Repairs

I talked about fixing the glow ball the other day and got around to doing it more "permanently" last night. I broke out the solder and attached the wire to the negative pole of the LED, which was easy because it was roomy compared to the legs of the microchip. I need to take another look at the solder at the chip itself because my skills aren't what you would call "good" when it comes to soldering in small areas.


Trying to get a good connection on the chip was tricky and if you make accidental connections, you get interesting results. Connecting legs 2 and 3 seems to be ok, but if you make contact with 1, the LED doesn't light up. If you connect to leg 4, the switch no longer requires a five second hold to activate it, meaning a well placed tooth while Dempsey is chewing results in the ball going dark.


As you can see from the picture, the ball again "works". I did some field testing last night, bouncing the ball all the way to the park and then playing fetch for 10 minutes so Dempsey could so some chewing. I put the quotations around works because this morning we had a strange sequence of events.


It was pretty much a giant shell game but instead of cups and a ball, it was two red LED balls and two black dogs in a dark park. I got to the park and Guiness and his owner (sad how many dog owners know each other by dog names alone) were there, with a new LED ball. Magically, around the same time, both balls started to go dark and both dogs kept trading balls.

I wanted to take a look at my soldering work when we got home from the park so I pulled the plug on the ball. I knew pretty much right away that there had been a ball swap! Both were acting up similarly, turning on properly, but turning off somewhat randomly. Fortunately Guiness' owner bought four, knowing they were finicky, so I'll get to soldering on this one. If we cross paths next week, we can trade balls back. The good news is that with a respectable solder job, the ball should do what it is supposed to . . . I hope.

The mudroom remodel is underway, in concept at least. I have all my measurements, flooring is ordered, the water filtration and all required fittings are on the way. I am still trying to find the right cabinets. I looked at some cool 1950's ones yesterday that would have worked if I had 8" more space to play with. I am looking at another set tonight that are also metal and retro. Just to give you an idea what I am thinking . . .


These were done by a custom auto shop that appears to dabble in kitchen items as well. I will do some calling around to see how much professional painting will cost, if all else fails, there is plenty of information on painting metal cabinets out there.