I wanted to measure the volume of gas taken by my Ideal Vogue 18kW boiler in order to convert this to input energy in kW and therefore determine if the boilers displayed efficiency is accurate.
I decided to get a secondary gas meter fitted inline with the gas feed to the boiler, the meter was a BK-G4M from HERE.
The meter comes with a prewired switch assembly to count the number of 1/100 of m3 wheel rotations:
I’m a complete novice when it comes to Home Assistant and rely wholly on YouTube, community forums and search engines for information, and I would like to pass my sincere thanks onto all content creators who help folks like me.
I used a ESP32 flashed from within Home Assistant with the coding configuration to enable the meters switch to increment the displayed gas reading on the dashboard of Home Assistant.
The current configuration code is fairly accurate, however, I understand from the forums that a ’rounding error’ occurs and so the reading is not 100% accurate when checked against the actual meters display, their is another code available to rectify this but I don’t know how to install it yet đ
This information will be updated regularly, last updated 22 April 2024
Work in Progress
Monitoring
I’m using a combination of Open Energy Monitoring and Home Assistant to display and record my heating’s data.
More on this to follow.
My Controls
I use HIVE to schedule my heating and hot water, all radiators have independently controlled HIVE Thermostatic Radiator Valves (TRVs).
The current setup is that all the radiator TRVs are set to 23oC for temperature overshoot prevention and the Hall wall mounted thermostat is set to 21.5oC to control the on/off signal to the boiler.
The idea of this configuration is to keep the house at a comfortable ambient temperature using a low boiler temperature flow to the radiators, these radiators have been sized to map the rooms heat losses.
I still have some work with regards to radiator balancing and tweaking the flow temperature.
Domestic hot water recharge flow temperature is independent from the heating, referred to as Priority Domestic Hot Water (PDHW) and will have a flow temperature of 80oC, during this time the flow to the radiators will be off.
The CIBSE domestic heating design guide for room temperatures was followed, however, as no ground floor door is closed and we don’t have a door closed to the stairs, heat certainly rises and room temperature overshoot is inevitable.
An Opentherm hall thermostat would possibly reduce temperature overshoot, but if I can strike the correct balance with flow temperature and weather compensation slope settings, I should be near enough.
One thing to be careful of with low flow temperature radiators, is that there is no sudden rush of heat, its all very steady to match the room losses, if the room is cold, it will take time to warm up, so best keep it at a reasonable set-back temperature when the system is off.
A set-back temperature is a point at which the heating will resume even though it is outside of the programmed heat schedule, in my case 17oC.
Weather Compensation
Very early days yet and I’m trying to get to grips with the weather compensation slope to give me the most efficient return.
My slope settings vary between 12 and 13:
The efficiency of this is:
I have made some minor adjustments to my Hive schedule, implementing a 16oC Setback temperature rather than the 10oC previously used, the strategy behind this is using the house as a thermal store, and that is should use less gas overall raising the house temperature by a relatively small amount when demanded.
16 October 2023
The heating is on in earnest now as the temperatures are dropping, so I revisited the weather compensation slope information, necessitating a call to Ideal Technical to clarify slope settings.
The graph above is within the documentation of the external weather compensation sensor and I was trying to figure out which slope to use with my system design of 55oC flow temperature when the outside temperature was -3oC.
I was overthinking it, simply the slope at which my setting intersect is the number that needs setting and I have modified the graph to make this easier for others to follow.
Slope 16 set, as the house no longer uses a thermostat, instead relying on the boilers weather compensated flow temperature to radiators to modulate according to the return temperature.
The flow temperature is based on a boilers room temperature setting which I have set at 21oC.
The key thing is that each rooms radiator is sized correctly to match its losses based on the heat loss calculation, if I have this wrong, then the room will either not reach temperature or be too hot.
Hive radiator TRVs have been set to 24oC as room overheat control and the Hall thermostat also is set to 24oC as protection.
Test 1 Result – With the settings above the average room temp went to over 22oC whilst upstairs, some of the TRVs which were set at 24oC, closed, the outside temperature was 9oC.
I will repeat this before adjusting further.
5 December 23, We have had below zero temperatures so this has been the ideal time to calibrate the weather compensation Slope curve and room temperature control.
The above display is the designed boiler flow temperature at -3oC, the Slope curve was 15:
The room temperature control was set to 20oC:
Ironically the displayed room temperature doesn’t mean that! What it means is a flow temperature adjustment band within the selected Slope curve, for example:
Room Temperature Control 21oC =57oC flow temperature at -3oC
Room Temperature Control 20oC =55oC flow temperature at -3oC
Room Temperature Control 19oC =53oC flow temperature at -3oC
Room Temperature Control 18oC =51oC flow temperature at -3oC
As stated earlier, my design flow is 55oC @ -3oC, the overall heat loss at -3oC is calculated at 7890 Watts/Hr, the total heat emitted by the radiators at 55oC is calculated at 8862 Watts/Hr.
My initial thoughts were ‘Open Loop’ control, i.e. letting the boilers flow temperature, based on the Slope Curve, balance house losses by adjusting the flow temperature, I’m having difficulty with this for two reasons;
The first is that the heat output of the radiators has to exceed house losses, otherwise it would never get warm đ but this means that without any form of ‘internal temperature feedback, the house temperature overshoots and continues to rise,
The second issue is the Slope Curve, if I adjust the room temperature control flow temperature to closer match house losses when the house is at temperature, means that it will take ages to warm up.
The upshot of this is that I have reverted back to control using Hive and the ‘Heat on Demand’ (HOD) function which was the system I used before the boiler upgrade.
I have Hive TRVs on all radiators, the HOD function allows individual room temperature control, and rather than heat the whole house with ‘Open Loop’, enables me to have time and temperature based heating patterns based on the use of the room.
Still playing, so keep checking in.
21 January 2024
Yet more tweaking with the weather compensation slope and associated boiler room temperature control whilst the weather is still cold, the settings which seem to work well with increasing efficiency are a Slope of 13 and room temperature of 19oC:
Updates
4 May 23 – Boiler registration and Gas Safe certificate arrived from Ideal Heating.
6 May 23 – Compiled historic Gas kW usage graph in order to monitor the new boilers performance, new boiler installed part way through the period apr-apr 23, so watch this space!
Note 1: – Gas consumption is due to heating water in the unvented cylinder, in September 23 Octopus Energy have introduced 2hr periods of free electricity, therefore, hot water is heated by the immersion heater and not gas, hence the small drop in consumption.
I was reading about boilers gas valves being blocked with a black dust called Copper Sulphide (Cu2S), although I have not experienced this with my previous boiler, I thought as my boiler is new, now is the perfect time to get a Sulphidation filter installed, this was installed close as possible to the boilers gas inlet valve, the filter was a 3/4″ bore version purchased from BES.
The filter simply comprises of a brass body containing a 50 micron (300 mesh) stainless steel sieve which enables gas to flow, but captures particulates larger than the sieve size.
The body of the filter can be separated to clean the sieve, the sealing ‘O’ ring is made from Nitrile Rubber and is a type BS215 ‘O’ ring.
The Sulphidation process can not be stopped as natural gas contains varying amounts of Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S) and this reacts with the Copper (Cu) pipe, (iron pipes are also affected as a point of interest), as the reaction is within the pipe, the filter must be close to the appliance.
A filter downstream of the appliance, for example directly after the gas meter, will be ineffective.
Installed Sulphidation filter directly below the gas inlet valve to the boiler, a butterfly, full bore, gas isolation valve was also fitted for future filter maintenance.
Hopefully this additional step will reduce the likelihood of premature boiler failure.
I have blogged extensively on Netomnia coming to my home town HERE, and I didn’t take up the service earlier for various reasons, however, my TalkTalk email account was hacked and I needed to rapidly distance myself from it, so better late than never, here we go!
First job for me was to cancel my contract with TalkTalk, I was contracted until August 2024 after taking their fibre upgrade, so this cost ÂŁ90.54 penalty for early cancellation.
Due to my hacked TalkTalk email being used for fraudulent activities, this is a cost I was prepared to pay in order to totally disassociate myself from TalkTalk.
Next step was to ask and existing You subscriber if I could use their You referral code, the package I wanted was You 1000 which gives an average upload and download speed of 900mbps, using the referral code at the point of ordering will give each of us ÂŁ50 after the first bill has been paid, which makes my early TalkTalk cancellation fee slightly more bearable.
The You ordering online was easy with an installation date within 3 weeks of ordering (15 November 2023), I did add to the order a static IP, this took my monthly total to ÂŁ32.99 for a 24 month contract period which is only marginally more than TalkTalk for a 6x faster service.
Pre Installation
My existing Openreach fibre carrying the TalkTalk service terminates in an upstairs cupboard and this is where I wanted the You fibre to terminate as well.
The route from where the Openreach duct stops at the house to the upstairs cupboard is rather protracted and I have used PVC conduit for most of the run, this was no problem for the Openreach engineers and they helped me to thread the fibre, I wasn’t sure if the You engineers would be as equally amenable on installation day.
As luck would have it, I spotted an installation in progress further down the road, so stopped and asked them if I could install my own fibre in advance of the installation date, the guy was great, he walked to my house and had a look at the fibre route and gave me a 20m roll of In/Out fibre for me to install.
With domestic assistance, the fibre was quickly installed, in the cupboard picture you can see the terminated end ready for connection into the router when its installed, the other end is coiled up by the duct for splicing.
Installation Day
The appointment was scheduled between 8am and 1pm and I had plenty of email reminders in advance, the installation engineer arrived at 9.45, Mikolaj was the same engineer who gave me the cable to install, so he was very familiar with my layout.
He checked each end of the fibre I had installed, and whilst in the house, he installed the Optical Network Terminal, (ONT), which in my case was an Adtran SDX 631q 2.5GBE XGS and the eero6 wifi router.
Installation mirrored my Future Fibre install by Openreach engineers, a flexible rod (Cobra), was pushed down the duct at the house emerging in a footway box some 50m away.
A fibre ‘Drop Wire‘ was taped onto the Cobra and then pulled back to the house, once the drop wire had been fully pulled through, an optical signal test was carried out on the Connectorised Block Terminal (CBT) in the footway box and the pre-connectorised end of the drop wire connected to one of the tested ports on the CBT.
Back at the house, a ‘Drop Box‘ was drilled and screwed to the wall, this is also referred to as the ‘Customers Splice Point’ or CSP, the purpose of the CSP is where the fibre splice between the external ‘drop wire’ and the internal ‘outside/in‘ cable is located.
Mikolaj carefully preparing the fibre for splicing.
Fibre being prepared for cleaving
Fibre cleaved to give a perfect face for fusion
Fusion slicer lining up both fibres
Fibers automatically aligned for fusing together
YouTube video of correct splicing process for CSP – LINK
At this point Bobby the apprentice arrived and Mikolaj asked him to go to the ONT to check the quality of the optical signal which was a pass, (this test confirmed the splice was good).
Mikolaj then plugged in and powered up the ONT and eero6, also he connected a Cat 6 RJ45 into the eero6 and ONT, after making a phone call, the service was enabled.
The eero6 serial number is used as a validation for service on initialization, once this had been done the eero6 was set up as a new network on my phones App.
You must have a smartphone to enable and manage the eero6, I’m sure virtually everybody has one, but one is needed if you haven’t.
The OLT indicator lights were explained to me and the system was left working after a speedtest giving me:
The guys were here for 21/2 hours and when they had gone, I used some BT Capping 25 and a Connector Bend #4 I had bought from Telenco to cover and neaten up the external cables.
Overall Impression
The guys were respectful of my property, removing shoes inside and being very courteous.
Installation and billing communications were on point as is the speed.
The thing I need to get used to is that you don’t have an individual user portal online so you can’t check your account, thats said, I would defiantly recommend Youfibre.
Octopus Energy have introduced a scheme where they allow you to use electricity at certain periods which they reimburse you for, as hot water heating is our largest daily load, it made sense to fit a smart switch to this as normally the water is heated by the gas boiler, this now means I can suspend the boilers and turn on the heating element.
The smart switch is a remote way to turn ON or OFF the Immersion Heaters 3kW element, the smart switch is rated for 20A and by touching the faceplate, manual switching is possible.
I used a double dry lining box which has a depth of 35mm to accommodate the smart switch, I also incorporated a 20A double pole isolation switch for maintenance.
Wiring was very straightforward, power in and load out, no earth connection is provided on the device, but I used the one on the maintenance switch.
Before installing the unit, I powered it up at the table and connected it my eWeLink mobile App, to do this I ensured the phone was on 2.4GHz WiFi and the device connected perfectly.
The App allows me to set timers to ensure I don’t exceed the allocated free electricity periods, I’ve also set up notifications when the switch operates as a confidence check, its early days, (13 Nov 23), but I’m hopefully this will last.
The details are:
Smart Switch for Electric Boiler, FORNORM 20A 4400W Water Heater Switch Timer Controlled by Amazon Alexa/Google Home, APP Remote Control “eWeLink”, 2.4Ghz/Neutral Wire, White
Homemade WindowBridge across a1900mm window reveal in action, securely fixed to the ladder and with a couple of convenient sliding ‘snap hooks’.
Problem to solve
Cleaning the gutters and upstairs windows has always been tricky with ladders, as I had to try and get the top of the ladder wedged between the top two courses of bricks and underside of the soffit, the problem was compounded when I had Air Conditioning installed and the pipework trunking used this area over a bedroom window.
At the front of the house, the top half is painted render, so I had wo wrap the ladder with a towel when cleaning the upper window so I didn’t damage the wall paint, the WindowBridge sets out to solve this problem, safely.
Looking online, the only alternative was a ladder standoff clip on bracket which I already have but don’t feel 100% safe using, I did message a company who made a product called Windowspan, but received a weird email reply and checking with Companies House, the company is registered as dormant.
This left no option but to make my own, which I’m calling the WindowBridge.
Build
This is a very easy project to build with parts readily available online, the finished WindowBridge weighs in at 4.8kg, I opted for a heavy duty 45mm x 45mm aluminum slotted profile as this was the first one I had built, I wanted to avoid any sag in the span when the ladder was loaded.
A 4 channel profiling for chosen for use with M8 T-bolts to give me total flexibility of any attachment fixings in the future although other profile options are available.
The finished length of profile used is based on the maximum opening that I needed to bridge, in my case it was 1900mm, therefore, the length of the profile in my project was 2100mm giving a 100mm overhang at each side, with the addition of the wheels, the overall length is 2160mm.
I bought 2200mm of profile and cut a 100mm test piece from this using a Screwfix cross cut circular saw, this saw was also used for cutting the brackets giving a neat cut, details of the blade are in the materials list.
Wheels
75mm diameter, ball bearing, rubber wheels were attached to the profile by M8 high tensile steel bolts, the bolts fastened into nylon locking nuts embedded in the profile.
I opted for rubber wheels to give a level of sideways slip resistance and also they are kinder to a painted rendered surface which I have at the front of the house.
Test off-cut of profile showing the center casting, using a 12mm cobalt drill, I drilled into the center just deep enough to accept the M8 nylon locking nut so its flush with the face of the profile, make sure you clamp the profile securely as it will ‘snatch’ when drilling.
The nut is an ‘interference’ fit in the drilled hole, so the use of a hammer is needed at this stage of the build.
Test piece with the nut installed, this is a really solid fixing, the completed wheel assembly is shown below:
Ladder Attachment
I used two pieces of aluminum unequal angle brackets to secure the WindowBridge to the ladder, one bracket for each side of the ladders external side rail, the brackets were attached to the profile by two M8 ‘T-Bolts’.
I drilled a 8mm hole in the center of the smaller part of the bracket and with the ladder in-situ, drilled though the ladder side rail to accept the M8 x 50mm bolt which uses wing nuts for ease of assembly.
Another method would be to pass a length of M8 treaded bar through the ladders hollow rung and brackets to avoid drilling the ladder, for me it didn’t matter, but its worth consideration.
The aluminum I used for the brackets was not ordered, but picked up on the day from the factory in Leicester, so I don’t have any details other than dimensions:
I should have made one of these years ago, no more precariously positioning the top of the ladder or over-reaching when cleaning the windows.
The most expensive item was the aluminium profile, the rest of the items were relatively inexpensive.
Cutting aluminium needs the right drills and blades to give a decent finish, I have included in my parts list tools I purchased to help me.
I could have made the WindowBridge slightly shorter in length to reduce weight marginally whilst still allowing a reasonable span across the window reveal, but overall I’m really happy with it and it is manageable to use.
We have been thinking about this for ages and due to the ever increasing unbearable summer temperatures, we decided to have air conditioning (A/C) installed in the Lounge, Main Bedroom and Home Office primarily for cooling although they are capable of producing room heating.
Installation has to be carried out by an F-Gas approved contractor and I have previously used a local company, AC Cambridge, for our garden cabin A/C and when contacted, Declan had availability to help and an appointment was made.
On the day of the survey, we walked through the proposed equipment locations and method of installation, aesthetics are really important to me, so the feasibility of not seeing any internal pipes, wires or containment was explored, I also said that I would make separate arrangements for the condensers electrical supplies so this could be removed from the scope of works.
One of the limiting factors for consideration was the removal of condensate generated when the internal units are in cooling mode, the surveyor was strongly against using a condensate pump, as they are noisy and prone to failure.
The Main Bedroom and Home Office walls were external and the surveyor determined that we had enough wall space and that, if the units were pushed up against the wall, no pipes would be visible internally and externally everything would be in white containment.
The Lounge was the only wall which was not external, but backed onto a garage, this meant the pipework would need to transit at high level through the garage to the outside and disposal of condensate would need thinking about.
The recommended kit was three Samsung 2.5kW split load heat pumps with the external compressors mounted 2.6m high on an outside wall as floor space around the property was limited, this turned out to be an excellent solution.
Installation
In advance of the install day everything was moved out of the way in the work areas and I put dust sheets down, I had no need as the installer brought his own protective mats.
Declan’s first job was to mount the internal units back plates to the wall and core drill 65mm holes to the outside for the pipes and cables, once drilled the copper pipework from the internal unit was extended by brazing so that no compression were in the buildings cavity, removing any problems in the future, with the insulated pipes and cables passed to the outside, the unit is hung on the wall and the area tidied up.
Main Bedroom Unit
Externally the three condensers were mounted, I did change my mind about the location of one of the units part way through, but Declan was very amenable and moved it to my preferred location away from being above the boiler flue ,as I was concerned that the central heating boilers condensate plume may have an adverse effect on the equipment as it is mildly acidic.
To be helpful, I installed the condensate runoff in the garage, now the position through the wall of the Lounge unit was known, this was connected into the Utility room sink waste pipe.
The pipes and cables were routed in containment to the condenser and it made for an exceptionally neat installation.
Heat pumps are incredibly efficient, for example for 624 watts of electrical energy in we get 2.6kW of cooling out, however, the unit is equally efficient in heating mode with 1392 watts of electricals energy in we get 2.9kW of heating out.
The above values are different than that on the condensers data plate, however the performance verses energy consumption is still superb.
The cost to keep each air conditioning unit on standby when not in use is less the ÂŁ1.00 a month.
Data Platewith discrepancy on unit wattage
Each internal unit has an external condenser which requires power, these can be ran from a plug socket, but I installed individual radial circuits with local rotary isolation as discussed during the survey.
Internal and external units generate condensate which is taken to drain by 21.5mm plastic pipe.
Each unit comes with a remote control, but I used a Tado V3+ Smart Controller which uses an App to remotely operate all the functions of the air conditioning.
As stated earlier, each unit is fed from its own supply via Fusebox consumer unit, I also decided to incorporate a kWh meter to see how much these units consume overall each season.
Sum Up
I was very happy with the installation and quality of finish, although there were some supply issues due to demand which meant the installation took longer than the predicted two days, however, it was worth waiting for.
The internal units are very neat and have a number of functions, including a sleep setting which ramps the temperature up a few degrees when you are asleep so you don’t wake up cold.
Samsung’s warranty is 24 months with 60 months on the compressor parts for peace of mind.
I would definitely recommend considering air conditioning to improve your home comforts, be that heating or cooling for you or your animals.
I bought a previously used Qualcast Classic 35s in 2021 for ÂŁ40 complete with Scarifier Cartridge as a project and after replacing serviceable items and sharpening the blade, the mower performs really well, the problem was getting hold of a replacement throttle cable for my 1999, Type F016C80961 mower.
The outer cable is damaged at each end and the inner cable is ‘notchy’ due to kinks, so I set about trying to find a replacement and constantly drew a blank.
I did buy a new cable off eBay on the off chance it would fit my make of Qualcast mower, but the outer was too long and although it had the correct ends, the lengths of the inner cables weren’t long enough to work.
After watching YouTube for ideas, I decided to make a new throttle cable.
How to make new cable
The cable I’m going to modify was described on eBay as ‘Throttle cable fits some Qualcast Suffolk Colt and Punch Mowers’, the cable cost ÂŁ6.58 and was 910mm in length.
Using a Dremel with the cutting disk I reduced the 910mm cable by 230mm to 680mm after first removing the inner cable.
I did buy some 4mm plastic cable ends for the freshly shortened cable, but they were to wide to fit inside the throttle levers recess, so I prised off the chrome cable ferrule from the off-cut and used the shank of a 4mm drill bit as a former to get it back in shape as it was misshaped after prising and made do with that on the new cable, (you can easily get 5mm metal ferrules, but 4mm ones are really hard to get hold off for some reason).
Now the outer is cut to length, I threaded the cable back in the inner, not forgetting the adjuster for the carburetor end, the inner cable was then pulled all the way until it stops, the inner was then marked 60mm from the end of the ferrule.
Again the Dremel was used to cut the inner cable and the individual wires were ‘splayed’ slightly to allow greater surface area when the lead is added to the mold.
Next step was to make a casting mold for the throttle lever, the cable nipple has a diameter of 6mm and a thickness of 3.6mm, in my scrap box I luckily had an off-cut of aluminium which happened to be 3.22mm thick which was fine as its the diameter which is important rather than the thickness of the nipple.
A 6mm drill for the hole ensuring that it was deburred reducing the chance of the lead sticking to the mold.
Using a Junior Hacksaw I made a cut wide enough for the cable and half way through the aluminium, this is where the splayed cable will sit for the casting process.
The cable is put in the mold and the two pieces of aluminium are then clamped together with mole grips.
With the cable degreased with ‘White Spirits’, the jig was fixed to the vice and the mold then fully filled with flux, (soldering paste).
The casting lead used was for holding plants down in an aquarium and readily available online from ÂŁ3.99 per pack.
Using a gentle heat to the mold, I melted the lead stick, (not solder), into the mold and let it set when full.
After natural cooling, I unclamping the aluminium sheets which formed the mold and the cable nipple came away easily, and I’m very happy with how it turned out.
Installing the new cable in the mower, everything works as expected and if you are stuck for a replacement, give me a shout and I’ll help if I can.
Manuals
I’ve added some information on my model of Qualcast mower which you might find of use, I’ve scanned some so apologies for any handwritten notes on them.
I had a senior moment when I tried to raise my electrically operated mast with the locking pin in, result that I snapped the wire rope !!
Well, what a nightmare and it was all of my doing.
The design of my mast is that it has a single electrically operated winch cable which can either lift the inner section of the mast, or luff the mast down for maintenance.
I had built a logic control for the winch, but didn’t engineer in being stupid, so when I decided to lift the mast after a number of years of not touching it, operating the momentary UP (raise) switch didn’t do anything, and not thinking I put the control into safety override mode to use the remote control winch hand control, pressing the ‘UP’ button, the winch motor started but sounded strained, which I put down to stiction of the mast, then ‘PING’ the cable snapped, it was at this point i realised that the inner mast pin was in place stopping it lifting.
So the predicament I have found myself in was that the mast can neither be raised or luffed down for repair, the only solution was the jack the mast up in-situ and replace the cable, not an easy task.
Equipment
The existing wire rope was 4mm diameter, so I took this as an opportunity to install 5mm, I bought 20m but used 19m, this was from GSProducts and cost including a wire clamp was ÂŁ24.77.
The wire rope needed ferrules to crimp the end where it fits inside the inner box steel mast, so I needed these and a crimping tool, both of these were from The Wire Rope Shop costing ÂŁ86.20.
The mast weights approximately 150Kg and will need lifting just under 600mm, I bought a Farm Jack from Amazon which cost ÂŁ79.99.
Finally I needed a tower scaffold, I used a MiTower Plus from HSS (code 81216) costing ÂŁ129.56 including delivery/collection for 7 day hire.
Not a cheap mistake!
How
First job was to fabricate a metal support which the mast was lifted on to:
The idea behind this was that the masts pivot bolt would be removed enabling the whole mast to be lifted so that the hole in the mast which you can see in the picture, will be jacked above the black frame, where the red bracket will be clamped to the outer mast, and then lowered gently onto the frame to support the weight.
The scaffold went up easily enough to enable me to comfortably work on the mast, access was important as I needed the thread a replacement wire rope inside the mast, I also had to unbolt the top mast cage from the inner section steelwork, enabling the inner box section can be accessible at the bottom of the mast.
Using a car jack the masts pivot pin was removed and with a piece of steel rebar through the pivot hole, the mast rested until the next stage.
Using the Farm Jack to take the weight, the mast inched up to a height where a 260mm wooden block could be put inside the mast.
The mast was clamped and the Farm Jack was lowered, this was amistake, the Jack simply slammed to the floor, fortunately the clamp held the masts weight and the block was inserted and we used a car jack for the rest of the lifting and lowering process but returned to the Farm Jack to lower for the main mast drop.
For future reference, the Farm Jack needs a downward force acting on it in order to lower in a controlled way, as we had removed the weight of the mast from the jack by clamping it, the Jack dropped.
With the mast supported, it was time for the next stage and that was to remove the bottom bolt from the mast top cage and begin the process of getting the cage box fixing to lower inside the mast.
This process was a bit tricky as it involved controlled lifting and lowing until all the bolts were removed and the cage assembly was sitting neatly inside the mast, unfortunately the inner mast was stuck inside the cage box.
A few lifts and rapid drops of the inner caused it to finally drop onto wooden blocks and we could get on with the repair.
This picture shows the new steel wire rope with two crimped ferrules and a eye bolt, the rope is around a galvanized thimble, this was later modified to fit as in its current form, it was too big to go inside the 60mm x 60mm inner box section.
For clarity, the wire rope comes down the inside of the mast where it enters the inner mast through a hole 50mm up from the bottom of the mast, spacing of the inner section from the outer section is maintained by two sets of bolts further up the mast.
Reassembly
This was the most stressful part!
The inner mast section needed to be raised so that it sits inside the cage box, but no matter what we tried, the inner box could not be centralised and no way could the rotator assembly be manually lifted due to the weight and the fact that I would have needed a higher working platform.
My solution was to drill holes in the outer mast walls where the inner mast naturally was leaning, the holes were 9mm and I tapped them to accept grease nipples, hence they will server a purpose afterwards.
Once the holes were drilled, I used a couple of screwdrivers to manipulate the inner mast and on the second attempt, the inner slide perfectly into the cage, much to my relief as I didn’t have a plan ‘B’.
Finishing Off
All bolts back in and mast greased, I decided to replace the two mast limit switches and check the wiring, good job I did as one for the sensor wires had eroded through due to moisture ingress.
Glad its all back together and working now, but it was a lot of work and money for a lapse in concentration đ
Control Modification
In an attempt to stop and make me think, I’ve modified the control unit to include a key-switch with a warning notice attached to remind me not to be a dick!
Mast controller now has a key-switch and warning RED flashing LED which illuminates if the control is set to either Luffing or Manual Control, the latter will only be enabled if the key is turned to the red dot.
Hopefully these measures will work đ
Update
I added overcurrent detection to the winch motor as a belt and braces approach to avoid repeating my original mistake causing the winch rope to break when set to manual control.
My system uses a 12v car battery as the power source to the winch relay control and motor which is located in a battery box local to the mast.
A 24v signal is sent to a relay in the battery box from the main controller and this in turn enables 12v to be sent to the motor controller for manual or wireless control, the project was to add a second layer to the relays control circuit.
Using a clamp on ammeter I already knew the motors current draw when winching up, so I bought a 0-50A current relay from Aliexpress for ÂŁ12.00.
With power applied and the battery positive cable passing through the current relay, I trimmed the potentiometer on the device so that it is just set below the tripping threshold.
Bit of a messy picture showing the protection device in place with the blue led lit around the reset button indicating that the luffing relay is energised and the mast motor control is ready.
The circuit of the protection is straightforward, when the controller is set to Luff, a 24v signal is sent to a relay, the positive goes through the Normally Closed contacts on the current relay onto the Normally Open relay contacts of the motor controllers supply, therefore this relay will not latch until the relay contacts are shorted, in this case with the reset button.
When latched, the blue led will light and 12v applied to the motor controller, should any of the following listed things happen, the relay will drop out and remove power from the motor controller, stopping the motor until manually reset:
Luff signal removed by controller
Overcurrent relay contact open on detection of excessive current draw
In order to remind me to reset the protection relay when set to Luff, a buzzer will sound, this activates when the relay is not latched and is supplied by the Luff signal voltage from the main controller.
I did include a motor protection over-ride switch and flashing red led to show when it is on, this simple bypasses the current detection relay and will hopefully not be needed.
My existing Sonoff watering control comprises of a Sonoff Basic to turn the irrigation pump ON/OFF and a Sonoff 4 Channel Pro which controls which set of lawn valves to Open/Close.
My existing setup had an automatic scene to water the lawn when the grass had established, however, I wanted a Scene to automatically run for a newly seeded lawn which just kept the seed moist by frequent watering, but short in duration so as not to wash the seed away.
My existing system has a Rain Sensor, so if it has already rained, the scene would still run, but the power supply to the irrigation pump is removed until the rains sensor is happy.
List of Requirements:
Water the lawn every 3 hours
Start watering at 06:00
Stop watering at 20:30
Sprinkler duration 5 minutes
How:
I had to use another Sonoff Basic as a Smart Device trigger to start the irrigation scene.
Triggering Basic device setup to have ‘Inching’ enabled with a short duration ‘ON’ time
Set up a schedule to turn the Basic on at the required times, (no OFF time is required as the Basic is in inching mode)
Turn the Basic schedule ON and save
Create a new Scene
Set the IF action trigger to be the Smart Device Basic
Set the THEN actions
In my scene, the following happens:
Scene triggered by the Basic switching at the scheduled time
Then, irrigation pump turns on
And, the Irrigation Controller (4 channel Pro) switches power to Open sprinkler valves on two sections of my lawn
after a 5 minute delay the Irrigation Controller closes the two valves and opens another lawn areas valve
after a further 5 minute delay, the irrigation pump turns off
5 seconds after the pump turns off, the irrigation controller closes all the valves (delayed to allow the water pressure to fall)
I had help with this from the eWeLink & Sonoff User Group on Facebook and in particular Stipan Retkovac who has extensive knowledge in this area and to whom I particularly grateful.
A blog about stuff that interests me or I have done.
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