Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.
My pre-ride thumb check showed a flat rear tire on Mary’s Tour Easy:
Glass chip – end view in tread
So we fetched groceries with the car.
As usual, no tire armor can withstand a glass blade:
Glass Chip – side view
It’s a bit over 5 mm from the knife edge to the ground-flat end, just long enough to punch through a rather well-worn Schwalbe Marathon Plus tire and poke a slow leak in the tube.
The tire has covered enough miles to wear the tread down to maybe half a millimeter over the blue armor layer:
Glass chip – tire damage
Time for a new tire!
For the record, the odometer is just shy of 35 k miles and she rides about 1500 miles a year; somewhat less over the last year for reasons not relevant here. As best I can tell, the tire has been on there for about five years and 7000 miles.
A month or so ago a Manjaro update caused all file loading to take minutes, rather than seconds. This sort of breakage seems endemic to rolling update distros, although most glitches vanish within a few days as more knowledgeable users track down the problems and apply the fixes.
File loads and program startups continued to be achingly slow, so I trawled the Interwebs in search of a resolution, tried various suggestions, and had no success until:
Although the oven igniter I just installed worked, its 3.0 A current fell below the gas valve’s minimum 3.3 A, which, based on past experience, suggested it would fail in short order. Just to see what happened, I sent a note to the seller, who offered a warranty swap and, after a bit of fiddling, the replacement arrived:
Oven Igniter B – 3.3 A initial current
This one draws exactly 3.3 A, so it just barely meets both its product description and the gas valve’s minimum current.
It turns out the camera’s case seal isn’t quite up to the task:
SJCam M50 camera condensation – detail
The lip around the front half of the case presses against a rubber gasket around the rear half, which means the water on the electronics chassis is inside the camera case:
SJCam M50 camera condensation – case edge
Fortunately, the water condensed on the inside of the glass lens protector, rather than on the camera itself:
SJCam M50 camera condensation – interior
I let the whole thing dry out on the bench for a few days and all seems right again.
The leak does make me think leaving it out in the rain is a Bad Idea™, which isn’t the sort of thought one should have about a trail camera.
For just under twenty bucks, Mary has a new clothes iron and I harvested the heating element from the longsuffering Sunbeam iron:
Sunbeam clothes iron – heater connections
Per the notations:
AC Line enters on middle terminal to thermostat
Thermostat controlled Line on left terminal to heater
AC Neutral to heater terminal on right
The heater measures 12.6 Ω cold, so 9.5 A → 1.1 kW.
The iron had an insulating sleeve on the thermostat shaft capped with a plastic dial, which makes perfect sense for something in contact with the hot side of the AC power cord.
The IC date codes suggest it’s been around since 2002, so it’s about two decades old. In that time, one of the two electrolytic capacitors succumbed to the plague:
Sunbeam clothes iron – capacitor plague
I think the relay and electronics implemented the iron’s timed shutoff function, but it does seem rather complex for that.
So the oven igniter I installed in January failed to ignite the oven when its current draw fell far enough below the valve’s 3.3 A minimum:
Oven Igniter – 2.3 A current
Of course, the seller no longer offers that particular igniter.
I described the problem:
The igniter just failed. The oven gas valve requires 3.3 to 3.6 amps to open, but this igniter now draws only 2.3 amps, as shown by the clamp-on current meter.
Because of the low current, the valve does not open and the oven does not heat.
The igniter should last more than five months! How do I go about getting a replacement or a refund? Thanks …
Which generated pretty much the reply you’d expect:
We are very sorry, because your product is 5 months from the date of purchase, we cannot offer you a refund. Please purchase another replacement.
Which made me a bit salty:
” the best quality for greater power connection, higher load and longer service life “
” We stand by our products, and our customers are our focus as a business. If you have any quality problem, please contact Funmit customer service team in time, and we will try our best to solve your problems “
So five months is “longer service life” with “the best quality”.
Bonus: now I understand what “try our best” means, too.
But to no avail:
Have a nice day! We are glad to serve you. We are very sorry that you are not satisfied with our products. Amazon.com Return Policy:Amazon.com Voluntary 30-Day Return Guarantee: You can return many items you have purchased within 30 days following delivery of the item to you. Our Voluntary 30-Day Return Guarantee does not affect your legal right of withdrawal in any way. However, the product has passed the return and exchange period, so it cannot provide you with a warranty. If you have other questions, please contact us in time, we will serve you wholeheartedly. Thank you. Sincere wishes, –By Funmit
So I bought a slightly more expensive igniter from a different randomly named seller that draws a slightly under-spec but entirely typical 3 A:
Oven Igniter – 3.0 A initial current
This one, however, allegedly comes with a one year warranty:
Quality you can Trust – All Snap Products are made with premium materials and are tested so they last Buy with Confidence – Snap Supply Parts always come with a 1 Year Warranty
Which surely requires the seller remaining in business until then.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 