Docking

Lately Kat and I (mostly Kat) have been doing projects to improve the "look and feel" of our home. This includes lots of painting. Recently the living room got the full treatment: walls, ceiling, trim, moulding, and doors. We moved everything out to make the painting easier. We (and by "we" I mean "me') also put in new light switches and outlets. I hate working with electricity and wiring, mostly because I never studied that chapter in physics class.

Anyway, we put everything back and Kat's iPod dock is hooked up to the stereo, but the sound is horrible and there is a hum. "Oh crap," I thought to myself. I screwed up the wiring! We're all doomed! But then I calmed down and decided to apply some science. How did I know it was the wiring, besides having no confidence in my own ability to do it right? How did I know it wasn't the dock itself, which was Kat's suggestion? I didn't. So a battery of test, blind and double blind were developed and forgotten about. Instead I called up Scott and asked if he could bring over his dock to test a "known good" and sure enough his dock sounded great and didn't have that creepy hum.

Scott: Well, that's good news.
Me: Yeah, I don't have to try and figure out where I went wrong in the wiring.
Scott: No, we get to take it apart now.
Me: I better get my camera.

Pre-disection

Inside The Dock

Top-down View

In the interest of full disclosure I should point out that I was too much of a pansy to pry it open. Scott handled that.