Electronics Motor repair success

I fixed my broken motor that is meant to power the auger via the tiny gearbox that will deliver the fish food in my demand fish feeder.

Normally I prefer less complicated sentences.

But Im all excited.

It turns out, the problem was there were simply too many parts.

Or more accurately one too many parts, and one that was simply in the way.

The silver bit was the one too many. I think that broke off the bit where the wires connect, and fell into the motor, generally clagging things up.





The little nylon washer creates part of the front bearing, but it made getting the brushes back on impossible, because it had to be put on after the brushes. Thats an impossible path through the plastic front. I dont have the kinds of quantum tools that walking through walls requires. And if I did, I wouldnt waste my time with motor repairs. Id do much more interesting stuff, like poking my head through the fridge to see if the light really does go off when the door is closed.

So be leaving out those two small parts, I managed to make my motor work.

Only two parts.

And they were tiny.

Those that know me will realise thats a pretty low number of excess bits after a repair. I think I did quite well.

So well in fact, that it looks like this when its running.

That should do nicely.

What this all means, is that there is really no reason why I cant put this thing together today, and actually finish something.

Maybe.








120 Things in 20 years - If I keep repairing them, one day an electronic motor repair might leave me with enough parts to eventually build another motor. I should fix cars.

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Electronics Inverter repair

An inverter is a useful thing. It takes a stack of electrons from a 12 volt battery, and makes them look like the stuff that comes out of your wall, in my case at 240 volts.

How it does it is anyones guess.

In my case it doesnt actually do that. In fact all it does, is take a stack of electrons from a 12 volt battery, and turn them into the smell of melting value.

I couldnt understand why a perfectly interesting looking device should fail.

Here it is pictured after it was repaired, but it also looked pretty much like that when it didnt work, but now Ive given away the ending to this tale.

I fixed something - a first.

Note the total absence of left over bits - also a first.


Normally, the plan of attack is to open the device up, then put all the left over bits in the bin next to the now slightly more hollow, and slightly lighter device.

But this time was different.

To begin with I already knew why it was making all that melting plastic smell.

It was over heating.

The thing has a fan that is presumably meant to spin around a lot. At least I hope its meant to spin around a lot. If it isnt meant to, it does now.

Perhaps I just invented something....

To make an artificial breeze, simply take a normal fan, and make it spin.

So...

The point is the fan wasnt spinning. I have a few fans that Ive pulled out of junked computers, so I figured Id just replace it. I can solder a bit now as well, so I figured it should be easy.

There were even some obvious screws to undo.

I used the electric screwdriver my mum bought me as part of a present.

Thanks mums everywhere. It even has a torch built in and you can never own enough torches, even when you will never use them.

I always thought electric screwdrivers were a bit pointless, but it turns out they are excellent. Ive just never actually needed one before.

Unlike this project, my last had a few bits left over, and this was where the electric driver was really useful. It turns out there are a zillion screws inside stuff.

Pictured is all the leftover bits not including all the gears and shafts and all kinds of springs and stuff that might come in handy one day.

"What are the chances of any of it coming in handy?", I hear you ask.



But thats what they said about the 200 short lengths of black poly irrigation pipe I still have in the shed.

This thing used to be one of those fax, copier, printer combo devices that wasnt working any more. A friend was throwing it away, and thought my car was as good a place as any to throw it. It turns out there are some good motors and gears inside. I think there were five motors in there. Thats them on the right. Maybe six motors. Im planning on needing some motors, gears, and some shafts for making my solar tracking heliostat. There are also a stack of salvaged components used for tracking the placement of motors. The motor on the bottom right has a spoked arrangement that passes between a censor that detects light, and a light. The shadows cast by the spokes allow the system to track where the print head is. Or so Ive read.

So much to learn. So much time. If you just stop watching TV.

Anyway, Ive drifted off what pretends to be this posts topic...

Ok, so the fan wasnt spinning.

None of the fans I had would fit exactly, and would have to be trimmed (hacked and snapped with a pair of pliers) until they could be coaxed into duty.

I looked under that foil label and found the exposed end of the shaft.

I thought Id drop in some oil before I replaced the fan to see if thats all it needed. It was.




The black, and off white cylinder in the front with the brown stain at the base is a capacitor.

Im guessing it was also the source of the burnt plastic smell.

So that had to go. Luckily I have stacks of different capacitors from pulling apart some stuff, and had a duplicate.

A big component with large nicely spaced pins that proved easy to solder.

The thing went back together with no left over bits, and no spilt coffee added.

I realise this was a very simple repair, but it is something I would have sent to landfill before learning a bit of electronics over these last few months.

Here is a terrible photo of it charging a phone through its transformer, and maybe a bit of Bigfoots leg. Who can tell.



A 12v car battery supplying an inverter outputting 240v, then through the iPhone transformer to bring it back down to 5v.

Ok its slightly inefficient, but the phone was the smallest thing I could take to the car to test it.

I rate this a total success.

Which is nice.




120 Things in 20 years - Bringing me one step closer each day to being able to take down a Terminator. Or repair an inverter. I need to win a 3D printer.

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Egypt

So there is a presentation about Egypt going on. Honestly I dont really care. While yes it is informational...I didnt care to know really and I dont care to hear.

So one of the guys....talking...yeah is name is Achmed...much like the Jeff Dunham character.

SILENCE! I KILL YOU!!!

So still bored...the speakers are too loud and my ears hurt.

I watched JL eat some tuna. Now I want some tuna.

AnD i ReAlLy WnT sUm PiZzA RiTe FkKiNq Nw!!!!1!!!

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

spoiled kids annoy me.

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how to brush comb your hair

because apparently people dont know how.

So basically I have been watching this girl from 15 feet away brush her hair furiously!

Honestly brushing it fast and rough makes split ends and tangles come even faster...and more furious.

so for you people with straight hair or curly hair that youd rather not properly take care of...here is how to brush your hair

step 1
pick up your brush

step 2
grab some hair

step 3
brush it from the bottom and work your way up

step 4
slowly detangle knots from the bottom

TIP
never brush wet hair as it will snag and could break.


see was that hard?

now for curlies

step 1
wet hair thoroughly (shower works best)

step 2
grab some hair

step 3
use a wide tooth comb to comb from the bottom up.

step 4
detangle from the bottom

tip
always comb wet hair. NEVER brush dry curly hair.

Tada

btw most hair doesnt need to be shampooed. Curlies only need to conditioned. Oily scalps can skip the conditioner and use only shampoo. Trust me on this

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