Sought: Tools recommendation

[Uncle Al]

I also enjoy the Gillette Fusion. The 5 blades really do a great
job but when it comes to buying the replacement blades.......
......WHEW.... ........Sticker

When I went to get more Fusion blades, it was less expensive
to purchase a 10 pack of 3 blade disposables($8.95) than to
purchase a 4 pack of Fusion blade cartridges(12.85). These
are Wal-Mart prices. For me the disposables last just as long
as the Fusion blades, with my beard gone and being retired,
every little bit helps in cutting costs.

Uncle Al
Duncanville, TX

[SkirtDude]

Deleted.

[crfriend]

Thanks for all the encouragement and ideas, lads, but my dear Sapphire braved the local Wally World (Walmart) yesterday and scored a new set of cutting-heads for my ancient electric "lawn-mower" thus putting it back on the road to full health! The good news is that I may not even need to replace the batteries -- the old heads were so worn that they were putting an enormous drag on the motor which was, in turn, confusing the little on-board controller.

The difference is stunning; it works faster and better than I ever remember. Of course the label on the packaging says, "For maximum performance, change heads once per year." I hadn't changed them since about 2002 (or 1; I forget when I started shaving my legs)!

Cheers!

[SkirtDude]

Deleted.

[crfriend]

Nothing worse than a confused embedded controller!

I'm not sure; I think "confused avionics" might be a bit worse! (I remember when "fly-by-wire" meant that one had individual control cables directly connecting the aerodynamic control surfaces of the craft and the controls in the cockpit by way of pulleys and levers.)

I wonder what needs "controlling" though - shavers seem like an application where batteries + and on / of switch would be quite adequate.

I was rather surprised the first time I took the thing apart. It's got a small switching-mode PSU in it to take the mains voltage to the +3V for the two series-connected NiCads, the controller, a digital readout showing the number of minutes of run-time left, and a beeper that goes off to remind you to clean the thing.

My assumption is that the drag from the old cutting heads caused the motor to draw an excessive amount of current from the batteries (thereby lowering the voltage) and that caused the controller to bark that the batteries were flat and shut the thing down until they were recharged.

[sapphire]

Actually, it was the second trip to Wal-Mart. The first time I coould find the right replacement heads. Sat on the floor and went through all of them. This time, Carl had looked up the model and I was able to get out of there rather quickly.

And to reply to a comment at Wsmac made, yes, I too, know how to solder. Used to do it for a living back in the day when I was making computer core memories.