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| Steve Ohm's generator wouldn't start, run, or charge it's battery. He could hotwire it and keep it running. Closer examination revealed starter-solenoid current blew this trace. |
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| Field Service |
| I soldered in wires to replace the blown traces. |
| I love the rush of seeing a system come to life. We never know what obstructions we'll face. It's a process of establishing supremacy over dark forces. Every product needs a champion. But there's nobody. And I'm an impostor. What could I offer? Even I don't know. I just tidy things up wherever necessary. I enjoy doing it, which means I don't get frustratrated or wander away. The system is my temporary home. |
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| Mike Kuff bought a bench grinder for $20 from the Sears scrap shelf. Failure analysis revealed a start-winding torn-up by internal debris and motion. We were 225 miles from the nearest city. But I had the right magnet-wire with me. Above, we see where it took me. The redish winding is new. And I tied it all up before doing final assembly. It checked out fine. |
| Jim Ranger bought a skidder. Something was draining the batteries whenever it sat unused. So the batteries froze and broke. Upon closer examination, our mystery-current fed into the alternator field drive circuitry. I'd never seen anything like it: it had the integral regulator. But the only visible connection to the alternator was a lone output terminal (there was no connector, no charge indicator output, and no keyswitched 12V input). The voltage output seemed slightly high too (15V). So I added heatsink-mounted diodes. (One to provide keyswitched battery-voltage to the lone alternator terminal; and another for delivering output from it to the battery.) I'm more comfortable with our resulting 14V charge rate too. Jim's happy. That's what counts. |
| I like being an invisible force behind systems that will go on without me. |
| Steve stepped out to run an errand. I was in and out before he got back. |
| Six months later he called to thank me for sealing his refrigerator door. I wonder how he knew I did that? |
| Jim went to bed knowing he had this problem. We tested the fix in the morning. |
| Mike felt duped when he first saw the extent of the damage. He offered me the carcass. But no: I got it going--and stuck him with it--my idea of a practical joke. |