Stupid bloody cats. Stupid bloody electrics...

[desperance]

Continuing the theme of dead electrickal things, my radio is dead this morning. This is the radio that whispers to me all night long, and influences my dreaming. I need this.

Knowing that it had been fine all night long, I examined it quite closely, and lo: there is a break in the power cable. It is a pathetically thin power cable and easy to break, and it was in a tangle with all the other power cables, just where Mac had been pouncing on his Best Toy Ever, which is a bit of string. QED.

Mac's fine, thanks. All unelectrocuted.

But. I can't just see if the plug's blown a fuse, because it's a sealed plug. And I can't just replace the cable, because it's sealed into the radio. I can't actually see what I can do, except cut the cable off above the break, fit a regular plug to what remains and see if it still works. Grump...

(It is actually still under guarantee, but I suspect it's not guaranteed against cat-pouncings on its stupid bloody power cable...)

Comments

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Cat pouncings = Act of God.

you can fix the cable

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

you have several options...
1) chocolate block/croc block - plastic Lego-like block with pairs of screws. Trim the wires stick ends in and tighten screws. Available in any hardware shop and most pound shops
2) similar connector for use for in-line cable repair. I have one on the cable for my hedge trimmer, thank goodness for RCD protectors!
3) open radio and replace entire cable

However if it's a very thin cable then are you sure that it is mains power and not say using a plug top adapter converting down to 12 volts or less?

Good luck!

Re: you can fix the cable

[desperance.livejournal.com]

However if it's a very thin cable then are you sure that it is mains power and not say using a plug top adapter converting down to 12 volts or less?

Ooh. Ooh, bugger. No, I'm not sure. Um, it's not a huge pluggy-thing, like most of the adapters I know; and it doesn't (I think) get conspicuously warm, like ditto ditto. On the other hand, it is a bit more square & artful than a standard plug...

Um. Thank you. I will try fixing the cable, and if that doesn't work - well. Dunno. See if I can find the manual, maybe...?

Re: you can fix the cable

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Bizarrely, I did have one of those choccy-blocks; even more bizarrely, it was in the only place I could think to look for it, actually in the tool-box...

So: I have committed surgery on the cable, with my fiddly opticians' screwdrivers which I also managed to find in the first place I looked (no, not the tool-box, don't get cocky now) - and lo! I can has radio! Nothing has shorted out, nothing has exploded. It must justa been a break in the circuit.

So thank you for the encouragement - and especially for the warning re adapter. I still can't decide whether it is or it isn't, but the question itself wouldn't have occurred to me, and I'd have just connected up a regular plug else. With what results, I dare not imagine...

Yay for being practical

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

great news! May be worth wrrapping it in electrical tape in case
Mac decides to play with it or has an "accident" :-)

Re: Yay for being practical

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Hah. That was the other thing I had in mind to do - but no one should look for more than two consecutive triumphs. Or, in this house, more than two consecutive things. The electrical tape is not in the tool-box. Which means I have no idea where to look...

[anef.livejournal.com]

I don't see why they shouldn't give you a new one. The cable is clearly very fragile, and not designed to resist the - um - the thousand natural shocks that gadgets are heir to. Or whatever.

[esmeraldus-neo.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that a mouthful of electricity would hurt that cat, but we are glad he is not hurt.

Sorry he ate your radio.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Sorry but not surprised, huh? I know...

[esmeraldus-neo.livejournal.com]

I'm no more shocked than Mac.

[handworn.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to recall if I asked you whether you'd ever read S.M. Stirling's Dies the Fire. About our world and a mysterious Event after which all electronics, firearms and internal combustion engines stop working. It's not as well written as I'd imagine you'd like best, but the concept is so good that it works all right. Rather in the same way as The Mysterious Island.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Ah, right? No, you didn't ask; and no, I haven't read. Will pursue. Thank you...