drum with an arrow pointing to where the original drum had sheared.

We had no mobile phone coverage to call for help.  It was agreed I would drive back to Manjimup and see if I could source a replacement drum and bearing set.   Eventually I found an auto parts store which was able to source the replacement parts from Bunbury.  They would arrive by courier at 3pm.

I drove back to Ken to wait the six hours until 3pm.

Meanwhile Ken informed me two vehicles had separately passed.  They had seen the parked trailer and turned back to have another look.  Only to then speed off when they noticed Ken.

By 4pm we were fitting the new bearing and drum.  The electric brake magnet was ‘cooked’ and the brake shoes badly worn.  I disconnected the brake wiring not wanting to cause a short and damage the rest of the trailer wiring.

There was no damage to the stub axle <relief>.

Worn brake pads

Worn backing plate

Cooked magnet with baked wiring

We were incredibly lucky.  If we hadn’t stopped to refuel it’s almost certain the wheel would have fallen off and the stub axle dropped into the road.  The trailer could have flipped pulling over the 4WD.

I’m now in the process of replacing the complete brake mechanism on both sides of the trailer.

An update and more projects

The Kipor generator is now working.   It had a spark and fuel but died after only running for a couple of seconds.   Logic suggested to me there might be an air leak somewhere in the fuel system so I removed the carburettor and smeared gasket putty on the gaskets before reinstalling the carburettor and waiting 24 hours of the putty to harden.  A simple fix!

The swimming pool equipment distributor sent me a new chlorinator element to see if that would fix the problem with the pool.   It was partially successful.   The system is now producing chlorine but the ORP reading (a measure for reading the level of chlorine) is blank.  Something is wrong with the system and the supplier doesn’t know why.   In the meantime I drained and refilled the pool which has removed the murky water.

The bike has started skipping when I place it under heavy load (eg, pedalling uphill).   It can’t be the chain as that is new.  I think there are three possible causes.  Either the front chainring or the rear sprocket is worn.   Something is  worn our out of adjustment in the internally geared hub.  The sprockets or clutch in the Bafang electric motor is worn/defective.

The hub would be the most difficult to identify and fix.   I already have my original hub in bits on the workshop bench as a jigsaw puzzle.  The motor would be the next most difficult component so I looked at the chainring and rear sprocket. 

I’m hoping it’s a worn rear sprocket.

The old and a new sprocket.  The teeth on the old sprocket appear to be worn on the leading edge.

Old

New

I’m guessing (hoping) this means the chain jumps off the worn teeth when the chain is placed under heavy load.  The rear sprocket has done 8000km so I should expect it to be worn.

I’ll go for a ride and test my theory.

More than a month

Yes, it’s been more than a month since the last post.  Not that I’ve been idle.  Rather, I’ve been very busy with outstanding projects.   Let me explain.

We took advantage of the West Australian State Government $400 grant to install a security system.  I didn’t want to pay for off-site data storage and eventually opted for a system by Eufy.  We bought their storage hub, external camera and video doorbell.

The Hub sits on a shelf under the coffee table beside my chair.  It’s linked to the cameras and our home network.  The Hub comes with 16GB of storage but a hard drive can be installed in it should more storage be desired.  I have it configured to provide an audible warning when either the external camera or doorbell camera detects motion.

The Hub

 

The doorbell has two cameras.  One looks towards the approach to the door and the other at the base of the front door where a parcel might be left.  It has a speaker and mic allowing us to communicate without opening the door.  Actually we could be advised there was someone at the door our mobile phone if we weren’t at home.

I’ve mounted the external camera in a box on a pole against our boundary fence where it has an uninterrupted view of the front of the house and the street.

Whilst watching a You Tube video of two men crossing the remote Anne Beadell Track (something I want to do) I noticed their trailer was the same make and model as ours.   Later in the video they showed how a wheel had come off the trailer when a wheel bearing failed.  They didn’t have a replacement bearing and had to abandon their trailer in the desert.

I realised I also didn’t have a spare wheel bearing!

The prudent thing to do would be to buy one before my next trip.  But what size were the Chinese bearing?   I’d need to remove one set and measure them.

Tarzan must have tightened the wheel nuts because removing them was a challenge.  Thanks eldest grandson!

I don’t have any fancy tools to remove wheel bearings but I do know your shouldn’t punch a bearing shell out using steel against steel.  The cost of a bronze or brass punch seemed excessive so I ordered a 250mm length of brass rod from eBay.

The rod enabled me to remove the bearings and measure them.  They are standard Ford trailer bearings. 

I bought one set for the side I had removed.  Greased the new bearings and reassembled the wheel hub.  The old bearings will be my spare set.

Jan ordered some new kitchen knives.  German and apparently high quality.  Not wanting to throw them in a kitchen drawer where they would rather rapidly get blunt she asked about a knife block.

I rummaged around in the shed and garage looking for suitable timber offcuts.  Some pine that previously been repurposed twice and some Jarrah left over from the display cabinet.  There was also some Australian Ash and Spotted Gum.

I bought some water resistant food grade wood glue and started cutting, planning, gluing, cutting, planning, gluing, etc

Jan was asked which face on the block she wanted to the front.  This enabled me to cut a bevel on the top.  There was enough left over to make a second block.

I started thinking about selling the Kipor generator.  It’s been run once in the last six years which is a good indication it’s not needed.

The first thing to tart up was the pull cord hole which has been torn.  I glued a large washer on one side and added more adhesive to the rear.

There exterior was given a thorough clean and then I started it.  Except it starts on the first pull and promptly dies.  I think it has a carb issue.

The project has gone to the bottom of the list.

The repaired Shimano Alfine hub was installed back in the wheel rim and then fitted to my bike.  The gear return spring wasn’t working.  Bugger!

The hub would have to be disassembled.

I’ve never disassembled the hub to this depth.  Eventually I discovered the gear return spring was in the axle which is the final part of the disassembled hub.  Then the hub went “sprong” and components ricocheted all over the workshop.

Double Bugger!

After scrambling around the workshop benches and floor for several hours I think I have all the components.  However disassembling the hub doesn’t form part of the Alfine Workshop Manual.  I appear to have a jigsaw puzzle with no picture.   Another slow project.

My friend Ken, gave me a 36V lithium battery he had obtained.  A check of the voltage suggested it was either flat or had an issue.  The number of external pins suggested the battery required an external Battery Management System (BMS).

It’s off an e-scooter

I decided to pull it apart.  Easier said than done as the retaining screws had a unique head.  I had to drill off the screw heads to open the case.

This is where I discovered the steel outer case contained an inner plastic case

And the battery cells were then encased in a rubber compound.  It’s actually well made but a right bastard to disassemble.

Underneath all that rubber I found a BMS.

Eventually I got it down to the cells .  At this point I moved on to the next project.

The Swimming Pool

We’ve been having problems with the pool for most of this year.  Unfortunately for us the pool equipment manufacturer no longer has a retailer or distributor in the State. 

Our pool problem became worse after the new patio was extended over it.  Swarf (small pieces of steel) from the construction made their way into the pool despite us laying a protective cover over it.  The swarf has now rusted and embedded itself into the walls and floor of the pool.

Whilst we wait to have the pool equipment problem diagnosed I decided to drain the pool and remove all the rust.

Searching for a method to drain the pool I settled on the outback camper trailer 12V shower pump.   It took two days but eventually the pool was empty.

 

Rust Spots

Once the water level was below my nether regions I jumped into the pool and started grinding.

My technique was to use a small wire brush in the portable drill.

Three days (my back confirms that) later the work was complete and I could start refilling the pool.

Are you getting bored with all this???

I’ve made a start on our eldest grandson’s yacht autopilot system.  There have been too many issues to write about at this time (the post is getting too long!)  However I did solve a problem with the 7” touch screen monitor which was purchased from Aliexpress.

It didn’t work.  After careful examination I came to the conclusion the likely fault was the ribbon cable on the back.  It didn’t appear to be correctly inserted and the retaining clip was unlatched at one end.

Fitting the ribbon correctly was easy as the two ends of the ribbon were offset.  However with some patience and perseverance I managed to correctly secure it and the monitor works. 

Phew…. leave the rest for another day!

E-Bike Problems

This post is about the mechanical and electrical problems I had with my ebike during my recent trip through Europe and how I have (hopefully) resolved them.

Battery Charger

The bike battery charger stopped working.  This caused a slight panic as I depended upon the battery to assist my old legs.  In my haste to resolve the problem I initially forgot the golden rule “Look for the simple things first!”

I pulled the charger apart and used my poor eyesight and bad sense of smell tried and identify any faults.

There didn’t appear to be any visual issues and there was no smell of burning components.

Then I remembered the golden rule.   I checked continuity on the 240V and 48V cables.  No continuity on the 48V side.  After dismantling the plug I found the soldering on negative cable had broken at the pin.

A simple repair.  Thank goodness!

Reader you may recall I had a problem with the Shimano Alfine 11 speed internally geared hub in the rear wheel.  After getting a bungee strap caught in it all I was left with were gears 1, 9 and 10.  Although I managed to arrange for a French bike mechanic to attempt a repair; he was unsuccessful.  Eventually I had to wait several days for a replacement wheel and hub to be delivered before continuing with the trip.  The defective wheel was sent back to the UK using DHL.  When I returned to the UK I disassembled the rim, spokes and hub in order to take it home.

Once back home I partially stripped the hub to see if I could identify the problem.  The tolerances in the hub are very tight and I had previously read online others had damaged their hubs by placing them under too much strain.

The first thing I noticed was half a rubber ‘O’ ring which dropped onto the bench when I removed the outer cap.  Had I damaged the ‘O’ ring resulting in there being too much lateral movement in the axle?  This is what the French bike mechanic had suggested.

After looking at a hub parts diagram I realised the hub didn’t contain a small ‘O’ ring.

Then I remembered the problem was caused by a rubber bungee like the one below

 

The bungee was so tightly entwined in the hub I had been forced to cut it into pieces as part of the removal process. 

Using a magnifying glass I examined the sprocket end of the hub.

Something appeared to be caught in the mechanism

Using a sewing needle I was able to remove a tiny piece of rubber which I believe came from the bungee.  I’m hopefully I’ve solved the hub problem and am now the proud owner of two serviceable Shimano Alfine 11 internally geared hubs

Whilst disassembling the bike ready to box for the return to Australia I noticed the combined motor on/off and speed controller buttons was broken.  It must have happened during one of my falls during the trip.

Controller

The plastic hinge had broken. 

I couldn’t glue the hinge back together as the broken pieces were missing.  Moreover the bracket still needs to open and close when being installed or removed for travel.

My solution has been to cut a strip of plastic from the side of an old empty ice cream container and Araldite it to the bracket making a hinge.

It appears to be working.

The last problem wasn’t with the bike.  It was the small ‘FlexTail Zero’ pump for inflating the camping mattress.

The head unscrews from the body in order to gain access to the rechargeable battery.  The problem was the threads were so fine they seized and it took two pairs of pliers to separate them.  This not only damaged the threads but also the head portion of the pump.

Rechargeable battery with a USB-C socket

I managed to force the head and body back together but they will never be completely satisfactory. However the pump works.

IMHO this is a design problem.  The pump would be better if the USB-C charging socket was on the exterior of the pump body negating the requirement to separate the components.