uk.people.disability

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.

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the dot wanderer at tesco dot net