Foxes Den

Woo hoo! They’re back…

I was expecting them to come, April is the month that they normally come out of hibernation and at 01:08 this morning the garden cameras picked up the movement of one looking for some grub.

Yes the hedgehog..

Our first hedgehog of 2025

This one is quite a sizeable one so I suspect it’s one of last years batch. We normally have the youngsters visit so I suspect they are yet to come, and this is one of elder lads and lasses that know where the food normally is, so they are doing their rounds to check what’s about.

We’ve a lot more cats visiting the garden now so I will have to put out a shelter where only the hogs can access, as the bloody cats will eat the lot.

Good to see them back, we are so fortunate to get them year after year and we are lucky as we are on a busy main road not far from the city. The garden has been developed for them with easy access, so I guess they know where a safe haven can be found.

Now time to get the hog cam up to monitor them.

Just don’t get angry…please

I’ve read a lot lately about anger, and anger management and often ask myself, can it really be addressed? I don’t class myself as having anger issues, I’m more of an impatient person. In my teenage years I really did have anger issues and I put that down to my upbringing, especially my father’s influence upon me. He had vile tempers and when he blew the entire town knew about it, he had one hell of a reputation.

I think I’ve stated before that I have always had this fear of being compared to my father, and as I grow older, people see me now and even comment on how much I look like him. I really dislike this as I don’t want to be compared to, or even be reminded of him. I think I’m losing that battle.

So back to anger management.

I spent 6 hours yesterday working on a single circuit board. It had numerous issues and a raft of problems that needed addressing. 4hrs into it and I was getting a positive signal from it, and things looked promising until, the wiring loom melted. There was an issue that I should have first addressed, a school boy issue, but I jumped ahead of myself and it failed miserably after looking so promising. I’m so annoyed but remained focused.

I had a second spare board. So set to work on this. I’d learnt the issues from the first board so preparation was a lot easier and within an hour I was at the same point as the previous attempt.

And then I tested it. I had a signal, I had an image, I also had movement on the screen but it was very dim. Apparently on this board the backlight circuit decided to fail and that was it for this attempt. Damn it, I was bordering anger at this point and then I took a small break.

I begged myself to not get angry. What would this achieve, think of something good about today, and then it hit me. I’m failing, but I’m learning. Isn’t that a positive?

I have one more board. I’ve prepared it again to the point of failure of both the previous boards and I will get on to this today, this one took me 30 minutes, my speed is up. Then I stopped for the day.

I slept on it last night and have really thought it through, today I am actually quite pleased with myself as I have gone through what I learned yesterday and the knowledge I have gained from this one job is immense. I could still fail on this third attempt but looking on it positively I now have three boards as spares, I have more knowledge than I did yesterday morning and I’m now determined to accomplish what I set out to do in the first place. I’m not a quitter and this challenge remains just that. A challenge.

But the biggest achievement of the day was that I did not get angry. Anger achieves nothing, it alienates you and upsets others who don’t deserve it. Just because you are having difficulties there is no need to let everyone else know “You can’t handle the pressure”.

My first question in this post was, “Can anger be addressed?” Yes it can, but you as an individual have to deal with it, take a step back, and approach a problem from a different perspective.

We have choices, the two things we have total control over are our thoughts and our actions. We just need to be wiser in how we choose to mange these two choices, for your own personal good and for that of others.

I never want to be angry. I don’t want to be like him. Annoyed is acceptable, just don’t let it fester and develop into something a whole lot worse.

Have a peaceful, pleasant day.

Spring is here

Uk. It’s early April and spring is in evidence all around. My favourite time of the year as I have previously discussed. The garden is starting to awaken and is gradually starting to show all its beauty that it has been hiding throughout the winter months.

The birds are vocal and we are very fortunate to have a large community of them around our small garden on the outskirts of the dirty old city. Blackbirds with their beautiful song, the small but lovely sound of the blue tits and robins, and then the raucous 40 cigarette a day sound of the “Chav” of the avian world the Magpie. Not to mention pigeons who’s soul purpose in this world is to sit upon any structure and have a good shit. 💩

It’s nice in a structurally unsound way.

Weather has been behaving itself during the day, it’s been lovely sunshine up to about 16 degrees Celsius only to fall to freezing overnight. The swing in temperatures has been immense for us, as the central heating is not yet dormant.

I’m saying this is spring but as usual it could just as well be summer here in the UK, we could well have had our quota of sun for the year for all I know.

Even the postman is confused. Normally the shorts he wears only come out for summer, and that used to be a good indication of the weather about to turn for us. Now he wears shorts all year round in all weathers so we can no longer use him as an indication of better weather approaching, it’s confused us equally.

It’s that time of year when your brain kicks into “Things you forgot about, but now need to attend to” mode. And for some unknown and unexpected reason I’m now very aware of a maelstrom of things that need my attention. It doesn’t help that the wife’s brain has done the same thing and she has now doubled my workload with the things she now wants me to do.

Did I say this is my favourite time of the year?

Yeah, it is and I love all this activity, it’s as if we humans are doing the same as the humble hedgehog and about to wake up from our hibernation, shake ourselves down and crack on with the summer. (Oh and I am awaiting the arrival of our first hedgehog 🦔 friends, who should be arriving anytime now)

Who wouldn’t love the world awakening.

Have a great day.

Allergies and sacrifice

Allergic reactions have been an affliction that have been part of my entire life, and still are. Fortunately my allergies are not as threatening as many that are present in society, saying that one actually is, but I’ve managed it well so far.

Hay-fever: has been a pain in the ass since childhood, the nice weather comes and my eyes stream and the snot flows (Not a pleasant sight and i apologise for being blunt in my description) I always think i have it under control and then it hits, usually after i have omitted to take the days dosage of medicine, so thats entirely my fault.

Asthma: this is the dangerous one and has to be monitored and treated seriously. Again I’ve had this right from Childhood, fortunately I’ve never had to be hospitalised for it, i have a good regime to treat it and medications are taken without fail and are always on my person should i ever have an emergency.

That’s my allergies and now i will get onto the reason i titled this post so. If someone told you to sacrifice something most dear to you to relieve or eliminate an allergy completely, would you?

Well it appears that after my most recent Asthma review i do have an allergy to pet fur. This both surprises me, and in hind sight, doesn’t really surprise me if you get my drift. We’ve had pet dogs for the last 35 years and only last year our last dog Alfie passed away. We have been pet free apart from the feral feline that resides in our garden now for about 8 months. My review shows that my breathing and management of the condition has improved immensely in this short period and compared to previous reviews this is the best i have been for almost 15 years.

Our dogs were the Bichon frise breed. Anyone who knows the breed will know that they are about as hypo allergenic as you can get in a dog as they just don’t moult. There are never any issues when they jump on the furniture as they don’t leave a trail of dog hair as many other breeds do, its one of the reasons we obtained this breed all those years ago when we did our research on them.

But the latest results from my doctor do make some sense. Alf suffered from a nasty condition called Sebacious Adenitis, basically an immune condition where his own body was trying to kill his skin. He was on drugs that are given to humans to prevent organ rejection and he had to be bathed regularly every two days, and i did this without question or complaint for the last 2 years of his life. I did notice that when i dried and brushed him, for a few hours after i would become very itchy on my hands and very reliant on my Asthma inhalers. The signs were there but I didn’t really make the connection.

My question is then, would you sacrifice something that you love so much and that gives you so much pleasure to relieve the discomfort of an allergy?

There are probably two answers here, and i fully understand both. If the allergy is life threatening then its a no brainer, the animals would have to go, it’s a sad choice but you have to preserve your quality of life.

For the person like me where it’s more of an inconvenience rather than a life threatening situation, i’d happily relive that time all over again.

We’ve decided that we will be having no more pets. This decision was already made by us simply because we believe the three beautiful dogs that have accompanied us through our lives, were in our eyes the best three dogs ever. They cannot be replaced and i would never want to get a pet to attempt to fill that role. However now, even meeting other dogs in our family circle my eyes swell and i get all stuffy, so the issue was always there, but it has taken the passing of a much loved pet to realise the scale of the problem in the first place.

No more pets for us then. It’s hard to say my life has improved since his passing, it seems such a wrong thing to say. But i must admit health wise i have improved greatly.

But I would sacrifice this well being at the drop of a hat for a little discomfort and more time in their presence.

Stay safe.

Nintendo Gameboy Printer

What the listing stated:

Listing for a FAULTY Nintendo Gameboy printer unit.

The printer is FAULTY, it has a lot of battery leakage in the battery compartment, so doesn’t currently power up. Some of the terminals look like they should clean up pretty well, but i cannot guarantee.

As it doesn’t power up, i haven’t been able to test it. So can’t guarantee thats the only issue.

The casing has some discolouration, marks and other imperfections here and there.

I haven’t attempted any repairs and cannot guarantee it is fixable.

SOLD AS FAULTY/spares/repairs.

EBay

Here are the supplied pictures:

Serious yellowing, good candidate for Retrobrighting

Some serious battery leakage contamination

I think I’ve got my work cut out with this one. It’s another piece of unloved technology from 1998 looking for a new life. I’ve paid a total of £19:89GBP including postage for this item, probably at the higher end of what I’m comfortable with for an item in this condition. It has some serious corrosion issues that could go a lot deeper than just the battery contacts. There is a definite issue with discolouration, however I’m happy with that as it will be my guinea pig for my first attempt at retrobrighting, this process i discussed in this post a few days back: Retr0bright – What’s that then?

My plan of attack for this unit is to completely dismantle it, give it a thorough clean, retrobright the casing and then attend to the electrical / component issues.

Here’s some history about the printer unit:

The Game Boy Printer, known as the Pocket Printer in Japan, is a thermal printer accessory released by Nintendo in 1998 which ceased production in early 2003. The Game Boy Printer is compatible with all the Game Boy systems except the Game Boy Micro and is designed to be used in conjunction with the Game Boy Camera. It also prints images from compatible late-generation Game Boy and Game Boy Color games. It runs on six AA batteries and uses a proprietary 38mm wide thermal paper with adhesive backing, originally sold in white, red, yellow and blue colors. In Japan, a bright yellow Pokémon version of the Game Boy Printer was released, featuring a feed button in the style of a Poké Ball.

Wikipedia

If I manage to get this into a working state it will be added to my GameBoy collection.

I just need a suitable lead to connect between the console and the printer, and a small roll of 38mm wide thermal paper. I’m currently sourcing these.

Assessment:

Well it certainly has the yellowing issues and I will cover that in a separate post where I will have my first attempt at Retrobrighting the unit. With batteries in place, the unit is very dead and no matter how many times the switch is operated, it remains dead. Battery terminals are a mess and there is a lot of evidence of battery leakage and corrosion.

Serious yellowing over the years visible at all angles

Serious corrosion across battery terminals

The board inside hasn’t been that badly affected by the corrosion, however one track from the battery terminal was showing signs of decay and will need attention. There are parts of the board that will need reflowing as there are some dodgy looking solder joints.

I’m happy that all the issues have been identified and I do actually have the items to carry out the repair. I will focus on the external issues such as the yellowing before dealing with the contacts and main board issues. Stay with me now, the repair begins.

Repair:

The Retrobrighting process for the shell assembly can be found in a separate post here: First attempt at Retrobrighting.

Needless to say the results are fantastic and I shall look at incorporating this method into more of my future projects. I have since given the case a second treatment and it is pretty much perfect with no sign of discolouration.

As you can see in the pictures above, the battery compartment suffered from some severe acid contamination. Using a grinding pen and a lot of cleaning solution, three of the five contacts were saved but two were beyond repair and I had to replace these with new contacts.

I then loaded the battery compartment with new batteries and then checked the two terminal ends to assure continuity, this was confirmed and continuity exists throughout. As a result the battery issues and power supply have now been resolved.

I mentioned that one of the tracks on the main board was showing signs of corrosion. I filed this down, cleaned it, and then brushed the board down with IPA and checked the continuity and this was fine. All suspect solder joints have also been reflowed, they are all looking good and new.

Track issue in the top left area by the battery contact. All corrosion ground off and cleaned with IPA

Area of concern highlighted on the left side picture. All attended to and cleaned and recoated with some solder mask to prevent any further decay

I had previously removed the motor from the board to assist with cleaning, as i didn’t wish to damage any of the ribbon cables. I then reconnected the cleaned and freshly repaired board, to the restored battery compartment to see if anything lit up. It sure did.

This was pleasing as it now showed that we had continuity from the battery compartment to the board. I then added the motor back in and we also had some movement.

Movement restored

This again was very pleasing as everything we have done so far seems to be working. However it proves nothing yet until I can get the correct cable and some correct sized thermal paper to see that it actually does print, or even advance the paper. Those items are being sourced, and I don’t want to jump ahead of myself just yet as there could still be a number of yet to be addressed issues that may arise. It’s very much a fingers crossed period until we can test the unit properly.

Let’s clean all the other plastics whilst we await all the other items to be attended to.

Now we will commence reassembly.

All restored, working and looking pristine

Now all assembled the motor moves into position when turned on, the feed button also works. The paper rolls for these units are at the moment extortionate and selling for about £10GBP for the tiniest of rolls, and I’m not paying that. I have a thermal printer at home and I have cut some of this paper to size to test the transport, and this works just fine. Just awaiting the cable to connect the GameBoy to the printer. Fingers still firmly crossed.

Result:

I’ve just found out that if you hold the feed button whilst turning on the unit you get a test message. I’ve done this and I’m pleased to say the unit is fully working.

I’ve also connected it to my game boy and the game – Pokemon pinball, and was able to print off the high scores. It truly works.

I’m just so pleased how this project has gone. It has been a complete refurbishment, clean, and I have even managed to reuse the original stickers. The unit looks pristine and really is a nice piece of kit. This goes into my GameBoy collection and has many more years of good use left in it.

And to think this would have probably ended up in landfill. Scandalous. The cost of repair to me has been less than £2GBP and the majority of that was for the peroxide solution to do the Retrobrighting.

Great result. Very happy with this.

I can now uncross those fingers. All is fine.

Thanks for passing by, as always most appreciated.

Tomy – Mr.Money bank

What the listing stated:

Not working

May be an easy fix

EBay

Now I don’t half buy some junk to fix, but this one struck a chord with me. Looking into its history I believe it’s a toy made to encourage children to save money from around 1987. So he’s currently around 38 yrs old.

Dirty, as per usual and a bit beaten up. Sounds just like me 😂

As you can see in the photo above, you could originally buy a set of these, incorporating Dollar, Pound or Euro stickers for the serving hand, the one i have made an offer on is the dollar one.

What appeals to me about this item is that I’ve been looking for a way at work to raise some money for the local LOROS hospice, and this might be a fun way to do it if I can get it working. I plan to brand it with the local hospice details and just thought it would be a fun way to use it. This is a fun object where you put a coin on its hand, its mouth opens, the eyes go up and the coin goes in the mouth. There is a munching motion and then the tongue licks its lips. Or at least it should do. This one I have ordered is having none of that and this is the challenge ahead. These units are notorious for having issues with the power switch, a simple fix if that is the case, but this is me…nothings ever that simple.

And as usual it’s dirty, has marks on it and needs a good clean.

As with everything retro (New antiques 🤦‍♂️) items are attracting some crazy prices, though I do think the general public are not as stupid as the sellers seem to believe they are, as all the above listings have yet to attract any bids. Now the one I have bid on is broken, and yes it has its battery cover. My current bid is £6.70GBP and I must now wait to see if it is a winning bid. With postage (Rip off as usual) the price will be £10.20GBP in total, so compared to the prices in the listings above it is an absolute bargain.

Good news – I have won the auction at this price. Nice.