Re: Scooter problems

The Wanderer wrote:
On Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:48:33 GMT, Palindrome wrote:

The Wanderer wrote:
On Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:23:55 -0000, (not quite so) Fat Sam wrote:

Palindrome wrote:
(not quite so) Fat Sam wrote:
Temprance wrote:
I don't wish to have to spend a lot of money which I have not enough
of so can anybody give me their thoughts on what is wrong with my
Mercury M48 Scooter. I've got a glitch where all of a sudden it
slows right down and then picks up again. A bit scary as I don't
want to be stuck somewhere. It did it today and about 40 seconds
before the power came back. According to my manual it should beep
at me when something is not working but so far it has remained
silent. temprance
Sounds to me like it could be a problem with the rheostat that forms
the throttle mechanism.
It may be damaged, or it might need cleaning.
Is there any regularity to it?
Does it always happen when you hit the same speed?

Or does it happen when you go over rough surfaces? That might just
suggest somethng as simple as a loose connection or a cracked solder
joint.
Wow, I haven't seen a speed controller with a rheostat for, oh, more
years than I can remember. IME, they all use pwm controllers, these
days. YMMV.

If you mean "potentiometer", I dare say that the OP gave the throttle
a good old waggle when it stopped. So any poor contact point would
have been moved off, quite quickly.
Errr. I may have my terminology mixed up...
I mean a variable resistor type thingy...Is that a rheostat or a potentiometer?
Variable resistor.....?

Rheostat and potentiometer seem quite dated.

Rheostats are few and far between, these days. It's cheaper to do it with chips.

So, when someone says "variable resistor" you know that they mean "potentiometer"..

Why teach electronics students a new word when they are already familiar with two words which, together, mean the same thing?

Still doesn't alter the fact that potentiometer seems quite dated, it's
also ambiguous. OED and one or two other on-line dictionaries give it as an
instrument for measuring or adjusting ......

Electronics engineers still use it - if you look at Maplins, you will find plenty of "potentiometers" but no "variable resistors".

The key thing being that a potentiometer will always have three terminals, whilst a variable resistor could easily have just two.

Of course you won't find a single rheostat at Maplins any more. Either two terminal ones, or three terminal ones. That word really has fallen into disuse as harldy anyone uses high power variable resistors any more.



--
Sue




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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Scooter problems
    ... Sounds to me like it could be a problem with the rheostat that forms ... If you mean "potentiometer", I dare say that the OP gave the throttle ... when someone says "variable resistor" you know that they mean ... the dot wanderer at tesco dot net ...
    (uk.people.disability)
  • Re: About the outage
    ... appeared in talk.origins, posted by "Greg G." ... and a potentiometer (the resistive sort, ... A rheostat can be used to directly control higher currents? ... A rheostat is a 2-terminal variable resistor. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Scooter problems
    ... Sounds to me like it could be a problem with the rheostat that forms ... Wow, I haven't seen a speed controller with a rheostat for, oh, more ... I mean a variable resistor type thingy...Is that a rheostat or a potentiometer? ... when someone says "variable resistor" you know that they mean "potentiometer".. ...
    (uk.people.disability)
  • Re: About the outage
    ... and a potentiometer (the resistive sort, ... My recollection is that a rheostat regulates flow as a variable ... potentiometer controls signal amplitude, ... "Evidence confirming an observation is ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: About the outage
    ... bridge constructed of Zener diodes had a positive feedback loop ... and a potentiometer (the resistive sort, ... My recollection is that a rheostat regulates flow as a variable ... potentiometer controls signal amplitude, ...
    (talk.origins)