2WD Semi-Recumbent Recycled-Parts Cargo eBike: "CrazyBike2"

[amberwolf]

Did your modem used to cut out when thunderstorms were in the area?

Nope. No problems at all even in a power outage (if I hook it up to the UPS), as long as the Cox backup system works, too.

Pretty much the only failures I have are from the cable company itself killing the equipment. I think I lost a router to a storm once, but I'm not sure about that.

Do Japanese Yew bushes survive there, I wonder. They grow very slow, though they are evergreen.

I don't know--I suspect they would require so much water that I coudln't afford to keep them around. Plus there's some stupid rule about plants not being over the height of a fence if within some distance of it, so I'd need a taller fence first. If I could, I'd just use the same thing we had at the old house in the back, but it also takes a fair bit of water, and I cant' even remember what it was called. I keep thinking "creosote" but it isnt' that at all. It's some plant that has toxic properties, waxy leaves, pointy edges, etc. Common around here but my mind is blank.

Are there reuse building material places down there? I'm not sure if they could supply bricks or fence slats.

There are, but they still cost far more than I can afford for enough material to do this.

Simpler has its benefits, especially later on when memories get foggier. It makes it easier to use deadbug and point to point construction as well. I have been contemplating a BLDC controller based on a 74C14 hex Schmitt trigger CMOS gate IC. It seems it would be simpler than microprocessor-based control, yet I don't feel like messing with high side gate drive and Hall sensors.

If I were to build a BLDC not based on an MCU, I'd just use one of the existing chips for the purpose, like the MC3303x series Jeremy Harris used in his. (I did actually start building one, but perfboard doesnt' work well for such things, so it basically didn't work as soon as I put a motor on it). It even has a hall sensor processing chip in teh same series, if you need it, and can directly drive small FETs.

Two of the switches that matter on mine are not obvious. I have one so obscure that so long as no one sees what I did when sliding it that they would need to stand around for a long time looking for it and still probably not find. If I'm going to a less secure location, I slide it before I get there and ride in unaided. Mine doesn't have a key switch.

At one time I used a magnet and a reed switch to control a relay, for my first experiments. But I didn't have any relays big enough to handle the currents for my later ones, and melted the setup trying. Should be a couple of posts about that, with pics, early in the Electricle blog someplace.

Later I used a magnet in the glove and a hall in the grip, for my throttle, but that proved squirelly to control if I didn't grip it exactly right, and I never really bothered to work out the best positions for thigns so it would work right.

 

[Solcar]

Prvacy is pretty hard to get in a flat. It's hard without a lot of rain to get help from bush cover.

If I were to build a BLDC not based on an MCU, I'd just use one of the existing chips for the purpose, like the MC3303x series Jeremy Harris used in his. (I did actually start building one, but perfboard doesnt' work well for such things, so it basically didn't work as soon as I put a motor on it). It even has a hall sensor processing chip in teh same series, if you need it, and can directly drive small FETs.

I have a bunch of the 74C14 chips in through-hole that are great for deadbug layout. Is that high and low side MOSFET drive on the MC3303x? Low side is pretty easy with a transistor emitter-follower so level shifting built into the chip for high side MOSFET drive would be needed for me to consider it. I read a lot of that thread and got the impression that through-hole packages in the chips were phased-out.

 

[amberwolf]

Yeah, the DIP is phasing out. The SOIC is at least not as hard to solder to as the really small SMT stuff, though, and is IIRC gull-wing type; I think I have a few of each of the series in SOIC someplace, originally to be used in the MCU-controlled safety ebike computer system I was trying to come up with 2-3 years ago, but had to give up on due to lack of programming skills, and lack of interest on the part of those that said they'd help.



Main product pages:
http://www.onsemi.com/PowerSolutions/product.do?id=MC33033
http://www.onsemi.com/PowerSolutions/product.do?id=MC33035
http://www.onsemi.com/PowerSolutions/product.do?id=MC33039
See page six of this:
http://www.onsemi.com/pub/Collateral/AN1046-D.PDF
for the whole controller schematic; FETs are driven right off the chip, high and low side. Mind, this is a low-power application, and I expect you'd probably have to have separate gate drivers (also available as single-chips, like ones from Ixys and a few others, including in DIP form). I got some of those, too, though I forget which ones, but they even have their own charge pumps built in for high side drive.

Onsemi has these, for instance:
http://www.onsemi.com/PowerSolutions/product.do?id=NCV33152


They have other chips for BLDC 3phase, like this:
http://www.onsemi.com/PowerSolutions/product.do?id=LB1975
that does up to 2.5A direct drive, at 46V.
And this one for 60V:
http://www.onsemi.com/PowerSolutions/product.do?id=LB1976

 

[Solcar]

That was useful info as I am feeling too foggy-minded to dig around. The high side drive on the MC3303x IC is open collector and 180 deg out of phase, which can drive P-ch MOSFETs. The cycle by cycle PWM truncation is a plus for smooth, robust operation.

I have used SOIC-8 packaged components and that is about the limit of my handling of that style. Any more pins than that would basically need etched PCBs

However, the last two links are of most interest to me as that way is how I was contemplating doing motor drive if I ever begin tinkering with BLDC--somewhat like the way the 3 1/8" computer-type fans have it built-in. Drive the phase winding by pulling it low and when it is released and flies back, shunt it to the positive power terminal by means of a diode. My impression is that it takes much longer to reset the inductor (winding) voltage that way, which would seem to limit motor RPM a lot, however.

 

[Solcar]

Now that I've looked at the data sheets of those last two chips more closely, I see they work more like the standard BLDC controllers used on ebikes and less like the small computer-type fan controllers. They do, however, drive the motor windings directly (not hefty enough for high power needed on an ebike) and don't use external transistors.

 

[amberwolf]

First, this is the state of the cleanup right now. It's way way way messier now than it ever was before, because of having to shuffle everything from place to place (sometimes multiple times) to get it to all fit out of view.


The back room, with the south wall home to the old work table from the backyard, and the lathe,
View attachment 1
and then a bunch of filled boxes on the east wall, and the middle of the room and north wall have piles of empty and partly-filled boxes and packing and bags of partly-sorted stuff that will go on the east wall when done.

The table and south part of the east wall will end up home to a whole bunch of rackmount equipment of various types, some of which is intended to be repaired and used for it's original purpose, and some of which will be used for the metal boxes/panels/etc, as well as the electronics inside, for various other projects.

The west wall still has a bunch of unsorted partly-boxed stuff that I didn't get a pic of for some reason.


OUt in the yard itself, the west side has the big mulberry shade tree, behind that in the pic is a bunch of unsorted metal and wood I will have to move into the shed or back room, a piece at a time.



Then there's the partly-filled new shed, under the tree, and the already-full old shed, and a nearly-empty area between them that used to have a bunch of various electronics I had hoped to salvage parts from and/or sell off, but now is going to have to be hauled off as waste, as I don't have time or energy to do it before the deadline, and not enough places inside to put it out of sight, or energy to do it even if I did.



The south fence view, with basically everythng past the green-and-yellow "windmill" being stuff to be hauled off as waste (hpefully I can get it to a recycler, but probably not; probably have to go to a dump or the city's bulk waste pickup which should be soon-ish). A good portion, perhaps 1/4 to 1/3, is the old roof-leak damaged carpet and padding, but much of the rest was useful project materials. A pile just about equal in size has already been hauled off.

To the right in the foreground there's a pile of much of my bike frames and projects, and that will go in the back room, where all the empty boxes and stuff is in the middle of the room and the north wall right now. Then some wood for other projects to the right of that, also to go in the back room somewhere, since it can't be left visible from off the property.
View attachment 2



This all feels so stupid to have to do; taking months of my life away from my projects (and anything else I would have liked to do during this time), not including all the wasted time (and money and the time to earn that money) it took me to gather those materials that must be hauled away now, and all the time and money I will have to spend later regathering replacement materials all over again, to do the projects they were intended for.


What makes it feel worse is that virtually no one that has helped me with any of this cleanup understands--most just say things like "well, you can always buy more later when you need it", despite their knowledge of my situation vs their own financial status, and despite their knowing how long it took me to find this stuff in the first place. I'm sure if someone told them they had to throw away their bank account, furniture and car and clothes, they'd have a bit more understanding, but they do not get the connection between that and what I am having to do. I expect most people reading this won't, either.

A friend came by today to help me, originally to move a bunch of heavy stuff I can't do right now, for this city-ordered cleanup; we didn't get the stuff I needed moved due to it getting too hot too early, and me being feeble-minded and unable to do much physically due to having been up more than a whole day at that point, between work and trying to get enough stuff cleared out of the way in the back room for putting the stuff I'd intended to move back there.... By the time I got enough of it done it was already getting light outside, so I just kept going, as he was to show up only a couple hours or so later. If I tried to sleep at that point, I'd never wake up enough to do anything when he got here.

I've still only slept another hour or two, in unwilling and very short catnaps, so I'm probably more rambly than usual. I know I have to backspace an awful lot. It's also really hot, 90F in here right now, and was 104F outside when I started typing, and down to 99F out there now.

This is one of the things I wish I could spend my time on now, instead fo the cleanup--fixing the water pan and pump in the evap cooler, so I can use it without wasting huge amounts of money on water for it (since with the rusted-out pan, it doesn't recirculate the water, but rather just pours it onto the ground. Good for the mulberry tree, bad for my budget). Until I can fix it, I can only use it when I can't avoid doing so, which I think is gonna be when I click submit on this post. :| Was supposed to happen back in late April/early May, but this cleanup is keeping me from that (and so is my injury, as I am only now able to climb ladders safely).

So anyway, what we got done mostly was moving more of the stuff to the haul-away pile, and moving the lathe and the table inside, as well as moving a treadmill (on it's side) you can't see in the pics above to a place to the left of the lathe.


Anyhow, just under two weeks will see the end of this mess, and let me get back to the projects I will still have parts for. Then I can post bike-related stuff here instead of this dreck.

 

[Solcar]

I understand, brother. I know you're a lot more resilient than I am cause when they did my house I didn't really do a whole lot afterward except simple survival. That began 13 years ago, and it could be why I still have the same ebike that I first built around '96. Couldn't concentrate any more after such a big setback.

I was going to finish up converting a big mini computer power supply from the '70s to a wheeled 12v supply, but since someone threw the lid away during that upheaval, it has sat on my bench taking up space for almost 15 years. The irony is that the way the disruption took its toll, the place probably ended up "worse" than it otherwise would have. Often things are a certain way for lack of a better option, and the forced changes just made matters worse.

I, and I think you, get that the days of perpetual economic growth and unlimited consumerism are gone and appear not to be coming back. All was built on fossil fuel, and now the world economy is constrained by population size and finite buried hydrocarbons, somewhat like our productivity is constrained by social pressure to maintain a rich appearance.

Indeed, the general public just doesn't understand sensitive people that have a feel about how things really are. Back in the mid eighties, I could already see this economic decline happening. When you're so alone in such an understanding, there is no way to convince people.

But you're doing better than I was because you somehow manage to keep going. My health suffered permanent damage from the physical toll during those days and just can't support me in extending myself now.

You do a great deed in admin'ing here, and what you've done for four-legged guys shows how you value living beings more than superficial things in society. Big thumbs up.

 

[amberwolf]

Only about 3 hours of sleep last night, in bits and pieces, though at least it got nice and cool by mornng (72F), and even now, 12 hours later and just past the hottest times of the day, it's only 86F in the bedroom and about 84F in the kitchen/front room area, while it is still 97F in the shade outside (after 105F peak), plus a good stiff and sometimes gusty breeze.

But today at least was worth it--there were some old nearly 5-foot by 5-foot signage fixtures at work that were to be tossed out, made from 1" square tubing. Since they were going to be trash, I was allowed to take them for my projects, as long as I got them all out of there right then (at end of work shift). Fortunately, they each easily snap apart into two verticals and two crossbars, total of 10 of each of those, all of which I was able to tie down to the bike. About 50lbs of metal, there.

Was quite the challenge to find enough spots for it all, and ended up having to stack it two-deep under the seat, which basically meant I couldn't sit on the seat itslef, as there was no sling; had to take the Iams blanket I have rolled up under the pink and green dayglo stuff and put it on the seat bottom as a pad to ride home on.


View attachment 2



So now I have PLENTY of the square tubing I wanted for my new bike's cargo rails, and although it is thinner wall than I used on CrazyBike2, it is probably still more than strong enough for my needs, given that I'll be triangulating between the rails anyway.

Each of those tiles is about 12", so each rail is almost 5 feet long. Because the rails with the snap-on 90-degree parts are a bit shorter than the plain rails, they both weigh about the same, almost exactly 5lbs each. Those added parts are just barely welded on there, and so should be easy to remove. I may well adapt the snap-on system of those stubs into my cargo rails, to allow snap-on lower or upper "decks" for my rails, sorta like the Xtracycle system.


There are three more signs to be taken down at work; hopefully I'll get those, too, as that is another 12 pieces of square tubing to work with.


EDIT: oh, and this is the trip stats for *just* the ride home with them. I had to stay slow, 15-17MPH max typically, often only 11-12MPH, due to that great weight up high in the vertically-stowed rails on the seat back making it kinda tipsy, plus the gusty-breezy wind that had quite a kick on occasion, from various directions.

12m 30s trip time
2.611miles
20.4mph max
12.5mph avg

32.4Wh/mile (typically it's more like 27)
1.625Ah (1.6727)
85.8Wh
61.85Amax

54.2Vstart
53.0Vrest
48.7Vmin

2.8% Regen
0.0463Ah Regen
-6.97A peak Regen

Despite the lower speeds, Wh/M is notably worse than usual, up to 1.2x the average, probably in large part due to higher accelration power needed for longer than usual to get going, and the extra wind resistance from the "mast" of metal.

 

[amberwolf]

Today must've been "day of the stupids" or something, as well as my unlucky day. I didn't get much done because of some of it taking so long, plus it being unbearably hot (it's still 85F outside at 3am, and has stayed about that temp since just after midnight, after cooling down from 109F this afternoon).

It was so hot that Bonnie didnt' even care enough to eat her ice cube treat, but just left it sitting on her nose where I set it (after she refused to take it). It eventually melted there, leaving a puddle and a wet muzzle, but I guess she was happy about that. :lol:
View attachment 1

Loki wanted it, but didnt' dare try to take it. Fred would've tried, but Loki kept warning her off.




So...pardon the long "rant"; only the first bit is bike-related.


I've been having problems with my left rear turn signal for ages, because the bulb holder is warped or something (I can't see what it is, compared to all the rest of them, and so haven't been able to fix it), and the bulb sometimes pops out under vibration.

Today it failed and I stopped a ways down the road past the turn, opened the cover, and found the bulb's glass separated from the epoxy/metal base. Not much I could do just then, so I swapped it out with the front left, so I'd at least have a slow-blinking rear left signal.

A bit later, the blinker itself stopped working, and it appears to be in the wiring to it, as I can hold it just right and it does work. So I had it ziptied on the way home, which made it work most of the time, as long as the road was not bumpy.

A second trip (as I was making my grocery runs today) saw more wierd things. The entire lighting system started having flickers, which made no sense, because they are on two different power systems...but they share a common ground, and somehow that ground was loose. I wound up going thru the entire harness touching and re-twisting the splices and eventually it just started working, *AFTER* I had gone thru it with no effect.

So I will probably need to redo the whole harness much sooner than I had wanted to.

Later I had a complete motor failure, thought it might be the Vpower pack running low a LOT sooner than it should (this was about 12 miles into the 20-ish miles I can get with it). I disconnected and reconnected power, which usually restores it, and it didn't. The CA was still lit, but no display, whcih was wierd. Usually means it has less than about 13-14V. A few minutes of poking and prodding found one of the blades in the white (molex?) connector from the battery to the BMS had backed out of the shell, just a little, enough to make a very poor connection.

The rear wheel, which still needs retruing after the bendng up it got during transport to the DeathRace, began rubbing hard on the stays, so I had to stop again and retrue it just enough to get going again. Much harder to do than usual as I had both pods full of heavy groceries, so I had to walk (hobble) it along the sidewalk to test the fixes each time, rather than lifting the back end and spinning the wheel.

Not sure what caused it to suddenly untrue, as no spokes broke or anything, and I was just rolling down a nice smooth recently-paved stretch of road, no bumps. :? It wasnt' the axle getting looser, either, which used to happen a lot with the chain drive but has not happened with the front hub drive.

There were a couple of other things, but I forget what they were now, several hours later.

It's just wierd, because nothing at all has gone wrong in quite a while, (or nothing serious, anyway), and then today so many wierd things....



Now, the stupid people...the usual left turns from righthand lanes while making righthand turn signals (or none), running red lights (once with a cop right behind him, but the cop stopped at the light and didn't pursue, even though there was no danger to the cop to do so, or anyone else, but the guy that ran the light almost hit a car turning left).

A couple of different people turning into driveways...several car lengths before the driveway started (and thus driving up and over grass medians and gravel areas, and concrete dividers, as they went into whatever places they were headed into).

A group of cyclists riding after dark with no lights, and reflectors only on one of the bikes, some with light clothing, most not, all riding across most of the road, including in the opposite lane, just wandering all over. All adults, 20s-40s from what little I could see (no younguns), most just toodling along.

Some doofus in a pickup truck suddenly parked in the middle of an intersection I was approaching, not stalled, just stopped there leaning out the window calling to someone I coudln't see, in the direction the truck had come from (the direction I was about to turn towards). I reached the intersection, facing his passenger door, my really bright halogen plus the bright CFL shining at the passenger, who kept tapping him and trying to get his attention, and finally after several seconds he seemed to realize he was blocking traffic and moved forward a truck length or so and stopped again, at least allowing me to make my left turn without having to go around him. I didnt' see anybody at all in that area as I turned or afterwards, so no idea who he was calling to. :?


Just poeple stupid stuff: At one of the stores, the person in front of me in line is yammering away at the cashier, and can't seem to figure out the little credit/debit machine, keeps pressing wrong buttons, and saying stuff liek "oh, that must've been the wrong one, I don't know what to do, oh wait, this must be it, oh, now that was wrong too, let me try again" and on and on, until the cashier had to take the card from the person and do it herself, just so all the people in line didn't die and rot there.

(side rant: I cashier, too, and I have had to do this for SO MANY people, most of whom purchase at my store at least once or twice a week, some of them every single day and have done so for YEARS, and we do NOT CHANGE our machines or setup, yet every single time they are there they must be told and shown how to operate the very simple card machine, or have it done for them--it's not age, it's not a language barrier, it's not retardation, it's just unwillingness to pay attention and LEARN SOMETHING, and it angers me greatly, but I can never show that. Which makes it all the more frustrating!)

Another person at the next store I was shopping at decides they want a specific can at the very bottom, out of a stack of completely identical ones on an endcap, and they just yank it out, causing the entire stack to topple...onto their child's stroller! Fortunately the shading cover over the stroller let all the cans bounce off of it, saving the child from being beaten to death by falling cans. Then the moron started yelling and screaming at the store personnel that came to help, that she was gonna sue them for making such a dangerous thing happen.


As I was about to cross 35th ave, waiting for traffic to subside enough to be able to pull out of the side street, some moronic lady pushing a double stroller just walks right off the sidewalk and straight across into traffic, coming within half a second of murdering her children. The car was able to swerve aroudn her as there wasnt' anyone immmediately in the next lane, and the next one able to slam on brakes hard enough to stop, screeching and honking the entire time, along with the entire line of traffic behind them. Nobody hit anybody else, either, which was a miracle.

She didn't even pause, but just kept going across the busy street, cars swerving and honking in each lane she crossed, until a police car pulled over on the farthest lane, got out, and grabbed her arm and yanked her up on the sidewalk, while his partner got the stroller with kids, both of them yelling at her (far enough away I couldn't quite hear what they were saying over the honking cars). Everybody stayed stopped until the first officer turned and waved them on, which itself is a miracle of patience in traffic around here.

Some guy on a motorcycle suddenly pulled off the side of the road, with an apparent breakdown, but then got it started, roared off, and immediately began driving down the WRONG WAY on the street, weaving around the sparse traffic. Wierd, since there was NO traffic in the CORRECT direction. :?


I don't know what was going on, but today was truly messed up. I wish I had a video camera on the bike, every time a day like this comes up.

 

[Solcar]

Somebody must be testing a zombie ray!

I've noticed increasing incivility on the streets, too. Recently someone spooked me as the car he was in drove by. This year is the first year I recall such types of things, based on the past 20 years. Earlier in the year, someone else shouted something rudely, too. People too commonly are breaking the universal ethics principle that prescribes fighting against harmful natural things instead of people.

 

[amberwolf]

Today the turn signal blinker itself failed; I've been poking around inside it again to see if it is a simple mechanical problem like before, but it doesn't appear to be. It's also not the cap, which is the only other thing in there that's likely to fail. A different cap changes the blink rate when I can get it to work, but that's all.

That leaves the possibility of an electrical connection, as most of them are crimps, and this is not a water-tight casing; there's rust on several parts. I'll be trying to clean and solder all those to see if it fixes it, but I don't expect it to.

I may well have to go ahead and build that electronic version I mentioned some time ago.

 

[amberwolf]

Haven't been able to get back to the blinker yet.

Today on the way home, maybe a mile in, the halogen headlight started to dim rapidly and the turn signals wouldn't light up (I've been blinking htem manually by sliding the switch repeatedly). I didn't have a meter with me, so I just disconnected the 12V NiMH pack from everything, waited a minute, and kept checking it's temperature. Probably no reversed cells, as it didn't get any hotter than ambient (which was around 105F, at least).

So I hooked up 12V to the main lighting system (everything but the Halogen), and the turn signals would now light up normally, but I could see them dim while I left them on, so I decided to stop using anything except the LED brake light, which still worked but just barely. You could see it come on, over the really bright CFL taillight, but it wasn't nearly as bright as usual.

I've gotten so used to the 50W halogen headlight that I could barely see at all with the CFL. Makes me understand just how little use the CFL is at this point; I guess my next chance to work on bike stuff will be to remove it from the lighting fixture and put the halogen in there instead of hanging it off the bottom of it.


I got home, and of course the resting voltage had gone back up, to 10.59V. But if I turned on a signal, it dropped to about 8V. I cycled power on the signal, causing it to drop to less than 5V!

Since at that point the signal was still lit enough to see, unlike on the road when I first noticed the problem, the pack voltage must've been a lot lower than even that. Hopefully I haven't damaged the NiMH pack.

It's now charging up using the more-recently-used Tenergy "smart" charger, via the WU1 for monitoring. Normally charging current goes from 50mA up to half an amp to at least 3A pretty quick, but this stayed at around 130mA for quite some time, perhaps 3 hours, before finally ramping up to 3A. Or at least, it was never at any other value besides the 130mA when I checked, waiting up to several minutes each time to verify it didnt' drop or spike.

Pack temperature didn't rise noticeably until some minutes after the 3A charging cycle began, and took another half hour or so to get really warm. It's now got almost 2Ah back in the pack, and is still going at the 3A rate, without getting any warmer so far.

I keep checking on it every few minutes, just to ensure it doesnt' get to explodey temperatures, as I don't really trust the thermal cutoff on this charger (the pack has been inordinately hot even some time after charge cutoff, on some charges, suggesting that it got much much too hot during the charge cycle without being shutdown for overtemperature).

Anyway, I guess I used all of whatever Ah it's capable of delivering, 100% DoD. Probably about 11-12Ah, originally rated at 13Ah.

That's what happens when you remember to charge your traction pack but not your lighting pack--especially bad since NiMH has relatively high self-discharge, especially with previously-heat-damaged packs like this one.

I guess I need to put a wattmeter on this pack, too; I could just mount it at the pack itself, clamped to the pack with the same hose clamp that secures the pack to the frame. Catch is I'd have to put new connectors onto the pack to run to the lighting harness, because right now the halogen headlight and the rest of the lighting system are two separate connectors onto the pack's output wire, and so I can't monitor both at the same time. I don't want to use up two pair of Andersons just for that (already have them on the watt meters).

Plus, I don't know what the direct hot sun is going to do to the cheap Turnigy Watt Meter, whcih is what I'd have to use on it, as the WU has the larger Anderson Mulitpole on it (that I don't have spares of to put on the battery cabling). I still have to park the bike outside the store when working, and the only place there is to lock it up to is the signpost for the handicapped spots right in front of the doors...in direct sunlight from dawn to dusk. (I still worry the CA or Vpower pack will be damaged by this, but I can't do anything about it).

 

[amberwolf]

Off-topic, but I have my city-ordered cleanup almost done. Unfortunately today is the deadline, and I'd say I have at least another week's work to do by myself....

Only good news is that I did finally find my little tiny pliers I'd lost months ago--they were outside, in one of the scree piles from the holes the dogs had dug, so I am guessing one of them carried them out and buried them, and then redug them up later.

Now I just have to decide if I want to keep them, or try to get Sears to trade them for the new version under the Craftsman warranty. :?


Anyhow, I have been trying to finalize the cleanup disaster, as the deadline is today (and I have been unable to reach the person that has been giving me extensions), but so many things keep going wrong.

All my friends that I had setup to help me before have suddenly become unavailable, for this last two-week extension, so I have stuff that I still cannot move by myself. Fortunately most of it is behind the new shed and the treee it's under, so is not really all that visible. But it *is* still visible, and may cause problems.


You can also see the rusted-out evap cooler in that pic.


But that stuff is also in the way of me getting the dollys and carts back to the other stuff behind them, which I *could* move, a piece at a time, if I had them on wheels. Can't lift and carry them, though--bunch of rackmount equipment and power supplies and stuff.


That's the BBQ grill in the foreground; I've got it and some chairs and a small table setup near it, which will stay out there.



and the two lawnmowers, one gas and one AC-electric, neither of which works very well (usually forcing me to do everything with the weedeaters).


My fractured leg is healed up ok, though it still aches, but the ankle is still healing very slowly, and hurts quite a bit to move in anything but up/down (forward/back pivot) motions, and all the other motions are nearly impossible to do. It also doesn't support my weight very well unless I am wearing the stiff ankle-boot, which makes walking difficult as it's a lot thicker-soled than any other shoe I have for the other foot. Makes my back hurt, as well as my hips and knees, and is much worse doing all this other work.

I did a final weed-eater run around the yard, and was almost done today when the string broke right inside the spool, and I cannot loosen the head so I can't get the string out to continue.

I also can't get the head open on the other much smaller light-duty trimmer, whcih is still out of string from last time it was used. And the Ryobi I got still needs the head off my old broken one, but I can't undo the rusty bolt on the old one, even after literally months of trying different things. They sell spare ones, I'm sure, but I can't afford anything right now outside of absolute essentials (and not even some of those). Since I still have the other (barely) functional weedeaters, I can't justify spending anything on it.


Raking up all the stuff into little piles to scoop into bags, I kept having the rakes come apart, either tines falling out and having to be re-crimped in, or handles breaking or the heads falling off the handles and having to be re-mounted. And my hands and arms have so many little cuts and blisters, even with gloves, that it is difficult to do things.




Then I ran out of bags, other than the little plastic shopping bags that just rip if I put grass and stuff in them. So I have all these little piles of stuff all over teh yard...gonna have to see what bags we get with the fish today, and take those home (they usually get tossed out, and are anything from 5 to 30 gallon sizes, used to line the boxes the fish and plants come in in case of a leak in their individual bags during shipping).


There are BAJILLIONS of ants all over the place, several different kinds, with nests just about everywhere under the ground. The only way I could keep them off me to keep working out there the last few weeks is to spray my shoes and pant legs with pesticide--none of the non-toxic stuff I have tried has worked even a little bit to keep them off of me, and they bite REALLY HARD, and while I'm not allergic to their bites, they sure hurt a lot, and so many of them happen so quickly that it makes my legs swell up for days, and even make my joints hurt.

I wish there was a way to drive the ants away from here, but I haven't found any even partly-effective ones. I will probably have to get in-ground pesticides to kill them all, becuase they are multiplying so fast that at some point they will start overrunning the house looking for food, and present a danger to the dogs (as I can't spray *them* with pesticides to keep the ants off of them). I have sprayed around the base of the house walls and the doors and windows and other cracks, to help keep them out, but there are gaps *inside* the house at floor/wall joints and concrete sections under the tile floors in some places where they could get thru, that I cant' get to or can't spray because some of the dogs like to lick the floors.

I really don't want to kill the ants, but I don't have any choice that I can see.


There are also yellowjackets in a number of places in the rest of the stuff I have to get to, and I will have to do something about *them*, too, so that I can get in there and get the cleanup finished without getting stung. I don't think I've ever been stung by one, so I don't know if I'm allergic or not. I am apparently not allergic to bee stings, but they are not the same toxins.


I still have this huge pile of stuff I can't keep, some of which is recyclable and much of which is not.

That pile is about twice as large as it looks, because it's longer than it is wide. At least 3-4 mid-size pickup truck loads. Bagging it up and putting it in the regular trash is possible for perhaps 1/4 of it, and I've been doing that as there is space in the shared alleyway trashcan (but there is rarely much, if any, because there are several houses across the street that use it that are not supposed to, but don't seem to get the idea of using their own alley-can).

Not much left to do in the rest of the yard, just picking up the piles after I get more bags, whenever that is.


But I still have this wood left to move into the house:

after I get home from work tonight, when it might be cool enough to do. (it's over 100F out there right now, and a bit humid, too, so it feels a lot hotter, and it's past what I can handle right now, in the direct sunlight).


The stuff I have managed to move into the back room is like this now:


whcih will eventually get shifted around for better access, but only after I am done with everything else, and recover more from all this.



At least I can get back to the bike stuff soon, since this mess is "over" one way or another now, once the inspection happens and they fine me or not, as they please.


Last night I left the front sprinkler running just a little bit, turned down at the sprinkler rather than the wall faucet, and sat down for a minute but dozed off--bad mistake. The hose burst and so hundreds of gallons of water were wasted across another area of the yard and down the sidewalk and street gutter, by the time I woke again to turn it off. And the area meant to be watered is barely damp, so it must've happened very soon after I left it. Now that all that water is wasted, I can't afford to do any more watering of things for at least a week or two. They'll have to survive as they are in this extreme heat.

Plus that means I can't afford to use any more water for the evap cooler, as it also still leaks and wastes water (although at least this waters the trees and plants around it that shade the house). So it's going to get very hot in here, and sleeping (whcih was already hard) is going to be very very tough now.

I have the little window AC units, but they also cost money to run, more than the evap for the amount of cooling they do, so I can't really afford to leave them on much etiher. The smallest one, that cools the west end of the house, I leave on it's lowest setting to help keep the air down near the floor below 85-88F for the dogs, but up above waist level the air is notably hotter, and at head-level it's up to 95F or more by mid to late afternoon, unless it got below 80F outside the night before, before midnight (which pretty much doesn't happen now; usually it's still nearly 95-100F outside by then).

If it gets below 80F, the evap can be used without water to just blow cool air thru the house, cooling even the walls and floor enough over several hours at night to keep it very cool during the day, thru late afternoon or evening. But it does not get that cool at all now, still over 85F just before dawn, usually. Night before last it was still over 90F!


Last night it slowly got nice and cool, and was only about 83F by dawn, and felt cooler because I had been watering the backyard as well as the front while I was working on it yesterday evening/last night. So this morning from as soon as it got a little predawn light going, I was able to work out there till about 730am when it hit 90F and I had all the problems listed above.


I haven't had nearly enough sleep in days, or longer, so while I still have a fair bit of stuff to get done, I am going to have to at least get some napping in before it's time to get ready for work later today. Probably won't be able to get anything else done.


That's a long rant...mostly it'll get the TL;DR treatment, but at least it's out of my system for the moment.

 

[amberwolf]

Might not be as soon getting back to the bike stuff as I'd hoped:

I finally reached someone at the city, and he said he came out (while I wasn't here, I guess) and looked at the property, and said that there is still "an awful lot to do", but he wouldn't give me a list. He just made an appointment with me for Wed at 9am to come out and work it out with me (since I'm off work that day next week).

So I guess I just keep doing what I've been doing until then, because I don't know what else there could be wrong, but "an awful lot" is way more than I can see, so now I am very worried about it, and have that sinking feeling in my guts that disaster is about to get much worse somehow, just as I thought it was getting better. So much for sleeping at all, the next few days or more--whether I want to or not, I'm going to be too worried about it to not have constant nightmares about everything that could be or go wrong.

 

[Solcar]

Alas, brother. You've been doing things reasonably, to say the least. It could be that once the system gets grip on a person, the goal posts tend to move way out. Based on my knowing what I know now, feel reassured that you are on the more reasonable side of things. Well done, how you have progressed as you have against such adversity.

 

[amberwolf]

I was quite glad of the 50W halogen tonight. Just as I got off work, a very dirty sandstorm rolled thru the city, reducing visiblity to less than 50 feet. I mean, literally, I could not see most of the parking lot's lights, much less any objects in it.

I could see a few bits of vehicle lighting on the closest street, just about 6 or 8 carlengths from where I lock my bike up, and they were going, on average, FASTER than normal, as if they could outrun the dirt...I'm really surprised that there were no accidents anywhere along my path home in that mess.

I was going to take the back streets, but decided that there was actually better visibility (though worse wind, by quite a bit) on the main roads, so I took my normal path home, without incident.

Surprisingly, even though I was going slower than usual (15-16MPH most of the way, because the wind was so strong from front and side, and very gusty), cars that came up from behind did not get impatient and honk or try to run me over or zoom around me. Typically, they stayed about the same speed as me, or even slower, until there was good enough visiblity and lane space to safely pass me normally. Many of them even signalled properly for it, which would not typically happen.


All in all, it was an interesting ride, though uneventful for the most part. I did have to stop a few times to get grit out of my eyes, as it was far too dark to wear my safety glasses that wrap around and cover my eyes like goggles, because theyr'e tinted too dark. My regular glasses don't cover enough of my eyes to keep stuff out like that. They have new scratches, though.


I wish I'd had my camera with me; it was...nightmarish to see the world just faded out like that, into the dust, only a short distance away, no matter where I looked. It wasn't quite like fog, or anything else...or any sand/dust storm I have been in before. I probably could've taken a pic or two after I got home but I was so tired that by the time I got done feeding the dogs and stuff, I fell asleep and only woke a bit ago; now at nearly 1AM it's drizzling outside, and finally below 80F for the first time in over a week, I think, maybe longer, and the air is relatively clear.

Anyhow, other than the turn signal blinker, the rest of the bike is still working fine for now, other than always having to lift the lid on the battery case to let it cool off the BMS a bit before I can start out, if I leave work in the afternoon. It's so hot in teh direct sun that the BMS doesn't allow the bike to power up until it's had a little breeze on it.

I used some silver-foiled bubble-wrap loosely covering the case, tucked under the breaker and toptube, over the case, and that worked but either it blew off or someone took it, whiel I was inside at work a few days ago. I don't yet have anymore of that that isn't in use on other things. Gotta wait for a new fish or plant shipment to come wrapped in it (they're not always sent packaged the same way, so it could be a while).

 

[Solcar]

Video of the dust storm http://news.yahoo.com/video/weather-15749664/raw-video-massive-dust-storm-strikes-phoenix-25848005.html#crsl=%252Fvideo%252Fweather-15749664%252F10-p-m-weather-report-25847899.html

I've noticed how the airflow in your area has been to the northwest from the Mexican desert.

 

[amberwolf]

Well, the rain wasn't much, just barely enough to wet the ground a bit; it was already dry by about 9am when the inspector came by. But the wind had blown all my carefully-raked up stuff out of the piles I was picking up the last few days, so I had to re-rake it all up again last night and this morning...I was about halfway thru that when he got there.

I guess it isn't as bad as I had worried: all he is concerned about is the junk car in the driveway, which HAS to go ASAP, by end of week at latest. I have at least two possibilities on that, so it shouldn't be a problem.

The bigger problem is the pile of stuff at the back fence, which is being sorted into recyclables, trash that can go in the bulk trash and in the regular trash bin, and stuff that can't go in either one. A couple of friends may be able to help me with the recyclables. The rest I can sort a bit at a time, but the big problem is that bulk trash pickup isn't for another month and a half. The inspector will let me know if there are other alternatives, and I will let him know my progress as I get things done.

So things might not be as bad as they seemed, as far as the amount of work to be done. But...maybe worse in another way: He still may have to issue a citation, becuase his supervisor wants that done, but he is trying to keep that from happening. If it does happen, at minimum it would cost $100, and probably a lot more than that. I can't afford *anything*, as I have had few enough hours at work that I will shortly not have quite enough for all of the bills plus rent and groceries/etc., and I have already cut my own stuff back just about as far as possible.

I cant' pay the medical bills for my injury, either, so I haven't been able to go back for any followups. I was denied state assistance, supposedly becuase I didn't contact them but that isn't true--I did, but just like last year when tried to get help, they "lose" all the records of any contacts I have with them and "cant' find" any paperwork I turn in. Then at the beginning of this month, a new rule went into effect that automatically denies any assistance to single males like me.


So I'm on my own; I'll probably have to start putting up some of my project parts for sale here on ES, as they're about the only thing I have that is worth much money. I know a few people that wanted some of these things, so I'll contact them by PM first.

 

[Solcar]

Then at the beginning of this month, a new rule went into effect that automatically denies any assistance to single males like me.

Indeed. When you keep the ecosystem less stressed

 

[amberwolf]

Got the car gone, though the guy didn't leave any of the money he'd offered for it. Oh, well.

Still sorting the rest of the mess for pickup later.


The local electric company came by (unannounced) today to change out the regular power meter for a "smart" meter, whatever that means. They knocked on the door once, starting the dogs barking, but by the time I got there no one was there. I could see their truck out front so I went around to see why they were here, and found they'd just stuck an A-frame ladder over the fence and climbed into the backyard.

It wouldnt' bother me, but they have no way of knowing that the dogs can't just run out (as there is a set of towels hanging on the back door that act as a doggie-door "airlock" of sorts, but it's obvious from the barking that there are multiple larger dogs here. You'd think they'd be more cautious, as most dogs aren't all that happy about unexpected visitors to their yards, and some of them might attack instead of just barking (though mine wouldn't, they don't know that).

Anyway, I waved, and they asked if the dogs were able to get into the yard; I said no, and they explained about the meter changeout, so I shutdown the computer and other stuff and let them do their thing.

A few minutes later they knocked on the front door again, and said they couldn't do it, because there is a burned/charred-insulation wire coming into the panel (on their end of things) that they have to have a journeyman come out to check out, probably tomorrow while I'm at work. They gave me a lock (and keys) to whcih they have a master key, to temporarily replace my lock on the gate, so the guy can get into the yard (he won't be using a ladder like that).

Hopefully when they fix whatever it is, theyll get it all done at once, including the meter changeout.

I really want all this stuff to be over with, so I can get back to my life and the bikes and stuff.

 

[amberwolf]

Today I picked up some stuff to help both with bike projects and with my cleanup:

Fred just finished investigating it; the wood has a few pieces that smell like cat pee, but its' all for outside so I don't care. It'll become the frames for some fence pieces to go at the edge of my sheds, to enclose the area behind them in a non-visible-from-off-the-property manner.

The tubing is mostly EMT electrical type tubing, much of it with 90-degree curved bends at one end, which may be very useful in making various bike and trailer parts, without me having to do any bending. I will probably use these bits instead of the aluminum cot parts, for the rear cargo rails on the new bike. (and for that reason, this post is crossposted to that thread as well).


Some of it is thinner water pipe, so it isn't super-heavy, but too much so for bike use. So it, plus those awning-supports (two white/rusty, and one brown/rusty) will end up welded together to make me a back porch awning, to replace the wooden one I'd built out of 4x4s when we got to this house about 11-12 years ago, and destroyed by one of my sisters about 5 or 6 years ago because she wouldn't listen to me.


I already moved the tubing into the house; in a couple of hours when the sun isn't directly baking the backyard (it's 108F out there right now, in the SHADE, with the wind), I'll move the wood inside so I can cut the pieces and build the fence bits to put up.


There's also some motors; the motor/grip end of a 3HP electric chainsaw (120VAC 11HP motor, dunno if brushed or induction yet), B&D brush trimmer, a vacuum, a desk fan, and a weedeater. None are working at the moment, but I don't yet know what's wrong to see if they're fixable or usable.

I don't get much stuff of Freecycle these days, but sometimes I find a "motherlode". In this case, it was just a post for some weathered lumber, but when i got there the guy had the tubing and motors as well; we'd both remembered a conversation about electric vehicles we had had more than two years ago that had stopped due to some sort of computer problem on his end, and I'd never gotten a reply back after that, so it never went anywhere.

Now he's got links to my blog and ES, and he has this project motorcycle that currently has an ICE but I wonder if it might be a good electric candidate.

 

[amberwolf]

I need more shade near the house in back, especially so I can park the bike out there to work on it, so...I moved two of the trees from the messy cluster of them where the lemon tree used to be (it died from ants munching on it a couple of years ago, but it sheltered these little trees long enough for them to grow enough to live on their own, first).

I moved them to a couple of spots near the back of the house, at the corner and center of what will be a shade-awning, once I have time to build it. Hachi and Nana are busy mowing the grass to the right of them.

A third one will be moved once I can get back out there (it's noon now, and 111F, in the shade, and with water all over me it's still way too hot). It will go to the left of the picture, at what will be the southwest corner of the awning. Those supports in the previous post will be used just inboard of the trees, to hold up the awning, and probably I'll tie the trees to them to support them in the wind at first.

They used to be here, where the two big puddles are:

I dug them out using the water hose and a high-pressure nozzle, following the roots until I could just pull them out with as many of the little rootlets and whatnot as possible. Can't just dig them out with a chunk of dirt around them because all the roots of all the trees are intertwined.

I don't know what kind they are; there are at least two different kinds of tree there; I think one is another lemon tree, but I don't know the others. Their leaves are single lobed on the main part of the tree, but on the ends of branches they become tri-lobed, as if the single lobe had finger-shaped notches eaten out of them all (but it is not damage, they're jsut grown like that).

Two of the other trees in the yard (the smallest/youngest were also from this little "grove" of trees, but were moved to their new locations two or three years ago. They're still small because they haven't been watered much. I plan to fix that for these newly-transplanted ones, and water them at least a trickle every day, preferably much more.

Plus, since they will be by the house, and the awning, they'll get more shade themselves, until they are big enough to provide shade for the house and stuff, hopefully. I don't expect that to be soon. If I can get some non-doggy fertilizer I'll add taht to them as well, but I don't know when that will be.


I also planted some watermelon seeds under the evap cooler, right where it always drips, to keep them nice and damp. They've already sprouted, after only a few days. Last night there was one leaf sticking up, partly unfolded, and a couple of hours ago they looked like this:

 

[amberwolf]

Yesterday on my ride to work, I felt something odd, a shimmy, and shortly the rear wheel began rubbing on the frame once per revolution. I couldn't stop then, in traffic, so I checked it at work. I found two broken spokes. Can't fix them yet, cuz I'm at work, so I retensioned the ones near it to keep the rubbing down.

On my way home, I *heard* a third spoke snap, and the rubbing began again; it was in a totally different place, which I found when I got home. But I had to work really early today, so I didn't have time to take the wheel apart to get the spokes replaced and retrued, cuz if something went wrong I wouldn't have a rear wheel to ride to work on in the morning.

Today on the way to work, I thought I heard a "ting" of another spoke, but it was just one of the already broken ones flopping around...but then on the way home I heard another one. That's four, and can't be good--they're all on the same side (non-drive, left), AND are all the ones that run "forward" from the hub toward the rim, AND are all four "in a row".

To compensate for them so it wouldn't rub a hole in the sidewall against the chainstays, I basically had to loosen all the spokes on that area to nearly floppy, on both sides. So the wheel has terrible hop, and feels like I'm riding little ripples in the asphalt.
View attachment 1

Anyway, I will have to take care of it today, rather than what I'd planned to: in a couple of days, if it doesn't get any worse, on my next day off. So right after my nap (when I am done posting this), I'll ahve to go dig out some spokes that fit, probably off an old broken wheel. I really need to redo the whole wheel, but for now it'll just have to be the four broken ones.

I wanna do it right now, but I couldn't even hold the camera right, after some struggle trying to unscrew the spokes so I could match them to others, and now I've dozed off twice typing this, and need to really let myself sleep a bit.

I'd planned to head out today right after work for wire to do up a project for an ES member, but that's gonna have to wait till probably Wed or Friday (my next days off) because of the wheel thing, and my exhaustion, given it's already 430pm.

 

[Solcar]

A lot cheaper and easier than car maintenance, but it can still be trouble and inconvenient!

 

[amberwolf]

OK, I didn't have the right spokes loose anywhere, and apparently I've buried my pile of broken wheels under too much stuff to get to right now. So I took the old steel-rim wheel I last used on CB2's rear, and put it back on. It's slightly out of true, only 2-3mm :lol: side to side, and a little hop, but it is way better than the one above, and it has all it's spokes intact.

I can't fix the true right now, as it is already as tight as can go on the spokes needed to fix it (probably why I took it off, but I don't remember now), so it'll take a wheel rebuild to fix that. At least this one is less likely to disintegrate while riding.


I have *got* to get time to fix these problems, or to finish the new bike, before they all catch up to me on the road. But that "nap" ended up almost 14 hours long , I guess I really needed to rest more than I thought. And here I am asking for more hours at work, too. I dunno how that will work out if they give them to me...but the alternative is a second job that will take many more hours out of the week (in travel and readiness time) and interfere with the current job, likely taking out some of the hours I already have. Assuming I can *get* a second job, which hasn't worked out yet.

Anyhow, the wheel thing is at least fixed for now, to keep me on the road. I have one more spare 24" wheel but it is marginal as the rim has a dent in it at the bead line, and it's pretty out of true (beyond fixing with spoke tension). After that, I go to 26" wheels, which works but changes the head angle a bit.


Hmm...I just had a thought: if I used a larger rear wheel to change the head angle *back* to what it is right now, I could use that better (but longer) Suntour fork that caused me the death-shimmy problems back in April, without cutting and rewelding the headtube for that fork. Hmmm....

Something to think about. :?