Good morning!!!!

[Bird]

Local BMW motorcycle dealer had both parts I needed to get the old bike back on the road for this weekend's campout, so I'll swing by there today while I'm in town for groceries.

I likely overlooked it somewhere, but what model BMW do you have? My last motorcycle was a 1987 BMW R80RT full dress. I went from Dallas one morning to Colorado Springs to visit a former neighbor for a couple of days. Then the day I came home, I rope up to the top of Pike's Peak first. Pretty nice bike, but not nearly as nice as the 1985 Aspencade that I rode to the FBI National Academy in 1986.

 

[PJSprog]

I likely overlooked it somewhere, but what model BMW do you have? My last motorcycle was a 1987 BMW R80RT full dress. I went from Dallas one morning to Colorado Springs to visit a former neighbor for a couple of days. Then the day I came home, I rope up to the top of Pike's Peak first. Pretty nice bike, but not nearly as nice as the 1985 Aspencade that I rode to the FBI National Academy in 1986.

Yeah, I'm kind of torn on that, Bird. My R100RT is the bike I miss the most, but I'm not sure it would hold up to a side-by-side comparison with a 'Wing. As smooth rides go, I've not found anything better than a Goldwing.

 

[rswyan]

61.9F with some high thin clouds @ 11:30. High today forecast to be 68F, with a 50% chance of rain late this afternoon/evening.

The little digital to analog NTSC converter appears to have failed the other night ... exactly when The Woman was punching some buttons on it. I really doubt that had anything to do with the failure though. It's a weird little box ... has a red light on it ... that comes on when you turn it off ... (no visible indication that it's on when it's on)

So I had to pull out a little 20" Emerson flat CRT TV that is capable of decoding digital OTA signals that the kids didn't want to move and hook it up. We've gone from a 52" LCD flat screen to an analog 27" CRT to a digital 20" CRT ... the way this is headed we'll be reduced to watching our iPhones before too very long ... :laughing:

Anyways that prompted me to start digging into what might be wrong with the Phillips 52" flat screen. Has sound but no picture (black screen) Looking at the back of the tv there is some indication that the backlight is coming on (white light visible down in the lower left corner)

Back when it first went down, I did a little checking into it and thought it might an inverter board - there are two: master and slave - for the backlight. Yesterday I pulled the back cover and did more checking on the internet ... spent most of the day dicking around with it.

Found out the inverter boards are in short supply and pretty scarce. Also found out there is another board - the "T-Conn" board - which if failed, will produce similar symptoms.

Examined the boards and couldn't locate any obvious signs of failure (blackened traces, burnt chips, etc.) Interestingly, I also ran a across a report in a thread on a forum from a fix-it guy that said the adhesive on the cooling/heatsink pads on the T-Conn board were degrading onto the PCB itself and causing voltage to be shunted where it shouldn't be. Solution ? Pull the board and soak it in acetone and scrub it off with a soft bristle brush. There several replies from folks that followed that recommendation confirming that it solved their problem ... so I ran down to the hardware and picked up some acetone and gave it a whirl ... Unfortunately that didn't solve the problem for us.

Not really sure what I'm going to do at this point ... there's a local Chinese guy that owns a tv repair shop that I could take it to ... but the cost of him diagnosing and repairing it will probably be cost prohibitive. Seems like a shame to waste it though. Did a little price checking on new flat screen tvs ... man ... those things sure have come down in price ... :confused2:

I did manage to sneak over to the polebarn yesterday and get a look at my topsoil ... it's still there ... didn't wash out ... :thumbsup:

So at least that was good news.

 

[rswyan]

Those are some impressive results, RS. Lots of nice topsoil in that pile, all for some scrap and a little elbow grease.:thumbsup:

Thanks ... although none of the metal was actually scrap ...

Gotta question for you, though. I noticed on the 1" screen, the 2x4s in the middle run from top to bottom. Wouldn't that orientation prevent some material that would otherwise make it through the screen from going through as it rolled/slid from top to bottom on top of the 2x4? Would turning the screen 90 degrees would prevent this and give you a higher yield?

That's a interesting observation ... :thumbsup:

Part of the reason I did it that way was because the hardware cloth I was using was 24" wide (3 pieces 24" wide = 6') ... so the hardware cloth is supported on the edges where two pieces abut.

I can't really just turn the screens 90 degrees, since they are longer in one dimension (6' x 5') ... but it might be worth exploring if I ever need to rebuild one of the screens.

Mebbe at least reduce the top to bottom runners to only two ... and have the rest of them go side to side.

 

[rswyan]

Woke up and bounced out of bed this morning without any need for an alarm clock. Is that because I felt refreshed, full of energy and eager to get on with the day ? Not exactly, but that's what I told my wife and she almost believed me for a few minutes, whereas the truth is more related to the reluctance of ageing body parts to store water any longer than absolutely necessary.

Brother I hear ya ... :laughing:

RS, thanks for showing the pictures of your soil screen, you have given me some good ideas there to spend a little more quality time with the welder. As well as soil, I have many tons of roughly broken tarmac to sort for repairing tracks and something like that could probably seperate out the bigger chunks that need crushing nicely.

My pleasure.

Main question now is how high up on the to-do list I can sneak that in while maintaining something resembling marital bliss. It is always a fine line between getting the no-real-harm eye roll, or the long stare that has consequences ... no apple pie :laughing:

Yup ... real familiar with that phenomena here.

 

[sodamo]

69°F and .03 inches rain. Sky was so clear, moon so bright last night.

Nothing too ambitious yesterday. After a bit of waiting checked the calendar to learn Sears is scheduled for Thu not Tue DUH!!!!
Loaded dogs into truck and drove wife up to Waimea for a DQ. Back home she proceeded to whip my butt at scrabble. Except the stupid part a really nice day.

Lot of TV commercials regarding the flu, perhaps what I'm recovering from and not a summer cold. I'll be getting the senior shot once I'm fully recovered.

Be safe
Have a great day

 

[lostcreekranch]

61.9F with some high thin clouds @ 11:30. High today forecast to be 68F, with a 50% chance of rain late this afternoon/evening.

The little digital to analog NTSC converter appears to have failed the other night ... exactly when The Woman was punching some buttons on it. I really doubt that had anything to do with the failure though. It's a weird little box ... has a red light on it ... that comes on when you turn it off ... (no visible indication that it's on when it's on)

So I had to pull out a little 20" Emerson flat CRT TV that is capable of decoding digital OTA signals that the kids didn't want to move and hook it up. We've gone from a 52" LCD flat screen to an analog 27" CRT to a digital 20" CRT ... the way this is headed we'll be reduced to watching our iPhones before too very long ... :laughing:

Anyways that prompted me to start digging into what might be wrong with the Phillips 52" flat screen. Has sound but no picture (black screen) Looking at the back of the tv there is some indication that the backlight is coming on (white light visible down in the lower left corner)

Back when it first went down, I did a little checking into it and thought it might an inverter board - there are two: master and slave - for the backlight. Yesterday I pulled the back cover and did more checking on the internet ... spent most of the day dicking around with it.

Found out the inverter boards are in short supply and pretty scarce. Also found out there is another board - the "T-Conn" board - which if failed, will produce similar symptoms.

Examined the boards and couldn't locate any obvious signs of failure (blackened traces, burnt chips, etc.) Interestingly, I also ran a across a report in a thread on a forum from a fix-it guy that said the adhesive on the cooling/heatsink pads on the T-Conn board were degrading onto the PCB itself and causing voltage to be shunted where it shouldn't be. Solution ? Pull the board and soak it in acetone and scrub it off with a soft bristle brush. There several replies from folks that followed that recommendation confirming that it solved their problem ... so I ran down to the hardware and picked up some acetone and gave it a whirl ... Unfortunately that didn't solve the problem for us.

Not really sure what I'm going to do at this point ... there's a local Chinese guy that owns a tv repair shop that I could take it to ... but the cost of him diagnosing and repairing it will probably be cost prohibitive. Seems like a shame to waste it though. Did a little price checking on new flat screen tvs ... man ... those things sure have come down in price ... :confused2:

I did manage to sneak over to the polebarn yesterday and get a look at my topsoil ... it's still there ... didn't wash out ... :thumbsup:

So at least that was good news.

I think that sooner rather than later the flat screens and most appliances, will just be buy, watch, throw away.

We bought the top of the line Sears Kenmore front load washer / dryer and pedestals for the ranch house we built 7 years ago. Both worked perfectly until one day the washer just wouldn't go. Got Sears tech out and he said control board failed and that it was built by Whirlpool but they no longer supported it. Bought new set of LG and hoping for longer service.

 

[rswyan]

Thanks RS, very informative. Biggest question is how did you determine the angle of the screens?

Rick,

Not sure if you are asking how I decided to use 45 degrees as the angle ... or how I determined the angle is currently at 45 degrees.

As to the former, I just arbitrarily picked 45 degrees ... based on having read some stuff about dump trailers and how much angle was necessary, at a minimum, to get them to dump.

On the latter, I didn't actually measure it before I made the post yesterday ... and am mostly operating off memory. I am reasonably certain that 45 degrees is correct ... primarily because it's very easy to set the angle on the bandsaw to 45 degrees ... using a combination square on the bandsaw's vise and the blade.

I originally modeled the frame/base in 3D in my CAD program to come up with a workable design, and to come up with dimensions/lengths for a cut list for the individual pieces ... factoring in the dimensions of the old wooden base (which was actually a little too tall)

Here's a pic of the stops, made from 1/4 x 2 bar stock that keep the screen(s) from sliding off the frame:

You can also see how deformed the hardware cloth is from having large rocks (size of a football or larger) dropped on it.

 

[rswyan]

The grass/weed/root debris that tend to get caught in the screen:

A couple more pics of all my "treasure" ... :laughing:

Chips and firewood:

The big compost pile in background, burn pile in the middle, and the two most recent "deliveries" from Zack in the foreground:

 

[lostcreekranch]

Rick,

Not sure if you are asking how I decided to use 45 degrees as the angle ... or how I determined the angle is currently at 45 degrees.

As to the former, I just arbitrarily picked 45 degrees ... based on having read some stuff about dump trailers and how much angle was necessary, at a minimum, to get them to dump.

On the latter, I didn't actually measure it before I made the post yesterday ... and am mostly operating off memory. I am reasonably certain that 45 degrees is correct ... primarily because it's very easy to set the angle on the bandsaw to 45 degrees ... using a combination square on the bandsaw's vise and the blade.

I originally modeled the frame/base in 3D in my CAD program to come up with a workable design, and to come up with dimensions/lengths for a cut list for the individual pieces ... factoring in the dimensions of the old wooden base (which was actually a little too tall)

Here's a pic of the stops, made from 1/4 x 2 bar stock that keep the screen(s) from sliding off the frame:

View attachment 520971

You can also see how deformed the hardware cloth is from having large rocks (size of a football or larger) dropped on it.

Hey, if 45 degrees works, no sense in over thinking it. Thanks RS!

Thanks for the pictures too.