More Snow

The big snow we had melted. But wait, there's more!

S is loving the cold weather. We took him to the dog park this morning and he ran hard for an hour straight playing with all the other dogs on the loose.

 

Spooky Neighborhood

The entire neighborhood really gets into Halloween decorating. We need to get our game on next year. Not sure where we will be able to store a dozen full-size skeletons...

 

Misty Lake Walk

The evening god walk was extra beautiful with the snow all over. We couldn't see downtown - it was all misty.

Sven Sundgaard was the weatherman on KARE11 when we moved up here. He's now freelancing it on Facebook and he's still our favorite weatherman.

 

Record Snow #1

We picked up the snowblower last Friday and four days later it was going to town. We got 6+ inches today of beautiful heavy wet snow, which is an all-time record for the most/earliest big snow. (Edit: It was still coming down at 1" / hr when this photo was taken. Officially the airport got 7.4") 

I am so glad that I'm working from home; both cars are in the garage and we don't have to go out at all.

JP was itching to get out her new snowblower and clear the driveway. It started on the 1st pull and it took her all of 10 minutes to clear the driveway.

S is right at home in the white stuff. He doesn't abt an eye at it. Says it tastes good.

I'm worried that this snow is still going to be here in six months.

 

DSL40C Reverb Mod - Amp Cuts Out

DISCLAIMER #1: This post is technical in nature and there are no family photos of dogs or food. I'm posting it because there is very little information out there about this and I could have used it. Hopefully someone else will be able to use what I learned.

I picked up a used DSL40C from GC. It's an awesome all-tube amp that sounds great without any effects pedals. Except for the reverb. Or lack of reverb, depending on if your glass is half full or empty. With the reverb knob at 10, it was barely there. I know, I know... If you want Fender reverb, buy a Fender. I always thought the reverb was weak on my 6505, but this Marshall is so anemic, it makes the Peavey sound like a Fender. There is just enough there that you can tell a difference if it's on or not. I don't wanna drop $100 for an add-on reverb pedal, especially when reverb is one of the buttons on the amp footswitch.

Looking over the schematic, there's R43 that is in series on the output of the digital reverb circuit. R43 = 2.2 meg. That's a lot of Ohms packed into a single resistor. I found something online that talked about paralleling something to drop the effective resistance to 1 M for a 3 db boost. That still seemed weak, and I only had a 1 M resistor on hand. I thought of desoldering R43 to replace it with the 1 M, but that's a ton of work to pull all the knobs & connectors & .... So much easier to parallel the 1 M on top of the 2.2 M to get 680 k. That should work, right? The output is being driven by an op amp with a ±12 V supply; the lower resistance shouldn't tax it...

Put it all back together to try it out. It's kickass! Then a few minutes into it the amp went dead. Standby did nothing, but a full power cycle reset it. Played for 15 minutes and everything worked fine. Must have been my cheapo guitar cable. I put everything back together and went on with my Saturday.

Later in the day I played for about 5 minutes and then nothing. Power switch reset it and it was good for another few minutes. Crap!!! What did I do to my new-to-me amp?!? I really liked the new reverb sound available to me; I did not want to reverse my mod. But at the same time, an amp that cuts out every 5 minutes isn't very useful.

I pulled the schematic and did some Jimmy Neutron noodling on it while we did yard work. Pulled it all apart the next day and looked over the PCB for loose components. Everything looked new & shiny and secure. Then I wiggled the DFX board. It's connected to the main amp board by a crappy pin and socket connector that I've had issues with in the past on Arduinos. I pulled it apart and hit it with some De-oxit and cycled the pins in and out a dozen times. Played it for 30 minutes with no issues, so I put it back together. Played it for two hours straight after that with no dropouts. Problem solved!! My guess is that the supervisory microcontroller is talking to the DXF board and it takes the amp into mute mode if there are any problems.

If it holds up over the next month, I may pull it apart and replace the piggybacked setup with a single 680 k and do it right. Might replace the crappy pin & sockets with a 12-pin ribbon cable. And maybe set the bias.

DISCLAIMER #2 - I am not an amp technician. I am not an electrical engineer. I have a soldering iron, I can read schematics, and I understand Ohm's law. Do this at your own risk. Oh, and be careful opening up any tube amp - they run on really high voltage (~500 VDC) that can/will do nasty things to you if you don't know what you're doing.

 

Smokin' Pandemic Dinner

Our neighbors proposed getting together for dinner before the cold weather sets in. Awesome! We hit Kowalski's for some perfectly trimmed ribs and threw them into the smoker for 5 hours. Then we dined with the neighbors on their deck under a propane heater. It was in the 30s, but fun. Can't wait to be out of this pandemic so that we can properly hang with friends.

 

Cedar Ave. Bridge

Last weekend we tried out a new place to stomp around and test our new binoculars (my 15-yr anniversary gift from work). It's a park on the MN River where Cedar Ave. used to cross. The 1919 bridge was falling and was slated to be demolished, but some people stepped in and got it restored. It's beautiful as a pedestrian/bike bridge on the National Register of Historic Places and it crosses a National Wildlife Refuge. We will definitely come back throughout the year to see the birds.

 

Black Dog @ Night

 

Last Night S slipped out of his collar at 9 PM at the end of his walk. He ran free all over the neighborhood for the next hour. He dashed across 50th St. and nearly ran into the side of a passing car. Then he ran down to the park at the creek and over the bridge to the next neighborhood. 

He finally stopped for a drink in the creek and JP snagged him as he was struggling to climb the steep bank. This is the 3rd time that he's broken free since we moved here. Time to go back to the 3-point harness that he hates.

Official Minnesotans

I suppose this makes it official: we are now Minnesotans. It's not about having a MN driver's license, or paying taxes. It's about wild rice soup and snowblowers.

JP cooked up a batch of the most amazing wild rice soup I've ever had. Once upon a time when we used to go out to eat, it was a staple for us at any MN restaurant (kinda like walleye).

We picked up JP's new snowblower yesterday. We actually waited on going for an hour because it was snowing!! While we were assembling it in the garage, the radio kept playing ads for Toro snowblowers.

 

Tonka

We picked up a Minnesota map book at REI. I was paging through it and noticed this weird smudge on the page by Minnetonka. I didn't have my glasses on and I couldn't make it out - it didn't look like any of the other map symbols.

I had never thought that much about it, but it makes sense that Tonka trucks are from Minnetonka.

Here are some interesting facts about the company: https://www.thrillist.com/cars/12-things-you-didn-t-know-about-tonka-the-history-of-america-s-most-beloved-dump-truck

 

Morning Creek Walk

For our morning walks, S & I go south two blocks to Minnehaha Creek. It's beautiful and there are no joggers, cyclists, or other walkers like at the lake. On weekends, we sleep in late enough that it's light out so we can stroll along the creek bottom.

The water is way down, so all the sandbars are exposed and collect the leaves. It's very tranquil.

 

Glowing Maple

The maple that grows over the deck is absolutely stunning!! It is the most amazing fluorescent yellow-orange that just glows.

The tree is high enough that it's in the sun all day and everything under it is awash in a golden glow.

The view from our bedroom is the best - it's like we're in a treehouse.

 

Lots of Walks

The fall weather means lots of walks with leaves to chase. The cat just likes to sleep, regardless of what's going on around her.

 

Rustling Overhead

On our morning walk in the dark and moonlight, S paused to sniff a tree. Overhead, I heard some rustling in the leaves. It was too dark to be a squirrel - what could it be? An owl? Nope - just two young raccoons looking for a way to get down. Fortunately S didn't notice them and we got away without a lot of barking.

 

Last Walleye Sandwich

We took advantage of a perfect fall day and did our 5k around the lake with lunch @ the Bread & Pickle. They close for the season on Sunday and I HAD to get in one more walleye sandwich. Since it's October, JP went all-in and got a bratwurst with kraut. We're going to try to hit it again for Sunday breakfast and get in one more smoked salmon sandwich.

S really likes the chill in the air. He told us that he is really excited about winter and the snow.

 

Driveway Campout

We have been talking about heading to the Northwoods for a weekend of camping and leaf watching. I couldn't remember what our small tent was like - I had bought it for the cub scout camping trips with the boys at Camp Cornhusker. It has only mesh walls! Not so good for Northwoods camping.

With our fearless president superspreading his virus in Duluth this week, we chickened out on a weekend of camping and instead bought a firepit for the back yard. We got the biggest one we could so that we can have friends over and all remain distant.

I've tried to keep the blog apolitical, but given the state of the world and what we know of the virus, what kind of person would still travel and hold rallies, knowing that he is infected? In addition to the Duluth rally, he did a private fundraiser here in a suburb with high-dollar donors. It will be interesting to see how that unfolds.

 

New From Old

I picked up a beat up Gibson LPJ for cheap a few years ago. It plays great, but looked meh, and was rather dull. Some new plastic and a pickguard solved that. It has been a fun guitar to experiment with. I wouldn't be comfortable screwing around with a $2,000 version. Note to anyone wanting to do this: Epiphone trim parts don't fit the same as Gibson.