Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.
The granular surface does not get along well with the 5× digital zoom required to fill the phone’s sensor, but you get the general idea:
Figaro TGS880 – element detail
The heater measured 30 Ω on the dot and the sensor was an open circuit on the 100 MΩ range. Connecting the heater to a 5 V supply dropped the sensor resistance to 800 kΩ @ 50 %RH and a warm breath punched it to about 2 MΩ. That’s with an ohmmeter because I haven’t yet unpacked the Electronics Bench, but seems far above the spec of 20-70 kΩ in air.
So it’s still a sensor, even if it’s not within spec.
The WordPress AI-generated image for this post is … SFnal:
Figaro TGS-880 Gas Sensor – AI generated image
My pictures apparently aren’t up to contemporary blog standards …
The Samsung over-the-range microwave (ME18H704SFS, should you care) that Came With The House™ coughed up a C-11 error code resolving to “replace the gas / humidity sensor”. Replacement DE32-60013A sensors are readily available, although if you’re expecting a Genuine Samsung Part from Amazon, that is not the universe I live in.
You can remove the upper front bezel from the microwave to reveal the slotted front cover of the compartment containing the sensor, but you cannot replace the sensor without extracting the microwave from above the stove and removing its shell. The bottom of the microwave sits about 18 inches above the stove, so I put a 16 inch cubical moving box (of which we have a near-infinite supply) on the stove to reduce the risk of dropping the mumble thing while removing it.
A total of 20 screws, here laid out in roughly geographic order, hold the shell to the inner frame:
Samsung microwave – cabinet screws
With all the screws out, slide the shell toward the rear by more than you might think to clear the latches along both sides. The latches along the front of the right side look like this:
Samsung microwave – shell side latches
With the shell off, the sensor compartment on the top of the microwave enclosure is revealed:
Samsung microwave – TGS880 enclosure
Although you might think removing those two screws would grant access to the sensor compartment and let you replace the sensor (if you have very long fingers), that is not the case: the small tab toward the left side of the louvered front plate prevents you from sliding it and the plate is not hinged along its left side.
The sensor is held into the socket by a clip snapping into the arms that, in turn, hold the socket into the side wall:
Samsung microwave – TGS880 mount detail
A small screwdriver will assist in releasing the latches on the clip arms; squeezing them in the obvious way didn’t get the job done.
The old sensor then unplugs and the new one plugs in the obvious manner; it is not polarized and either orientation works.
For completeness, the top of the electronics bay:
Samsung microwave – top interior
The magnetron and HV transformer live on the right side:
Samsung microwave – left interior
Then you reassemble in reverse order, heave the microwave atop the 16 inch cubical box, hoist it onto the rail along the back, and install the two loooong screws from the top while holding the front upward with one knee. I took the liberty of replacing the janky steel plates pretending to be washers with actual fender washers:
Samsung microwave – mounting screw
And now it works the way it should.
Of course, the microwave’s “beverage” mode assumes you’re drinking a piddly 8 ounces, rather than sipping from a manly 20 ounce mug:
Magnetic stirrer – vinyl surface
It heats 9 ounces of milk + cocoa just fine, but those 18 ounces of water for tea become just barely tepid.
WordPress has gone full-frontal AI and suggested I use this AI creation as the Featured Image:
The WordPress AI generated this evaluation of my writing:
The content provides a detailed guide on replacing the gas/humidity sensor in a Samsung over-the-range microwave. Consider adding subheadings to break down the process for easier reading. Additionally, including a brief introduction and a conclusion summarizing the key points would enhance the post. The technical details and images greatly support the instructions. Great job!
Mary redesignated the Prince Tournament 6800 ping-pong table that Came With The House™ as her quilting layout table, so it now fills much of the Sewing Room (f.k.a. the Living Room):
Mary with quilt on ping-pong table
For reasons lost in the table’s history, the two halves of the top surface weren’t quite flush on one side, by a matter of a few millimeters. This bothered me far more than it did her, so the delay until I finally fixed it wasn’t critical:
Prince ping-pong table leveler
That’s 3 mm plywood + 1.5 mm Trocraft Eco pushing the surface upward just enough to almost make the joint (visible near the bottom of the picture) flush within +2 -1 mm across the table width, making it obvious that neither piece is exactly planar.
The shape has mixed metric and inch dimensions, for no reason I know:
Prince ping-pong table leveler
If you ever need such a thing, remember to use screws about 4 mm longer than the ones you took out.
Our ancient Kenmore microwave has a three-armed turntable drive:
Kenmore Microwave – turntable installed
After all these years the (white) rollers have worn to the extent they fall off the (brown) drive arms all too easily. They ride in a recessed track in the glass plate that holds them in place during normal operation, but having once again found a roller wandering around when I put the turntable back in, it’s time for at least a temporary fix.
Everything is, of course, plastic:
Kenmore Microwave – turntable drive roller parts
I considered drilling the end of the axle and tapping it for a nylon screw + washer, but came to my senses just in time:
Kenmore Microwave – turntable drive
The laser-cut parchment paper disk (barely) fits over the axle against the outside of the roller, while allowing the hot-melt glue to glom onto the undercut and hold everything in place:
Kenmore Microwave – roller glopped
I expect the paper to wear / fall off in short order, but the HDPE roller won’t bind against the glue and the blob should remain latched in place for a while.
When those hideous glue blobs do fall off, I’ll reconsider drilling & tapping. More likely, I’ll just fire up the glue gun again.
Actual use required trimming the blob from the upper side of the roller / hub, because the track in the glass plate fits very close against the edge of the roller. The hideous glue blob slid freely on the roller, but jammed firmly against the plate, causing it to turn at half speed.
It turns out that if you drop a heavy sheet of laminated cardboard in exactly the right spot, you can shear the pot metal handle right off a two-step folding step stool:
Folding step stool – exposed handle
I mean, it’s just a perfect target:
Folding step stool – handle detail
It was a clean break leaving gritty surfaces ideal for JB Weld epoxy and a clamp:
Folding step stool – epoxy clamping
In truth, using epoxy in tension isn’t a good idea, but this is light duty and the repair ought to be good for a while.
Now, as to why I was standing on a two-step ladder fiddling with a heavy sheet of laminated cardboard, that story must wait for a while …
Every tub & shower looks like this after a decade or so:
Old tub caulk
Go look carefully at your bathroom if you don’t believe me.
Tubs have a raised lip around their perimeter, but our downstairs bathroom had a caulk crack that routed water running down the wall under the tile, over the lip, and onto the subfloor beside the tub. This had been going on unnoticed for years, but we apparently take showers differently enough to put a puddle of water on the basement floor.
Some exploratory surgery revealed a patch of rotted subfloor (which is why we know it was an ongoing problem), but no structural damage. A few hours of tedious razor knife and hook work extracted the old caulk, after which squirting new caulk took almost no time at all:
New tub caulk
I screwed a small fan across the subfloor opening to pull air across the wet area:
Subfloor fan drying
A few days dried things out nicely, so I can proceed with a project involving the adjacent shower stall, about which more later.
They don’t install drain pipes like that any more! Judging from the many scorch marks on the joists, the plumber had considerable difficulty keeping enough heat on the fittings for good solder joints.
The cord path isn’t at all obvious, even given the smudges on the seat struts:
Tour Easy – seat mesh removed
Pictures of the original cord as installed at the Easy Racers “factory” served as guidance:
Tour Easy – seat cord – front viewTour Easy – seat cord – side viewTour Easy – seat cord – rear viewTour Easy – seat cord – bottom detail
The knots joining the cord at the top, taken juuust before I pulled the right knot apart:
Tour Easy – seat cord – knots
Those are in addition to my Tour Easy a few feet away, but you can never have enough pictures.
A 3.5 meter cord will be plenty long enough and marking the midpoint simplifies equalizing the two sides. The cord crosses the seat frame at the bottom from the lower guides, although I’m reasonably sure it wouldn’t matter if you ran separate lengths up the two sides with a knot in the lower guide.
The new cord claims to be 1000 pound test (200 pound working), but the vital dimension is its 2.6 mm diameter to match the OEM cord. It does not claim to be UV stabilized, which may turn out to be a problem over the course of a few years.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 
