Kenwood dishwasher fun (KDW12ST3A): E3 (low heat error) and the upper spray bar

 Well, its been a while since my dishwasher last needed some TLC. As to that, see my many previous posts on this matter. 

Lately, the dishwasher has been misbehaving again. Items in the top drawer were often not cleaned properly and there would sometimes be, additionally, an E3 (low heat) error. Based on prior experience I didn't think the low heat error would be connected to a problem with the heater or pump. And so having mulled over this occasional annoyance (for several months, in fact), the actual cause of the problem finally revealed itself - the upper spray bar was simply worn out and on a recent wash completely detached itself from its connection. I think the low heat error was due to the bar leaking out of all the wrong places with the result that the water pressure in the machine was not high enough to keep the heater switched on (again, see my previous posts for my theory about that).  

It was clear on a close inspection that the bar was beyond saving and needed replacing. I did give considerable thought to finally buying a new dishwasher as I've had my money's worth out of this one, but the thought of tossing this long-time but slightly-not-working-properly family member into the scrap was too much to bear. 

A quick browse on Amazon turned up what appeared to be an identical spare part for £26. To be fair, that was more than I wanted to pay so I took a punt on a cheaper part which looks a bit different but which I hoped would fit. That part arrived the other day. It took me 30 seconds to install it and now I have my dishwasher back, functioning perfectly and lovely clean dishes. This is the part I bought from Amazon. Pictures below compare the old and new parts for reference.

More soon, no doubt....

D

Er,... hello again!

This is my first post in a good while. It's not that I've not been fixing things but instead I kind of forgot all about this having this blog. Oops! Trying to think back about the things I forgot to share and which would have made ideal EOaMI fodder, the list includes replacing the full joy-stick setup in several Xbox controllers. I've also replaced the USB ports on a couple of Blue Yeti microphones. I built myself a gaming PC. And I made a large LED light which sits on the floor and washes the wall behind with whatever colour I desire. 

And why did I make that LED light, you might ask. Well, I'm putting my new PC to good use by dabbling a bit with live streaming and having some ambient light behind me when I am on camera makes for a nicely chilled image. So far I've streamed some classic Xbox games and a bit of Fortnite. But in the past few weeks I've resurrected an old Minecraft World that must be about six years old by now. It is, in fact, the only Minecraft World I ever made and basically contains all the things I built with my boy whenever we played together. In a way it charts his early childhood and is made more interesting by the addition of a rollercoaster that travels around all the fabulous things which we made. At time of writing, the coaster journey lasts for about 7 minutes end-to-end and gets a bit longer with every stream as we add new sights to the world (yes, we still play together :)). But what makes it really interesting is the addition of a ray tracing resource and texture pack. I cannot explain how good the world now looks, with accurate light and shadows, and warmth. I love going on there and there'll be plenty more streams in the future. 

So, this post is really just to say that I'm still here, fixing things, and I'm making a promise to add more content in the future. Heck, I could even live stream a repair on my Twitch channel! And I suppose this is a shameless plug but this is my blog so I can do as I please: if you want to see my Minecraft World all blinged-up with ray tracing, or anything else I might be streaming, come visit my Twitch channel: SuperHeroGamers

Until next time...

D.

Logitech G213 Keyboard - Faulty - missed / duplicate key presses: Fixed

I got this G213 keyboard from Curry's in June. It was part of a pack that game with the G203 mouse and G332 headset and was intended for use with a new gaming PC I was building. It took another month before I'd finished buying all the bits for the PC so the keyboard stayed in its box. When I came to use it for the first time, it was clear that the keyboard had a problem. The left-hand CTRL and SHIFT keys only worked intermittently. The E and S had the same problem (but hardly ever worked), and the R key often registered two presses at a time. The keyboard was basically unusable. And playing Fortnite on it was impossible. 

So, I decided it should go back to Curry's. 

I had two problems with that, however. The only receipt I had was the Paypal transaction which didn't specify the item bought or contain an order number. And the Curry's Helpline was no good as they couldn't stay on the line long enough to take my details. Very annoying when the telephone queue to speak to someone is an hour long. I therefore decided to cut my losses and scrap the keyboard. Individual keys go for a few quid on ebay so I figured I could get some money back by selling it in bits. I did have to wait for my new keyboard to arrive though. And now that it has, I set about dismantling the G213. I took some photos of the process.

First, I removed the rubber pads from the corners and under the wrist rest. I warmed them a bit with a hairdryer before sticking my spadger underneath. For reasons that will become apparent, I'm glad I took care with this. Then I removed the seven silver screws and the two black screws.

At this stage the top part of the keyboard can be unclipped from the bottom part. I used my spadger again, very carefully working my round the casing. Note that the top part can be lifted away without needing to remove any of the keys. This is a picture of the underside of the top part with keys in situ.

Close up of the underside of the keys

And this is the silicone membrane that lives under the top part of the keyboard. It is held in place by some pegs on the bottom part of the key board. But here's the interesting thing - on my keyboard it wasn't particularly "in place".

Circuit board...

 

The silicon membrane can be peeled back to reveal the actual gubbins of the keyboard. There are three layers of plastic film. The top and bottom layers contain the "circuit" for each key. The middle layer is clear but contains a small reveal for each key. You can see this if you zoom into any of the pictures below.

I think it works like this. When a key is pressed, the raised dome on the membrane under the key is squished onto the top layer of film. This, in turn, presses the printed circuit through the cutout in plain middle layer and makes contact with the circuit on the layer underneath. This is the point at which the key-press is registered. It occurred to me that if any of the sheets were misaligned, or if the silicon membrane wasn't sitting quite right, there could be issues with typing. I tested my theory by typing straight on to the top layer of film (just using my finger tips). The keyboard was fully operational! 

I decided against scrapping it and instead reassembled it very carefully. Before doing so, I took a few more pictures of the internals. These are pictures which all the films peeled back:

Bits of plastic swarf in the membrane...

I got rid of the swarf and dusted the plastic films with a lint free cloth. I then rolled them back into place taking care to ensure that they were properly located on the pins and completely flat. I then rolled the membrane over and again ensured that it was located on the pins and completely flat. I then refitted the top half of the keyboard - there are some locating tabs for that purpose so I made sure that the top was completely clipped into the bottom before re-fixing the screws. I fixed the black screws in first but without turning the keyboard completely upside down. Once they were in, I turned the keyboard over completely and added the silver screws and the rubber feet. 

And wow - the keyboard now works completely fine! In fact, the key-press movement feels completely different. Previously it was really squishy but now seems far more precise. I think the problem was probably that the silicon membrane was not fitted properly when the keyboard was originally built. Either that, or it has somehow been dislodged in transit. Anyway, if you've got one of these keyboards and it starts playing up (and you've not just spilled your beer on it), I reckon just taking it apart a bit and rebuilding it should sort it.

As a final note, this was not a complete disassembly - they was no need for that, in my opinion. But if you need to take all the internals apart as well, this video on youtube may help.

More soon, no doubt....

D

HP Instant Ink referral code - free month of ink!

Just a quick post about HP Instant Ink.

If you've bought an HP Printer and are contemplating signing up for HP Instant Ink, click though to HP using the link below and we'll both a get a month of free ink. 

http://try.hpinstantink.com/vNgGQ

If you are already on the HP website it may ask you to enter any codes that you have. The code to use (amongst any others you may have collected) is vNgGQ

More soon, no doubt....

D

Ideal Mini C24 - fan replacement

So, we're in the Chinese Virus lock-down and I was thinking that it was about time I replaced the fan in my boiler. The current fan is on its last legs - the bearings are shot and the fan is noisy and keeps seizing. When this happens the boiler won't fire at all (so no heating or hot water). I've been able to effect a temporary repair each time by opening up the boiler and squirting some WD40 on the bearings. The repair lasts a few weeks or a month or so, and then the fan seizes again. Last week I found a "nearly new" fan for sale on Ebay so I bought it - £40 delivered. Today I fitted the new fan and this is how.

This is the boiler. I sprayed the panels black a couple of years ago. Note the wooden panel underneath. I made this to cover up the abominable pipework underneath...

What on earth were they thinking?

Anyway, here are the required tools. The thing at the top is the longest cross-head screwdriver I could find. I also used a flat-head screwdriver, as will become apparent in a moment.

Right, the outer panels are now off. The power supply to the boiler is also off! Next step is to open - slightly - the tabs holding the inner panel in place. There are three tabs on each side.

Next, undo the four screws on the front of the inner panel...

... and the screw on each side of the inner panel. The inner panel should pull forward and away.

This is what's behind the inner panel. The five screws in this picture will need removing in a moment. Before that, some fettling in the fan area is required. The fan is in the top right-hand corner of the picture.

First, undo the two screws holding the fan/flue together. With the screws removed, completely remove the front bracket. Note that the screws go into captive nuts on the back of the bracket. Still, it is worth putting a bit of tape over the nuts just in case they are no longer captive...

Thus...

Disconnect the electrical connections to the fan (including the earth wire on the side.

Pull the wire and grommet away from the fan shroud. Also, there are also two soft hoses attached to the fan body which should be disconnected. Make a note of which hose goes where.

Now undo the five screws on the front of the inner panel and remove the panel. Be very careful with the panel - it is lined with fireproof material which I imagine would shatter if the panel was dropped or flexed.

This is what the boiler looks like with the front inner panel removed. It might be possible to remove the fan from its shroud at this point. It is held in place by three small screws accessed from underneath. To be honest, I couldn't be bothered even trying and instead removed the fan and its shroud in one go.

The three pictures above show the location of the fan shroud screws. The screw in the picture immediately above requires use of the long screwdriver. Once removed, very carefully slide the fan and shroud forward, checking that no pipes or cables are tangled up in it. Expect the plastic join between the fan and the flue to come away at this point.

Fan and shroud removed.

This is underneath the shroud. The three screws holding the fan in place can be seen. Remove the screws and the fan comes away.

The pictures above compare the old and new fans. Note the date code on the old fan. And the new fan was made a couple of years ago, it seems. The part number says it is for the C28 or S28. However, it is identical to my old fan and is minty mint. I believe the ebay seller who advertised the fan as having only three-day's use. It also came with a new seal for the flue bracket so I used that rather than buying a new one.

New fan attached to the shroud.


Re-assembly is reverse of removable but with the following notes:

When sliding the fan shroud back into place, take care not to pinch any hoses or electrical cables. Also, it is unlikely that the fan will properly line up with the flue bracket at this stage. This is because the fan shroud is propped up by the front inner panel which isn't fitted yet. So, once the shroud is in roughly place, refit the front inner panel and only then final-fit the fan. 

This is the flue bracket back in place. 

Power and pipes reconnected. But also note the close-up of the spongy seal that goes between the inner panel and the rest of the case. "Ideal" recommend replacing the seal when the front panel has been removed. However, I replaced this seal recently so it is still nice and spongy. The original seal was hard and crispy and I had no confidence in it (not that I think a problem with this seal will cause any issues other than the boiler not igniting due to lack of vacuum in the combustion area).

Once the inner panel is reattached and screwed on, gently tap the side tabs back into place to ensure a snug fit (three tabs on each side). Then, with power back on, I tried the hot tap. Boiler fired up first time and is so quiet - no rumble from dodgy fan bearings!

I then conducted some safety tests with my carbon monoxide detector. With the doors and windows closed, no detectable CO after 30 minutes of running. This can be compared with when I'm using the wok burner on my gas hob - with doors and windows closed and the hob extractor off, the detector reports trace amounts of CO in minutes (but never high enough to set the alarm off).  I will conduct further tests just to be sure but I am happy that the boiler is safely operational. Incidentally, my CO detector lives on the wall next to the boiler.


More soon, no doubt...


D