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When my little Tascam DP008's LCD lit up with the animated horn player initialization after cleaning the battery compartment and terminals-
So I went to the storage to get the Alesis HR 16 that I had just put there a couple of days ago (almost always happens whenever I move something from the boat to storage) and I decided to take inventory of other equipment that might be useful for the music phase I'm segueing to. I had just finished submitting 16 chapters of my novel that I had been working on since November or so, and I generally take a hiatus from writing each time I do this
A quick digression from my digression- a multi-instrumental musician friend of mine recommended that I record the drum tracks first, which makes sense-- I had already written vocals and a fair amount of bass lines and could not find presets in any DAW plugins that would fit that would quite fit what I heard in my head. Hence the decision to dig the out the HR16, developed in the mid-80's, and finger out the rhythm on the pads in real time. While I was there I looked for other devices that might prove useful
So I found the little DP008 in it's gig bag, looking as pristine as ever-- that is until I opened the battery compartment where not, one, not two, but four AA batteries had creamed themselves into an orgy of corrosive leakage. Man it was to the fullest extent too. You know how sometimes, you'll catch them in the early stages of leakage and can salvage the device by drying it out and spraying it with the quick dry electronics cleaner? I've had that happen with my little Korg tuner and the AC/Heat thermostat on my boat.
I was really annoyed, because I make it a point to take the batteries out of devices that I don't plan on using any time soon.
And to top it off it was on a Friday, when the traffic at 7 pm was so bad that I gave up going straight home and hung out at Nokturne (no drinks just health food) wondering whether or not I could save the little DP008 until about 10 pm.
When I got home I had to use a screwdriver to pry out the batteries which were welding together, then ultimately took off the whole back cover for full access to the battery compartment-- two of the batteries slide in halfway inside.
And here is my hats off to Tascam--whatever the batteries contacts were made of did not corrode. They had yellow stuff caked in them that I had to use a screwdriver, q-tips, canned air, and liberal amounts of anti-corrosion lube to get rid off, but they did not corrode.
Then came the moment of truth, when I put a fresh set of AA's in and, lo, and behold the display lit up-- she lives!! And I felt somewhat emotional that the little engineering marvel had survived. And hats off to Tascam for not hermetically sealing it!
So I HATE AA and AAA's though sometimes they never leak. I checked a mini-MagLite the other day that had AA's with expiration date of 2013 and it still works. With that said, I don't remember ever having a 9Volt leak.
One might ask why go through so much fuss for an older recording device and I would say, you never know when an iPhone, two iPads, two MacBook Pro's (though one is loaned out) and an iMac, all with DAW's, and Apogee interface devices might let you down. But seriously sometimes actual knobs and buttons are nice to use.
So it's back to the storage unit to make sure there are no other AA battery casualties-- I believe the other devices have had the batteries removed but I'm going to double-check.
Cheers all!
So I went to the storage to get the Alesis HR 16 that I had just put there a couple of days ago (almost always happens whenever I move something from the boat to storage) and I decided to take inventory of other equipment that might be useful for the music phase I'm segueing to. I had just finished submitting 16 chapters of my novel that I had been working on since November or so, and I generally take a hiatus from writing each time I do this
A quick digression from my digression- a multi-instrumental musician friend of mine recommended that I record the drum tracks first, which makes sense-- I had already written vocals and a fair amount of bass lines and could not find presets in any DAW plugins that would fit that would quite fit what I heard in my head. Hence the decision to dig the out the HR16, developed in the mid-80's, and finger out the rhythm on the pads in real time. While I was there I looked for other devices that might prove useful
So I found the little DP008 in it's gig bag, looking as pristine as ever-- that is until I opened the battery compartment where not, one, not two, but four AA batteries had creamed themselves into an orgy of corrosive leakage. Man it was to the fullest extent too. You know how sometimes, you'll catch them in the early stages of leakage and can salvage the device by drying it out and spraying it with the quick dry electronics cleaner? I've had that happen with my little Korg tuner and the AC/Heat thermostat on my boat.
I was really annoyed, because I make it a point to take the batteries out of devices that I don't plan on using any time soon.
And to top it off it was on a Friday, when the traffic at 7 pm was so bad that I gave up going straight home and hung out at Nokturne (no drinks just health food) wondering whether or not I could save the little DP008 until about 10 pm.
When I got home I had to use a screwdriver to pry out the batteries which were welding together, then ultimately took off the whole back cover for full access to the battery compartment-- two of the batteries slide in halfway inside.
And here is my hats off to Tascam--whatever the batteries contacts were made of did not corrode. They had yellow stuff caked in them that I had to use a screwdriver, q-tips, canned air, and liberal amounts of anti-corrosion lube to get rid off, but they did not corrode.
Then came the moment of truth, when I put a fresh set of AA's in and, lo, and behold the display lit up-- she lives!! And I felt somewhat emotional that the little engineering marvel had survived. And hats off to Tascam for not hermetically sealing it!
So I HATE AA and AAA's though sometimes they never leak. I checked a mini-MagLite the other day that had AA's with expiration date of 2013 and it still works. With that said, I don't remember ever having a 9Volt leak.
One might ask why go through so much fuss for an older recording device and I would say, you never know when an iPhone, two iPads, two MacBook Pro's (though one is loaned out) and an iMac, all with DAW's, and Apogee interface devices might let you down. But seriously sometimes actual knobs and buttons are nice to use.
So it's back to the storage unit to make sure there are no other AA battery casualties-- I believe the other devices have had the batteries removed but I'm going to double-check.
Cheers all!
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