Thursday, August 23, 2007

In flight repair


tiewire
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.
It’s a lovely evening so I fancy a sail. Running the batteries down in the Slingshot seems like a good idea and perhaps a gentle turn around the lake with Pigeon Pie.

First the Slingshot. Off it shoots across the lake and a couple of circuits are put in. Then on the far side of the water it makes a noise. The sort of horrible but undefinable noise that makes everyone who knows a bit about mechanical things think, “Something bad has happened.” with possibly a little added swearage.

The boat stopped dead in the water. Fortunately close enough to the bank that the handy long bamboo pole could just bring it in.

Looking inside the problem was obvious. The red wire that runs to the battery had wrapped itself around the coupling between motor and shaft. This is new – goody a fresh problem, I’d hate things to just work properly without adjustment after all…

OK, so I stick the wire out of the way using insulating tape. This lasts for about 4 laps and then the noise returns. On inspection the tape has worked as well as a chocolate teapot.

But my luck is in. When I removed the switch, this left the plate that includes the driver figure with a couple of holes. In the bottom of my boat toolbox there is some of that plastic coated wire normally used to seal sandwich bags. A couple of minutes with this and the wires are permanently pinned up out of danger.

I’ll need to tidy up a bit and perhaps add some black paint for looks, but it works a treat and the final battery is run down without incident.

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