Photo shoot anything lately? Random Photo Thread
- Thread starter NHSleddog
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Growing up in Pennsylvania, our major worry this time of year was getting enough sunny days for the hay to dry enough to be baled. The countryside was always a deep green color. Here in Nevada nothing is green if it is not irrigated. Having a crop means putting in an expensive irrigation system, almost always pivots wherein water is pumped from a well in the center of the pivot to the sprinklers as the pivot goes round and round. These are some alfalfa pivots I took a photo of yesterday from a ridge about 2000 feet above the valley. Each full pivot is about 300 acres. The two off-green colored pivots at the top right are ones where the alfalfa was just swathed down. In the two pivots at the bottom of the pic the alfalfa has been baled and hauled off. The dark green ones are waiting to be cut. Whereas in Pennsylvania we baled on dry sunny days, here they start baling about 2 in the morning. Otherwise, due to the single-digit humidity the hay just shatters. Here in northern Nevada these pivots will be hayed at least 4 times each year. In southern Nevada and California where there is no winter that can be up to nine times per year!
A couple of spray copters heading out to work in central IL this morning. Captured with Canon 1DX III and EF 200-400 f4 lens with integrated 1.4X extender.
Rodger
Rodger
What are they typically spraying, pesticides? This scale of farming is well outside my realm of exposure
Greg
Somewhat a loaded question since Pesticides cover everything, insects, weeds, fungi and any other "pest". Mainly used for insecticides but I've done some research at Open Grounds Farm (60,000+ acres) and they sprayed for everything via. plane/aircraft (from their own airfield).
They did this because the soil type was very dusty and when they sprayed with ground equipment, the spray got locked up in the dust and didn't hit the target (insect nor weeds).
Aircraft was also so much faster since most of their fields were in 1 mile blocks. (but it's expensive). Normal farmers may have to have their fields sprayed if we get too much rain and their equipment can't drive through the muddy fields!! The cost of aerial spraying might be less than the cost of crop lost from insects!
Most of my work/research was done over a very short window to spray/kill and collect data. Insects that are easily killed in the first week or two; grow up to be impossible to kill in a short window of time. Farmers that wait for the ground to dry up, spraying the same chemicals will not be happy with the results of the spray (kill less than 50%)
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Greg, they can spray pretty much anything with both pesticides and herbicides.
Helicopters allow for very precise patterns and they have become far more common with the growth of wind farms creating additional obstacles for traditional spray planes but there are some traditional crop spray planes continuing to operate in the area.
Rodger
Really good photos you took there.
That would be pretty cool seeing those heli's in action. Never seen or heard of any around here.
We do have several 802's though. That's one bad plane right there.
fried1765
Well-known member
Equipment
Kubota L48 TLB, Ford 1920 FEL, Ford 8N, SCAG Liberty Z, Gravely Pro.
Dang Nissan tried to get me first thing this morning. This began as a good one that came in last week on a 18' frontier with multiple repeating air bag faults that varies with key cycles. Bear with me, this one is interesting.
Its part of a very large local fleet and cannot be put in service with the air bag light on. This company has an on site tech, if he taps, it comes our way.
He installed 2 driver side airbags, and an SRS module. Parts coming from their on site boneyard. The originals were with the truck. In our world, used air bag modules are a no no. And we're going to find out why in a minute. But at this point it was obvious the only diagnostics performed were in the form of swaptronics and frantic probing (possibly misuse of a power probe im thinking in hindsight) as I would later find gaining access to connectors and finding them being aggressively poked and prodded and what not.
Although a slew of codes were coming and going from this module, it seemed to be mostly unhappy with the squib 1 and 2 circuits for the drivers main bag, then followed by random b0020 &21 codes which were for the side curtain bags. Even more intermittently were several other communication fault codes coming and going from the srs module.
The 2 hard codes though are actually -13 codes (b0001-13, b0002-13.....) which are open circuited codes. So other than gaining access to the bags connectors, these codes can be quickly verified by checking the suspects bag's resistance. If ok, then slightly more time verifying circuit integrity and communication from bag to module. This of course can include the need for checking belts, pre tensioner assemblies (buckles) and for sure clock springs/spiral cables if dealing with driverside bags like in this case.
I remove the driver bag. Check her and her 2 friends with the fluke.... ALL 3 bags were just fine, not open, all measuring .4ohms. I go ahead and start gaining access to the srs module which lives under the center console just to have the harness exposed and ready for testing. Upon removing the console, i notice there are 3 12mm bolts in the cup holder. I get the console up and realize they're to the module. Shes just a floppin the most absolute insane UNSAFE way possible. This is how unintentional deployments happen.
At this point, I hit her at the clock spring and we're good in but we aint got nothin out . Shes wide open. So other than the module freaking out (which 50/50 its the used or og, module only locks in bag deployment senarios) we got this nailed almost faster than it took to release the main bag, those springs can be total @$$holes. I double check my work by inserting 2 .4ohm resistors into the squib 1 and 2 circuits, bypass the clock spring. Battery hooked back up, key on, scan the srs module with my solus cause my verus d10 got pushed back to 2016 2 weeks ago (still pissed about that, snap on mother ship got me i guess) and codes gone. Almost fixed!
New clock spring assembly comings in this morning so we bring the ole girl back in. Go ahead and get the scanner hooked up so she can go through her module sweep which ALWAYS take forever on nissans. I notice with my resistors still plugged in the main codes were still gone but we're now intermittently picking up the side bag codes as hard codes which then the module would quickly lose. Now i'm like hmmm. Through 5 different VERY expensive scanners we have in the shop none are able to identify who the factory module is. This take a nissan specific scanner being the Consult III.
This was time consuming because when actually swapping or even moving the module you gotta do a complete power down. This is more than just disconnecting the battery cables. The modules (particularly the srs in this case) have got to be completely powered down. This is different per manufacturer and per model. This is why parasitic draws (key off battery draws) sometimes take quite a bit of time to find. In this case, using the fluke or a low amps probe, and monitoring the systems power until 20-30mA (general rule of thumb is under 50mA (.005) is observed. Without figuring out the exact module whose keep the system alive longest to timeout (this is when you start pulling fuses/relays to narrow circuits when chasing parasitic drains) your sitting for, in this vehicles case, about 25 minutes for the entire system to go to sleep.
So by round 3 i'm ready to power back up. New clock spring is in, flip a coin for which module to run, continuity is now confirmed through both circuits (as we knew it would be from our definitive test before). I decide to leave my resistors in place to avoid a final destination scene and my head eating the backside of the airbag (cause she would normally still be dismounted and laid up on the column. I'm stood over the driver seat, keys in hand, getting my scanner ready to do a quick yaw rate sensor relearn if everything does go as planned.
Yell at the ole apprentice to touch cables and BOOM!!!!! My very own first ever unintentional airbag deployment. Side bags shot out faster than a scalded cat! And I was standing directly under the driver's one. I thank our good Lord that other than some ringing ears, not a scratch on me or my apprentice that would've been standing opposite side of me.
Completely ripped out the headliner, cracked all 4 A and B pillar covers. Also came down and cracked right through the dang brand new clock spring. If they wanna put it on us we'll probably have to get insurance involved. How lovely.
The absolute worst part about it is not knowing what you'd do differently if faced with another one. Everything was tested as I always have for 25 years now. Well, wasn't diagin' airbag faults @ 16, so maybe atleast 15 or 16 years. But you don't jump powers and grounds around on srs circuitry and we DIDNT do that here, can't say what went on beforehand though. Nor will we blame "the other shop". If we gotta eat it, we'll eat it.
Gotta love freakin mondays.......Now to the back 40 you go DEVIL NISSAN!!!!
Its part of a very large local fleet and cannot be put in service with the air bag light on. This company has an on site tech, if he taps, it comes our way.
He installed 2 driver side airbags, and an SRS module. Parts coming from their on site boneyard. The originals were with the truck. In our world, used air bag modules are a no no. And we're going to find out why in a minute. But at this point it was obvious the only diagnostics performed were in the form of swaptronics and frantic probing (possibly misuse of a power probe im thinking in hindsight) as I would later find gaining access to connectors and finding them being aggressively poked and prodded and what not.
Although a slew of codes were coming and going from this module, it seemed to be mostly unhappy with the squib 1 and 2 circuits for the drivers main bag, then followed by random b0020 &21 codes which were for the side curtain bags. Even more intermittently were several other communication fault codes coming and going from the srs module.
The 2 hard codes though are actually -13 codes (b0001-13, b0002-13.....) which are open circuited codes. So other than gaining access to the bags connectors, these codes can be quickly verified by checking the suspects bag's resistance. If ok, then slightly more time verifying circuit integrity and communication from bag to module. This of course can include the need for checking belts, pre tensioner assemblies (buckles) and for sure clock springs/spiral cables if dealing with driverside bags like in this case.
I remove the driver bag. Check her and her 2 friends with the fluke.... ALL 3 bags were just fine, not open, all measuring .4ohms. I go ahead and start gaining access to the srs module which lives under the center console just to have the harness exposed and ready for testing. Upon removing the console, i notice there are 3 12mm bolts in the cup holder. I get the console up and realize they're to the module. Shes just a floppin the most absolute insane UNSAFE way possible. This is how unintentional deployments happen.
At this point, I hit her at the clock spring and we're good in but we aint got nothin out . Shes wide open. So other than the module freaking out (which 50/50 its the used or og, module only locks in bag deployment senarios) we got this nailed almost faster than it took to release the main bag, those springs can be total @$$holes. I double check my work by inserting 2 .4ohm resistors into the squib 1 and 2 circuits, bypass the clock spring. Battery hooked back up, key on, scan the srs module with my solus cause my verus d10 got pushed back to 2016 2 weeks ago (still pissed about that, snap on mother ship got me i guess) and codes gone. Almost fixed!
New clock spring assembly comings in this morning so we bring the ole girl back in. Go ahead and get the scanner hooked up so she can go through her module sweep which ALWAYS take forever on nissans. I notice with my resistors still plugged in the main codes were still gone but we're now intermittently picking up the side bag codes as hard codes which then the module would quickly lose. Now i'm like hmmm. Through 5 different VERY expensive scanners we have in the shop none are able to identify who the factory module is. This take a nissan specific scanner being the Consult III.
This was time consuming because when actually swapping or even moving the module you gotta do a complete power down. This is more than just disconnecting the battery cables. The modules (particularly the srs in this case) have got to be completely powered down. This is different per manufacturer and per model. This is why parasitic draws (key off battery draws) sometimes take quite a bit of time to find. In this case, using the fluke or a low amps probe, and monitoring the systems power until 20-30mA (general rule of thumb is under 50mA (.005) is observed. Without figuring out the exact module whose keep the system alive longest to timeout (this is when you start pulling fuses/relays to narrow circuits when chasing parasitic drains) your sitting for, in this vehicles case, about 25 minutes for the entire system to go to sleep.
So by round 3 i'm ready to power back up. New clock spring is in, flip a coin for which module to run, continuity is now confirmed through both circuits (as we knew it would be from our definitive test before). I decide to leave my resistors in place to avoid a final destination scene and my head eating the backside of the airbag (cause she would normally still be dismounted and laid up on the column. I'm stood over the driver seat, keys in hand, getting my scanner ready to do a quick yaw rate sensor relearn if everything does go as planned.
Yell at the ole apprentice to touch cables and BOOM!!!!! My very own first ever unintentional airbag deployment. Side bags shot out faster than a scalded cat! And I was standing directly under the driver's one. I thank our good Lord that other than some ringing ears, not a scratch on me or my apprentice that would've been standing opposite side of me.
Completely ripped out the headliner, cracked all 4 A and B pillar covers. Also came down and cracked right through the dang brand new clock spring. If they wanna put it on us we'll probably have to get insurance involved. How lovely.
The absolute worst part about it is not knowing what you'd do differently if faced with another one. Everything was tested as I always have for 25 years now. Well, wasn't diagin' airbag faults @ 16, so maybe atleast 15 or 16 years. But you don't jump powers and grounds around on srs circuitry and we DIDNT do that here, can't say what went on beforehand though. Nor will we blame "the other shop". If we gotta eat it, we'll eat it.
Gotta love freakin mondays.......Now to the back 40 you go DEVIL NISSAN!!!!
Well next you will probably get to work on some of their hateful CVT units
Maybe they have improved over the years but a colleague who got an early one said after a few years that it was the safest car he ever owned because most of the time it wouldn't leave the garage.I remember when airbags first became common seeing all of the cautions in the GM cars I owned about causing inadvertent deployment and the warnings definitely got my attention.
A possum put a large hole in the "egg crate" style grill in my daily driver 2021 Camaro RS. Fortunately the part is very cheap, unfortunately the front fascia has to come off to replace it. But at least the airbag sensors aren't involved.
That project will wait for a few days because the Harman pellet fireplace insert I ordered arrived much sooner than expected and then HP shipped my new workstation 2 weeks before the expected build date so I will soon be transferring files to the new machine. At some point things MAY slow down but probably not!
Rodger
LOL thats pretty good right there. I like that one.Well next you will probably get to work on some of their hateful CVT units
They do have several versas, altimas, and rogues we have gotten a hold of.
They're so bad nissan doesn't even care about the core, they're more worried about getting their crate back LOL.
It was crazy to see Honda get into the cvt life to, although they ended doing something mostly right, atleast better than nissan did.
Wood Islands, PE Canada MV Confederation, car/truck ferry and some lobster boats around the wharf.
Just adding a little something to a post earlier for good ole @PoTreeBoy for whatever its worth.
Just an idea of how 2 different "a/c not cooling" situations can go. I got both of these in pretty quick this morning.
First a 19' rogue. A/C not cooling. New compressor installed by the dealer last tuesday.
This one could be somewhat "diaged" on the 30ft test drive from parking spot to my bay.
On start up, I could hear the clutch engage on the compressor. She would cool for about 40-45 seconds, then just before I shut her down, I heard the clutch disengage. The entire time not once did I hear anything in the form of a cooling fan.
Plug the ole solus in, bidirectionally control the cooling fan module. Nothing. Bad fan? Well, at this point probably, but if we called it without a meter or atleast a test light coming out on seen, we'd be guessing.
A quick, light, not too intrusive backprobe into the signal wire at the fan, test light to battery negative, command the fan back on, a NOW we definitively know the ciruit is attempting to power the fan. Swap our test light to battery positive so we can verify ground is present, and bam we have quickly yet definitively proven the cooling fan is bad. We confirm this even further by giving the fan the ole tonya harding and got her working back again. She'll still get fan though.
But without it, Head pressure was getting too high, a high side pressure switch would detect this, and disengage the clutch. This is an INTENTIONAL shut down. Chances are the OG compressor was just fine but who knows.
Victim #2 whose hot morning started off A/Cless was a 10' CRV. Customer has supplied their own a/c compressor courtesy of Rock Auto. Now hondas you gotta be careful. These days when these dudes are approaching 15+ years old, the failure rate on their relays is crazy high. Bad enough that if she looks ok on the gauges, i'll "attack" the a/c clutch relay first.
Again, driving her in, im listening, feeling, sensing LOL whatever.... But I don't hear the clutch even attempting to engage.
Gauges mostly pointing to the system having atleast "operational" levels of freon. And like previously mentioned about the relay, I already know its bad, but i'm gonna go through a quick "basic" procedure for y'all anyways.
Test light to ground, signal wire at clutch backprobed, we can see there is no power at the compressor. Put that new compressor on at this point, and someone's feelings are going to be hurt. My test light is jumped to the signal wire at the clutch underneath the car.
So now we (my preference) need to back up to the relay. This is usually my "left or right" point when on the electrical diag road. I'll bypass the relay on the load side (old style relays pins 30&87 newer ones generally 3&5, but as well see on this honda its pins 1&2) to confirm the suspect component (a/c compressor in this case) is capable of working or not. This will rule it out being a component issue and further verify it as a control issue.
If the component works when jumped at the load side of the relay, then we back up to the control side of the relay. At this point, most control side circuits are ground side switched through the relay. So she will have a constant power on the control side just like on the load side, only the pcm is going to supply the ground to close the contact, engage the relay, and power the component. This is why its dangerous to start jumping powers and grounds around in your relay box, jump 12v back to the pcm and you got problems. Here she is working when bypassed
Everything tested as it should and in this case confirmed the relay had mechanically binded (contacts weren't closing) wasn't engaging the armature to contact the load side of the relay. This is why we "test don't guess". Compressor engaged, pressures normal, system cooling as it should. Shes gettin a $15 relay.
Just a grease monkeys take on a/c issues this morning..... Here's a diagram if it helps
Just an idea of how 2 different "a/c not cooling" situations can go. I got both of these in pretty quick this morning.
First a 19' rogue. A/C not cooling. New compressor installed by the dealer last tuesday.
This one could be somewhat "diaged" on the 30ft test drive from parking spot to my bay.
On start up, I could hear the clutch engage on the compressor. She would cool for about 40-45 seconds, then just before I shut her down, I heard the clutch disengage. The entire time not once did I hear anything in the form of a cooling fan.
Plug the ole solus in, bidirectionally control the cooling fan module. Nothing. Bad fan? Well, at this point probably, but if we called it without a meter or atleast a test light coming out on seen, we'd be guessing.
A quick, light, not too intrusive backprobe into the signal wire at the fan, test light to battery negative, command the fan back on, a NOW we definitively know the ciruit is attempting to power the fan. Swap our test light to battery positive so we can verify ground is present, and bam we have quickly yet definitively proven the cooling fan is bad. We confirm this even further by giving the fan the ole tonya harding and got her working back again. She'll still get fan though.
But without it, Head pressure was getting too high, a high side pressure switch would detect this, and disengage the clutch. This is an INTENTIONAL shut down. Chances are the OG compressor was just fine but who knows.
Victim #2 whose hot morning started off A/Cless was a 10' CRV. Customer has supplied their own a/c compressor courtesy of Rock Auto. Now hondas you gotta be careful. These days when these dudes are approaching 15+ years old, the failure rate on their relays is crazy high. Bad enough that if she looks ok on the gauges, i'll "attack" the a/c clutch relay first.
Again, driving her in, im listening, feeling, sensing LOL whatever.... But I don't hear the clutch even attempting to engage.
Gauges mostly pointing to the system having atleast "operational" levels of freon. And like previously mentioned about the relay, I already know its bad, but i'm gonna go through a quick "basic" procedure for y'all anyways.
Test light to ground, signal wire at clutch backprobed, we can see there is no power at the compressor. Put that new compressor on at this point, and someone's feelings are going to be hurt. My test light is jumped to the signal wire at the clutch underneath the car.
So now we (my preference) need to back up to the relay. This is usually my "left or right" point when on the electrical diag road. I'll bypass the relay on the load side (old style relays pins 30&87 newer ones generally 3&5, but as well see on this honda its pins 1&2) to confirm the suspect component (a/c compressor in this case) is capable of working or not. This will rule it out being a component issue and further verify it as a control issue.
If the component works when jumped at the load side of the relay, then we back up to the control side of the relay. At this point, most control side circuits are ground side switched through the relay. So she will have a constant power on the control side just like on the load side, only the pcm is going to supply the ground to close the contact, engage the relay, and power the component. This is why its dangerous to start jumping powers and grounds around in your relay box, jump 12v back to the pcm and you got problems. Here she is working when bypassed
Everything tested as it should and in this case confirmed the relay had mechanically binded (contacts weren't closing) wasn't engaging the armature to contact the load side of the relay. This is why we "test don't guess". Compressor engaged, pressures normal, system cooling as it should. Shes gettin a $15 relay.
Just a grease monkeys take on a/c issues this morning..... Here's a diagram if it helps
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I'm glad there are still a few diagnosticians (new word) left in the business. It seems most people would rather pay for new, unneeded parts than for a technician's time and knowledge. Keep up the good work.
RCW
Well-known member
Lifetime Member
Equipment
BX2360, FEL, MMM, BX2750D snowblower. 1953 Minneapolis Moline ZAU
Nice video.
We've had a Bobcat in our small neighborhood lately. Bear and a Fisher or two as well.
I was fortunate enough to see a couple Bobcat kittens along the road a few years ago.
They were out of danger when I went by, but there was no doubt they were Bobcat youngins....
