No photo again but today's work didn't merit it. Two things were achieved but only two.
Those that can cast themselves back a couple of blog entries will recall that I ran out of rivets putting the steel plates over the sites of the old schoolbus flashers. Well, today despite feeling quite yucky from working, I replaced the four screws used temporarily with rivets then sprayed over with grey paint. Not very exciting but worthwhile.
My other accomplishment or rather the reason I consider myself to be the world's biggest sucker stems from an experiment I carried out today. Those with very long memories will recall I bought a pair of electromagnets from China some months ago. It has already been established that no matter what polarity current was supplied to it (which would normally alter electromagnetic polarity), the electromagnet never would change polarity. In fact, it seemed to be both polarities simultaneously. Two identical electromagnets would not repel each other. They would just attract. Similarly no matter which polarity of permanent magnet was introduced to the electromagnet, the electromagnet could never be persuaded to repel the permanent magnet. Pretty strange and rather useless.
Today I tried the electromagnet for its attractive purposes. Fail again! It would attract but as a 9v magnet, it would attract from around 1/8 inch but very feebly. It would grip something strongly but was utterly useless in all other respects.
My goal is to engineer a way of opening the bus front door. What I'm trying to do is to lift the locking latch on the front door opening mechanism. Carpenter did employ an electric door opener but my bus has only a manual opener. Had I had the electric version, I could have simply tapped into the circuit with a remote opener. Looking around those would set me back $500. That's just too costly!
Clearly I was a fool to believe any Chinese electronic gizmo would actually work. I do buy bits from China but that was my first electronic gizmo. Oh well, lesson learned. Don't buy any electronics from China.
Looking around, there are some linear actuators on sale. That would make the door an electric only affair. That would make exit in an emergency somewhat interesting so I'd have to put some way of bypassing the electrical system. Sounds interesting though!
Showing posts with label electromagnet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label electromagnet. Show all posts
Thursday, April 28, 2016
Saturday, November 21, 2015
Haltering progress
As with everything bus, this weekend looks like being little to no progress. Half the things I need have not yet arrived.
Yesterday's shopping trip could have been better and I returned to Home Depot to see whether I could find anything better. I didn't and none of the sales staff seemed to want to do anything other than chat amongst themselves. No point in making a stink about that - they're minimum wage dross who probably can't find a real job. There are a lot of people stuck in worthless retail positions because the mythical masses of jobs just don't exist. The US is still in a very deep depression while the leaders are pretending its not so.
The plan was to bury my cable in conduit. Looking at the ground, although it's sandy, there are an awful lot of tree roots. I had an idea that I should just use a 100 foot 30A extension cable instead. It turned out that would have cost $150. A 20A extension cable 100 feet long was equally costly. While a 15A cable was better priced, it would not have sufficed.
The original plan was thus resurrected. It was suggested to me that rather than digging a trench, I could just lay the cable in a conduit and simply cover the conduit with dirt and rocks. As the conduit would be in an area nobody would work or walk, that would probably work.
Meanwhile, I looked around for the scrap angle iron I'd seen the other day and couldn't find it. That's 100% due to annual inflation in the leaf economy (Autumn). I did find another suitable piece of steel though. I even found steel plate that looked suitable for a battery compartment floor!
Looking around further there was even a rust free carriage bolt that looked usable as the electro magnet I need in order to spring the front door latch. With sufficient coils, the door should open easily. I can't wait to be able to get in and out of the front door.
Today was hindered by a virus. I'm going to take it relatively easily this weekend. Laying cables in overland conduit sounds like a nice light task, the same as making an electromagnet.
Yesterday's shopping trip could have been better and I returned to Home Depot to see whether I could find anything better. I didn't and none of the sales staff seemed to want to do anything other than chat amongst themselves. No point in making a stink about that - they're minimum wage dross who probably can't find a real job. There are a lot of people stuck in worthless retail positions because the mythical masses of jobs just don't exist. The US is still in a very deep depression while the leaders are pretending its not so.
The plan was to bury my cable in conduit. Looking at the ground, although it's sandy, there are an awful lot of tree roots. I had an idea that I should just use a 100 foot 30A extension cable instead. It turned out that would have cost $150. A 20A extension cable 100 feet long was equally costly. While a 15A cable was better priced, it would not have sufficed.
The original plan was thus resurrected. It was suggested to me that rather than digging a trench, I could just lay the cable in a conduit and simply cover the conduit with dirt and rocks. As the conduit would be in an area nobody would work or walk, that would probably work.
Meanwhile, I looked around for the scrap angle iron I'd seen the other day and couldn't find it. That's 100% due to annual inflation in the leaf economy (Autumn). I did find another suitable piece of steel though. I even found steel plate that looked suitable for a battery compartment floor!
Looking around further there was even a rust free carriage bolt that looked usable as the electro magnet I need in order to spring the front door latch. With sufficient coils, the door should open easily. I can't wait to be able to get in and out of the front door.
Today was hindered by a virus. I'm going to take it relatively easily this weekend. Laying cables in overland conduit sounds like a nice light task, the same as making an electromagnet.
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