If you’re used to my usual tech posts, you may want to skip this one, it’s a bit rant-y.
So, almost exactly a year ago, my son was born. And at that time, we were loaned a pretty wonderful stroller made by a company called Bugaboo. The stroller is a Bugaboo Frog, and it’s from 2004. It wasn’t cheap for the owners, costing nearly $1k. But, it worked through both their children, and there is no reason it couldn’t last through ours. One of the big selling points of these strollers is they’re extremely modular, and parts can be replaced relatively easily. We replaced a wheel a few months back that had it’s axle bent. Sure, it cost $50, but at least it’s better than replacing the stroller.
A coworker came in last week with a little mini amplifier (a Fender Mini Tonermaster®) that had stopped working. Being the curious sort, I opened it up, and looked at the main board. I immediately saw that D1 was physically blown (top half had blown off, and was rattling around inside the case). I figured this was probably the only issue, and brought it home to replace that diode (a simple 1N4003). After replacing it, however, the amp still didn’t work… which is why it’s nice I had it at home since I have the gear needed to diagnose the problem there. =)