One other thought about switches and pots: look at
newer decent quality electronic stuff. What you might
think is a "pot" is now an optical or mechanical
interrupter connected to an electronically controlled
digital attenuator/resistor. And when is the last time
you've seen a trimpot on a modern PCB. I repaired a
mid-1990's 35" TV set a year ago (an adjustment
problem) and opened the back to find one (1) trimpot.
Every other (30+) adjustment was digitally stored in
an EEPROM, and the only way to get to that was through
a double secret service code entered via the remote
(which, of course, I discovered using, uhh...by what
we'll call "human" cracking). I would be suprised if
the world electronics industry uses 1/20th of the
potentiometers it used 15 years ago. The last one you
might find in a PC other than in the power supply was
the floppy data separator, and that was history in the
mid 80's. The trimmer cap for the colorburst in a PC
went away with the demise of the CGA.
This bodes ill for Steve's School of Analog Circuit
Design - put 1M 10 turn trimpots in place of all
resistors, and adjust until the circuit works :)
I think ganged pots are already pretty darned scarce
in the surplus market. This is going to get worse as
the last bastions of analog disappear. On the other
hand, what's the first thing to get noisy/go bad on an
old piece of electronic equipment? So, Progress Is
Good. Maybe.
--- Glen Goodwin <acme_ent_at_bellsouth.net> wrote:
> > From: Chad Fernandez <fernande_at_internet1.net>
>
> After posting I realized that I neglected to mention
> that the humidity here
> in Florida most likely contributes to the problem.
>
> > Tuner cleaner? Okay, I'll look for it at Radio
> Shack. I don't know
> > else where to look around here.
>
> Also known as "contact cleaner." MCM sells a dozen
> different ones,
> including Rawn Contact Cleaner at $4.99 for the 9
> oz. can. Or, you could
> visit a TV repair shop and ask if they'd sell you a
> can or two. I use a
> lot of the stuff as it works well for cleaning the
> contacts on computer
> expansion cards and slots, etc.
>
> > Your speaking of the line level connections?
>
> Yup, and the headphone jack if there's one present
> on your amp or other
> device.
>
> > I for got how heavy this monster is..... it's got
> to be about 40 lbs!!
>
> Yeah, my Fisher 404 quadraphonic tuner/amp out in
> the living-room contains
> massive transformers and is *not fun* to move. That
> sucker really rocks,
> though -- I can't turn it up much past 2 1/2 and
> still stay in the room ;>)
> The AM tuner's starting to drift so I'll have to
> deal with that some day.
>
> Glen
> 0/0
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Sports - Coverage of the 2002 Olympic Games
http://sports.yahoo.com
Received on Mon Feb 18 2002 - 23:26:08 GMT