Today started off a tad
earlier than most of my workdays here, but that was because Kevin and I were
going to check on Dan. We arrived at the hospital at around 7:45 AM and Dan was
awake. He seemed to have more energy than the past two days and was quite a bit
more talkative. He still was feeling about the same, but seemed to doing a bit
better. I started work at the hospital looking for a replacement diode for the
centrifuge (to replace that dead one from yesterday and I searched all around
in the junk shop for that piece, and had to tear apart an old power supply for
it). After I unsoldered the diode and talked a tiny bit to Popo I left for the
clinic. At the clinic I wanted to start on the centrifuge, but I had to work on
this ear scope thing that the one guy brought me (as it was a new piece and he
wanted me to see what I could do ASAP).
The broken ear scope I stole the piece from (now with exposed fiber optic wire)
So I spent some time working on that
(it was missing the magnification lens attachment for the eyepiece to look into
the ear, so I took the magnification lens off of the broken attachment for one
of the rechargeable ear scopes from Friday). This turned out to be a tad more
complicated as the single screw holding the magnification lens on the broken
piece was tightened into a stand off type piece behind the plastic which
happened to break loose and decided to spin as the screw was tightened. After
that the piece worked correctly! BAM fixed! I then was brought a scale that the
guy said wasn’t working despite being brand spankin’ new. The scale would turn
on, but it would only say what appeared to be “ba” and then two upside down f’s.
I then realized the error was “batt” and checked to the batteries to find that
someone had installed 5 of 6 six AAs properly, but had derped and put 1 in
backwards (so the two raised ends of the AAs were touching (fail) (I like that
the machine can tell when it has a battery error though)).
Ready for action
Anyways I flipped
that around and the scale worked again! BAM! Fix. After that I finally got a
chance to work on the centrifuge and got the diode back in after a tiny bit of
phenageling and careful placement and solder work. I but the centrifuge back
together and turned it on and it didn’t work. The switch would not work at all
(no light there, so tomorrow I have to check the power supply yet again (-.-
this centrifuge is the bane of all centrifuges (but it has a stepper motor so
we’re cool)). I even tried to test the relay which seemed to be designed
slightly differently as its and AC relay as opposed to the DC ones I’m used to
(I thought it could be open in one place, but after further testing I think it’s
good) (something else on the power supply as the tech said the switch light isn’t
on and thus problem there).
Before adding the diode (to be put above the fuse)
What the completed unit looks like (stepper motor on the left with 1 motor mount visible)
After adding in the diode (below the fuse)
Anyways around 11 I started working on the
microscope from Friday (by opening up the bulb area and cleaning the contacts
were the bulb slots in with a screwdriver (and got quite a bit of corrosion off
the connections and put in a new bulb as the old one had broken a lead off in
the process of doing some preliminary checking on Friday)).
Cleaning contacts (maybe I should clean the focusing skills of my camera too)
After that project
the guy brought me 3 more fetal Dopplers (handheld units for checking for a
fetal HB). Two of them were in these cool cases and one was brand new, but
would not turn on at all. I checked the two in the cases to find that they ran
off of good ‘ole 9V batteries (my seal of approval for that (as I love 9Vs for
projects)). Anyways one of the batteries was at like 3.9 volts and the other
was at like 5.4 V so I asked for two new 9Vs and put those suckers in and BAM!
Two working fetal Dopplers!
Frangible (easily broken (it is a word!))! Watch out guys!
Duracell 9Vs FTW!
The third was more of an adventure. I tried the
battery which was bad as it would charge and then die very quickly (by falling
to a low voltage not capable of powering the device (the device would also not
turn on even with the charged battery)). About this time it was lunch time, so
Kevin and I went off to the pizza place to get some food after talking to Dan a
bit. He seemed to have much more energy and be a tad more talkative. He’s at
day 2 of Dengue so he should only have 1 more sick day and then start to get
much better! Hoping he gets better soon!
Two bananas fused together during growth (still charged as two bananas though -.-) (they were distinct two bananas inside this)
Lunch was good chicken pizza and a
banana smoothie and I talked to Kevin about life in San Carlos and general
Nicaragua and EWH. It was pretty chill. After lunch I headed back to the hostel
and then to the hospital to look for a new relay (which I thought was broken).
I spent some time searching unsuccessfully for the relay, but I grabbed the
power supply we made back in lab (variable power supply from like 3 V to like
28V) and headed for the clinic. Back at the clinic I fixed our power supply (a
wire had broken off) and rigged up the unit to provide 9.8 V to the
non-functioning new Doppler (the battery was rated at 9.6V nominal) and had the
circuit board spread out across the table as I pressed the power button. Prior
to what the ending of the last sentence implied, no magic smoke or arcing electricity
ensued (and I did not receive any shocks either); unit powered up nicely and
cleanly! SO BAM! Fixed that one (basically just have to get a new battery for
it because the last one is too used to provide the current required by the
device (a tad odd for the new looking unit). I had fun adjusting the power
supply and watching the battery gauge on screen drop the battery indicator bars
as I lowered to voltage to its minimum level of around 6.86V where the unit
powered off to save the battery and unit.
Working with the Doppler and power supply (the unit decided to turn itself off due to inactivity of the probe (thus the "off" message))
After that I put the unit back
together and worked a bit more of the other non-functioning Doppler (which
still shows no indication of why it won’t power up (as I tried the same system
on it)). Also this lady brought me this adder thing that she says doesn’t work,
but for being an adder it has no keys with numbers on them (only words on the
keys (and not numbers in Spanish either)). So the only way to make numbers
appearis to randomly press keys and it counts up for just about any key pressed
and then starts another count in addition to the normal count. There’s also a
key that appears to make the keyboard into a whack a mole game where the LEDs
in the corner of each key light up until they are pressed. It’s a weird
machine. Not sure what I’m supposed to do with it. Anyways after that I was
thinking of heading home around like 4 or 4:30 PM, but then the lab tech from
downstairs brought up the old centrifuge from the lab (which was working) and
he wanted to swap the motor mounts since one was broken on the working
centrifuge and they had just put paper in the housing to make it work (O.o bet
that was feeling some odd forces at the high RPMs). Anyways we set to work and
after much struggling with rusted bolts and a like welded on rotor (from old
corrosion) we got the motor of the working one out and we ended up getting the
two centrifuges to basically just their guts (just switches and whatnot in the
front). From there we swapped the motor mounts (3) and the motor and put the
new board (with the new diode) in the working unit and closed it up and it
worked! So that diode fix actually helped! BAM! Fixed.
The guts of the old centrifuge (working)
Basically just the guts of the new centrifuge (not working)
The new motor ready for action
The working unit was
covered in dust everywhere inside, so we also ended up swapping the basin for
the rotor (which wasn’t hard given how many parts we had taken off the
centrifuge). After it was all together and working again, we took the working
on downstairs as well as the hematocrit one Dan and I fixed on Friday (it
needed brushes) and I clocked out at 6 PM. Since then it’s been just chilling
and having some dinner (good fried cheese tacos, B&R and half of a fried
sausage (hot dog?) and this epic refrigerated drink that tasted like green tea
(but was apparently from apples)). Kevin and I went to check on Dan after
dinner, but he was already asleep, so we’ll check on him tomorrow. Looking
forward to more work tomorrow!
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