P3D Re: Jim's green button from hell....

["Dr. George A. Themelis" <DrT-3d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sometime back, Jim Norman talked about a Realist green button viewer 
that he bought from ebay which "exploded" when he plugged it in...

I am done working with it.  The bottom line is that someone had 
attempted to repair the rheostat and, in doing so, resoldered a 
couple of wires.  The soldering job was not good and one wire 
got disconnected and caused a sort.  There are plenty of 
evidence of sloppy work in the electrical circuit in a viewer
that has one of the most robust electrical systems (minus the
rheostat that sometimes goes bad).

Now, I am not sure who did the sloppy job... Was it the seller
or the one who sold it to him?  It is possible that the wire got 
disconnected while in transit to Jim and the seller checked it 
and it was OK when it left his house.  Still, that's no excuse not 
to deal with the consequences, i.e. the fact that Jim received 
damaged merchandise and almost hurt himself using it.

That bothers me the most is this statement from the seller:

>Please do not get me wrong, but I strongly believe that you 
>regretted the $115.00-bid from the beginning. 

That's a terrible conclusion to jump to and shows lack of trust
and cooperation.  The seller has no grounds to make this statement.

After examining the viewer I see many of Jim's points like the
damaged screw holes (never seen this in a green button, a result
of opening and closing the electrical circuit one too many times?)
Also, the seller mentioned "some wear" in the green button switch.
This is not "some wear"! You can hardly see the logo.  This is not
common and not the result of regular use.

Jim will be getting his viewer back, cleaned, lightened up, with
new reflector, proper soldering work in the electrical circuit,
new screws to hold the AC holder together, new rheostat Realist
knob... Unfortunately, the rheostat sometimes work, sometimes
it does not.  It needs to be replaced but I have not been able
to find the proper replacement part.  Still, a good viewer even
without variable illumination.

Jim will also be getting a bill from me that I think should be paid 
by the seller.

George Themelis


------------------------------