Peter Vieira
Wow, you're reading this? Thanks! If you're into RC cars and I seem vaguely familiar, it's because I spent over 25 years writing and editing RC car news, reviews, and tech articles in print and online. What else, what else ... I have a degree in Film Studies (useless), most of a degree in Graphic Design (useful), and I'm married to a wonderful woman with horrible taste in men. Thanks to her, we have a terrific daughter who just earned her Journalism degree and is way, waaay more together that I was at her age. Or right now.
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Yay for the birdies!
> I was sucking the steering wheel as the previous owner must have been gnome-height and had the seat maxxed-out in its highest and closest position to the dash.
That’s what you get for trading your 2CV for Jason’s Jag.
SORRY JASON THAT WAS MEAN but I had a joke opportunity and I seized it.
Also I’m 5’9
I bought an MX5/Miata just the other day, and today was the first time I’d driven it with the top down. Within thirty seconds of leaving my house, a bird managed to shit right on my head. It was honestly impressive timing and aim.
So, can we amend this to “Yay for the indoor birdies”?
(Also, on the drive home from buying it, I passed another identical red NC, and got a wave from the owner. MX5 people really are as friendly as they say).
So glad that Janeway and Tuvok are now doing well!
SWG, if you have a local shop that can do PCB assembly repairs, that might be your best bet. As Burt Curry already mentioned, it may just take a couple trace repairs to get one of those working again. And if it’s always the same failure, once you have one fixed, you could likely resurrect the others with a similar fix. But if it took some ICs with it, not quite so easy. Alas, I bet there’s not enough of a market for these for someone to have made a replacement board with a better design.
I have started to get to those levels with AMC Eagles. Yay useless (outside of a very specific context) knowledge!
Wow…we joke about the “magic smoke” coming out, but it’s unsettling to see actual scorch marks.
And I’m so glad to hear that the birdies are doing great, and that you identified the source of the lead!
Yay birdies!!!
To be slightly pedantic- I suspect the bells were made of brass, not pure lead. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, with some lead usually added for machinability. In any case, the lead in the brass will tend to concentrate where it can be easily smeared on the metal surface during forming, increasing the relative availability of the lead.
I ran into issues with this when trying to make brass parts that were also lead free- almost every brass supplier had significant detectable lead even when lead free was specified.
In any case, glad Tuvok and Janeway are doing better!
It is my understanding, at least from the vet, that some of the factories churning out bird toys as cheaply as possible are using as many cost cutting methods as possible and source least expensive metals they could get. So you get stuff that is either pure lead or at least heavily tainted with it. If it’s not lead, it’s zinc, which is also toxic!
Sadly, it doesn’t really matter in the end when you’re a creature weighing only 68 grams. Even just a flake of the stuff could really mess you up. Janeway’s air passages lit up on imaging with metal toxicity. That chelation stuff sounds like magic!
So glad that Mercedes’ birds bounced back. Sounds like she has an excellent veterinarian! I can just imagine her bird in the incubator. My mom used to have parakeets. Her cousin gave her a really cute vintage birdcage but she never used it… probably a good thing. It can be hard art instead.
SWG, love that you are part of the Jag family. Some facility with electronic repairs will go a VERY long way in keeping your Jags running and in good shape, at least that’s my experience.
Keep at it and keep the Jag content coming!
I always love an update from Southern Walton Goggins.
And who doesn’t love birbs?!
10/10 update.
“Southern Walton Goggins.”
Omg I’m dead.
I been calling him Swiggles, but that’s even better.
We need to get him a convertible caddy with texas long horns on the hood.
Then we can call him Goss Hogg.
Glad the birds are OK. The Chinese appear to love killing pets going by all the lead they put in food and fixtures. I’m sure there’s a joke about alley cats and restaurants in there, as well.
We are very careful about what we buy for the cat. Lead is no joke.
Yeah, there have been so many recalls for pet food from China for lead contamination over the years that it almost seems like it’s intentional. I don’t know anything about pet food production, but WTF would there be so much exposure to lead in the process?
Not just food: bowls, scratch posts, litter… it’s endless
Lead, cadmium, you name it. Too often we just don’t know what’s being put in our products. So glad the birds have recovered!
I worked about 20 years in the steel industry…. so many older collegues have fallen to cancer or other issues.
Not just lead, I remember in 2007 when melamine was added as an adulterant to Chinese pet food as a nitrogen booster to make it seem like the ingredients had higher protein levels and then a year later when six babies died and more than 50,000 were hospitalized because the same thing happened with baby formula.
Yeah, that sounds familiar now that you mention it. I have what would be considered by many to be a flexible regard for human life, but even I could never understand that level of indifference and greed. Then again, people like that are the reason for my flexibility.
What the Chinese DO like is executing those responsible for such shenanigans:
https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/asia-travel/china/two-executed-over-tainted-milk-that-killed-babies-3vcjmxkr7q0
https://www.nydailynews.com/2007/07/11/china-food-drug-czar-executed-after-export-woes/
Good riddance. I hope the families got hit with a bullet fee too:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullet_fee
I’m actually glad to see they’re serious about doing something about this. There’s not enough accountability for criminals and serial killers who kill remotely and indirectly.
Love the 1980 Topps tribute.
That was 100% Peter on that genius design call.
That picture was from the day I found it, abandoned in the back lot of a local transmission shop.Such a pretty metallic blue beast of a car.
Thanks for reading and for the comment!
SWG – against sound judgement I may have an interest in one of the XKs. I’m 11 hours away and typically go to Wilmington once or twice a year. Need to see how the finances shake out this spring.
That blue convertible has your name on it if you want it – I need it gone.
There’s obviously an Autopian Member Discount that will apply if you do end up going for it!
https://www.facebook.com/share/17snQyTAom/
May come down to: am I a Jaguar man or a pickup man? I have my eyes on a 2wd shortbed fleetside Bricknose F150 Lariat with a 302/AOD combo. Rust free body but rough interior (as much as they had).
And for the “why not both?” crew – I’m already maintaining, registering and insuring 4 vehicles. TBH – if I were single, I’d do both.
SWG, I’m not familiar with the RV1 designation in the lower left corner. R is usually for resistor, obviously, but the V escapes me, as it’s been over 20 years since I did this stuff. Varistor is the only thing I can think of with a V. The PWB is the Printed Wire Board with it’s part number afterwards for the Seat Memory Module, so there’s a wild chance you could at least find Bill of Material for that RV1, though it looks like there was never much there. Many boards are built with the option of a component that is not installed. Maybe you can even find this board searching for that part number. A varistor is a surge protecting electronic component with an electrical resistance that varies with the applied voltage. It has a nonlinear, non-ohmic current–voltage characteristic that is similar to that of a diode
That’s awesome info and thanks Bert!
Sadly, it’s about 1 level above my skill set and knowledge of circuit boards, so I may take it to a local board repair shop to see if they can resurrect it.
Your knowledge and input are impressive, my dude! Thanks for reading, commenting and for being a Member.
SWG, that’s probably a multi layer circuit board, with a processor like that. If you can be sure of what traces are fried, and there are vias, (the holes that take a trace from front to back, or to an internal layer) and those vias are all the way through the board, then you can solder in a small wire and jump it to the next via, assuming you can be sure that the trace and via are one and the same circuit. An ohm meter might be able to confirm this. I designed circuit boards for 15 years, and did repairs like this a few times. If the ohm meter does not seem to make contact, it might be because they put a clear coating on the board, to protect it from scratches. You may have to gently scrape this coating off at the vias.
If the trace is toast (as suggested and by the looks of it) all you’ll know is lack of continuity.
Never mind, I re-read and saw “If you can be sure of what traces are fried”. Not impossible and if you have three toasty boards it’s worth the try.
One of the reasons I enjoyed running service for fouled up electronics back in the day was the plausible deniability that when I let the smoke out of a circuit no one seemed to know that isn’t what is supposed to happen.
It didn’t work when I got there and it doesn’t work now, I’ll order the replacement.
(Sometimes it did work and that was always kinda cool)
It’s amazing what they can do to treat little (or big!) birds.
Mercedes, I’m so glad to hear your little bird has recovered! it’s insane that companies are allowed to make pet supplies that could poison the pet.
I don’t believe in hell, but I wish I did because there’s a special place there for people who manufacture and sell pet supplies that kill pets. JFC.
The CCP makes sure they find out:
Battered by worldwide outrage over exports of poisoned pet food, toxic toothpaste, filthy fish and doctored drugs, China executed a top minister in charge of product safety
https://www.nydailynews.com/2007/07/11/china-food-drug-czar-executed-after-export-woes/
…still looking forward to that…
JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAG
article…
Wonderful news about the birds. I remember a radio station that would play Led Zeppelin at a certain time, and they would say “Let’s get the Led out”
I always thought that was so clever!
First, so cool there’s a good ending for Mercedes’ birds, but next, I feel like “SWG” and “Jaguar” might be *the* autopian version of clickbait at this point!
Very true. Some day we’ll get to hear that story.
I’m glad Mercedes’ birds are doing well! Heavy metal poisoning and chelation therapy made me think of the tv show House. I guess in this case that would be Dr. Birdhouse.
It both delights and doesn’t surprise me in the least that Mercedes is a Trekkie. And it also delights that both birds be okay now.
…slightly less delightful is lead- containing pet toys and dodgy Jaguar bits. Though I only find the former a surprise.
Based on other posts and pictures I believe it is her wife that is the more hard core Trek fan.
Personally I would have selected DS9 characters for my pets names but I still like Tuvok and Janeway.
Sheryl is the one who got me into Trek! She’s pretty much a walking and talking Memory Alpha. lol She can tell you exactly what happened in a specific episode in a specific season of a specific Trek show.
In our relationship I’m the Trekkie and my wife insists that she is NOT into Star Trek but after 30+ years she now has opinions about which captain is better and knows who serves on what ship in each series. She still insists she’s not a ST nerd but I’ve pointed out to her that she’s fully assimilated and resistance was futile.
That’s fine too. I’m just glad everything turned out okay after that debacle. Seen pets come, go, and be in pain. It’s always good when you have a recovery. :3