Wide Wheel aging battery diagnosis and first intervention

We (mostly) all know that as things age they stop performing at peak levels, sometimes replacement is the best solution, but perhaps other times intervention can fix the issue. I'm not one to shy away from a surgical intervention if needed, but if another therapy can work then all the better.

Background

So, while the WW was going well these last few years I've been using it less (favouring my bicycle for shorter trips in and out of town) and its had a few small issues that I've needed to fix (like the seized rear motor, exacerbating the not using it as much).

I noticed however that the battery was "sagging down" more in voltage sooner than I thought it should do as I was riding (you know, that volt meter on the handlebars does have a useful purpose right?) and began thinking that it may be something more than just expectable aging.

I always check the "Watt Hours" (Wh)  shown on my charge monitoring tool (that always remains plugged in between the charger and the scooter), and the Watts needed to recharge are less than what I'd have expected were the battery depleted down to that level of "remaining charge" (as represented by the voltage when riding). For reference, this is the Watt meter I use:

It conveniently shows how many Amps are flowing, the battery Voltage and on the bottom row cycles the left number through 

• Amp hours (Ah)
• Watt hours (Wh)
• Peak Amps (Ap)
• Voltage maximum  (Vmax)
• Peak Watts (Wp)

the right number shows just the current situation of Watts flowing. Its a great tool and I would strongly recommend everyone with an eScooter or an eBike have one of these; you learn a lot from them.

I mean unless you're stupid, then you don't learn anything ....

First step

So I decided to pay attention to the last part of the charging cycles and come on in at the end; glancing at it as I went about my doings around the house.

I noticed that it was 0.18A (that's also 180mA) at one point, then suddenly became 0.00A ... that's wrong as before I've seen it taper nicely down to 0.01 Amps (because I like to watch these things, just like I like to watch the food I'm cooking so I don't burn it).

"Riigghhhttt" I thought, "the BMS is cutting off before balance has completed" ... first step was to turn off the charger (at the wall, in Australia power points have switches on them) and leave it plugged into the charger (so I can monitor the actual charging point voltage as well as the "take off end" that  shows on the handlebar, yes they are different voltages) and wait a while (about half an hour) and then turned it back on ...

bam ... started charging at 0.56A and I thought yep, diagnosis looks right: BMS is shutting down, the full cells settle (after charging) lowering the difference between pack cell groups. The role of the BMS (among other things like discharge protection) is to ensure that charging is stopped before any cell (bundle) is over charged (think fire risk) and to help fully charged cells bleed over to the less charged cells (although different BMS's do this with different levels of quality).

So clearly it was shutting off before the other cells were fully bled.

Not wanting to stand there all day I decided to automate this with a simple "clock work" power timer I had lying around ... 

I set it to provide power for 15 minutes and not provide power for 15 min. I can "turn it on" for the first bulk charge (to save time) using the switch on the side:

in the up position its providing full time power (ignoring the settings) and in the down (blue/green arrow) position its on the timer.

Lastly

I've put together this quick video showing all this and discussing the same points above but in a slightly different angle. 

I hope that together this makes things clearer

I'll follow this up in the coming weeks with what happened and if this simple solution means I don't need to do pack surgery and replace the BMS (with a spare which I'll probably already have on hand from last time).

See Ya

The UberSchmarotzer

I quite like Nietzsche's phrase "UberMensch" (a man above the usual human limitations and social constraints), so as a hat tip to Nietzsche I have decided to make the word: UberSchmarotzer to celebrate that (apparently) uniquely Russian (and from now on I'll only call that cunt-tree RuZZia) ability to overthrow their harsh oppressive Monarchy (the Czars) and to be fooled into replacing it with parsites like Lennin and his following (further composting society) "leaders" such as Stalin and (so far) culminating in Putin. 

Perhaps SchmarotzerMensch is better ... I'm not sure.

As you know the Russian Revolution led directly to where RuZZia became the sort of autocracy where invades its neighbour (Ukraine) and attempts a genocidal engulfment of them in the manner of one huge uncaring amoeba with apparent impunity.

The "apparent" is because they have inadvertently set in motion their own (slow motion) demise.

This litany of vile sub-humans (who must surely be sub-human because of their psychological lack of empathy and care) set about iteratively constructing a system which was designed to be a "jack-boot stamping on the face of their people" (borrowing from Orwell) for eternity.

They have gone past the need to have an expensive police force to ensure compliance and have selectively bred a class who are so subjugated that they have simply ceased to be anything more than the lower intelligence mice that Calhoun discovered emerged from his Universe 25.

So I expect that RuZZia will soon breed itself out of existence.

Take Care ... choices make the difference between a bright future and oblivion.

Winter Floor Heating effectiveness report

I just thought I'd make a post about how my "system" of the combination of

• Solar Floor heating
• Insulation in floor and Ceiling
• Use of Reverse Cycle AirCon
• Wood burning stove

is working out for me.

With overnight lows of about -1C (so frosts) but typically sunny days of about 18C, I get sufficient energy from that to heat the floor and this therefore takes a significant load off the AC because as the floor (basically) never gets heated by the warm air blowing out of that (so, upper walls and ceiling are heated) the floor heating system then brings the whole house up warmer. This is a typical winter day here:

The time zone indicated by A is where I turn on the R-C A-C and the zone indicated by B is where I lit the fire. Because the house is already warm (and insulated top and bottom) the fire requires just a fraction of what would be needed otherwise. As the sun starts to warm outside I choose that time to then turn on the AC because the exterior heat exchanger will have more advantage in raising the temperature inside if the outside is actually warmer.

Its just like the height difference between two points on a hill. The higher the difference the more energy you need. So even though I'm using technology and electricity to move and amplify that heat I'm still taking advantage of the Sun to do that. So only one component would simply not work, but all four parts work together, consequentially my house is warmed (but not 100% of the time, my power bill is much lower) and I burn less than a quarter of the wood. For example the load of wood I bought in 2023 is still serving and I anticipate that it will provide for this winter entirely too. I'm a big fan of

• understanding diminishing returns
• seeking maximum value for money

I know what it would cost to improve this situation, and so I'm quite satisfied with the additional amenity provided by my existing solar floor heating in conjunction with Reverse Cycle Air-Con and insulation to augment the little wood burning furnace that the house already had delay the need to and reduce how much I burn when I do.

The whole project is well described here: (link)

Addiesdive (budget) Submariner

Some time back I bought a $15 Sanda Rolex inspired watch to "get free postage" (but actually get something tangible on a purchase of the same cost to me) on an Ali Express order. I intended to use it in the gym to time my training and get a second hand to time HR during training. I was surprised how comfortable it was; which was (I expected)  not least because of its weight.

This led me to consider the Addiesdive H3-2QZ which I found quickly enough on Ali for a discounted rate that (including taxes) worked out to AU$50. It arrived on a bracelet (which I took off) and put it on one of my well worn nylon straps (whic was a NATO, but has now been rendered comfortable); as shown below.

The watch feels nice, the bezel rotation (sadly following the sheep trend of being unidirectional so that kiddes at their desk who never dive feel better about its operation and can fantisize about impressing some chick with their knowledge) has a good feel (not too hard, not too soft) and the crown came with a surprising extra O-Ring seal I've not seen on many other watches with screw down crowns

The finish of the watch is good, with barely any "sharp" edges (compared to my Pagani); particularly the Crown is well finished not sharp or harsh and helps the watch to feel like something well over this price. The markers are all nicely placed and the shape is perfect modern dive design language. I've put below two macro shots of the finish of the crown and the edge of the dial

Frankly I don't know how they get it this good for the price, I can only guess that its electro-plated chrome finish on these points

As there are plenty of videos on YouTube about this watch I'll just add one final point about straps. The part of the watch back between the lugs is not well suited to straps (and you can see they've struggled to get the end links on too) because it has no bevel at the back. If you are going to have the drill holes close to the case then you need to account for this (as for instance Seiko does); note the finish of the edges in red arrows and the bevel identified with blue.

Finally I'm using the watch on a $14 leather two piece arrangement and it looks like this:

So now I have a watch that has a handy timer (a defining feature of a diver) as my daily driver; for days where I don't want to wear the little SandaTank.

If that sounds like you too, then just get one.

AI is full of it

So, I wanted to know the specific answer to the following question

but I know what sort of "intelligence" AI has so I thought I'd read that site and see what was said.

The reason for this failure is that AI doesn't actually know anything, all words are just tokens. So when the guy says "its all heat related" he's saying that its resistance NOT impedance at work. Resistance of a metal changes with temperature, while impedance is related to a magnetic field change "impeding" the flow of electrons. Impedance is the combined effect of resistance and reactance in a circuit.

So when they guy doesn't explicitly write "no its impedance" (and wipe AI's chin after its spoon fed it) then AI doesn't notice and just keeps looking for the words that support the question; it doesn't know what a spiral is nor a core nor understand anything.

A good reading on this impedance stuff is found here.

Yep, AI was just like Homer Simpson and gave an answer while not knowing the difference between impedance and resistance when if it was actually reading and comprehending it would see that the answer was the opposite of what it gave.

I hereby crown AI as the new King Wang ... 

Fools led by fools I say

reality

A philosophical post.

 

Since high school (after over 10 years of punishment by Christian Nuns and Brothers) my philosophy of life has been the search for truth and the "minimisation of distortion of reality.

I have tried to live without hope, not expecting anything (either good or bad) but embracing what comes along each day.

This meme reminded me of that choice made long ago.

Longer term readers of my blog will know that I've spent a lot of time on philosophy; not as an abstract but for the very real psychological and physiological problems that confronted me.

For sure I could have committed intellectual suicide by refusing to think, by believing in a distorted reality where "God" was being merciful and loving, but too much harm was visited on me in quick succession to even remotely allow this to sit. I played no part in this, and especially that my wife was totally innocent of my prior sins so why was she punished (by death) as well as her whole family from her loss?

Christians (and perhaps Muslims and Jews) will say "this is a mystery" ... well where others see mystery I see just reality (genetics, age, illness ...); natural outcomes and statistics. To me the others are trapped in a living hell of an iteratively fictionalised character story built on the lines of Psychopathic narcissism, gas lighting and innate  Stockholm syndrome.

I was well acquainted with Stoic views (from my studies of Greek and Roman history at school) but the philosophy of Albert Camus, perhaps this (link) is as good a place to start on Camus if you don't already know his work.

Being Stoic does not mean you don't feel pain, but instead it guides you how to attribute analysis and on how you should direct your responses. I've got a couple of articles on Stoic views here.

So, anyway, maintain your critical thinking, don't devolve into distortions of reality and be Stoic, be Absurdist and be a good human.

Best Wishes

Widewheel rear motor replacement and general update

So, back in October 2024 my Wide Wheel wouldn't go, the back motor made a lot of noise and felt almost "seized" inside. I suspected rust and I suspected in it where it was found: between the stator and the magnets). 

Keep in mind that I've had this scooter since 2019 and its seen a lot of use.

Accordingly there were lots of delays (what, with postage from China, two other motorcycles that needed work and changing tyres on the MX60 so that I still had an electric scooter), but eventually it all came together. 

Firstly, I struggled to get the wheel apart. I looked at would I repair or replace the whole thing (after quite a few goes at trying to get it apart. The price of a the price of a whole rear hub wheel ($300 of course with a tyre fitted) vs just a tyre ($50) and a set of wheel bearings ($14 for the pair).  I thought "ok, I'm willing to give it a go"; and so I decided that we had to go the hard way of cutting the tyre off.

To achieve this we (it was a two man job) used a good sharp knife, a pair of pliers to pull up what had been cut and some "penetrating oil" (spray can) to lubricate the knife as it cut. You can see the rust stain there where clearly some water (one doesn't need much) had made its way into the motor some how. I have a few ideas on that front, which I can't verify, but either way.

With the tyre off I was quickly able to remove the screws from the "right side" of the hub (sides being usually discussed from the perspective of the rider on the bike or scooter) and it came apart easily and pretty cleanly. You can then see the windings, the steel laminated metal sheets that form and hold the windings. 

The problem was rust and tiny bits of broken magnet debris. Here you can't see is how tightly the magnets around the outside of them hold that stator in, meaning that just a little bit of surface rust becomes a problem. Probably not having used it for 3 or 4 months helped that rust expand (which is what rust does).

Extracting the stator requires the left side of the hub to be supported and a strong back (and a good grip on the shaft; so put the nut back on and a couple of big washers for grip) to pull it out.  Do not pull on the wire.

The outside of the stator had some surface rust as well as the magnets. I used an abrasive bit on my cordless drill (also with very sparing use of penetrating oil) to clean up the outer of the stator and the inner of the magnet area.

Do pay attention to the wires and don't abrade / clean anything off the sides (there wasn't anything anyway).

You can see (blackened area to the right) that one of the magnets has had some of itself smashed off (by the build up of stuff that was in there) and its a hell scape in there if any bits break off because they'll be kept in dangerous places by the magnetic fields.

From there I decided to replace the bearings too, they tapped out nicely with a socket and the new ones tapped in cleanly too.

I thought that before ordering a tyre I'd check that nothing was wrong, inserted the stator and closed the wheel up gently.

So with everything prepared I re-fitted the motor (without the tyre) so back on the scoot and "test fire it" to see if it still worked.

All went perfectly.

However I want to take the time to reiterate a few things that are unexpected to those inexperienced in working with this type of motors. 

1. just as the stator resisted being removed, it is strongly attracted to the hub, so care and strength is required when inserting the stator into the half with the magnets as it will suddenly and strongly get pulled into place. Be prepared for this and have a good grip and make sure the wheel side is held for this.
2. you MUST leave clearance under that wheel side for the axle to protrude through.

When my tyre arrived some other things became apparent

1. its a real tight fit and I should have used lubricant 
2. you really need some long screws of the right type to insert into the holes in the steel frame to accurately line up with the screws that you'll replace
3. some sort of clamp system (big G clamps will do the trick) to pull the two sides together
4. some large washers to form a stack to keep the shaft pulled snugly against the other side and prevent it from moving back up

I didn't do 4 above and somehow my friend who was helping decided to use a spanner on the axle and turn it; and the stator had slid up ... 

This quick movement (he's used to the oil drilling industry and heavy machinery) and ruined my motor. As the stator spun and the wheel half hub dragged on the wires that go to the hall sensors (a critical component in a brushless motor) and totally fucked those delicate connections.

Sigh ... so lesson here is "don't work like a gorilla, work like a watchmaker with electromechanical things."

I have tried to get the hall sensors out, but they are glued in and thus I'll never know what they are (to order replacements) or indeed be able to get new ones in.

The motor is now toast :'-(

By this time, when I went back to Ali I found that rear motors were not available (and they are physically different to the front).

The entire project sat in the shed until a few weeks back when I found another 2019 Wide Wheel in Facebook market place with a stuffed battery (seriously it was only good for 2km) for $200 and I decided to buy that to get a rear wheel.

However when I got the scoot I found that it was almost totally new, with very little apparent wear (well, the rims were bashed on the edges, because people don't know how to corner on) and so I decided to transplant my battery into it instead of just moving the wheel to my scoot.

The scoot had been put into ludicrous mode (explaining why the battery was stuffed) and almost none of the usual pre-ride prep work had been done (please see this article and its linked ones). Indeed the owner had done the classic 1980's bicycle brake cable adjustment which is both wrong and dangerous (see this article for how to properly adjust the standard calliper). 

So, now I have a new 2019 model Wide Wheel (as well as a bunch of spare parts still on my old one) and it feels great to be still riding one. Getting a (basically) new scooter has been interesting to see how much (not much) my scooter has aged and experience a few small differences (such as the controller seems a little different on this model).

Lastly, I've written a lot about Wide Wheel scooters, so rather than list it, everything is here (all articles).

Happy Scootering

SAMDA Tank

One thing seems to be pretty constant in the land of watches, KingWangers (and KingWang loves to watch) people are just filled with snobbery, ignorance, self deception and tribalism. The Chinese watch market is well known for some real bargains and some recent (perhaps ending) movement upwards into high end. The little SAMDA Tank is no pretentious high price watch, it cost me just AU$20 shipped. It is perhaps the very essence of what attracted me to Chinese watches in the first place.

Doing its very best to make a very low priced entry into the almost forgotten valley of the Cartier Tank or the Gruen watch for men (who don't feel they want or need the compensation of a big divers lead weight on their arm at all times) that's stylish, compact and robust. Yes, robust, I bought this little watch back in March 2024, and so I've been wearing it for about a year now. 

When it first arrived it was on a dressy little black leather strap with a deployant clasp. The blued hands are a nice touch (but on sunny days they mostly look black).

From the get go I wanted to wear it as a daily driver, so I removed that strap (because it didn't look like it'd stand up to things) and put it on an old leather strap that I've had for 5 or so years (and gets cycled through a few watches). The lug width is 20mm (as is most of my watches) and so its able to join the strap family immediately ..

You may notice between those two pictures (and about a year) that almost no marks have appeared on the watch. This is (IMO) because of the choice to reduce costs by giving the watch a chrome plating (chrome is hard so resists scratches). By not making it out of machined then polished stainless steel costs are kept down and the watch looks bright and attractive. In fact its often worn under my wrist and yet still (despite lots of keyboard and mechanical work) there are no marks.

Its my preferred watch for working on stuff (like my motorbike) because its so thin it never catches on things (when reaching into small spaces).

Its just over 7mm in thickness and its stunningly light (meaning you don't feel 'wrist fatigue' after wearing it all day). The watch itself is very light at just under 21g (won't get that without Quartz or a big budget).

The strap adds very little to this ...

Despite wearing it on sweaty summer days the back of the watch remains clean and corrosion free.

 Even the crown remains looking good (and I'd half expected that jewel to fall off)

So what's not to like?

Well, as I mentioned people in Watch Wanking poohoo anything not mechanical. Myself I'm rather agnostic and have about as many watches with Quartz movements as I do Mechanical ones. Yet because its Quartz this little light weight watch has remained within a minute of time set when I first got it, in fact it may be within 20 seconds (its hard to say as it doesn't have a second hand).

Crystal is harlex (and Wangers seem to demand Sapphire), yet still also has no visible scratches (heads popping in KingWang's empire).

Original strap wasn't to my taste, so there's that.

The style and execution of this watch is not for everyone, but for someone who wants to know the time, doesn't want to spend a lot of money and isn't a Wanger this watch may just turn your mind back to a time when men could wear an elegant and slim watch (rather than apparently needing a big bold statement) such as this one (pic stolen from the internet).

The Cartier Tank has a solid history and some famous men who liked it.

SAMDA or SANDA or something else

Lastly there is the debate about the name of the company referring to the picture of the back of the watch I see a lower case n but with a watch at "ten past ten" on the dial. 

Maybe its just like an artwork of letters and nothing more? Whatever, its at least a nice bit of whimsy from a nation (China) where language is pictographic ...

So there you go ... if you can get past your cognitive Wanger bias against Quartz, then this must surely be the low hanging fruit of value for money in reliable and functional Chinese Watches.

Win Win

FAFO

Good old FAFO ... 

Usually this is represented as a linear relationship between fucking around and the "found out" outcome; I don't think this is actually correct and the chance of death increases with the level of "fucking around" people do.

Accordingly I put this together

Eventually (when you reach a level 10 of fuck around) you actually won't find out.

listening to your inner voice

I decided that I wanted to change the (rather antique style) grips on my SR500 for something more comfortable. 

I'm pretty happy with them but unlike the older styles, the ends are "uncovered" on modern grips. This left me the task of attaching end covers for aesthetic and functional reasons. I ended up selecting these:

as (before I'd taken the grips off) I figured they'd be suitable no matter what I found (empty hollow bar end or filled in with something. As it turns out the Yamaha bars had solid steel rod inserted into the bar to assist with damping vibrations. So I had to drill and tap a thread into this.

This task was done by:

1. carefully identifying the center and then marking that with a center punch
2. drilling a small pilot hole (that was straight and con-centric to the bars)
3. successively drilling this out to the final diameter needed for the thread cutting tool
4. cutting that thread (there's a technique) 
5. shortening the supplied bolt
6. screwing it in and using light grade thread locker on that 

Left hand done, I moved over to the right where I met with problems on step 4

Because of an additional complication on the RHS, you can't imagine how much I feared this outcome and had taken every possible precaution against it by 

• turning gently (two fingers)
• only turning till it bound
• back off at least one, sometimes two turns to feel for the 'break' of the cutting tool swarf 
• backing all the way out to double check the measurements of drill depth 
• knowing how far I'd been able to turn the cutting tool into the newly cut thread...

Of course now I haven't fucking got a cover on that side because when you break these off in there, there's just no drilling it out ...

On the place it broke, I'd felt that while the screws had enough thread I did not test that on the many occasions I'd backed out. I should have been doing this to be clear exactly how many turns of thread the cover mounting screw had (and it only needs a few right!!).

Had I done that I may well have saved this issue, had a good looking bar end on the right and maybe just more loctite on that one ... FCK

This is as much a warning to  others as an exercise in accident analysis and self punishment

FCK!