"Prisoner at War" wrote in message
...
On Nov 28, 5:36 pm, "Ouroboros_Rex" wrote:


Just take in the supply. =)

LOL...yeah, I guess we can have a little black market going here, with
me passing out office supplies and the tradesmen passing out tools and
small hardware....

They do not necessarily open easily, and all sorts of panel buttons and
other bits can fall out if you're not careful. You can also static shock
things into scrap status. If you don't have skills in this area, it's
probably best to pay the piper here.

Ah, okay, understood! I can open up my computer and install any
hardware, so I was wondering if my electric piano situation might be
similar...guess not; thanks for the advice!

No, it is similar, as long as you don't have to solder. Ground yourself
with a strap or through a 10 meg resistor, look things over well to see what
position it should be in when you open it, make sure NOTHING gets away and
goes bouncing off under the couch when you hatch it open (dark towels help
here), take pictures to help with reassembly if you have to do anything
fancy, and always take notes and use parts cups or mugs.

Frankly, you shouldn't have to bother with most of that, those are just
the general rules. The biggest drawback to doing your own work is the
potential to make things worse. I tried to add an external filter input to
an Arp Odyssey in 1983 and fried it irreparably with one wrong move.



No, it would be something that turned black, or looked like a blown
fuse,
or popped up or whatnot, which you would probably have to desolder and
replace, or bridge (not recommended.)

Old Apple II disk drives used a hex buffer chip as a 'fuse'. it was
just
a standard part and did not discolor, so sometimes these simply can't be
seen.

Okay, one last question...'cause I'm really curious, due to electronic
gadgets failing on me all these years (and I'm not talking about
tripping over them, either, like with my piano here)...any
recommendations for a good Electronic Repair 101 book?? I mean,
geared towards complete newbies who probably haven't even heard of
static electricity....

Not really. There are probably good ones. I took an electricity class in
high school, and built a bunch of kits.

There is, however, a sci.electronics.repair group.

http://www.repairfaq.org/