Newsletter - 2001 Archive

BC Randonneurs Cycling Club

Next--->   

So, I went to Radio Shack & bought a new battery (Ed: for his vetta cycle computer) Installed it. Came home and tried it. Didn't work. Then I did what I should have done before I bought a new battery; tried it on one of the other bikes. It worked. I supppose it was obvious really; the functions independant of the wheel rotating worked but the odometer functions didn't. Thus it must be the mount/sensor assembly was the problem.

When unravelling the wire from the bike it fell away from the mounting bracket! Broke right off where it emerged from the potting. It's the sort of design that encourages people to throw things away as unrepairable. But Vetta are out of business and the computer still works.

I drilled out the potting hoping to expose the wire ends attached to the back of the contacts. However, being rather clumsy I drilled right through. I had a row of holes right across where the contacts were, two of them at contact locations. I stuck a piece of adhesive aluminum tape (rusty car body repair material) over the face where the contacts appear, turned it over & melted some solder into the 2 relavent holes. Then I filed them down until the computer clicked into place.

Computer wires are extremely thin and difficult to work with. But I was able to trim back the 2 conductors and set them into the solder blobs. Ideally I should have waited at that point until I had some two part epoxy to set the wires in place and seal them. But I used candle wax instead. It works, we will see for how long. The whole job took about an hour Sunday evening, including my rather inefficient way of going about things.

_