A friend got an old pioneer receiver for $5 - sounds better than his
Marantz.

He had it cranked up and noticed one channel was out. Messed with
the wires and switches - eventually we narrowed it down to dirty
pots for the most part.

Anyway, he smacked it on the side. The tuner dial light went out.
Smacked it again. sound went south. Again. Sound went farther south.
Again. No sound.

"Bad solder," I opined. "Hit it on the other side."

The sound came back a bit and we laughed. I swear each time he hit
it on the other side, the system came back up exactly the opposite
of the way it went down in the first place, with the final smack
bringing the dial light back.

"Ok. Good solder. You just have to know how to work it," I quipped.


--
Best Regards,
Mike

Ah! Good old general repair procedure #1. Whack it!

--
Best regards,
Mark Daughtry, SR

"Active8" wrote in message
...
A friend got an old pioneer receiver for $5 - sounds better than his
Marantz.

He had it cranked up and noticed one channel was out. Messed with
the wires and switches - eventually we narrowed it down to dirty
pots for the most part.

Anyway, he smacked it on the side. The tuner dial light went out.
Smacked it again. sound went south. Again. Sound went farther south.
Again. No sound.

"Bad solder," I opined. "Hit it on the other side."

The sound came back a bit and we laughed. I swear each time he hit
it on the other side, the system came back up exactly the opposite
of the way it went down in the first place, with the final smack
bringing the dial light back.

"Ok. Good solder. You just have to know how to work it," I quipped.


--
Best Regards,
Mike

M.Daughtry wrote:
Ah! Good old general repair procedure #1. Whack it!

No no no no no. "Whacking it" is neither politically
correct or billable.

What it needs is "percussive maintenance".

Ken

On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 18:36:56 GMT, Ken Weitzel wrote:

M.Daughtry wrote:
Ah! Good old general repair procedure #1. Whack it!

Actually, percussing an assembly is a good way to diagnose faulty
solder joints and such.

No no no no no. "Whacking it" is neither politically
correct or billable.

It is if someone pays to watch or you're paying *for it*, but Peewee
Herman got arrested 'cause no one wanted to watch. He should have
asked.

What it needs is "percussive maintenance".

Ken
--
Best Regards,
Mike

Hi Active8,

When Archie Bunker did the technical slap to his old TV the result was a plume of smoke :-(

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

Active8 wrote:

"Ok. Good solder. You just have to know how to work it," I quipped.


One of my jobs was video game tech. Way cool job, if you like poking
around with microprocessors and playing video games. Anyway, one
of the test fixtures was a memory tester, that basically wrote
and read a known pattern. It showed patterns on the screen, big
whoop. Well, this memory tester had a label: "if not working,
wap it." And yes, that's how whoever wrote it spelled what I
presume means "whap." ;-) And it _did_ work that way.

Cheers!
Rich

Active8 wrote:

On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 18:36:56 GMT, Ken Weitzel wrote:

M.Daughtry wrote:
Ah! Good old general repair procedure #1. Whack it!

Actually, percussing an assembly is a good way to diagnose faulty
solder joints and such.

No no no no no. "Whacking it" is neither politically
correct or billable.

It is if someone pays to watch or you're paying *for it*, but Peewee
Herman got arrested 'cause no one wanted to watch. He should have
asked.

What's weird is that in this day and age of sexual harassment, lethal
STDs, and all the horrors about sex in general, they jumped all over
him for having safe sex, by himself. I got this from some woman
comic - the name Elayne Boosler springs to mind, but probably because
she springs to mind any time comedy and sex are in the air. ;-) It
could have been Janneane[sp] Garaofolo[sp].

Cheers!
Rich

On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 16:14:49 -0400, Active8
wrote:

On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 18:36:56 GMT, Ken Weitzel wrote:

M.Daughtry wrote:
Ah! Good old general repair procedure #1. Whack it!

Actually, percussing an assembly is a good way to diagnose faulty
solder joints and such.

No no no no no. "Whacking it" is neither politically
correct or billable.

It is if someone pays to watch or you're paying *for it*, but Peewee
Herman got arrested 'cause no one wanted to watch. He should have
asked.

Then there's always George Michael's "Careless Whispers". :-)

Tom


What it needs is "percussive maintenance".

Ken

"Active8" bravely wrote to "All" (24 Aug 04 16:14:49)
--- on the heady topic of " Repair humor"

We call this the "impact test". Testing labs use special shake tables
connected to powerful audio amps. I bet they use heavy metal or rap as
the input signal from time to time...


Ac From: Active8

Ac On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 18:36:56 GMT, Ken Weitzel wrote:

M.Daughtry wrote:
Ah! Good old general repair procedure #1. Whack it!

Ac Actually, percussing an assembly is a good way to diagnose faulty
Ac solder joints and such.

No no no no no. "Whacking it" is neither politically
correct or billable.

Ac It is if someone pays to watch or you're paying *for it*, but Peewee
Ac Herman got arrested 'cause no one wanted to watch. He should have
Ac asked.

What it needs is "percussive maintenance".

.... If all else fails, hurl it across the room a few times!

On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 18:36:56 GMT, Ken Weitzel wrote:



M.Daughtry wrote:
Ah! Good old general repair procedure #1. Whack it!

No no no no no. "Whacking it" is neither politically
correct or billable.

What it needs is "percussive maintenance".

Ken


In the 70's and 80's I worked as a support engineer for a large
mainframe computer company. One weekend I was at a customer site
attempting to find a very intermittant problem. I had found a good sized
piece of 2x4 and was beating on the metal frame while running diagnostic
software. A member of the local customer management happened to stop by
while I was doing this. He failed to see the practicality of my
technique. I had to stop and do other things until after he left the
site.

The general public for the most part do not think of smacking
electronics .
Where i work checking and fixing store return stuff many times i will
``slug` something and it will jump to life .. people always laugh in
amazment .

I had it the other day with an all in one HP printer that insisted on
displaying a paper jam so i unplugged it and dropped it on the floor
from about 2 foot up . The copy lid went flying open and slammed shut as
it hit the floor with a crash .
I plugged it back in one last time and it worked fine ... this time i
was suprized .

On Wed, 25 Aug 2004 21:35:06 GMT, xray wrote:

On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 18:36:56 GMT, Ken Weitzel wrote:



M.Daughtry wrote:
Ah! Good old general repair procedure #1. Whack it!

No no no no no. "Whacking it" is neither politically
correct or billable.

What it needs is "percussive maintenance".

Ken


In the 70's and 80's I worked as a support engineer for a large
mainframe computer company. One weekend I was at a customer site
attempting to find a very intermittant problem. I had found a good sized
piece of 2x4 and was beating on the metal frame while running diagnostic
software. A member of the local customer management happened to stop by
while I was doing this. He failed to see the practicality of my
technique. I had to stop and do other things until after he left the
site.

Using the 2x4 on that guy would have been more productive. You're
fired
--
Best Regards,
Mike

Active8 wrote:

On Wed, 25 Aug 2004 21:35:06 GMT, xray wrote:


On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 18:36:56 GMT, Ken Weitzel wrote:



M.Daughtry wrote:

Ah! Good old general repair procedure #1. Whack it!

No no no no no. "Whacking it" is neither politically
correct or billable.

What it needs is "percussive maintenance".

Ken


In the 70's and 80's I worked as a support engineer for a large
mainframe computer company. One weekend I was at a customer site
attempting to find a very intermittant problem. I had found a good sized
piece of 2x4 and was beating on the metal frame while running diagnostic
software. A member of the local customer management happened to stop by
while I was doing this. He failed to see the practicality of my
technique. I had to stop and do other things until after he left the
site.


Using the 2x4 on that guy would have been more productive. You're
fired

Careful... you'll be sued for using those words...

They're now copyrighted by "The Trump"

Ken

We call it bench testing...pick up one side of the unit an drop it on the
bench...

Similar to using a fine-adjusting tool, aka ball-peen hammer.

Leonard

"xray" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 18:36:56 GMT, Ken Weitzel wrote:



M.Daughtry wrote:
Ah! Good old general repair procedure #1. Whack it!

No no no no no. "Whacking it" is neither politically
correct or billable.

What it needs is "percussive maintenance".

Ken


In the 70's and 80's I worked as a support engineer for a large
mainframe computer company. One weekend I was at a customer site
attempting to find a very intermittant problem. I had found a good sized
piece of 2x4 and was beating on the metal frame while running diagnostic
software. A member of the local customer management happened to stop by
while I was doing this. He failed to see the practicality of my
technique. I had to stop and do other things until after he left the
site.

On Wed, 25 Aug 2004 21:35:06 GMT, xray wrote:

On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 18:36:56 GMT, Ken Weitzel wrote:



M.Daughtry wrote:
Ah! Good old general repair procedure #1. Whack it!

No no no no no. "Whacking it" is neither politically
correct or billable.

What it needs is "percussive maintenance".

Ken


In the 70's and 80's I worked as a support engineer for a large
mainframe computer company. One weekend I was at a customer site
attempting to find a very intermittant problem. I had found a good sized
piece of 2x4 and was beating on the metal frame while running diagnostic
software. A member of the local customer management happened to stop by
while I was doing this. He failed to see the practicality of my
technique. I had to stop and do other things until after he left the
site.

I replaced an old REDCOR 160 channel rack mount analog to digital converter
in a B727 flight simulator at United Airlines training facility in Denver.
When we were updating the documentation to reflect the change out we ran
across a reference to "calibration tool P/N XXX". We located it in the tool
shack next to various card pullers, DVM's etc. It was an 18" 2X4 covered
with nicks and dings where it had been used to "de-glitch" the unit by
beating on it. There was even a written procedure showing the precise point
to attack.


Bob

Active8 wrote:

A friend got an old pioneer receiver for $5 - sounds better than his
Marantz.

He had it cranked up and noticed one channel was out. Messed with
the wires and switches - eventually we narrowed it down to dirty
pots for the most part.

Anyway, he smacked it on the side. The tuner dial light went out.
Smacked it again. sound went south. Again. Sound went farther south.
Again. No sound.

"Bad solder," I opined. "Hit it on the other side."

The sound came back a bit and we laughed. I swear each time he hit
it on the other side, the system came back up exactly the opposite
of the way it went down in the first place, with the final smack
bringing the dial light back.

"Ok. Good solder. You just have to know how to work it," I quipped.


Heard this line in a movie where the technician has just succeeded in
using the
'whack' repair method:

*** Warning! Politically incorrect content follows. ***


"A machine is just like a woman. Sometimes you have to hit them to make
them work."

--
Paul Hovnanian
note to spammers: a Washington State resident
------------------------------------------------------------------
Where am I going, and what am I doing in this handbasket?

"Paul Hovnanian P.E." wrote in message
...
Active8 wrote:

A friend got an old pioneer receiver for $5 - sounds better than his
Marantz.

He had it cranked up and noticed one channel was out. Messed with
the wires and switches - eventually we narrowed it down to dirty
pots for the most part.

Anyway, he smacked it on the side. The tuner dial light went out.
Smacked it again. sound went south. Again. Sound went farther south.
Again. No sound.

"Bad solder," I opined. "Hit it on the other side."

The sound came back a bit and we laughed. I swear each time he hit
it on the other side, the system came back up exactly the opposite
of the way it went down in the first place, with the final smack
bringing the dial light back.

"Ok. Good solder. You just have to know how to work it," I quipped.


Heard this line in a movie where the technician has just succeeded in
using the
'whack' repair method:

*** Warning! Politically incorrect content follows. ***


"A machine is just like a woman. Sometimes you have to hit them to make
them work."


When I was working at a BMW dealership, as a mechanic, a urologist came in
for yet another bent rim. He exclaimed "This car is more trouble then a G!D!
mistress". I thought I was out of earshot and said, "you have tried bouncing
them off a curb have you".
I got reamed out by the owner of the dealership, loud enough for the peter
dr. to hear, but the whole time the guy was giggling.
Pat

Out on a Toshiba 61" RPTV a few months back. Husband and wife both home so I
asked the husband to help me move the set out and disconnect the cable, etc.
I went around to the back and looked at the rear apron of the tele, I asked
if they had either cats or dogs. Cats mentioned the husband, "Why"?? As he
came behind the set and stated a profound "OH NO F@@#%^!&! CAT"!!
The back panel from bottom to about 18" high was discoloured and damp, I
gingerly removed tha panel to find that the spray had penetrated via the
ventelation vents aprox 8" into the set, all over the signal and
deflection panels. They were coloured a very nice greenish_yellow hew with
the definative colours of severe corrosion showing thru.
"Well; that cuts my diagnosis time almost 100%", I stated, and the service
contract does not cover liquid damages to your equiptment, be it man made,
animal, or otherwise!! Here is the bill for our service call fee.
On the way out the wife asked me if I cared for a nice "Litter Trained"
kitty to take home, of course I gladly refused!!
"Pat Ford" wrote in message
...

"Paul Hovnanian P.E." wrote in message
...
Active8 wrote:

A friend got an old pioneer receiver for $5 - sounds better than his
Marantz.

He had it cranked up and noticed one channel was out. Messed with
the wires and switches - eventually we narrowed it down to dirty
pots for the most part.

Anyway, he smacked it on the side. The tuner dial light went out.
Smacked it again. sound went south. Again. Sound went farther south.
Again. No sound.

"Bad solder," I opined. "Hit it on the other side."

The sound came back a bit and we laughed. I swear each time he hit
it on the other side, the system came back up exactly the opposite
of the way it went down in the first place, with the final smack
bringing the dial light back.

"Ok. Good solder. You just have to know how to work it," I quipped.


Heard this line in a movie where the technician has just succeeded in
using the
'whack' repair method:

*** Warning! Politically incorrect content follows. ***


"A machine is just like a woman. Sometimes you have to hit them to make
them work."


When I was working at a BMW dealership, as a mechanic, a urologist came in
for yet another bent rim. He exclaimed "This car is more trouble then a
G!D!
mistress". I thought I was out of earshot and said, "you have tried
bouncing
them off a curb have you".
I got reamed out by the owner of the dealership, loud enough for the peter
dr. to hear, but the whole time the guy was giggling.
Pat

On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 10:31:17 -0700, Paul Hovnanian P.E. wrote:

snip
"Ok. Good solder. You just have to know how to work it," I quipped.


Heard this line in a movie where the technician has just succeeded in
using the
'whack' repair method:

*** Warning! Politically incorrect content follows. ***

"A machine is just like a woman. Sometimes you have to hit them to make
them work."

What movie?

--
Best Regards,
Mike

Active8 wrote:

On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 10:31:17 -0700, Paul Hovnanian P.E. wrote:

snip
"Ok. Good solder. You just have to know how to work it," I quipped.


Heard this line in a movie where the technician has just succeeded in
using the
'whack' repair method:

*** Warning! Politically incorrect content follows. ***

"A machine is just like a woman. Sometimes you have to hit them to make
them work."

What movie?

I forget. It was some comedy, years ago (when you could get away with
comments like that) but that line was the only memorable thing about it.

--
Paul Hovnanian
note to spammers: a Washington State resident
------------------------------------------------------------------
RAM disk is *not* an installation procedure.

On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 10:44:14 -0400, Active8
wrote:

A friend got an old pioneer receiver for $5 - sounds better than his
Marantz.

He had it cranked up and noticed one channel was out. Messed with
the wires and switches - eventually we narrowed it down to dirty
pots for the most part.

Anyway, he smacked it on the side. The tuner dial light went out.
Smacked it again. sound went south. Again. Sound went farther south.
Again. No sound.

"Bad solder," I opined. "Hit it on the other side."

The sound came back a bit and we laughed. I swear each time he hit
it on the other side, the system came back up exactly the opposite
of the way it went down in the first place, with the final smack
bringing the dial light back.

"Ok. Good solder. You just have to know how to work it," I quipped.


I once "repaired" a little old lady's tube radio, that was
intermittent, with a popsicle stick.

No amount of re-soldering every joint would fix it, but I discovered
that two IF cans were just touching... separated, the radio worked.

So I just jammed a popsicle stick between the two.

I didn't have the gall to charge the little old lady for the "repair"
;-)

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

In article , Jim Thompson
writes
On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 10:44:14 -0400, Active8
wrote:

A friend got an old pioneer receiver for $5 - sounds better than his
Marantz.

He had it cranked up and noticed one channel was out. Messed with
the wires and switches - eventually we narrowed it down to dirty
pots for the most part.

Anyway, he smacked it on the side. The tuner dial light went out.
Smacked it again. sound went south. Again. Sound went farther south.
Again. No sound.

"Bad solder," I opined. "Hit it on the other side."

The sound came back a bit and we laughed. I swear each time he hit
it on the other side, the system came back up exactly the opposite
of the way it went down in the first place, with the final smack
bringing the dial light back.

"Ok. Good solder. You just have to know how to work it," I quipped.


I once "repaired" a little old lady's tube radio, that was
intermittent, with a popsicle stick.

No amount of re-soldering every joint would fix it, but I discovered
that two IF cans were just touching... separated, the radio worked.

So I just jammed a popsicle stick between the two.

I didn't have the gall to charge the little old lady for the "repair"
;-)

...Jim Thompson

I always called the Whack-it-hard method "Impact Technology".

I used to work for a computer network company. Users would dial in (300
bps modems) to our multi-line modem rack. One day a user called me to
say they couldn't connect, so I investigated, and found that the plug on
the next modem was hanging loose. Pushed it back on, tightened the
clamp, and told the user it was "a temporary interface discontinuity".
"Oh, right" said the user.
--
Peter

Ying tong iddle-i po!

"Leonard Martin" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Peter Twydell wrote:

In article , Jim Thompson
writes
On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 10:44:14 -0400, Active8
wrote:

A friend got an old pioneer receiver for $5 - sounds better than his
Marantz.

He had it cranked up and noticed one channel was out. Messed with
the wires and switches - eventually we narrowed it down to dirty
pots for the most part.

Anyway, he smacked it on the side. The tuner dial light went out.
Smacked it again. sound went south. Again. Sound went farther south.
Again. No sound.

"Bad solder," I opined. "Hit it on the other side."

The sound came back a bit and we laughed. I swear each time he hit
it on the other side, the system came back up exactly the opposite
of the way it went down in the first place, with the final smack
bringing the dial light back.

"Ok. Good solder. You just have to know how to work it," I quipped.


I once "repaired" a little old lady's tube radio, that was
intermittent, with a popsicle stick.

No amount of re-soldering every joint would fix it, but I discovered
that two IF cans were just touching... separated, the radio worked.

So I just jammed a popsicle stick between the two.

I didn't have the gall to charge the little old lady for the "repair"
;-)

...Jim Thompson

I always called the Whack-it-hard method "Impact Technology".

I used to work for a computer network company. Users would dial in (300
bps modems) to our multi-line modem rack. One day a user called me to
say they couldn't connect, so I investigated, and found that the plug on
the next modem was hanging loose. Pushed it back on, tightened the
clamp, and told the user it was "a temporary interface discontinuity".
"Oh, right" said the user.


We consumers used to hit the offending radio or tv all the time back in
the tube days. After all, if it was "just a loose wire" we wouldn't have
to call the repairman for an expensive housecall.

Leonard Martin

--
"Everything that rises must converge"
--Flannery O'Connor

When I joined a typewriter rapair company almost 30 years ago, the despatch
girls often used to tell customers who reported their machine jammed to lift
the machine an inch and drop it. That would often unjam it. I recommended
lifting it out of a multi storey window, then dropping it - I considered
that a lot more effective...

Henry

The A/C unit in our server room has been dropping off line lately,
requiring the power to be reset before it would fire up again. The
technician made 6 trips out. Each time he couldn't find anything
wrong, but replacing varios parts including the main control board..

During the last trip, it kicked off three times while he was there.
Coincidentally it was each time one particular person came into the
room. Turns out the dork that installed the thermostat on the wall
never tightened the screws on the wires. That one particular person
slammed the door harder than everyone else.

-Chris

There was this boat anchor daisy printer* that would quit close to
quitting time but would work again an hour or two later. The tech,
in the good old days when companies had expensive service contracts
and service techs wore a two piece suit and tie, just about replaced
every part and would probably have replaced the whole printer except
company policy wouldn't allow that. He even put in a line analyser
but the power was good. Eventually he chose sit in the printer pool
room until that printer quit to see if he could figure out what was
happening. BINGO. At that time of the day the sun was just low
enough and peeped in between the curtains to shine into the printer.
The rays struck a photosensor switch that sensed the daisy printhead
carriage position for the left margin. Thus lit the photosensor could
not sense that the carriage position flag had arrived and the carriage
kept trying to move further left and therefofe hung up the printer.
Within an hour or two the sun sank low enough away from the
photosensor and thus the printer could work again.

*That daisy printer must have weighed at least 50 pounds which was
probably a design objective. Because of the banging of the hammer the
printer needed the mass to prevent it from jumping and also to provide
the mechanical strength to survive the impacts. Man what a relief it
was when laser printers and other lighter printer technologies came
around. But there also went our well paid service tech jobs.

I had recently purchased a large old three story mansion and we were
renting out the first and third floor. We had been on a three week
vacation and the day we returned I was sitting on the toilet on the
second floor. I noticed there was a loud buzzing sound coming from
that toilet. It would get louder and then softer. When I flushed the
sound diminished somewhat. I got my meter out and discovered 45VAC
on the toilet flange bolts. When I flushed again the voltage decreased
to about 30VAC.

Following the stack up to the third floor I found a spot were the
previous owner had installed a new outlet on the third floor but the
lazy SOB only ran a hot line up from the basement he drilled a screw
into the stack and tied the neutral to it! It was buzzing louder when
the tenant ran her toaster oven and the ground would get better when
you flushed!

Richard

On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 16:14:28 GMT, PaPaPeng wrote:

At that time of the day the sun was just low
enough and peeped in between the curtains to shine into the printer.

One more detail. That tech knew he got lucky.

What could possibly cause the printer to crap out? When that
happened the printhead kept trying to move beyond the left margin and
being under power could not be manually moved right or anywhere else
on the rail. He wanted to see it when that hangup happened but could
not simulate the condition.

The printers were in a spare office room that had wall length
curtains. The curtains were normally drawn closed. Who wants to walk
past and see a room full of printers? When the sun was low the
sunlight overwhelmed the flourescent lighting and he had difficulty
seeing in detail what was going on with the carriage operation.

So he drew the curtain to let sunlight in. The carriage hung up. He
closed the curtains, the printer worked. Eureka.

..
"PaPaPeng" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 16:14:28 GMT, PaPaPeng wrote:

At that time of the day the sun was just low
enough and peeped in between the curtains to shine into the printer.

One more detail. That tech knew he got lucky.

What could possibly cause the printer to crap out? When that
happened the printhead kept trying to move beyond the left margin and
being under power could not be manually moved right or anywhere else
on the rail. He wanted to see it when that hangup happened but could
not simulate the condition.

The printers were in a spare office room that had wall length
curtains. The curtains were normally drawn closed. Who wants to walk
past and see a room full of printers? When the sun was low the
sunlight overwhelmed the flourescent lighting and he had difficulty
seeing in detail what was going on with the carriage operation.

So he drew the curtain to let sunlight in. The carriage hung up. He
closed the curtains, the printer worked. Eureka.



I've seen cheaply made mice malfunction when sunlight hit the operators
desktop. A couple of strategically placed bits of black tape solved the
problem.

--
They can have my command prompt when they pry it from my cold dead fingers

On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 10:01:20 -0700, Richard wrote:

I had recently purchased a large old three story mansion and we were
renting out the first and third floor. We had been on a three week
vacation and the day we returned I was sitting on the toilet on the
second floor. I noticed there was a loud buzzing sound coming from
that toilet. It would get louder and then softer. When I flushed the
sound diminished somewhat. I got my meter out and discovered 45VAC
on the toilet flange bolts. When I flushed again the voltage decreased
to about 30VAC.

Following the stack up to the third floor I found a spot were the
previous owner had installed a new outlet on the third floor but the
lazy SOB only ran a hot line up from the basement he drilled a screw
into the stack and tied the neutral to it! It was buzzing louder when
the tenant ran her toaster oven and the ground would get better when
you flushed!

Oh, my! It's a good the buzz was only audible! You could have had the
**** kicked out of you!

--
Keith

On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 23:28:03 -0400, keith wrote:

On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 10:01:20 -0700, Richard wrote:

I had recently purchased a large old three story mansion and we were
renting out the first and third floor. We had been on a three week
vacation and the day we returned I was sitting on the toilet on the
second floor. I noticed there was a loud buzzing sound coming from
that toilet. It would get louder and then softer. When I flushed the
sound diminished somewhat. I got my meter out and discovered 45VAC
on the toilet flange bolts. When I flushed again the voltage decreased
to about 30VAC.

Following the stack up to the third floor I found a spot were the
previous owner had installed a new outlet on the third floor but the
lazy SOB only ran a hot line up from the basement he drilled a screw
into the stack and tied the neutral to it! It was buzzing louder when
the tenant ran her toaster oven and the ground would get better when
you flushed!

Oh, my! It's a good the buzz was only audible! You could have had the
**** kicked out of you!

I had an underground neutral become resistive. Uneven loading of the
two phases would cause shower drains to exhibit about 15VAC of
unbalance so that you got a "tingle" if you touched the shower head
while showering.

My oldest daughter first noticed it, so I got out a meter.

Called the power company and they gave me a ration of "you don't what
you're talking about".

A few sailor-grade expletives got me connected to an engineer.

Within 30 minutes they had installed a temporary neutral until they
could dig up and replace the underground cabling.

I do tile work for therapy ;-) So what I do now when I re-do a
bathroom is bond the drain and the cold water pipe together.

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 07:19:57 -0700, Jim Thompson wrote:


I had recently purchased a large old three story mansion and we were
renting out the first and third floor. We had been on a three week
vacation and the day we returned I was sitting on the toilet on the
second floor. I noticed there was a loud buzzing sound coming from
that toilet. It would get louder and then softer. When I flushed the
sound diminished somewhat. I got my meter out and discovered 45VAC
on the toilet flange bolts. When I flushed again the voltage decreased
to about 30VAC.

Following the stack up to the third floor I found a spot were the
previous owner had installed a new outlet on the third floor but the
lazy SOB only ran a hot line up from the basement he drilled a screw
into the stack and tied the neutral to it! It was buzzing louder when
the tenant ran her toaster oven and the ground would get better when
you flushed!

snip

A friend of mine bought an olde inn in Vermont and converted it into a sort
of bed and breakfast/saloon. I helped him replace some of the old plumbing,
and discovered that a previous owner had somehow manged to swap the hot and
cold water lines on the third floor such that all the toilets in the guest
rooms were flushing with hot water! Very sanitary I'm sure, but raised hell
with his oil bill...


Bob

In article , George Jetson
writes
.
"PaPaPeng" wrote in message
.. .
On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 16:14:28 GMT, PaPaPeng wrote:

At that time of the day the sun was just low
enough and peeped in between the curtains to shine into the printer.

One more detail. That tech knew he got lucky.

What could possibly cause the printer to crap out? When that
happened the printhead kept trying to move beyond the left margin and
being under power could not be manually moved right or anywhere else
on the rail. He wanted to see it when that hangup happened but could
not simulate the condition.

The printers were in a spare office room that had wall length
curtains. The curtains were normally drawn closed. Who wants to walk
past and see a room full of printers? When the sun was low the
sunlight overwhelmed the flourescent lighting and he had difficulty
seeing in detail what was going on with the carriage operation.

So he drew the curtain to let sunlight in. The carriage hung up. He
closed the curtains, the printer worked. Eureka.



I've seen cheaply made mice malfunction when sunlight hit the operators
desktop. A couple of strategically placed bits of black tape solved the
problem.

BTDTGTTS

Took a while to work out what was happening, though. Just goes to show
how strong sunlight really is.
--
Peter

Ying tong iddle-i po!

Oh, my! It's a good the buzz was only audible! You could have had the
**** kicked out of you!

Yah luckily I was protected by the bowl of porcelain

I had an underground neutral become resistive. Uneven loading of the
two phases would cause shower drains to exhibit about 15VAC of
unbalance so that you got a "tingle" if you touched the shower head
while showering.

Wow never thought about that problem!

Within 30 minutes they had installed a temporary neutral until they
could dig up and replace the underground cabling.

I do tile work for therapy ;-) So what I do now when I re-do a
bathroom is bond the drain and the cold water pipe together.

...Jim Thompson

Neutrals can be very weird things. We were filming a gigantic steel
mill in the "old days" (60s) using a lot of 5,000 watt skypans. I
remember all the runs were made with 00. Now usually you try to keep
the legs balanced but some gaffers turned off a few too many lights on
one leg and we lost the neutral. The bulbs in those lights started
popping like popcorn at $100s of dollars a pop as the inbalance
bounced back and forth. Turns out some idiot at the lighting company
put an inline fuse in the neutral buss and when it blew all hell broke
lose.

Richard

"Paul Hovnanian P.E." wrote in message ...
Active8 wrote:

On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 10:31:17 -0700, Paul Hovnanian P.E. wrote:

snip
"Ok. Good solder. You just have to know how to work it," I quipped.


Heard this line in a movie where the technician has just succeeded in
using the
'whack' repair method:

*** Warning! Politically incorrect content follows. ***

"A machine is just like a woman. Sometimes you have to hit them to make
them work."

What movie?

I forget. It was some comedy, years ago (when you could get away with
comments like that) but that line was the only memorable thing about it.

I am sure it was around elsewhere, but there was also a varaitaion in
"Twin Peaks"

MR. PINKLE
Come on, come ... sometimes you've got to be tough with these things.
You got to hit it hard. A machine is like a woman we always say at the
machine shop. Come on.

In article ,
says...
On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 23:28:03 -0400, keith wrote:

On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 10:01:20 -0700, Richard wrote:

I had recently purchased a large old three story mansion and we were
renting out the first and third floor. We had been on a three week
vacation and the day we returned I was sitting on the toilet on the
second floor. I noticed there was a loud buzzing sound coming from
that toilet. It would get louder and then softer. When I flushed the
sound diminished somewhat. I got my meter out and discovered 45VAC
on the toilet flange bolts. When I flushed again the voltage decreased
to about 30VAC.

Following the stack up to the third floor I found a spot were the
previous owner had installed a new outlet on the third floor but the
lazy SOB only ran a hot line up from the basement he drilled a screw
into the stack and tied the neutral to it! It was buzzing louder when
the tenant ran her toaster oven and the ground would get better when
you flushed!

Oh, my! It's a good the buzz was only audible! You could have had the
**** kicked out of you!

I had an underground neutral become resistive. Uneven loading of the
two phases would cause shower drains to exhibit about 15VAC of
unbalance so that you got a "tingle" if you touched the shower head
while showering.

My oldest daughter first noticed it, so I got out a meter.

Called the power company and they gave me a ration of "you don't what
you're talking about".

A few sailor-grade expletives got me connected to an engineer.

Within 30 minutes they had installed a temporary neutral until they
could dig up and replace the underground cabling.

We lost a neutral off the house, some years back. ...exploding light
bulbs on one side and dim ones on the other. It took a while to figure
out what happened, but the power company was right there to replace it
(their side of the weather-head). They replaced all the light bulbs
and appliances (I disconnected most immediately) that were damaged too.

I do tile work for therapy ;-) So what I do now when I re-do a
bathroom is bond the drain and the cold water pipe together.

What do you do with plastic drain pipes? I haven't seen metal stacks
for some time.

--
Keith

I had an underground neutral become resistive. Uneven loading of the
two phases would cause shower drains to exhibit about 15VAC of
unbalance so that you got a "tingle" if you touched the shower head
while showering.

My oldest daughter first noticed it, so I got out a meter.

Called the power company and they gave me a ration of "you don't what
you're talking about".

A few sailor-grade expletives got me connected to an engineer.

Within 30 minutes they had installed a temporary neutral until they
could dig up and replace the underground cabling.

I do tile work for therapy ;-) So what I do now when I re-do a
bathroom is bond the drain and the cold water pipe together.

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

I one time worked with another electronic engineer.
He visited a relative's home and while there this relative said he thought
he
had recently got an electric shock from the bathroom wall - wall, not
anything
metal. UK so 240 V mains.
Tony went out to his car and grabbed his DVM and a probe via long wire
connected
to the pipework. Prodding around the wall with the other meter lead got
various readings 50, 60 .. to a maximum in one area of about 140V ac.

On the otherside of this wall was a lamp illuminator for a picture hung
on the wall. Someone had put the picture hanging nail through the
cable to the lamp. Then it emerged that the whole building was made from
breeze blocks with a high carbon content, so conductive.

electronic hints and repair briefs
http://homepages.tcp.co.uk/~diverse

"Leonard Martin" wrote in message
...

We consumers used to hit the offending radio or tv all the time back
in the tube days. After all, if it was "just a loose wire" we wouldn't
have to call the repairman for an expensive housecall.

TV rental engineers have been known to do similar things. As there was
no money being charged for the repair of rented equipment, speed was
everything.

First of all, know the customer. Before entering, look up and check
the antenna is not a shiny new one. On rough council estate, you
can be pretty damn sure that the customer will not spend the money
on having a new one erected.

Once in the house, try to use a "quick fix". If an intermittent fault,
bang the set. If that cures it,tell them "It works now, Madam", and walk
out.
For other faults, and this is why you looked at the antenna, blame the
antenna and walk back out.

I once saw the antenna trick in action. A customer was suffering with
flyback lines across the top of the screen, well down into the picture.
The engineer walked in, took one look at the screen, "it's your aerial,
Madam", and walked back out.
Smooth as a babies bottom, the bonus is as good as in the bank.


Regards.
LF.