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Old 15th Dec 2020, 11:57 am   #1
avocollector
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Default Things that make you upset/scream!.

Well the repair job was a panasonic radio clock with big bright blue numbers my wife had relegated to my shed and which from time to time dimmed and a segment of a number vanished. Right I happily said - bound to be one of the electrolytics inside gone bung -so whip her open and replace it.

Easier said than done - I don't know which engineer designed it so the clear front screen was GLUED over the subframe and hid all the screws holding it together but I hope it's nice and warm with free brimstone where he eventually ends up.

But once the screen was off it looked like a doddle - only two electolytics visible on the power supply rectifier/voltage regulator board. 5 mins and both had been replaced!! Checked one and it read 10003 uf which is not bad for a 100uf 16 volt cap. Reassemble - turn on and - nothing!!

Open up again and put meter across mains transformer secondary - no voltage!! Turn off and check resistance on both sides of transformer - open circuit on primary side but no bare wires/tags on transformer to test continuity between mains plug and transformer. However experience had taught the moulded mains plugs can be a bit dodgy. So cut off mains plug and 4-5 inches of lead. Bare the leads and test it for continuity to plug pins - no problem!

Realise suddenly that I'd cut the plug off the variac and NOT the clock radio! as both leads identical and on repair desk. Say rude words, repair variac lead then go back to clock. Decide NOT to cut plug off lead but to cut lead up by transformer and test primary side and lead - primary side of transformer OK so shorten plug lead to get rid of a suspicious bent bit and reconnect. Plug in transformer and check secondary voltage - great 6.3v ac!! Check clock working by supply 6v dc to other side of mains rectifier assembly - yep lovely clear display. Reconnect up transformer and test on mains - yep lovely big clear display.

So reassemble clock/radio but cannot find one screw - not essential so leave it out - get it all back together - then find screw of course! Never mind - plug in and big bright complete display. Smile as obviously great repair job done.

10 mins later display dims and number segment vanishes - sigh!!!
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Old 15th Dec 2020, 12:45 pm   #2
198 kHz
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Default Re: Things that make you upset/scream!.

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Originally Posted by avocollector View Post
10 mins later display dims and number segment vanishes - sigh!!!
I know I shouldn't - but I had to laugh.

I've lost count of the number times I've spent ages carefully lining up and soldering wires together, then realise the measured piece of heat-shrink is still on the bench.
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Old 15th Dec 2020, 1:09 pm   #3
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Default Re: Things that make you upset/scream!.

Quote:
Realise suddenly that I'd cut the plug off the variac and NOT the clock radio
excellent!

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Old 15th Dec 2020, 2:20 pm   #4
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Default Re: Things that make you upset/scream!.

Oh dear!

Take a very deep breath - count to ten - and start again.

I feel your pain...
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Old 15th Dec 2020, 2:26 pm   #5
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Default Re: Things that make you upset/scream!.

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I've lost count of the number times I've spent ages carefully lining up and soldering wires together, then realise the measured piece of heat-shrink is still on the bench.
I knew someone who soldered all the wires on to a 50-pin plug and then realised he had forgotten to slip the cover over the cable first.
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Old 15th Dec 2020, 3:10 pm   #6
Lancs Lad
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Default Re: Things that make you upset/scream!.

Duraplugs spring to mind - I can't think why

Now, where's that Stanley knife...?
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Old 15th Dec 2020, 3:25 pm   #7
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Default Re: Things that make you upset/scream!.

Many moons ago I used to work on acoustically coupled printer terminals, under the keyboard was the keyboard encoder & DUART PCB. There were two 40 pin IC's very close to each other, lost count of the number of times I cut 20 pins on one side of one chip, got distracted, then cut 20 pins on the OTHER IC which was perfectly ok.
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Old 15th Dec 2020, 3:53 pm   #8
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Default Re: Things that make you upset/scream!.

Designing and building a thing for some special ("one off") purpose only to discover that either:

a) I already did this years ago the previous time I ran into this situation.
-OR-
b) The required functionality is a feature of something I already have, if only I had read the manual.



UPDATE: I just avoied doing this for a special cable I needed. While rumaging for something else I noticed some multi-core of the type I would use for it. Pulled it out only to find that it was the finished cable as required - made 40 years ago.
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Old 15th Dec 2020, 4:45 pm   #9
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Default Re: Things that make you upset/scream!.

Quote:
Originally Posted by bluepilot View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by 198 kHz View Post
I've lost count of the number times I've spent ages carefully lining up and soldering wires together, then realise the measured piece of heat-shrink is still on the bench.
I knew someone who soldered all the wires on to a 50-pin plug and then realised he had forgotten to slip the cover over the cable first.
More than one person!

I did exactly that about 50 years ago, when wiring a camera control unit connector. That was also 50pins...

Dave.
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Old 15th Dec 2020, 6:17 pm   #10
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Default Re: Things that make you upset/scream!.

Wiring-up a 37-pin "D" connector then realising you were wiring a plug not a socket, so you've mirror-imaged it.

[So on the basis that two wrongs make a right you go on to mirror-image the plug you then wire on the other end of the cable, pop the pink Hellermanns over, and hope that the MoD quality-assessor doesn't notice]

Likewise, getting back a bunch of PCBs from your etcher-of-the-day and then realising you didn't flip the image.

Designing/building a 'one-off' for a specific customer - at a loss, as a favour - but said customer then spreads-the-word and you get 50 other people contacting your marketing-manager asking for the same thing at the same loss-making price. [in that particular case the loss was around £2K-per-thing].

One other thing that makes me scream - in 1940s/50s movies/TV-series when someone using two-way radio says "Over and Out". Back in my late-60s/early-70s Cadet Force days our Signals instructor threatened deep and frightening sanctions against anyone he heard on-air saying that!
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Old 15th Dec 2020, 6:29 pm   #11
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Default Re: Things that make you upset/scream!.

Mine is creeping Americanisms. When did we stop using aerials and change over to parts of an insect's anatomy to receive RF with? It really irritates me and I have developed a reading technique that automatically converts what I am reading!

The other one is "quite unique".
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Old 15th Dec 2020, 7:07 pm   #12
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Default Re: Things that make you upset/scream!.

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Originally Posted by G6Tanuki View Post
Wiring-up a 37-pin "D" connector then realising you were wiring a plug not a socket, so you've mirror-imaged it.
Spookily enough, I was called to sort out why a BT Kilostream was not providing comms. After ages looking at the software under test, I broke out a scope and discovered that BT had wired the connector as you describe. As this was for a software house, I got brownie points for being clever enough to diagnose hardware as well!
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Old 15th Dec 2020, 7:23 pm   #13
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Smile Re: Things that make you upset/scream!.

I have recently just spent a wasted most of a week trying to find out why my latest restoration project, A dual standard "Personal Ferguson" television had perfect sound but a blank raster on both 405 and 625 lines.

After going through the circuit replacing all of the usual suspect components, checking all of the germanium diodes and anything else in the video and vision IF stages, I eventually found the fault. A grotty Chinese made phono splitter lead had gone O/C on the inner core which was connected to my DVD player sending the vision signal to both my Aurora converter and my 625 line modulator. I had 2 of these leads, the other was the sound to both the Aurora and 625 line modulator and was fine.

Replacement phono lead immediately gave a very impressive picture which only required tweaking of the usual rear pots to get it right on both 405 and 625 line standards.

Christopher Capener
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Old 15th Dec 2020, 7:32 pm   #14
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Default Re: Things that make you upset/scream!.

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Originally Posted by Scimitar View Post
Mine is creeping Americanisms. When did we stop using aerials and change over to parts of an insect's anatomy to receive RF with? It really irritates me and I have developed a reading technique that automatically converts what I am reading!

The other one is "quite unique".
MY pet irritation is the use of "train station" instead of "railway station"

I recall a Miss Marple episode ( Not one of the Joan Hickson ones ) where the term train station was used in a setting of supposedly 1953 or so.
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Old 15th Dec 2020, 7:41 pm   #15
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Default Re: Things that make you upset/scream!.

I tend to groan when people refer to all chemicals as "nasty" or "harmful". I suppose being a Research Chemist all my working life influenced me. Where would we be if all chemicals were nasty and harmful, especially those ones that we swallow for headaches, rub onto damaged skin and use to disinfect injuries, not to mention that all of our bodies are an enormous collection of chemicals?

Colin.

Last edited by ColinTheAmpMan1; 15th Dec 2020 at 7:43 pm. Reason: Missed "s".
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Old 15th Dec 2020, 7:45 pm   #16
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Default Re: Things that make you upset/scream!.

The cheaper (modern) clock radios are fairly dreadful here. Glitching in the push-button operating sequences, lack of battery backup, in one example 14v present at the PP3 terminals, thus trying to force charge into the distressed (disposable) battery. The 7 segment red LED displays are usually good (but often lack an LDR dimming circuit)
The quartz ones lose their good timekeeping if the mains frequency deviates from that specified, but that's to be expected.

If Peter's is perhaps one of the older VFD displays i'm not overly surprised that it's glitching.

Dave
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Old 15th Dec 2020, 8:39 pm   #17
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Default Re: Things that make you upset/scream!.

I've never had problems with "train station" - it's where I would go to catch a train, just as a bus-station is where I'd go to catch a bus.

I do scream at the use of 'organic' to describe a deranged form of agriculture/food-production though, because as a scientist, 'organic' to me means carbon-chemistry involving C=C bonds and ring-formations based thereon.
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Old 15th Dec 2020, 8:55 pm   #18
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Default Re: Things that make you upset/scream!.

Hate it when people use "less" for physical objects: people who do that have fewer understanding of language than I have
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Old 15th Dec 2020, 8:55 pm   #19
Scimitar
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Default Re: Things that make you upset/scream!.

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I've never had problems with "train station" - it's where I would go to catch a train,
But the staion is built upon the railway, not the train. Therefore it is a Railway station and the place you go to get on a coach is an omnibus terminal rather than a bus station, for the same reason.
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Old 15th Dec 2020, 8:56 pm   #20
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Default Re: Things that make you upset/scream!.

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Originally Posted by G6Tanuki View Post
Wiring-up a 37-pin "D" connector then realising you were wiring a plug not a socket, so you've mirror-imaged it.
I did that recently with something as prosaic as a 6-pin DIN. It was on a £1k+ load cell which we had broken into as a team effort at work (files and drills, it wasn't meant to be fixed), worked out what connected to what, and were all pleased with ourselves that between us we had saved it from the bin. Then I wired it up and it didn't work. Good job I didn't throw it as far as I felt like when that happened!
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