Project update #1

Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Hello World!
I apologize for not posting sooner, but I have been busy with school and I didn't feel like I had anything to talk about. I will start off with the projector. I recently did some research (after adjusting the mirror repeatedly) and found out that between the main mirror housing and the lamp there is a small rectangle box that is composed of four mirrors (one on each side) that is called the light box. Some of the info that I found suggested that the mirrors may have shifted, thereby causing part of the display to be darkened. From what I gathered, it is possible to fix the light box if you are very careful in removing it so that it doesn't break. So far I haven't actually taken a look at the light box in my projector.

As for the Radeon X1800 XT, I have tried heating it several times, but nothing has worked. I have just about given up on fixing it, but because it is a fairly powerful graphics card, I think I will try one last ditch effort. My plan is to clamp the memory chips and the GPU to the board so that when the solder melts, they don't fall off. I will then place the card with the GPU pointing down on a cookie sheet, supporting the card with three small aluminum foil balls. If all goes well up to this point, I plan to heat the oven to around 450 degrees Fahrenheit, maybe higher. (You can find many tutorials on how to re-flow the solder on a graphics card on YouTube)

Now, on to the steamer. I cleaned out the water line that ran from the base, to the iron, but that didn't seem to be clogged. I also found a small tube in the basin that you fill up with water when you start. the tube appeared to be clogged and I assumed that was the problem so I removed it, but when I tried to clean it out I discovered that it was not clogged but it was actually a filter. It was very difficult to replace the filter in the basin but I managed it. The I never actually fixed it because the person to whom it belonged needed it and decided that he would try to send it to the manufacturer.

I hope to post about more projects soon, so stay tuned, thanks for reading.

P.S. For those who are interested in 3D modeling, Blender version 2.60 was just released. you can download it here

Also, if you are a student you can get AutoDesk Inventor and other AutoDesk software for free by clicking here and signing up(its not a 30-day trial, its the real thing).