I’ve been wearing my sad face for the last two days. One of the hard disk drives in the media server died without warning. You might recall all the disk drives are software connected together to create one large disk with built in redundancy. This is supposed to mean your data doesn’t get lost if one disk fails. Well that didn’t happen…. Primarily because I omitted to configure the notification part of the system. The consequence of this omission is the failed drive has to be replaced and I also have to rebuild the system after losing all the data.
On a more positive note today Postman Pat delivered two items I’d ordered from China. The first is a large syringe and the second is a special battery charger/conditioner.
Our 4x4 is likely to be the last vehicle we will own and I therefore want to do everything reasonably possible to ensure it has a long life. These days engineering has become so precise vehicles start to develop problems shortly after the warranty period has expired. The Isuzu has a 5 year warranty and my objective it to ensure that period is extended. My plan is to remove 70ml of oil from the gearbox, transfer case, front and rear differentials. This will be replaced with 70ml of Nulon G70. The G70 contains Teflon. Yes, the same stuff used to coat frying pans making them non-stick. The idea is the Teflon in the G70 will adhere to the moving parts in the various gearboxes and differentials thereby reducing wear and extending life. The syringe seemed the best way to complete this operation.
The battery charger/conditioner is a SkyRC iMax B6. It’s a sophisticated Balance Charger/Discharger for Lithium, Nickel Metal Hydroxide and Lead batteries. My plan is to use it to assist me in recovering capacity of used and ‘dead’ batteries.
The first step in this process was to connect the iMax to the computer power supply which I’ve previously mentioned.
With the pc power supply connected I was able to connect a ‘dead’ NiMH battery from my Panasonic drill. The battery specifications are 12 Volt 3 amp but in it’s dead state the voltage is 3.7V with no amps.
After connecting the battery to the iMax it started to recharge the battery, something the drill charger wouldn’t do.
The battery voltage slowly rose until it reached 10.8 Volts where the iMax stopped. I then set the iMax to cycle the battery flat and then recharge three times. Each cell has a voltage of 1.2V and the battery capacity is 12V. So the battery is 1.2V short of being fully charged. This suggests to me that one of the cells in the battery has failed. Hopefully the charge/discharge cycles will result in the recovery of the defective cell. What the iMax will attempt to do is remove the “crud” that has built up on the surface of the surfaces in the cells of the battery thereby recovering lost capacity. This is a similar process to the ‘Equalizing Charge’ on lead acid batteries. The actual process and the characteristics of the iMax are more sophisticated than I’ve described, but it will do for now.
2 comments :
But - if it fails after 4 years and 11 months the warranty won't be honoured because you're not using the correct oil.
Paul,
I'd be more worried about the warranty not being honoured if the vehicle failed at 12 months! :-) Of course the manufacturer would first have to establish there was a additive in the oil and then prove the additive caused the failure in order to void the warranty.
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