CommsBlog

Dear Avid Reader,

Despite the superb performance of my Landy in the snow, the poor beast fell foul of that terrible affliction… human error.

It seems that I simply cannot remember to turn off the headlights when getting out of it on a cloudy day (or at dawn/dusk).

In order to save the embarrassment of having the guys at the office try to bump-start it (with a completely flat battery), or the ignominy of being jump-started by a Nissan Micra (yes… it happened), I developed a simple circuit using an old relay and a cheap buzzer in order to stop this happening again.

If you want to check wiring colours for your Land Rover, look at my Manuals page [here]

 

As you can see, the Relay being in a ‘Normally Closed’ position would make the buzzer sound all the time the lights are on, but the power from the ignition opens the relay and stops the buzzer sounding. When you turn off the ignition and remove the key, the relay closes, and if the lights are still on, the buzzer sounds.

This isn’t complicated, but boy does it save some hassle.

Now… the next thing to do is build this into as small a package as possible, and determine the least intrusive way of connecting the 3 wires to the Land Rover without having to dismantle the dashboard!

After procuring a simple NC relay (courtesy of the local Motor Factors), I planned the connections out as follows:-

I then soldered some wires onto the buzzer, and crimped connectors onto all the cables as you can see. The reason for using a ‘NC’ (Normally Closed) relay, is that when then ignition is in the ‘on’ position, the relay is charged, and the contacts open. Therefore breaking the connection and stopping the buzzer from sounding. When you turn off the ignition, the buzzer will sound if there is power to the bottom leg of the relay (labeled ‘Lights+’ above). Therefore If the lights are off, no power = no buzzer, and if the ignition is on, open-contacts = no buzzer.

Next, I needed to connect it to the wiring in my Landy (which as you can see, is a bit archaic!) – On my ex-Military model, the Blue/Black wire is live when the main headlamps are on (I didn’t want the buzzer for side-lights, just in case I wanted to park it on a lane and leave those on). The earth was snagged from a screw into the bulkhead (where most of the relays seem to be earthed anyway!), and the Ignition live was derived from a spare spade connector on the Ignition barrel. You can probably find your particular wiring diagram [here]

Job’s a good ‘un – Buzzer sounds now if I leave the headlamps on with the ignition off.

 

 

Dear Avid Reader,

Yes it’s that time of year when we eat too much, drink too much and have unnecessary arguments with relatives over the pitiful TV that they laughingly call entertainment.

As one of my readers, you’re probably going to be in receipt of a number of gadgets, gizmo’s and techno-treats this year (despite the death of the British Pound according to my friend HERE)

The question is… what do you do with all your old tech? Well here are some ideas of how you could repurpose that equipment:-

 

Laptop’s

Despite your apparent need for 4Gb’s of RAM and Quad-core processing, that old laptop of yours seemed blisteringly fast a couple of Christmas’s ago… so what happened? Well ‘you did’ apparently… Most PCs and Laptops just get slower due to lots of unnecessary software, media and temporary files. Of course at this point you already have a nice new shiny one, so why don’t you format the hard-drive on the old one (or use the recovery disks) and give it to your Nan or Grandad so they can Skype you? One useful idea is to put Ubuntu on it as there is then little danger of Trojans, Viruses or Malware infecting your poor unsuspecting (and unknowledgeable) Grandparents.

Ubuntu Installation Guide: [link]

 

Old Net-tops, Notebooks and Underpowered PC’s

There is an excellent article on LifeHacker.com that details how to create your own Media Center PC from an old computer [link] or you could even turn it into a NAS (Network Attached Storage device) for your home network for the purposes of Backup (Pictures etc), Media (Music, Films) or for downloading .torrent files etc. Again this is detailed in a nice article from LifeHacker [link]

 

Mobile/Cell Phones

Yes… we all need the latest iPhone or Android (obviously the latter if you are a proper tech-head!), but that Nokia or Samsung you use to use for making calls and sending texts is still a perfectly functional bit of kit. Here are some ideas for that too:-

• Stick a Pre-pay SIM in it (on a different network to your usual one), and put it in the boot of your car with a cigarette lighter charger for emergencies – e.g. Your phone is dead/lost/no signal and you have broken down.
• Stick a Pre-pay SIM in it, enable ‘fixed dialing only’ (A mechanism that only allows the phone to dial pre-configured numbers), and give it to your young children to put in their School bag. They can’t call anyone or play games on it, but again, in the case of an emergency or missing a School bus…
• Give it to Phone for Heroes – they use the sale of these old handsets to support the Help for Heroes charity

 

Televisions

Its patently ridiculous how many TV sets we are throwing away because they are Analog… You can purchase a Freeview box for about £20 and turn it into a Digital TV, so why not put it in the spare room for when the kids are home for Christmas or make sure that Granny can watch TV in the Kitchen and Bedroom?

If you still have no use for it, then take it to a charity shop as they can then use the proceeds to fund a good cause.

My Guide to Reusing old TV and HiFi equipment: [link]

 

Games Consoles

Its frightening how many games consoles end up at the local tip… Those old XBOX consoles are probably one of the most hackable devices out there. By making a minor internal modification with an xecuter chip, you can use XBMC (XBOX Media Center) software and turn your XBOX into a full-blown Music and Video media box. Marry this up with one of the old TV’s above, and you’ve created a Media box for your games room/summer house.

Installing XBMC on an XBOX: [link]

 

Surround-sound / All-in-one players

Well these are fantastic for enhanced the kids games-room – add one of these to their games console and they have a more immersive experience, and the volume levels tend to go down. Another good use for these is to add to the Media system detailed above and place in your Summerhouse/Shed for those garden parties. Its just a case of unwinding the speaker wires and you have a sound system in the Garden. Add an old Radio Receiver and you can pipe your favourite music station into the garden whilst sunbathing.

My Guide to Reusing old HiFi equipment: [link]

 

 

Hello Again Avid Reader,

Going a bit off-track today, but thought I would share with you my recent purchase.

Nope, not the latest in Wireless technology, or a shiny new mobile phone (although I have had this one for nearly a month now!), but an old, slightly worn, ex-military Series III Land Rover.

It’s purchase came about after the missus decided that she wanted rid of the Chrysler Grand Voyager in order to get an Audi Convertible. This of course left a slight issue; How would we get the three Irish Setters that we own down to the river (my car is a Jaguar XK8, so no chance there!)

We decided that a ‘cheap and cheerful’ 4×4 would be the answer, and after asking around, managed to acquire ‘The Sarge’

No to be honest, the test drive was erm, how can I put it, scary! This 1983 ex-military Landy has no power steering, all round drum-brakes, steering that has to be used to be believed, and a gearbox that has about 2 feet of play in it.

Needless to say, I fell in love with it instantly!

After a bit of negotiation, the seller (a nice chap also called Paul) threw in an extra spare wheel so I could utilise both mounts (there is one on the rear door as well as the bonnet)

Its a 1983 Series III (registered at DVLA in 1986), and still has the Infra-red / Convoy light selectors inside, and has dual fuel-tanks that can only be filled by removing the seats (not so much fun on these snowy days, I can tell you!). There is a manual selector on the front of the seat panel between the drivers legs that lets you select which fuel tank you are using. As you change the selector, you see the fuel gauge change to match the tank you have selected.

Of course, when I bought it, it was ‘Farmer Green’, you know, that lacklustre powdery green that they used to come in… In any case, I decided that it had to be changed. So armed with a laptop, I visited that old faithful ‘eBay’

On eBay I found “Military Vehicle Paint – 2.5 lt Satin Finish”, perfect I thought. So with this and a litre of Black Satin, I attacked the project with vim!

After ‘googling’ a bit, I came to the general consensus that a paint roller would work fine. Well, I have to say, that even with my lack of preparation (which was basically giving it to the local hand car wash for a hour), it came out really well. So well in fact, I still haven’t put a 2nd coat on!

The seats were terrible inside, but in exchange for a quick website revamp, Collards Upholstery recovered the seats in Andrew Muirhead leather. As you can see the picture, Russ done a fantastic job of them.

You can see from these other pictures that it still has the Convoy / Stealth light selectors and switch on the dashboard, although the infra-red switch is hard-wired to the normal headlamps now (shame!)

You can also see from the rear view, that it has the waterproof ‘screw on’ lenses, and the overrider bumpers too.

The interior of the rear cabin is in the standard military style, with two bench seats and storage areas for munitions. You’ll note the jerry-can sneaking into the bottom left of the photo. I acquired this from the Army Surplus in Chelmsford (for a bargain £20 including spout + spare seal!)

Things I had to do straight away:-

The indicator Stalk was seriously stiff, and never returned (and with the road noise, you can’t hear the relay clicking!), so that had to be changed (eBay – £14). Next was the fusebox. I would randomly loose indicators, interior light, brake lights. Unfortunately the old Lucas 6JF fuse boxes have aluminium contacts with a steel rivet running through them. The net result is that corrosion makes everything a bit flaky. That said, £8 later (again eBay), I had a brand new one, and it took 5 minutes to fit. Lastly was the passenger side mirror (you need wing mirrors in a LWB Landy!), another visit to eBay and £14 later I had a brand new one!

The rope on the front has hand-woven eyelets (with a stainless steel shackle) and is made from natural fibre rope. I got the chap down at the Chandlers at the bottom of Market Hill in Maldon to make this for me, and to his credit, only charged me a total of £30 which I thought was a bargain as it took him an hour to do!

My next item on the list was some decals. I have the usual ‘It may be slow, but it’s 100% British’ on the back, but then added a ‘Sarge’ decal to the doors. In addition, I added a ‘K9 Unit’ to the back quarter, and ‘Escape Hatch’ to the inside of the rear door.

Current issues that I need to address:-

• Clutch is awful. Sometimes it works, sometimes I have to use all my strength to get it into 1st gear.
• 4×4 Selector is gummed up inside the gearbox, so I can’t use 4×4 at the moment (although this should be fixed tomorrow)
• Passenger door is a bit rotten (anyone have one spare?)
• Roof leaks a little around a (badly fitted) sunroof.
• Needs a drivers-side step (wife is only 5′ tall LOL!)

Also open to any suggestions on how to improve it

 

2012 Update!

OK, Changed the gearbox for a Wolf XD one, so now we have 4×4 and a useable clutch (although no Synchro in 1st/2nd LOL) and  I’ve fixed the leaking roof by permanently sealing the sunroof closed with silicone sealant, then painted over the joint… yup, I did that!

Hi All,

I’ve just upgraded my iPhone to 3.0 and was alarmed to see that to utilise Internet Tethering (which frankly, would be a ‘last resort’), I would need to pay O2 an additioanl £14.68 a month on top of my existing data connection!

Fear not humble iPhone users, there is a solution out there. Browse to this URL from Safari on the iPhone:-

http://www.iphone-notes.de/mobileconfig/

Select your country and carrier,  and download the Tethering profile (ignore the warning message)

Note: This doesn’t mean you get data for ‘free’, but if you already have a ‘data package’ it should be included within that, rather than paying a separate ‘Tethering’ charge (like O2 are trying to get you to do!)

When you go back into Settings, General, Network you will now see that the Internet Tethering is ‘Off‘ (as opposed to ‘set up’)

If you now tap on the “Internet Tethering“, you get a new screen that allows you to enable it

Just as a footnote – if you are wondering how I captured the screens on an iPhone, simply press the top power button and the home button at the same time, and the current screen is saved to the camera roll.

Hello Avid Reader,

Yes… It’s true… I have succumbed to the coolest gadget of them all; The Apple iPhone.

I resisted for a while (mainly due to it only being available on O2 in the UK), but in the end managed to get O2 to take over our 12 phone contract from Orange, give us 3 iPhone’s and 5 Nokia E71′s (plus a couple of spare phones), and even pay our termination clause on the Orange contract. It just shows how desperate the carriers are to get you tied into a 2 year contract nowadays!

Anyway….

First impressions; As with all Apple packaging, you feel a little disappointed as it is always very minimalist, but once you start playing with the iPhone, you realise why it is so much better than the other touch enabled devices out there. I’ve had the LG Prada, HTC Touch, HTC Touch Pro, and even the Samsungs with touch sensative buttons. I can honestly say that they are not even in the same ball-park as the iPhone.

Ok, onto the top free Apps (and as always, please feel free to comment with your fav’s as well!)

1. Free RSS Reader – forget the others, this does exactly what it say’s on the tin. Add all your favourite feeds, or browse to a site and it automatically detects any feeds that are available.  Supports Landscape
2. Google Earth – Just because it is sooooo cool to zoom in on your own house. Supports ’tilt’ view.
3. eBay – Yes… I do need to know what I am bidding on or selling 24/7 !!!!
4. iTranslate – this does need a data connection, but allows you to save phrases so that you can prepare for your encounter at the patisserie in advance! – Also has the ability to play the phrase (a little scratchy,  but still useful!) out of the speaker/headphones.
5. last.fm – Ideal for all those Audioscrobblers out there… plays your fave’s and lets you listen to the usual last.fm radio selections.
6. MMS – because the iPhone can’t do this yet!
7. VNC Lite – Allows me to manage a server remotely. It’s a bit fiddly, but it does let you do everything you need to in an emergency (e.g. Reboot the server or reload your software)
8. midomi – Remember “Shazam!”… well that cost’s £1.00 per go!… Midomi is *free* (and surprisingly recognised me humming the Godfather theme!)
9. Stanza – good intuitive eBook reader
10. GuitarChords – handy pocket aide-memoir for all your Guitar Chord needs
11. Ok, this one is a ‘Paid for’ (£2.99) application called TV Plus, but what a fantastic applet… this program allows you to view the TV listings for your region, and then instruct your Sky+ or SkyHD box to record it no matter where you are! It uses a pre-registered “My Sky” account name / password to log into Sky and then remotely instruct your Sky box to record!

Silly Stuff!

1. Pac Man Lite – Namco’s original, now ported to the iPhone
2. Jellycar – I can’t even begin to explain this… just download it and laugh!
3. Labyrinth LE – great use of the inertia sensors for marble madness fun.
4. Darts -yep… it’s Darts!
5. FS5 Hockey – Remember those happy days at the seaside playing Air Hockey with your sister!

Tips;

1. Removing an App or rearranging the ‘Desktops’

If you hold down your finger on any icon for more than a few seconds and all the icons wobble. Once they are wobbling, you can drag them from one ‘desktop’ screen to another. You can also delete them by clicking on the (X) icon in the top-left of the icon.

2. Drag an App to the far right-screen to create a new ‘desktop’ area.

Thunderbird Syncing

Ok, this is a problem at the moment, only solved by using 3rd party app’s.

Here is a solution for contacts only (calendar to follow shortly apparantly)

1. Install Funambol Mozilla Plugin into your copy of Thunderbird [link]

2. Install the Funambol iPhone app (just search for it in the Apple App store)

3. Create a free account at Funambol [link]

4. Enter the account details into the options page of Funambol on both the iPhone and Thunderbird

5. Click on Tools, Funambol Plugin on Thunderbird and click on ‘Click to Syncronize’ and wait to finish

6. Click on the Funambol icon on your iPhone and do the same

You can set Thunderbird to sync both the contacts and calendar, but only the contacts arrive on the iPhone at present. The Thunderbird client can also be set to sync automatically (but not the iPhone end)