Whatever!!!!!!!!! Gearhead-EFI Edition

**1project2many** · 03-11-2014

No, Mark, the camera didn't help me. Couple years before that someone who needed a ride back to the reservation stole our friends' car from the same spot. Same story, too. Nothing we can do. We'll keep an ear out in case the car shows up.

I did find out that all it takes is a small owl hanging from the mirror to keep those thieves away. Seems the owl is the bringer of death in those parts.

**JeepsAndGuns** · 03-13-2014

I was doing some google searching on the compressor I was just given. I found a thread on a random forum talking about specs. One guy posted up a email for a guy at ingersoll rand saying he could email you the owners manual, parts list and tech specs. So I gave it a try. I gave them the model number and serial number. Couple days later I get a reply and he sent the owners manual, parts list, and tech specs in pdf format. He also gave me the date the compressor was made. Nice!
The actual compressor pump was made 8-28-98, so its not as old as I thought. I got the tank and cleaned it up a little today. I buffed the paint off the plate on the tank hoping to find its size. No luck. I did find it was made in 1966. So seeing its date, and the compressors date, and the fact there is more than one set of holes on the tank, for both the compressor and motor, it appears the pump and motor were added to either a tank that was bought used, or the motor and pump were added to replace a bad or worn out pump and motor on the tank.
I did measure the tank and do the math to find the cubic inches and then convert that to gallons. It came out to about 80 gallons. So its a nice size tank. The check valve broke off in the bushing in the top of the tank, I took the bushing out and looked inside. There was a little bit of water in it, I pull the drain plug (cause opening the drain valve did nothing) and had to stick my finger in it to get it to drain. There is a slight buildup of a slightly gooy (about like playdough) stuff in the bottom of the tank. I think its a mix of water, rust, and compressor oil.
Anyone know what would be the best way to clean this out of the tank? Any good products I could put in it to loosen it up so I could flush it out?

**EagleMark** · 03-13-2014

Yup, it's a mixture of all the above. Anything that will break down the oil part like soapy water should rinse it out. Maybe some chemical but I'd rather not find one that ignites under pressure... slim chance but be careful.

Pretty cool you got the paper work!

Going to change the compressor oil too?

**JeepsAndGuns** · 03-13-2014

Yea, I drained it out as soon as I pulled it off the tank. Oil looked good. No water, metal/shavings or anything in it.
I found out why the motor pulley was wobbleing a bit. It is a two peice pulley that has whats called a "quick disconnect bushing" in it. That was cracked and was letting the pulley set uneven on the shaft. A little google searching and I found a replacement on ebay, brand new for $15 shipped. I pulled the inlet fitting out of the top of the tank yesterday and tried to remove the broken check valve, but no luck. Probably easyer to just buy a new bushing. Its 1 1/4 x 3/4. Looks like new check valves are prety cheap, so sholdnt be any problems there.
I think I'm going to have the most trouble finding a suitable pressure switch. It needs to be rated for 230 volts and the motor specs at a max of 22 amps, plus I will need it to have a unloader. I want adjustable so I can set the pressure. I'm thinking between 125-150 psi would be more than enough for my uses. The compressor is rated for like up to 200 psi.

**1BadAction** · 03-13-2014

Anyone had issues bleeding the Kelsey hayes RWAL brakes? Is there a trick to it? This damn thing is driving me bananas, I have all kinds of flow in front of the new accumulator (so I know it's not the combo valve), but nary a dribble behind it when I'm trying to bleed it. 25" of vacuum with the mighty vac and nothing, the vacuum acutally seems to make it worse.

I took another metal master cylinder lid, popped a hole in it and I'm going to hit it with more pressure from the topside again... If that doesn't work I'm going to trash all the rear antilock shit and set it up like they were for 20 years before my truck was manufactured.

**Nasty-Z** · 03-13-2014

Originally Posted by 1BadAction

Anyone had issues bleeding the Kelsey hayes RWAL brakes? Is there a trick to it? This damn thing is driving me bananas, I have all kinds of flow in front of the new accumulator (so I know it's not the combo valve), but nary a dribble behind it when I'm trying to bleed it. 25" of vacuum with the mighty vac and nothing, the vacuum acutally seems to make it worse.

I took another metal master cylinder lid, popped a hole in it and I'm going to hit it with more pressure from the topside again... If that doesn't work I'm going to trash all the rear antilock shit and set it up like they were for 20 years before my truck was manufactured.

Probably a bad dump valve , nothing new , I think they were defective when they left the factory ...............

All of my trucks with the RWAL system have it bypassed , it sucked on a good day

TOM

**1BadAction** · 03-13-2014

Accumulator/Dump valve is new, which is most of the reason I had it cracked open. I would not be surprised if it's bad right out of the box, though. I don't know why I'm beating myself up trying to make it work, it's effect is questionable at best, lol.

**Nasty-Z** · 03-13-2014

Originally Posted by 1BadAction

Accumulator/Dump valve is new, which is most of the reason I had it cracked open. I would not be surprised if it's bad right out of the box, though. I don't know why I'm beating myself up trying to make it work, it's effect is questionable at best, lol.

Shame you bought one ..... I could have sent you a few for free

Remove it , re route the line and be happy

**lionelhutz** · 03-13-2014

Originally Posted by JeepsAndGuns

Well, sad part is, is it was in my driveway right in front of my house. Also, I live in a trailer park, so there is really nowhere else to park.

I was thinking about a security camera. I could mount one on my front porch and should be able to get two of my 3 jeeps on it. Is there any way to wire it up to a desktop? Mine has a 1tb hdd that I will never be able to use even a fraction of. (I only got it because it came with it already installed) I was thinking, something that might be nice, is if there was a program that could record it, keep it stored for a couple days and then delete it. Is that even possiable?

A network IP camera should do that. Look at the Trendnet models. They can be set to record still or video after motion detection and store the recordings to a network location.

**Six_Shooter** · 03-16-2014

So yesterday I decided to take a look at a past (school) project that didn't work. The project itself in design works, since I have two of them and the second one was fine. The first one I built however failed and wasn't able to troubleshoot it back then.

This is a Bang-Bang regulator, that is adjustable between 2.1V and up to about 16V IIRC. It will go higher, but the output MOSFET doesn't like to work above that.

I initially thought it was the LM393 comparitor, so I swapped it with another used SMD LM393, with the same symptoms, so then I went to the DIP package LM393, which is why it's suspended above the board like that using wire. It wasn't the issue.

There's a push-pull transistor pair between the LM393 and the output MOSFET that I thought was the issue (the NPN I thought moreso), but they tested fine, out of the circuit.

So then I was sure it was the output MOSFET, since we were initially given a MOSFET with a rating that was lower than what the testing procedure called for. We were able to purchase an upgrade MOSFET, so I had one and was sure it was going to be perfect after that. No joy. Still had the same issue, no voltage output and maxing out the current n my 500mA power supply.

After that I figured it had to be shorting to ground, to cause it to do what it was doing. After some examination of the schematic and more testing I found the Schottky diode was indeed shorting to ground. I only had a TO-220 cased version on hand. But it now works perfectly.

I just need to decide if I should buy the proper sized components or leave it the way it is... This is just a back up for the one that I'm using on my CBOT, that after a few weeks from now I will never need to use again. Though the regulator will likely become handy in future projects.

**Six_Shooter** · 03-16-2014

I did some more kludging to test the 2 SMD LM393 I had.

I decided in the end since both worked fine, I would re-install one on board. I think I will get a proper diode for it on Monday.

**Six_Shooter** · 03-18-2014

Well I bought the proper diode today for the Bang-Bang regulator, I'll post a pic later.

<rant>

Today has been just F%^&ING glorious!!!

Slept in WAY past when I wanted, which means I got no school work done this morning that I had planned on.

Forgot to print off the slides for one class today, not a huge deal, but it's nice to make notes beside the appropriate slide.

Go back to the place I got my new glasses from since they were supposed to call me last week, about replacing the lens to fit the frame better. They had the lens, but it still isn't right, I decided I'd just live it, since they seem to be blind to the slight miss-fitment. It's better than it was, but not right. :facepalm:

Screw around with three (computer) programs so that I can get some PCB layouts laser printed tomorrow now, was hoping it wouldn't take nearly as long and could have been before Staples closed. I've spent about 7 hours trying to get this to work. Eagle for the PCB layout, Gimp to be able to repeat the layout several times, and paint in between, because Gimp doesn't want to recognize the image copied to the clipboard from Eagle. It's taken most of the time spent just to get the image to print out the correct size. I can only hope that Staples will be able to print an .xcf file, because that's the only way it comes out the correct size. These being SMD components it's of paramount importance they are are EXACTLY correct.

In the mean time, my UPS for my main PC decides to go into overload protection, and refuses to work for more than a few seconds. So I had to grab the UPS that was running my Node Zero, and re-locate it to run my main PC. :facepalm: So now I need to buy another UPS, or fix this one. Maybe I'll go the DIY route, though I haven't been happy with any of the DIY UPS' I've seen. Luckily I was working on the PCB layout stuff on my laptop (using Synergy to control it through my main PC) when the UPS decided to fail, so that work wasn't lost. But my laptop DID refuse to talk to the printer in there and required a restart, which of course meant that Windoze needed to install updates... :facepalm:

So now it's 20 after 1 in the morning and I need to work on a QAPP report for Thursday, a Lab Report due on Wednesday, a formula sheet due Wednesday, work on about 3 Ethics assignments all due in various intervals over the next couple weeks and catch up on other subjects

FFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

</rant>

**Six_Shooter** · 03-19-2014

well, I etched my first circuit board today. It should have been done weeks ago, but kept putting it off, since I had other things due, now a couple assignments will be late due to working on this today.

Anyway. It's a Bluetooth board for the CBOT (Little two wheeled "robot"). Most of the heavy BT stuff is done in the module, the rest is really mostly power supply step down from 5V to 3.3V, and a voltage divider for the RX line to reduce it from 5V to 3.3V as well.

My Girlfriend and I actually went out a bought a Laserjet printer today so I could complete this at home, and we also wanted a Laser printer as well.

I made the layout in Eagle CAD, then did some manipulation for printing, and printed out several copies, it's a good thing I did, because it took me about 7 tries before I got to the point I could etch, once because I didn't understand how to use the Toner Foil, so I had go back to square one again at that point. Ooops...

Anyway, on to the pics:

Toner transferred to the copper PCB (this was actually a failed attempt, due to that smudge):

This is where I messed up with the foil:

Better attempt, I'll figure out the exact procedure to get full coverage, but no extra... eventually.

Ready to dip in the Ferric Chloride (I didn't get any pictures during because it's quite messy and the Ferric chloride can stain anything, so I just kept my gloves on for that procedure):

All etched:

Taking a dip in some Liquid Tin for protection and better soldering:

Beside the part it is to replace, the red board is a serial to USB break out board, which incidentally can be used to communicate with OBD1 GM ECMs. ;)

I'll get the completed pictures up soon. I have all of the components soldered on, and working, I just can't seem to figure out how to pair with it... a task for another day.