Msg: 5657 *Conference*
02-07-95 01:25:53
From: ROCCO FORTUNATO
To : ALL
Subj: NICAD BATTERY (MEMORY)
Hi Y'all! I'm a fairly unknowledgeable but rather experienced Model 100 user from Texas. I have 3 of the beasties. I literally and simply pecked my first one to death. It served me so well, however, that it's demise was most honorable. I still have it for spare parts to keep the others alive, but you can't even see some of the letters on the keys from all the use it got. Model T #2 is floating along on love and extra screws in the case to hold it together since the very plastic of it's being is slowly aging to the point where it is too brittle to hold on to the original case screw receivers. Other plastic inside is failing too, so the keyboard wobbles a little, but it keeps on producing (like, for example, this memo...). Model T #3 is actually much younger and should be doing better than it is, but it seems to be going senile. As soon as I remove the batteries (or unplug the power supply while in use) it loses it's memory (cold starts). I suspect the NiCad memory protection batteries and have ordered same from National Parts with the intention of replacing them myself. A friend warned me about static concerns and told me to use a grounded soldering iron. I don't have such. I do have a 30 watt battery powered pencil iron. If I use an anti-static wrist strap while using that iron, will I be OK? Actually I'll be quite a novice using even the wrist strap. I solder all the time on audio studio wiring, but have never attempted working around static sensitive components. Does anyone have any advice, methods, approaches, (prayers), that would help me through this MENTALLY HARROWING, PHYSICALLY EXHAUSTING, PSYCHOLOGICALLY DEBILITATING, EMOTIONALLY DISTRESSING, INTENSELY INVASIVE VIVSECTION OF MY BEST FREIND AND MOST LOYAL COMPANION... wait a minit!!!... it's just my Model 100... But I do need anyone's help that I can find to get in there and do the job right! These little dinosaurs are hard to come by these days and they still do what they do better than anything else I can care to contemplate (for reasonable cost). So I'm SCARED that I'll blow it and lose my best friend! HELP!!! ...and THANKS! ---Rocco