Rolls Royce and Bentley seat memory batteries

In my last story I described replacement of the backup batteries in the Rolls-Bentley alarm controller under the dash.  This story sort of builds on that one . . . This time I’d like to look at changing the batteries in the memory seat units.

Each front seat has its own memory unit.  They are located under the seats.  Depending on the age of your car they may take one of several forms.  These pictures show the controllers found in the mid-1990s.

To get at them, you remove the lower cushion, unscrew the memory unit, and withdraw it to the front.  It comes out dragging a large tangle of wire as you can see.  The controller is the box on the floor, just to the right of the Fluke test meter.  I've removed the cover in that photo.

Looking at the cover you see these memory units are something of a homemade affair.  The label is something I could have made up on my own printer!  Looking inside you can see the single battery.  In this car, the battery is not corroded badly but in older cars it will leak and the acid eats away the circuit board, leading to failures.

In the photo above I point out the battery that we are about to change.  The new one will look different, but as long as we match the voltage and technology (don't mix ni-cad and lithium ion) we will be all set.  This particular battery is 3.6 volts.  The original one has a 100MA rating; we will fit a slightly bigger one because that's what they sell today.

These seat memory units cost $2,500 when they were available, and there are none left.  Consequently, we have a lot of incentive to preserve the ones we have.  Changing the batteries before they leak is the best way for you to do that.

We unsolder the battery from the board and remove it.

Then we fit a new battery.  This one is a 3.6 volt battery for a pet collar.  I found it at Radio Shack.  It’s a perfect functional replacement for $20.  It’s a snap to solder in place but you should note that the original battery had two positive wires and I had to add a jumper to replace that missing second positive lead.

The photo below shows the jumper I had to add

If you are like me you test it before assembly.  This one worked.  If it does not work you should look carefully for corrosion damage or installation errors.  Beyond that, you will have to hunt up and electronic technician and further repair is a hit or miss proposition.  That’s why I urge you to change these batteries now – before they fail.  Then it’s back together and off to the other side.

What to do when you tangle your loader in the electric lines

This past weekend we had unprecedented damage from an early snowstorm.  Trees were down across all the roads in town, and many took powerlines down with them.  I had to clear a dozen or more large trees just to reach the highway, less than half a mile from my house.

I used the front end loader on my tractor to break up the tree jams, and pick up the brush and move it aside so cars could pass.  Anyone who’s ever run a loader knows that’s heavy and dangerous work as the trees bend and snap.  You’re glad to be in a roll cage enclosed cab with some of those limbs come back to whack you in the face!

To clearing the road I’d scoop under a load of tree debris, lift it high, and dump it in the woods.  That process went along uneventfully until I picked up a load of brush that was tangled with bare electric power lines.  There are lots of stories online telling you to stay away from power lines.  There are very few stories that talk about what you should do if you get up close and engaged with them.  Today, I’d like to share my thoughts with you.

The conventional wisdom says that it’s fatal to contact live electrical power lines.  That is certainly the case much of the time, but not always.  The key is not making your body a path from electricity to ground.  The voltage at a wall outlet (120v) will knock you down and can kill you.  The voltage on the poles at the street is at minimum 10-20 times higher, and it WILL kill you if that happens.

That said, if you hit live power lines with a loader, backhoe, or crane, and you are inside an enclosed cab on the machine, you can probably emerge unscathed, provided you keep your wits about you and follow these steps. 

When your machine touches the line, it immediately becomes energized to the voltage in the wires.   If you are sitting in the cab, you get energized too.  You don’t actually feel anything but a tingle, as no current is flowing through you, but you are suddenly in a very dicey position.

As long as you remain in the cab, the wires can’t touch you, and the current flows through the metal of the machine.   If you get out of the cab, or a wire gets in, all that changes.   If you touch anything outside the cab, the power line current will flow from the cab frame, into you, and out of you into whatever you touch.  That's almost always lethal.

Touching a tree or anything outside your machine while in the cab will kill you.  Touching the ground in an attempt to escape the cab will kill you too.  So stay inside, windows shut.

That’s how most people who have accidents on construction equipment get killed.  They hit a line, and then jump off the machine.  That’s usually a fatal error.  The ground under the machine is energized as the current flows through the wire, into the machine, and into the surrounding earth.  The dirt within five to ten feet of the machine is going to be energized to a dangerous level.  So you can be safe in the cab, but dead if you jump on the ground.

The wires present another danger.  If the wire is outside, touching your loader frame, you are safe.  If the wire gets inside, or touches you, you are toast.  So don’t open the windows or doors.

If anyone sees you in this fix, wave them away, but do not open the doors.  If they approach you, they are likely to be electrocuted by the field you are currently immersed in.  Hopefully, no one else is around you.

The final danger is that the energy in the wire will disable the machine, leaving you unable to escape.  When the energy flows into the machine’s steel frame, it has to go somewhere.  That somewhere is ground, through the steel tracks or rubber tires that the machine sits on.  That point of contact with the ground becomes a hot spot, both figuratively and literally.  A tracked machine, sitting on steel tracks, could have the grease in the tracks burst into flame.  A wheeled loader will have smoke coming from the tires as they begin to melt.  Both situations call for fast action.

Disengage the machine from the wires, look around for other hazards, and back away.  If the machine’s arms are tangled, remember the rig has enough power to break the wires, but you have to make sure you back clear, wherever they land.  That is absolutely vital.  Wires may be dark, and hard to see against downed trees or a dark roadway.  It’s essential that you back at least twenty feet away from them before exiting the cab.  If the ground is wet, back farther.

If for some reason you cannot back away, remain in the cab and use a cell phone or radio to call for help.  When seeking help, the only thing someone can do is cut the power remotely.  Any attempts to approach your energized machine will be lethal to potential rescuers.   It’s far better and safer to get your machine out of danger under its own power.

Hopefully, you will never encounter powerlines in a construction machine.  If you do, just remember.  Stay inside.  Keep your head. Disengage and back clear.

Once clear, flag the area as dangerous from a safe distance.  When walking near downed wires it’s possible to step from an area with no charge to a lethally charged area with no visible indication of what is about to happen.  In that sense, downed lines are more dangerous than the deadliest snake, because they do not even have to touch you to kill you.

Replacing the alarm batteries in a 1990s Rolls or Bentley

I get quite a few calls asking about battery replacement in the security and memory seat modules of Rolls Royce and Bentley cars.  In this article I'd like to show how we address that issue here at Robison Service.

The car shown in a 1996 Bentley Turbo but the job essentially the same in any Crewe Rolls Royce or Bentley car from 1990 to 1998

We start by unlocking the doors, rolling down the windows, and disconnecting the battery.  We open doors and windows to protect us from being locked out if the controller does anything funny.  Disconnecting the battery is important because the vehicle should be powered off for removal and refit.  Switching off the battery switch does not switch off the alarm in many later cars.

Now it's time for removing the dash top.  That exposes the metal understructure, the wiring, and the modules.  To remove the top, you first remove the wood fascia.  The lower dash panels also come off.  With those out of the way, you can access the screws holding the top cover in place.



















The wiring is all neatly bundled together, and there's a lot of it!  There are many different modules under the dash in these cars.  Luckily, the folks at Crewe labeled each one with real human-readable tags and not just part numbers.

The alarm or security controller (labels vary) is usually located in the middle of the dash, above the radio.

The next view shows the area where it may be found > > >
















Here is a security controller removed:
















Unplug the controller from the car and take it out.  When the brackets are removed you can take the case apart and remove the circuit boards.  They unfold to reveal something like this.  The batteries are in the center and lower right in this image.  One is white; the other is blue.















In this closeup you can see the corrosion, but in the earlier photo you can also see that the corrosion is not so bad that the whole circuit board is eaten up.  That's why it's so important to change these now, before they fail.  If you get a failure there is a good chance your circuits are too eaten up to be fixed by a simple battery change.

A look at the battery give us the information we need to find a replacement.  I don't know where to find identical replacements; indeed I doubt they exist today.  But that's okay; we can get functional equivalents.  Reading the label, we see that this battery is 6 volts, 280 milliamp hours, and it's a nickel cadmium (ni-cd) type.  

In the USA we head for Radio Shack, where they sell a wide variety of replacement batteries for cordless phones and other devices.  We find a battery that has the same voltage, similar amp-hour rating, and the same technology.  Note that you need an exact match for technology and volts, but amp-hour rating is flexible.  

If you fit a lithium ion battery in place of a nickel cadmium unit, the charge rate will be wrong, and it will soon burn up.  If you install a battery of the wrong voltage, the system won't work, and may be damaged. We remove the old batteries and solder the new ones in place.  We tape them or glue them down, because they have a different shape from the originals.

The result should look something like this:

 Now we're ready for the final step.  We put the electronics back in the case, and plug the whole thing into the car.  We hook up the battery, and give it a try.  This one worked.

If you have a working module in your car now, and you change the batteries as a preventative step, you are virtually assured of success (provided you do it right.)

Battery replacement and circuit board cleanup as a repair procedure is a lot more chancy.  I don't know the success rate but I do know it's chancy enough that we don't do these repairs unless we have the car here, so we can test our work and perhaps even go in for further repairs if we do not get success the first time.

Luckily, this controller worked right off, and we put the car back together.

This Bentley should be all set for another ten years or so.

I'm sorry to say this

KIIRA EV ( UGANDA )

Following is an exert from an online news journal that covered the public test drive of the KIIRA EV, Uganda's first electric car.

MAKERERE University has successfully tested the first electric car to be made in Uganda. The two seated car is a project by the College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology.............

The Kiira EV does not use fuel. The front-wheel drive has 18 horse-power and can reach top speeds of 60km per hour.

http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/18833-makerere-university-successfully-tests-electric-car.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/Tech/Makerere+electric+car++finally+hits+the+tarmac+/-/1017288/1265716/-/in65ga/-/index.html

Professionals working in Lagos, Nigeria spend about 4 hours per day commuting

Lagos is officially the most congested capital city in Nigeria, according to the latest workers commuting survey conducted by V-Park Management Solutions Limited, the first real professional parking company established in the country whose management are highly trained professionals with international recognition achieved via second-to-none overseas performance in parking management field. This survey was conducted among different groups of workers consisting of 10 commuters that were randomly selected in each of the 36 states in Nigeria.

The survey, which was conducted last month and released just 2 months after the official launch of a mobile electronic device called “Auto Inspector” in Ikeja, Lagos. This device is to check whether vehicles have valid documents without engaging in manual stop and check of vehicles’ papers.

Auto Inspector, is the first of its kind in Nigeria and its projected to help to reduce traffic gridlock on Lagos’ highways occasioned by police stop and check of vehicles’ documents. With the device, stolen vehicles can also be easily identified as the device could tell the name of the owners of such vehicles as well as the history of such vehicles.

We found that professionals working in Lagos still spend an average 3 hours and 55 minutes each day in total commuting time to and from their place of work for a 15km journey, the highest figure in Africa.

The journey times are particularly long for those commuting to Lagos from neighbouring Abeokuta, Ibadan, etc. It was noted that, much of the journey delays are caused by slow-moving bumper-to-bumper traffic due to bad roads, lack of effective transportation policy, police roads block encroachments, insufficient standard mass transit buses, poor roads maintenance, in-effective traffic enforcement activities and lack of on-street parking regulations. Many motorists reported high levels of stress and fatigue as a result.

According to V-Park survey, many employers in Lagos are becoming increasingly concerned at the impact of traffic-related stress and exhaustion on the productivity of their staff.

Abuja came second in the traffic rankings, with total daily commute time at 3 hours and 40 minutes on average.

Jos, by contrast, saw the lowest reported commute time, with employees spending on average just 1hour 46 minutes each day commuting. 

Aware of the traffic problem, the Lagos state government is taking drastic measures to reduce congestion by discouraging unnecessary long-hours car driving and encouraging people to use other modes of transportation schemes like park and ride facility in which they planned to build more in strategic areas of the state where traffic and parking challenges are high.

 Another measures currently been considered by most states government in Nigeria, is introduction of parking enforcement activities that would be back by appropriate parking regulations in support of its already established traffic management initiatives. Lagos state as an exception is also building a modern urban rail system, the City Metro, expected to come into service in early 2013.

Please watch out for our next survey result on the same subject in February 2012

Credit: V-Park's Survey Report

01/11/11

Switching small engine equipment out

Well winter is coming or if you are in the north eastern US has already come. With the changing season comes a change of seasonal toys and equipment. I have seen lots of equipment fail because it was put away incorrectly. Remember it costs a lot less to prevent issues than to pay some else to fix them. Also it is no fun when you need or want to use something and it doesn't work. 

I always check my equipment before I need it as I don't want to be stuck trying to get my snow blower running when there is 12 inches of snow on the ground. This way if it is broken you can get it repaired before you need it and not be stuck waiting for the shop to fix everyone else's equipment before they get to yours. So basically don't wait to check your equipment until the weather service issues a storm warning

To ensure that things are ready to go when I want to use them next I do the following. Apart from changing the engine oil all of these are applicable to 2 stroke and 4 stroke engines.


Putting Equipment away for the year:

1. Drain the fuel - I do this since gasoline does have a finite lifetime of about 6 months. Also modern gasoline has ethanol added to it which absorbs water. By draining the gas you prevent rust from forming in the gas tank if it has a steel tank, prevent water from getting into the gas, and also prevent varnish from forming that will plug up the carburetor. Once all of the fuel is out of the tank try to start the engine to get all the fuel that is left in the carburetor out.
2. Change the oil - All of my 4 stroke small engines get fresh oil put into them at the end of the season so that they don't sit there with old oil in them all winter. This also ensures that there is fresh oil when I want to use it.
3. Fog the engine - If you have never heard of this fogging the engine basically is to spray the cylinder with a fine oil that will prevent it from rusting and ceasing. You can buy special oil in an aerosol can for this purpose. The best way to fog an engine is to pull the spark plugs and spray the oil directly into the cylinder and then replace the spark plug.
4. Check or Replace the spark plugs - Since you have pulled the spark plugs you might as well check them to see if they are still go, and if not replace them if needed.

Getting equipment out for the year:

1. Put fresh fuel in the tank - This can be the fuel you just removed from the equipment you just put away so why not use it instead of letting it go to waste. If you left fuel in it from the year before it might be a bit questionable and should be drained and disposed of first.
2. Check any belts to make sure they are in good working order, not cracked, and have the right tension. Replace as needed.
3. Lube any chains and gears - This will prevent rust and ensure that they move freely. I find this especially helpful to do on the shoots of snow blowers so they don't frees or get stuck in place.
4. Start the engine and let it run - I have always found that the first time starting a piece of equipment each year is always the hardest. This will also let you know if it works correctly or if you need to have it repaired. 
5. Once running take off the air filter and spray some carburetor cleaner into the intake to clean out any deposits that may have formed. Don't let it stall but it will smoke as it is running really rich when you do this. A few (4 to 5) quick 1 second squirts with a few second wait between each will do wonders if the engine isn't running very well. Now go put the air filter back on it. Once done let the engine run for 10 to 15 minutes.

A Well Known Pastor Splashes Over N500 Million To Build Church CAR PARK

The Pastor Kumuyi-led Deeper Life Bible Church has spent over N500 million on expansion as its ultra modern worldwide headquarters church at Gbagada,Lagos nears completion. 

Information available to us revealed that the holiness preacher recently bought a whole street,Oduwaye Street,which lies directly opposite its 30,000 seater cathedral. 

Insiders squealed to us that the clergy actually held a meeting with all the landlords at Oduwaye Street and bidded for their property.After much bargaining,we learnt that each of the landlords submitted their offers.

According to our source, there were ten houses on one side of the street while Deeper Life sits on the opposite side.Out of the ten houses, Deeper Life owns two as its children church while six were residential and two were shopping complexes. 

We scooped that the least among the landlords accepted an offer of N80 million due to the development of the area while some got about N100 million. Consequently,the whole structures were demolished a couple of weeks back.

And the whole area fenced with barbed wire. Interestingly, our checks revealed that over N500 million exchanged hands and that the expansion was meant for car park. Meanwhile, the 30,000 seater ultra-modern headquarters of the ministry is due for completion in 2012.It is a mini stadium and we learnt it cost the church over N3 billion naira. An Italian firm,Cappa and D’Alberto won the contract for the construction.

Credit: Independent News

29/10/11