Years ago I discovered the secret to solid state devices, it's the special smoke they use during the manufacturing process. Once you let the smoke out, they'll never again work properly.

Love always -- Jessica Rose

That is great news!  Good luck!  Marion

I designed a lot of stuff for battery operation out in the field, so I used lots of LDO regulators.

I helped a guy with a low noise preamp powered with a garden variety 7805 regulator.
I looked at it on a spectrum analyzer and saw a whopping 1MHz oscillation!  No wonder it didn't work!

Needless to say I'm always making sure my regulators are properly bypassed.

I like to troubleshoot stuff with spectrum analyzers as I think in the frequency domain.
They are sensitive enough that I can pick up signals without an actual galvanic connection.
I may not even have to "pop open the lid" to see what is wrong!
If I can do that I may be able to avoid breaking stuff  while trying to fix stuff.

I learned to fix stuff without schematics.  Most of the time they aren't required if you just want it to work again.

Got my pre-op exams on Monday.  Who woulda thunk I'm the picture of health? lol

All my numbers look great and the doc said I'm "low risk" for surgery.  Just waiting for his final report to send to my surgeon.

Incidentally, the surgeon's office called today and they want to move me up a week from July 1 to June 25.  Fine by me!

Stuff is getting real now!

I had the leftover half of a chili dog for lunch.  They wrap it aluminum foil, which is perfect for reheating in a 350 degree oven!  Took the dog out of the bun and cooked for 10 minutes wrapped in aluminum foil, then turned off the heat.  The bun was reheated in the oven for five minutes. The chili adds a bit of water to keep the bun from drying out.

For dinner I'm having Japanese sardines in soy sauce over steamed white rice.
Rotating out my stock of canned goods.

The big silver chip has over 200 million transistor equivalents inside  it lol. A bit of progress from the old days.

My problem however is a simple LDO regulator that does not meet spec, or I should say the spec does not meet the device in that it's missing information, is non standard, but does not say so. So annoying.

Disabled American Veterans (DAV) and the Black Hills VA Healthcare System will be hosting an Informational Fair on Saturday, May 18, 2024, from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm (Mountain Time Zone).

If you or you know someone who needs to file a claim with the VA, the DAV will be on-site to help with that. If you have become eligible for a disability claim under the new PACT Act, the DAV can answer questions and help with filing a claim.

The Black Hills VA Healthcare System LGBTQ+ Listening Session will be a town hall meeting for us to give the VA direct feedback about the services we need, what they are doing right or wrong, and what is needed to improve services to the Veteran LGBTQ+ community.

If you will be in the area on Saturday, please stop by. FREE FOOD!

See Announcement

Hi Jessica,

Good luck on getting that sorted out.

When I got out of school I did simple RF circuit boards.
Just one layer and a ground plane.

I did microwaveRF  boards. Teflon supported by a brass frame.  It was a challenge because I needed AutoCad but my employer was too cheap so I had to improvise with a program that wasn't designed for creating 50 and 70 ohm traces.  If I had that someone else would have donated a program that would work with AutoCad. Maybe I already had that one, I don't remember.   I used Touchstone and Microwave Harmonica to design microwave circuits.

No,not at all.

Disabled American Veterans (DAV) and the Black Hills VA Healthcare System will be hosting an Informational Fair on Saturday, May 18, 2024, from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm (Mountain Time Zone).

If you or you know someone who needs to file a claim with the VA, the DAV will be on-site to help with that. If you have become eligible for a disability claim under the new PACT Act, the DAV can answer questions and help with filing a claim.

The Black Hills VA Healthcare System LGBTQ+ Listening Session will be a town hall meeting for us to give the VA direct feedback about the services we need, what they are doing right or wrong, and what is needed to improve services to the Veteran LGBTQ+ community.

If you will be in the area on Saturday, please stop by. FREE FOOD!