TEST photo insert again 1-19-2023

 Per my post here: https://support.google.com/blogger/thread/252531332/photos-are-not-appearing-in-add-images-from-google-photos-again?msgid=253862605#

I am still unable to post photo to this blog (or any other blog in my account). Here is what I see when I go to the dialog, after the multi-color "spinner" stops: 

In addition, in the Albums view, many thumbnails are broken, which I've shared in the community big link above. This issue has also been reported as of today 1-19-2024 via the "Send Feedback" questionmark link. 

2nd Google Photos Live Photo test

So I've been troubleshooting a bug which keeps iPhone Live Photos from displaying in the general photo list. 

The below are two Live Photos that were inserted into Blogger using the "Albums" Google Photos portion of the "Insert image" dialog. However, if I browse to those dates & times in the Blogger "insert image" dialog outside of Albums, the below photos aren't shown: 

Testing Google Photo insert due to bug

As of right now, Blogger is only showing 6 photos available for today for import from Google Photos, yet Google Photos shows 31 photos taken today. 

Yamaha YPT-300 keyboard - key fix

My Uncle Gus gave me a Yamaha YPT-300 keyboard for Christmas. He bought it for my late Aunt Judy. It has 1 broken key (low C) and was missing the sheet music rest. He also gave me a keyboard stand that was missing a screw at the bottom.

Otherwise is a pretty cool keyboard with a bunch of features: MIDI controls, built in speakers, 32 voice polyphony, ability to connect a sustain pedal, and at least 128 voices and beats, plus 4 built-in drumkits. Sound is definitely not bad. My bro and nephew and I had a lot of fun jamming on Christmas Eve.

Found and ordered the sheet music rest today ($25 including shipping on Full Compass) and also spent $25 for a replacement key set from Keyboard Kountry ($25 including shipping) .

So I will need to replace the low C key. Found some good YouTube videos on how to do this:

Video 1: https://youtu.be/q_oUbYPFTqk
Video 2: https://youtu.be/_uToVbDDVC0

There's a bit of yellowing on the keys, so I'm considering doing some Retrobrite peroxide treatment on them, we'll see how it goes.

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Ed Note 2024-01-19: I was able to complete the key replacement repair in September 2020, using the above videos for reference. It went pretty well, no major gotchas, and I took my own videos of the process. The key alignment was a tiny bit off, but not enough so to warrant additional replacement. Wasn't too hard to do. Never did the Retrobrite treatment although I'm sure it would help. 

BR-9 fixed

Finally fixed my Gibson BR-9 lap steel a few months ago. I was so tired of futzing with it, with no good results, so I took it to a local guy who builds his own guitars, he went through it in detail and found that there was an intermittent connection in the pickup coil, that somewhere inside the coil the wire broke. He worked to carefully unwind it to see if he could reconnect it, but the break was deep inside, so he sent it out to get re-wound. A non-vintage solution but better than having a broken lap steel!

In my research I found a really great web site and spreadsheet which lists impedance and other specs for these pickups:

https://courses.physics.illinois.edu/phys406/sp2017/Experimental_Results/Pickup_Data/Guitar_Bass_Pickup_Data.xls

Also learned from their course web site that the BR-9 pickups are easy to work on because the covers can be easily removed.

https://courses.physics.illinois.edu/phys406/sp2017/406emi_guitar_pickup_results.html

"P90-style pickups are interest here because they can be {non-destructively} taken apart, enabling the study of how these {lumped} parameters change as the pickup is put back together, one piece at a time!"
It works perfectly and still sounds great! Now at least it's reliable.

Fixing my BR-9

Another project for the list. My Gibson BR-9 lap steel has been really noisy, so I've been investigating the possible culprits.

Right now something is shorting out in the tone control, causing the tone control to act like a volume control. I thought this was the capacitor, but testing it out with the cap desoldered and bypassed with another capacitor still yielded the same problem.

So I ordered 2 new 500K pots, so I plan on rewiring the whole thing. Of course, for value purposes, I plan to keep all the original pots & caps.

The projects list

I have quite a list of little electronics projects to finish:

1. Build a new Champ Amp chassis: I have a board, components, transformers, pots, wire, etc. 
2. Build a Deluxe Amp clone
3. Finish "Old Ironsides"  (test transformers)
4. Repackage NPN Fuzz, and test with different components
5. Build GGG Shin-Ei Companion Fuzz kit
6. Build GGG Mini Mixer Kit
7. Build a few Craig Anderton EPFM projects