The version with the tuner cost twice the money. The Pyle is trash and is collecting dust since I repaired my Sansui. It's by far the worst tuner I've ever used. This includes a pocket radio that ran on 1 AA battery and used the headphone/output wire as the antenna in a basement.
Of course cheap can be crap - that Pyle tuner was 40$... but cheap (low priced is a better name really) can be good, too.
In this case, I ordered the transformer from Amazon with Prime so I could "test" it. It's a well made transformer. Indeed I thought it might even be an autoformer at that price. If It was crap it would have been returned anyway. It worked well enough that I bought a second one.
Jameco still has stock. ITR300: Jameco Reliapro : Isolation Power Transformer 120VAC/120VAC 300VA : Power Supplies & Wall Adapters
Of course cheap can be crap - that Pyle tuner was 40$... but cheap (low priced is a better name really) can be good, too.
In this case, I ordered the transformer from Amazon with Prime so I could "test" it. It's a well made transformer. Indeed I thought it might even be an autoformer at that price. If It was crap it would have been returned anyway. It worked well enough that I bought a second one.
Jameco still has stock. ITR300: Jameco Reliapro : Isolation Power Transformer 120VAC/120VAC 300VA : Power Supplies & Wall Adapters
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Agreed. I especially like how it will do auto scan. I've never seen another radio like that.
The "belt" wore out, and the dial light burnt out. It took me a while to find a suitable material to make a new "belt" with. I ended up using ribbon. The dial lamp was replaced "on the cheap" using a 5 cent RGB LED and three 0.25W 470R resistors. I think it looks nicer now than the yellow it used to be. I was too lazy to rectify the voltage, but the flicker isn't bad unless you're moving... Instead of running it from a bridge/filter (four diodes and a cap), I might just run another LED in reverse polarity. 60Hz is better than 30Hz. OTOH 0Hz is better
The "belt" wore out, and the dial light burnt out. It took me a while to find a suitable material to make a new "belt" with. I ended up using ribbon. The dial lamp was replaced "on the cheap" using a 5 cent RGB LED and three 0.25W 470R resistors. I think it looks nicer now than the yellow it used to be. I was too lazy to rectify the voltage, but the flicker isn't bad unless you're moving... Instead of running it from a bridge/filter (four diodes and a cap), I might just run another LED in reverse polarity. 60Hz is better than 30Hz. OTOH 0Hz is better
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Today I fixed The Planet!
My neighbour Colin is great one for the Compost Bin. He composts his teabags and potato peelings into soil. As if we need more soil in the back garden? Looks down on the rest of us who throw them in the bin. Really he should run away with Greta Thunberg.
His Green credentials took a hammering tonight when I watched him throw a printer into the kitchen waste bin...
"Colin, that is electrical waste and should be taken to the dump to be disposed of properly!" quoth I.
NO, it went into the Kitchen Bin for incineration...
I have just retrieved it. A Hewlett Packard Deskjet 1050 with a broken lid. Not a hard fix, one feels. And I bet it has 4 totally usable printer cartidges. You can unblock dried-out cartridges. Smelt like a dead rodent after an hour in the bin. wiped down with bleachy cloth. But I have a HP 1050 of my own. Linux-friendly, you see. Good for spares for sure. The racket with printers is the cartridges cost more than the printer. And HP give you half-filled ones with the original.
Joins my collection of excellent mains drills, only lacking chuck-keys. And that is an easy fix with WD40 lubricant and a plumber's wrench and screwdriver. Better than more recent weak rechargeable battery efforts.
My neighbour Colin is great one for the Compost Bin. He composts his teabags and potato peelings into soil. As if we need more soil in the back garden? Looks down on the rest of us who throw them in the bin. Really he should run away with Greta Thunberg.
His Green credentials took a hammering tonight when I watched him throw a printer into the kitchen waste bin...
"Colin, that is electrical waste and should be taken to the dump to be disposed of properly!" quoth I.
NO, it went into the Kitchen Bin for incineration...
I have just retrieved it. A Hewlett Packard Deskjet 1050 with a broken lid. Not a hard fix, one feels. And I bet it has 4 totally usable printer cartidges. You can unblock dried-out cartridges. Smelt like a dead rodent after an hour in the bin. wiped down with bleachy cloth. But I have a HP 1050 of my own. Linux-friendly, you see. Good for spares for sure. The racket with printers is the cartridges cost more than the printer. And HP give you half-filled ones with the original.
Joins my collection of excellent mains drills, only lacking chuck-keys. And that is an easy fix with WD40 lubricant and a plumber's wrench and screwdriver. Better than more recent weak rechargeable battery efforts.
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Cool! You scored the model with the optional Dead Rodent Collator!
Hang on - I just had a Déjà vu...
AM is a wasteland, FM is good in the car for background noise or NPR, and '70s Marantz and Pioneer receivers are going for $2k+. What's up with that?That T-7 is a good tuner. Long time since I saw one. Unfortunately FM is on its way out slowly but steady.... Miss my Yamaha T-80 but got rid of all FM stuff before the transmitters are switched off
I get AM in my car but the entire AM dial is 60Hz noise in my apartment.
FM might be upgraded to HD Radio (Homepage - HD Radio - HD Radio) but there is only one station so far broadcasting in HD (Ici Radio Canada CJBC-FM - Wikipedia)
The AM band isn't wide enough to be useful for anything else so it'll stay for a while.
FM might be upgraded to HD Radio (Homepage - HD Radio - HD Radio) but there is only one station so far broadcasting in HD (Ici Radio Canada CJBC-FM - Wikipedia)
The AM band isn't wide enough to be useful for anything else so it'll stay for a while.
I used to have a Sansui T-7 and was a nice sounding unit. This audio hobby got the better of me and upgraded to a Sansui TU-717 which really sounds wonderful. FM is still alive and kicking over here in Ireland, we have one station in particular dedicted to Classical music and has excellent broadcast quality, its the background noise for the house, far more pleasurable than listening to the crap on TV these days.
I can recommend fitting a continuous ink system.
A set of cartridges for my Epson cost around £80 and contain in total 55.7ml (£1436 per litre).
A set of 100ml refill bottles, total 600ml, cost £30 (£50 per litre) and the initial system is cheaper than a set of cartridges.
The other racket is the malware that comes on the driver disc. The device drivers on some brands keep hijacking your browser at start-up to BUY CARTRiDGES ONLiNE when they run low. And you can’t turn it off. Unless you in-install the printer.
I thwarted that crap real fast.
Do a "MSCONFIG" - locate and disable the offending junk.
Built up a transistor matcher and curve tracer.
Didnt work.
So, no -12 volts and 3v3 was 2 volts.
Its an odd power supply done using 2 transistors and a zener to split 24 volts to + and - 12volts. And a reg from 12 volts to 3v3.
Couldnt find any solder bridges and everything looked ok.
Replaced zener and regulator but still the same.
Then spotted -12 to zero volts shorted with DMM.
Had a look at the tracking for -12 volt line and it crossed the zero volt line shorting it out.
Looks like I missed a short when I did design rules checking.
Though at first a bug in pcbcad software but no it shows up the error.
So I must have read an error as no error.
So changing pcbcad software to come up red if an error to be more obvious.
Quick cut or shorted track and everything fine.
Didnt work.
So, no -12 volts and 3v3 was 2 volts.
Its an odd power supply done using 2 transistors and a zener to split 24 volts to + and - 12volts. And a reg from 12 volts to 3v3.
Couldnt find any solder bridges and everything looked ok.
Replaced zener and regulator but still the same.
Then spotted -12 to zero volts shorted with DMM.
Had a look at the tracking for -12 volt line and it crossed the zero volt line shorting it out.
Looks like I missed a short when I did design rules checking.
Though at first a bug in pcbcad software but no it shows up the error.
So I must have read an error as no error.
So changing pcbcad software to come up red if an error to be more obvious.
Quick cut or shorted track and everything fine.
