Clas Olsen WH1080 weather station

After almost 2 years on 1 set of batteries, the outside unit stopped sending data.  A battery change seemed to solve the problem, but only for a few hours.  It stopped sending again the same day.  After a lot of messing around, it was apparent that the unit was stopping when the relative humidity went above 88% for a few hours.  If the RH reduced, it started again all on its own. The old batteries were down at 1.2V, so it seems that they were the original problem.  Perhaps changing the battery cracked the (patchy) varnish coating that was originally applied?
A new covering of varnish seems to have done the trick.  Well, 1 day in, but RH reached 99% for a few hours last night.

It's worth noting that the transmitter sends a random station ID on power up.  If this code is different to the old one, this can mean that the internal display stays blank for a few hours before realising what's going on.  You can reset the display, after downloading the data, if you don't want the wait.

car coolant change

Bit of a faf on the xsara, but you have to attach a header tank to the err header tank.
Emptying the old coolant is pretty tricky and a lot gets left in. Thoroughly flushed.
Engine holds 11l, but only got about 6 in, so may have ended up diluting it 50/50, so possibly only down to -13 (from -25)
Elf citroen specific organic (OAT)
see file notes for more info

Feu vert

It's probably a record.  2 hours to change 4 tyres (2 of which were already off the car and in the boot) and tracking.  They took 45 minutes to do a 'security check, or if you are of the cynical leaning a 'how much more money can we squeeze out of the client' check.
So now I know there is less anti-freeze and brake fluid in the reservoirs as the sloppy grease monkey left trails over the engine compartment whilst checking concentration of both.  Apparently the coolant is no better than water and should be replaced immediately at a reduced cost of €48.
I'd assumed they had nearly finished at this point, but no, they had only just started.  Pretty glad I refused the coolant change as I hadn't taken dinner or a sleeping bag.

Like all good garages, they used a windy tool to put the wheel nuts on with.  I went to undo the near side, and ended up with a 1m bar to slacken off the nuts; this will be no less than 200Nm of torque, the recommendation being 85Nm.  The off side was better, but still massively over tightened.  I wouldn't have got either side off with the emergency tools that came with the car.

first fire

4 days later than last year, but we've lit the fire for the first time this Autumn.  Still using the logs stacked last year.  About 2.5 slabs used out of 6.  Each slab is very loosely 1 stere, and the wood is very mixed - little oak/beech.

31/1/15 used 1.5 stere.  2 stere towards the back and most of the side by the door left.
May 2015.   About 1.2 slabs left, meaning 2014/15 usage is (6 -2.5) - 1.2 = 2.3 stere.
14/5/15 Started cutting and splitting. About 25 average 20cm diameter logs fill the trailer.  This gives slightly less than 0.5 slab, and takes about 2.5 hours including filling the shed
After 3 trailer loads, >2 slabs, plus the end support wall by the door (0.5 slab) . Plus a good size snake.

Stihl Strimmer

Picked up an unwanted Stihl petrol stimmer today.
Doesn't want to start (reason for giving away) and runs okish.  The owner had spent over €200 getting the carb refitted etc, but to no avail.
FS280k.  Looks like it was ex rental.

Squeaky suspension

Had an odd squeak that seemed to be coming from the nearside rear.  A closer inspection localised it to the torsion bars.  Some stones had jumped up and lodged themselves between the bars and the main chassis member.  Oddly, the stones on the offside were to blame, even though there were much more on the nearside.

Slabs & pavers

Getting there.  My best side

It's not that obvious, but the border on the left of the path has been dug over by Laura and a lot of bind weed removed

40 pavers down and 100 to go.

14/10/14 Finished!

Deck jet wash

About 2 hours to do about 3/4 of the deck, with about 200L of stored water.
25/10/14 another 90 minutes and ~250L of stored water to finish.

Arnova 10d g3 tablet

Gravity played that trick.  The one where it moves objects from the sofa to the floor.  Or maybe it was the cat. Either way, the large power plug wrenched the internal connector, pulling the +ve pin off the mobo.  I'd tried to solder this back on without removing the pcb, but it only lasted days.
And the reason I didn't want to remove the mobo?  The battery, speaker and back light are soldered on.  You'll need a 50W soldering iron to get the battery off, as the lands are large.
Once the pcb was off I tried to repair the connector  - and I sort of succeeded by putting a bridge in place and a wire to hold the plastic together.  I could not melt the solder lands even with a 50W fine tipped iron, so ended up attaching the wire to the adjacent SD card.  I could have used a hot air SMD gun, but that was in the cupboard.  So you'll need a large iron if you plan to change the connector.

The back two pins that are bridged are the unused normally closed and open bits to detect the plug insertion.  I've marked the top side of the pcb where the +ve goes through to and will hard-wire the connector without removing the mobo if I need to again.
The type B mini-usb looks favorite for modifying for power in.  It certainly won't accept charge.  However, the 'power in' pin 1 is connected somewhere (measure 15k to 0V), so I didn't want to disconnect it and re-purpose it as a power in - it's also a bigish plug.

I cracked the top glass cover when taking the case apart and I wasn't being aggressive. It's visual and it all works ok.  C'est la vie.

car service

134715 km
changed
cabin filter (choked)
diesel filter (original)
oil+filter

New car battery

Whilst I hadn't had any particular battery problems (the car whinges about low battery if the doors are opened too much, but I think this is normal...), a friend had mentioned he thought the turn over in February was a bit slow.  It turns out the battery is the original, date stamped March 2007.  That makes it a good 7.5 years old.  A varta 400/640, which is probably 50Ah, as specified on the car battery cover.  Sites differed on opinion of the replacement type being either a 60 or 70Ah.  Now, I'm not known for being cynical, but if you get recommended a bigger battery, doesn't it cost more? So I settled on a 60Ah, a Varta again, for around £50 delivered, 4 year warranty (blue dynamic).  Just as well I got the Varta, as the battery cover has to be plugged into a tube running outside the cabin.  And the plug fitted the Varta cover just fine.

I tested the old battery.  I charged it up and it read 12.4 volts the next day after a rest period.  With a 7A load (a lamp) it dropped to 12V immediately, and over the next 4 hours dropped to 11.41V  During hour 5 it went to 7.2V  This makes its capacity around 30Ah, but presumably its CCA is well down.

DNS lookup error, or how I lost 4 hours

Well, thanks to BTs so called broadband, 4 hours of my life are gone forever.  It looks like BTs DNS wasn't working, or the router hadn't been updated with a valid address.  This did several odd things 1. IE and chrome only served up pages from google, but wouldn't follow links.  Oddly pinging did a DNS look up ok (perhaps US use a different DNS) 2. A lack of DNS meant that norton Internet antivirus took about 50% CPU trying to phone home (a guess). Tried a DNS cache flush, plus an IE reload, and messing with Norton settings

A router reboot fixed the problem.

The system settled down after that and Norton took very little cpu - say 5%.

Pond liner

The last lot of (biblical) rain did for the pond liner.  It got pushed right up by water either pouring down the bank above, or a spring between 2 layers of clay.  The pond was well lined in clay, with the slightest trickle coming in from the west side.
As a stop gap, we've dug down around 350mm on the east side and put in a drainage channel.  This was a 80mm tubes placed in a small bed of gravel up against the liner, then back filled with soil.

10/8 2 months rain in an our today, pushing the liner out again.  Water did flow out of the new drain, but not quickly enough.  The only place water seemed to be getting in was the top left corner, so we've dug in some liner at that point to divert water straight into the pond, rather than trying to get behind the liner.
We syphoned the water from beneath the liner into an old bath, then put it back it.  A further 300l pumped in had the level back up to almost normal.

Water Butts

After a mere 2 years of the water butts sitting on pallets and grass, being filled manually, they have finally found a new home, on the utility side of the house.  This is the area where little grows as it is a bit boggy.

Couldn't help myself and I've kept  a pallet for all the other junk...

Drains

Not a subject close to my heart, but our drains seem to be playing up.  One loo isn't clearing sometimes.  I pulled the loo out and it was not blocked.  So I finally dug up the line that runs the length of one side of the house.  A 600mm section was removed (500, the enlarged to 600 to allow for 2 slip couplings) and 2 Y pieces & inspection covers installed (siliconed) to allow rodding in either direction; not that I can rod far, as the rods get stuck on the corners if pushed around.  I found out the hard way and had to dig up another section by the front door, drill a 25mm hole, dislodge the rod connector and pull the rods out.  A solvent glue patch was put back over.

Finishing bedroom 1

Moved some of the furniture around and got half the skirting in place.  2 coats of Danish oil

Community Service

The village has had the go-ahead to get the church bell fixed.  One of them had a dodgy fixing, and it needed electrifying so it can be more easily rung during Mass.

So Friday consisted of spraying the walls of the bell tower white.  I'm glad to say I was working that day.  I helped out today, cleaning and painting the woodwork, then polishing the bells which had suffered with bird poo for many years.  One bell is dated 1803, the other 1846.

The service to thank everyone is 15th June. We'll probably need a camera to see the hard work, as there is only a fairly rudimentary ladder up to the bells.

Edit.  As is normal for France, the guy who is repairing the bell can't make it until the 26th June, so everything has to move...

28/7/14.  Bells now ring on the hour, but as for the ceremony..

Pocket screws. MS170 chainsaw service.

The chainsaw is almost 4 years old (bought 27/10/10) , and has had a good external clean every year.
The saw had been losing power during cuts, and was cutting banana shapes.
The guide bar was bent about 1mm and the groove allowed the chain to wobble such that a straight edge easily pushed the chain over when contacting the bar and link.
The saw was stripped all the way down, engine out.  Dusted/scraped, then cleaned in petrol.
Didn't remove the oil pump, but it checked out fine - all passages well clear.  Carb was blasted with cleaner and left over night.  Turns out the torque wrench only works for clockwise threads, so the clutch is 'tight'.  Used a 6mm rope to lock the cylinder.
Air filter changed in Jan, so this was brushed and put back.  Fuel filter changed last year.  Tank was clean.  Spark plug changed.
Counldnt get the exhaust off as T27 bolts were very tight - need a allen type L shape.
Had a random plastic washer, which turned out to be a spacer on the brake handle.
Started first time and ran fine.  New bar and sharp chain; this chain had been cutting banana shapes, so we'll see.  Must take off the chain cover and clean out after every use.

Fuel cap leaked on filling, so swapped for the spare.  Given the tank had been removed and stored with the lid on, it's hard to know what's happened.  Will leave it over night and swap back to the old one.  Put the old one back and no leaks after 24 hours.  Very odd.
Stihl 017/018 manual used and seems identical.   Manual recommends white spirit for cleaning, which is the same as turps.  Took about 8 hours in all.
clutch LEFT HAND THREAD 37lbft
flywheel 20lbft
engine mounting bolts 7lbft
plug gap 0.5mm
magneto gap 0.25mm
Zama carb 222 1Q S57B 018A

cleaned out the pipes

Removed main loo and cleaned out the local pipework.  Little bit of build up.

Snow tyres

Well, the ski resort doesn't shut for another week, and there is plenty of snow.  However, it just isn't cold enough and the snow is proper slush by lunchtime.  So the snow tyres are off.
Took a while as they were rusted onto the stub axles.  WD40 and a lot of kicking shifted them.  The NS was worst.

grass cutting

First cut of the year.  A bit long, so needed to strim a fair bit too.

Wood cutting continues

I've been back in the forest felling, logging and moving trees.  My friend Henri needed a hand, and more importantly, I needed his tractor to pull down the last handful of trees on my plot.
Henri has an awful lot of trees and about 3 weeks to get them felled.
So I've worked 2 'french' days with him, which starts around 1030 for an hour, then 3pm 'til 6.  The hardest part of the day is the aperitifs which are compulsory, and finish anytime between 7 and 8.

Field drains

With all the recent rain, it's been getting a bit soggy below the orchard.  There is a natural hollow and the rain sort of gathers in the hollow and then runs in a straight line down hill, under the log pile, and is then channeled into a bund created 4 years ago during some storms.  A filed drain in the bund runs this off to a ditch.

Well, we decided that another field drain is required from the start of the hollow to the ditch.  About 13m.  As it's supposed to be a field drain, it's not very far below the surface - say 100mm.  80mm pipe.

In the picture it runs from the grey square in the foreground to the ditch.  The square is a drain cover to keep a hole/sump open that leads to the drain.

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