How to make a kid happy...

channelmanic

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Donor 3 years: 2011-2013
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Take 1 crane... buy cheaply... repair said crane... give it to the kid and shove all her stuffed animals in it!

:)

Eric (Raven) said he was looking for an inexpensive crane that wasn't too big and in decent shape. This past auction I missed one that went for $1 so I tracked down the winning bidder and found that his friend put it on his card and he had no use for it.

It was a pig in a poke. The board was loose inside it and Pat (Komodo) got the shit shocked out of him when he went to hook it all back up as it was still plugged in. OOPS!

The buyer transferred it over to my card and after I paid for it a couple of friends helped me load it at the auction. My brother in law and my son helped me unload it at the house and I started tinkering.

4 screws later the board was installed but dead. Resistance checks found a bad 4050 IC but that wasn't it. Slapping it on the workbench and powering it with a couple of alligator clip wires connected over to a Neo Geo revealed a dead data bus. Further checks showed the reset line was stuck. One Merit Megatouch ISA sound/ROM/IO board later I had a replacement DS1232 chip - gotta love having a boneyard around!

Now it booted but was flaking out. The power supply wouldn't regulate properly. It looked new - not a bit of dust or heat damage. Caps were all good, but it had several bad solder joints. Resoldered them, adjusted the voltage and POOF! It was working. :)

Eric came over and we played it. It turns out it also had a worn pad where a limit switch was hitting it. Cut a small rectangle of stiff foam backed paperboard off the bottom of a Neo Geo board and Eric taped it into place.

For $1 + fees + tax ($1.18!!!) and a bit of work, his daughter is now a very happy girl.

It also kept Shawn from the auction company from having a crane on his front lawn which is where the guys who originally had it were talking about putting it.

RJ

Now to catch up on PMs and emails. The day job has been BRUTAL this month!
 
Yep! Raymond is a most awesome guy for sure! :D My daughter was stoked to get this surprise today. She stood out in the hot garage playing it until I made her go inside (with the promise that I would get it cleaned up and read to put in the game room). I'll get some pics up once we get it in the house tomorrow.

You can't buy good friends like these guys. RJ went above and beyond on this one for sure. I can't wait to see what my boys thin about it too. They'll probably go just as nuts as my daughter. :001_shappy:
 
Took some pics of the kids and the crane......now if I only knew where the cable to the camera went........
 
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