The mother of all videos!

The quest continued today, despite my back injury to build the front door unlocking mechanism. There were plenty frustrations today! I'm in no way going to throw the towel in on this one. Even if what I come out with costs way more than anybody else's solution, I will perservere.

Today was fraught with difficulty. Yesterday or the day before, I'd reglued the end of my wire to the brass tube. After I'd finished winding the coil, the damn glue failed again! So my nicely wound coil suddenly sprang loose and ended up looking more like a slinky than anything else. Wrapping tape and spraying glue ended up with a loosely wound coil that's definitely not to my liking. I might re-wrap that coil another day.

Next, I connected a pp3 battery clip to the two wires. That was a challenge as the enamel on the wire was extrordinarily thick. Normally it's easy to burn through with a soldering iron. This was most definitey not easy and had to be scraped off.

What I'm trying to do is to rig up a method of lifting the latch that holds the front door closed without going to extremes such as electric garage door openers that require the door to be both opened and closed electrically or other severe methods such as replacing the entire door assemly. This is such a simple thing to do yet is proving to be extraordinarily difficult!
 
The upshot of today's work (which I'll probably have to redo) is that I did manage to make a rare earth permanent magnet move out of my coil. It had little to no actual power behind it which is a major problem. I'm currently running it off 6v. I'll have to try raising the power to 12v but this is not currently looking promising. I have found that I was correct in using a permanent magnet with my coil however. I suspect I might get more luck with more power and possibly extra coil windings.


As you can see - it's not that powerful even though it is spectacular. It looks to have the right amount of throw to open my latch - just not yet enough power.

Small achievements building toward success

That's the way to do it! Today of note were several achievements in an otherwise dismal, dreary, wet day. I'd like to be able to claim major success but I didn't do anything major. The major stuff all accomplishes itself as it's all reliant upon the small but insignificant steps.

The first thing I did was to make a coil out of some wire, put my new permanent magnet inside and run 6v from 4 D cells through it. The magnet did twitch. Clearly I need to find some copper tubing slightly larger than the magnet in order to wind enamel wire around it. That should allow the magnet to slide easily and should give years of use. I just have to wind the appropriate number of coils around it.

The next success was more basic and less exciting though vital. I tried my old angle grinder without success. Banging it I could get a few spins from the motor before it stopped. I had a brainwave and changed the other carbon brush. I"d already changed one because it was broken. Voila! The thing worked when I plugged it in. Clearly that problem has been solved for the moment. The other one has a problem based around a loose connection. When I need it, I'll tighten that connector.

Lastly, I hunted around in the bushes on m'lady's 4 acres and found a nice piece of steel. It needs some de-rusting but cut with the angle grinder and welded, It;ll make an excellent bottom for my battery compartment. Unlike the hillbillies, I'll drill holes for water drainage. I'll also see about putting a lip over the door to stop water penetration.

The final solution to the power and cooking problem is, unfortunately, going to have to be a gas cooker where the microwave is currently situated. The microwave is rusted and beyond salvation. I"ll have to install an extraction fan - probably a 12v fan running off my small battery. I could run that through the window I blocked up or put a roof vent. On the whole, the window seems more accessible. I thought long and hard about other solutions but this seems to be the only one that makes financial sense. To spend $3,500 on lithium batteries, $300 on a generator or $500 on lead acid batteries to run the microwave or $40 on a gas cooker. That's $10 cheaper than buying a replacement microwave. The big bonus is because I've already done the electrical work, I can still use electrical appliances when plugged in. There's also nothing to say I cannot later just remove the gas cooker and install solar arrays, generators and solar panels.

Mechanics Magazine 1853

In my quest to build a latch opener for my bus I had a brainwave and consulted Mechanics Magazine from 1853. Yes - a publication I downloaded as a free eBook. On page 52 was an article about an oscillating telegraph arm that used two magnetic coils and two permanent bar magnets.

The original telegraph machinery was largely constructed from brass. In my case, it'll be aluminum as I have quite a surplus of aluminum. Indeed, perhaps the permanent magnets I bought the other day sliding inside a plastic tube around which is a coil I could wind would be the solution.

I don't anticipate the plastic tube having an eternal life but tube and wire are cheap. I'd also estimate the tube lasting at least a few months until it could be replaced with copper or brass. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Today was another day of zero progress. Aside from stepping outside to check m'ladies chickens for eggs, that was the extent of my exertions. My virus had taken over. It's like a very light version of flu (I'm glad I had the flu vaccine). I'm getting tired of being ill at weekends and not being able to work toward completing my bus project.