Sunday, October 02, 2011

Zanussi ztd6255 dishwasher resurrected

Zanussi dishwasher failing to finish cycle. Symtoms being a tripped RCD breaker and then constant cycle of 3 beeps audio error code when retried. Replaced the obviously bust motor capacitor but found cycle still wouldn't finish. Anti leak switch was engaged due to water in drip tray. Eventually traced source to spray arm feed pipe 2/3 way up rear right hand side of machine. Half the screw thread on plastic fitting had broken so threw away neoprene ring seal to gain another two milimeters of thread though machine and used some plumber mait with a couple of wraps of plumber's tape. All good after a 70 deg wash. Still took most of the evening to do due to length of time test washes take. Trying to watch Spooks and constant checking for a flooded kitchen is really stressfull. That and it is an integrated dishwasher so getting it in and out is a pain.

Tip: Maplin open on a Sunday until 6.00pm amazing if you want the necessary 3uF cap for £3.80 instead of spending £13 on the 'genuine part'

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Quick Tech update:- The viewsonic viewpad 7 is another android addition to the household. It is everything I wanted the old Nokia 770 to be. It takes a sim card has a GPS and is to all intents and purposes just a much larger version of the Orange Sanfrancisco phone I carry around with me.

So it works as a back up phone if should I run out of battery on the sanfran. It makes wi-fi browsing and email in coffee shops a much better experience and the kids can see what they are doing when playing angry birds. A win. So far only glitch is I can't get the stowaway keyboard to pair with it.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Phone and Automobiles

The screen on the Samsung pixon broke and I pleaded for a replacement phone that ran the Android operating system. The powers that be listened carefully to my reasoned arguments and gave me a Blackberry instead. AAAAAAAARGH!

Despite the truly addictive e-mail capabilities I heroically decided to go cold turkey and forked out my own hard earned for an Orange San Francisco instead.

Had it for over a month now and it is truly a great phone. De branded and running android 2.2 of course with a company O2 sim.

I have even used an old Nokia tablet mounting kit and some drastic reworking with a hacksaw and plastic repair kit to build a car mount for it. I'll publish a picture sometime. It might look a bit of a bodge but it is super solid and the phone clicks into place in a reassuring manner.

Plastic Repair kit

I have been fixing an increasing number of items with the repair kit I bought for my Samsung laptop. The off side Mondeo wing mirror developed an alarming list to one side this is included the outside cowling. I suspect someone leant on it hard when falling over in the snow in December. Repair involved removing glass and drilling out of three retaining blobs of plastic so outside cowling could be removed from internal mounting post. This showed problem that two of three vertical retaining screws had stripped threads/ broken mountings. So removed whole metal mounting post from bottom bracket and got two washers. Then sprayed original screws with silicone as a release agent. Used the screws to mount the washers onto correct surface with hand tightening. Then rebuilt the outside of the damaged plastic mounting pillar upto the washers. Once plastic had cured over night I removed screws and washers and remounted wing mirror. Had to melt the 3 mounting blobs back to re attach cowling. Overall a medium difficult job.