Pellet heads!! What's up today?

Way cool,yes,some circuits need resistance for proper testing.

 

Most are Enviro. i have a breckwell and an old whit profile20(addon buttons) due to hopper fire. englander that has beaten meso far(their boards suck)and a new true north tn40 that keeps smoking.

 

Copy...
Sounds like fun...

 

Oh,Snowy,I think I have an original vac. switch,for a Whit(positive pressure?)It's yours,if you want it,I will never use it.I did not want to go dig through my box of parts,to see what it is,unless you want it,LOL

 

Got more work done today on the new controller

Went to work building the Heat selector resistor assembly.

Used a 3" square piece of aluminum to fasten two 6 position terminal blocks.

Modified one block to allow it to be a common rail.

Add a single spade connector on the common rail and the installed the resistors between the two blocks.

Each resistor is ultimately connected to the 6 position rotary switch the selects the desired time on the auger timer and the 2 wires that come from the assembly feed the timers resistor terminals (TWO TERMINALS)

700K ohms is 7 seconds burn time, and so on....500K is 5 seconds


Meet the RESISTANCE....

The assembly is waiting for a 30K ohm resistor for position 6
This is the PRIME position and will run the feed motor almost continually to prime an empty auger.

Never had to do that, but it's a nice touch...

The entire assembly will fasten inside the front cover, held in with 3M double sided sticky tape.
I don't want drilled holes in that part of the panel (At least no more than are already there)

 

LOL your work is awesome,now show me some surface mount stuff.

 

Not looking forward to cleaning out the driveway and street plow berm this morning. Still sleeting so don't know whether just to do the deed now or wait until it gets done. Either way that berm will s*ck.

 

4:30am I was making the same call. Fired up the laptop to check radar and it looked like it might wind down during my cleanup.

5am was out and cleaning till 6:45. Now showered, coffee in me and time to get to work. Hopefully we dont get any more freezing rain, bit its not doing anything right now

 

'Bout the same here JT, and drinking coffee now.

Noticed last week that Natalie's subieroo has a couple of front marker lights out - she wanted to go w/ LED replacements ..



which is good - because looking under the hood: I can probably pull the motor quicker than all the plastics required to change (4) light bulbs on this kangaroo.

Have a safe & fun day all!

 

I think Snowy's motto for this project is: "Old School is more Cool."

 

UHHHHH.

Well those are way cool, but I wanted to be able to swap out parts in the deep dark winter night if need be with simple tools and without a soldering iron.

I remember when the popular pellet stoves had plug in timer modules and replaceable fan controllers.

THE GOOD OLD DAYS EH ???

 

ed

Not really "more cool" but easier to fix on site in the dark cold night.
The cheapest I have found a replacement board for my stove is $300

Generally closer to $600 is more likely the case.

Lose one little component and the board is trash.

All my components are "Plug and Play" and I sized everything at a minimum amp rating of 10 amps and some are 20 amp rated.

HELL FOR STOUT.

The manufacturers saw a big cash cow when they went to the micro electronics.
This plan also took easy cheap repair away from the end user

I am not totally sure what a board costs the manuf. but its likely dirt cheap and made over seas for them..


Earth stove used to have their controllers made locally, then that abruptly stopped and it went over seas.

 

Remember when changing a headlight bulb took 30 seconds? Now you have to just about dismantle the dam front end

TIP-Walmarts with auto service centers replace the headlight bulb for about 7 bucks labor charge if you buy the bulb there

 

I priced out an enviro board and with pcb cad work , board processing. Components. To be @ $75-$80 a board. And they are all up in price from last year by $90. So they all average 390- 450. It’s insane.

 

Fun Ride in this morning but not as bad as it could have been I am guessing. Been getting up at 2:15 to make it to work for 4-6am load out of demo and its starting to wear on me but heh what needs to be done right now. Had some young-in fly be me on 495 while I was scooting along at 60-65 had to just shake my head and say see you in the ditch in a few miles sonny as both the right lane and left were flooded bad so I stayed in the center lane . Sure enough there he was just before 93 down way down between North and South probably 15' drop pointed in the wrong direction buried in slop. Probably not the right thing but could not seem to help myself as I chuckled as I drove by, fortunately he did not hit anything or roll probably just had to clean his drawers after I am sure. Can't fix Stupid I say

 

I do (!) remember, sigh.

TIP-Walmarts with auto service centers replace the headlight bulb for about 7 bucks labor charge if you buy the bulb there


.. wait - it's the stupid tiny side marker lamps that you need a pair of tweezers, a magnifying glass, and a crowbar to get at. I -wish- it was the headlight bulb right about now. ... I really do.

I can 'juuussst about' see the side marker light holders: one is directly in front of / against the corner of the air box on front right, the other directly in front of 'ye ol battery on front left. Super. Just.freakin.super.

To Natalie's credit, she would have no issue taking it in somewhere to get this done: it's just it will end up costing her (at least) an hour's labor for them to change out 4 side marker bulbs.

The dealership where she purchased the vehicle seem like competent folks, but their labor rate is $110/hr - while we were there in the service waiting area - for the "dealer prep" to pickup the vehicle, we got to hear several conversations from folks @ the desk getting service done - it was "enlightening"..
And mucho expensive. Nobody seemed to be 'jumping for joy', after they were told how much the bill was.

Nat's a good kid (so's Em) - if they were malcontents or going out galavanting every night, it would be easy for me to say ' you handle it '. But they're both responsible, hard-working & motivated individuals, who's biggest "vice" is maybe spending a little too much cash @ the local Ulta store on beauty products, and doing their nails in the living room - so the house smells like a paint booth at an auto body shop at least once a week.

Nat's been helping out w/ driving Betsy into work in the morning - it's been a huge help, now that I'm working overnight shift Fri/Sat/Sun. I had forgotten just how big a change it is to do - Tuesday feels like Friday, Friday feels like Monday, and have no clue what day it is, the rest of the week.

But no sense crying about it - the daily driver Camry here is on it's "sunset", we need the extra cash, for new wheels.

I've already had to pull the air box assembly when replacing the spark plugs in the 'Roo back in June, and I installed the over-sized (upgraded) battery back in December. I got this.


Side-note: part of the "comprehensive dealer inspection" was checking all system components for the "extended warranty" offered - the original battery was factory Subaru.

On removing the battery holder, some 'Garage Gorilla' had over-tightened the holder adjusters so badly, that it had deformed into -> and cracked the upper battery casing. Simply . Genius.

Took the better part of an afternoon to clean out & neutralize the electrolyte from the battery tray & surrounding area. Ended up installing a slightly longer battery w/ more Amp Hrs. & better reserve time - same battery group that's usually installed in Ford trucks: so I don't have to worry about her starting up, after playing the stereo w/ the engine off awhile. ... So my 'confidence' level in that dealership service dept. isn't 'absolute' (given the above) ... if you can appreciate that. While the ladies are still home / in the area, I'm happy to turn a wrench for basic service / repairs, to help 'em out.

 

I just did a bulb "upgrade" on my Ram PU...
It was actually easier (maybe the only way) to get the left front changed
by removing the whole headlight assembly.. I would have saved time by taking both out, but managed
to get the Right Front without total removal.. And minimal blood.

Dan

 

My back got plenty of resistance testing today...

Dan

 

Same for the Chevy dealer where I bought my truck. It really pizzes me off as I can't see how they can justify a price like that when the guy doing the repairs is probably getting paid $15.00/hr. Add in the fact that the entire vehicle everything is computer operated now so you really have no choice but to keep going back to them. Frustrates the chit out of me.