Geoff S

Having dismantled the surplus Cycle battery pack, I configured the batteries as best I could to convert the arrangement from 10s5p to 5s10p. I kept the battery holders, partly for convenience and partly because it would be difficult to extricate them without the risk of damage or inadvertent s/c (I've had a couple of those, hopefully without damaging the cells. At least it showed the cells had stored energy!). I found an underused aluminium case which has an insulated lining and they fit a treat with the cells held on a 3mm plywood base. I intend to make a ventilated box to keep them in place and that leaves plenty of space for my iCharger 308 Duo. I can't think why I didn't think of this before. Assuming it works, of course! The wiring is less than optimal but I had to go with how the batteries had been configured before dismantled the original. I've ordered a 5s balance connector for charging the pack and I'll install 2 pairs of 4mm sockets for output and probably use for charging, too. The idea is to fit a vertical 3mm ply wall which will carry the output sockets and a ventilated lid. Not sure if ventilation is necessary - the original case had none. Is an output fuse a good idea or overkill? It weighs a fraction of the old lead/acid car battery I'd given up using because of the physical effort needed to carry it (and the danger of acid spill - our old Ford van which dad used for his accumulator round during WW2 had a wooden floor, eaten away by acid, as was the overall coat he wore 🙂 ) I was puzzled by this inlay in the 3mm ply. It's part of a brand-new sheet I bought from SLEC some years ago It's roughly 35x25mm

You've inspired to tear apart a 10s cycle battery that fitted on a bike I no longer have and converted back to standard before I sold it. It's full of Samsung CR18650 Li -ion (as opposed to Lithium Iron -LiFe? Battery chemistry isn't my strong point!) They would have been wired a 10s5p (there's 50 of them). Interestingly, it looks as though the built-in charger, driven from a simple mains to DC 'charger', appears to balance charge the batteries. Hopefully, I have the makings of a portable energy source to use at the field. I don't know why I didn't think of it before! How should I wire them, bearing in mind my iCharger is only good for 8S? I usually (always) drive my charger at 12v but it's OK up to 24v. Probably 4S would be enough but that would mean 10/12 in parallel. Is that a disadvantage? Thanks to DD for starting me off on this track. PS The cells are at 3.5v each (35v for the whole pack), which is comfortably above the safe minimum of 2.4 to 3.0. Hopefully, they'll do the job.

How heavy is it? The problem I've had recharging at the field is lugging a massive lead/acid battery about - usually an old car starter battery that will no longer deliver an adequate current, but is OK at the charge currents we need to charge LiPos. Obviously, yours is set up to charge just one type of LiPo. Most of us use a variety of, mostly, 3S, 4S and perhaps 6S of various sizes so would need to have a slightly different connection regimen, which is not a problem. Moreover, I, for one, only charge at 1C. Perhaps I should open up a couple of 10s electric bike batteries that have broken connections which I've found very tricky to repair reliably.

There certainly is an active Polish RC community. We had a Polish member who designed and built his own F3a models and, IIRC, won the Nationals about 6 years ago. He took it very seriously and used a dual prop setup which had 2 motors with concentric prop shafts, which was designed by a Polish friend of his. We called him Les (which was a contraction of his Polish name) I can't remember his last name. He moved away to work on the south coast somewhere, working for a boat building firm, I believe.

All done and dusted! We now have a grill that works. The hardest bit was replacing the single screw inside the front of the oven at the top. It holds both the element and what I assume is a heat shield above it. The old problem - as soon as you get near the point where the screw should enter the hole and start the thread, you're working blind because the heat shield hides the hole. I overcame it by putting a thin screwdriver through all the holes first to get the location, then instructing my helper to hold everything in place while I withdrew the screwdriver and fitted the fastening screw (one of those funny heads they use to stop users repairing their products). Worked first time!

I have his 'Model Aircraft Aerodynamics' on the bookshelf over my desk as I type. I read it when I bought it, but it was a bit too technical for me and needed considerable study to get any benefit, but certainly thorough. I found Alastair Sutherland's book a bit more useful and practical for my purposes. However, Martin was clearly a very educated and knowledgeable expert (who was likely the source of some of Alastair's book).

You drive it with the steering locked? No wonder you turn over.

No, but I have a rough idea what I've flown from memory. Logging flights would make a chore out of a pleasure for me. My wife's is the arch logger. She checks her blood pressure weekly, how far she walks, where we've replaced light bulbs, and where we bought them - and lots more! I once recorded my annual cycling miles and was disappointed to fall short of 10,000 miles by 30 miles because of heavy snow at the end of the year - I didn't bother again 🙂 At my doctor's request, I've just recorded by blood pressure and heart rate every day for the past week. That was enough! 134/66 and 52bpm today as you're asking 🙂

The new element arrived in the post today, delivered by our regular, friendly postman. He took a picture and looked a sorry sight in his anorak with hood up as the rain fell. It looks to be the right one, which is a plus. I'll fit it this afternoon when the memsahib is available for a little help (she's doing the weekly shop right now). Pretty good service from what turned out to be Screwfix. I hadn't realised when I ordered it.

I've got a brand new SR8 I've never really mastered and avoided using through timidity. Despite my not being a technophobe, I've always been a bit averse to handing over control to some automatic device (I've never dared to use the cruise control on our car! Sad, I suppose). I'll give it another go by following your excellent instructions.

The connections are accessed from the back. There're only 2 screws to remove to pull it out, and it save grovelling on the floor (something I'm not good at these days). There are also two further screws at the back to remove the element. @Phil Green The internet is your friend, as it was when I repaired our built-in microwave oven. I really had no idea how they worked and found that the magnetron (which was faulty) works in a very similar way to a good old triode valve (which learned about at my granny's knee) but at MUCH higher voltages 🙂 YouTube is a wonderful resource once you get past the dross. Unfortunately, being a former electrical/electronic professional, I feel the need to be the repairer of any household electrical gadgets - I suppose it saves money

The last 300 metres of our internet connection is copper anyway. I switch off the router every night and we don't always get a mobile signal indoors. I'm quite sure that, at present, BT can't impose internet enabled phones if you refuse it. Things have come a long way since it was almost impossible to get an exclusive phone line unless you were a business user. We had a shared line for ages - it was rarely a problem then; it would be now. I think, like Peter Jenkins, we're setting ourselves up for a massive problem. There's an old saying - don't put all your eggs in one basket and that's what we seem to be doing and making ourselves very vulnerable to either malicious or weather related attacks.

Halfway through making our lunch of cheese on toast,the grill on our 15 year old packed up. I eventually plucked up the enthusiasm to pull the built-in oven out to see what could be done. I find the biggest problem repairing kitchen appliances is access, especially if they built in, and now physically getting on my knees to do the work. I eventually decided to get my trestles and old building board to make a bench and managed to get the oven at a comfortable working height . Anyway, it proved not to be too difficult and I managed to get the old element out. Luckily, when I installed the oven, I'd left plenty of slack in the cable. The kitchen installer wouldn't touch any electrical work and there was no way I'd pay an electrician to something I was perfectly capable of doing myself. Of course, I turned off the main switch but, in addition, I removed the dedicated cooker fuse in the consumer unit I'd installed 40 odd years ago. Better safe than sorry. I located a replacement element on-line. In fact, I located two. One was £37 the other £47. Which to choose? How do you judge the quality of something like that? By price. I've ordered the most expensive one on the grounds that I've probably saved us £200 by sorting it out myself. The new element arrives sometime next week - Wednesday, I think. Meanwhile, we don't have a grill but the caravan's just outside if necessary!

We had a similar storm in 1990 when wet freezing snow collected on power lines and the increased windage pulled then down. The overhead mains power wires to our house pulled out, so we knew we wouldn't get reconnected until something was done. I was still partially paralysed from a cycle accident a few months earlier and I was instructing my wife how to rewire the gas boiler electrically powered gas valve to a 6v dry lantern battery so we could have hot water and heating. Luckily, being campers, we were able to cook using either our Trangia meths stove or a Calor gas burner we used when we car-camped. Our mains power is now supplied underground. I think the phone lines stayed operative.

I think the main reason retired people are less confident with new technology is that they don't enjoy the group synergy that comes with being employed or, especially, with a crowd of enthusiastic schoolmates. When we first started working with microprocessors back in the 1970s, none of the engineers in what was then the electronics and instrumentation dept knew anything abut them apart from the data sheets. We used them for logic replacement in embedded instrumentation. We learned programming in machine code (MC6800), which meant conditional jumps had to be counted - the s/w did nothing for you, until we got Assemble, development systems and eventually higher level languages like PL9, and C. We learned from each other and made rapid progress in both h/w and s/w design, though it was all a bit crude at first but huge fun. I've used a variety of editors, operating systems and hardware (at least we were eventually able to ditch C90 tape cassettes for program storage, but it took a while). I'm afraid, at 84, I've got a bit bored with it all and elect to use only what I find useful. My smartish phone is only used when I don't have access to my desk-top PC (laptops are a pain because they're all different and almost as hard to repair as smartphones). It happens to us all eventually 🙂 At least I still know enough to be able to repair/replace the oven grill element as I've spent the afternoon doing (the new element arrives in a few days). But I used my PC to research/source the element and the method. It would have been a pain using the small screen on my phone.

It's the way I access the internet 99% of the time.

Me too. I used to climb telegraph poles when I briefly worked for GPO(telephones) as a teenager and we were supposed to tie the ladder off at the top before climbed it - we never did, but I always carefully checked the safety belt I trusted my life to when leaning back on it to keep my hands free to make connections. Can't work out what the guy with a plastic bag over his head is doing, nor why the lorry is being lifted by the crane. Strange world. I remember the very dodgy looking scaffolding (tied up bamboo, mostly) being used in Nepal - but then, all the bricks were being carried up by women whilst the men played a board game (I approved, my wife did not!)

I suppose my wife must be super tolerant. I've never needed to do that. She only mildly objects to the space my models occupy and tries to institute a one in - one out policy 🙂

Modelfixings is the place for just about everything. Visit the site and have a look.

I used mine a few weeks back and it worked OK. I have a wireless connection and use it with my Horus transmitter with a multiprotocol module set to Spectrum. One thing that does happen (usually after a Windows update) the Launcher doesn't work but I have a shortcut pointing to the actual .exe file (realflight.exe) and that always works. I used to have trouble loading it from the CDs because it was stopped by the anti-virus s/w but I've stopped using that and rely on the Windows anti-virus. You could try the Realflight forum here which has loads of extra models programmed by users

A friend of mine had a Cheney 500cc Triumph once used by Malcolm Rathmel in the ISDT (reg WGC 103 H IIRC!). I had oil in the frame and everything could be done at the roadside almost without tools and there were spare cables already in place in case of breakage (riders have to all their own repairs in the trial using tools they carry). He very generously lent it to me for an Exeter Trial (200ish miles in early January starting in Kenilworth at 9pm and ending in Sidmouth (via Exeter) about mid-day). It leaked no oil and was the smoothest parallel twin I ever rode. It was quite icy, so I was glad of its excellent handling, too. He's sold the bike since and I believe it's in the National Motorcycle Museum. IIRC he paid £200 for it - can't imagine what he sold it for!

I had an excellent Britool hex-drive socket set given to me by a friend of my fathers' as a 21st birthday present in 1961. I've still got it but, as it's Whitworth/BSF rather than metric, it's not been used for a while. I was very lucky. My grandmother surprised me in 1958 by buying me (secretly) a brand new BSA Golden Flash because I'd been having a lot of trouble with my BSA C11 250cc wearing camshafts out. I was commuting weekly from Welwyn Garden City, where I worked, back to Nottingham, so needed reliability. It was a complete surprise to me, especially as, after the death of my mother, she and my father never spoke.

IIRC some of them were laminated with copper as part of the mix. Most of my work was on BSA (A10 or BB34 Gold star) and the 1930s Ariel singles I used for vintage trials. It's so long ago 😞

I do have a Nokia with Android 10 but use it very sparingly. When I think how a few years ago I'd be out on my bike (pedal or power) and no-one knew where I was, I had to be self-reliant, so I carried tools and spares (inner tubes/spokes) to keep me going. Now I take my phone but I've never used it. My wife and I used to cycle camp in the Alps or Pyrenees and even we often didn't know where we were going to stay the next night; I suppose now we'd be able to be in contact with friends or family but the freedom was great. I find phones awful to use as computers. I can never find the right letters on the oversensitive touch screen. I use a 'proper' desk top PC with a full size keyboard, mouse and a huge vdu for 99% of my internet (and TV for that matter) use. I have a good chance of repairing it if it goes wrong. I've replaced batteries in phones (which is hard enough) but that's about it. @JD8 There is a signal for EE where we live but not indoors. Vodaphone is all that works indoors and we're high up. It cost us <£20/month for two of us with enough data to use the internet away from home, where we use the router wifi. About the only data we use is to cheat on the Guardian so-called Quick Crossword (it's not often quick!) we do over our evening meal.

I've done it lots of times using a small hammer to tap the paper round the edges of the surface. The paper tears easily on the creases and fits perfectly. Used mostly on timing or primary chain case covers. It does no damage to the alloy. Cylinder hear gaskets are a different matter. I assume the spoon is used in a similar way?