Will teh NightWolve successfully repair his TurboExpress or fail miserably ? ? ?

[thesteve]

the ceramics likely would have cast a bit more, but they are easier to work with

[NightWolve]

Question: My old Mod for the power connection presented a problem; it used to physically disconnect the positive lead from the battery source when you'd insert the 3.5 mm plug, but given that it was too big internally and I had to melt it somewhat, it no longer works properly, so the + lead from the batteries does not reconnect (when you remove the plug). I didn't want to just connect the + lead to the same place as the external power supply and then always remember NOT to have batteries inside the unit at the same time.

So, I was thinking, just to do it right, how about using a diode on the positive lead from the batteries Basic ones can stop 20 amps of current from going in the wrong direction, no? That way, if you forgot the batteries in there and plugged in the external power source, you wouldn't be recharging them, something you most especially would not want to do if using alkalines. Minor issue as I never took the unit anywhere and I always used the power supply, but I just feel like doing it right and closing up the unit for all time, where there should be no reason to ever open it up again, etc.

[NightWolve]

Well, I looked around in my attic and I found an old electronic device that had the same kind of connector that'll mechanically disconnect the + lead from another circuit when you insert the plug.

I did buy a new diode from RadioShack, but what I found was that they're not 100% after testing it with a 9V battery. With no diode, the 9V battery read 10 Volts on the DMM. With the diode in place and in the proper direction, it read 9.43 Volts. So, a little resistance is added, and given how quickly the batteries are depleted in a TE, it'd be a bad idea to use it...

And finally, flipping the diode resulted in a .43-1.43 Volt measurement... so it doesn't even accomplish what was needed, I would still have to remember to remove the batteries before using the external power supply!

Anyhow, thanks for the info PMs! This was a fun little project!

BTW, I broke in the capacitors fully today, played a full game of Super Star Soldier and got to the last stage ( 8 ) only to get my ass handed to me... Interesting false alarm in the beginning though: in the 1st stage, the game kept crashing half way in, so I thought maybe something didn't quite go right with the cap replacement, but I took out the HuCard, cleaned it up a little with glass cleaner, put it back in and everything was peachy after that, aside from me being terribly rusty at the game.

But yeah, working good now! I figured it had to be the game more so than the caps, cause Air Zonk was working fine and I got up to stage 4 on that one!

[soop]

Just a quick note to say well done, and thanks for the useful info.  I doubt I'd ever be able to trust myself to take apart my GTs, but it's good to know that if I do, there's some great info here.

[NightWolve]

Thanks soop, I set out to try to make it fun and informative, but it looked like not too many cared about it after I was successful. Still didn't finish editing the lead-in story for it, either...