Thursday, September 27, 2007

You know something else that really grind my gears ?

You know something else that really grind my gears ? Fixing/modding something that won't work when your done.

Yesterday I finally decided that I was going to mod my Colecovision. It's not really for me that I was doing it, it was for the Arcadia Festival. I was only adding a simple Audio/Video Composite mod to it, to be able to use RCA cables with it. My friend Sensato recently gave me a new way of doing it since the previous method I had was scary and expensive. By scary I mean it looked like it was freaking hard to do.

The first part of the mod went fine and was done pretty fast. Three small components, add the wires and then test. After less than an hour I do my first test : I get a clean picture ! Yeah ! Time to clean everything, put the connectors and call it a day.

I put duct tape (my favorite kind of tape. How could a tape that has a duck as a logo can not be your favorite too ?) to avoid any short, makes the holes for the connectors, put them in, solder everything (including the top metal shield), secure everything and do a test before closing it out.

And thats when it started to go downhill : I get washed out colors. I remove the metal shield (remember, in the old days, they were soldered to the board) and leave the Coleco pluged in to see how I was doing.

And I get perfect colors. I start to reassemble it.

And I get washed out colors. Even sometime, I don't even get colors ! I'm starting to get pissed. I think that maybe the RF shield is causing a short and I decide to remove it. Anyway, this one won't be using RF output anymore.

And I get perfect colors. I start to reassemble again. I put the metal shield and everything looks good. I put screw the shell back in place and I test.

And I still get perfect colors ! Yeah ! Then I realize I forgot to put in the power LED.

I should mention here that Colecovision were hard as hell to disassemble. They are made of 3 plastic part : top, base and front. The top and the front are screwed together and then a sticker is put on the front, making them stuck forever, unless you want to lose the sticker (which is almost impossible to replace). Once you're done putting it back together, you don't want to open it again.

So I open it back and look for a 5v lead. The Coleco power adapter output 12v, 5v and -5v, but I can't get the 5v from there because the main switch only is for the 12v lead. I had to look on the net for the schematics, find a suitable 5v lead and connect a red LED to it. Then it's time to test the LED.

Guess what ? Red LED, not the hyper-bright kind, doesn't need 5v... they need less than that. I burned 2 LEDs to realize that. I still can't understand why I didn't buy hyper-bright red LED instead of regular, while I got green and blue in the hyper-bright... So I settle for a green LED, which love the 5v (this thing is bright enough to make you blind, I'm sure) and start making the hole for it next to the power switch. I hook up everything, test the light and reassemble the damn thing.

By that time, I have spent 2 hours and a half on that. I'm finally done and do a final test.

I get washed out colors ! Argh ! The next hour and a half was spent disassembling and reassembling the whole thing because I was sure I had fixed the issue. Around 10:30PM, I was finally done. Good colors, nice and powerful LED and everything fully assembled.

Then I started to work on the Atari 2600. I had first done the mod to a Atari Jr. but might have killed it during the mod. Good thing I have a backup ! I do have to mention that I used the wrong potentiometer while I first did the mod. I used 2k instead of 1k, but in my mind, a 2k pot in the middle become a 1k pot. Maybe not...

I remove the 2k pots, put the 1k pots in, resolder on the second Atari board and test.

Clean picture, good colors. It's karma, I'm sure.

It's getting late so I decide to put the metal shield back in and call it a day. But before I go to bed, I do a last test.

I get a scrambled picture ! It took me five minutes to saw one little wire had broken off, the one that sync the whole video signal !

This one will be fixed tonight. I'll then install the connectors, the power LED (I won't forget it this time).

Then I start to pray that everything hold off next November !

You know what else really grind my gears ?

You know what else really grind my gears ? Morning traffic.

During the 4 years I've been travelling to Ottawa for work (I miss thoses days where our buidling was in Hull), I've seen an increase in early traffic. I normally leave my house at 6:00AM and get stuck on the highway almost right away.

How come so many people start to work so early now ? 4 years ago, the highway was not even crowded until past 7:00. Now you have to expect an additional 10 min to come in on time. I didn't slept really good last night (blame it on the current heat wave) and had to get the garbages out so I left 25min late. It took me more than one hour to get to work ! It's getting ridiculous !

4 years ago, the road were empty when I was leaving home. Now I see a line of twenty cars waiting at the drive-in line at Timmy's. Make yourself a coffee for god sake ! You'll save 2$ and won't have to wait 20min for it. I've been contemplating the idea of starting late, around 9:00AM, like a coworker of mine did before. But the peak hour tend to end at 9:30AM, so I still would have to stay in the traffic for 40min. I don't really want to leave before 6:00AM, because I like my morning sleep. I'm stuck !

At least now I have a decent car. Last winter was horrible in the old Daewoo because it was cold inside the car during the whole trip. Now I stuck in traffic, but at least I'm comfy.

I wish I could win the loto and stay at home. Somebody want to buy me a ticket ?

You know what really grind my gears ?

You know what really grind my gears ? Thinking that everything is harder than it looks.

Let me explain. At our last paintball game, when checking the speed of our markers, mine was acting funny, never shooting at the correct speed. Either too slow or too fast, sometimes even shooting 3 feet in front of me.

So I disassemble the whole freaking thing. I check my air lines and see that my Quick Exhaust Valve is dirty. thinking that I found the issue, I try to clean it. I even ask the staff to help me clean it since I didn't have the correct tools. I reassamble the thing after it's clean and guess what ? I have a leak ! I almost rip the whole freaking thing apart and find the leak, screw a loose bolt and it's fine. I go to the speed check station for a second time. Same problem, can't fire at correct speed. Since I want to play, I take a rental marker and get in the field.

Speaking of rental, I'll never use one again. Once you get an electronic marker, you never go back to mechanical. You get so used to the fast rate of fire, almost no recoil and lightness. To make it worse, my rental had a CO2 bottle, while I use an Air tank. If I can't use my marker, I'm not playing.

But let's get back to the main issue. During lunch, I try again to fix it, to no avail. The damn thing won't fire correctly. I reluctantly use the rental again and finish the day with it.

That was back in July. I didn't touch my marker since then until earlier this week. I read on the net that most QEV can't be service so when they have stuff in them, they have to be thrown out. I said "Fine, I'll install the stock bolt back in. I replace the tubing with the correct length, but bock the bolt and it's good to go. I buy myself some balls (hard to test without them) and fire a couple shots in my backyard (had to be carefull, I have a bitchy neighbour). Looks fine to me but I want to test at a friend of mine, where I can shoot more and faster without disturbing anyone.

I went at his place yesterday. Put balls in the hopper and start to shoot. The first balls drop at my feet and the second doesn't get out of the barrel. I'm officially pissed at myself.

Earlier in the day, I was reading my marker manual at work. In the troubleshooting section, there is a question about shooting inconsistency. The first thing the manual mention is to change the battery... Which nobody ever tought about. I open the marker, change the battery and try to shoot again. I don't see where the ball land because it went too far. Same thing for the 5 balls after that. I aim for the plywood target my friend and I improvised and hit it. My marker is back to normal.

So I could have avoided all of this just by changing the freaking battery. I did all that for nothing, my QEV was still usable and I missed a lot of fun because I stressed over this and had to use a rental marker. The worse is that I had extra batteries at the game !

Remember, when something's wrong, check the battery !