Did one ever beat you?

[AlanBeckett]

Ah, so, I've got several on that list which I must talk to you about

Alan

[Mark Hennessy]

It's not just the gear itself on that list that impresses - it's also the fact you have the space to house it all

[Craig]

Ha ha! I won't say what my long suffering wife has to say about it! Office, my son's old bedroom, a dry garden shed and a lock up. She says it is a fine dividing line between "hobby" and "mental disorder".

I would say that 15% gets used regularly, 25% occasionally, 20% from time to time, and 40% hardly ever.

And none of that takes account the audio systems (main one in the front room, electrostatic headphone rig in our bedroom, and an auxillary electrostatic headphone rig in daughter's old bedroom, and a dynamic headphone rig in son's old bedroom)

But all this is exceptionally well structured, as you might guess from the list.

Craig

[davegsm82]

I had a (remote controlled!) 16" colour portable TV (bush I think) when I was about 13 which would occasionally go 'PHUTTT', the CRT would flash brilliantly white and the noise from the speaker was an immense thump.

Occasionally it would do this repeatedly, a few times a second. On the occasion that I reached it in time I'd give it a good hard whack and it would return to normal operation. I opened it up and looked for dry joints, which I found one completely unsoldered. Alas after 20 minutes of operation it went 'PHUTT' again and I was crestfallen.

Took me another few attempts, viewing it in the dark from the PCB, poking it with sticks, tapping various things etc until I eventually gave up and fixed a 20" Philips GR1AX chassis set and just got on with life.

At the ripe old age of 34 I'm now taking a different view on the jobs and indeed the junk I take on. I simply don't have the time or the energy any more, I prefer to spend my time working on programming etc. At one point I'd simply fix something because it was broken, irrespective of whether it was financially viable or not, because of that I now feel somewhat guilty throwing something away which could otherwise be fixed. Example: this morning, I binned a portable phone/tablet charger with a single huge lithium ion cell inside (10Wh), because the fried 8 pin SOIC which connects the Cell to the boost converter is some exotic device with a 1Vgs turn on rating. I could probably find a replacement, but will I ever use it? how much of the cell's original capacity is remaining? Could I ever travel with the thing because I've pryed open the case and it it taped/glued together? CIBA?

Dave.