Things broken
15 November 2025 02:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
igenlodeMy electronic scales (used for very fine measurements -- I use an ordinary balance and set of weights for cooking!) were mysteriously not working *again*, what feels like only a few months after I had to replace the battery last time, and despite barely having been used in the interim. They don't have an off-switch, so cannot have been accidentally left on long-term; they always time out after five minutes or so. I am not impressed by the longevity of the "+70% Extra Life" Duracell batteries ("Baby Safe With Repulsive Taste") that I was sold.
Nor was I impressed that in order to test whether fitting a new battery would solve the problem I had go out and buy a £6.29 tool just in order to be able to undo the mandatory teeny-weeny extra little safety screw that prevents the user from accessing the battery compartment, and without any guarantee that the screwdriver head would actually be small enough to fit; even the tiniest screwdriver in my fairly comprehensive toolkit is slightly too large. Anyone would think they didn't *want* the general public replacing batteries rather than buying shiny new electronics... (Presumably the vast majority of them don't attempt to do so, since the necessary tools are not made widely available; you'd have thought they would be on sale at the counter of toyshops etc, if all new battery-powered items require them, but I couldn't even find a suitable screwdriver at the optician's, where they suggested the best place to get one for fixing spectacles would probably be out of a Christmas cracker!)
Mercifully the new "Stanley 4-in-1 pocket screwdriver" did work, once I'd deduced how to put it together (zero instructions provided, even of the 'supposedly universal images' variety), and the spare battery did bring the scales back to life, at least for the moment. And I now possess the necessary equipment to access any *other* modern electronica that I might purchase or (more probably) acquire in the future...
I was also displeased to discover that the latch on my bathroom door has malfunctioned for a third time, making it impossible to keep the door shut -- just in time for the chilly season :-(
Presumably the new spring has slipped out of position again, as it did only a couple of weeks after I originally sent the unit away to be mended; after an initial panic I did at least manage to locate the photo of the interior demonstrating how it is supposed to be aligned, but fixing it involves disassembling the entire doorknob and latch *again* (preferably in daylight hours), and there is a limit on how many times the worn brass screws are actually going to survive that sort of treatment.
Nor was I impressed that in order to test whether fitting a new battery would solve the problem I had go out and buy a £6.29 tool just in order to be able to undo the mandatory teeny-weeny extra little safety screw that prevents the user from accessing the battery compartment, and without any guarantee that the screwdriver head would actually be small enough to fit; even the tiniest screwdriver in my fairly comprehensive toolkit is slightly too large. Anyone would think they didn't *want* the general public replacing batteries rather than buying shiny new electronics... (Presumably the vast majority of them don't attempt to do so, since the necessary tools are not made widely available; you'd have thought they would be on sale at the counter of toyshops etc, if all new battery-powered items require them, but I couldn't even find a suitable screwdriver at the optician's, where they suggested the best place to get one for fixing spectacles would probably be out of a Christmas cracker!)
Mercifully the new "Stanley 4-in-1 pocket screwdriver" did work, once I'd deduced how to put it together (zero instructions provided, even of the 'supposedly universal images' variety), and the spare battery did bring the scales back to life, at least for the moment. And I now possess the necessary equipment to access any *other* modern electronica that I might purchase or (more probably) acquire in the future...
I was also displeased to discover that the latch on my bathroom door has malfunctioned for a third time, making it impossible to keep the door shut -- just in time for the chilly season :-(
Presumably the new spring has slipped out of position again, as it did only a couple of weeks after I originally sent the unit away to be mended; after an initial panic I did at least manage to locate the photo of the interior demonstrating how it is supposed to be aligned, but fixing it involves disassembling the entire doorknob and latch *again* (preferably in daylight hours), and there is a limit on how many times the worn brass screws are actually going to survive that sort of treatment.