"When did you want this power board?" The Welder is standing behind me holding a printed circuit board with a few wires hanging off it.
"Uh. I didn't?"
"Dr. Science had me depopulate this for your project. I finished it this morning and it's been sitting on my workbench all day," he tells me.
I stare blankly at the board. All the components have been removed except for a proper power input. I wouldn't mind having a board with a proper power input. That would be a first for me. "I was not in the loop on that one."
"Okay. I'll go see what he wanted done with it." He takes his board and leaves.
A couple days later, Dr. Smith hands me one of the new Hamster boards, fully populated with the Very Expensive Filter and other Very Expensive Components as well as all the cheaper chips. "Look! A new Hamster! We can start testing this one with the others. Have you got one of the A/D converters for it?"
I do and immediately plug it in. A few other issues arise: I don't have all the cables I need and the board is lacking a power input. I'll have to solder a couple wires into the eyelets before I can power it up. And then Dr. Science drags the Welder and I and all the boards over to the photography studio to get the boards photographed for the posters he's having made up.
While the Welder and I are cooling our heels outside the studio (Dr. Science and the photographer are not in evidence just yet), he peers into my box of boards and then chews his lip a little. "Remember that board I depopulated? They wanted the components for your new Hamster board."
"Yes. Because the filters are Very Expensive and they don't keep them lying around—"
"Right. Dr. Science didn't tell me that he wanted the components. I thought he wanted the board. So I sort of ripped the filter and those regulators off with…brute force."
"Oh." I look at the new, untested but highly photogenic board. Dr. Science and the photographer arrive and the Welder changes the subject.
I still haven't tested that new board. I'm saving it up.
374 words | July 23, 2004 08:38 PM | Rocket science