Rick's b.log - entry 2020/03/07

Mower madness

So what to do? Well, that gaping hole in the front of the mower bugged me.

So I liberated a section of "chicken wire" (not quite, but you'll know what I mean) from a shed, folded it in half for double thickness, bent it into shape, and bolted it to the front of the mower.

Epic.

Well, no, not really. More like meh.

But since I'm Rick... I liberated a section of "chicken wire" from a shed, folded it in half for double thickness, bent it into shape, bolted it to the front of the mower, and then bolted on an LED floodlight bar.

Epic.

Putting the hardware into place was the easy part. The harder part was taking things apart to probe around with a multimeter in order to determine where I could tap off 12V. I wanted it to work when the key is in the "run" position, not off. I added a switch so it didn't need to be running all the time. I also discovered that there is no fuse, what looks like a place where a fuse ought to be is a loop of wire. Perhaps because the only low-current 12V object is the solenoid, they didn't see a need to have a fuse? In addition to that, there's no obvious rectifier. The "alternator" is a bunch of magnets in the flywheel that pass over coils of wire wound in different directions to create an AC waveform. Well, that's the theory. Reality is buried somewhere between the crank-case and the flywheel. It looks like there are two yellow wires and one is being ignored, the other being the output fed back into the battery. Is this simply taking half of an AC waveform or something?

Still, I worked out how and where to tap it, so fitted a nice flick switch:

And, for fun, a recent drive around. It kind of sucks that the grass is growing rapidly and I have a new toy that ought to tame the grass... but it's too wet! Argh! So I'm just driving to get a feel for the thing (it's pretty nippy in fourth gear) and not mowing.

How are you liking YouTube?

A rather biased set of responses, don't you think?

Felicity

Your comments:

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David Pilling, 8th March 2020, 13:37

It's common to get online questionnaires about shops, any hope that one might influence things for the better is dashed by the questions they choose to ask. Odd they know what they're interested in, not what the customers might be worried about. Much time is spent answering things they know "which shop did you go to", "what did you buy".    Sorry to say it but the best thing ever is the garage coming to pick up the car for service - they still put grease on the steering wheel and muck up the mirrors/seat - so just like a real service but without spending three hours killing time in the back of beyond.

John WILLIAMS, 9th March 2020, 10:24

> I'll bring my own coke thanks.    And record sleeve/razor blade - or have I watched too many films?

Rick, 9th March 2020, 15:28

Isn't it supposed to be a mirror, a drinking straw, and a razor blade?    [I've watched too many films as well]

Rick, 9th March 2020, 15:28

Of course, they'll need to change that - plastic straws aren't good for the environment.

David Pilling, 13th March 2020, 13:35

"EU sewage tests show ‘ecstasy is no longer a niche drug’"

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