Doctor Who?

Congratulations, Soren!

-Tim

Smoke on the controller...

...fire in the lab.

Mike and I were trying to connect an ion gauge controller to the ion gauge in one of the transfer tubes without knowing that the gauge had been damaged during the move. (An ion gauge is a device used to measure pressure once you get below the millitorr range, and the ion gauge controller reads/displays the pressure and can control the pumps to keep the pressure at a set level.)

The gauge we were using was physically shorted out by being smashed together so that the filament and ground were touching the collector grid. At first, when we tried to turn on the gauge, nothing happened. But after trying to light the filament a few times the controller began spewing out the characteristic smoke and odor of burning electronics. Surprisingly, it didn't work after that. Of course, they don't make this piece of equipment anymore, but it's going for about $1000 used, so we're pretty screwed.

We opened it up and used the patented 'sniff test' to figure out where the problem might be.


It seemed to smell the worst in the bottom left corner of the unit, so we pulled that card out and sure enough, there was a big black burn mark beneath the component on the board that smelled the worst. The manual specified the burned out piece as a bridge rectifier, but didn't list the manufacturer. We were never able to find the exact part, but the ECE Storeroom sold one that looked close enough to us (and had the same electronic specifications) for about $2, so we decided to give that a try.

We cut off the offending part and soldered in the new one, heck you can barely even tell what we replaced as long as you don't look closely...or at all really. (The leftmost of the two little black pieces with holes in the middle.)


And much to our surprise, it actually worked!

Of course, we also destroyed a second controller. Lots more smoke came out of that one, and we have no idea what exactly the problem is.

-Tim

Gutters gutted

Keeping with the theme of drainage from my last post, I took advantage of the nice weather to clean out our gutters today. I'm afraid I can't really describe the experience for you if you've never done it yourself. I just wouldn't be able to do it justice.

At least I got to use my awesome ladder.

-Tim

Didn't go down the hole...

We got back to the house after visiting the parent's over Christmas to discover a few, well...a few surprise gifts. The first winter heating bill was a bit of a shock, the car insurance renewal bill was expected but not wholly welcome, and the flooding in the bathtub while running the washing machine didn't seem like a good sign at all. The next day we left with Tamara's family to go to her Great Aunt and Uncle's 50th wedding anniversary not knowing if we would find a working toilet when we got back or not.

Ah the joys of home ownership.

Things were ok when we first got back, but it soon became clear that we had only earned a temporary reprieve. There was never another episode with the toilet, but the shower quickly refused to drain out any water at all. So we needed a plumber, and we (ok, I) made the critical mistake of calling the one with the biggest ad in the phonebook, an obvious in mistake hindsight. They sent out a very inexperienced plumber who checked our main drainage line to discover standing water, indicating that the whole house was indeed blocked. Immediately he was telling us that a tree root probably destroyed our main line and we would need to dig it up and replace it for around $5,000.

His first step was to try the electric auger (for almost $300), but after two and a half hours he hadn't hit any solid blockage or pulled up any mud or tree roots. Finally, he--and the backup plumber he called in--recommended that they come back the next day with a 'jetter' which would blast high pressure water into the system to flush it all out, for an additional $500. They left the main drain uncovered when they left for the night so we could still use the toilet, but we had to throw ourselves on the mercy of Jon and Kathi to take showers.

The next morning (today) I called the Sanitary District, whom we pay for the sewer service, but they just transferred me over to Public Works department. The woman at PW was great and had a crew dispatched to check the sewer within about a minute of answering the phone. The PW crew dropped by the house a little later to let me know that the sewers were fine and no one else in the neighborhood had complained, so the problem was definitely ours and ours alone. They also most certainly did NOT recommend a better, cheaper plumber. *wink* *wink* After all, they're not allowed to do that sort of thing.

The first plumber came back and said that his boss had told him that he hadn't augered enough and that he should try again (without charging again). Meanwhile, I got a quote of $175, from the plumber that was NOT recommended to me, for the same jetting service. He was pretty funny on the phone too, he asked me what made me so sure that I needed him to jet the main line. I had to reply that I had been recommended that service, but had gotten a quote that seemed a tad high. He just laughed, guess he'd heard that one before. Needless to say, I didn't let the fist guy go ahead with the $500 jetting.

When the second plumber got here this afternoon it took them about 20 minutes to jet the line and get us up and running again. He also said we didn't need to worry about replacing any pipes unless we started getting backed up like this every three or four months.

It's just too bad we couldn't get ahold of the Super Mario Bros. plumbing company.
-Tim