[This was originally posted on blogagotchi.com --ed.]
Well that was a stupid idea.
I'd expected some sort of chemical reaction, melting biohazardous
glowing waste. But was greeted with a nice clean blob of black epoxy
instead. Turns out it had a big "A" written on it in marker. I did a
little intar-searching and discovered that what I was trying to do was
known as "unpotting", and that one should use heat and a cutting tool
of some sort. Good thing I have a decrepit soldering iron laying
around. (BTW, dont use sandpaper on soldering nibs, it makes the
copper insides of the nib alloy with the solder.) I used the
moderately sharp edge of it to scrape a little at the offending blob.
Turns out heat turns epoxy into taffy. I'd like to just put the thing
into my oven and then scrape the junk off, but that's obviously not
gonna happen. I'm gonna need something a little more focused. I also
dont wanna go scraping away at it for fear of destroying the sensitive
little chips, or, more importantly, the traces on the board. You cant
imagine trying to fix those things. *shudder*
I'm also going to take one of those usb microscopes off the hands of a
certain geek friend of mine, to assist the examination, not to mention
some assorted hardware I'm gonna pick up Thursday.
In other news, I've discovered why I like virtual pets, and why my mom wouldnt let me have pets. (excuse the lack of gamma.)
Turns out if you yank the battery, it clears the time, but not the date. So, my tama, named "Hack" btw,
was sleeping at around 3:00pm, and it dawned on me, and I changed the
time, and it woke up and that's what I saw. Oh, how I laughed. (and
no, that's not a gigantic scratch/crack on the window.)
Next up on Tamahack? Direct LED leads, so I dont have to figure out what wavelength the LEDs operate on :D
Well that was a stupid idea.
I'd expected some sort of chemical reaction, melting biohazardous
glowing waste. But was greeted with a nice clean blob of black epoxy
instead. Turns out it had a big "A" written on it in marker. I did a
little intar-searching and discovered that what I was trying to do was
known as "unpotting", and that one should use heat and a cutting tool
of some sort. Good thing I have a decrepit soldering iron laying
around. (BTW, dont use sandpaper on soldering nibs, it makes the
copper insides of the nib alloy with the solder.) I used the
moderately sharp edge of it to scrape a little at the offending blob.
Turns out heat turns epoxy into taffy. I'd like to just put the thing
into my oven and then scrape the junk off, but that's obviously not
gonna happen. I'm gonna need something a little more focused. I also
dont wanna go scraping away at it for fear of destroying the sensitive
little chips, or, more importantly, the traces on the board. You cant
imagine trying to fix those things. *shudder*
I'm also going to take one of those usb microscopes off the hands of a
certain geek friend of mine, to assist the examination, not to mention
some assorted hardware I'm gonna pick up Thursday.
In other news, I've discovered why I like virtual pets, and why my mom wouldnt let me have pets. (excuse the lack of gamma.)
Turns out if you yank the battery, it clears the time, but not the date. So, my tama, named "Hack" btw,
was sleeping at around 3:00pm, and it dawned on me, and I changed the
time, and it woke up and that's what I saw. Oh, how I laughed. (and
no, that's not a gigantic scratch/crack on the window.)
Next up on Tamahack? Direct LED leads, so I dont have to figure out what wavelength the LEDs operate on :D
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