GloBee Fireplug refurbishment

[Lyle Spiegel]

I have my original
 GloBee Fireplug.not used in several years so I replaced 2volt sealed lead acid. All charged. Hooked my wireless and connected to new flow plug. Meter not showing any current. Moved the adjustable rheostat, still nothing. I checked fuse and it is good. Cant figure out what is going on. I am only owner and am 100% certain it has not been dropped or damaged in any way.
Does anyone out there have aone ideas? Perhaps there is someone who can refurbish? Might need to clean or replace rheostat?

[Dan McEntee]

   The rheostat is probably the culprit. I would have to take a look at the two I have to see if they are serviceable to clean. Maybe just a matter of working the lever back and forth repeatedly to burnish the wiper? Check out Bill Bischoff's ad for glow driver that he has in the classifieds.  I think he mentions to some one that the system he is building and selling uses the same rheostat and they can be replaced in the Fire Plug.
   Type at you later,
    Dan McEntee

[dave siegler]

Rheostats are pretty tough.   you try some tests whit an ohmmeter and the battery out. 

[bill bischoff]

You say the meter is not showing any current. What about the plug itself? It could glow even if the meter is stuck. If the plug is not glowing, hold your plug wires directly to the battery momentarily. If the plug glows, you know the battery, plug and leads are OK. If you hold the lead to the battery for more than a moment, you may burn out the plug, so be careful. If there's no glow, touch your plug and leads to a C or D battery. If that glows, then plug and leads are OK and the cell is the issue. If no glow, then either the plug or the lead is bad.

To troubleshoot the rheostat you will need a voltmeter. Of course, if you have a voltmeter, you can use it for all the checks described above also. The rheostat has three terminals. The center one goes to the moving wiper, and the other two go to opposite ends of the winding. One will be connected and the other will not. Set your voltmeter to read DC ohms. From one end of the winding to the other, you should read 1 to 2 ohms. If you read no continuity, the winding has an open spot, which is no good. If you connect one test lead to the wiper terminal and the other test lead to either end of the winding, you should see the resistance go up and down as you move the control lever side to side. If you don't see any connection at all, make sure the wiper is touching the windings, and the contacting surfaces are clean. If you are unable to get continuity, then something about the rheostat is bad.

OR, send it to me and I will troubleshoot and repair it for no labor charge, cost of parts and shipping only.

Bill Bischoff

[FLOYD CARTER]

Power rheostats are made with a wound wire resistive element.  If there is an "open" in the wire it will not work.

If I suspected the rheostat, I would open it up and visually inspect the winding.  Of course, if you have an Ohmmeter, you can check continuity that way.

[Dan McEntee]

  I have repaired and restore old battery powered toys that almost always have to have the wiper on the rheostat (if it has one) cleaned and the coil also needs some attention. copper gets oxidized and won't conduct or carry any current. These aren't that much different I'm thinking but have to look at one first. It's the age and just sitting around that does it. Think how old that Fire Plug is??!!
   Type at you later,
   Dan McEntee

[FLOYD CARTER]

Not familiar with the Globee power supply.  However, I'm sure it has a meter of the "moving vane" type.  All of the load current flows through the meter.  Inside, there is simply a wound electromagnet, and the pointer responds to the magnet field.  If this wire winding is open, there will be no continuity.  It would be good to check the meter with an Ohmmeter.  It should read only a couple Ohms or less,  if it is working.

[Bob Heywood]

Not familiar with the Globee power supply.  However, I'm sure it has a meter of the "moving vane" type.  All of the load current flows through the meter.  Inside, there is simply a wound electromagnet, and the pointer responds to the magnet field.  If this wire winding is open, there will be no continuity.  It would be good to check the meter with an Ohmmeter.  It should read only a couple Ohms or less,  if it is working.

The meter in a Fireplug works by induction. No current flows through the actual meter. The + wire wraps around the meter body a set number of turns and in the correct direction.

[frank williams]

Bob beat me to it.  No current flows through the meter.  Like Bob says, the wire is looped around the base of the meter.  For racing, I use to put an extra loop to make the meter show a larger jump if the plug was good.  True the scaling was now off, but I wasn't interested in precise numbers.   It was a good package I always thought.

[bill bischoff]

I tried to find something like that setup and always came up empty. 

[BillLee]

Once upon a time, somebody made a "top" for a square dry cell that had an on/off switch and a meter. It was  the same meter as Fusite used in the GloBee battery. I pirated one to repair my GloBee. I wonder if those "top"s are still available somewhere.

[bill bischoff]

Those were made/sold by Kraft (the RC system company). I suspect they disappeared from the scene long before Globee fireplugs did!

[Ara Dedekian]

  I have repaired and restore old battery powered toys that almost always have to have the wiper on the rheostat (if it has one) cleaned and the coil also needs some attention.

     This is a great post. My ancient GloBee was becoming unreliable. Cleaning the coil and wiper contact brought it back to life. I may have discarded a good battery thinking that was the problem. My local Batterys and Bulbs franchise carry the batteries. My chargers are appropriated from the dump that have ~4.5volts output as did the original. The latest one warmed the battery some after a couple hours of charging. Would that have damaged the battery?

      Ara

[BillLee]

Those were made/sold by Kraft (the RC system company). I suspect they disappeared from the scene long before Globee fireplugs did!

I wonder if someone from Kraft (if there IS a "someone") would know the source of the meters. Or even what they are called (since I have found nothing via Google search that even comes close).

[dave siegler]

I wonder if someone from Kraft (if there IS a "someone") would know the source of the meters. Or even what they are called (since I have found nothing via Google search that even comes close).

Tony Stillman at Radio South? 

[Dave Harmon]

I wonder if someone from Kraft (if there IS a "someone") would know the source of the meters. Or even what they are called (since I have found nothing via Google search that even comes close).

I might.
If someone can post a picture of the Kraft unit I may have some of those meters NIB or know where to get them.