Not long to go… 2011-06-30
…and the robots are showing the pressure.
Disaster struck twice in the last couple of days. Firstly, the boys managed to break 2 of the 3 laser diodes that we ordered (from China), leaving just one working one. So we ordered replacements on Sunday, noting that the site claimed 2-5 business days shipping, which was not ideal, as worst case the parts would be with us by Monday 4th July – and we fly out to Istanbul on Tuesday 5th. But the alternative – not having the light gate to detect when we had the ball – was even worse.
However, on Wednesday the company contacted me saying that they had not had the part in stock when I ordered (which is NOT what their website said) but they did have it now and would be shipping it on Thursday. It’s now Thursday, and I’ve just had an email, with tracking info, saying it was shipped today and it MIGHT be with us on the 4th July, but there again it might not be with us until the 14th – which is 2 days AFTER we fly home from Istanbul. So far the tracking number isn’t returning any information.
Accordingly, Andrew has been getting creative and experimenting with alternatives, first dismembering his brother’s laser pointer, and finally dismantling a CD-ROM drive and extracting the laser and lens from that. So we now have 2 working laser diodes and are no longer reliant on the delivery from China.
And today we have a dead motor… and no spares. One of the teeth in the motor gearbox came off, we’re not sure how, and the motor now does not work. We can order spares (from Las Vegas), and there is a sporting chance that we might get them by Saturday if we pay top dollar for shipping. Else it’ll be Monday.