Electric Advice Please

[Ray]

Thank you John, I never knew that about the vaseline! I quite enjoy jobs like this... Satisfying when it's fixed!

[annv]

Vaseline is just a high grade petroleum jelly, don't use ordinary grease not suitable for electric's same for battery terminals, remove scrape/clean and liberty smear all surface's with vaseline its just dearier but smaller pot for diy you will never then get bad/corroid connections. do the same with spade connectors pull off grease push back on.  John

[Islander]

Ditto Annv. I've had the same pot of petroleum jelly for years. Small dab goes a long way and cheap as chips too.

Ray. Don't forget to check for voltage directly on the wire. Screw down connections can look fine but the tiniest bit of corrosion can cause a high resistance. This could give you the symptom of voltage on the bulb holder but the bulb won't light! Modern digital meter won't put a load on the circuit and can fool you in this case. Simple gadget to make is a 12v bulb on to longish wires, one with a crockclip and the other with a probe preferable with a very sharp tip to push through insulation. The old fashioned type that use to be used by car mechanics are perfect. 

Goodluck with your fault finding. It's a great way of getting to know your boat. Beware of anything that looks DIY or mixing of coloured wires. (Long story)

Just to add, make yourself a long test lead extension so you can start with a good negative point. You can get halfway through the wiring, loose supply and not know whether it's + or - you've lost. All good fun. 

Colin 

[stumpy]

12 hours ago, Islander said:

 

Goodluck with your fault finding. It's a great way of getting to know your boat. Beware of anything that looks DIY or mixing of coloured wires. (Long story)

Just to add, make yourself a long test lead extension so you can start with a good negative point. You can get halfway through the wiring, loose supply and not know whether it's + or - you've lost. All good fun. 

Colin 

I still have nightmares of the first time I delved behind the dashboard of No Worries. Someone in the past obviously got a good deal on domestic earth cable as the whole thing looked like Carrow Road on a Saturday - a riot of green and yellow! Oh what fun I had tracing everything back!

[Islander]

Stumpy, I use to repair electronic organs for a living. The older models would have a wiring loom all in black. Without the correct service manual almost impossible task to find a faulty wire. I'm now retired but because of my background everyone thinks I know everything about boat electrics too! I'm still trying to fathom sme of the wiring on our boats.

Colin

[Siddy]

Islander I've got an issue with my electric organ but have put it down to an operator issue & dyslexic fingers.

I watch A.... Music Centre (Yarmouth) video's on Utube and I think you'd be out of work now it but the latest organs are great.

[Islander]

Hi Siddy. Out of work, I don't think so. There are a lot of people out there that love old tone wheel Hammonds and old valve tech. I was brought up on valves. When I was at college they told us the latest thing was semiconductors and they would replace valves. You would be surprised how many musicians I've known who won't part with their valve amps. 

The modern keyboards are quite amazing when linked to a laptop but they still need an engineer when they've spilt tea or a soft drink down it. The high street stuff is not worth repairing but the pro models of £1k plus is a different story. Out of work, well, yes but only because I'm now 65 but also that I've lost all my top end hearing range and can't hear the top end of the keyboard any more. 

Don't worry about the dyslexic fingers. I made a good living not being able to play. I always told my customers to worry about the outside and I'd worry about the inside.

Colin

[FairTmiddlin]

On 13/12/2018 at 15:52, grendel said:

if its any consolation we have just been having a discussion in the office regarding the two phase voltages and phase rotation and currents in cables coming from a Schott T transformer, that takes 3 phases incoming at 120 degree phase rotation and outputs two phases with a 90 degree phase rotation- talk about brain bending.

You mean one of these nothing to it Pure Math

[grendel]

thats the beastie, show me the graph and I can visualise it, show me the math, and well...........

[Smoggy]

On 15/12/2018 at 01:12, Siddy said:

Islander I've got an issue with my electric organ but have put it down to an operator issue & dyslexic fingers.

SWMBO had that but took it back to ann summers and got a refund.

[Siddy]

Smoggy that fetches me onto that other issue - vibration white finger.

( I don't need help lowering the tone lol )

[Ray]

Ahem.... 

A voltmeter is indeed a wonderful thing, I am a convert! The bulb was good, the lamp was live with 12v and I successfully traced the cables back to a distribution board under the dashboard/helm.

It didn't work because a tiny piece of plastic that held the spring n the bulb holder had snapped so that one terminal could not make contact with the bulb.

Lamp removed, wire ends made good and insulated awaiting new lamp or some other 12v shiny gizmo that catches my eye 

Many thanks for all the advice, including the detour round Ann Summers! 

[Islander]

Well done Ray. There is a lot of pleasure in fixing things and getting things working again but beware the shiny gizmos. The likes of Norfolk Marine and Brian Wards can become obsessive. Even worse Amazon and eBay . Only the other day I bought a little light with a pir sensor just to have a play with. I've now got 6 of 3 different sizes. They fix to a magnetic strip so can be easily removed and are rechargeable via USB so no wiring required. All for £3.99. Now I have our big kitchen cupboard lit when you open the door, a light on the steps between levels and a light that comes on when you need it in the bathroom so I can go in the night without flooding the boat with light.

Be warned, gizmos are addictive.

Colin

[Ray]

Beware he says and then leads me into temptation! 

I like the sound of those 

[Islander]

Ray. I found them by chance in Home Bargains in Norwich. Made by Osram and seem well made. 

This is the eBay ad but they were only £3.99 in HB. They also had smaller ones too. 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Osram-LED-LinearLED-30cm-USB-Rechargeable-wardrobe-light-silver-Brand-New-Boxed/264070238503?epid=2208407979&hash=item3d7bd01127:g:TUMAAOSwNe9cBRqi

if that doesn't work it's eBay item 264070238503

Regards Colin 

[Ray]

Great idea, thanks for the link Colin as I was just thinking about looking on Ebay 

[TheQ]

On ‎14‎/‎12‎/‎2018 at 09:49, Islander said:

Stumpy, I use to repair electronic organs for a living. The older models would have a wiring loom all in black. Without the correct service manual almost impossible task to find a faulty wire. I'm now retired but because of my background everyone thinks I know everything about boat electrics too! I'm still trying to fathom sme of the wiring on our boats.

Colin

You know that big green square building at RRH Neatishead, well when it was still RAF Neatishead and it had a big green dish whirring around a 4 revolutions a minute on top. The two main floors had 6ft rack after rack of electronic equipment and 99% of it was wired in pink...  

 

PS i Remember an officer knocking his 3 sugars tea down the main control panel for that radar (Type 85)....The next days radar test didn't go well...