Mathias' Handy Youtube Page

Mathias

Mathias

Hey there fellow forumites. I was working on my car this afternoon and it dawned on me that some people might benefit from my crazy handiness. I pretty much revamped my Youtube page to reflect my desire to make some basic tutorials on simple tasks around the home.

I give you my first video (kinda rough edit): how to replace/install an interior door handle assembly.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjIJ7rfYmyovzgi0pnLyHGVYUmGeoEiju
 
Mathias

Mathias

Post-op. So I had to replace my car battery. My car's ECU did a hard reset after the battery was disconnected for so long, and the old battery (crapping a whopping 9.2 V) messed up the idle. I had to do a hard ECU reset after popping in a new battery. This video goes over the procedure for a Subaru Impreza, but (as the video will mention) it makes sense that it can be used universally on newer cars.

Bonus! You get to see my ugly mug!



**Update**
My ECU has adjusted the RPM's accordingly. No more stalling! Yeah!

Oh my, I didn't hear that sexy engine note until now @ time 13:55
 
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Mathias

Mathias

Bumble the Boy Wonder said:
I'm actually quite interested in seeing what things you might be fixing up.

I'll be watching and taking notes, so that I may one day earn my man card
Click to expand...

Well you're in for a treat! My son yanked the pull switch on the ceiling fan in my bedroom! I'll be tearing apart the ol' fan later this week to fix that up.

At some point I want to use some scrap wood to make a small loft in my shed. I'll be taping that as well.

My garage door sensors also need protection! I'm going to make little wood (or metal, I haven't decided yet) cover boxes to protect them.

Next time I change my oil and rotate my tires, I'll make a video.

My big project is going to be insulating and remodeling our sunroom and building a deck in the backyard. That'll come along next summer.

As I get better, I'll be posting blacksmithing videos!
 
Bumble the Boy Wonder

Bumble the Boy Wonder

Do you usually look up the basics of what to do before you begin, or just start tearing things open?

My favorite line: "Yeah....I have no idea what this thing does..."
 
Mathias

Mathias

Bumble the Boy Wonder said:
Do you usually look up the basics of what to do before you begin, or just start tearing things open?

My favorite line: "Yeah....I have no idea what this thing does..."
Click to expand...
The schematic for a variable speed ceiling fan is actually kinda complicated - as it turns out. Maybe someone with a more advanced electrical background could chime in, but I think that thing was actually a transformer that alters the voltage to provide varying fan speeds.

I went into this figuring how a pull-string might work, and when I had the assembly apart figured out how each moving part functioned to get the overall effect of moving the chain out and back in. It would have to use a spring or some kind of tension device to put the chain back into position. But, nah, I didn't look up a ceiling fan repair or anything for this.

Looking stuff up really depends on the project.

If it was more involved, like the actual fan motor, I would have probably looked up the basics on how the ceiling fan motor is mounted, and maybe how to get to it etc... I'd assume from the start that it was a basic, run of the mill alternator AC to DC type set up. I wouldn't go so far as recoiling wires though. It's just much easier and time saving to just buy the part in that case and replace it.

For the car door, I looked up some Subaru forums on how to pull off the molding. Usually with cars, someone's already done the work and knows where all the tricky screws and problem spots are. This was especially true when rebooting the ECU.
 
strawman

strawman

It's a capacitor. Induction motors are cheap, efficient, and easy to reverse, but they need a 2 phase AC supply, or at least need to be started with one. In simplified terms, the capacitor delays the AC waveform, faking a second phase. Larger fans only need it to start, making them starting capacitors. This one is probably just connected all the time (easier, fewer wires, etc) making it a run capacitor. To reverse the fan you switch the motor coil the capacitor is on - it delays the phase the other direction and the rotor goes the other direction.

Some motors use a capacitor (or set of capacitors) to adjust the speed, but that often comes at the cost of efficiency and noise. Most ceiling fans can be imagined schematically as having three motors that all share the same shaft. It's one of the reasons the fan motor is so large, it's essentially three motors in one. Only one is active at a time.
 
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