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I'm feeling a bit down today, (partially?) because I had to throw out a project.
Back in like.. mid 2022? our elliptical machine broke. I figured it was the controller, and I read up on how they worked, and I figured, hey I can make a DIY controller for that, it'll be cool! .. well, then some functional testing revealed it wasn't the controller, it was the sensor for where the resistance motor is that was faulty. They're simple variable resistors, and kept outside they can get unreliable. So I found the service manual, and it says "well just remove this bit, then this bit and it's simple to replace" .. except with removing what they say to, there's no physical way to actually take off the bit that you need to get to it - I tried removing the bit the hard way, and there were stuck bolts, rust, spiders.. and I just kept putting it off. Then in august it still wasn't done, we had Avery, and it's been gathering dust and cobwebs ever since.
I "know" what needs to be done to fix it - except even fixed, eliz doesn't want it where it is (fair enough), it won't fit inside, the only place to put it is the garage and even then we'd need to move bikes etc to make space, and unfortunately I just.. I dunno, can't get up motivation to do it. Both physically and in terms of the changes to the garage it will bring. So this one in pieces has been dragged down to the curb for hard rubbish collection on Monday. Which is where we got it 6 years ago, so at least we aren't throwing money away, but I wish I could have finished it.. about a year ago. It's been a proverbial albatross since then, but I still feel bad about getting rid of it. Also, we have a smaller but no where near as good elliptical inside already. Which currently isn't getting a lot of use, but at least it's in one piece and not covered in spiders.
--
A project back online! Also in 2022 I started designing a circuit board to power up any of apple's old black and white compact macs with a standard PC power supply and output something that looks like VGA. I even got some boards made up, but didn't build any. I started back at it last week and found out someone has come up with an even better way to do it.. sigh, so I've ordered some more parts, and all going well, I should be able to get that bashed out next week.
--
As for a future project.. Eliz and I have come up with a design for a bookshelf for our dining area to replace a trestle table which we are keeping a bunch of stuff on. I'm excited by it - I got a quote of $3999 to build it.. and I think I can do it for about $1100.. so I will work on getting things ready for that one soon too.
Back in like.. mid 2022? our elliptical machine broke. I figured it was the controller, and I read up on how they worked, and I figured, hey I can make a DIY controller for that, it'll be cool! .. well, then some functional testing revealed it wasn't the controller, it was the sensor for where the resistance motor is that was faulty. They're simple variable resistors, and kept outside they can get unreliable. So I found the service manual, and it says "well just remove this bit, then this bit and it's simple to replace" .. except with removing what they say to, there's no physical way to actually take off the bit that you need to get to it - I tried removing the bit the hard way, and there were stuck bolts, rust, spiders.. and I just kept putting it off. Then in august it still wasn't done, we had Avery, and it's been gathering dust and cobwebs ever since.
I "know" what needs to be done to fix it - except even fixed, eliz doesn't want it where it is (fair enough), it won't fit inside, the only place to put it is the garage and even then we'd need to move bikes etc to make space, and unfortunately I just.. I dunno, can't get up motivation to do it. Both physically and in terms of the changes to the garage it will bring. So this one in pieces has been dragged down to the curb for hard rubbish collection on Monday. Which is where we got it 6 years ago, so at least we aren't throwing money away, but I wish I could have finished it.. about a year ago. It's been a proverbial albatross since then, but I still feel bad about getting rid of it. Also, we have a smaller but no where near as good elliptical inside already. Which currently isn't getting a lot of use, but at least it's in one piece and not covered in spiders.
--
A project back online! Also in 2022 I started designing a circuit board to power up any of apple's old black and white compact macs with a standard PC power supply and output something that looks like VGA. I even got some boards made up, but didn't build any. I started back at it last week and found out someone has come up with an even better way to do it.. sigh, so I've ordered some more parts, and all going well, I should be able to get that bashed out next week.
--
As for a future project.. Eliz and I have come up with a design for a bookshelf for our dining area to replace a trestle table which we are keeping a bunch of stuff on. I'm excited by it - I got a quote of $3999 to build it.. and I think I can do it for about $1100.. so I will work on getting things ready for that one soon too.
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