SON goes wrong shock horror scandal threat probe report!

Yes, SONs really can go wrong. The one from my Brom will be
heading back to Schmidts on Monday after it stopped working after
several years fault and maintenance free running :-(

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

On Sat, 24 Jan 2009 21:27:51 +0000, Peter Clinch
said in
:

Yes, SONs really can go wrong. The one from my Brom will be
heading back to Schmidts on Monday after it stopped working after
several years fault and maintenance free running :-(

Luckily nobody else has a Brompton with a SON, do I?

Oh bugger.

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk
85% of helmet statistics are made up, 69% of them at CHS, Puget Sound
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On Sat, 24 Jan 2009 21:27:51 +0000, Peter Clinch
wrote:

Yes, SONs really can go wrong. The one from my Brom will be
heading back to Schmidts on Monday after it stopped working after
several years fault and maintenance free running :-(

Pete.

I don't suppose that problem could be associated with excessive tyre
pressure ;-)

(I'll get me coat, as they say)

Peter Grange wrote:
On Sat, 24 Jan 2009 21:27:51 +0000, Peter Clinch
wrote:

Yes, SONs really can go wrong. The one from my Brom will be
heading back to Schmidts on Monday after it stopped working after
several years fault and maintenance free running :-(

Pete.

I don't suppose that problem could be associated with excessive tyre
pressure ;-)

;-)
If it was that there's no point in asking me as I'm in denial about
it in any case...
;-)

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Just zis Guy, you know? wrote:
On Sat, 24 Jan 2009 21:27:51 +0000, Peter Clinch
said in
:

Yes, SONs really can go wrong. The one from my Brom will be
heading back to Schmidts on Monday after it stopped working after
several years fault and maintenance free running :-(

Luckily nobody else has a Brompton with a SON, do I?

Oh bugger.

I wouldn't worry /too/ much... First, I've had a bad time with
dynamos lately, perhaps a strange and malign cousin of the puncture
fairy? The bottle on the 8Freight was behaving very strangely,
beyond what I could do anything about armed with a multimeter and a
poor knowldege of electricals (I got to the "everything works
except the whole thing doesn't" and ran out of steam there), so
took both over to Glasgow yesterday for The Man Who Knows to have a
look.

The 8Freight turned out to be an earth leakage fault, not too long
to diagnose and rectify. Then on to the Brom. Once up on the
stand Ben commented the rear pivot and bushings were a bit tired,
and with almost an inch of play on the back wheel I had to agree!
He had a spare set and had that fixed while I went and played on
the new 20/20 Spirit (nice for what it is, I don't want one
though), and then onto the lighting, which we'd both initially
assumed was probably lamp or wiring on the simple grounds that it
practically always is (though again my multimeter had suggested it
was okay).

Ben was quite amazed that it was the hub: "It /is/ the dynamo!
Well that doesn't happen very often, I'll send it back to Wilfred",
said in tones that suggested that it really /doesn't/ happen very
often, and will very probably get a thorough sorting.

It's been a while since I visited Kinetics, and I was happily
reminded of what a bombastically great shop it is to visit in
person. Hopefully the mail order has come through it's rather
hopeless patch, but even if not it's an excellent BaM visit.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

On Sun, 25 Jan 2009 09:52:21 +0000, Peter Clinch
said in
:

The 8Freight turned out to be an earth leakage fault, not too long
to diagnose and rectify. Then on to the Brom. Once up on the
stand Ben commented the rear pivot and bushings were a bit tired,
and with almost an inch of play on the back wheel I had to agree!

Wow! I thought the 5mm play on the rear of mine was excessive!
Didn't that feel as if you were perennially riding on greasy road
paint or something?

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk
85% of helmet statistics are made up, 69% of them at CHS, Puget Sound
GPG sig #3FA3BCDE http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/pgp-public-key.txt

Just zis Guy, you know? wrote:

Wow! I thought the 5mm play on the rear of mine was excessive!
Didn't that feel as if you were perennially riding on greasy road
paint or something?

Not really, no. I guess to some extent it's one of those things
that happens progressively so you just get used to it as it
happens, bit like brakes turning from exemplary to verging on
dangerous. Also the case (or so I imagine...) that loose at the
trailing end is a very different proposition to loose at the
leading end.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Andreas Oehler wrote:
Sat, 24 Jan 2009 21:27:51 +0000, Peter Clinch:

Yes, SONs really can go wrong. The one from my Brom will be
heading back to Schmidts on Monday after it stopped working after
several years fault and maintenance free running :-(

Are you 100% sure it's the dynamo and not something else? A short circuit
somewhere in the wiring might also result in "everything stays dark"...

Yes: Ben dismounted it completely and was using the meter directly
onto the contacts to isolate it, and it was not reading as it should.

We were both rather surprised it appeared to be the dynamo as
they're normally /incredibly/ dependable. But nothing is perfect :-(

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Andreas Oehler wrote:

Best way is to measure AC current between the connectors - which should be
in the 500-600mA range at reasonable speed. DC wouldn't show anything.

I'd tried AC current directly between and got nothing. Don't know what
exact probings Ben was at but we repeated several times to be sure and
has been dealing with SONs for years so, surprising though it was, I
think it's borken.

In some cases, people tried to "adjust the bearings" (marks of pliers stay
visible) and destroy the electrical contacts this way - then complaining
about "suddenly it stopped working" :-/

Not in this case. I had originally assumed it was the lamp or wiring
and had gone to see if a new IQ Cyo could be fitted, but even if I had
thought it was the generator then one thing I /do/ know is my
engineering limitations and I know I would have achieved nothing by
breaking in! Ben did say he didn't have the special tool to get in and
they wouldn't let him have one, so it would have to be returned to
Germany for inspection and work.

Just send your wheel to Tuebingen and we will sort it out!

I understand it should be on its way today sometime.

No Brom today (no front wheel, because my SON predates the narrow
version my forks have been spread so I couldn't just slot in a spare
Brompton front) so I took the Streetmachine. And the SON on /that/ was
working in its more characteristic flawless, trouble-free way :-)

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

In ,
Peter Clinch tweaked the Babbage-Engine to tell
us:
Yes, SONs really can go wrong.

I believe Steve Abraham managed to wear one out once...

--
Dave Larrington
http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk
Never give a gun to ducks.