Homebrew electric-assist recumbent bike

During our stroll tonight, we ran across this handsome DIY electric-assist recumbent bicycle outside of Armand's (yes, of the famous fish sandwich). We didn't see the owner. Alas.

Broken chain

My chain broke this past week. It failed at the link that I had opened it up to clean it a month or so ago. Darn. So much for my confidence with the chain tool. It probably had 1,000 or more miles on it, so it was time. I had wanted to get more of the rainy spring weather behind me before I changed to the next $60 chain.

In any case, a bike drivetrain overhaul needs few tools, but requires some good company. Silas and Guthrie hung out with me. The sum total of tools needed was a chain tool (to add/remove links), a rag, a bit of lubricant, and a bottle of decent beer (Lake Louie Milk Stout, in this case).


Silas is pulling himself up on everything, including things that rotate. I put my trust in the bike, why shouldn't I encourage him to? :)

Clean chain!

My chain recently spent a few hours bathing in a cleansing bath of citrus degreaser. It was much happier as a result, as was I. I didn't feel like I was leaving little piles of gear dust on Liberty Ave so I could find my way back home at the end of the day.

Playing at work

One of my responsibilities at work is the overall management of our data acquisition and monitoring activities. Another engineer, Dave, does most of the actual work these days, but I get to play with the parts and pieces as much as I can find time to. We're transitioning to a new server and ultimately a database for our data collection and needed an in-house logger to test out the new system. Dave set up a logger in an enclosure, and I got to program it as well as play around with modifying one of the bazillion old UPS's lying around the office.

These uninterruptable power supplies are basically a charge controller for a 12V sealed lead acid battery and a somewhat crude inverter to supply AC current to the load (computer, etc) when the power goes down. The UPS's that have been pulled out of commission in the office are almost 100% due to the batteries having died and not the electronics. The loggers we use (Campbell Scientific CR10X or CR1000) also use a 12V battery and don't draw much power. So, I jumpered off the battery in the UPS to power the datalogger. The logger has been running for the better part of a week now and hasn't caught on fire. That's a good sign, right? :)

Modified UPS:

The datalogger cave: