When You Start a 'Ten Minute Job' Which Ends Up Taking Hours.

The Sock

The Sock

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Started, this morning, to top off the oil, dropped it for a scheduled change after I got back, last night.
Decided to change my 0.8 to a 0.9kg/mm fork spring to maintain my 100mm of travel.
While the fork clamp is off, I might as well change my Speedo and Tacho back to my, now overhauled, original clocks.
Discover that the back plates are different, requiring opening up the headlamp and changing the instrument leads over.
On the bright side, my guessed preload position worked out bang on, to the millimeter. :)
Six hours later, I'm out roadtesting/checking for leaks, etc and all is good.

Overhauled Original Clocks.JPG
 
That is my every day job.
All we do is take a 2 minute job and turn it into a days work.
There is an old saying that applies very well. "Every 2 minute job is just one snapped stud away from being a 6 hour ordeal" Very true in our classic car and bike world.
Welcome to reality :D:D:D
 
Trying to get the Horn working on my Atlas was intensely frustrating, think Ship in a Bottle. I still haven't found a way to pull the plastic dirtbike-style Headlight off, it's usually a few easy-to-get-at bolts. Not on that bike it ain't. It's like they assembled it from the inside and worked their way out.
 
I've got a little job that I hoped I could do in a day, but it's been on the bench for a few weeks now. It's not a Laverda, but bike-related. It's the dash panel from my Benelli. The LCD panel that displays speed amongst other things has lost a bunch of segments. Not being too clever with electronics, I have to work up the courage to attack each level as I get into it more deeply.

I've now got it stripped down to the PC board, which was a task in itself. I had to make a little puller to get the hands off the dials as they were superglued on. I've checked as many solder joints as I can for continuity. Haven't found any dry joints. Next step is to try to disassemble the glass display panel itself out of its mounting frame to see if it has moisture or dirt along the edge where all the little contacts are. I'm proceeding very carefully for fear of busting something. New instrument panels are available, but at a cost of about $1000.

board2.JPG
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Zebra strips under the LCD glass to contacts on the pcb proper, will be a starting point. All very high impedance in LCD drive circuits. Can get complex Cam, no news there. Mass connection system, ie the conductive segments in the Zebra strip is smaller than the inter contact distance on the pcb, that is the zebra strip will always connect LCD to PCB without any shorts inter contacts. Iso alcohol for cleaning zebra and pcb contacts, do be careful on the glass LCD contact points with the Iso, it will bleed into the glass laminate and you will have display contamination almost impossible to rectify.

Perhaps best is to power up the panel on the bench and apply delicate pressure to the display proper to see if segments for moment activate, then you have an indicator where the issue or issues lay. There are a number of cautions working on LCD displays Cam, your capable though experience is hard won in not damaging the parts.


Hope that helps, j.
 
Near A135, looks like a hot spot? Maybe the 3-pin through-hole component on the other side? Not sure if it’s damaged A135 too, you’ll need a sharp soldering iron, good glasses and a steady hand to replace any of those SMDs… not something I’m much good at 😬
 
Maybe Andy that is R135? Possibly resin residue, though i see what you mean. As there are segmants working unlikely a common supply issue is valid.
Can see Cams hands shaking now... grin. Use a 0,1m/m pure copper tip on a UK ANTEX soldering pencil, hooked up to variable PSU, here. Plus hold breath while soldering with silver loaded 32awg size cored solder. If you short out any pads, come back here for advice, do not try to unbridge the shorts without help. HTH j.
 
julian said:
All we do is take a 2 minute job and turn it into a days work.
Click to expand...

This is very much the case with me ( but for a different reason ) .........Any work I do now tends to be conducted at a snails pace ........ I reckon it must be down to advancing years / old age ....... Just removing a front mudguard today ...... Four pan head screws and a couple of 10 mm bolts / locknuts ....... After just removing the two bolts , I had to sit back and take a rest , then decided I`d better get up again to remove the pan heads ...... Twenty five minutes to complete a job which would / should take about five minutes tops ....... Really need a bike lift ...... ABBA stands are ok , but things like oil drain bolts mean grovelling about on the floor , which I don`t mind really , except when I`ve finally struggled to my feet again , it`s time for another ten minute rest in order to recover .........

Anything which involves stooping , or bending over for more than a couple of minutes at a time , usually means an aching back , so it`s yet another case of sitting down for twenty minutes or so until I feel like doing something again .....

So it`s not just ten minute jobs that end up taking hours , it`s any bloody job really .................. At least working at a more relaxed ( sedentary ) pace means that if I encounter a problem , I don`t rush into it with an impact driver and a bloody great hammer ( although that can help sometimes ) , but tend to sit down and stare at the offending item for yet another twenty minutes or so , by which time I`m in a more relaxed state of body and mind , and have figured out , ( or have remembered what I did last time ) , in order to solve the problem .........
 
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Normal Tony, once we were warriors... gigs are as bad, cannot do 4 hour stinkers as i call them, did a festival few years back, forget you do not have "brackets" at festivals, at the 90 minute continuous mark i was only held up by the tent pole behind me... had nothing left. Play slap Rockabilly bass, not a delicate form of playing.

Recent gig, had to pull the bracket up 3 songs short, my right hand had degenerated into a closed fist and all i could do was "paw" the strings. Factor in what i call 3 hours elevated effort, thats it in a day. If you extend that effort, be in deficit the next day before you start.

Eye sight, you omitted that eye sight is top of the tree... put the glasses down only to find you cannot see where you put them down to locate the glasses you cannot see, because you put them down. Only to find you did actually put them on top of your head and forgot to then assume the glasses are laying about some where, never finding them until you ask for help, to be told they are on top of your head all the while... would i lie? Sad truth.... iam Mr Richards counterfoil to Mrs Richards in Fawlty Towers.... funny and not funny....j
 
iis_iis said:
Eye sight, you omitted that eye sight is top of the tree... put the glasses down only to find you cannot see where you put them down to locate the glasses you cannot see, because you put them down. Only to find you did actually put them on top of your head and forgot to then assume the glasses are laying about some where, never finding them until you ask for help, to be told they are on top of your head all the while... would i lie? Sad truth.... iam Mr Richards counterfoil to Mrs Richards in Fawlty Towers.... funny and not funny....j
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You`re right about eyesight Jon ......... For close up work I remove my specs , usually manage to find them again , but once placed them on the ground next to me ( I was on my knees staring at a electrical connector or something ) ........ moved the toolbox out of the way , by placing it right on top of the specs ........ lenses survived , but frame was mangled ...... had a 20 mile ride home from the garage , so super-glued the lenses back into what remained of the frames , and rode home staring through super-glue thumbprints ....... Got spare specs , but need an opticians check up soon anyway .........


I like the Mrs Richards reference ....... she was actually deaf as a post , as you know ...........

Basil ..... " She ( Polly ) thought you wanted to write ...... " ......

Mrs Richards ..... " Fight ? , I`ll give her a fight ...... ! .... " ......
 
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Yes she also misplaced her glasses, as Poly pointed out on her head as i recall, then why trust my memory, right up there with eyesight... right lot we are, fancy doing all the age laundry in public like this.... a wry smile here.... j
 
I need a set of glasses tethers, being bald has them falling to the floor multiple times a day. One day someone will make a fortune making seamless municipal focal-length glasses. Distance, Computer Distance, reading distance, and close. I am on the Cataract List in the next 6 months for my bad eye, apparently, they design the new lens to get back what's been lost, MAYBE. That would be great to get some central vision acuity back in that eye.
 
Once in a room of elec trade teachers, ( i ) recalled femtoamp measurements, never heard of the term, not one of them. Nor it seems powers of 10.... used to teach the trades basic engineering math using powers of 10. Yes Bazzee there are a few typo's in that pdf, could you imagine in our day the TAFE teacher allowing that, as a student once failed a test because i used upper case M in place of lower case, Teacher was correct, that kind of error is what caused dangerous situations. The there was our slide rules for calcs... "oh 'ye...sheer luxury, these modern folk...j
 
iis_iis said:
Once in a room of elec trade teachers, ( i ) recalled femtoamp measurements, never heard of the term, not one of them. Nor it seems powers of 10.... used to teach the trades basic engineering math using powers of 10. Yes Bazzee there are a few typo's in that pdf, could you imagine in our day the TAFE teacher allowing that, as a student once failed a test because i used upper case M in place of lower case, Teacher was correct, that kind of error is what caused dangerous situations. The there was our slide rules for calcs... "oh 'ye...sheer luxury, these modern folk...j
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Engineering notation is covered fairly early in the syllabus for DC circuits in both trade and engineering courses at TAFE. femto and atto don't have much usage in that context, nor Tera and Peta.

I have seen ancient circuit diagrams of vacuum tube equipment where capacitance values were indicated with mF, presumably intending to represent microfarads not millifarads! I think they must predate the common use of engineering notation, although context generally helps interpret this usage.

Might have strayed a little off topic here.

cheers,

bazzee
 
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