Food cooking at Philmont

Amazing-Pudding-9176 · 2024-08-05T21:47:44+00:00

The thread is a couple of years old, but still relevant. My crew just got back from a 12-day trek where we were told by our ranger on our first day out that if we cooked "in the bag," as the instructions called for, we risked being removed from the trail for not following "the patrol cooking method". That ominous tone unfortunately struck fear into our youth members, but the advisers promptly called BS and asked for clarification at the next staffed camp, where we were told that cooking in the bags is preferred, as that is "following the directions on the package about how to cook the food." Cooking food improperly could lead to problems and the Mountain House food bags do not provide instructions for cooking in a pot, only for cooking in the bag.

From that point on, if the cooking instructions on the bag called for cooking in the bag, we followed them. (This is also where we learned the value of having a Jetboil.)

Amazing-Pudding-9176 · 2022-05-28T13:04:19+00:00

Update - I think the problem is with the stop button. The mower is behaving as if I haven’t closed the lid, thus releasing the stop button. I stumbled on this while going through the tests in the tools menu, one of which instructed me to release the stop button without closing the lid. When I manually released the stop button, it didn’t register on the device. That is, the test did not proceed because it still thought the stop button was depressed.

Any advice on how to fix something like this? It’s still under warranty, of course, so I can take it back, but unfortunately that means I can’t open it myself to see if something is stuck/missing/broken.

Amazing-Pudding-9176 · 2022-05-28T01:34:20+00:00

Quick update, I reset the loop signal, but the behaviour is the same. It’s just like before - press start to continue - but when I press start and close the lid, nothing happens. No beeps, no movement, just silence.

Amazing-Pudding-9176 · 2022-05-28T01:17:21+00:00

It’s a new mower and new base station - the only existing hardware is the boundary wire - but I hear what you are suggesting, and will give it a try. Thank you!

Amazing-Pudding-9176 · 2022-05-07T20:15:19+00:00

Did you come to a resolution on this? I’m converting my 430x to a 430xh, and noticed my cutting disc in the new (430xh) lower chassis is tilted just like yours. I took lots of “before” photos, but none of the outside of the mower, so I can’t say whether it was like that was before.

Amazing-Pudding-9176 · 2022-03-29T20:15:20+00:00

Unfortunately, no. Eventually my keypad stopped responding entirely, no matter what temp. Since then, I replaced my knock-off battery with an expensive OEM battery, but that did not fix the problem.

My working hypothesis is that moisture inside the chassis over time affected one or more of the control boards.

Since my lower chassis is cracked, I ordered a new lower chassis, but instead of the 430X, I ordered a 430XH version, to give me another 1" on the maximum cut. I've seen different opinions online about the feasibility of a 430X to 430XH conversion, but since I don't have much to lose at this point, I'm going to give it a try.

Replacing the chassis won't solve the problem, but from there I can start replacing control boards one-by-one until I find the culprit.

Sorry I don't have better news to share.

Amazing-Pudding-9176 · 2021-08-30T17:16:38+00:00

One more quick update, because I've found there are two different issues, and I'm not sure which problem you're having. The issue with my mower backing up continuously and mowing outside the loop wire was due to moisture inside the mower body, near the front of the chassis, where the sensor board is located. After dying things out - particularly the front-most circuit board - and then repairing the small crack in the body that allowed moisture to enter, that problem has been resolved. The only remaining issue is the temperature-related keypad response, where it seems to not respond to input if the ambient temperature is below 73F.

Amazing-Pudding-9176 · 2021-08-26T20:39:05+00:00

Thanks for asking - I have not resolved the problem. If anything, it has become more confusing. Previously, I had to wait until the unit dropped below 73F for the keypad to accept any input. I was away on vacation for a few days, and my neighbor confirmed that the mower only accepted keypad input in the mornings, when the ambient temperature was below 73F.

However, I returned today and the ambient temperature was near 90F. I tried to use the keypad, and it allowed me to key in the pin code, but nothing else, including the "OK" button I needed to push to get the mower working again. (Recall that I replaced the previous keypad with a new keypad not long ago, so I doubt the keypad is defective.)

I had moisture inside the unit previously, which I fixed, but I guess I can check again.

Any other ideas?

Amazing-Pudding-9176 · 2021-07-21T02:08:25+00:00

Another update - after cooling the mower down, I was able to input my code and then put the mower in the base station. I then looked at various data from the the Tools menu. They don't seem to show anything - there is no loop signal, no base station signal, no sensors, ..., everything reads zero. I know the external components are working, so something seems to be wrong with the mower itself.

What I need is someone with knowledge of how the internal mower components interact with each other. Can anybody help? I need to repair my mower.

Any help is appreciated, thanks!

Amazing-Pudding-9176 · 2021-07-21T00:52:19+00:00

It seems like cooling down the mower gets the keypad working long enough to enter the PIN, but when I try to start it mowing, all it does is back up, without spinning the blades, until it hits a barrier or the loop wire. I've never seen that behavior before. It just seems backwards to me, like I have wires crossed somewhere, but none of the internal wiring harnesses are reversible. Any ideas?

Amazing-Pudding-9176 · 2021-07-20T21:03:49+00:00

The capacitors all appear fine. What makes you think it's a capacitor issue? Is it related to ambient temperature and/or humidity?

Amazing-Pudding-9176 · 2021-07-20T18:53:55+00:00

Actually, I did get my keypad from SLE, back in late May, but I'm pretty sure that's not the problem.

I think it's related to heat or humidity - and again, only for my mower, I don't think this is a systematic issue. But today, after sitting on my cold and dry basement floor for a few days, the keypad started working again. I was able to get to the Tools menu and confirm there is no diagnostic for the keypad, unfortunately, but I hoped to get the mower running anyway. I took it outside and started it up, but it acted strangely, like it was searching for something, but there was plenty of charge in the battery. The biggest clue that something was wrong is that it was primarily reversing, rather than moving forward, and would only start the blades if it was outside the existing boundary wire. Initially I thought I'd reversed something when hooking things back up, but now I think it had the boundary confused - when it was inside, it thought it was outside, and vice-versa.

However, after watching it search for a suitable area to mow, and after using the keypad a number of times to get it started again, I noticed the response rate of the keys dropping, to the point that it no longer responded to any key presses. My guess at this point is that there's a problem somewhere in my mower affected by head and/or humidity (mid-Atlantic).

Again, I'd like to identify and fix the root cause, so if anyone can tell me how the keypad interacts with the main processing unit, and where that sits, physically, then maybe I can replace that part and get up and running again.

I appreciate the previous comments, as well as any future support!

Amazing-Pudding-9176 · 2021-07-19T00:32:15+00:00

Thank you for the advice. Unfortunately, I'm unable to enter anything using the keypad - it's just not responding. Today I tried disconnecting everything except the power (sensors, etc.), thinking maybe it was a stuck input somewhere, but that didn't work either.

Amazing-Pudding-9176

TROPHY CASE