Sunday, July 29, 2018

Another Back-Slapping Event



It happened today, a Saturday.
It started at about eight in the morning when I went in search of a DPDT electrical switch. That’s a double pole double throw switch to the uniformed.

I needed this as the Metop rotary switch that I worked on last week did not function correctly. It reversed the polarity I needed to feed to the motor’s starter winding, but as soon as I switched it on it tripped my Earth Leakage, This confused me but I soon figured out that I was connecting negative to positive at the starter junction, I spent some more time on the fact-finding internet and discovered I needed the DPDT switch specially designed to reverse polarity.
I decided on paying a call on an electrical wholesaler, who I knew stocked most items required when one re-wires a house, I’d visited them on numerous occasions in the past and they were very agreeable to a ten percent discount if you paid in cash.
It was a twenty-minute drive over to Albertskroon and I said hello to the manager, Adam, a very affable Asian chap. I had waited till the weekend as I knew on Friday he would be closed, as he had to attend his Muslim lunchtime rituals, which sometimes extended well into the afternoon with a feast of assorted samosas and kneeling to the east.
“Hi, how’s it Adam.”
“Can’t complain,” he replied, “what can I do for you Cess?”
“I’m looking for a DPDT switch so that I can reverse the polarity to the starter winding of a motor to get it spinning anticlockwise,”
His jaw dropped, conveying that he had not the foggiest idea what I was talking about.
“Sorry, what’s that?”
“It’s a switch with six terminals, two for the positive and neutral inputs, and four others that you cross-bridge, and then you take leads to the motor you wish to run in reverse.”
He still looked none the wiser.
“The guys that know all that stuff don’t work on a Saturday, I’m sorry.”
“You got a computer? Google a DPDT switch.”
“OK,” and he ambled to the far end of the counter replying in about twenty seconds, “Oh I see. Ja, an illuminated rocker switch, off and two ons.”
“That’s what I want, you got?”
“Err…... no. I have seen them in the shop, but not in a while.”
“Oh, well that’s great. Can you help me with ten 4mm ferrels, ten 10mm ferrels, a 2 x4 metal box, and a blank 4 x 4 bank cover plate with the skeleton behind it.”
“Plastic or metal?”
“Whichever is the cheaper.”
“Plastic, only twelve Rand,”
“That’ll do. You can tot it up, thanks.”
“All in all, forty bucks, cash?
“Great, yeah. Do you know where I might get a DPDT?”
“There’s an appliance repair shop near the Checkers just down the road and a Cash-Crusaders, right next door and there’s Mickles. You could try them.”
“Cash-Crusaders, they’re a porn shop, aren’t they?”
“Ja, but you never know.”
Paying my forty Rand and exiting with my plastic bag of goodies I departed, “See ya Adam.”
Another four-minute drive to the Checkers site, where I found Cash-Crusaders, the appliance repairer, but not a sight of Mickles. Even the parking attendants had never heard of it and the Cash-Crusaders didn’t open till nine o’clock. I ventured into the appliance shop to be greeted by a smiling young African lady. We exchanged pleasantries but when I mentioned the DPDT switch she gave the African reply, “Eeeeeeish! The boss will be coming soon”
I departed.
My ageing grey hard drive was perplexed, I rebooted with a slug from Toddie in my bakkie and stretched my memory to a past time I had been in this area, when suddenly another electrical wholesaler sprang into my head. It was on Ontdekkers Road about ten minutes away, I steered the bakkie in what I thought was the right direction.
Wrong.
I ended up in the back streets of Albertskroon but facing me was a very large hardware and building depot which sported the huge sign which announced, “Electrical goods!”
Worth a try I thought, and I sauntered inside to be told that they didn’t have a DPDT switch but I should try Kelec Electrical about two kilometres further down Ontdekkers Road.
“Its number is 360 and Ontdekkers is just around the corner.” Said the over-weight salesman. Feeling elated that my navigational skills were still OK  I climbed into my bakkie and headed off to Kelec.
Ten minutes later, and I was clutching the switch that cost 38 Rand, a bargain!
I drove to my abode dumbfounded that it was only half past nine and set to change into my acting-electrician wardrobe.
For me to now go into the intricacies of my use of the angle grinder, drill, pliers and screw drivers, Phillip’s and straight, ferrels and insulation tape would probably bore you, but I do have to mention how I Magyvered the plastic 4 x4 cover plate so that I could insert my DPDT switch and end up with my completed project.

This required the use of my drill with a three-millimetre bit.
I carefully marked, with a black Cokie pen, the cover-plate with the dimensions of the switch and starting in the centre, I drilled out a rectangular hole. This a tedious job as making a rectangular hole with a round drill bit is like a child trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, almost impossible; however, with the use of a Stanley knife blade the task was completed.

The 4 x 4 box on the left houses the DPDT switch and joint-bar for electrical connections, the wires coming out lead to the starter winding and the running winding of the motor, a brown and blue to each winding, and the recycled double-switch on the right, from my scrap box, is the mains switch for the whole set-up, cutting off both the live and neutral wires, which enter the 2 x 4 box on the far right.
The whole operation, on display below, took approximately four hours and after several test runs of the motor making sure it ran correctly in clockwise and anti-clockwise directions.

I felt the need of a bit of back-slapping and self-administered congratulations.
I refilled my Toddie with some Groot-Marico mampoer I had saved from my trip to that Charles Herman Bosman part of South Africa and had a stupendous, well-deserved back-slapping and thirst quenching time!

Friday, July 13, 2018

Back-Slappping Gleeful Delight



I have discovered that as your age increases, and you enter your senior years, the discovery of how to do something becomes extraordinarily exciting.

In one’s youth the learning that confronted you at school and on through college or university, if you were fortunate enough to climb the educational ladder was a tedious affair.

 You were confronted by either teachers and lecturers you loved or hated. They gave termly tests and exams at the years end which you dreaded, and then gave gleeful sighs of relief when you learnt you had passed and achieved your goal.

In the age of the over-seventies, when ones appendages seem to be breaking down, that gleeful sigh becomes an explosion of back-slapping delight.

I recently experienced such an explosion when I learnt how to wire a three-position rotary switch, that’s one with an off position and two active live positions. Such devices were common in the fifties, sixties and seventies before the arrival of new chip and transistor technology.

They were in your HiFi units, your portable radios, your fridges, household appliances, and your televisions. You used to switch channels, change dishwasher and steam-iron temperatures, regulate toaster times and even set your alarm clock using a basic rotary switch,

So, when a friendly defence-force trained plumber who I have worked with for years, Keith, handed me a Metop three position rotary switch and asked me to wire it so that he could run his grinder in a forward mode, a reverse mode and an idle state, I was filled with a questioning mind, could I or couldn’t I do it?


I started by exploring the internet and discovered numerous circuit diagrams, several U-tube videos and one or two sites offering practical and theoretical advice. I watched the videos, read the documents and perused the diagrams and was none the wiser, until I remembered something I learn in my physics class at school. Electricity is like watert it flows until something stops it and that’s what a switch does!

How do you test the ability of electricity to flow?

You use a continuity tester and I have one.
So, I set to work testing the switch with it set in all three positions. In the off position I discovered that there was no flow on any of the sixteen terminals, eight one side of the barrel and eight on the other;

Position One, there was flow from one left mounted terminal to two terminals on the right. I had discovered an on circuit. Two hours later, on position two, and I had discovered the second on-circuit coming from a different left mounted terminal to two right mounted terminals. Success!

But I was still confused, and something was not right. Yes, it worked, I could feed live power in and out, but where the fuck did the neutral wire go?

I knew this system would work with Keith’s grinder, I could feed the live current through the switch and connect a separate neutral to his grinder, but I also knew that the Metop switch had not revealed all its secrets.

A phone call to another old friend, Herman the German, a trained and fully qualified electrician of over forty years. He asked me to send a photo on the “Whats Application”.

Another new learning experience for me. Having transported the photo through the ether the cell phone rang.


“It’s got Bruken.” Said Herman.

“What? I don’t think it’s broken,” I replied.

“Not broken, it’s got Bruken!” he repeated irritably, across the terminals, on both sides, what was it used on before?”

“I don’t know.” Then my O-level Deutsch resurfaced, “Ah, Bruken, Bridges!”
“Ja, strip ‘em all off, they is confusing you They triangles.”

“Triangles?”

“Ja, them things mit three corners, strip the bridges, and then retest with the continuity tester, you did gut mit dat!”

“I did that, and it works.”

“Ja, but you got no place for neutral, strip bridges and retest. Call me back when you’ve done Dat.”

I duly followed Herman’s instructions and removed all the nine bridges and discovered that I had no continuity at all between the terminals that I had before!!

I felt as if I’d lost the battle, defeat was staring me in the face.

I re-read the numerous pages I’d downloaded from the Net and tried Wikipedia. A triangle sprang into view and it all began to make sense!

Out with the tester and this time I knew what I was looking for, an imaginary triangle with two of its corners touching two separate terminals, one on the left side of the Metop and the other on the right.

Within half an hour I had discovered four circuits and had the Metop switch wired up so that both positive and negative were switched on and off.

I quickly rigged up a light on an old piece of Oregon Pine, supplied power to the Metop switch and onto the light and tested my wiring. It worked!


A gleeful telephone call to Herman-the-German, thanking him, followed.

And now, Keith’s grinder could now go forward or in reverse mode with a flick of the rotary switch.

An explosion of back-slapping delight engulfed my aged old frame!

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

The Cheque is in the Post/Ether!






I cannot believe that today I am screaming and shouting about an injustice that I was screaming and shouting about fifty-five years ago!!
The injustice to which I refer is the late payment to jobbing actors who do Voice Overs for Advertising agencies and their respective clients, which include, banks, cell phone companies, white-goods manufactures, automobile manufacturers and distributors, retail companies, insurance companies, confectionary & sweets, chocolate bars, computer makers, airlines, beer, wine and sprit manufactures.

I have during my illustrious career voice over-ed for all the above products, 15 years for a beer company, twelve years for a household goods manufacturer, two years for an airline, three years for an insurance company, a chewy chocolate bar for three years, and several wine producers. All this during fifty-five years as a jobbing actor and voice-over artist and I’m still waiting for a payment for a job I recorded in early April of this year. Two radio spots for a leading local Cell phone company and an up-market Cell phone manufacturer.

These spots have been broadcast nationally over the airwaves since the first week of May! There is nothing more galling for an artist to hear his dulcet voice airing the magnificence of a product while he or she has not been paid.
The payment is divided in two parts, one for his/her performance in the studio and another for its usage. The latter is dependant on the period which the advertisement is broadcast, either three or six months or a year. There is also a clause which entitles the artist’s agent to renegotiate the usage fee should the advertising agent and product manufacturer wish to use the advert for another year.
The advertising agencies claim that the product manufacturer does not pay them for at least sixty days after the advert is aired. I ask the question, when is the broadcasting company paid? Does the SABC, M-Net or E-TV, have to wait for their money too? I find this hard to believe! I suspect that the broadcasting company will not air the advert till it has been paid in advance!!
And I think that the artist should also not allow the spot to be broadcast or the advert aired, till he or she has been paid!
I attend a clinic at the local general hospital, I have done this for over sixty years. Every now and again the fee for this service has increased from ten Rand back in the nineteen seventies up to sixty-five Rand now. But I must pay this fee before I can even see a doctor, have the necessary tests and receive my medication. A very simple and easy procedure; why can’t the advertising industry have a similar one?
Imagine what would happen if you didn’t pay the mechanic for the repair to your car? You wouldn’t get your car! Imagine what would happen if you didn’t pay the plumber who changed or washer or if you hadn’t paid the electrician who’s replaced your earth-leakage unit? Both these artisans would remove what they had fixed!!
I understand that certain professions like lawyers, doctors, accountants all submit monthly invoices for the work they have done for various clients and allow some latitude if their payments are not forthcoming, but they then add interest to these late payments, just like late-paid municipal accounts. But Voice-over artist do not even get this!
Way back when I did a lot of voice-overs and I had a friendly bank manager, I could ride the late payments as I always knew that I could increase my overdraft and pay my monthly bills, but now in old age work is not so prolific and waiting for five or seven thousand Rand means the disconnection of my electricity!
God knows how younger artists are coping either. If any of you younger readers are venturing into the world of voice-overring, I strongly advise you either to have a good-standing overdraft facility with your bank or an exceptionally good agent whom can chase outstanding payments from advertising agencies!
My agent went through a very difficult negotiation with a local beer manufacturer in the nineteen eighties. Under the voice-over contract the Ad agency can broadcast the advert on either radio or on television, but nowhere in the contract is it said they can broadcast them at a live venue like a cricket match.
Back then, the beer company was the national sponsor of the South African cricket team, the Proteas. It so happened that I was given eight free tickets by the brewery to watch an ODI game at the Wanderers in Johannesburg against the mighty Australians. My children at the time were living in Phalaborwa with their mother, they were going to the same school as Dale Steyn, who even at the tender age of ten was keenly interested in cricket. I gave all the tickets to my children who came down to Johannesburg for the weekend accompanied by Dale Steyn and his father.
They had a fantastic time watching Alan Donald decimate the Australian batsmen with figures of five for sixty and the Proteas won the game, however over a few beers, when I met them afterwards, they could not stop talking about my voice-overs which they had the pleasure of hearing at almost every bowling change. Dale’s father brought up the question, “How much do they pay you?” I pleaded ignorance as I did not even know they were being aired at the match. Both the radio spots and the television Ads were shown on the big screen, urging the attending public to fill their plastic cups with “The taste that stood the test of time.”
It took my agent four months of negotiation with the advertising agency, SA Breweries and the Wanderer’s cricket ground officials. All three entities were involved because each of them blamed the other and were reluctant to pay. Finally, a deal was struck and for the next eight years I received a fee for their use at live matches.
Another tale from the same era, in the days before the new-fangled- technologies entered our lives, a fellow thespian and voice artist waited for five months for his payment. Deciding he could wait no longer he and a friend visited the advertising agency in Sandton, Approaching the enquiry desk he asked to speak to the senior accountant and said he would wait. He then lent over the counter and grabbed the small switchboard, disconnected it and sat down with his mate. Within five minutes the accountant arrived, and he informed him of his problem. The accountant departed and returned a few minutes later with a cheque made out to cash!
There are some happy endings!