There, I fixed it × 2

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 01:47:49 GMT

A few weeks ago, my PlayStation 2 died. I frowned at it, and figured I'd just go to the store and buy another one. fizzygeek looked surprised and asked me "Aren't you going to even try to fix it? If it's dead anyway, you can't make it any worse!". Chagrined, I realized she was completely right. I did some "research" on the internet and found that there was a common failure mode that might be easy to fix. There's a small gear-shaped adjuster in the laser assembly that changes the laser axis ever so slightly. The teeth on the gear engage a springloaded pawl, providing detents. So I took a small screwdriver and adjusted it one tick clockwise. And it started working! So I thanked fizzygeek, put it back together, and have been enjoying it ever since (Taiko Drum Master!).

As I mentioned yesterday, I got a scanner via Freecycle. But I don't like that scanner, it blinks abominably in an attempt to annoy me into buying it expensive ink prezzies. Also, once it came up to room temperature, I realized it reeked of old tobacco smoke. Out onto the porch it went.

I got an email from Epson this morning offering me a refurb V500 for $134. I considered it, then looked on Amazon, to find I could buy a brand new one for $200 now (I don't know if this was serendipity, or Amazon's price engine realizing what I was up to and adjusting prices accordingly). Or I could get a V600 (which has optics for scanning non-flat 3D objects) for $12 more. And the "today only" free standard shipping offer was still in force. *click* Uh-oh, expected delivery March 15. Free standard shipping isn't very useful with a 2-month lead time.

I mentioned yesterday that my original scanner had shuddered through a single preview scan, then started to make unhappy noises and eventually refused to scan at all, unhappily blinking its lights at me. fizzygeek asked "Are you going to try to fix it?" So I took it apart and looked at all the pieces. This turned out not to be necessary. Musing on it in the shower this morning, I realized that the slippage wasn't because the connection to the carriage was loose, it was because the carriage was too hard to move. Accordingly, when I got home from work tonight, I put it all back together and cleaned the guide rod. Sure enough, it was covered with old hard grease. With that removed, the scanner works again!

Then I get email from Amazon. My (now 3rd) scanner is now scheduled to arrive January 20.

fizzygeek:	2
Me:	0

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Bodging my way through life

There, I fixed it × 2