Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Re-AMORCing* The Irradiator

Once again, I've not posted for a few days and, yes, it's the stardrive array.

The good news: it's not the RF final we fixed last week. That one was back on and at full power along about 0300 Saturday ayem (a time when mere mortals must sleep! Or should, anyway). When a different one of the three took unplanned leave Friday evening, we unshipped the 32 Volt/180 Ampere (!) power supply assembly (a heavy lapful of loose parts and wire harness) from the one that had failed and stuffed it into the previously-failed one, which needed, as nearly as could be determined, only that, and cello [1], it came up and ran like a champ!

The bad news is, that meant we now had a stardrive with two known problems and probably another; and that's what I've head my head stuck in since Monday.[2]

We're not going to make Rigel 4 in time for the Pork Festival. Which may be a good thing. (Check two posts back).


In Other News: back in the Homeport slightly realer world, straight-line winds and a possible tornado knocks down tree limbs and forced rainwater in around an attic window at my house, wetting down some recently-installed insulation. Just as well I was reminded to weatherstrip that window before installing wallboard. Further damage report awaits the dawn.

I cannot await the dawn and thus must bid thee adieu. Or as the French say(?), "happy snails!"

_______________________
* "AMORC" 'cos we gotta get the lights and power back on, see?

1. Or is that "viola?" Some kinda string instrument.

2. Also shoulders, both arms, upper body, etc.

4 comments:

  1. "I haven't seen the engineer in a while. Hmmm... Send someone down to engineering, I think Roberta's fallen into the Jeffries Tube again."

    :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. 32 volts at 180 amps?! From 110 or 220? Can I get one of those without a NICS check? I want to build a Tesla coil in my basement.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sounds like Ford Festiva's.

    Buy three, to have one up and running.

    Does it ever go smooth?

    ReplyDelete
  4. From 240 V fed British-style, Turk; the "stardrive's" low voltage side toasts the Queen's health instead of the Federal union and there's a big stepdown transformer in another portion of it to make all the LV portions feel t'home here in the colonies.

    Teach, do I not just wish! Normal mode is all three running. Having three big RF power amps assures we'll nearly always have at least one running but the Captain and the Owners become quite vexed when we must limp along at reduced power.

    ...Man, just once, do I wish a Star Trek episode had shwod the lads and lassies in Engineering emerge smudged and mussed from the gritty complexities of the warp drive. I don't think Scotty and his crew ever so much as swung a wrench; they just flipped switches and looked worried.

    ReplyDelete

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