Refurbish and Re-purpose

When the old roller door at the front of the garage was replaced earlier in the year I decided to keep the old door motor.  I don’t like discarding things that might prove useful at some future date.  The original door and motor were almost 40 years old and well made.  It was the roller door that had reached the end of its life.   Unlike the new door motor, which is mostly plastic, the old door motor assembly is 90% steel and aluminium.  

I refurbished the motor noting its mechanism was electrical/mechanical.  The new motor is digital with a printed circuit board.

Today I decided to fit the old motor to the garage’s existing manual rear roller door.  This door is used infrequently as I can’t be bothered manually raising and lowering it.

The first step was to support the closed door and I made some temporary shears legs for that.

 

With the door secured I was able to remove and relocate the door end bracket which then provided sufficient space to fit the motor.

Before

After

The controller micro-switches will need to be adjusted as the rear door is slightly smaller.  I also need to run cabling and install a new 240V power point for the motor.

Meanwhile……… where did I carefully store the door remote control units???

Muchea – 35km north

The instructions for the bike internally geared rear hub stated the oil should be changed after 1000km and then annually or at 5000km, whichever came first.  I’ve always done vehicle oil changes at twice the manufacturers recommended frequency and the bike would be no different.  It had reached 500km.

The first step was to remove the old oil using the syringe.  This took 40 minutes as the hub is a sealed unit and I didn’t want to apply too much suction perhaps damage the hub seals.

By applying a small amount of suction and then easing off I gradually extracted 25mls of oil from the hub.

The next step was to carefully insert the “cleaning oil” into the hub before spinning the wheel for five minutes whilst working the gears up and down the range. The cleaning oil was then drained out using the syringe and replaced with 25mls of new oil.

The old oil and cleaning oil were placed in a plastic bag and clipped to the clothesline with a peg.  I placed two neodymium magnets on the outside of the plastic bag against the oil as an experiment to see if there was any metal suspended in the oil.  Obviously oil isn’t magnetic but the magnets stuck to the bag.

 

24 hours later I took down the bag and drained out the oil before cutting the bag open to see what had been attracted by the magnets.

There was metal.  A fine gritty paste.  Obviously created during the “wearing in” of the gears in the hub.

I’ll do another oil change at 1000km.  I have plenty of oil now I’ve purchased the 75W-90 gear oil and litre of White Spirits.

The weather had changed and yesterday was a lovely afternoon.  I decided to cycle to the northern end of the Tonkin Expressway.  It’s 35km to the end, all cycleway.

North of Ellenbrook is the “Fauna Bridge” It’s two lanes wide and was built to allow the wildlife to cross the Expressway.

The recent winter rain has certainly greened up the land.  By summer this will all be dry and brown

Eventually I reached the end of the Expressway.  There is a large Road Train Assembly Area here.

There is no railway to the northern half of this vast state, everything goes by road.  Large trucks towing three long trailers are made up here before heading north. 

The information in the bottom right of the above sign caught my eye.  Next drinking water is 21km south at Ellenbrook.  I’ll need to remember that for summer rides.

The cycleway is in very good condition.  My brother informed me it cost $1000 per metre and for that money it should be good. 

On the return leg I noticed three white crosses in a field next to the cycle path.

‘Lost’ ‘Jesus’ ‘Saved’  Each sign was located at the end of a long mound of earth.  Mass graves?

The distance is steadily accumulating

 

Next Project and a Whine

I don’t drink fermented grape juice as it tends to give me heart palpitations.  However Jan likes the odd drop and of course; Australia produces vast quantities of the stuff.  I thought Jan might like a bottle of this well regarded imported drop.  Hope you can read the label!

 

 

The new project I’ve started is the building of a boat navigation system for our oldest grandson and his newly purchased ketch.  The system will be headless (ie; he has to provide the screen) and cheap.  The computing will be achieved using a small Raspberry Pi.  The software will be “OpenPlotter” which happens to be free.

I made a list of the required components which Jan purchased from AliExpress.  The majority of them were delivered today.

This is a list of what is in the photo

A - GPS Puck.  USB cable is only 2m long so I'll need to cut and extend it to 4m

B - Small handheld wifi/bluetooth keyboard and mouse. (not essential)

C - Digital Volt & Amp meter (not essential) 

D - 12V fuses. 

E - 12V fuse holder

F - HDMI port on the case.  Allows HDMI connection to the Raspberry Pi.  Could be used as a monitor connection.

G - Two 12V to 5V USB power sockets.  One to provide power to the Raspberry Pi and the second as redundant backup

H - 12V socket and plug for incoming 12V power supply to the case

I - Weather sensor (temperature, humidity and barometric pressure)

J - Two USB ports for the exterior of the case.  One for the GPS puck and the second for something else!

K - 12V power switch with LED

L - 5pin socket and plug for the lead from the case to the weather sensor

M - Powered USB3.0 4 port extension board.  The Raspberry Pi isn't powerful and using the onboard ports can overload the Pi causing it to overheat or fail.  This board should alleviate the problem

N - Qty of leads for the GPIO pin on the Raspberry Pi.  The GPIO connects the sensors to the RPi

O - 12V to 5V converter.  Will be used to power the USB extension board

P - The case. 

Q - GPIO Test Board for testing the wiring configuration.

The case is actually an electrical junction box purchased from the local hardware store.  I cut the top out of the lid and glued in a piece of 30 year old Perspex I’ve been keeping for some future project (which has arrived)

 

I am now waiting on the following

• A nine axis gyro sensor which will be calibrated to measure the yacht yaw, pitch roll, direction of travel and speed
• A USB TV Tuner stick that will be recalibrated to receive ship Automatic Identification System (AIS) signals
• Ethernet socket
• Some ancillary cables
• A Raspberry Pi4 (currently there is a world-wide shortage)

The plan is to build a system that can be expanded.  Possible future options include incorporating an autopilot self-steering system and a digital weather map capability by receiving weather data from an on board HF radio.

Quick Delivery and a Tumble

It was starting to look like I was running out of things to do when the postman saved the day with a combined delivery from China.  Compared with earlier deliveries this was rather quick as the orders were only placed at the end of June.

 

Clockwise from bottom right.

• An aluminium set square
• Replacement bike brake sensor
• One metre of 6mm clear tube for bleeding the bike rear hub
• A 150mm syringe for the same purpose.

The syringe came with a very thin hose.  Too thin to fit on the syringe!  It might prove useful for a future project.   I already have a similar sized syringe which I use to empty the oil catch can on the 4WD.  With two syringes I can use one as a “dirty” syringe to remove the old oil and a “clean” syringe for the new oil.

Monday was a fine day and I decided on a long bike ride.  Approximately halfway around the route I passed Ascot Marina on the upper reach of the Swan River.

Some nice boats and equally luxurious looking apartments and townhouses. 

On the other side of the complex were chimneys and what looked to be pottery kilns.

This is all that remains of the Ascot Brick Works established in 1910, initially producing pottery before converting to clay pipes and roof tiles.  It closed in the early 1980’s and is now a historic site. 

The area is also home to Ascot Racecourse.  No sign of Queen Elizabeth, but then she didn’t attend Ascot this year. 

Several kilometres later the path took me over some wetlands and through trees via a timber decked footbridge which had a couple of doglegs.  This is where I erred in my judgement ignoring the sign for cyclists to dismount.  With no pedestrians present I decided to ride across.  The timber decking was very slippery after all the recent rain and shade from the overhanging branches.  Both wheels went out from underneath me at the first dogleg.  I had a choice of falling clear and colliding with the bridge steel posts and railing or going under the bike.  The latter seemed to be the lesser painful option.

It took several seconds to extract myself from under the bike before giving myself the once over for damage.  I’ve discovered my body no longer bounces and I’ve also become a genuine “Little Aussie Bleeder”.  For years I’ve been accused of being thick skinned.  That has obviously changed!  The bleeding was likely encouraged by the blood thinners I take.  Fortunately the bike was undamaged. 

I could have cut the ride short and cycled directly home but decided to continue on crossing the Swan River for a second time to reach Guildford. 

St Matthew’s Anglican Church in Stirling Square, Guildford

From Guildford I cycled north to Ellenbrook before heading home down the Tonkin Principal Shared Path (PsP).  Distance covered was 69.4km

The subsequent shower on my return home revealed that in addition the the previously identified cuts and grazes I had a few bruises.  Lesson learned!   

Cycling & Other Stuff!

I read this the other day

"Cycling is the slow death of the planet."

A banker made the economists think this when he said:

“A cyclist is a disaster for the country’s economy: he doesn’t buy cars and doesn’t borrow money to buy. He don't pay insurance policies. Don't buy fuel, don't pay to have the car serviced, and no repairs needed. He doesn't use paid parking. Doesn't cause any major accidents. No need for multi-lane highways.

He is not getting obese.

Healthy people are not necessary or useful to the economy. They are not buying the medicine. They don't go to hospitals or doctors.

They add nothing to the country's GDP.

"On the contrary, each new McDonald’s store creates at least 30 jobs—actually 10 cardiologists, 10 dentists, 10 dietitians and nutritionists—obviously as well as the people who work in the store itself."

Nice to know my new enthusiasm is contributing to the death of the planet.

Meanwhile, the major modifications to the bike are complete and I went for a 69km ride to test everything.  Unfortunately (for me) it was a cold day; well cold for Perth; and I wasn’t wearing appropriate clothing.  More on that later.  The bike performed faultlessly and I was very pleased. 

Two days later Jan and I were food shopping in the local shopping centre when a female approached me outside Aldi.  It was my sister, who proceeded to tell us she and my brother-in-law had just completed 14 days home self-isolation after contracting COVID.  Three days later I started to develop a sore throat.  The next day Jan developed a headache and loss of hearing in one ear.  Two days later we decided all the dots may have lined up and we did our first Rapid Antigen Test.  You guessed it.   Negative results.  I suspect this cold is a consequence of me failing to wear appropriately warm clothing during that long test ride on the bike.

During the recent inclement winter weather I’ve been pottering around in the workshop attempting to turn scraps of timber into something useful.

Jan asked if I could make a dolls house?

This one is supposed to be in the shape of an apple.  It could just as easily be a tomato!  I suspect Jan was thinking of something more conventional.