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Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

Category: Home Ec

Things around the home & hearth

Virgin Mobile Customer Service

Got an email from Virgin Mobile:

From: Virgin Mobile <virginmobile-service@my.vmu-mail.com>
Date: Today 14:34:24

Hi ED,

Top-Up now to save your service!

Since you haven’t added money to your account in the last 90 days, your phone has stopped working. If you don’t take emergency action and Top-Up now, you might lose your phone number and any balance remaining in your account.

Given that I have the account set to recharge itself every 90 days and it’s been doing that for a couple of years, I thought perhaps my credit card had flipped past the expiration date on file. Fighting my way through VM’s craptastic website, noooo, that’s not the case.

Nay, verily, the account had topped itself off at 11:34, exactly three hours before that email went out.

So I asked the obvious question, doggedly using the impenetrable Customer Service form:

The phone seems OK.
What’s going on?

Which produced this missive:

Response (Rommel) – 06/23/2010 08:32 AM
Hello Ed,

Thanks for contacting Virgin Mobile Customer Care.

I really appreciate the time you took to provide us with the information requested. I reviewed your account and found that indeed you have the auto payment set up correctly in your account. What happened is that the system always sent this alerts to keep the customers aware of their account status but since you have the auto payment option, please ignore this alerts, you don’t have to worry about it. The system charged your card for $15 on 6/22/2010.

Now, your account will be active until 9/20/2010. You don’t have to worry about the alerts, if you have credit on your card the system will always do it automatically. I apologize on behalf Virgin Mobile for any misunderstanding.

Perhaps it’s just me, but formulaic cut-and-paste obsequious fawning grates on my sensibilities. What I really want is action that resolves the problem, not just having VM’s Customer Service team blow it off. So I fired off a reply:

> please ignore this alerts,
> you don’t have to worry about it.

So, if I understand your advice correctly, when VM sends me a warning message like this:

——-
Since you haven’t added money to your account in the last 90 days, your phone has stopped working.
——-

I should just ignore it. Is that what you mean?

That’s stupid advice. You do not want to train your customers to ignore email from VM, particularly information saying their phones are “not working”.

The correct response is that you will take steps to ensure that VM never sends a bogus warning. The people responsible for sending that message must fix their own problem, at the source of the problem, where it happens.

Your customers should not be required to ignore anything from VM.

Let me know when you’ve taken effective action to prevent this from happening again.

Thanks…

No answer to date. I suspect VM doesn’t monitor incoming email. I wonder why?

2010-07-23
Epson R380 Printer: External Waste Ink Tank

Side cover latch and external tank hose

Having reset the waste ink counter on my Epson R380 printer, I finally got around to installing the external waste ink tank that will prevent the printer from drooling all over its innards.

Fortunately, rerouting the waste ink hose out of the printer doesn’t require the complete teardown mandated to remove the waste ink tank itself: you can do it by removing the cover, drilling a hole, moving the hose, and abandoning the tank in place.

The recommended way to remove the right-side side cover (as you face the printer) involves jamming a steel ruler into the “vent” (it’s actually a decorative feature) and shoving a latch out of the way. I trimmed a bit of stainless steel strip, shoved it in, and it worked fine. The cover latch is the complex central feature in the vertical gap between the case and the cover. The hose is routed out through a new hole down in the lower right corner.

With the cover off, it turns out that the “tank” is actually a “tray” (which is what it’s called in the maintenance manual) filled with absorbent fuzz. There’s no lid, so it appears they’re counting on evaporation to keep the total volume under control and surface tension on the fuzz to keep the ink from leaking when you tip the printer. I suspect if the printer spent a lot of time on its ear, though, things would get messy.

Internal tank and OEM hose

Removing the hose from the barbed fitting goes easier with a small screwdriver pushing it along; you (well, I) can’t just pull the hose off. It’s a very flexible silicone rubber (?) hose with an internal liner: very nice stuff.

The hose seems to drain only the head-cleaning station, not the long waste ink tank / tray across the width of the printer that catches overspray from borderless printing. That counter is at 5% of its rated maximum, so I’ll let it slide.

The ink, being adsorbed in the fuzz, won’t leak back out of the tray, so there’s no need to plug the barbed fitting.

Hole in case and rerouted hose

I used the 1/4-inch tip of a fat step drill to poke a hole at the very bottom of the plastic case, behind the pillar holding the white printer mechanism. The far end of the hose connects to a pump somewhere back in the bowels of the printer and that hole position freed up the longest amount of hose.

Much to my surprise, the tube wasn’t full of ink and didn’t bloosh blackness all over everything. Perhaps the hose drains back to the pump between head cleanings?

Then it’s just a matter of buttoning up the case, joining the hoses with the supplied barbed fitting, sticking the external tank’s hook-and-loop strip to the printer, and trimming the hose to fit. It Would Be Nice If the new tank hose were the same flexy silicone stuff as the OEM hose, but it looks to be ordinary Tygon-ish tubing and is a bit stiffer than I’d like.

External waste ink tank in place

No ink has reached the new hose yet, but I’m sure the next few head cleaning cycles will push out some oodge.

The tank vendor suggests “recycling” the waste ink by diluting it with black ink, but I’ll just discard it. Bulk ink isn’t all that expensive, compared to OEM ink cartridges, and I’d rather not borrow trouble.

2010-07-22
Sears Kenmore HE3 Washer Teardown: Tub Damage Assessment
After removing the concrete weights from the tub, I saw where the piddle of water was coming from: the stainless steel drum (formally: Basket) had been chewing on the plastic Tub for quite some time. That’s most likely the strange new sound Mary heard, but it’s impossible to see the affected area without gutting the entire washer.

The top left section, below the detergent dispenser.

Outer Tub Damage – Top Left

The top right section.

Outer Tub Damage – Top Right

I assumed the damage was limited to the top section, because the drum would pivot downward under load. That turned out to be incorrect, as I realized when I looked behind the lower concrete weight: the Tub was scored through all the way around.

Here’s a view of the interior, taken after I removed the Tub from the washer and pried off all the clamps that secure the Front Tub to the Rear Tub.

Outer Tub Damage – Inside View

And a closeup…

Outer Tub Damage – Inside Detail

The drum has a ridge around the front circumference where the round perforated shell joins the convoluted front piece that necks down into the opening behind the door. That ridge contacts the plastic Tub and, even though it’s smooth, generates enough friction to burn through the Tub.

Now, this is the point where the repairman turns to you and says that, although he (it’s always a he) can replace the drum and Tub, the total cost will be more than a whole new washer.

Sticker price for the parts, direct from Sears, looks like this:
- Stainless Steel Basket: $364
- Front Tub: $150
Onto that, reports from various forums indicate that you will have incurred some labor charges:
- Labor: $120+ to this point
- Parts Service Fee: $50 (I don’t know what that is, either)
A new HE3 washer is $850, more or less.

Ah, you ask, isn’t there a Lifetime Limited Warranty on the Stainless Steel Drum? Why, yes, there is, and that’s a story all in itself …
2010-07-20
Sears Kenmore HE3 Washer Teardown: Tub Grounding Connection

Tub Grounding Connection

Before you pull the tub out of the washer, you must disconnect the ground wire from the bearing behind the pulley. This isn’t impossible… it just looks that way.

There’s a notch molded into the pulley that provides access to the ring terminal. IIRC, it’s a Torx T15 screw and there’s just barely enough clearance for a magnetic tip holder in there.

For some unknown reason, the tapped hole on our washer was filled with steel filings that clogged the threads. I ran the screw in until it stopped, backed it out, cleaned off the filings, and repeated until it came out mostly clean.

The picture is after a few cleaning passes; the screw came out covered with filings the first time!

Magnetized Screw

The magnetization comes from the holder I used for the Torx bit, but it certainly was handy.

2010-07-19
Sears Kenmore HE3 Washer Teardown: Shock Absorbers

HE3 Washer Shock Absorber

The instructions you’ll find elsewhere tell you to just twist the head of the shock absorber a quarter-turn to release it. That’ll probably work, although I think you’ll break the two locking clips that hold the head in place, after which you’re depending on friction to prevent the whole affair from shaking loose.

The head is the small bump visible inside the white bracket on the tub. The locking clips are the tabs inside the square shape just under the bracket. It’s obvious when you see it, if you know what you’re looking for.

The trick is to use a small screwdriver to pry the locking clips downward while twisting the head. This is impossibly awkward, but you can get one started, lever the other one out, and then both will suddenly slide free as the head turns.

If you’ve removed the three concrete tub weights, the tub will rise up as you release each shock absorber. Mind your fingers!

2010-07-18
Sears Kenmore HE3 Washer Teardown: Control Panel

In order to get the drum out, you must remove the Control Panel and Top Front Brace

Start by unplugging the ribbon cable from the side of the Machine Control Microcomputer. Note the cute little latch holding the connector plug in place. Things will not go well with you if you break that latch off; the plug will vibrate loose.

Control Panel plug at Machine Control unit

Unthread the ribbon cable from the clips all the way around the rear and right side of the washer body.

The Control Panel has three mechanical attachments:

Remove the screw behind detergent drawer on far left. Put the drawer in a tray so it doesn’t drool all over the place.

Control Panel – left screw

Unsnap latch inside the washer body on far right. By now you’ve removed the top, so just reach inside and shove the tab over a bit to the right to release the latch.

Control Panel – right-side latch

Unsnap latch in the middle. This one baffled me, but all you must do is push upward with a screwdriver (or maybe a dowel) inside the notch on the bottom of the Control Panel Cover directly above the middle of the door opening.

Control Panel – center latch

Then feed the ribbon cable through the opening.

Now you can get to the screws that hold the Front Panel in place. Don’t remove those until you disconnect the Bellow that seals the Tub to the Panel and unhook the Door Lock assembly.

2010-07-17
Sears Kenmore HE3 Washer Teardown: Toe Panel

It turns out you can get access to the extractor pump from the front of the washer, without having to take the back off and reach all the way through. If any of the problems we’ve ever had with the washer could have been fixed just by reaching into the pump, that’d be nice to know.

Remove three Torx T-20 screws at the very bottom of the lower front panel, known as the Toe Panel, and it drops right out.

If you have something jammed in the pump, you can put a tray underneath, unscrew the obvious plug, and bloosh water all over the place. I don’t know how you’d know you had something in jammed in the pump, but that’s how you get to it.

Pump access from Toe Panel

In our case, the junk was spread all through the washer…

2010-07-16