I really wish I’d taken the time to challenge Insight UK and /or Logitech over the sale of goods act, but the fact that the replacement part was only £8.90 from Farnell won me over. After it arrived, a Google for PCB repairs in Sussex found R and G Technology in Worthing. A quick email and a phone call later, and I went round the same day to have the part replaced. I gave the board and the replacement IC to David, and waited for 10 minutes while he removed the blown IC and put the new one in, all for £25. I’d definitely recommend them if you’re in a similar situation.
After taking it home and connecting the control pod it works perfectly. That cost me £35 compared to buying a new surround sound system. Yey for taking things apart!
This is not an entirely happy story though, as literally as soon as my 5.1 system started working again, my big TV died. But that’s another rant..
It’s been many years since I’ve done any soldering, and to be fair I was never that good at it, so it was good to have an expert on hand to show how it’s done.
Mitch had a few kits with him for sale, I bought a Mignonette game kit to help me practice my soldering, and a Brain Machine kit that I’ll put together soon. I had a go on one of the pre-built Brain Machines, and they are very strange..
[update]: I see The Skiff is listed in the HackerSpaces wiki. Is it really a hacker space? Surely it’s more of a co-working thing? Perhaps they’re one and the same. Perhaps I just like the look of the photographs in the article.
Creating the Shopper 13 game sparked my enthusiasm, and I’ve been gathering new parts to experiment with:
In addition to that, I’ve also got a Wii Nunchuck hooked up to my Arduino which I’m currently controlling Flash and Servos via the accelerometer and analog joystick. Oh, and a Laser.. and some Papervision too. When I’ve got something interesting, I’ll post it. Hopefully that’ll be in the next few days
Well I have to start building my robot army somewhere..
I’ve been working on a game for the Wallace and Gromit installation at the Science Museum.
Here’s a photo I took a while back:
It was a brilliant project to work on, and one of the most fun things I’ve done for a while. Everyone involved was fantastic, and the exhibition itself looks superb. The game is now installed on a row of consoles and is open to the public. The controls are made from arcade-quality components, and uses a Mini-Pac to talk to the PC via USB.
Here’s a very brief clip of it on BBC News 24 (00:30):
If you’re in the area, do go and check out the exhibition, it’s great!
Iestyn.net - Iestyn Lloyd's blog about Flash, Unity, ActionScript, programming, development, Brighton, gaming, robots, photography, and other random things.
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