The assorted printed circuit boards, wires, and solid state devices decided to get on with that baptism by fire that I'm due. I hope they've got that out of their systems or I'm going to degauss their sorry little butts with a hammer. I did manage to get through the day without breaking anything on purpose, however, and I hope to continue that streak tomorrow. I could tell lots of stories about my adventures for the day, but my finger joints are aching from all that plugging defective hardware into slots, trying to make it work, removing it, ad nauseam thing I did all day. And the quart of Guinness I had with dinner has about worn off, so I'm really hurting.
For illustration: A wire broke off one of the circuit boards and the bit left soldered into the via-hole had to be removed so the wire could be replaced, there being no other place to pick up 5 V. But once the wire was finally removed (long story: lack&(experience | extra hands | proper tools)=excessive hassle), the via-hole was plugged with solder. Gentle methods of melting and wicking out the solder don't work (I now have a microscopic piece of copper wicking embedded in my left thumb). Getting draconian, Dr. Smith sticks the tip of the soldering iron into the hole and, when the solder melts, quickly bangs the board on the counter to knock it out. Handing me the board, he says, "That's probably not the NASA-approved way to do that."
254 words | May 19, 2004 09:24 PM | Rocket science