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[muduck]

I have one of the above, & would like to get a spare sensing unit, the part that sits on the sight glass. Any ideas who may have them?

[HS93 (RIP)]

try Stuart models they bought all of Cheddars spare parts and are gradually bringing Models and parts back

http://www.stuartmodels.com/

Peter

[knoby]

Hi Muduck,
I have 1 of these systems too, & agree this part is the most likely to get sustain damage. About 18 months ago i contacted stuarts with reguard to buying another unit & was told they did make them & had no plans to do so in the forseeable future.

I've done a little electronics over the years & feel this unit is quite simple. I'm sure it wouldnt be too hard to reverse engineer one, but never seem to get round to looking at it.

My other thoughts on it were, the possiblity of just mounting the led & the sensor on the glass & having the curcuit away from ant heat sorce, thus redudcing the chance of damage.
also noticed todat Kn03 posted his solution to sight glass bubbling by inserting a wire. I intend to try this idea as air bubbles have caused sensing problems with the unit before.

If anyone knows of a supplier for the sensor units i would aslo be very interested to hear
cheers Glenn

[muduck]

Hi Knoby, yep saw that about the sight glass, but I was wondering if the wire would interfere with the sensor?..guess that a bit of trial@ error are in order.

[knoby]

Had a little play with wire in the glass to see what effect it had on the sensor over the weekend. the boiler was e empty & i found that the wire did interfere with the sensor, if the wire was placed directly in the middle of the glass. however placing the wire at the side, i found that the sensor worked fine. altough the wire i was using was relatively thick.

I'm assuming that the wire would be ineffective if it runs down the side of the glass ( others views would be appreciated), but feel there is a Chance a curved wire would work.
I'm unable to fire the boiler at this time, so my experiments were inconclusive. Also on the other thread someone suggested a fiber optic instead of a wire, which may work, although theres the possibility of this refracting the light too much for the sensor to detect it.

next up I'm going to try 2 very thin wires in the middle to see what happens.

Cheers Glenn

[gondolier88]

Try using a piece of plastic, say some ptfe rod, 1mm thick.

Might be distorting the signal because it's metal.

Greg

[wideawake]

I have one of the above, & would like to get a spare sensing unit, the part that sits on the sight glass. Any ideas who may have them?

I may have the answer for you muduck.  I've held off on posting until I'd got confirmation.   When I was at the Kew Bridge event earlier in the autumn I got chatting to a very interesting modeller from Mid Thames MBC who (with a friend) had built an alternative to the Cheddar auto boiler-filling system.   It used a similar type of (sight glass) sensor but new (PIC-based) electronics.   I was very impressed and have bought one to experiment with on the plant in my Wideawake.   When I read your request, I contacted Tim and he has now modded his sight glass sensor to work with the Cheddar EBC unit.   He's just joined mayhem but feels that he shouldn't post offering to supply you with one until he has the requisite 25 posts to permit a For Sale message.   He may well read this thread and make himself known now he's here and you can PM him if you're interested.

HTH

Guy

Guy

[muduck]

I'm definitely interested, so if you're out there, send me a message..

[HS93 (RIP)]

and me as well I have been after some new equipment  or spares for some time, in fact I have stooped using mine for the time being in Case it went wrong and I could not replace or repair it..

I wonder If Martin (Mayhem) reads this he would put his stamp on you posting as so many people want them as far as I know.
thanks

Peter

[TAG]

Since your initial posting about the above I have now produced an optical sensor for the above. It interfaces with the Cheddar ABC unit
but it has only been bench tested and not as yet on the water. This will not happen until the sailing season starts again.
Anyone interested in purchase please send me a pm.  

[steamboatmodel]

Since your initial posting about the above I have now produced an optical sensor for the above. It interfaces with the Cheddar ABC unit
but it has only been bench tested and not as yet on the water. This will not happen until the sailing season starts again.
Anyone interested in purchase please send me a pm.  

Do you have a unit that functions the same as the Cheddar ABC unit as well?
Regards,
Gerald.

[wideawake]

As  you can see the gentleman to whom I referred in my earlier message is now on the forum and posting as TAG.   I suggest that those who PMd me for contact details now PM TAG direct.

Welcome aboard Tim!

Cheers

Guy