Tom 7 Radar: NEW: Apacer Audio Steno: The Final Solution

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NEW: Apacer Audio Steno: The Final Solution (21 Oct 2003 at 21:09)

I put up a pictorial about how I operated to save my Apacer Audio Steno MP3 player. The surgery was drastic, but necessary!

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Tuuur (gw-kamst.gw.utwente.nl) – 10.23.03 05:18:11

Any chances you are going to do some cosmetic surgery on this as well?

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Tom 7 (h-66-167-47-66.phlapafg.dynamic.covad.net) – 10.23.03 09:38:42

Heh heh, probably not...

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mike (cmu-89128.wv.cc.cmu.edu) – 10.23.03 10:31:41

it's beautiful!

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Chris Wass (207.227.21.162) – 10.23.03 17:41:21

Maybe extend the molten plastic over the case over selected areas like it was some foreign organism trying to take over....

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Tom 7 (h-66-167-47-66.phlapafg.dynamic.covad.net) – 10.24.03 00:16:03

hehe, good idea...

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Peter (203.63.55.186) – 12.02.03 01:05:38

You fix things like i do. Im interested in this unit, does it come with a built in microphone, as basically im using it as a glorified
dictaphone. And is the voice record quality okay? TA.

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Tom 7 (h-66-167-250-12.phlapafg.dynamic.covad.net) – 12.02.03 09:57:48

It does have a microphone and records in like 8bit 11khz wave files. I doubt the quality is very good, but if you just want to be able to understood what you said, it would probably work.

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Anonymous (cache1.uk.logicacmg.com) – 04.27.05 11:29:38

just read your post on Slashdot and had to check out the solder job.. you should fix things like this for a job... you are the l33t hax0r

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Anonymous (pool-68-237-39-45.ny325.east.verizon.net) – 05.07.05 11:54:09

What a fucking mess!

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Anonymous (c-67-176-177-26.hsd1.il.comcast.net) – 11.07.05 02:41:26

A few years back, my brother in law was building and selling computers. He used a hot glue gun to secure and lock in place the screws and some of the wires. It really helped when they got shaken during shipping.

Today, my flash stick's USB connection came off of the stick. (it got bent when I carried my laptop with it inserted - ouch). Do you have any wisdom on what type of solder materials and tools I should get to fix the four connections? It has been over 25 years since I took welding class - and the only soldering I did was on leaded stained glass.

Thanks.

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Tom 7 (h-72-244-70-151.phlapafg.dynamic.covad.net) – 11.07.05 09:30:03

You just want a low-watt iron (I think mine is like 15 watt) in a pen shape, and some thin tin/lead solder. Electronics stores like radio shack will definitely have this. Soldering is pretty easy, but it is going to be a lot different than soldering stained glass.

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anvasala (203.87.151.227) – 02.07.06 07:17:41

i'm actually planning to buy apacer's audio steno... (their cheapest one)...but was discouraged by your experience.

is that thing with the jack the same for all apacer products (mp3 players)?

whats ur rating? will you stioll recommend it or such?

or do you have any other recommendations....other brands perhaps?

email me

beespillow@yahoo.com

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Tom 7 (h-72-244-70-225.phlapafg.dynamic.covad.net) – 02.07.06 09:11:52

I have no idea if it's the same for all their MP3 players.
I have a Creative Nomad now and I think it's great all around.

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Anonymous (iusr5.gov.ns.ca) – 09.11.06 12:28:23

I need to do the exact same thing on mine.. God but I'm no good with soldering ;(

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some dude (dhcp-128-194-35-34.resnet.tamu.edu) – 11.18.06 00:09:13

i just bought an mp3 about 3 months and the audio connection for the headphones got messed up i opened up but don't know where some stuff should go i need help i love this MP3 player. Thanks email me sosa_red06@yahoo.com

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Joe (s01060018c056f908.vc.shawcable.net) – 12.01.06 22:12:13

You're hilarious dude! and smart! good job! :)

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LahFeadia (196-23-95-178.pool.ukrtel.net) – 01.08.11 13:49:31

Really.

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Darnn (46.117.182.233) – 09.09.12 06:32:42

I love that this thing is still getting commented on. I ended up here after TinY World was linked on Free Indie Games, and the title of this post drew me instantly.

I had never soldered anything in my life, so rather than facing the problem head on, I bought like five different versions of this thing over the years. They were always pretty cheap here in Israel.
Or, well, only two were shaped like that and had that godawful rocker thing (which also broke hilariously). The rest were vaguely iPod-shaped, if blockier, but their headphone jacks died the same way, and they also had "hello!"/"goodbye!" screens, and some of the icons were similar, so I suspect both variations shared an ancestor.

Nowadays on the cheap side, Sansas of all sorts seem to be functioning well for me and my friends.

I don't really know why I felt the need to chime in with all this. Probably because it was exciting to see someone actually solve a problem that frustrated me a lot in the past, but that I had mostly forgotten about.

So, in a belated effort to put it briefly: I enjoyed your post.

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