Making, baking, and (un-)breaking things in Southeast Michigan.
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One of Roxie’s favorite past times is removing the innards (squeakers, fluff, etc) from stuffed animals. She only plays with those she is given, but once she has one she quickly sets into it. Throughout the week I’d find her taking the toy and pressing it into my hand trying to get me to play with her or watching her lay behind me pulling out hunks of fluff from a new-found inside passage.
Oh, and the crusty look to the fur? Yep, dried dog slobber.
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I’d previously posted about how x0xb0x #888 was generating no audio after powerup, and with Roxie now gone I had time to start digging into what was wrong.
I’d already known that the power supply, digital half (sequencer), DAC, and VCO were working fine, so I set to work tracing things back through the schematic from the headphone out. Eventually I found that I was able to see a waveform on the first half of the BA6110, after the op-amp (pins 6 and 7) but before the buffer. I didn’t see anything after the buffer (pin 8).
So, I think I have a bad BA6110, which is one of the rare / hard to find parts in the x0xb0x. This is just what I was afraid of.
Being typically paranoid of my own work I double-checked soldering, checked for shorts, and all the other normal things like that, but I really think the problem is with the buffer.
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Last Monday I had Wide Open West CATV and internet service installed. The installer was a nice guy, did just what I wanted, and did a good job putting the new junction box on the outside of the house. As requested he left the Comcast line going into the house, replaced the old splitter, and let me take care of the data side of things (very basic to set up; no Comcastic walled garden crap), and had an MCard for the TiVo.
The only problem I had is that he wasn’t familiar with setting up TiVos and forgot to check for reception of HD channels. A phone call to WOW! service after he left got those turned on and everything was set.
Thus far I’ve been mostly happy with the data service. Tests at DSLReports.com have shown that I can achieve the claimed 15Mbps downstream and 2Mbps upstream quite regularly. Everything has been much faster in real use as well, and uploads to my photo gallery are far, far faster now.
I intend to write up a more technical description of how I like the service, including how I intend to use the three IPs (DHCP assigned) that I’m allocated as part of the service, but that will have to come later. For now I’ve got some other projects to wrap up.
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After a bit over a week here it’s time for Roxie to go back home. Danielle arrived here last night right as I returned from Brian’s birthday party, and after some gift returning / shopping stuff she left today with Roxie in the back of the car.
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Here, have yet another photo of Roxie, this time with her leaning strongly against my leg wanting me to pet her. One can even see the line down her back caused by her sleeping inverted, leaning against the couch a few minutes earlier. And the nose. The nose!
(For what it’s worth, she’s now laying with her head between the bike wheels seen there chewing on the remains of a rawhide from earlier in the week. She tends to eat all but 1″ of them, then leaves that bit laying around until I won’t give her a new one.)
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Normally Roxie drinks out of her water bowl, but given the option she’ll also gladly drink out of bathroom sink faucets. When doing so she doesn’t lick the tap, she just laps heartily at the stream of water.
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I just finished watching The Business of Being Born. Despite what the trailer (which will automatically start playing if you visit The Business of Being Born’s website) seems to imply, this film was about modern day midwifery. Sure, the film does touch on the idea that the dramatic rise in number of Caesarean section births is a product of hospitals being more focused on getting women in and out as quickly (and as profitably) as possible, but that strike me as the focus.
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I spent a good part of yesterday and today disassembling and reassembling the Bianchi D.I.S.S. that I acquired on Monday. While it looked pretty good to begin with, the drivetrain (save for the chain) was actually pretty dirty. There was also a bunch of black dirt (chain lube / dirt gunk) hiding all over the frame and drivetrain. So, I took pretty much the whole bike apart, cleaned everything, then put it back together. (Here’s a photo of the shiny clean crankset, chainring, and chain.)
This included torquing everything to spec, re-seating the tires (with logos aligned, of course!), flipping the stem cap around so the logo faces the right way up, re-fitting the Oury grips, adjusting the brake levers, and all the other niggling things that are part of putting a bike together. The grips were fitted by first cleaning them, rinsing them with alcohol (99% isopropyl), then wetting them with alcohol and sliding them on. They appear to be drying nicely, although I’ve read that it may be best to fit them with either rubber cement or a spray adhesive. If this doesn’t hold, I’ll try another method.
It’s now all ready for riding, I just have to wait for a bit less ice on the ground and I’ll be able to ride. This bike might also be perfect for trying out the On-One Mary Bar which Bob loaned to me a few months back.
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Sometimes when out for a walk Roxie will start playing with her retractable leash, eventually getting herself tangled up in it. It’s fun for a while, but when I have to stop every three minutes and unwind her, it’s a bit of a hassle. She’s good about it, though.
Here’s another photo of her, a bit less tangled.
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I spent lots of New Year’s Eve working on cleaning up the new-to-me Bianchi D.I.S.S.. As part of this involved removing the rear wheel I was able to take a photo showing off the “100% Chick Designed” logo which is placed on Bianchi frames designed by Sky Yaeger.
Yes, this is very much the bike version of a crotch shot.
Happy New Year everyone, and Happy Birthday
