So, What's Broken Now?

An old saying, that seems to fit, even if it really doesn't say anything at all. 'If it isn't one thing, it's seven other things,' and 'It just goes to show you.'

Which leads directly to today's topic. What's the latest thing to go kerflooey around Casa Winjama?

It all started most recently with the gate remote, the little hand-held device that makes the front gate open or close - one at a time, of course. Thank you very much.

This One Takes the 27A

I gave Elsie and Alan a key ring with the Mennonite house key on it and a remote gizmo for the gate. Of course, when I tried it, it didn't work. I naturally assumed it was the battery. That was mistake number one.






I hot-footed it down to Photo Alex, downtown. One of the few places around that seems to never have counterfeit batteries. Of course, the remote doesn't take a standard sized battery. It takes an A27 battery. There's D, C, AA, AAA, 23A, 27A, and a whole host of other size designations, all for batteries that look like regular tallish, round batteries. There's also the flat ones that go in computers, and all sorts of other things as well. I'm concerned here with the 23A and 27A sizes.

And This Takes the 23A

The 23A is smaller than an AAA battery by about half and is about the same diameter. The 27A is even smaller - about one-third the size of a 23A. If you're really interested in learning more than you knew existed about batteries, go look it up on Wikipedia.

The interesting thing for the 23A and 27A is that at Photo Alex, they cost the same. Ten dollars Belize per battery.



Back on course here. I purchased a 27A. Returned to Casa Winjama and installed the 27A into their remote. Then I went to try it out on the gate. Nothing happened. Well, that's not true, actually. What did happened was that I managed to wipe the gate motor motherboard clean as far as keeping track of what remotes it worked with. This meant that now, the gate wouldn't open or close for any remote that we had. Must be one of those undocumented features you read about.

I took the remote to Capital Factory up on Santa Rita Hill. They're the vendors for the Chinese gate motors. Mr. Chang, the proprietor, tried out the remote, checked it's innards and told me it was defunct. Luckily, he had a spare remote that operated on the frequency my gate motor uses. If I need new remotes in the future, I'll have to replace the motherboard and all of the remotes we use (we have four) as they all operate on a different frequency now.

The new replacement remote cost $75.00 BZD. Not cheap for something so small. Add in the other three remotes and a new motherboard, and you're potentially talking real money.

With the new remote in hand, I came back and tried it on the gate. No go. So, I had to call the gate motor (and power roll-up door) technician, Aaron, to come take a look. Eventually, he took the remotes and the motor and housing to troubleshoot them.

Turns out, the bad remote had 'frozen' the board so that nothing worked. He was able to fix it, so I was able to dodge the bullet of replacing remotes and all that.

Now, the gate worked fine. Oh, yes. That repair bill? Only came to $25.00 BZD. Such a deal. I was happy.

That was the first of the most recent things that went... What was the word? Oh, yes. Kerflooey. Next up was the main pool pump. A few days ago, when I was just finishing getting the solar heater motor working, I noticed the main pump sounded, um, not normal. I shut it down and took it out to the patio bench for a look-see.

I've become expert at opening up the pump, which I did again. The source of the noise quickly became apparent. the impeller (the thing that actually pushes water at high speed) had sheared itself from the motor shaft. When the impeller began to freewheel, it started to rub against the diffuser. The diffuser looks a lot like the impeller, but it simply fits over the impeller and helps with the pumping action. In short, I don't know what it does really, other than that it's important to have it not rubbing and thus self-destructing against the impeller.

I quickly went online and found a place, In the Swim, Discount Pool Supplies, to order the replacement parts and other fittings that go with those parts. I had checked with Island Pool Supply in San Pedro. They didn't carry them and it would take at least six weeks to get the parts in.

In the Swim had the parts in and at a significant savings. I hope to get the parts in through You Have Mail, sometime in the next two weeks. Then we'll have the pump back up and functioning.

Impeller (left) and Diffuser

Our algae problem in the pool (which I've written about before, or if I didn't, I meant to) seems to have solved itself. This was in part, both caused and helped by the pool pump. Caused, because, when the pump case was broken, it couldn't run for a couple of weeks, which exacerbated an algal bloom in the pool. Then when that got fixed, having the pump running again, helped in great measure to solve the algae problem.

But, now, because of the sheared impeller, the pump is non-functional again. Minus the algae problem.

And now, the latest thing. The Daewoo Microwave quit working just as I was nuking some potatoes for a nice pork stew that I was preparing.

Microwave in the Kitchen

The next day and fearing the worst, I was fully prepared to go to Courts and buy a new nukerator (microwave). But first, I thought it was worthwhile to take it to the electrical repair shop up behind the Mary Hill School.

Electronics Repair Specialists

These guys are near-geniuses in what they can repair.

Inside the Shop

About five minutes after I got back home from taking the microwave up there, they called to tell me it was all fixed. Turns out it was the capacitor that fried itself. Fifty bucks Belize, and I was back in the nukerating business.

Y'know, I just had to mention here, that pretty much everything that has broken down here, has been repairable, and was repaired. Most of the stuff, if this same thing had happened in the States, probably would have been a matter of toss it and buy a new one. I think I much prefer the fix it and use it idea. Just a thought. We're doing our bit to lessen our carbon footprint, I think.

Pool House Expansion Project, Day Thirty-Seven, 17/11/15

Rotoplas septic tank arrives.

Day Thirty-Seven, 17 November, 2015

Man, the better part of a week since there's been any activity around the joint. A good part of that delay was due to rain. Not as much as with the last episode, still, it was often enough and enough coming down at times, that work would have been uncomfortable to say the least.

And then there's a thing called timing. We were hoping to be able to get the zinc to put on the roof right away. Unfortunately, that wasn't happening. For one thing, the right color blue, (to match the roof on the Mennonite house) wasn't immediately available. Capital Factory didn't have it available period. Also, they didn't have it in the gauge that we wanted. Lano's Hardware, didn't have it either, but could get it in both color and gauge, but we wouldn't be able to get it till Wednesday, the 18th. We were about two or three hours late in ordering it to have it on the truck from Spanish Lookout that would have arrived last Friday.

And then there's family medical emergencies. Omar's father, was thought to be having a heart attack late last week, so Omar needed to go deal with that. Which is still ongoing over in Chetumal. Communications between Corozal and Chetumal are sketchy to say the least. You'd think that for two communities separated by a river and nine miles, that that wouldn't be an issue. You'd be wrong. It's a big issue. Different phone systems, time differences, etc. Anyway, we're all hoping for the best for Omar's father, but we have very little information about that situation.

So, there have been a multitude of issues, all seemingly conspiring to bring the project to a halt for a few days. Carl wanted to bring the guys over here to have them start on the septic tank. He had had them working a little on his house up in Consejo, but the road between there and Corozal is anything but good.

He wanted to have them work at our place starting at 7:00 AM. That didn't happen. He texted me that they would make it about noon. That didn't happen. Finally, about 2:30 PM, Carl and three of the guys arrived. George started working on the piping for the drains going to the septic system. The other two workers, Errol and (I've forgotten his name) promptly started dewatering the hole for the Rotoplas septic tank as you can see below.

Emptying the Rotoplas Hole

Carl and I took off to Gomez Cemento Maya, in town, to pick up the Rotoplas tank.

Picking Up Our Rotplas Septic Tank

It was light enough they were able to get it into Carl's Sport Trac, and with a bit of twine to stabilize it, we headed back to our place.

On Board Carl's Sport Trac

Carl Undoing the Twine Securing the Load

After getting it untied, the guys moved it over against the lumber that had been covering the hole. We're planning to begin installing it in the morning.

Hauling It From the Truck to the Hole

Carl and I are investigating the finer points of how to properly connect the Rotoplas tank. I've found some information on the Intertubes at the Rotoplas website. There's some stuff in along with some fittings for the Rotoplas in a plastic bag that we haven't yet perused. I also emailed our neighbor, Brian, who lives with his wife Tracey, over in the nearby gated development. They have the same type of septic system installed, so he might be more familiar with it.

Below, George is beginning the trenching to run the pipes underground to the Rotoplas.

George Prepping Trenches For Pipes To Tank

There's still a bit of water in the hole. They'll be able to get the rest of that out in the morning. Then, they'll need to construct a concret donut for the cone end of the Rotoplas to sit in. and then we have to fill the tank with water before packing marl all around it to fill the hole back up. There's also the drain field piping to do, so there's plenty to keep the guys busy tomorrow.

The Hole Almost Empty

I'll be ready to document the progress and will keep you informed about that and what we find out about the tank.

There's many more photos than appear in each posting. You can see all the photos of the construction project on Flickr at: https://www.flickr.com/gp/winjama/0wVc3s. There will be new photos added each day of the project.  

What I Haven't Mentioned - Follow Up

Yesterday, I was all concerned about my desktop PC and the gate motor. Well, I still am, but there's been a great deal of forward motion. I'm not going to say progress, as I don't know yet, what all the results will be.

Suffice to say, that the gate wiring is repaired and is functional. The gate motor came through in good fashion, but the component card that controls the gate functions, didn't. Roger Chang had to replace that. The old one still had dead ants frozen or fried in place on the card. No doubt having caused shorts with their dying breath.

The gate now works better than ever. Well, at least over a longer range, than ever before.

There is one change however. With the old card, we could use a hard-wired button to open, close, and stop the gate. With the new card, we don't have that capability. We do have vastly increased range, and Roger gave me a new remote, that can open and close the gate from the pool house. We'll just keep that hanging in the house in place of the buttons.