Post
by minsx » Sat Sep 30, 2006 5:00 am
That reminds me of something that happened to me last year . . .
It was 5 am when I heard the beep the first time. Just one beep, loud enough to wake me up fully, then nothing. I didn't know where it came from or what it was, but I went back to sleep. 5:30: another loud beep, and at 5:40, another. Just long enough for me to fall back asleep before it shocked me awake. Finally I just stood in my apartment, waiting for it to go off, so I could identify the noise.
Ah. A Rogue fire alarm.
My initial suspicion was that the battery was low, and thus the fire alarm was beeping in warning. I've had alarms like that. So I got a chair and stood on it and pushed the button. Nothing. I removed it from the ceiling to try and remove the battery. There's no way to remove the battery. It's not making noise. Maybe I fixed it. Back to bed.
6:00 I'm woken up. Loud beep. This followed by another, not a moment later. This isn't going to work.
So I look at the alarm more carefully. There's no battery you can remove. Apparently it's one of those "if the battery dies replace it all together" kinds. There appears to be some sort of aperture through which I can shove a screwdriver that's supposed to disable it. Find a screwdriver. It's beeping every 30 seconds now. Screwdriver doesn't work.
There's got to be some way to stop this thing. I'm tired. I'd rather not pay the apartment complex for a new detector, but it appears this one's nearly dead and killing me. So, I start to work on getting rid of the plastic casing that surrounds the detecor apparatus.
This thing was not meant to be taken apart. It dies, you tell by using the testy button. You throw it away, buy a new one. I had to break off the plastic casing altogether by prying it apart with the screwdriver.
The detector is now beeping at me every 6 seconds. It's 6:15 am. My ears are 2 feet away from the screaming outlet. The casing is gone but it's hard to tell what's what in the wiring apparatus. No visible battery, that I can see. The noise is too loud to even tell exactly what part of the thing its coming from.
It shouldn't be too hard, though, right? I have pliers and a screwdriver. I see electronic parts. I begin by using the pliers to remove every single resistor, capacitor, and transistor I can see sticking up from the circuit board. If it's able to be pulled off, I've removed it. No luck. Constant beeping. This is not a chirp. This is OMG THERES A FIRE IM SURE OF IT WAKE UP NOW beeping. Up to full detector mode.
There are only two large boxes left. I can't tell which one is the source of the beeping noise, but it's got to be one of the two. Fused to the circuit board.
The pliers are too weak to just pry it off. It's hard to find a niche that I can use to get some leverage with the screwdriver, but with much stabbing and twisting I finally get off the outer casing. Destroy the contents. Still beeping. 6:30.
It takes me 5 minutes to destroy the other box. It's got to be the source, it's the only thing left intact on the entire detector.
I have an open box by my bed. It contains twisted plastic parts, metal casings, broken off resistors, two capacitors with broken wire and miscellaneous other electrical peices. There's a circuit board nearly broken in two, and a screwdriver and a pair of needlenose pliers nearby. It's 6:45 am. I'm going back to bed.
I wonder what my husband will think when he gets home from work?
