I've been staring at a dead (or so I thought) Amazon Echo Dot for about a year now. Alexa had a case of locked-in syndrome. She understood everything I was saying...but she just couldn't answer. I felt bad for her...so I didn't throw the Dot away. I messed with all the crap that Amazon and their forums suggested; until tonight.
I'd finally had enough and was either going to figure it out...or put Alexa out of her misery. Armed with my Kobalt screwdriver kit...I ripped into the Dot and got intimate with Alexa's insides. Before you run screaming...I FIXED HER.
HERE IS THE FIX THAT NO POST OR FORUM SEEMS WILLING TO TELL YOU. UNPLUG YOUR DEVICE SO YOU DON'T DIE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOU, YOUR ECHO, OR ANY OTHER PROPERTY IF YOU MOVE FORWARD.
You will see, when you dissect, there are two little spring loaded contacts that touch the speaker contacts. Take something small and jiggle them. Move them around every so gently...make sure they're springy and move easily. Then take a knife and gently scratch the top of those contacts. Gently scrape the contacts on the speaker to make them shiny again. Mine were very dull and almost dirty looking.
I put it back together...even managing to save the rubber bottom...plugged it back in and the Dot spring to life. Moments later I asked my "are you alive" go to question..."Alexa, what time is it?" SHE RESPONDED!
Give it a whirl if you are savvy...if you are not...take it to someone who is and give it a shot. Worst case...it already doesnt work...right?
Derek
Tuesday, May 14, 2019
Monday, March 20, 2017
What a slacker...
2014 was the last post that I wrote? I can hardly believe that so much time has passed. So much has happened...and it all happened so quickly. I've finally got my piece of where I want to be...woods...quiet...it sure has been great. We moved into our new house last August and we have been wildly busy with that the past two years. We broke ground in May of 2015...clearing the hole in the woods for our place...getting the build done...what an experience. I am glad that I get to take a break for a bit!
I have not really thought much about the blog; in a very long time. Once in a while it passes through my mind to get it kick started again. I am really hoping to do that! I just need a place in the house to sit and write about what I write about. That will happen in time. I do not expect a full recovery to the posts until that does happen.
All of that aside...I did get some late season snowmobiling in a couple weeks ago. I am still riding in the VMax 600...rides better than it did when I first got it! I know I have written about the overheating issues that I had with it...those all appear to have been fixed after I had the carb cleaned a couple years ago. What a great feeling to get back into the woods of Northern Michigan and see the sights that I have missed since I moved in 2010. I have pictures but it would not be worth the hassle of the uploading all of them just for a post that may or may not lead to more posts soon. Haha! The ride was fun though...hitting the trails with no other riders was nice. We did make a quick trek onto the trails shortly after that....they were getting a bit thin but had been freshly groomed after we had a warm up. Not a soul had touched them since the groomer went through a week or so before...and in spots they were as smooth as glass. Other spots were a bit on the bumpy side simply due to the lack of snow. That was a quick ride...but very worth it. Hoping to get out once more before all the snow goes away and my trail tag expires!
The next project on the list is to get the ATV going again. I do know I need to have it serviced. Something with the ignition switch has gone a bit weird...I am not able to turn the key to the headlights off position without the engine shutting off. So something is sticking or shorting...that will hopefully fixed in the next month or so.
Enough of the rambling I guess...since I do not really have anything to share. I am hoping to get a bit more excited about writing these again...so I suppose stay tuned to anyone that is watching! ;)
-Derek
I have not really thought much about the blog; in a very long time. Once in a while it passes through my mind to get it kick started again. I am really hoping to do that! I just need a place in the house to sit and write about what I write about. That will happen in time. I do not expect a full recovery to the posts until that does happen.
All of that aside...I did get some late season snowmobiling in a couple weeks ago. I am still riding in the VMax 600...rides better than it did when I first got it! I know I have written about the overheating issues that I had with it...those all appear to have been fixed after I had the carb cleaned a couple years ago. What a great feeling to get back into the woods of Northern Michigan and see the sights that I have missed since I moved in 2010. I have pictures but it would not be worth the hassle of the uploading all of them just for a post that may or may not lead to more posts soon. Haha! The ride was fun though...hitting the trails with no other riders was nice. We did make a quick trek onto the trails shortly after that....they were getting a bit thin but had been freshly groomed after we had a warm up. Not a soul had touched them since the groomer went through a week or so before...and in spots they were as smooth as glass. Other spots were a bit on the bumpy side simply due to the lack of snow. That was a quick ride...but very worth it. Hoping to get out once more before all the snow goes away and my trail tag expires!
The next project on the list is to get the ATV going again. I do know I need to have it serviced. Something with the ignition switch has gone a bit weird...I am not able to turn the key to the headlights off position without the engine shutting off. So something is sticking or shorting...that will hopefully fixed in the next month or so.
Enough of the rambling I guess...since I do not really have anything to share. I am hoping to get a bit more excited about writing these again...so I suppose stay tuned to anyone that is watching! ;)
-Derek
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Things To Share...
I actually have a bit of material to share soon! It's been quite some time...but it was a very busy summer and so far a relatively busy fall. I must admit that I enjoy just doing...and when I get to the point where I'm ready to write about it...I generally end up forgetting the details. However, with winter approaching I figure I better quickly sum up the major events of the last few weeks of fall before it gets too outdated.
I will write posts for each event and include pictures...but thought I should write this to remind myself to actually do that!
All that said - based on the forecasts I've seen for winter (understandably they are not going to be 100% accurate this early on) we might see a winter similar temperature-wise to last year. Looks to be biting cold...with a bit less snow. I wish it would warm up a bit with the same amount of snow...trying to ski or ride snowmobile in 5 degrees is miserable!
Stay tuned for some fall pictures and a bit of a narrative of each. :)
Derek
I will write posts for each event and include pictures...but thought I should write this to remind myself to actually do that!
All that said - based on the forecasts I've seen for winter (understandably they are not going to be 100% accurate this early on) we might see a winter similar temperature-wise to last year. Looks to be biting cold...with a bit less snow. I wish it would warm up a bit with the same amount of snow...trying to ski or ride snowmobile in 5 degrees is miserable!
Stay tuned for some fall pictures and a bit of a narrative of each. :)
Derek
Monday, April 7, 2014
Holy Winter!
Good grief this has been a LONG winter. I know I posted in December last year about crossing our fingers for good snows...someone did more than cross just their fingers I think. We ended up with 183.1 inches of snow through 4/6. The Petoskey record from 1970-71 is 183.9 inches. I REALLY thought we were going to have it beat from the weekend...we had a few inches of new snow fly but it obviously didn't quite get us there. With temperatures looking to pretty much stay above freezing druing the daylight hours...I'm wondering if we can squeeze out another 8/10 of an inch to at least TIE the record. As we speak the snow is still well over knee deep in many spots up in our neck of the woods...mainly in the higher elevations.
The snow nearing the record was bittersweet this year. I had an insanely busy winter, and with all of the snow falling it really didn't leave a whole lot of time for fun. The cleanup was quite tedious throughout the winter months. Add to that the fact that we had, I believe, a record number of sub zero days this winter...it was just too cold to do ANYTHING. With that record cold came record ice coverage on the Great Lakes. At one point that lakes were nearly covered! I had asked around about the crucifix viewing in the Little Traverse Bay and it had been canceled due to there being nearly five feet of ice to dig through. From what I've heard that is not, it is awfully close to, the thickest ice we've seen in my lifetime. Hopefully that will keep the temps down a bit this summer and help to stop the evaporation from the lakes that we've seen over the past number of years.
One thing we did do was partake in our now annual winter camping event. We spent two nights out in the woods. It was pretty laid back due to the weather...setting up camp was the biggest challenge. There was a lot of snow and digging down far enough for the tent to sit in was, although done by others, a tedious task. Bringing in the wood for a camp fire was miserable too...but once everything was in we were styling for the weekend. I bought a new sleeping back that would make a cold blooded beast sweat. It is a Chinook Alaskan 9.5...rated for -50F. I stayed VERY warm (too warm at times) the entire trip...with lows in the single digits at night. A big improvement over having to sleep in my running truck the prior year! In addition to the great new sleeping bag...I brought along a Mr. Heater Big Buddy...if nothing else it took the night chill out of the air in a tent designed for 3 season camping. It kept the boots from freezing solid too! The first night we were out there was a pretty good snow storm...we got what I remember as about 10 inches of snow. Top it off with wind gusts reportedly of up to 50 MPH through the weekend. Fun fun! We did have a blast though...and are already working to plan the dates for next year...Winter Camp 3.
I know there is plenty more to talk about through the winter...but I think it is time to get rolling for now. Hang tight...spring is just around the corner!
Derek
The snow nearing the record was bittersweet this year. I had an insanely busy winter, and with all of the snow falling it really didn't leave a whole lot of time for fun. The cleanup was quite tedious throughout the winter months. Add to that the fact that we had, I believe, a record number of sub zero days this winter...it was just too cold to do ANYTHING. With that record cold came record ice coverage on the Great Lakes. At one point that lakes were nearly covered! I had asked around about the crucifix viewing in the Little Traverse Bay and it had been canceled due to there being nearly five feet of ice to dig through. From what I've heard that is not, it is awfully close to, the thickest ice we've seen in my lifetime. Hopefully that will keep the temps down a bit this summer and help to stop the evaporation from the lakes that we've seen over the past number of years.
One thing we did do was partake in our now annual winter camping event. We spent two nights out in the woods. It was pretty laid back due to the weather...setting up camp was the biggest challenge. There was a lot of snow and digging down far enough for the tent to sit in was, although done by others, a tedious task. Bringing in the wood for a camp fire was miserable too...but once everything was in we were styling for the weekend. I bought a new sleeping back that would make a cold blooded beast sweat. It is a Chinook Alaskan 9.5...rated for -50F. I stayed VERY warm (too warm at times) the entire trip...with lows in the single digits at night. A big improvement over having to sleep in my running truck the prior year! In addition to the great new sleeping bag...I brought along a Mr. Heater Big Buddy...if nothing else it took the night chill out of the air in a tent designed for 3 season camping. It kept the boots from freezing solid too! The first night we were out there was a pretty good snow storm...we got what I remember as about 10 inches of snow. Top it off with wind gusts reportedly of up to 50 MPH through the weekend. Fun fun! We did have a blast though...and are already working to plan the dates for next year...Winter Camp 3.
I know there is plenty more to talk about through the winter...but I think it is time to get rolling for now. Hang tight...spring is just around the corner!
Derek
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Winter Begins - Plus A Summation Of Events
Here we are again! A fairly uneventful summer, a VERY wet fall and a great start to winter lead me into hopefully what will be an active blogging season.
If this tells you anything, I haven't logged in since Blogger changed their posting interface...MUCH better than it was. I think I might actually be able to work with this!
That said, lets get started. As I mentioned the summer was fairly uneventful. We didn't really do a whole heck of a lot...work, eat and sleep. I'm sure there is more to it than that, but nothing really sticks out. I started a new Facebook group in late spring/early summer...it is called 'Northern Michigan Bigfoot Researchers'. It seemed like a good progression to our outdoor activities. We actually had a couple "squatch camps" (as we've begun to call them) where we went out to likely areas in Northern Michigan and gave it our all. We might just have chosen some poor times to go out...but we had no activity. We'll start again in the early spring.
Fall was a somewhat active time...we put our house up for sale. That has taken up the bulk of our time. Trying to get this in order for staging and letting people walk through has been more of a chore than I ever expected. Neither of us realized how much STUFF we have that needed to go before we felt comfortable having people walk though...not that we were afraid of theft or anything...but it sure made things look cluttered. I noted that it was a wet fall. We broke records for the amount of rainfall in October and November I believe. Significant rains fell. I believe we were over 12 inches in October and had a few more in November. Mid-November we started to see some of that turn into the white stuff! Yup, we had a good amount of snow on the ground in November!
I was dreaming of a White Thanksgiving...and we got it. Unfortunately, last night we had some warmer weather move through with some rain. A good portion of the snow that we had built up is now gone. Doh! Can't imagine it'll all go away between now and later today when temps are supposed to drop into the 20s and then then 10s for the next couple days. It doesn't appear that much system snow is headed our way in the immediate future...but with temps dropping quickly...hopefully the ol' lake effect snow machines will go into over drive. :) A guy can always hope right?
Anyway, that is a very brief synopsis of what has been going down...I'm hoping to have more time to do this as winter comes around. I have a few pictures I can post in the next week or so...I just need to get through them. :)
Keep your fingers crossed for good snows!
Derek
If this tells you anything, I haven't logged in since Blogger changed their posting interface...MUCH better than it was. I think I might actually be able to work with this!
That said, lets get started. As I mentioned the summer was fairly uneventful. We didn't really do a whole heck of a lot...work, eat and sleep. I'm sure there is more to it than that, but nothing really sticks out. I started a new Facebook group in late spring/early summer...it is called 'Northern Michigan Bigfoot Researchers'. It seemed like a good progression to our outdoor activities. We actually had a couple "squatch camps" (as we've begun to call them) where we went out to likely areas in Northern Michigan and gave it our all. We might just have chosen some poor times to go out...but we had no activity. We'll start again in the early spring.
Fall was a somewhat active time...we put our house up for sale. That has taken up the bulk of our time. Trying to get this in order for staging and letting people walk through has been more of a chore than I ever expected. Neither of us realized how much STUFF we have that needed to go before we felt comfortable having people walk though...not that we were afraid of theft or anything...but it sure made things look cluttered. I noted that it was a wet fall. We broke records for the amount of rainfall in October and November I believe. Significant rains fell. I believe we were over 12 inches in October and had a few more in November. Mid-November we started to see some of that turn into the white stuff! Yup, we had a good amount of snow on the ground in November!
I was dreaming of a White Thanksgiving...and we got it. Unfortunately, last night we had some warmer weather move through with some rain. A good portion of the snow that we had built up is now gone. Doh! Can't imagine it'll all go away between now and later today when temps are supposed to drop into the 20s and then then 10s for the next couple days. It doesn't appear that much system snow is headed our way in the immediate future...but with temps dropping quickly...hopefully the ol' lake effect snow machines will go into over drive. :) A guy can always hope right?
Anyway, that is a very brief synopsis of what has been going down...I'm hoping to have more time to do this as winter comes around. I have a few pictures I can post in the next week or so...I just need to get through them. :)
Keep your fingers crossed for good snows!
Derek
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Goodbye Winter 2012-13...Maybe?
So much for being a good blogger...after I got excited the last time I wrote I must have forgotten to start again. ;)
The winter that I spoke of? Well, it kicked into high gear in late February and into March...and then again in April...and then in May. May you say? Yes, May. I believe my last snowmobile ride was officially April 24th this year...I believe the latest I've ever ridden. Pretty wild for the crappy start we had! Back to May. We had a cold spell roll into town late last week...which led to some fairly intense snow over the weekend for some areas. It did snow really hard for a period of time at our house...but the high snowfall amount I believe was 3.3 inches up in Da Soo. The total there for May was 5.5 after that...the 2nd highest snowfall since 1924 when they received over 7 inches in May. So much for global warming eh?
I took a week off from work and did a bunch of clearing up at the land we bought last fall. I am doing it all by hand...loppers and a chain saw! Talk about a lot of work...but it gets me out into the woods; something I've missed for a few years now. (Hence the lack of blogging!) We are working toward planting pine trees along all of the property borders...just as reminder to us AND our neighbors that there are boundaries out in the sticks. I marked one side and the back with twine and tape...that'll hopefully stay up until I'm done planting the trees...I believe a deer ran into one line the other day...I'll have to check on that when I go back up.
Anyway...it's getting late but I wanted to write a quick note.
Goodnight from Northern Michigan,
Derek
The winter that I spoke of? Well, it kicked into high gear in late February and into March...and then again in April...and then in May. May you say? Yes, May. I believe my last snowmobile ride was officially April 24th this year...I believe the latest I've ever ridden. Pretty wild for the crappy start we had! Back to May. We had a cold spell roll into town late last week...which led to some fairly intense snow over the weekend for some areas. It did snow really hard for a period of time at our house...but the high snowfall amount I believe was 3.3 inches up in Da Soo. The total there for May was 5.5 after that...the 2nd highest snowfall since 1924 when they received over 7 inches in May. So much for global warming eh?
I took a week off from work and did a bunch of clearing up at the land we bought last fall. I am doing it all by hand...loppers and a chain saw! Talk about a lot of work...but it gets me out into the woods; something I've missed for a few years now. (Hence the lack of blogging!) We are working toward planting pine trees along all of the property borders...just as reminder to us AND our neighbors that there are boundaries out in the sticks. I marked one side and the back with twine and tape...that'll hopefully stay up until I'm done planting the trees...I believe a deer ran into one line the other day...I'll have to check on that when I go back up.
Anyway...it's getting late but I wanted to write a quick note.
Goodnight from Northern Michigan,
Derek
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Snowmobile trail addition...
Oh! As a quick side note...I heard that there is some progress getting a snowmobile trail between Alanson and M119 toward Petoskey. If anyone has information on that please share it with me so I can post it here to gather support. :)
-Derek
-Derek
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