House In Order, day 14

[cjsmith]

1. Pitched a whole bunch of expired prescription meds, including one the FDA has removed from the market.

2. Did the electrical connections for my car voltmeter. Well, most of them. Let it be known that the Radio Shack Lighter Socket Power Plug 274-331 is JUNK. The crimp connectors do not "lock" into place as the instructions so blithely state. They also do not make an electrical connection between the wire and the outside contacts of the plug, except about one try out of ten, and then only on the negative terminal. And you can't take the plug apart to see what's wrong and jury-rig it, because it's got a rivet through it, not a screw. It takes determination and planning to make a product this difficult to use or fix. I'm blocked at every turn. I grudgingly admire the designers' fiendish cleverness.

At least I still know how to solder. I suppose it'd be hard to forget. And if I pull the connectors out of the plug, my voltmeter correctly detects a 9V battery, so I know the rest of the connections are okay. Guess I just need a new plug.

Comments

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Good ol' Seldane. The only antihistamine that has ever really worked for me. Pity it kills people. Allegra, what they came out with as a replacement, is a pale shadow.

[dawnd.livejournal.com]

Hey, my daughter is no pale shadow!!! ;^)

But, yeah. Seldane did actually work. Allegra, not so much. (And sometimes, neither does my daughter!)

[ckd]

Allegra works for me, but Claritin doesn't do much of anything...ah, the wonders of individualized pharmacology.

[shadopanther.livejournal.com]

I think I'd be tempted to take the rivet out & replace it with a similar sized bolt.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, if I knew I could do that without shattering the plastic around it. Probably there's a way. I didn't know how. In the end I just bought a new (better) part, and I'm very pleased with the new one, so I just pitched the bad one.

[shadopanther.livejournal.com]

New/better part is a good solution. (As for without shattering the plastic around the rivet -- drill?)