LandyManLuke

when you drive, the four wheels don't take equal paths, normally the diffs accomodate for this. when the central diff is locked the front axle and rear axle have to turn at the same speeds. On tarmac, or any solid, non-slip surface, something has to give, either a wheel will 'skip' or something will go bang.

I've got 6x9s fitted behind the bench seats, sound really nice and no-one gets an ear full. you can buy aerial extension leads, not much use if you've already cut up the old one. you need to use the proper connectors and co-axial cable. Luke

Ionut, Just downloaded the DVD, wow, looks like a really good event. now how many years is it going to take me to enter....... too many i think! Luke

rear 6x9s mounted behind bench seats in the back, fronts mounted in the headlining above the seatbelt bracket.

Another vote for Pioneer, mine sits at 45 deg and is plenty powerful enough to drive two 6x9s and two 100mm co-ax speakers without an external amp at defender hardtop required loudness!

Another vote for a visit to a scrappy. I got a 15" fan perfect (ok a little bit of tinkering) for the 200tdi rad, with a low profile motor, for a tenner. Oh and i got a spare for free. there were plenty of smaller fans about. bit more info here

'Course, there's always Meqasquirt.......

Good point, most ISPs will allow you to collect mail from other ISP's servers through theirs, but not send. do you have different email addresses? Luke

Assuming your upload connection speed is not dire, that sounds like PC faults, rather than Broadband faults. Luke

I agree, i drove a Sprinter 3.5T Luton body over the summer, really nice to drive, pulled like a train. Luke

The whole thing depends on you having an electrolyte to get the whole reaction going in. Hence sacrifical anodes on boats in salt water (no, they don't work on landies ). I'm guessing the fresh salty air of the Falkland Islands doesn't really work in your favour Isolation is the key, silicon, rubber washers, etc etc is all you can do about it really. wasn't there a bridge somewhere that had the bolts corrode to dust because someone didn't fit all the isolating bits of stuff?

It depends where they are in the Galvanic Series, the further apart the metal, the more corrosion you'll get. Luke

hehe, that's my mate Shaun, he IS a troll, about 5 ft F-all. Quite amusing watching him get into his 90 with 34 tyres and 2" lift. Luke

Does a scaffold gearbox crane make me better or worse ?

Ouch, i had a similar thing a few months back, the pump spat its internals out at 70 on the A14. I undid the bolts by putting a spare belt on the pulley, then clamping the belt to the workbench with a bit of 15x50 square tube through it, then letting the pulley 'wrap itself up' in the belt, then using a socket and bar and tapping the end, using the impulse of the tap, and the inertia of the pump, it worked rather well Luke

I see what you mean, and the 'simple' still remains, by design. Use the manual valves, unplug the PC controlled relay, and plug the 'normal' compressor plug back in, and voila! one failsafe system. Bit like what's in the landrover, that has overides so if the PC throws a fruit loop the whole lot can be manually controlled. onboard ITX and megasquirt - i'm looking forward to that one :D Luke

Yeah, they've been in Harwich for ages, though i think they've moved recently, and spruced up the website, had a revamp etc. Luke

Roger and I have been chatting through quite a few things, it's not nearly as simple as it appears. Besides, what's the problem with having a little bit of fun :)

overnight filling would be done with the freezer compressor, daytime filling with main compressor, easy with a bit of programming. you can't add a switch to the motor that simply, as it wouldn't control the dump valve for compressor startup. I've got a seperate solenoid to dump the air on compressor start up.

basically, I'm using a 50L tank and 1.5 Hp compressor to fill the 300 litre tank when i'm not in the garage, the trouble is the standard pressure switch would knacker the compressor as it's duty cycle would be exceeded filling such a big tank. The PC can cycle the pump over time, keeping it from over heating, whilst filling the tank, also, in the future, i'll add a freezer compressor to top up the tank over longer periods of time, say overnight. When i'm in the garage, the compressor is deafening, having 350 litres of air means i can use a fair amount of toolage before seeing a significant pressure drop, also, a freezer pump could replenish the tank quietly. pressure sensing means i can calculate how long i've got until pressure drops too low, i can also run the pumps to meet demand. the valving means i have to option of using the small tank whilst filling the big tank with the freezer motor etc etc. Luke

What am i trying to achieve? not much really! the fun is in getting it to work. I've done quite a lot of research into air solenoids, and very few of them are truely bi-directional, they are also rather expensive. I've already got three of these sensors, and at a tenner each, i'm reluctant to throw them away. I'll have a look at Hyphose.

Morning (afternoon?) Yup, my intention is amplify before the switch. I've found the 4051 which apparently is a 8 channel analogue MUX/DEMUX, i can just hold the MSB low and use the first 4. I'll look up a datasheet for the LM339, looks like that'll do the job. Fridge, only the one needed, half of the rest of the circuit is already on veroboard and working (kinda), thanks for the offer though. I could go down the pic route, i'm fairly fluent in VB and C, but i think i'll stick with simple logic for now. general project background here

Whilst we're at it, does anyone know a chip that'll convert two bit binary into 4 outputs? i.e. put 00 on the inputs and the 1st output goes high, put 11 on the inputs and the third output goes high, etc etc. that way i can cut down the number of control lines from the PC from 3 to 2. Crikey i should get some sleep Edit: 4051 - 8 way analogue multiplexer/demultiplexer, really tired now. Luke

Yup, i've fiddled with that this evening, swing is pretty pitiful - about half (as expected), and i wonder if there are any other effects in terms of accuracy. I'd like to keep it as a bridge, if i can, though i realise it's simpler to do it the other way. Luke Edit: Having read a bit more about op-amps, it looks like that's the way to go, using both the inverting and non-inverting inputs to amplify the difference across the bridge, the question is, how?! Edit: Yey, Wikipedia has helped me along a bit, now i need to find an Op-Amp package that will do the job. I need it to have 0Vdc and +9Vdc suppy rails, preferably, and low saturation on the output, as i'll need it to work down near 0v. When R1 = R2 and Rf = Rg Can anyone suggest a suitable package, and what sort of range the resistors need to be in? ie in the Kohms? lower? higher? Cheers Luke

What's even nicer is maplin have them in stock at the shop in town, looks like progress! Luke