Pass DIY Addict
Joined 2000
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Chris - i thought about putting in claim to the home owners policy, but my out of pockets repair expenses were only $300 for some replacement materials. The floor shampoo machine would have died anyhow. I figure I'd save the insurance policy for when there is real trouble.
I'm thinking I'll spend $35 more and visit my chiropractor after all of that work hunching over on the floor.
I'm thinking I'll spend $35 more and visit my chiropractor after all of that work hunching over on the floor.
A lot of people in our House think it just stumbles along without effort.
How WRONG they are! Somebody puts out the dustbins and recycling every week. Somebody waters the garden.
It's the resident Engineer! 😎
Minor crisis tonight. The hallway light blew... 🙄
I was confused because I thought 9.5W LED lighting worked for 10 years, and I surely installed this one about 5 years ago, replacing a dubious Fluorescent bulb which was slow to warm up.
Anyhow, dug up a new bayonet lightbulb and a ladder with some experimentation as to whether it might be an Edison screw.
All Happy Days now. And, FWIW, "How many Engineers does it take to change a lightbulb?"
Answer: One. 😀
How WRONG they are! Somebody puts out the dustbins and recycling every week. Somebody waters the garden.
It's the resident Engineer! 😎
Minor crisis tonight. The hallway light blew... 🙄
I was confused because I thought 9.5W LED lighting worked for 10 years, and I surely installed this one about 5 years ago, replacing a dubious Fluorescent bulb which was slow to warm up.
Anyhow, dug up a new bayonet lightbulb and a ladder with some experimentation as to whether it might be an Edison screw.
All Happy Days now. And, FWIW, "How many Engineers does it take to change a lightbulb?"
Answer: One. 😀
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The LED will work that long. The cheap driver circuit/dropping capacitor? Not so much apparently.
I bought a 30W LED work light from Home Despot. It worked for about 6 months before it would light up... flicker a while, and then die. I got a cheap Chinese 30W LED driver from eBay, changed the original one out, and it's worked for years now. I even got a 12V version I could also install so it could be dual power.
I bought a 30W LED work light from Home Despot. It worked for about 6 months before it would light up... flicker a while, and then die. I got a cheap Chinese 30W LED driver from eBay, changed the original one out, and it's worked for years now. I even got a 12V version I could also install so it could be dual power.
Mine also has Jensen transformers for the line level inputs and outputs. This allows me to easily and conveniently convert from +4 dBu to -10 dBu (and vise versa) and also offers galvanic isolation. I deal with both professional and consumer equipment, so this is worthwhile and useful. A few of the ports are also a 1:1 Jensen transformer, which makes it very easy to go straight into an oscilloscope from a differential output that doesn't like having one leg grounded.
The issue of repairabilty continues into a Global subject.
Dare to Repair - Fixing the Future - BBC Sounds
Apparently your $1000 Samsung Galaxy or Apple iPhone 12 is completely unsustainable.
Conks out after 18 months. You can't replace the battery. The Screen is broken. You are buggered! 😀
Wise people might consider a FairPhone.
Bit clunky but designed to last. Better camera? Just slot it in. New Battery, no problem.
Credit also to Motorola. Doing their best.
Dare to Repair - Fixing the Future - BBC Sounds
Apparently your $1000 Samsung Galaxy or Apple iPhone 12 is completely unsustainable.
Conks out after 18 months. You can't replace the battery. The Screen is broken. You are buggered! 😀
Wise people might consider a FairPhone.
Bit clunky but designed to last. Better camera? Just slot it in. New Battery, no problem.
Credit also to Motorola. Doing their best.
Redesigned the HV regulator in a Counterpoint SA-5000. Much improved performance and now very reliable.
Now to set it up.
Now to set it up.
Pass DIY Addict
Joined 2000
Paid Member
We have a microwave in the kitchen that is about 5 years old. Lately, when you open the door, the light hasn't been coming on right away - thus the microwave thinks the door is still closed. This is especially problematic if you put something in to heat up, take it out, and put something else back in. Because the relays aren't detecting that you've opened the door, it won't let you start it up again. As you can imagine, this causes a problem when reheating dinner.
Yesterday, I disassembled the door latch mechanism and found not one, not two, but THREE separate high current relay switches. The relays were connected to wires with 1/4" spade lug connectors. One or two of the lugs on each relay appeared to be made of brass, but the last lug on each relay was not brass - I'm not sure what kind of metal it actually is. This lug was significantly discolored/tarnished. A quick scrub with some steel wool cleaned up each of the relays. I gently squeezed each of the female quick disconnect terminals with a pair of pliers to make them a little tighter.
Put it all back together and it works great. Only took 10 minutes of time...
Yesterday, I disassembled the door latch mechanism and found not one, not two, but THREE separate high current relay switches. The relays were connected to wires with 1/4" spade lug connectors. One or two of the lugs on each relay appeared to be made of brass, but the last lug on each relay was not brass - I'm not sure what kind of metal it actually is. This lug was significantly discolored/tarnished. A quick scrub with some steel wool cleaned up each of the relays. I gently squeezed each of the female quick disconnect terminals with a pair of pliers to make them a little tighter.
Put it all back together and it works great. Only took 10 minutes of time...
Motorola isn't necessarily Motorola any longer. During the last few years I worked there the Wall Street Wizards bought into the company busted it up and parted it out like a worn out car. Many divisions were simply shut down and all the employees were laid off. Those parts that could be sold were, and the new owners often ditched the employees as well. In total about 120,000 employees were shed worldwide, with myself being one of them. At least they gave me a bucket full of money to leave, most got a boot print on their backside. Somehow this is called progress.
Motorola, the cell phone company was bought from Motorola the Chicago corporation by Google for anywhere from 6 billion dollars to 12.5 billion depending on who's counting. Google kept the patents then sold the rest to Lenovo, the Chinese computer company for 3 or 4 billion.
I or my family have three Lenovorola (as we called them) phones. None have a replaceable battery or screen. They are glued together like an iPhone. At least they work well and cost far less than an iPhone. My Moto G7 was about $300 from Amazon. The others were cheaper.
The discrete semiconductor division was killed, and all of the employees were to be terminated, when some financial magic was used to sell the division to the employees. This rarely turns out well, but in this case the result became On Semiconductor, which has done well enough to eat other semiconductor companies like Fairchild.
The integrated circuit division was spun off as Freescale, which was eventually eaten by NXP. I don't know how many of the original Motorola people are left, but the design center in Florida was shut down and everyone laid off some time ago.
The only piece of the original Motorola left is the group that makes two way radios for first responders. It is now known as Motorola Solutions. A good deal of the US operations have been shut down. All manufacturing is done in Asia as is much of the engineering and design.
It seems to be a trend. I saw an ad for a Bell and Howell battery powered motion light the other day 🙁
That's all old news. This has been going on for decades.
Wall street = short term gain for long term losses.
Wall street = short term gain for long term losses.
I am messing with a Canon MP 560 printer/scanner.
It doesn't turn ON anymore.
The PSU is ok, the trouble is: It stays on standby ( ECO mode ) the main board does not activate it.
This is a terrible design IMO from all technical POW.
It seems, they made all efforts to make it difficult to repair.
It doesn't turn ON anymore.
The PSU is ok, the trouble is: It stays on standby ( ECO mode ) the main board does not activate it.
This is a terrible design IMO from all technical POW.
It seems, they made all efforts to make it difficult to repair.
One thing not worn out yet is my STILL WORKING GREAT 1958 Motorola X-16B pocket radio.
Plug-in germanium transistors, nice full bodied tone, why should I toss it, it's a classic.
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This is just one case that insures that you'll become a "toss it and buy a new one" customer.
I tossed out my 2005 HP printer-scanner because of a gear cracking and jamming the whole thing up.
Not worth the effort to repair.
I had to give up on inkjet printers several years ago because I didn't use them enough. And I could never remember to just print something/anything?* from time to time, just to keep the damn things from clogging up & ruining another set of $60 cartridges. 😡
Bought a cheap little Brother mono laser printer for the shop, probably 6 or 7 years ago, for like 80 bucks. Doesn't get heavy use, but by god it just works every time. Finally used up the "starter" toner cart after about 4 years(!), decided to splurge on an extra-life replacement cart that cost more than the printer, but will probably last me way past retirement. I now have a $200 Brother color laser at home that I use even less, but it starts right up & prints perfectly even after sitting for weeks.
Anyway...Where was I?? 😕 Oh yeah: Inkjet printers suck. 😀 Several large, crappy chunks of e-waste just from me; and my sister recently gave me 2 more broken ones to look at that are probably headed there as well.
* Any Todd fans out there? No? (sigh) Okay then... 🙄
Bought a cheap little Brother mono laser printer for the shop, probably 6 or 7 years ago, for like 80 bucks. Doesn't get heavy use, but by god it just works every time. Finally used up the "starter" toner cart after about 4 years(!), decided to splurge on an extra-life replacement cart that cost more than the printer, but will probably last me way past retirement. I now have a $200 Brother color laser at home that I use even less, but it starts right up & prints perfectly even after sitting for weeks.
Anyway...Where was I?? 😕 Oh yeah: Inkjet printers suck. 😀 Several large, crappy chunks of e-waste just from me; and my sister recently gave me 2 more broken ones to look at that are probably headed there as well.
* Any Todd fans out there? No? (sigh) Okay then... 🙄
I replaced the laser in a Denon DVD-2900. I was quite skeptical that a $14 Chinese dual wavelength laser would be any good, but to my surprise after 15 minutes of work and no adjustments it works perfectly, at least for a while. These are dirt cheap broken, play SACD, and are built like a tank. Even mostly Elna Silmic caps.
Funny you should mention that, because a few years ago, a friend gave me an old mid-90's HP Laserjet 4. (monochrome beast)
After repairing some minor issues with the display, the sucker works just fine, however I need to get a refilled black toner cartridge for it.
Does great for printing up schematics when I need them.
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Wow, that brings back memories. For years we had one of those in the office at the music store I used to work at; it was the main printer for the whole store. I bought an IrDA dongle to plug into the back of it, so I could print my monthly reports wirelessly from the spreadsheet app in my trusty Psion Series 3a! What a great little gizmo was that thing...
The printer industry is probably the worst of the lot when it comes to E-waste. My family has bought six printers over the last fifteen years. That's less than 3 years out of each one- a shorter life than my phones usually have, and the things are huge. There's a lot in a printer.
Certain family members feel a strong need to have color printing. I happen to know that they don't actually use it, since I'm the one who replaces cartridges whenever they dry out.
In my shop, I use an HP laser printer. It's great for printing out schematics and service manuals, though I HATE their software. It knows WAAAAY too much personal information for being an occasional-use shop tool. It's like having a partner in a group project who thinks you're her boyfriend, even though you can't even remember her name.
It is Ex-cell-ent to be a Jack of all Trades, unfortunately Greta doesn't have that same mindset of "thinking inside the box".