swt61 Posted September 18, 2011 Report Posted September 18, 2011 Just flew back in from a remote ranch, where I had to oversee a job. No internet or cell service for a week is just brutal these days. What a wimp I've become!
Dreadhead Posted September 18, 2011 Report Posted September 18, 2011 Mowed the lawn at the lake house again. Only 2 hours or so this time. I love this place even working is relaxing. Have to try and work tomorrow but it's going to be a challenge.
HeadphoneAddict Posted September 18, 2011 Report Posted September 18, 2011 I've been at "Mr. Biggs Family Fun Center" all day with my son, his friend and their two German exchange students. They're running me ragged. I'm too old for this. Only two more hours to go and I can take them home and catch my breath. Then we have to go to the Cheyenne Mounain Zoo and Garden of the God's park tomorrow. Just waiting for pizza and soda now.
Pars Posted September 18, 2011 Report Posted September 18, 2011 Put a new (via epay) logic board in the Powermac G5 and got it running, hopefully for quite some time. Found the service manual and the Apple System Diagnostics disc online, so was able to run the required thermal calibration myself, instead of bothering the Apple store. Turns out it wasn't the DIMM sockets, but the memory controller IC, which is a BGA package. Oh fun. It is mounted on the back of the board, and the heatgun was heating it up to get it to work temporarily. If anyone wants to school me on BGAs, feel free. I may try to fix the original board if I can get access to some shit at work. Was thinking about doing a reflow in the oven at home, ala some of the XBox or PS3 fixes you may have run across, but there is a lot of stuff that would need to be protected from the heat. Plus the no-clean Kester 951 flux I got is flammable. That and a gas oven made me pause a bit... honey, do you mind if I cook a board in the oven? Oh yeah, it may start on fire
Absorbine_Sr Posted September 18, 2011 Report Posted September 18, 2011 (edited) Attended Schlafly's Hop in the City in St. Louis. 40 Schlafly beers available, I got through a few of them, their barley wine, Indian brown ale and raspberry coffee stout being my favorites. Edited September 18, 2011 by Absorbine_Sr
CarlSeibert Posted September 18, 2011 Report Posted September 18, 2011 Watched FPL guys attach a temporary power drop to my house. It was kind of interesting. They do all the same stuff we do, only it's really big. Butt splices you crimp with an impact hammer thingie (one guy) or compound crimpers with handles two feet long (the other guy), silicone-filled European barrier strips the size of a loaf of bread, heat shrink you shrink with a big-ass blowtorch. When I asked what size wire he was using, the fellow in the little half size manhole in my front yard said "four". He meant four-ought, not four AWG. We had had power sags. I thought maybe it was some of sort of brownout, 'cause it's been pretty hot. Then I noticed that one half of my house was seeing sagging voltages and the other was seeing spiking voltages. Frankly, when I called FPL, it hadn't yet dawned on me that my neutral line was in the process of parting. When I told them I was seeing 100 volts on one side and 130 on then other it got their attention real quick.
shellylh Posted September 18, 2011 Report Posted September 18, 2011 Today at the gym, I did my first (real, no cheating, starting from a dead hang) pullup in about 8 years. As a slightly overweight woman in her mid-30's, I was pretty happy with myself.
Wmcmanus Posted September 18, 2011 Report Posted September 18, 2011 Throat feeling much better today. Been watching a lot of baseball today on mlb.com. Dang, those teams out in California today... Giants scored 12 runs, Angels 11 runs, and Dodgers 15 runs (so far).
Dreadhead Posted September 18, 2011 Report Posted September 18, 2011 Today I went for a ride at the lake house for the first time. I am even more happy with the purchase now. So nice to see less than 20 cars in 90min+ of riding.
boomana Posted September 18, 2011 Report Posted September 18, 2011 Today at the gym, I did my first (real, no cheating, starting from a dead hang) pullup in about 8 years. As a slightly overweight woman in her mid-30's, I was pretty happy with myself. I'm not there yet or even close as far as I can tel.
shellylh Posted September 19, 2011 Report Posted September 19, 2011 I didn't think I was close either. Keeping trying and one day you will be able to do one.
luvdunhill Posted September 19, 2011 Report Posted September 19, 2011 (edited) honey, do you mind if I cook a board in the oven? Oh yeah, it may start on fire I'm pretty sure you were kidding, but this isn't a very good idea on very many levels. If you do decide to do it, get a toaster oven from salvation army or such, as you're not going to be able to really use it for food thenceforth, due to the stuff that's released from the board and then "seasons" the oven... Edited September 19, 2011 by luvdunhill
Pars Posted September 19, 2011 Report Posted September 19, 2011 No, I was seriously considering it, but given the board size (12" x 18") and the amount of connectors, wires, etc. that would need to be shielded from heat, I don't think it is plausible. It is a lead-free (RoHS) board, but I'm sure there are other sources of outgassing, etc. that I am not aware of which raised your concern. Plus we have a pretty nice stove which I wouldn't want to mess up. Since I have the system running, I can take my time and see what we have here at work, etc. Or just leave it broken.
mypasswordis Posted September 19, 2011 Report Posted September 19, 2011 Sucks that lead-free means higher melting temps. DIY your own reflow oven with multiple heaters that can isolate the heat you apply to a certain area, so like one big board heater with a smaller (x,y,z) axis heater, with proper cooling system to make sure you don't destroy anything. Only half joking.
Voltron Posted September 19, 2011 Report Posted September 19, 2011 Now for some great news/not so great news: On the great side: our friend Claire in Paris -- to whose health a number of people drank when I heard she had cancer -- learned that surgery seems to have removed all trace of cancer and she does not need chemo at this time. She is doing pretty well and is very relieved not to have to go through that (obviously). Thanks for the well wishes and good vibes because they worked. Discovered a not so great situation this morning upon waking up. My 2-tier wall mounted turntable rack (with CD player on the bottom shelf) had pulled off the wall and was collapsing into/onto the gear below it. A before picture will help this make sense: Directly below the rack was an LCD TV being used as a computer monitor, which in turn was sitting on top of a Shunyata Hydra 8 power conditioner. The TT rack fell top first because the top shelf of the rack ended up on top of the TV while the lower shelf was pressed against the back of the TV, thereby holding the CDP in check. I think the bottom row of screws were still partly in the wall as the rack leaned forward. In addition, the Dual TT's power cord was plugged into the Hydra so it essentially tethered the TT to the top of the rack. The wooden board that sat directly under the TT had slid out forward and was on the floor in front of the TV, which shows that the TT really was hanging by a thread. Sadly, the small back panel holding the power cord, RCAs and ground wire was yanked out of the Dual and the connections inside may have been damaged, but I didn't have time to check. The RCAs from the TT were plugged into my Eddie Current Transcription Amplifier phono stage (second shelf down on the right) and that was half way pulled off its shelf but luckily not all the way off. It was also fortunate that the s/pdif from the CDP to the Moth DAC was long enough that there was no issue. Of course, it all started to fall apart worse as I tried to pick everything up but I was able to keep it together long enough with my daughter's help. I was able to unplug everything, hold the rack up while she moved the TV and then get the rack onto the floor with TT and CDP still in place (even some of the CDs that had been on the second shelf). The sad part is how short the mounting screws look and how little -- or no -- wood is apparent on them even though JP and I were sure they were mounted on the studs. This won't go back up until I am certain it is secure. If the TV wasn't there and the power cord didn't hold, the metal rack, CDP and TT likely would have smashed into the beautiful Cicadas and that would have been tragic. The truly amazing part is that this thing fell apart last night while we were asleep or it happened yesterday during the day and Claire didn't notice it when she went to bed. The lights were out by the time I got there. The idea that such a crazy pile-up could last from yesterday afternoon until this morning without collapsing is even more incredible to me than not waking up if it crashed down during the night.
morphsci Posted September 19, 2011 Author Report Posted September 19, 2011 Well congrat to Paris Claire and congrat to you that the damage was not worse and the Cicadas are safe. That really is pretty amazing that everything perched there until you discovered it. Are you sure you don't have poltergeist?
shellylh Posted September 19, 2011 Report Posted September 19, 2011 Yay for Claire the friend! I'll drink to that. Also, that goodness the Cicadas are ok. Phew.
Aimless1 Posted September 19, 2011 Report Posted September 19, 2011 Sometimes it is better to be lucky than it is to be good. Glad it wasn't worse Al.
raffy Posted September 19, 2011 Report Posted September 19, 2011 Great news on your friend Claire, Al! Wishing her continued good health. Sorry to hear about your gear woes but I'm glad the Cicadas are safe.
blessingx Posted September 19, 2011 Report Posted September 19, 2011 Good to hear on Paris Claire and as others have said glad the gear fall wasn't worse. Cables do matter! Hope the Duals insides aren't damaged. Was there a Dali-like melting after shot?
Voltron Posted September 20, 2011 Report Posted September 20, 2011 I was too freaked to stop and get a camera or my phone, so no after shot with a melting turntable.
n_maher Posted September 20, 2011 Report Posted September 20, 2011 1. I'm sure the Dual can be fixed. If it wasn't such a whore to ship a TT I'd offer to do it. 2. Am structural engineer, will travel to fix rack which was probably semi-drunkenly mounted by a lawyer and new guy. 3. Big woot! To Claire on the great news.
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