Remember the Mitsubishi inverter I posted yesterday? Actually the problem is not solved yet. I just found out this morning that the range of frequency that the potentiometer controls is incorrect. Supposedly, when the potentiometer is at maximum, the frequency at the inverter display is 120Hz and 0Hz when the potentiometer is at minimum. But I found out that the potentiometer is only controlling up to 60Hz. I hope you get what I mean.

As soon as the office opens, I tried to solve the problem by changing the program of the inverter but to no avail. Asked Mr. James on what to do but before long, a customer walked in to purchase a power supply so the problem is halted for a while.

After the customer had left, Mr. James asked us to pack the equipment because we are going for a fieldwork in Shah Alam. The fieldwork takes us to a very famous electrical appliance manufacturer (sorry can't disclose the name of the company). The factory is very big. The biggest I've been into so far.

We were called in because the motors that runs a conveyor belt is unable to power up. The problem lies within the control panel. After Mr. James inspected the wiring, he found the problem and fixed the wiring. Surprisingly, the motors are able to power up after a simple modification on the wiring! But by the time it is done its already lunch hour so we went to the factory's cafeteria for lunch.

We ordered nasi goreng and as usual Mr. James paid for it! Thanks Mr. James! The nasi goreng is fantastic! Almost as good as my mum's nasi goreng! And the portion is big too. I was unable to finish my meal eventhough I was quite hungry!

After lunch we went straight to the control panel and finish off the work. Tested the motor and everything is running accordingly and the factory supervisor is satisfied. Another job well done.

Mr. James dropped me and my collie at the office and left. He asked me to continue working on the Mitsubishi inverter. That's what today is all about. Without haste, the inverter is powered up and I start to modify the program in the inverter. Tried modifying the program codes many times but failed to solve the problem. The manual says that if I modify this program code, that should solve the potentiometer problem. But it did not. In fact, I cannot see any difference before and after that procedure. Tried to modify other parameters (inverter program code) but still no solution. After about half an hour trying to figure out the problem, I gave up and took short break by reading a magazine. Too stressed up to continue and my head feels like a tornado!

I purposely did not try to seek help from my collie because I want to train myself to be more independent to solve a problem. I did everything on my own, painstakingly trying to understand the instruction manual and programming the inverter. After a 15 minute break, I resumed my endeavor. It took me an hour before I FINALLY managed to solve the problem! The potentiometer is now governing frequencies from 0Hz to 120Hz like it is supposed to do! The solution is to change the potentiometer circuit terminal and modify some parameters! Took me an hour to figure that out! But hey, the most important thing is that I persevered and never give up and that lead to the solution of the problem!

Perseverance, an important attribute an engineer MUST have. A great lesson I learned today. To be honest, I am quite an impatient person especially on the roads but today I proved to myself that the "slow and steady" approach to a problem is indeed the best approach.