SeabeeMan
09-08-2014, 10:03 PM
The last thread on electronics made me remember that there is a lot more going on here the boolit knowledge, so here goes.
I acquired a high end elliptical for a song from my employer last year and was told it worked perfectly. Turns out it doesn't, the guy who told me that quit days afterwards, it's not worth making waves at work over this, yada-yada, I'm stuck with it. It is a Star Trac Natural Runner Plus that, even re manufactured, still seem to fetch well over a grand. I've been in contact with the company and there is no support to be had and I'm not willing to throw money at a professional repair. I cannot get it to enter any sort of program and have gone through all the troubleshooting in the manual, and parts seem to be no longer available.
This thing gets its resistance from an alternator and a gigantic resistor, much like this:
http://scoraigwind.co.uk/using-a-high-power-resistor-as-a-dump-load/
Rather than a mechanism that tightens a belt driving a flywheel or clutch of some sort. As it sits, you cannot change the resistance since you can't get into the programming. Would it be possible to wire up a rheostat somewhere in the alternator/resistor circuit to control the resistance? I assume the more load taken off the alternator by the resistor, the more the resistance, but we all know what happens when we assume.
Any guidance on where to go with this?
I acquired a high end elliptical for a song from my employer last year and was told it worked perfectly. Turns out it doesn't, the guy who told me that quit days afterwards, it's not worth making waves at work over this, yada-yada, I'm stuck with it. It is a Star Trac Natural Runner Plus that, even re manufactured, still seem to fetch well over a grand. I've been in contact with the company and there is no support to be had and I'm not willing to throw money at a professional repair. I cannot get it to enter any sort of program and have gone through all the troubleshooting in the manual, and parts seem to be no longer available.
This thing gets its resistance from an alternator and a gigantic resistor, much like this:
http://scoraigwind.co.uk/using-a-high-power-resistor-as-a-dump-load/
Rather than a mechanism that tightens a belt driving a flywheel or clutch of some sort. As it sits, you cannot change the resistance since you can't get into the programming. Would it be possible to wire up a rheostat somewhere in the alternator/resistor circuit to control the resistance? I assume the more load taken off the alternator by the resistor, the more the resistance, but we all know what happens when we assume.
Any guidance on where to go with this?