I wrote a post back in February regarding a weird observation, in that i had an Orchid that was imitating the look of a model i have on the shelf of one of the Voyager space probes. See here: Weird observation
Well things have moved on. We only placed the Orchid on the shelf temporarily as we had no space in the kitchen where it used to reside, as the wife had a whole load of vases out with a selection of cut flowers on display. She loves flowers in the house however she does not have a green finger on her hands, thats me, i look after the potted flowers and the garden. We have had this Orchid about 4 years now and it gets trimmed, cleaned and looked after, and now it has claimed its permanent place on the living room shelf, as it is thriving with its friend the Voyager probe.
Back in FebruaryNow with 8 buds and doing fantastic
It likes where it is at the moment, and thats where it will stay much to the wife s displeasure, she’ll get over it.
First of the blooms looking glorious
I also have a moon lamp that revolves magnetically on a pedestal. The light coming through the blinds looks as if there is a crescent moon being superimposed on it.
My moon lamp
On another subject i was out in the van yesterday and i parked up near a signal box to grab a quick snack and a drink. I had the window down, it was a mild spring day with plenty of sunlight and i began to eat my sandwich. I was thinking to myself, “Dave you are making a lot of noise, eating” and then i looked to the side of me and saw this glorious beast staring at me eating some hay.
Highland cattle
How the hell I didn’t see this massive fellah is a mystery, he was well camouflaged and busy doing the same as me. Anyway I didn’t hang around too long as i was busy and he was also giving me some strange looks.
I like to think we are quite a laid back household, easy going and fairly stress free. We have our routines and the best one of the day is the two cups of tea in the morning before considering doing anything.
But today at around 6am, a big dark cloud began to form above the house. The mood went dark and not a word was spoken, silence hung in the air.
I’d been down to make cuppa number one, i opened the caddy and a horror washed over my face and through my entire soul. How shall I break the news to my wife who is currently in a slumber, should I even wake her at all?
Only one teabag! Oh the shame and horror!
There is only one teabag 😧
We’ve both been quite ill lately and I guess the normally large supply we have in the house has dwindled as a result of not participating in much shopping.
I had a dilemma. Should I make myself one? Should I share a tea bag (Oh the horror) or should I just take her one and then break the routine and go and source more?
I went with the latter. I grabbed some breakfast and a glass of water, and then decided to go for a fairly protracted walk to get some tea. Yes I have the car and could have been a lot more expedient, however I will walk wherever I can, so i decided to skip routine and go for the walk. After first giving the last tea bag to the wife, because that’s the kind of guy I am 😉
We have tea… we can all rest nowA little 3.3 mile walk logged
Anyway, a pleasant 3.3 mile walk later and the cloud has dispersed from the house, the sun is shining and the birds are singing (you get the picture) and normality has resumed and routine has now been restored.
It’s funny how something such as tea can structure your day and how dependent you become on routine. Only when it’s broken do you realise how reliant you are on it.
Now for my two morning cuppas, nothing more is being done until this has been accomplished.
A great conversation starter, just like talking about the weather in the UK.
Music is one of those things that finely entwines itself into all our lives. We have happy sounds, sad sounds and everything in between, there are inspirational records, as well as others that take you to a distant place where you can just be a mad, wild, untamed, crazy, dancing freak of nature. Yes it’s fair to say music plays a massive role in our lives and emotions.
However if you are put on the spot and asked to choose two favourites, could you?
I have often mulled over this question through the years and i do really think that i can. As a child of the sixties i have gone through an awful lot of fads and musical genres, all the way through Swing, soul, New Romanticism, Punk, Heavy metal, classical and everything in between. My most influential years were probably the late 70s early 80s when i was starting to form my own choices as i was entering into my teenage years.
These choices by no means reflect my favourite group. That choice was made in the mid to late 80s when American rock group R.E.M came into my life and they remain firmly rooted there to this day. However their music obviously rates highly in my opinion, but neither of my favourite all time records were theirs. For some obscure reason my choices are both extremely middle of the road.
I honestly have heard so much music in my life, as i suspect has anyone else who browses this post, and i always come back to these two choices. So my mind is made up, no swaying, it is and will always be these two:
Doobie Brothers – Listen to the music
Doobie Brothers
What do i like about this record. Just spend some time listening to it, early American rock at its very best, probably 4 Guitars in perfect harmony with an absolutely fantastic rhythm, and a banjo picking around in the background adding to the atmosphere, Just a wonderful happy and upbeat song in my view, it lifts me to play it and reminds me of the hazy days of my childhood. This was 1972 when it was released, i was very young but it was a happy tune, and as a child i think that is one of the things you look for in music, good melody, easy chorus who could ask for more. And it’s stuck with me ever since.
Here’s what the songwriter Tom Johnston said at the time:
“The chord structure of it made me think of something positive, so the lyrics that came out of that were based on this utopian idea that if the leaders of the world got together on some grassy hill somewhere and either smoked enough dope or just sat down and just listened to the music and forgot about all this other bullshit, the world would be a much better place. It was very utopian and very unrealistic (laughs). It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
Wikipedia
Though I didn’t even know what dope was at this age I can’t really comment. Though looking back now it seemed like a good idea.
Bellamy brothers – Let your love flow
Bellamy brothers
Another “Brother” named group. This was a crossover record from Country to mainstream and boy was it a successful crossover. 1976 was a fantastic year for me packed with great memories of being with my friends, the heatwave of that year and wonderful times wandering around with my pals just doing stuff. Again it was a record that came along at a good period in my life and has registered itself in that role ever since. Just a really good rhythm, some cracking easy to learn lyrics and a dead easy chorus, packed with loads of rhythmic guitar and passion, what a record.
So, thats it for me, two easy choices that i know will never ever change. I always have these tunes within easy reach on my phone or music player as in times of stress, worry or just when reminiscing, they are chosen and played loud. The world then for a few solitary moments is a whole better place.
Can’t get to turn on unfortunately. No battery cover. Any questions please ask
EBay
Dirty unit No battery cover
I know, there is no battery cover, however I have already sourced a seller of one if needed. This item looks quite dirty so a good soak might be the order of the day to get started. I’ll wait for its arrival before I jump to order any other bits for it.
Now as I’ve said in the past these units fall into that crazy price category on the selling platforms as the “New Antiques” of today. For an item that was low cost, somewhere between £25-40GBP when it came on the market, they can certainly command a wide range of crazy prices, here is an example of price ranges from today:
The massive range in prices for these units
This one I purchased today only came up for sale about 3 hrs ago and I thought it would have been snapped up by now, it hadn’t so I didn’t hang around any longer and purchased it for a total of £16:38GBP including its delivery. I’m not going to get too smug yet, as for all I know I may have just purchased an empty shell. Let’s wait until it arrives.
Here’s a little history of this unit:
Grandstand “Invader from Space” is a tabletop LED game dating back 45 years to 1980. Four ‘AA’ batteries power the unit or, alternatively, the Grandstand 5.5V@300mA power adapter (or an equivalent power pack) sold separately. The game, licensed to Grandstand, is a copy of Epoch’s “Invader from Space”
The company initially behind the “Grandstand” label was Adam Imports Ltd., (from 1980 Adam Leisure Group Ltd. and by 1983 Adam Leisure Group PLC) founded in 1973 by Chris Rycroft and Les Kenyon of Harrogate, UK. The company initially started as a mail order company and was the single largest supplier of calculators in the UK by 1974. By August 1978, George Bassett had acquired a 75% holding in the capital of Adam Imports for £750,000 cash, plus 60p in the pound of profits before tax in excess of £500,000 for year to December 31, 1978. Adam Imports was re-acquired from George Bassett by Chris Rycroft in 1980. It chiefly imported electronic products from other manufacturers such as VTech, Epoch, Tomy & Entex, selling them in the UK re-branded under the Grandstand name.
Wikipedia and others
So that’s the history
There is a good link to a similar repair on YouTube from a guy I follow named Stez Stix Fix, it’s very much worth a look and he has a great if not sometimes crazy way of diagnosing and repairing items. A cool guy though.
The Grandstand invaders from space game
Anyway back to my own purchase.
Assessment:
I must admit the unit doesn’t look as dirty as in the original pictures. The battery cover is missing and there is a crack in the side and a deep scar at the bottom, this won’t be too much of an issue if I can weld it all back together. I will still give it a good soak to clean it all up though. I’ve put four batteries in place, and the unit is definitely dead. There are no loose wires, voltages are getting around the board according to the multimeter and nothing is getting hot. There appears to be no short circuits, and then I notice this, capacitor CO7, slight bulge on top and what looks like leakage from the bottom. We have a candidate as to why this unit is not working.
CO7 looking unhealthy to me, you can see the component to the left that looks like it’s covered in a fur ball. The result of the old capacitor “coughing”
I’ll whip this out and see what we have but I suspect this old capacitor has failed and is causing an issue, heres hoping I have a suitable replacement.
Repair:
This little beast is a 330uf 10v electrolytic capacitor. I have none available so have had to purchase a pack of ten. These should be here in the next few days. There are three other old electrolytic capacitors that I will also change whilst I’m in there, as these are all likely to fail at some point soon. These components are now all around 45 years old, it’s a wise move to change them out.
One very dead capacitor removed.
I’ve ordered a 3D printed battery cover to replace the one that is missing. This should be here in a couple of weeks.
Whilst waiting I have cleaned the inside and outside of the casing as best I can. I still have a piece of broken surround to repair, however this is just a simple glue and a little bit of support job.
Case inside and out cleaned
Broken surround repaired
The surround that was broken has been repaired and secured with some nylon soaked in a superglue compound inside the casing. It’s rock solid. Outside the break is hardly noticeable. The break is secure and much stronger now.
New capacitor here
I’ve replaced all the offending capacitors and the unit remains dead. I’ve reflowed most of the board as there were some dry solder joints. I’ve also rewired the bridge from the control panel to the main board as one of the wires here had broken.
Bridge required resoldering
After using the multimeter to check some traces and components it’s now pointing to this component (a power transistor D882) being the cause of this catastrophic breakdown as its readings are all over the place. I suspect this item has overheated, the capacitor has blown and then it’s just died itself. I’m probably wrong, but I know what I mean. Probably just a catastrophic chain of events that all contributed to the units demise.
D882 transistor – power regulator
And as usual I have none available so will have to send for some new ones. The new components have arrived and the new power transistor has taken its place on the board. Now reassembled I place some new batteries in and the unit comes to life. It was the power transistor at fault, I should have really checked here first after seeing that damaged capacitor at the beginning.
All old components removed and replaced in this unit
Not to worry though as it’s had a good overhaul and has been totally recapped as a precaution. I’ve used some conformal coating on a few tracks that had some copper exposed after a good clean, to ensure they don’t deteriorate any further.
It has life
The unit is looking really good and these items were traditionally very loud and this certainly is. It’s working well just as it should do and I’m exceptionally happy with this repair. I’m still awaiting the battery cover that I have had 3D printed and this should be here in the next week to complete the fix.
No scoreHere we go3D printed cover arrived. Minor adjustments needed but in all a good purchase
So with that I will bring this build to a conclusion. It has been a fun project, I’ve learned a number of things about this circuit board and gained valuable knowledge.
But best of all we have rescued another item and saved it from landfill.
You will receive what you see in the photos, please look at the photos as this is part of my description to show you what you would be receiving. Please note the game comes up with the main Game Boy & Nintendo screen & then won’t go any further, as you can see👀in the photo.
Any questions please feel free to ask.
EBay
No getting past this pointOriginal Nintendo pinball game – Non operational
Hopefully this will be a simple repair, but who knows it might just be a little more technical.
This game is built for the game boy colour console and is an original Nintendo product, it is the Pokémon pinball game. I’ve purchased something I never normally buy and usually detest buying, an item with the battery cover missing. Damn it, there is a fortune waiting to be made by anyone who owns a decent 3D printer, with the amount of missing battery covers that are waiting to be reproduced out there. Edit: ( Just looked on line and it seems the gaming community are already on the case, loads of options available, great to see) Anyway I’ve brought this unit as it can either be kept to await a suitable battery cover or passed straight on. Edit#2: I have, in anticipation of its arrival already ordered a suitable 3D replacement cover from a UK company. It was probably the best priced and best looking print to be honest, some of the others looked a little rough and postage was excessive to say the least. These guys at Cool spot gaming were the best in my opinion.
Released in Japan in 1999 this game made it to European shores in 2000.
These games came with a rumble pack at the top of the cartridge that simulates the vibrations of a normal pinball machine, and I believe this is what the single cell AAA battery is for. And as it is a black cartridge this indicates it can be used on the GameBoy colour and original versions. I have purchased this for about half the price that a good working one with battery cover sells for, now that I’ve had to pay for a 3D replacement battery cover I now move into the higher end price of the cartridge valuation, however I do have a few pounds worth of wriggle room should I decide to sell, considering most of the ones on sale at the moment are missing the battery cover and commanding horrendously high prices. I’m comfortable with that. That said it will go into my personal GameBoy collection anyway. Let’s get it working.
Here’s a link to the actual 3D print program for the battery cover on Thingiverse, if you should ever wish to print one yourself. I have absolutely no idea about 3D printing so this is just like brain surgery to me: 3D print program
Assessment
A nice tidy little package has arrived clean, battery cover missing as stated and exterior looks nice and clean. Original label is intact.
Repair:
New 3D battery cover has arrived and this fits perfectly, no issues here.
Missing battery cover Clean and tidyNew 3D printed battery cover
I’ve placed the unit into my GameBoy to check what occurs, and just as posted it does not progress beyond the Nintendo start up screen. I’ve opened the cartridge to do some basic checks and cleaning, the cartridge contacts have been cleaned using an eraser and some IPA, but in all honesty they were already pretty clean. I’ve checked the onboard battery and this is healthy at 3v as it should be. Cleaning competed, I recheck the game and the results are the same.
Game stops at this pointBoard levelBattery testedContacts cleaned
Next I’m going to reflow the joints on the ROM chip on the right hand side of the board, the one that has the letters MX on it. These pins or the ones on the RAM chip directly beside it are well known for having bad contacts and often need reflowing/tacking down. It’s something that seems to occur over a period of time on these game cartridges, just plain bad contacts.
ROM chip on the right with the RAM chip on the left, both are notorious for developing loose contacts
All items on the board have been reflowed using hot air, with extra attention being paid to the two chips described in the picture above. I removed the battery prior to doing this as the last thing you want is exploding batteries. With the battery back in place and the game now reassembled it’s now time to test.
And it works including the rumble pack feature.
Pokémon Working
I can only presume the hot air reflow has fixed an issue with joint continuity on one of these chips as expected. Excellent, another item has been saved from the bin and can now be added to my collection.
Game workingComplete with new 3D printed battery cover
Another little project to put to bed, there always seems to be an issue with these games after a good number of years where the solder joints just become unstable. I don’t know if it was the solder quality they used all those years ago or the heavy use and abuse the games endured during their hey day. At least we can fix them and ensure they are still good to go and enjoy for a few more years yet.
Been looking through some old photos and this one instantly hit me as beautiful.
A very young Alf staring out into a big old world
This was our little Alf back in 2013 at Camber sands in Sussex. We had a family day out there on a beautiful sunny, but wind swept day where we were all suitably sandblasted. It was Alfs first ever visit to a beach as he was only about five months old here. To me I see a young creature just starting his life looking out into a big old world of adventure and learning. To me it’s beautiful as it has a wonderful story connected to it.
We are all mortal and one day our time will be done. All we have in the end are cherished memories and they can never be taken away.
Another production on an iPad from my 2012 era. God knows what I was on at the time as I was doing some right old tripe. But hey ho, it’s done and it covers a particular time of my life so it has to go out there. Not just showing the good stuff (not that I do any good stuff….). I guess if I had a name such as Picasso or Banksy it would be worth an absolute fortune. But I don’t, and it’s not. Enjoy, laugh, critique, slap your forehead. At least it’s got a reaction 👍
This is a poem I heard read just a few days ago at a work colleagues funeral. It could just as well refer to our wonderful dog who we lost in August of last year.
It’s a beautiful poem with wonderful sentiment. I believe it is quite popular at funerals, however it’s the first reading of it I have ever heard.
Anger. We experience it every day, we even contribute to it but do we really understand it?
Anger – calm down
In my job I experience it every day, yesterday was a particularly bad day when a simple question, “How did you get in that door?” Brought a protracted rant and so much anger that I felt in danger of being assaulted at one point. I just had to walk away as the person in question had done a full nought to crazy in about 2 seconds. And for the last 24hrs all I’ve been asking myself is why? A simple question did not warrant such a reply and I was shocked.
Apart from that there is anger everywhere. On the roads, in public areas and retail environments just to mention a few. But why?
The gene or whatever that controls fight or flight seems to have become stuck in fight mode just like a switch that has malfunctioned. Everyone believes their understanding is the right one and they will not move from that stance. The ability to reason has disappeared and no one wants to lose face. That’s an issue, as you are a better person if you attempt to understand, absorb, consider and then give a constructive opinion on what is occurring.
But this ability has been leapfrogged and just does not appear to be used anymore. It is as if you are a winner if you can be the most abusive, loudest and the least unreasonable person within the issue.
You are not.
I don’t class myself as weak for walking away and not escalating issues, I try to calm an issue down, but sometimes it is as if the individual has so much angst and venom that has built up over time, that you are the one who unfortunately gets both barrels. Trying to reason with people like this is like giving them a cannon, it’s aimed right at you and the anger increases. You start to feel angry yourself, mainly through the frustration of not being listened to.
That’s it, the art of reasoning has gone. Oh how I wish for the days of constructive disagreement where every party had a say and could agree to disagree without violence and threats to life.
Why I feel this way after 24 hrs is just me. I pick over things too intently, I question myself on how I could have handled things better and then come to the conclusion that I did everything right. I now ask the question of “Why was there such an anger directed at me” for a simple question, and despite a lot of deep thought I just can’t give an honest answer. And I don’t want to get into the head of a person who obviously has deeper issues. I’m just pleased I walked away from this as I dread to think what the outcome could have been.
I haven’t answered my own question of, “why are people so angry” but I’ve offered some opinions. Reasoning or the ability to, or even the lack of ability is at the crux of the issue in my sincere opinion, and it’s getting worse as time moves on.
Is reasoning taught, or is it something we learn socially as we move on in our lives?
Maybe anger management courses need to become a staple of modern social behaviours and understanding.
Foxes Den 
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