Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.
We woke just after midnight to a completely dark and silent house, I padded around shutting of half a dozen UPS units under various desks and benches, and we eventually got back to sleep:
Rt 376 midnight crash – 2021-07-20 – status
According to our clocks, power actually returned about four hours later.
Our grocery ride the next morning went past the crash site:
Rt 376 midnight crash – 2021-07-20 – A
Tracks in the grass leading up to the smashed mailbox on our right suggest the driver didn’t quite make the very slight curve leading to the straight section.
It was garbage collection day and the debris field covered the entire front lawn:
Rt 376 midnight crash – 2021-07-20 – B
Both poles have rectangular reflectors, but the one on the smashed pole (on the left) shows the pole is maybe four feet shorter than it used to be.
We have no idea how a can of white paint got involved in the proceedings:
Quite some years ago, an errant driver demolished the front corner of that house and, more recently, the whole building burned out, so there may be a jinx on the site.
The Bafang battery charger uses an AC line cord “binocular” connector with what must be the weakest spring contacts ever made, which finally annoyed me enough to fix:
Bafang charger – AC line cord anchor
Also, the case now sports four thick fuzzy felt feet to keep it from sliding around quite so easily.
Another customer-does-the-last-ten-percent product …
With the Bafang BBS02 and all its gimcrackery on the Terry Symmetry buttoned up and ready to go, I took a few closeout pictures for future reference.
The motor has a sheaf of wires sticking out of the bottom crying out for a protective covering:
Bafang BBS02 – wire bundle cover
Although cameras tell only the truth they’re allowed to see and can be made to lie by omission, sometimes their latent truth was completely invisible to eyewitnesses in real time.
I only noticed the mis-routed shift cable when I looked through the last set of pictures.
It should pass through the plastic channel under the metal tab holding the cable guide to the bottom bracket shell:
Bafang BBS02 – wire bundle vs shift cable
Normally, aiming the cable into the channel is no big deal. In this case, I had to undo the shift cable, remove the left crank, loosen the motor and rotate it out of the way, nudge the cable with a small screwdriver, then reinstall in reverse order.
The original BBS02 reaction spacer for Gee’s Terry Symmetry didn’t work quite the way I expected:
Bafang BBS02 – reaction block displacement
The motor evidently vibrates enough to propel the block forward, shearing the double-sticky foam tape which was never intended to resist force in that plane. I thought the block was located at the point where the motor casing was tangent to the frame tube, so as to equalize the forces in both directions, but … nope.
A revised design based on measurements informed by new knowledge:
Terry – Bafang motor spacer – improved – solid model
The upper curve is now symmetric and the whole block mounts more rearward under the bottom bracket lug, where some tedious work with a machinists square located the real tangent point:
Bafang BBS02 – reaction block improvement
The motor sure doesn’t look like it’s tangent, but a dry fit showed all the curves laid against the case and tubes.
The brazing fillet means the step fitting the downtube can’t sit snug against the edge of the lug, but most of the reaction force should go through the section into the lug, near the center of the block.
A crude marker will keep track of any motion:
Bafang BBS02 – reaction block marker
I think the symmetric curve against the motor has enough projection to keep the block from wandering off, even if I haven’t gotten the location exactly right.
A gusty thunderstorm knocked out power across Dutchess County, including half the service to our house. Being glad the refrigerator and freezer were on the live phase, I shut off the affected breakers on the dead phase, as well as all the 240 V breakers, and, with the living room darkened, we skipped our evening storytime.
By the next morning, a quick lamp test showed the recloser out on the pole had worked its magic, so I flipped all the breakers back on. The living room remained dark, prompting an investigation of the fuse box feeding the original house wiring:
Given what happens while wind and falling branches knock power lines askew, anything is possible. I have no idea where the fault current went, but replacing the fuse brought the living room back to normal.
None of the various UPS / lamps / phones seem damaged; I admit not peering inside the outlets to check for arc damage.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 