I get sick of this. It is so difficult to replace all my stuff. Over the years, I have very carefully selected every type of equipment, looking for the specific qualities that I wanted. Now that all is gone, I am forced to replace some of the things with equipment of inferior quality or without the specific merits that I selected the original equipment for.
The latest project is the stereo set. I had a small, kind of high-end Sony set, which I had bought after I found out that, internally, it worked on 12 volt. So after I bought it, I opened it, made an additional power inlet with a 12V connection, a large capacitor to allow for fluctuations in the ship's net, and a zener diode to protect it from overload. The set worked great, with very good quality sound although for some people not quite loud enough. But loud enough for me! It also had timer functions, so that it qould wake you op with music, or would shut itself off after so many minutes. It had remote control, an equalizer, etc.
While waiting for my other, more important things to come (gps, radio, etc.), I set out to try to repair this stereo. The fuse was blown and also a zener diode in the print I had made. First problem was finding a shop that sells small electronic components like transistors, resistors, etc. Anything smaller than an Ipod seems not to be for sale in America. Until I found a small shop that repairs electric guitars and, after looking better, seemed able to repair almost anything else. I put the little component on the desk, and the shop owner, a sort of over age hippy, looked at it and said: 'Looks like a 16V zener diode'. He turned around, opened a drawer and took out a handful. 'How many would you like?' I bought three, to be sure. Three dollars that was, and two minutes! It's finding these people that takes the most time!
Unfortunately, the zener diode was not the only problem. When I fixed the part I had made long time ago, the unit still didn't work. And I found out that the heat sink got hot quite soon without any power being taken off. So I took the whole unit with me and gave it to hippy. He looked at it and found a burn mark on the main amplifyer IC. Fatal error.
So off we went to an audio store to buy a new set. This was the stage when the frustration came back again. Nothing in the shop didn't even come close to what I had. It was all 110V, the salesman didn't know what he was talking about, the functions I wanted were not on the set, etc. Most importantly nothing was 12V. So I then looked at car audio. That was 12V, but didn't have a timer and no long wave radio. And I had to have speakers as well. And where or how to mount a car radio? Unsatisfied I left the place, and ended up in Walmart, where I bought the cheapest set they had, for 28 dollars.
I have given up my hopes to replace everything here. I also bought the cheapest MP3 player, as the cheap CD player can not be expected to work at sea. This cheap unit is suitable to work on 8 batteries, so works on 12V. I connected a wire and am now listening to JJ Baron, a local folk singer.
UPS did not come today with my stuff... maybe tomorrow?
Bart
The latest project is the stereo set. I had a small, kind of high-end Sony set, which I had bought after I found out that, internally, it worked on 12 volt. So after I bought it, I opened it, made an additional power inlet with a 12V connection, a large capacitor to allow for fluctuations in the ship's net, and a zener diode to protect it from overload. The set worked great, with very good quality sound although for some people not quite loud enough. But loud enough for me! It also had timer functions, so that it qould wake you op with music, or would shut itself off after so many minutes. It had remote control, an equalizer, etc.
While waiting for my other, more important things to come (gps, radio, etc.), I set out to try to repair this stereo. The fuse was blown and also a zener diode in the print I had made. First problem was finding a shop that sells small electronic components like transistors, resistors, etc. Anything smaller than an Ipod seems not to be for sale in America. Until I found a small shop that repairs electric guitars and, after looking better, seemed able to repair almost anything else. I put the little component on the desk, and the shop owner, a sort of over age hippy, looked at it and said: 'Looks like a 16V zener diode'. He turned around, opened a drawer and took out a handful. 'How many would you like?' I bought three, to be sure. Three dollars that was, and two minutes! It's finding these people that takes the most time!
Unfortunately, the zener diode was not the only problem. When I fixed the part I had made long time ago, the unit still didn't work. And I found out that the heat sink got hot quite soon without any power being taken off. So I took the whole unit with me and gave it to hippy. He looked at it and found a burn mark on the main amplifyer IC. Fatal error.
So off we went to an audio store to buy a new set. This was the stage when the frustration came back again. Nothing in the shop didn't even come close to what I had. It was all 110V, the salesman didn't know what he was talking about, the functions I wanted were not on the set, etc. Most importantly nothing was 12V. So I then looked at car audio. That was 12V, but didn't have a timer and no long wave radio. And I had to have speakers as well. And where or how to mount a car radio? Unsatisfied I left the place, and ended up in Walmart, where I bought the cheapest set they had, for 28 dollars.
I have given up my hopes to replace everything here. I also bought the cheapest MP3 player, as the cheap CD player can not be expected to work at sea. This cheap unit is suitable to work on 8 batteries, so works on 12V. I connected a wire and am now listening to JJ Baron, a local folk singer.
UPS did not come today with my stuff... maybe tomorrow?
Bart
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