A Success

You may recall I had been pondering how to connect the omni wheel bike trailer to the rear of the bike.  I had been considering attaching it to the bike frame but eventually decided to source mounting bolts that would replace the standard bolts on the bike rear axle.

Searching the internet I found an Australian based supplier, but the bolts were for a Shimano Alfine 8 hub and mine is an Alfine 11.  I took a gamble that Shimano had the same sized thread on both hubs and placed an order.

The nuts were delivered this morning

The original shaft and lock nuts delivered with the trailer.  They don’t fit my bike.  The two new nuts that were delivered today are below the shaft

Original Shimano Alfine 11 locking nut on the left and the replacement trailer mounting nut on the right

The new nuts fit the end of the Alfine 11 hub – SUCCESS

I need to start practicing riding with the trailer attached

 

Partial Repair

This morning I spent 30 minutes under the 4WD completing a partial repair to the damage caused by the broken shock absorber.  A replacement shock absorber will need to travel from Queensland.  As it contains compressed gas; which can’t travel by air, it will have to be sent by land.  The delivery time is likely to be 7-10 days and we might need the Isuzu before then.

The partial repair involved fixing the damaged fuel tank filler pipe breather tube.  This small tube runs from the top of the fuel tank back to fuel filler point on the side of the vehicle.  It prevents an air lock occurring when filling the fuel tank.

I decided to cut the damaged end off the breather tube using a hacksaw. 

 

Well crushed.

It was likely the steel tube would now be too short for the connection to the end of the flexible hose from the fuel tank. 

Ends of the steel tube and flexible hose

I’d anticipated that and remembered I’d kept the original length of rear differential breather hose.  This had become surplus when I modified the gearbox, transfer case and differential breathers. 

Never one to throw things away that might be useful one day, I found it to be the same size as the fuel tank breather hose.  However, in the end the differential breather hose wasn’t required as I managed to fit the fuel breather hose onto the end of the shortened steel tube.

Without the shock absorber there is a potential risk the coil spring might jump out of it’s mounting.  Given that I drove 350km without the shock absorber being connected it’s a low risk, but I decided to spend some extra time securing the base of the coil spring to the lower mounting bracket.  I used 3mm braided stainless steel wire for this.

That’s a Problem

After the recent sand dunes and beach trip it was time to wash the Isuzu.  Particularly the underneath where sand and salt will have been trapped in the nooks & cranny's.

There I was lying on my side at the rear of the vehicle using the pressure washer when I noticed a loose hose.  That didn’t look right!  Where was it from?

After removing the spare tyre and jacking up the rear I wriggled underneath.  I couldn’t see where the end of the hose was supposed to connect.  Then I noticed the left rear shock absorber piston had punched through the side of the rubber boot.  That was a concern.  I was even more concerned when I realised the top of the piston was no longer connected to the chassis.  The shock absorber was only connected at the bottom and was “floating”.  Moreover the head of the piston had been scraping on the fuel filler pipe wearing part of it away.

It took about 20 minutes to remove the shock absorber.

This is the loose hose

The shock absorber

piston head

Rubbing on the fuel tank filler pipe

Eventually I established that the loose hose end was supposed to fit onto the fuel tank breather pipe.  The shock absorber must have ripped the steel breather pipe from the end of the hose and then crushed the end of the steel pipe.  This pipe is the one identified by the lower red arrow in the above photo.

 

And on a lighter note

Thanks for the invitation but I’ll pass!

Yeagarup and D’Entrecasteaux National Park

Ken and I agreed we could find time for a couple of days fishing on Yeagarup Beach in the D’Entrecasteaux National Park on the south coast of West Australia.  Ken had been reading social media reports the fish in the Southern Ocean were biting.

The plan was for me to drive south to Ken’s and we would then take his Isuzu to the beach.  That didn’t quite work out as we had too much gear.  The decision was made to take both Isuzu’s.  I was slightly concerned as mine still had the road tyres rather than my off-road set.

The trip was 370km and took four hours.  Once you get south of Bunbury the area is mostly mixed farming and orchards.  Then you reach the southern forests and start meeting heavily laden logging truck.  Actually it would usually be a large truck towing an equivalent sized trailer.  The road has been built for this type of traffic with sweeping bends and frequent overtaking lanes.

We stopped for a rest at Pemberton which is in the heart of logging country.  Pemberton would be the last town before the beach.

Pemberton

A 9km drive on bitumen resulted us reaching Ritter Road and the last of the tarseal.  Although it’s unsealed, Ritter Road is navigable by 2WD for the first 11km.  At this point it’s the Leaning Marri Campsite where there are picnic tables, long drop bush toilets and a pay station for the National Park entry fee.

. 

From this point onwards it would be 4WD and we spent several minutes lowing our tyre air pressure from 35 to 20psi.  The first 5km were relatively easy until we reached the northern edge of the Yeagarup Sand Dunes.

Yeagarup Beach

Sand dunes in white

The dunes are approximately 20 metres high and tower over the adjacent Karri forest.  Moreover the dunes are slowly moving north consuming the forest at an annual rate of four metres. 

After driving up onto the dunes we continued south on the sand following the track marked by poles.

 

A further 8km on we came upon our first long steep descent

I started thinking “How will I get back up this slope with road tyres?”.  A further 2km onwards Ken (in the lead) gave a “WOO!” over the radio as his vehicle disappeared over the crest of  a very steep dune and down onto the beach.  I followed thinking “How will I get back up this slope with road tyres?”

After driving 500 metres on the beach we found a likely looking fishing spot and set up the campsite.

Initially we thought we had the beach to ourselves and then a couple in a Toyota Landcruiser appeared and started to fish.

I suspect they were more experienced than us as they didn’t stay more than 30 minutes before moving off.

I had packed light and was starting to feel quite cold.  Ken had packed ‘heavy’ and had two of everything. 

Ken cooked dinner.  A sausage, egg and cheese toasted sandwich.  I was snuggled into my sleeping bag by 6pm hoping for the next day to be warmer. 

Next morning the breakfast was a ham, cheese and egg toasted sandwich.

We started fishing.  The bait wasn’t being taken which appear ominous.  Ken though there might be someone fishing further down the beach and got out his binos.  I used my camera.

Can’t see the vehicle with the optical zoom.  However the digital zoom did confirm we had company

Mid afternoon one lost fish decided to suicide on my hook.

I’d become rather concerned about my ability to get back over the sand dunes and walked back to the beach entrance to have a look.  A steep exit and what looked like soft sand.  I decided to sleep on the problem.

Dinner was a sausage, egg and cheese toasted sandwich.  Nothing like a varied diet!

We packed up the campsite the following morning and dropped the tyre pressure further;.  This time down to 12psi.  I told Ken I would go out first.  My strategy would be to use 4WD low range second gear.  This would mean the vehicle would be crawling and I would also have plenty of torque in reserve.

The Isuzu slowly and steadily crawled it’s way back up the slope.  Success…..This technique was used for the rest of the sand dunes. 

On reaching Leaning Marri Campsite we stopped and pumped the tyres back up before heading home.

An expensive fish but I learned more about the capabilities of the Isuzu.  Next time I will ensure I have the off road tyres fitted.

A Little Nag and The Front & The Back

By now you will have noticed I’m not inclined to throw anything away.  That includes photos.  I kept a copy of every photo we took whilst in the UK, burning them to DVDs and then storing the disks just in case they were required.  However I’ve had this ‘Little Nag’ in my head for a year cautioning me that data burned to DVD can degrade. 

Yesterday I started the process of copying the content of the 100+ DVDs to a hard drive.  Yes, some of the photos couldn’t be copied as the data has become corrupted.  Obviously now is the time to make copies.

Meanwhile the cheap plastic case purchased from Aliexpress for the yacht electronic navigation system was delivered.  I designed the internal layout of the components and then started on the front and back panels.

The adopted technique was to cover the front and reverse side of each panel with masking tape.  This protects the plastic surface and gives a marking surface

The circular hole were drilled with a timber spade bit and the drill press.

That was the easy part.  I then needed to develop a method for cutting out the rectangles.  The method I adopted was to drill a 1.5mm hole in each of the four corners and an 8mm hole in the middle.   I cut four lines from the centre to each corner hole using the jigsaw with a fine tooth blade .

The next step was to use a steel ruler as a line guide clamping it and the plastic panel to the bench top.

Multiple passes with a razor knife on each side of the panel resulted in a straight and sharp cut.

The front panel only has the Volt/Amp meter, On/Off switch and Fuse

I’ve used Sikaflex to secure the ethernet port into the panel. 

The four circular holes are for two USB ports, power input socket and a plug for the BME280 sensor which will be somewhere on the exterior of the yacht to measure temperature, barometric pressure and humidity.

 

Birds and Rough Neighbourhoods

Continuously cruising on a narrowboat meant an ever changing environment.  Urban or rural; nice neighbourhoods or rough.

You can always tell if the neighbourhood is rough.  The birds wear an ankle bracelet and carry a knife.   See last photo

Australia is a vast land with comparatively few hills.  A land of drought and flooding rains!  When it floods it really floods.  Which is why the birds need to roost high in the trees.  This next photo is of a Falcon which roosted high in a tree just avoiding being swept away.

 

Ford Falcon

 

She looks mean

Does he need it?

If a sailor is going the manage marine risks then understanding the weather is an important consideration.  Modern satellite imagery and computers have enabled meteorologists to be quite accurate with weather forecasts up to 5 days in advance.  This means for short voyages a sailor could obtain an accurate understanding of the likely weather conditions during the cruise.  If the vessel is going to be out of range of line of sight (eg, mobile phone, VHF radio) weather information there appears to be two main options.

The first is to obtain weather updates via a satellite receiver and the second by HF radio.  The latter is the cheaper option as the broadcast data is free whilst the former requires an ongoing subscription.

One of the main means of receiving weather forecasts by HF radio is to use the WeatherFax service.  The origins of Weatherfax are based on RadioFax which was invented in the 1920’s.  Essentially it is a facsimile image broadcast on a High Frequency wavelength.  Almost everyone has seen a fascimile image which has been scanned by one machine and sent over the telephone line to another which prints it out.

The Weatherfax  system has the meteorologists scan their weather image and then broadcast it over HF radio.  The receiving radio sends the analogue data to a computer where it can be displayed as an image on a computer screen. 

To receiver Weatherfax data a vessel requires a suitable HF radio, asound card to convert the received audio data to digital and a computer to process the digital data into a weather map.  That all sounds easy but it somewhat more difficult than receiving the data by satellite.  Nevertheless, if you already have a suitable radio it’s the cheaper option.

In 1989 I was heading to Iran and during an overnight stop in Singapore I purchased a Sony SSB HF Radio.  It wasn’t cheap however I had already realised I’d need some means of keeping myself independently informed about world events during the following 12 months. 

I’d sit down at night and string out the radio aerial before listening to various national radio services such as the BBC, VOA (Voice of America), the Russian overseas service,  the Australian Broadcasting Service and on one night I actually received the New Zealand Broadcasting Service.  The latter was quite a surprise as the transmitter wasn’t very powerful and the antenna was directed towards the South Pacific.   Yes… I don’t like to throw things away which might be useful one day.  I still have the radio!

   

The radio has an audio output jack which could be connected to a USB sound card that was plugged into a computer.  Power is 6V DC either via AA batteries or 240V.  It wouldn’t be very hard to convert the radio to operate off a boat 12V system through a cheap 12V – 6V converter.  This eliminates the requirements for batteries or 240V.  A quick internet search suggests a USB sound card can be purchased for $2-3.  I could assemble a Weatherfax system for about $10.

The last question is whether the eldest grandson needs or wants such a system?

 

An Ethernet Moment

Another Australia Post delivery this morning resulted in all but the last few components of the yacht navigation system being received.

I must be getting more patient in my latter years as I’m not rushing to assemble everything and then having to repeat work because it’s wrong!  It’s quite likely I won’t start assembling the components until after my return from inspecting the yacht in New Zealand.  I need to know the exact location of the case to ensure I have all the external plugs, switches, display, etc where they will be accessible.

The brain of the system will be the Single Board Computer (SBC), a Raspberry Pi.  Not the one in the above photo.  That’s a model 2 and has insufficient computing power.  I need a model 4 and there is currently a world-wide shortage of them.  However the model 2 is exactly the same size as the model 4 which is helpful when planning the component layout.

The system will be access wirelessly but as the Raspberry Pi has an ethernet port I thought it might be useful to extend the port on the Raspberry Pi to the case which would then provide a network cable capacity.  It proved very difficult to buy one ethernet wall socket and I ended up having to purchase six for $1.75.  Maybe I can sell the five surplus and make a profit

  

I thought I was rather clever buying a socket where the cables don’t need to be soldered.  My eyesight is getting too poor for fine soldering and my hands also shake… Damned curse of old age!

The ethernet extension consists of a short length of old ethernet cable with a moulded plug.   The outer plastic casing was stripped from the cable to make it easier to position inside the case.

 

It was at this point I realised I might have an issue.  The colours of the wires on the old cable didn’t match the colour coding on the new socket?  With a magnifying glass I could see there was a code on the blue plug.

T568A

The code on the socket was T568A/B.

Then I realised the socket had the colour coding for T568 A and T568B in two rows.

Eventually I managed to place the eight wires in the correct grooves on the socket and close the lid crimping them in place.  However I wasn’t convinced I’d correctly installed the wires so I plugged the cable into the Raspberry Pi and connected the ethernet cable from the router to the new socket to test my wiring.

It works!

The Wall and The Solution

Jan had a recent request.  Could I alter the end of the front garden retaining wall?  She wanted an enclosed lower lawn and garden where she could quietly work without having to worry about Molly wandering off.

The end of the existing sandstone block retaining wall was 1200mm at one end and 0mm at the other.  Essentially a triangle section.  The existing blocks were far too heavy for me to lift requiring them being broken up in-situ.  This was achieved using a heavy duty electric jack hammer borrowed from my brother-in-law.

Triangle shape is the location of the original wall and the rectangle is what Jan wants.  The broken up sandstone blocks are being disposed of in the hard rubbish weekly “wheelie bin” collection.  Two pieces at a time each week.  It will take several months for all of them to be removed.  Time isn’t an issue in retirement!

Once I have the new wall constructed I’ll make a gate.

Australia Port delivered a large package this morning.

I correctly guessed it would be the bike trailer Jan had ordered from www.cyclingdeal.com.au

An initial test fit to ensure all the components were included.

Apart from the bearings in the hub of the 16” omni wheel sounding dry, everything looked fine.  It came with a very large strong carry bag which included a shoulder strap.  I had assumed the bag would be completely waterproof but the top is open.  I don’t intend filling the bag which means I should be able to roll the open top and secure it with elastic straps making a water resistant seal.

The connection to the rear of the bike will require modification.  The trailer connection consists of a quick”-lock” axle which is designed to replace the existing axle in a convention derailleur system.  My bike now has an internally geared hub with a solid axle which is also larger diameter.

I have identified a potential solution.  You can see the existing rear wheel securing nut (Arrow A) in the photo below.  There is also a threaded hole on the frame at point B.  I assume this is a mounting point for a bike carrier.  The threaded hole is the exact same size as the trailer axle/

I propose purchasing two 70mm stainless steel bolts and insert them through these threaded holes from the inside of the frame.  This will then enable me to mount the trailer locking nuts (photo below) to the frame of the bike.

Well that’s the plan!