Another Two….

Another package arrive from China yesterday.  You might recall I mentioned the weight of the bike trailer was seriously eating into my flight baggage allowance.  Consequentially I didn't take it on the last cycling holiday in Taiwan electing instead to use rear pannier bags.  However on that trip I didn't take any camping gear.

Yesterday's delivery consisted of two 7 litre panniers for the bike front rack, also purchased from China.  The bags have been packed with the tent, mattress and sleeping bag.

The setup looks OK (not yet tested) although I have a concern with the rack.  There is a metal bow (top arrow) that forms part of the horizontal platform (bottom arrow).  This means when the rack is disassembled for packing this component forms a large "L" shape which will be difficult to pack.  I'm thinking of cutting off the bow.  My feeling is the bow is there to stop items on the rack sliding back against the bike frame.  This isn't relevant for my purposes as the bike headlight already protrudes through the bow and I don't intend to place anything on the flat portion of the rack.

There has been further research for the planned Eurovelo trip.  

I've added 100km route markers, adjacent camping grounds and tourist attractions.  If I cycle 100Km daily, six days every week, I should be able to complete the route in six weeks.  Yesterday I cycled 75Km in three hours.  An average of 25km/h.  I should therefore be able to cycle 100Km in eight hours whilst allowing myself rest and sightseeing stops.

Meanwhile another project is starting.   Today a NVMe M.2 SSD storage stick was delivered.

It's one of four components I need for my new Raspberry Pi project.  The other three are the Raspberry Pi 5 computer, a Pi bottom hat for the SSD and a case.  The plan is to build a cheap, low powered media server.

Bl**dy Pedestrians

Frustration sets in when riding along the cycle path you come upon pedestrians with plugs in their ears to stop their brains leaking out whilst simultaneously burying their eyes and nose into a small flat device.  Hearing and seeing nothing they are totally 'situationally unaware'.  Ringing the bell has no effect.  What can make it even worse is they are on the designated bike path when there is an adjacent  pedestrian path 10-20 metres to one side.

  

The diy selfie stick mounting bracket needs a bolt to secure it to the bike handlebars.  That wasn't an issue, but the nut was.    The mounting bracket needs to be able to swivel, which means loosing and re-tightening the bolt.  My solution was to order a large wingnut from Aliexpress

The smaller Ulanzi bracket is being used whilst waiting for the wingnut to be delivered.

This raised another issue.  The camera started to vibrate on the bracket.  Eventually the problem was identified as a loose joint. (upper arrow in the photo below)

It appeared to be the only joint on the bracket unable to be tightened.  The steel shaft is held in place with a pin (lower red arrow).  However, when viewed through a magnifying glass (yes.. I'm that old) the pin appeared to be a grubscrew.  Using a 1.5mm Hex Key I was able to tighten the screw which removed the movement in the joint. A result. 

Damn Electronics

My knowledge of electronics is very limited.  My brother is the electronics engineer in the family!

This brings me to my current problem with our grandson's yacht diy AIS Transmitter project.  I've been able to work out a method for powering the device remotely.  However it also need to be able to turn it on/off remotely.  The problem is the existing switch on the transmitter.  It's a magnetic switch!

There is a magnetic sensor on the end of the printed circuit board.  I'm guessing it is some type of reed switch. 

Embedded in the back of the rotary switch is a small piece of metal.  When the rotary switch is in the ON position the metal is away from the switch and the LED illuminates. 

Simply removing the rotary switch means the transmitter is always ON.

I could glue the small piece of metal to the magnetic switch but the transmitter would then be always OFF.  Obviously I need to identify how to bypass the magnetic switch.  This is where my lack of electronics is exposed.

In the photo below the lower red arrow points to the pos & neg terminals from the battery.  I can't put a switch into the positive connection (wire) as the transmitter will still receive power from the main supply.  I suspect upper red arrow might point to the component that needs to be switched?

If I can't figure this out there is a fallback option.  I could remotely switch both the power from the batteries in the device and the 12V supply going up the mast.   More thinking required.

A Puddle and Deliveries

Today's plans went out the window shortly after I woke.  Upon visiting the smallest room in the house I discovered a puddle.  My immediate thought was "Perhaps Jan had an accident during a nocturnal visit?"    However Jan mentioned she had discovered the puddle when visiting the room in the wee hours <pun intended>.   Obviously there was a leak which needed to be rectified.

Having no prior experience with this particular device it was slow progress working out how to remove the cistern.  Eventually I managed to separate the cistern from the lower bowl only to hear the sound of two nuts falling off inside the cavity behind the bowl.

With the cistern removed I could see what had happened.  Instead of the two securing screws inside the cistern being removed the nuts on the ends of the threaded "dogs" had been unscrewed and dropped off.

Holes where the "dogs" fit.

The circular opening in the top of the bowl are too small for my hand so I resorted to taping a bent piece of 16 gauge wire onto a length of 5mm timber dowel to recover the nuts and washers.

I could now see what had caused the nuts to unscrew from the dogs.  When the toilet was installed the plumber had applied sealer to the screws which had locked them into the dogs.  Rather than the screws unscrewing from the dogs the entire screw and dog had rotated unscrewing the nuts on the underside of the dogs.

 

The braided hose was replaced and then the toilet reassembled.

The major problem was fitting the washers and nuts back onto the underside of the dogs.  I used the piece of 16 gauge wire to position the washers and nuts below the hole before carefully screwing in the dogs from above.  Next the nuts then had to be secured from below whilst the dogs were tightened from above.  I made a temporary spanner from some scrap flat bar to achieve this.

Dog and nut

The cistern could then be secured through its base with the two screws.  But not before I'd removed all the old sealer and cleaned the threads.  Before tightening the screws I applied replacement silicone sealer.

The toilet will have to remain out of action until I'm satisfied the sealer has set. 

That was the morning wasted!

Meanwhile we had a couple of deliveries.  Jan's new appliance arrived from England via DHL.  It only took five days for the journey.  Which begs the question…. Why does it take more than five days for Australia Post to deliver a letter across the city?  I cut the UK plug off the cord and replaced it with a spare AS/NZ version. 

The second deliver was something Jan had ordered for me.

A collapsible silicon bowl and mug for my planned cycling trip

Very lightweight and compact

Rehearsal

Whilst it's not confirmed, should I cycle in Europe later this year I will need to camp.  There may be some nights where I'll use a hostel or hotel.  However the cost will preclude me from doing it every night.

I bought a small tent in 2022 and took it on my first Taiwan trip.  It never got used as accommodation was well within my budget.  Today seemed a good opportunity to check the tent as I've only erected it once.  Rain in Europe at some stage is a distinct possibility, which means I need to know how to pitch the tent swiftly to avoid wet bedding.

The tent comes in its own bag and I noticed it felt heavier than I had anticipated.

Inside is the tent inner, the fly, a bag of tent poles with a smaller bag containing steel pegs.

   

Thinking logically about the erection sequence suggested assembling the poles should be the first step.  This avoids leaving the tent inner out in the rain whilst assembling the poles.  It would also be logical to carry the poles and pegs separate from the tent.

The next step is to peg out the inner and insert the poles.

 

The tent has an entrance on one side only.  I need to know which side opens when pegging out the collapsed base.  To achieve this I marked the corner peg straps on the door side with yellow marker pen.

 

This needed to be repeated with the fly which also only opens on one side only.  Obviously I want to avoid erecting the tent with the inner opening on one side and the fly opening on the other.  Especially if it's raining!

There is a small ventilation opening at ether end of the fly.

The biggest issue with nylon tents is condensation.  We humans pump out a significant amount of humidity which can be trapped on the inside of the fly.  The vents will allow some of it to escape.  Hopefully most of the remainder will run down the inside of the fly and drip onto the ground.  There is a gap between the base of the inner and the fly to prevent any condensation entering the inner.

My idea of using the bike pump to inflate the air mattress is a failure.  The output from the pump is so small it would take 12 months to inflate the mattress   I reverted to the old method of lying on my back with the deflated mattress on top of me and blowing it up using my mouth.  In this position I limit the amount of saliva entering the mattress.

 

Previously I've rolled up some clothes to use as a pillow.  This time I've treated myself to a $4 inflatable pillow.  The sleeping bag is from Aldi and very lightweight (thin) I'm hoping I'll be warm enough.  However I will also take a long-sleeved thermal vest, thermal long johns and some possum merino socks should the lightweight bag be insufficient.  I can always don a fleece if it becomes necessary. 

More rehearsals are now required. 

Selfie Stick Mounting Bracket

The bike selfie stick mounting bracket is quite strong but very limited in movement.  Only the vertical angle can be adjusted which limits recorded camera foot to the front or above.  I'd also like to be able to capture footage from the left and right.

The selfie stick has an M6 threaded hole in the end which I assume is for mounting purposes.

The thread only extends approximately 10mm into the handle of the stick and I suspect the weight of the camera on the end of the stick bouncing around on a moving bike would probably cause the connection to fail.

I decided to make a prototype selfie stick mounting bracket by modifying the existing bracket.  It needed to be made for anything I had in my "useful one day" storage area.  There was a piece of steel flat bar surplus to my making of lawn edger blades.   After applying some heat I was able to bend it to the required shape before pot riveting a small piece of surplus pvc water pipe onto the end.

It looks like this

 

The M6 bolt in the end of the handle will be replaced with a spare wing nut bolt I'll cut to length.

I'm also going to add Sikaflex around the connection between the steel and the piece of pvc pipe.

Finally, I'll replace the M6 nut that secures the new bracket to the mount with a M6 Wing Bolt and spring washer.

The last task will be painting everything.

My new bracket should now add 180° (or more) lateral selfie stick movement.  If I've done this right I should now be able to record myself riding the bike from either side.  Well that's the theory.