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R2D4 <r2d4@stwars.com>: Feb 22 11:27AM -0500 I am on my second Sunbeam electric blanket this Winter and it is doing the same thing as the first one I had-- starts off for a couple of weeks working correctly, then spends a week getting weaker and weaker where I have to turn up the controller all the way and even then the heating is uneven and weak. I was going to return this one too, but before I do, I wanted to ask if anyone knew of a solution to repair this? Almost seems like there is a circuit issue somewhere, maybe in the controller, but who knows. If it were a cheap repair, I'd just keep the blanket after the low cost repeatable fix. Thank you.   PS: I can't think that they're making that much money on these. I read the reviews and *many* folks are having similar issues. If a solution isn't found for the above, I'd appreciate recommendations for a brand/ model that will last. This definitely isn't like the blanket I had while growing up 25 years ago; that one lasted for 15 years with no issues.

Allodoxaphobia <knock_yourself_out@example.net>: Feb 22 02:33AM > What is the best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of electronic > parts?   A really funky web site is http://www.danssmallpartsandkits.net/   I've ordered parts from "Dan" and never had "issues". Lots of old descrete parts. It can take a bit to dig through all he has listed. (He definitely does NOT pay anyone to maintain that web site. :-)   Jonesy -- Marvin L Jones | W3DHJ | W3DHJ | https://W3DHJ.net/ Pueblo, Colorado | @ | Jonesy | __ 38.238N 104.547W | jonz.net | DM78rf | 73 SK

rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com>: Feb 21 11:17PM -0500 On 2/21/2017 7:48 PM, Rheilly Phoull wrote: > purchases in your "basket" with one payment. It's not as hard as you may > think and you really didn't give it much of a go with one buy. > Most of the asian traders are honest and paypal keeps them that way.   Paypal and eBay protection are virtually non-existent unless you lie or the seller really screws up. If they are honest you will get a refund or replacement. But if they are honest, you don't need protection. I've had eBay/Palpal refuse to give me a refund when the item was never delivered and returned to the seller instead. I had to file a dispute with the credit card company. I don't think eBay even had a person look at my case. UPS said it was "delivered" and the eBay system doesn't bother to look at *where* it was delivered.   I remember back when Paypal tried to enforce a provision in the agreement with the customers of no charge-backs. Fortunately the credit card companies didn't go for that.   NEVER buy anything through any of these services unless you pay for it by credit card and make sure you file a claim within two months of the statement the charge appears on. Don't let them talk you into anything but a full refund of the item charge *and* shipping or delay you past your dispute period.   --   Rick C

Spehro Pefhany <speffSNIP@interlogDOTyou.knowwhat>: Feb 22 01:21AM -0500 On Tue, 21 Feb 2017 22:33:12 +0000 (UTC), the renowned root >email exchanges with the sender before they were even willing >to take back the item. My experience with Amazon is the exact >opposite.   Amazon seems to police their vendors, almost to a fault. It would be interesting to know from the vendor side how it feels to deal with a bad buyer (eg. broke the product, tells lies, etc.)   Ali- rather less so and as you say the shipping cost back works in favor of a bad seller- you *have* to use a method with tracking so not cheap. Sometimes you can get partial (maybe half) the money back without sending it back. 8-(   --sp     -- Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com>: Feb 22 04:20AM -0500 On 2/22/2017 1:21 AM, Spehro Pefhany wrote: > favor of a bad seller- you *have* to use a method with tracking so not > cheap. Sometimes you can get partial (maybe half) the money back > without sending it back. 8-(   Does Amazon have a way to ask vendors questions about the product? I know I have looked many, many times and not found a link. I know where the eBay link is. With Aliexpress communications is often not very useful as I don't get answers that show an understanding of my question. I've just never gotten a warm fuzzy feeling from Amazon.   --   Rick C

oldschool@tubes.com: Feb 22 04:23AM -0600 On Wed, 22 Feb 2017 08:48:25 +0800, Rheilly Phoull >purchases in your "basket" with one payment. It's not as hard as you may >think and you really didn't give it much of a go with one buy. >Most of the asian traders are honest and paypal keeps them that way.   Years ago, I got some really bad items from ebay, and it was a real hassle cleaning it up, usually costing me a big chunk of the money I paid, to ship the item back.   Things are now much better with ebay. Last year I bought a used laptop computer with XP installed. The physical hardware in the computer worked fine, but the operating system was majorly borked. It took 5 min to even load, and constantly crashed. The WIFI did not work at all. I complained to the seller. He told me to try a few tests, which I did, but it would not work regardless. He issued a refund and told me to dispose of the computer. I wiped the hard drive and installed XP myself, using an xp CD I alreeady had. I have been using that computer ever since and it works fine.   Then I bought an expensive (NEW) starter for my farm tractor. I installed it, and found it was completely dead. The seller sent me another starter, which arrived in 3 days, and works fine. He told me to just throw the defective one away.   I have been pretty satisfied with my purchases from ebay in recent years.

Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk>: Feb 22 01:27PM On 22/02/17 04:17, rickman wrote: > I've had eBay/Palpal refuse to give me a refund when the item was never > delivered and returned to the seller instead.   I had something not delivered, and the tracking info was inconclusive/contradictory. I waited an extra week, asked Ebay for my money back, and got it. I can't remember whether it was the seller or ebay that refunded it.   A week later the seller contacted me to say the item had been returned to them, and did I still want it? No, I didn't.   I wondered about the tracking info, and whether the seller had even had it in stock in the first place.

Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk>: Feb 22 01:33PM > I wiped the hard drive and installed XP myself, using an xp CD > I alreeady had. I have been using that computer ever since and it works > fine.   Lucky you.   A laptop's disk failed and I tried that with a new disk and the product code on the bottom of the laptop.   The code was accepted, it installed, and on first reboot a Microsoft Dos screen appeared telling me the code was invalid.   Samsung claimed it was MS fault. MS claimed it was Samsung's fault, despite it being an MS "shan't" message.   Resolution was to buy a third disk with XP preinstalled, for the price of the OS, or to install a linux. Guess which happened.   Later MS refused to sell me Win7, so clearly they don't want my custom.

Ralph Mowery <rmowery28146@earthlink.net>: Feb 22 10:14AM -0500 In article <hlgrA.522530$3L.132209@fx26.am4>, spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk says... > been returned to them, and did I still want it? No, I didn't.   > I wondered about the tracking info, and whether the seller > had even had it in stock in the first place.   Friend of mine has a problem with the delivery people.   He lives at 123 abc Circle. That is off ABC Road and there is a house number 123. Seems the delivery people get on the Road and do not understant the Circle is near the end of that road.   With tracking being fairly good if he orders something, he tracks it and if it is marked delivered and he does not see it, he goes to the 123 abc Road house to get his package.

Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk>: Feb 22 03:25PM On 22/02/17 15:14, Ralph Mowery wrote:   > With tracking being fairly good if he orders something, he tracks it and > if it is marked delivered and he does not see it, he goes to the 123 abc > Road house to get his package.   I have the inverse problem. I live at 3 X Rd, and keep having deliveries for 3 X Close. The worst case was a "delivery" of roof height scaffolding; that company wasn't amused by their incompetence.   Despite it having been there since 1930, it - isn't on most satnavs; they mutate the postcode YYY 9HL to YYY9EA - isn't on google maps; ditto - it is on bing maps, but isn't searchable - it is on openstreet map, since I put it there   I've trapped out all but the most incompetent fools by: - having the other occupant replace the first line of their address with "opposite the supermarket" - 3D printing a brass sign "Not X Close", and fixing it adjacent to the bell

Ralph Mowery <rmowery28146@earthlink.net>: Feb 22 11:21AM -0500 In article <R3irA.290505$6N1.4403@fx09.am4>, spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk says... > having deliveries for 3 X Close. The worst case was a > "delivery" of roof height scaffolding; that company > wasn't amused by their incompetence.   My dad lived at 123 White Farm Road and there was a Church at 123 White Road. He would get a letter of theirs about once a month. The roads were about 10 miles apart. If they ever got a letter of his, they did not report it.   Once my natural gas bill got messed up. Didn't get one for about 2 months and one finally came. Weent to the gas company and somehow after living there for 5 years they han me "moved" to the town next to the one I lived in. Actually I lived about halfway between the two towns out in the country. It stayed messsed up for about 3 or 4 billing cycles.Eahc time I would go to them and they would change something, but somehow they seemed to not makc the correct change.

radiotek <radiotek.12f2aa19@diybanter.com>: Feb 22 02:46AM +0100 WTB: Looking for a good used AM ferritec rod antenna with or without windings that is 3/8" in diameter and is at least 4" long or longer. If you have any in you junk box please contact me.         -- radiotek

amdx <nojunk@knology.net>: Feb 21 08:29PM -0600 On 2/21/2017 7:46 PM, radiotek wrote: > WTB: Looking for a good used AM ferritec rod antenna with or without > windings that is 3/8" in diameter and is at least 4" long or longer. If > you have any in you junk box please contact me.   You can't come up with an old portable AM radio to scrap it from? Go to Goodwill or Salvation Army or a yard sale, it will be less than anyone could ship it to you. Or order it from WWW.Bytemark. Mike   --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

Phil Allison <pallison49@gmail.com>: Feb 21 07:58PM -0800 radiotek wrote:   > WTB: Looking for a good used AM ferritec rod antenna with or without > windings that is 3/8" in diameter and is at least 4" long or longer. If > you have any in you junk box please contact me.   ** Plenty for sale on Ebay.         ..... Phil

"pfjw@aol.com" <pfjw@aol.com>: Feb 22 04:36AM -0800 On Tuesday, February 21, 2017 at 9:17:23 PM UTC-5, radiotek wrote: > you have any in you junk box please contact me.   > -- > radiotek   http://www.mouser.com/Search/Refine.aspx?Keyword=ferrite+rod     "Without" - but a good range of options.

radiotek <radiotek.12f352d8@diybanter.com>: Feb 22 03:11PM +0100 I went to 'CWS ByteMark Front Page' (http://WWW.Bytemark.com) and (BOY) there prices are very high. They wanted $33 for a 3/8" dia x 4" long ferrite rod.   I just purchased a few junker radios from ebay and saved a lot.   I do appreciate you trying to help.     radiotek;3878648 Wrote:   -- radiotek

Steve Kraus <screen@SPAMBLOCKfilmteknik.com>: Feb 21 11:50PM -0600 I'm not familiar with the term "cartridge motor."   Here is a photo of one type of timer motor. I was under the impression, perhaps wrongly, that this is a sync motor. This one does start either way and there's a thing in the gear train to jam it and cause it to reverse if it starts up in reverse.   https://imgur.com/gallery/y5hNb   If this is in fact a sync motor then the variation I see must just be something with the actual switch mechanism and how it snaps over each time.

"pfjw@aol.com" <pfjw@aol.com>: Feb 22 04:31AM -0800 On Wednesday, February 22, 2017 at 12:50:18 AM UTC-5, Steve Kraus wrote: > I'm not familiar with the term "cartridge motor."   http://image2.cccme.org.cn/i_supply/2011-03-05/20110305120000000920290.jpg   This is a cartridge motor with the gear-train included. They come in many variation, including a double-layer device for additional torque. They are usually about 40mm across, but can be smaller/larger.   Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

isw <isw@witzend.com>: Feb 21 10:08PM -0800 In article <58ab5d08$0$43810$c3e8da3$5e5e430d@news.astraweb.com>,   > > http://www.ohgizmo.com/2006/03/06/the-biggest-subwoofer-ever-made   > Didn't ElectroVoice sell a 30 inch speaker? It wasn't as big but you > could actually buy one.   ElectroVoice did briefly offer a 30" woofer. It didn't sound very good and didn't last very long on the market.   Here's the backstory:   Paul Klipsch (father of the Klipschorn) had cut a deal with EV where EV provided 15" woofers with special characteristics to Paul to use in the 'Horns, and in exchange Klipsch licensed EV to produce both kits and ready-built versions of a modified K-Horn. (It was the EV "Georgian" in case you're interested).   The mods EV had made offended Klipsch, so he was already pissed at them (picky, he was), and then when the woofers they were sending started showing up with cracked magnets Paul cancelled the agreement and found another source for his woofers.   EV, no longer able to offer an enclosure with the bottom end provided by a horn woofer, tried to replace it with that 30" behemoth in a more "standard" enclosure. Didn't work out.   Later, EV tried a scaled-up version of the horn, using an 18" woofer (the "Patrician IV"). Paul told them that wouldn't sound right but they didn't listen. As usual, he was right.   Isaac

jurb6006@gmail.com: Feb 21 06:37PM -0800 >"You're acting like $100 is like a month's rent or a car payment. What does $100 get you these days? "   Some people are tired of our landfills geting stuffed with cheap imported junk that cannot be repaired, and then we will eventually have to deal with the environmental aspects of it. Some are actually tired of sending money overseas. I know I am, and have stopped. In fact I buy almost nothing new. Food of course.   People need those 4K TVs and new cars, I couldn't even drive a new car. I get in a car I expect to see PRNDSL or 1-3|2-4 or whatever, I want the lights to come on immediately when I open a door and to go off immediately when I close it. I will lock and unlock my own doors thank you.   I also don't need their suposed 500 watts surround system that is more like half that, if that much, and has one subwoofer and a bunch of balsa wood speakers.   There is a small but growing contingent of the population who are simply sick of the rat race to get the biggest TV and the new car with variable valve timing and direct cylinder injection. I don't need a 4K TV because my eyes don't see that good, on a PC I'll put a 19 inch monitor on 800 X 600.   Y'all yuppie type go ahead and make the Chinese richer. It is really helping them, all fifty of them. The rest have about gotten to the point where they can afford a few things but you are helping their government mainly, and we really aren't all that sure about them.   We NEED to learn to fix shit again. We NEED to learn to build shit again. Tis Trump gratness is a bunch of shit because he never worked a day in his life. I like the idea behind it but he is not the best choicee to try to implement it. The one thing though is that we cannot keep on importng all this shit.   If you got that school taughten disease you migth retort with all our exports, and for example food, we export more. By tonnage. Not dollar value. We export wheat, try living on wheat. And now finally we had some months of being a net exporter of oil, but realize that alot of the refining is done overseas. Even if Keynes was right aout his fucked up model of an economy, no country, no matter what, can continue to consume more than it prodices forever. Countries pointed to by socialists and wannabes like Norway for example, have natural resources that are shared with the People. It reduces their tax burden for their social programs. In one country, I forgot which, they generate so much electricity that you do not get a bill from the elctric company every month, you get a check. In the US they would never share like that. Looks like about twenty people get that money.   Even a toaster. I remember about VCRs having to tell people "This is not a toaster". Well now they are as disposable. But are they ? Are they really ? Can we just throw them in a dumpster and forget about them and all the tapes made on our camcorders from the 1980s n shit ?   i take the view that repairers are in a war with manufacturers. When I was hot and heavy as a pro I didn't want to give much help except to people who seemed like pros because that was our living. But now I am more willing.   I just say to these people to learn respect for electricity. When in doubt keep one hand away, in your pocket in fact. When you have something powered by a wallwart you are a bit less unsafe, though a good screwup could still cause a fire. You are just a bit less likely to get a shock due to a ground fault. There are plenty of other ways to die. Like a microwave oven, you don't need a ground fault at all to die off of one of those. In fact most hobbyists should stay our of them.   But they won't. They didn't before and they won't in the future. And some of them are like "Hold my beer". I don't like to see good people die, and they probably were good because they were trying to do something useful, but some are going to get zapped. It is like the gun issue, some will die, too bad.   But, still the price of a unit or replacement is of issue when you are a pro. My time was billed at about a hundred bucks an hour. At that rate of course the replacement cost is important. But then every once in a while you'll get someone who really likes their TV. And VCRs too, ?I have had people say "I don't care I could buy a new one for that, I finally figured out how to program this MF ! FIX IT". And don't even get me started on old stereo equipment.   Another thing with me was 30 year old cars. I owuld fix them literally until they fell apart. I am from a car family, and I never wanted a new car. I won't just buy it because that is what is for sale.   A hundred dollars ? If I had the work I could have made a hundred dollars in the time it took to type this.

Phoena Greene <rhiann.is@n.ugly.hoe>: Feb 21 08:18PM > Like a microwave oven, you don't need a ground fault at all to die off of one of those.   I suspect that Sitre Magana is going to die from a microwave oven, just from all the calories he gets out of them.

jurb6006@gmail.com: Feb 21 07:06PM -0800 I am somewhat with the Craigslist crowd on this. Maybe eBay but shipping can be a bitch and a CRO could be damaged.   What people do not understand (maybe that is why the engineers over on SED don't want to pay new grads anythng ?) is that when you take a regular CRO down to very slow sweep speeds and then conect a battery to the test probe, even a five year old gains a certain appreciation for electricity. I have not see an DSO that can duplcate that, but I am sure they could de velope one if they got their eyes off of having the most useless features. And for a beginner, having a spectrum analyzer is useless, plus from what I hear many of them are linear scale. Without accurately depicting the octaves, what good are they ?   It might be a good idea to just go look for electronic surplus, and don't even look for a scope that is in pristeen condition. Learn to fix it and calibrate it by the seat of your pants so to speak. There should be places like HGR and ESI all over the place. It is just a matter of looking at the item description. Mainly you want it to have a trace, both channels. you need the vertical positioning controls to work, on both channels. that will pretty much clear any unobtainium ICs and whatnot in there. If it does not pass those tests then keep the mohey down. Offer like twenty bucks.   It is always best to go see the unit. some people are paranoid to go to strangers' houses but come on, if you are about to get robbed usually the deal is too good to be true. When you are around $50 or whatever, it is not a setup. And if you think it is, take a gun.   Take a paper clip or something to hit the V input on it and see if you can get that "hum" waveform, if so, that much the better. You should be able to synch into that. Watch the controls, like "synch source" for example. Do not poke the paper clip into the BNC connector, it will make it loose and it might be in a predicament that makes it very hard to change. Just hold it at the outside and make the electrical connection.   If you get that 60 Hz waveform and the scope will synch into it you are way over halfway there. Sure, there could be alot wrong with it but that is a different thing. When they are dead, or have no trace or whatever, that is when you really don't want to sink alot of money onto it.   I have three lower bandwidth scopes but I can't afford to be giving shit away. I might be able to hook you up with something in the mid range of CROs, my buddy has a couple of Teks around. One actually you can probably get reasonable is like a 465 or something, but it is a B or whatever, a bit rare. I think it moight have a hair more bandwidth. But it is supposed to have dual time base and that part is not working. I ran the problem down to the triggering (or retriggring) and kinda got lost there. But it works fine as a normal scope. Not sure what he wants for it but if you RSVP here I will ask.   Bottom line, the CRO is boss. I would consider a digital if they would make one actually REALLY emulate a CRO. All you digital scope folks, this is your chance to get a convert. Other than that, I am a CRO afficianado.

Bob F <bobnospam@gmail.com>: Feb 21 06:30PM -0800 > or 1000W, but there are 9 of them).   > From what I am seeing, those transformers are all under rated. A friends > house has 200A service and his transformer is only 8KVA.   You could just contact the utility with the details of what you are drawing. They might choose to replace the transformer. I was told onece that if I increased usage significantly and did not tell them, I could be responsible for the transformer being damaged. If I told them, no problem.

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