The Ratbag's going walkabout ...

Gidday Ate

Hopefully we will be able to meet up. I assume that you are talking gallons, not cups ... :iconwink: :lol: :rotfl:.

ETD is now the day after Melbourne Cup Day. What was I thinking to consider travelling on what amounts to a four day weekend!?

Picked up the trailer from Jimi's. Not without its little hiccups. I will post about that in my build thread. Busy doing the finishing bits so that I can bolt the tent back on it.
 
`Fraid you`ll win hands down, or should that be cup down, on that one.
I speak cups/mugs only. Under some situations my heart beats fast enough without the aid of caffeine.
On a different note if you are in SE QLD on the 6th of December the Brizbanal Suby club are organising a short, about 250 km, remembrance run for a club member who passed away at the tender youthful age of 45 a couple of weeks ago. I`ll probably be traveling by myself so you would be welcome to come along.
Regards
ateday
 
^ If I have too much caffeine, my pulse rate drops alarmingly, and I start to fall asleep ...

I am still having problems getting my ETD finalised. Possibly still two weeks away ... :(.
 
^ THEN back to Bunnings again to pick up the single most important reason I went there the first time today - the weather sealing tape for around the top of the tent frame and the lid where the tent hatches are. And another smaller roll for across the top of the front gate of the trailer where it got sort of fried ....

I forgot both ... :( :cry: :sadbanana:.
 
It's hard to believe that I'm still in Melbourne!!

As if it weren't bad enough that I've spent a couple of weeks setting up a new Batphone after my other one died; the range hood has now karked it.

Our friendly local sparks came around this morning to see if he could fix it. He couldn't. No parts available for it either (I will NEVER buy a GE product ever again ... ). No one repairs anything these days, so one just chucks away a $500+ item because of the unavailability of some $5 part, and the lack of someone in Melbourne who knows how to fix what should be an extremely simple appliance ...

So another couple of days sourcing one that will fit properly where the old one was. Bugger. The kitchen might have been designed around the flaming thing.
 
^ Thanks for the good wishes, Ate.

I am feeling even more defeated by all this.
Just seems to be one effing thing after another.

Bill Shakespeare said it all with "How all occasions do inform [conspire] against me ... " Hamlet Act 4, Scene IV, line 32 ...
 
Thanks, HC.

Nil b@st@rdo carborundum, or something like that ...

Just that this throw-away society really gets to me. Here is a valuable bit of equipment that will end up in landfill because some $5 part is defective in some way. What have we become?
 
Just had the dishwasher crap out on the heating side the other day. Standard (ex service dept) fix is new element OR new control module. Google said to check the controller pcb for bad solder joints. Yep, dodgy lead-free solder strikes again. An hour later all is good.
 
Never mind after we have consumed all the Earth`s resources completely we will all be equal and have nothing at all.
And that is being an optimist.......
 
Gidday Zippo

zippo said:
Just had the dishwasher crap out on the heating side the other day. Standard (ex service dept) fix is new element OR new control module. Google said to check the controller pcb for bad solder joints. Yep, dodgy lead-free solder strikes again. An hour later all is good.
Click to expand...

Following this suggestion, I have checked all the switch control circuit board. Apart from the wire that came away in my fingers - there wasn't even the slightest trace of solder on the wire! Almost all the connections had a wire with a dob of solder on the connector side, but had a hairline crack between that dob of solder and the wire - i.e. the wires were 'tethered' rather than soldered. How this bloody thing has worked for the last 15-18 years is beyond me! It was installed a fair while before we bought this house.

I've fixed that, and am working my way through the 'food chain', as it were ...

Checked the capacitor start for the motor. It shows as "0.L" MΩ. I assume that this is normal for a 4 µF 450V 50 Hz capacitor.

I am about to unsolder the little grey rectangular box capacitor from the junction circuit board to see what sort of reading I get from it.

I am prepared to spend quite a bit of my time avoiding paying $500-600 for a new bloody range hood, if I can!

I haven't pulled the fan motor out yet, but it will be coming out too, I suspect.
 
^ OK.

Found the problem. One of the control panel wires was broken in the bundle of wires between the main junction board and the control switches on the top of the slide out section of the range hood.

This was an active wire ... :eek:
Broken at the point of flexion of the wire bundle at the side when the range hood was slid in or out.
The fan motor circuit is switched in the neutral side of the circuit. I cannot believe that this item was even allowed to be sold in Oz. AS3000 specifically prohibits switching in the neutral side of any circuit, and I am certain that this applies to internal switching in appliances as well.
Lucky no one was electrocuted ...

I am currently in the process of re-designing this point in the wiring loom, and will reinforce the wire bundle with some trailer wiring loom armouring so that when it flexes it will flex over a radius of about 6-8 inches instead of a radius of about 3/4-1 inch ...

After repairing the broken wire with solder and heat shrink, I will poke it into the side slider so that it cannot flex at the point of repair. This channel has a locking plate on it, so the cable bundle will not be able to slip out of it. There is easily sufficient length in the wiring loom to allow for this slight readjustment of position (about 25-30 mm is all that's needed).

I will then ensure that the fixed part of the newly reinforced loom is located such that the flex is spread over about 10-14 inches of the loom, not over about 1/2 inch as it is at present. This should prevent any recurrence of this problem for the remaining lifetime of the item.

Before I put it all back together, it needs to have all the disgusting grease cleaned off almost every surface. I have already degreased the aluminium filters, then put them through the dishwasher.
Range hoods are quite disgusting if one has to pull them to bits ... :puke: :puke:
 
^ GE, aka General Electric ...

Appallingly badly designed (Held together with badly placed self-tapping metal screws; some parts require a specialist machine to re-insert them, as a more than interference fit - requiring a person to hold the thing down while I attacked it with two screwdrivers and a broad bladed wood chisel, and brute force; unnecessarily complex; too many wires doing the same thing at the same place - i.e. providing a 240V feed). Appallingly badly manufactured. etc, etc, etc ... :( :yell: :furious:.

I have it mostly reassembled now. Just need to finish the cleaning tomorrow as too buggered tonight. Then my mate will come around and help me re-install it.

At least all the time and aggravation has saved us $550-600 for an equivalent item.
 
^ Mate, I checked the insulation properties of the soles of my boots with the multimeter before putting them on this morning! :iconwink:

The house has (about, approximately ... ) 8 RCDs on the power circuits.

The discovery process involved establishing continuity on each of the circuits in the range hood.

One that was supposed to be continuous showed as being an open circuit. I checked and re-checked, both on the wiring diagram and with the multimeter. I also checked that all connections were going to the right place ... The relevant wire was definitely broken.

With the unit standing on one end in the laundry, I plugged it in, powered it on, then "shorted" the open circuit using an old multimeter lead. Lo and behold, the fan worked! BINGO :lol: :biggrin:.

I have repaired the broken wire (having worked out where the break was), and have redesigned the wiring setup so that this can never happen again.

Having reassembled it, it still works ... :poke: :lildevil:.
 
^ Done. Fixed. Cleaned. Re-installed. Works. :biggrin:.

Mongrel of a thing. But better than spending $550-600 on a new one!

Cost of parts - Nil.

Labour cost - Nil.

:ebiggrin: :cool:.
 
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