Nov 20 - Death Spirals

Sunday was all about ends and beginnings, I guess. Our game of brinksmanship with November came to a head as we resigned ourselves that cold wind and snow will come sooner rather than later. With a familiar sadness, we closed down the pond for the season, silencing the waterfall until Spring. The deck and patio furniture was stored Teris-like in the shed and the last bits of garden pruning were brought to the curb. Like the man said, Winter is coming.

JediBoy and I dragged ourselves into the workshop to assess the GameCube Portable's state of affairs. We highlighted 3 areas that needed focus:

1. An LED and accompanying resistor needed to be repaired or replaced. This was not a major functional problem (we assumed) - more of a cosmetic issue in that the LED only serves as a 'power on' indicator. Since the case already had a hole drilled out for an LED, so we wanted to make this work again.
2. The right-hand trigger mechanism (already epoxied into the case) needed repairs. At first blush, the 'tact' switch seemed to have slipped out of place, so that would need to be corrected. There might also be an issue with the potentiometer, but further testing would be needed.
3. The board containing the battery recharge circuitry might not be working properly based on a potential short-circuit. We'd either need to install a spare (not sure if the spare works) or source a replacement.

We decided to tackle the LED problem first since it was the simplest. Avoiding the gory details, we somehow misplaced the broken parts and we found we were lacking the necessary replacement parts. After a few hours of looking at all this carnage, we put off any action until I could visit The Source for some new resistors and LEDs.

Somewhere, the dragons of Skyrim were calling, but I could not answer. Not today.