Along the Kromme Rijn

Had a nice stroll along the Kromme Rijn this morning and was surprised to see this duck:

A quick check on the internet learns that it's a Mandarin duck (Dutch: Mandarijneend), which is fairly rare .. but more importantly rather pretty.
A few metres further, I spotted two Cormorants sunning (Dutch: Aalscholver), unfortunately, I didn't manage to get a photo with their wings extended:

And on another note, just spotted the "Gemeente" gritting our street (a first !). Having said that it is an ice rink at the moment and getting the kids to school this morning was quite an adventure (Sophy had two small falls ..).

Power to the DS !

Back again, with more tales of repair.

Timothy's Nintendo DS Lite had stopped working .. no reaction to the power button with both screens remaining dark (and no sounds). Rather than treating it as a disposable electronics item, I gambled that I could successfully take it apart and fix it: I believe in one simple truth:

In my experience, 95% of all electronical / electrical failures are due to a mechanical problem. Mechanical problems can be found and possibly repaired.

Fortunately their are quite a few sites showing how to take the Nintendo DS Lite apart, the only annoyance being that you need a special 'tri-wing' screwdriver to do it.
In the end, I managed to remove two of the three tri-wing screws using a regular flat screwdriver, unfortunately one resisted and had to be removed 'less elegantly' (damaging the casing). So this is what Timothy's DS looks like inside:

I'd found a site telling of a standard fault of blown fuses, but checking those found no error. Then I decided (with multi-meter ready) to check the circuitry. After a short while, I noticed that the power switch was broken: a small tab which connects to the power slider within the casing had broken off (i.e. another example of a mechanical failure):

(The strange thing is, that when testing the DS (still intact), the lack of return spring on the power slide was not noticed .. although it was late when I was working on it ..??).

Anyhoo. I read somewhere of someone fixing the switch by jamming / smelting a bit of paperclip into the switch, and of someone wiring up an external switch, but I decided to just replace the switch (at a cost of only EUR 3,39 (excl. shipping)).  Just to make sure that the problem was the switch, I switched the DS on, using a wire bridging the points. In my experience, switching on, relies only on connecting point 1 with the ground:

I had read (on a Flickr photo report) of the problem of removing the old switch without damaging the circuit board, but even with my fairly large soldering iron I managed to remove the switch, albeit in pieces (I had a quick experiment with a mechanical removal with the Dremel but this was way too destructive).

Having said that I did manage to remove all solder from the right point 2 and point 3, but that didn't stop the new switch from operating properly: installed below:

Putting it all back together was a bit of a fiddle, but I managed .. and now Timothy is the happy owner of a working DS (thanks Dada):

Self-Repair Manifesto

Now here's a good cause (that suits me to a T):

iFixit Manifesto

Go to the iFixit/Manifesto site; print the poster and place it in the window.

Tinkerers of the world unite !

Mr Fixit - The epic saga continues ..

Right, received two new carbon brushes for the washing machine last week and I've just finished installing them. I've checked the bearings on the electric motor (can't feel any looseness) and I've polished the commutator (I can see the reflection of my sooty face in it).

Now .. how long will it last till the dreaded F6 error message (motor problem) reappears ?

Mr Fixit - Now I'm annoyed

Yep, it was bound to happen .. and it did (2 weeks later than expected) .. but the washing machine failed again, same error (F6), same problem (worn down carbon brushes).

Definitely time for a new washing machine .. the fact that the brushes are wearing down soooo rapidly and the fact that the commutator looks worn means the motor is at the end of its life (once I've uploaded the photos, I'll include them).

In the meantime, I've (once again) patched the problem - till the order of new brushes (just done) arrives - till we buy a new washing machine.

On another note; I now manage to change brushes in a record time of 35 minutes (opening to closing machine) .. so if I ever need to find a new job ...

Mr Fixit - Now it's getting annoying

Just a quick note to let you know that once again I've had to fix the washing machine .. groan. It packed in on Sunday with the now familiar F6 error code, indicating a motor failure.

Had to be the carbon brushes .. and it was; I've just fixed it again by using two still decent brushes .. but it is time to start thinking about a replacement.

What boggles me though, is why one brush should wear down to nothing (in around a month) whereas the other side stays fine ?? Any electric motor wizards out there who can explain this phenomenon ?? Both brushes touch the same commutator .. so I'd expect reasonably even wear .. but alas, in all three failures one side had worn down and one side was OK.

Mr Fixit - the sequel

So .. a week has passed and I now can gladly state that the washing machine is no longer fixed, but repaired.

Yesterday, Timothy and I went in to Zeist and picked up two new carbon brushes for the washing machine. Fortunately, the bloke at "Wasmachine Reparatie Service" had plenty of experience / knowledge of washing machines because the model numbers I supplied weren't enough (I should have brought in the old brush, but hey, I fixed that, so it was still in use).

His inventory was inside his van, parked on the pavement outside his "shop" (just like on this street-view) (by the looks of the shop, he obviously hasn't had a course in sales-patter (hurrah!)).

This man understood washing machines because he returned with a small selection of brushes and after asking some more details (and by the looks of the brushes), I chose the ones below .. with an element of doubt as it turned out that that the brushes (and thus the motor) are generic, i.e. used by several manufacturers. (The bag containing them states that they're for a Bauknecht, see below):

With the assurance that I could change them if they were the wrong brushes (.. the man in the shop was pretty sure though..),  I gave him a mere EUR 23 for the two (I was expecting more as I thought he would take a margin, but no).

So today, I once again took the washing machine apart (I'm becoming quick) and found out that they are the same brushes .. except for one small detail (!!) .. the slope of the carbon contact area was opposite to that of the original brushes. (I.e. instead of a slope like " \ " (looking at the top of the brush, where carbon is top, contact is bottom, i.e. -45 degrees), the slope was like " / " (45 degrees)). 

Fortunately the motor (MCC 52/64 - 148/AC1, dated October 2007) allowed for either slope of the brush, so I had to mount the brushes in other (unused) holes. But .. before I did this .. I made sure the surface of the commutator was as pristine as possible. Using a bit of very fine grade sandpaper and a knife sharpening stone, I polished the commutator so the contact area looked clean and flat:

After making the commutator really shine (more so than in the above photo), I put it all back together again, tested it satisfactorily .. and now I declare the washing machine repaired (hurrah!).

(And after a sunny morning and early afternoon, it started raining, so time to blog).

Mr Fixit

Question: What's the most important machine in the home when returning from holiday ?
Answer: The washing machine.

So .. upon returning from our lovely holiday on a marvellous camping in Bretagne, we brought back lovely memories and .. loads of laundry. Unfortunately after the first (successful) wash, our Asko 20605 failed showing the F6 error code: "motor problem".

We're pleased with this washing machine, though it's starting to show its age (12 or 13 years) as this is now the second time that this error has occurred (first in October 2008). That time round I soon discovered that it was a worn out carbon brush that was the problem. I replaced it with a new one and so I managed to repair the machine. (Strangely, only one brush was worn out, whereas the other still had "plenty of life in it").

This morning I set to work (after more fixit activities last night; getting the in-laws telephone working again after a switch in provider) and expected the same problem of (a) worn out brush(es) .. and I was right:
Once again (and strangely), one brush had worn out: the replacement (!), the other, original, brush looked much the same as it had in October 2008. (I.e. the replacement part is of inferior quality .. or .. the motor has a strange tendency to wear down only one brush).

As it's Sunday and it'll take some time to get a replacement brush and as we have tonnes of washing, I decided to give the worn out brush a life extension .. so we can keep washing till the replacement arrives.

First a disclaimer; this is a temporary fix and by doing so I've gone outside the design parameters of the brush (so if it all goes horribly wrong, it's my own stupid fault). (That said, the third wash since the fix is almost done and the machine sounds / looks normal).

What have I done ? In a nutshell, I moved the copper sleeve holding the carbon brush closer to the commutator. This gives a few more mm of wear before the carbon brush once again reaches it's limit.

In detail: the copper sleeve holding the carbon brush is held in the plastic housing by means of a couple of folds in the copper sleeve (sorry no photo); by bending these folds, I could move the copper sleeve closer to the commutator within the plastic housing:

Note how in the left photo (above) the copper sleeve on the top (worn out) brush, extends further from the plastic housing than on the lower (original) brush by roughly 3mm.

After achieving this, I made sure the copper sleeve wouldn't move within the plastic housing by adding a couple of wedges (from a match stick).

Unfortunately, the copper sleeve was now too close to the commutator. So with my trusty Dremel in the hand, I skillfully cut back the copper to mimic the original set up (see the right photo above).

Result: a fixed washing machine.

(I choose not to say a repaired washing machine as I'll need to open it up once the replacement brush(es) arrive).

Google's PacMan ...

Google's PacMan logo is great .. and it keeps us (me) from work, but I've discovered a little flaw (actually due to not playing). If PacMan is left near the starting point, the ghouls can't find him (her):

And .. if you press "Insert Coin" once play has started, (as an Easter Egg), Ms. PacMan joins the fray (although I haven't yet worked out how to control her):

Wonder if there are anymore Easter Eggs ? And .. who's reached the highest score so far (I bet Google know (your id)) ..

The ultimate in contextual spell checking

Have you noticed, how advanced (some) spell checkers have become ?

Google Wave has a contextual spelling checker, i.e. it uses the context to determine if a word is correct. I don't know the ins and outs (yet), but I imagine that Google is building up knowledge based on statistical analysis of web input (the same way it's translation tool uses statistical learning techniques).

Here are some tests of the Wave contextual spell checker ..

Their here.

Hmm, no luck, maybe too short, maybe not enough context ? It's being accepted. How about:

I am over hear.

Nope. Maybe I'm still expecting too much .. but the system is supposed to learn from input all over the web .. so what about:

Can I have too bottles of beer ?

Success ! "Too" is underlined and the option of "two" is shown. Clever. This begs the question, how this will develop with time. Google translate is already becoming very able (very quickly), so what does the future hold in store for contextual spell checking ?

No more documents, containing flawed language .. or will this cause us (humans) to become lazy when it comes to language ? The laugh is, if we do become "language lazy", the statistical methods used by Google and others will (with mass laziness) start learning this new language. So a tool to improve our language could, over time, very well change our written language ..

Well, I've devised a test, or rather a milestone, to see how well contextual spell checkers are maturing:

Sir Lancelot is a night.

(That will be the dawn of artificial intelligence, statistically learnt from webpages the world over).

Zen and the art of dishwasher maintenance

Eeyup,

It's been a long time since I've blogged, but I thought I'd share this recent adventure with you.

Background

Our 17 year old (presumably, that's the age of the house) dishwasher (ATAG S6M22A) stopped washing recently (typically on the day before we needed it most, we were hosting a dinner). More specifically, no water entered the machine.

First analysis

Hoping for a simple solution, I hoped that the (external) water stop had failed. Me being me, I took it apart (as far as possible without demolishing it) and eventually concluded that, yes, no water was passing through the water stop. (Unfortunately, I have no pictures of this part of the adventure).

I was on the verge of buying a new one (still hoping that this was the problem), but fortunately I phoned a local hardware store and was given some good advice, which called for a new appraisal of the problem.

I was told to test the water stop by connecting it to the mains. (I thought it had a 12V supply as I'd noticed small voltages, but this turned out to be residual currents and the water stop itself needs a 230V supply). (Typically, I hadn't found any information on the water stop on the internet). As I'd already taken it apart, connecting up to the mains was easy .. and proved that the water stop did work (water flowed into the dishwasher).

Ergo, the problem was deeper .. why wasn't the water stop receiving power ?

Interbellum

The failure of the dishwasher provoked thoughts of replacing the now tired kitchen. However these are expenses not yet planned for. Another option was to replace only the dishwasher (first or second hand). The friendly hardware store had given the advice to forget about repairing this one .. it just wasn't worth it ..

Second analysis

This involved looking inside the "machine room" of the dishwasher. The first step was to remove the plinth at the bottom of the dish washer. Once I'd done this, I noticed that the "machine room" of the dishwasher had a substantial amount of water in it.

Removing the water (awkwardly), the dishwasher worked again. I.e., there was a sensor which stops the water flow when flooding is discovered (how clever). So, now we could use the dishwasher .. but after each use, we had to remove the flooding. Not ideal and I hadn't discovered the leak.

So .. last Saturday, I just did it (instead of thinking about it too long). Together with Timothy, I moved the dishwasher out of its enclosure. This proved to be awkward as the tiled floor in the kitchen, had been laid after the dishwasher was placed. The dishwasher had to be dropped about an inch (by adjusting 4 screws in all corners (lying on my stomach and managing to use only a small stroke of my (10) spanner) which took quite a time. We then got it out and removed the side panels for a better view.

Switching the dishwasher on again was fascinating, watching the water flow in the reservoir (right picture above). After peering at the "machine room" for a while, I finally discovered the (real) origin of the leak, a worn out rubber tube (see picture right, below).

Now to replace the worn out tube .. I kind of hoped, I'd be able to walk into a local store and find a replacement tube (1", which I'd have to cut to size). Unfortunately, this wasn't the case .. and because I didn't want to order a part and wait, I decided that any flexible tube with the right diameter would do. The best thing I found was a washing machine drain pipe.

Unfortunately, it was way to long (150cm vs. 40cm). The result was that it had to be coiled around in an empty space (see picture left, below).

Unfortunately, this solution didn't work. It caused the reservoir to overflow, when filling the dishwasher .. I can only think, that air-locks formed, stopping the free flow of the water.

I now had to think of a way to shorten the tube .. but unfortunately, these tubes are made to be shortened, they have rubber connections at either end which are welded to the flexible (plastic ?) pipe. The solution was obvious .. I had to reuse the original tube (a good bit) to fit over the flexible pipe (see picture right, above and picture below). It was a nice tight fit, but to be on the safe side (..) I covered the outside of the flexible pipe with a silicon kit to form a really watertight and glued connection.

And guess what, the dishwasher works again .. eureka !

Conclusion

I get a kick out of repairing written-off machines, so this was great.

Costs: a washing machine drain pipe (EUR 6,50), some silicon kit and a few hours of mucking about (and a few hours of my darling's patience).

Benefits: a big smile.