Archive for the ‘DIY’ Category

Why hitting electronics sometimes brings them back to life…

March 7th, 2012 by joey | No Comments | Filed in DIY

Recently, I went to update the firmware on my Innova 3100 OBD2 Car Scanner (A lot has changed with OBD2 since my sister Erin bought this for me in 2006).  I recently tried to use it to check and clear the codes on my friends Tacoma, and it wouldn’t sync up :( .  

I plugged it into my computer, and all three lights lit up, and the software (RepairSolutions) wouldn’t recognize it.  I called their tech support, and they confirmed my suspicions, it was dead…

Before ordering a new one, I decided to try an old trick my Dad taught me.  Flexing the board…  It’s really simple, you see, overtime things corrode.  A bad solder joint that may have worked when new, stops working.  A little extra resistance between two corroded contacts, etc…  In fact, he told me that back in the day with the old Macintoshs, anytime they would break, the first thing they would do, is lift them about 8″ off the desk, and drop them.  Frequently this drop would make it continue to work.  This is why frequently hitting things causes them to start working again.  I also look for any connectors which I dis-connect and connect once, as well as any chips that are in sockets (see circled chip in photo at left) and “re-seat” them (pull them out, a little and push them back in, if you can’t get it to pull out (like mine) just put a fair amount of direct pressure on it.  All it takes is just the tiniest movement to fix resistive connections).

While this doesn’t always work, if the electronics equipment is a few years old, it sometimes does.  As was the case this time.  I opened up the tester, pulled out the one circuit board, and gave it a good flex.  Circuit boards are surprisingly resilient, so you don’t need to worry too much about breaking it.  I usually twist them 5 to 15 degrees in both directions depending upon the boards stiffness.  When you do this, you will hear some really small quiet crinkling noises.  Like really really tiny bubble wrap popping.  That is the sound of things moving…

I put it back together and VIOLA!!!  It WORKS!  And my code reader is now up to date with the latest and greatest firmware.  Now I can continue to turn off my friends Check Engine Lights anytime I need to without needing blank paint or tape :) (I usually keep it in the trunk of the car).

Anyways, I hope this helps.

For another cool yet bizarre tip, check out: recovering hard disk data by freezing the drive.  I’ve tried this four times, and it worked twice.  It isn’t bad for the drive either, putting the hard disk in the freezer overnight is the same as leaving your laptop it in your car overnight when it gets down to sub zero temperatures.  Sometimes freezing it once will let you get all the data off it, once I had to freeze it, copy for 10 or 15 minutes, freeze it, continue, and repeat until I got everything off (thank goodness for rsync).  You can also do the same thing with laptop batteries, weird, I know, but it works sometimes.

How to solder Copper Pipe

November 3rd, 2011 by joey | No Comments | Filed in DIY

Soldering Copper Pipe (also known as sweating) is a skill that is easy to learn with a little practice.  The following two part video gives excellent instruction on how to do it.

Have fun!

Joey

Red Neck Rock Tumbler

October 29th, 2011 by joey | No Comments | Filed in DIY

There is something about people who live in the hicks.  While they may not always have a lot of money or formal education.  They seem to frequently know how to get what they want/need from what they have…

 

Concrete Dog Anchor

May 30th, 2011 by joey | No Comments | Filed in DIY, Ingenuity

Our dogs love to be in our un-fenced front yard.  In the past, we had one of those auger dog leash anchors in the front yard.  But it’s a pain because you have to mow around it, and it just doesn’t look good.

So, I had wanted to put an anchor in our concrete to secure our trailer to, so I decided to try it for our dogs first.  I went to home depot and bought a recessed trailer tie down anchor (About $8).  I also went to the concrete section, and asked the expert what the absolute best adhesive they had for gluing metal to concrete was and bought a tube.  Then I went to harbor freight and purchased a cheap air hammer ($11?) that I needed to remove some tile in the bathroom for anyways.

I decided where I wanted to put the anchor.  I put it about 18″ in from the edge of the concrete because chipping away the concrete to put the anchor in is going to weaken it, and I wanted to put it closer in where the stress is less.  (Erosion and settling around the sides of a concrete slab cause stress that eventually leads to cracking).

I drew a rough area of what needed to be chisseled out, and set to work.  The air hammer makes quick work of the concrete as long as the chisel is sharp.  Unfortunately, harbor freight tools aren’t the highest quality, and the steel the chisel is made out of sucks (it is very soft)…  I sharpened it four times while working, and each time, the chisel had worn down to the equivilant edge of a popsickle stick…  The upside to soft metal is that it is VERY easy to sharpen, and this stuff was REALLY soft steel, so two passes on the bench grinder and it is sharp again.

After about 5 minutes I started test fitting the anchor, and working away at the areas where it didn’t quite fit.  Once it fit flush, I spent a few minutes carving out just a little more so there was room for the adhesive.

I filled the hole with adhesive, put the anchor in the hole, and pushed down.  It took about 2 daysfor the adhesive to fully cure, but now we have a recessed anchor in our driveway to clip the dogs to when we go outside.  And the adhesive holds VERY well and is not going anywhere.

I’ve had several comments from people who thought it was pretty cool.  So I thought I’d share it. Here is the finished product.  When the anchor is flipped down, it only sticks up about 1/4 of an inch above the driveway.

And, here is the cheap Harbor Freight air hammer if you’ve never seen one before (A very awesome tool, and a good present for anyone you know who has an air compressor, they may never use it, but it’s cool, and they will like it,  it makes an awesome sound too).

DIY Spot Welder

May 4th, 2011 by joey | 2 Comments | Filed in DIY, Fun, Ingenuity

Ok, so go ahead, make fun of me…  But I’ve wanted a spot welder for a long time…  Seriously, since I was, oh, say 15 or so?  They are just COOL!

I tried to make one about 4 years ago, but the cables I bought weren’t big enough so they would melt before the metal I was trying to spot weld would.

But!  While I was cleaning up our shop yesterday, I came across the parts from my previous attempt and the desire to complete the project was renewed within me!

And here is the result….

It works great!  A few improvements are needed though…  Less surface area on the contacts, it needs a controlled way to start and stop the current so that it can have “pinch” time.  (Time where the metal is being pressed together, but the current is off), and It needs to be re-configured so that you can spot weld tight spaces.

Or, I could just buy one…

Here is a quick video that shows the parts of the welder in more detail.

And if you want to see a real spot welder, in a skilled body shop technicians hands, watch this…

’79 Toyota Pickup Ignition System – Reluctor Gap Spacing’s effect on Voltage

March 21st, 2011 by joey | No Comments | Filed in DIY

Recently I purchased a ’79 Toyota Pickup.  I’ve been fixing it up little by little so that I can drive it.  When I got it, it had an ignition problem that got worse until a few weeks ago, the spark just stopped…

I was frustrated, I did some troubleshooting, and it looked like the very expensive Toyota Ignitor had gone out…  Fortunatly, I found this page: http://bbs.zuwharrie.com/content/topic,85514.0.html Which shows how to remove the old Toyota stuff, and replace it with newer GM HEI parts for less than half what it costs to replace the ingitor.  Now, I am not a fan of GM.  Of all the Domestic producers I like GM the most, but I would rather have a toyota or honda anytime.  Why would you convert to the GM HEI ignition?  Several reasons: 1. It’s cheaper, 2. It is one of the most common ignition systems on the planet so your local parts store will have the parts.  (Unlike the Toyota ignitor which has to be special ordered and can take days to get there). 3.  Anytime you can replace electronics designed 30+ years ago with electronics designed 20 years ago and still in use today it’s generally a good thing.

Anyways, so I replaced the ignitor and coil with the GM HEI parts, and it worked for a while, and then stopped…  Now, I thought the problem was the distributor because I could use a AA battery to trigger the spark, but cranking the engine did not produce any spark.  So, to test the distributor I pulled it out, and put it in my drill press and did some testing.  I used a cheap AC DMM to test the voltage of the from the pickup coil with different reluctor to pickup coil gap spacings.   I started with what it was when I pulled it out of the truck, and it was 1.4V at about 1700 RPM (this would be 3400 RPM engine speed).  I then made the gap as large as possible, and the voltage dropped to .1 volt @ 3100 RPM (this would be 6200 RPM engine speed).  Then, I made the gap as small as possible, and I was able to get the voltage up to 2.4 volts at 1700 RPM.

When I installed the distributor back in the truck it worked!  I connected the distributor without installing it and by spinning the distributor shaft with my fingers I was able to trigger the spark.

What did I learn?

  • Gap spacing has a large effect on pickup coil voltage.
  • Pickup Coil’s create a very wide range of voltage depending upon the RPM.
  • GM HEI Ignition Modules are VERY sensitive, yet very accepting of any triggering voltage you provide.
  • I believe that the Toyota Pickup Coil produces much less voltage than the GM ones.  Because…  The Toyota pickup coil has a resistance of about 160 ohms, whereas the GM pickup coil has more like 1.5k ohms…  This difference in resistance probably indicates more turns of wire, or a smaller wire, or both.  I read somewhere that the gm pickup coil can produce up to 50v at high rpm, whereas the highest I could get from the toyota pickup coil was a few volts.  So, I think the Toyota pickup coil doesn’t produce as much voltage, so you need to make the gap smaller.

I also found this page that talks about different ignition sensors.  http://www.import-car.com/Article/71659/ignition_sensor_diagnostics_variablereluctor_hall_effect_and_magnetoresistive_sensors.aspx  And this page: http://www.megamanual.com/ms2/GM_7pinHEI.htm that talks in details about the different GM HEI modules, as well as more details on different sensors.

Making a quick vertical material rack for your work shop.

October 25th, 2010 by joey | No Comments | Filed in DIY, Fun, Happy Living, House Projects, Organization, really cool

If you didn’t know already…  My wife and I LOVE to build stuff.  We’ve been collecting more and more left over material from various projects, and we have this one corner we just lean things in.  (Like long pieces of pipe, steel, 2×4′s, etc…)

In a quest to reclaim some more space I built this quick vertical material rack.  Made entirely out of scrap, It took about 15 minutes, and cleaned up “the corner” immensely.  It is composed of 2 7″ pieces of 2×4 and one old piece of something…  (We found it in the house when we moved in :)   ).

Check it out…

And a detail shot of one end…

Creating a Saturn Truck…

August 8th, 2010 by joey | 1 Comment | Filed in DIY, Saturn Truck

Growing up, I always had old cars ($1000 or less), and I twice had a car with T-Tops, or a Sun Roof. If you’ve never had a car with a hole in the roof, you just don’t know what you are missing.

A few years ago, I cut a sunroof in the roof of my $250 pickup truck. It was my first experience modifying a car. While it wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t bad either. I used the lid from a large plastic rubbermaid container as the template for the sunroof. I bought a cheap skill saw from Harbor Freight, and an abrasive blade (made for cutting metal). After outlining the lid in red crayon… I ran an extension cord out my apartment window to the parking lot, and started cutting. Needless to say, I attracted some attention and weird looks.

Later, I took that same truck, and created the unfinished SHO Truck.

Now, I have this cheap $300 Saturn SL1… And, I have wanted to create a car truck for a while. I like cars, they get good gas mileage, and they handle nice. But I like trucks too. Trucks are so convenient. You buy groceries, you just toss them in the bed, and drive home. Need to move a lawn mower? No big deal, just load it in the bed and go… But the gas mileage isn’t good, and they don’t handle that great. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to have one. But I don’t. I have this Saturn instead.

I was first just going to cut off the whole roof, pillars and all, and turn it into a Rat Rod convertible. But, my friend Nate came over to help me. And he had a few GREAT ideas, that have allowed me to keep the car structurally sound, and have opened a way to easily make a decent looking Saturn Truck.

Ok, I’ll stop boring you, here are the pics and some notes.

Step 1 – Remove the head liner.

This was a piece of cake, we both just grabbed loose edges, and pulled… Nate then trimmed it up with a utility knife while I removed the gutter / trim.

Step 2 – Remove the gutter / trim. The top side trim came off with the removal of a dozen torx screws. Piece of cake.

Step 3 – Remove the rear window. I kind of wanted to save this, as I hadn’t decided whether to create just two large sun roofs, or a wide open cab. However, I was pretty sure we didn’t need it. I was working on the trim, when Nate started prying on the rear window… I heard the inevitable “pop” followed by the sound of glass falling.

Step 4 – Remove broken glass from car.

Step 5 – Mark where to cut.

When working on my truck, one of the big things I learned, was remove less than you think you will need to. It is WAY WAY harder to weld pieces back together then it is to cut them in part… On my truck, I more than once removed what I thought I needed to, only to see a much easier way of doing things later, that was now not possible due to removed material.

I decided I wanted to keep all the structural members of the roof in place for now. So, we marked where they were (we got in the car, and using a screw driver as a chisel, and a hammer, created punch marks outlining all the structural members. This produced small, but easy to see marks on the outside that showed where to cut. We then used masking tape to make a VERY clear line as to where to cut (another great idea from Nate).

Step 6 – Check surroundings for flammable things. Once upon a time, I was careless. But, after seeing one too many YouTube videos of flaming fireballs of death… I am now much more cautious of fire hazards…

Step 7 – Man the fire extinguisher.

I may be a crazy Red Neck, but I’m a prudent crazy red neck.

Step 8 – CUT!!!

This is the best part… Armed with a skill saw with an abrasive blade, safety glasses, industrial ear muffs, and welding gloves, we dig in…



(More Cool pictures of sparks flying…)

(See Gallery for more…)

Step 9 – Stand around, and stare at the amazing things you can do in 2 hours with a metal cutting saw…

Next… The metal sheet that makes the roof, is actually between 1/16″ and 1/2″ above the structural members. I am going to cut some small strips of steel from the removed roof sections, and weld the roof to the structural members all the way around. Then comes creating a way to put a cloth top over everything back to where the rear window was. After that, some more cutting and welding to minimize the steel that sits behind the seats between the two rear struts (without compromising structural integrity.) Then, cutting the trunk lid, converting it into a tail gate of sorts, and doing what I can to convert the trunk into a small truck bed. With the seats down, it is almost 6′ of room. From the back of the front seats, to the end of the trunk.

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Making an Ikea Bag Dog Door…

August 7th, 2010 by joey | No Comments | Filed in DIY, House Projects, Ingenuity

UPDATE: This was a fun project, but it didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped.  It was very difficult to build a door that seals well.  We ended up buying a large dog door from Home Depot and putting it in instead.  The Ikea Bag Door did get us by for a few months, but I would recommend just biting the bullet and buying a proper dog door.  And, cutting through your door with a saw…  Very empowering…  (END UPDATE)

So… We got our latest bill from SRP (our electric utility company), and it was $460… An increase of $300 over last month. Needless to say, we were a little shocked.

One thing we have been doing, is leaving the pool room open to the house, and the outside door to the pool room open to the backyard, this way the dogs can move in and out. But it really hasn’t been very good. Insects fly inside, and cool air definitly escapes. I thought the pool room was acting kind of as a buffer… And it is, but not enough.

Enter the dog door… Do you know how expensive dog doors are? Not cheap. Especially for big dogs. They are fairly simple, so we decided to build one. Step 1, cut a hole in the door. We measured from about 6″ off the ground, 1″ wider then our biggest dogs max width, and about 4″ taller that the largest dogs back. This will allow them to easily move in and out. I first tried to cut the hole with the door in place, but it just wasn’t working out. So we removed the door, placed it on some lawn furniture and finished the cutting. After using the skill saw on both sides, we used a jig saw to quickly square the corners and finish up.


Once the hole was cut, I filed off the edges to make sure there were no sharp edges. Then, we re-hung the door, and made a temporary flap. The flap consists of two layers of tarp cut from used Ikea bags, weight at the bottom with a piece of steel. We will most likely place a piece of wood over the door at night to keep the bugs out.

After some brief coaxing, our dogs quickly began using the dog door, and now move in and out at their own will without us keeping the pool room open. Yay!