CitroJim's AX, C3 Picasso, Cycling and Running Tales

[mickthemaverick]

Thanks for that Neil, took me all the way back to my ONC studies in 1968!

[CitroJim]

...and there was me thinking Darlington Co Durham had another claim to fame, but no some bloke called Sidney Darlington invented The Darlington transistor in 1953 according to this...

https://www.electrical4u.com/darlington-transistor/

Regards Neil

Excellent Neil, huge thanks for that I did always wonder how they came to be called Darlingtions and why the D in Darlington is always capitalised when discussing these devices...

Magic

[NewcastleFalcon]

...and there was me thinking Darlington Co Durham had another claim to fame, but no some bloke called Sidney Darlington invented The Darlington transistor in 1953 according to this...

https://www.electrical4u.com/darlington-transistor/

Regards Neil

Excellent Neil, huge thanks for that I did always wonder how they came to be called Darlingtions and why the D in Darlington is always capitalised when discussing these devices...

Magic

There is a lot on him...but as a minimum seeing as you are using his invention...here is his mugshot

http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/darlington-sidney.pdf

Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

I thought that picture was another hero of mine:

Own collation FTW

[myglaren]

Perhaps he was from Darlington.

I lived in Whitby and once worked for the widow of a Dr. Whitby.

[NewcastleFalcon]

All you ever wanted to know about Sidney Darlington but were afraid to ask

http://www.nasonline.org/publications/b ... sidney.pdf

He was a man of uncommon depth and breath whose first love was circuit theory. He made important, widely known contributions in several areas, including network synthesis, radar systems, rocket guidance, and transistor networks. Sid was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. According to Sid, both his parents came from families in southeastern Pennsylvania

Mick's look alike hero was born in South Shields.

The Shields Gazette 28th November 2021
https://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/peo ... 79-3474508

Francis Owen Garbett Williams was born in South Shields on April 16, 1942 to an RAF officer and a headmistress. Educated at St Joseph’s College, a private boarding school in Dumfries, it was there where he became obsessed with cars following a ride in a Jaguar XK150.

A travelling salesman by day, he fulfilled his racing ambitions at the weekend and, aged just 24, he launched his own team, Frank Williams Racing Cars.

Regards Neil

[CitroJim]

Happy New Year one and all

Google made me a little collage to celebrate 2022 and they got it pretty much spot-on!

My definite highlight was the arrival of Autumn, my first grandchild

The only thing the collage missed out was the arrival of Bluebell into my life!

Shame the old year ended as the new one has begun with me being very poorly and causing me to have to miss the two New Year parkruns and be unable to run or cycle until I'm again fully recovered...

Signs are, as of this afternoon, that's beginning to happen

[CitroJim]

And one I made myself

[CitroJim]

Me and Mick's magical and hugely enjoyed awayday to an auction house last week had a great side-benefit

A while back my cuckoo clock failed. It was ticking normally but the hand movements were very erratic. So badly in fact that British Rail made me a very good offer for it as it was just what they needed for timing trains...

I could see what the problem was but could not understand either how it happened or how to resolve it...

At the auction I spent some time looking at a box of clock movements and studying just how that part of the going train in similar movements was assembled and worked... I'd have bid on it if it was just the box of movements but it included 11 complete clocks... As much as I love old clocks, that would have been just too many - 11 too many in fact...

What I did win at the auction and did not want was a nasty bout of something horrible that laid me low all over New Year and made me miss two parkruns I'm only now just starting to recover and have been left with crushing ME-induced fatigue that's likely to take another week to fully resolve with lots of rest

Today, I felt well enough to look at my poorly cuckoo clock - one that's very precious to me as it was one of dad's much loved clocks - and armed with my auction learning fixed it

What had happened was a pin had made a successful bid for freedom at the end of the going train. This pin and a dished washer secured the final hand driving gear train to a shaft. Between this gear train and the rest of the going train is a leaf spring that acts as a friction drive and allows the hands to be moved to set the time.

With an M2.5 nut and a bit of steel wire from cable armouring I was able to approximate the lost parts

It is not the finest quality of clocks as most of the thing is put together with nails rather than screws!

And for that reason, whilst I have it on test to ensure it is 100% good I won't fully reassemble it...

Such is my cognitive impairment at this time you'd never believe how long it took to put this post together or how hard the spellchecker had to work

Meanwhile, the postman has delivered me a small packet containing some beefy wire-wound resistors... Do I make a new speed control resistor pack for Bluebell's blower or do I continue developing my electronic version?

EDIT: You'd also never believe how may times I've had to edit this post after submitting it to fix typos I'm knackered now

[MattBLancs]

EDIT: You'd also never believe how may times I've had to edit this post after submitting it to fix typos I'm knackered now

I have to go back and edit about 75% of my posts to fix what I didn't spot when typing. When reading back what I've typed, I realise the other 25% were generally no better!

[myglaren]

I do the Eric Morecambe style of typing.


All the right letters but not nessercelery in the right order.

Saved from ridicule by squiggly red underlining.

[CitroJim]

EDIT: You'd also never believe how may times I've had to edit this post after submitting it to fix typos I'm knackered now

I have to go back and edit about 75% of my posts to fix what I didn't spot when typing. When reading back what I've typed, I realise the other 25% were generally no better!

Indeed, most of what I type at the best of times is initially total gibberish... The gulf between my believed touch-typing competence and reality is very wide

I know some forums where you can't edit your own posts... can only assume their members are both good typists and have great clarity of thought...

I do the Eric Morecambe style of typing.


All the right letters but not nessercelery in the right order.

Saved from ridicule by squiggly red underlining.

We'd truly be lost without it Steve

[MattBLancs]

I know some forums where you can't edit your own posts... can only assume their members are both good typists and have great clarity of thought...

Wow, don't think I'd spend much time on those, after typing my 400th "sorry I really meant...." Correction post!

[CitroJim]

I know some forums where you can't edit your own posts... can only assume their members are both good typists and have great clarity of thought...

Wow, don't think I'd spend much time on those, after typing my 400th "sorry I really meant...." Correction post!

It keeps the Mods busy

Today with gradually improving health and to keep the boredom at bay I had a session of fan-nying around with Bluebell's blower...

I went for the resistor option for now although the electronic controller project remains in the back boiler as a rainy day project...

First job was to make up some aluminium plates to form a sandwich mount and heat-sink...

The tatty ends of the resistors are from an earlier quick and dirty test to make sure they were up to the job...

The slowest speed resistor is made of two in parallel to ensure adequate power handling...

Then I installed and wired it...

It runs very cool and doesn't project into the airstream too far but does enjoy a bit of forced-air cooling

I think I may have over-engineered it just a little

On a short road test it proved to work very well indeed... Three nice, quiet and evenly spread speeds are once again available...

I also replaced the fuel filter and I'm pleased to see Bluebell's fuel system is now largely free of contamination

[MattBLancs]

A little over-engineering goes a long way! Or put another way, it'll likely never go wrong again!