Rick's b.log - entry 2023/08/12

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FYI! Last read at 05:53 on 2024/05/20.

A "new" monitor

As I am doing more stuff on the older Pi2 in the living room, I have decided to set up a real monitor instead of relying on the HDMI dongle with the Android portable. This gives me an extra three hundred odd pixels, but more than that, a much larger screen that I can put further back so I can read it with my glasses on. The portable was just at the limit of glasses off, and the smaller screen size made it a bit challenging at times. But, then, my eyes are kind of crappy.

My "new" monitor.

I put "new" in quotes as, well, I went outside and got it from inside a plastic bag in the cow barn.

Psion 3A screen

The thingy arrived, so I removed one of the sockets from the little board that it came with and carefully soldered it to the Psion 3A's screen. Unfortunately, the ribbon cable connector is at the side that is right up against the metal flange, not the other side that has plenty of space. I'm not entirely sure how I'd get the cable inside the unit, but let's work on getting a functioning screen first.

The socket on the screen.

It's hooked up like this.

How the screen is connected.

It has to be that way around because of how the ribbon cable goes.

I plugged the daughterboard into the main board and...

So near, so far.

I resoldered the connections and checked them as best I am able with my equipment. Still nothing but lines and rubbish on the screen.

So, sadly, I have to say "to hell with this". In the absence of finding an actual proper screen ribbon cable, I've spent enough time and money on this. So, I'll put it together and drop it into a drawer where it can be found by somebody after I'm dead.

Rice!

Some good news. I found rice (the good stuff) on Amazon again, so I placed an order right away. It came in two days.

Nice Japanese rice.

Agitated shopping

I was agitated when shopping yesterday as my headphones refused to turn on. But why? I hadn't forgotten to charge them...

Here's why.

A puffed up lithium cell.

I snipped the wires to disconnect it, and then very carefully wiggled it loose from the extremely sticky thing that held it in place inside the headphones. Carefully, as I wasn't sure what this battery would do.

Outside, dropped a screwdriver point down. Punctured. Nothing at all. Kind of a disappointment, so I introduced the battery to my friend the pickaxe.

It seems that these batteries fail in two ways. They puff up when empty and out of juice (as in my case, so nothing happens) or they puff up when full of juice (and poking a hole can be, uh, violent).

I've ordered a cell of the same type from Amazon. It should be here Monday, so I'll fit it, see if I can get my headphones working again.

Gardening

Did a spot of mowing today. But before I did, I felt it was long since time to put some new oil into Pig. Here's the old sludge being drained out.
Yes, I know there's a drain plug at the bottom of the engine. Not only is it damn near impossible to get to (it's through a small hole in the mower deck), I also don't have anything that fits it.

Little mower oil change.

After the mowing, I fired up the old rotovator... well, they're both old... I fired up my original one as it was accessible. The one I bought a while back is locked away around the back.
It ran well for about fifteen minutes and then just kept cutting out. Not sure why, but not really important as I'd finished by then. Still, it's good to know that the repair I made got it going again.

Turned earth.

I turned the areas where I wasn't growing anything to deal with the weeds.

Where I am growing? Well...

The beans were pretty much a disaster. More or less the only ones that came up were the ones started in pots. Seeds put into the ground? A few grew and died, two grew, one got eaten and the other is going well. All of the other plants were transplanted.

The beans are small, barely growing any height at all, but they seem quite prolific.

Beans on a bean plant.

I think at the end of this, I might be able to make one serving of baked beans. So I hope I don't cock it up!

As for the tomatoes... they too didn't fare well. Most of the seeds I planted didn't come up. Those that did were planted, and, well... they are all leaning over because for ages they didn't do much, growing maybe an inch in a week.

Leaning tomatoes.

Then over the course of a weekend they nearly tripled in size, and the tiny nodules below the old flowers suddenly looked like green tomatoes.
There are quite a few tomatoes here, if they ripen up nicely. That's a big if, mind you, as the weather has stopped making sense.

Your comments:

David Pilling, 13th August 2023, 12:41

As someone regularly used to say to me, causing great irritation, "probably a loose connection". Although seriously do you know it is actually supposed to work.

I wonder if tomatoes are driven by shortening days, they seem to come on a lot faster as we move to Autumn.

Rick, 13th August 2023, 15:06

Yes, most likely a bad connection.

It used to work, for many years, before the original ribbon cable broke...

J.G.Harston, 13th August 2023, 16:16

I mowed my lawn a couple of days ago, but a couple of minutes after starting the electric mower started screaming and the magic smoke escaped at great speed. So I had to mow the lawn with the strimmer - my arms still ache. So now I have to remember to get to a lawnmower shop sometime.

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