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Category Archives: Random
Why should the government fund Holden?
Holden is a private company. They employ Australians to manufacture cars in their Australian factory. They therefore provide jobs to Australians by maintaining the factory here. Holden, and their parent company, General Motors are fully aware they can get labour … Continue reading
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NewSoftSerial – Adding a baud rate
I was continuing testing with the Arduino to get communication happening with the car – there is a requirement to test data against known values to confirm findings. I was aiming to use the hardware driven serial on the Arduino’s … Continue reading
Posted in Programming, Random
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Eureka! Those 5 bytes are found.
I spent the last few weeks attempting to determine what 5 bytes are necessary to initialise the connection to the car ECU. I tried a few methods of discovering just what the ones and zeros were telling me, and tonight, … Continue reading
Posted in Programming, Random
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Some success
I had a look over the garden / backyard farm this afternoon to see how all was after the large amount of rain we’ve had and to see if there was anything wrong. I looked over the Granny Smith apple … Continue reading
Posted in Garden, Random
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Moving Data Wirelessly
I’ve got a few sensors I’d be keen on moving data wirelessly between. The first is the Solar Hot Water system, which is where I wanted to start – wirelessly read some temperature sensors, and send them to the server … Continue reading
Posted in Programming, Random
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Finally Licensed
Yesterday I went to go for the final test to get off the provisional licence (it was due to expire in 14 days). I drove out to Gosford to get the car registration sorted, and then I went over to … Continue reading
A drainage trench
We had an issue with water pooling on the side of our house, we originally thought this was related to the neighbours driveway – it was caving this way, but after they replaced that recently, we’ve still seen water pooling … Continue reading
My First Lawn Mower
After messing around with it for a few hours this morning, the lawn mower finally starts and the grass is finally cut. The problem turned out to be the spark plug, which would work but go crappy after the motor … Continue reading
A Lawnmower
The grass is growing a lot of clover, so during the week we decided to seek out a second hand mower (the person originally doing it has been slack, I wonder if our storage arrangement also got slack if they’d … Continue reading
Posted in Garden, House, Random
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Fruit Trees are growing
I don’t get much time in the afternoon’s after work to go check on how the fruit trees are going, so the weekend is pretty much the best opportunity to have a look at them individually and see what’s happening. … Continue reading
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Nissan Consult II – Protocol details
I did some more digging to decide how I was going to approach the protocol used. I came across the Consult II hand held scanner manual which specifies 3 protocols used of which ISO9141 and KWP2000 are specified as using … Continue reading
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Creating a limited access network.
We have my partner’s sister staying out the back in the flat for a short while, and she wants to have some access to the internet. We have plans to eventually remove that building, so paying Telstra $300 plus wasting … Continue reading
Posted in Networking, Random
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Cisco PPTP VPN
I wanted the ability to access resources such as my LAN POP3, SMTP and files from another location. I was getting tired of setting up SSH port forwards and thought about using VPN, given I have both a Linux server … Continue reading
Posted in Linux, Networking, Random
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Time wasted!
I had spent the last few weeks fishing around for details on the protocol used in the Nissan. After much, much, much Googling and some testing, I concluded that there is no OBDII support, and the car has only Nissan’s … Continue reading
Posted in Garden, Programming, Random, Sustainable Future
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A flat battery already!
.. I left the damned interior light on, trying to get the MP3 player remember the “Random” setting when playing from USB. I didn’t see it was on as it was raining last night and I was too focused on … Continue reading
Posted in Programming, Random
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Low Rolling Resistance Tyres
After doing some poking around into tyres, I’m still largely unclear on which of the low rolling resistance tyres are going to deliver results, and what kind of results to expect. I understand the key concept – a tyre with … Continue reading
Posted in Random, Sustainable Future
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When it stops raining…
.. I’d like to give the car a wash and remove the leaves that have been hiding up near the windscreen. It stopped enough today but I took the time to get the radio working (only CDs were working, and … Continue reading
Posted in Garden, House, Random, Sustainable Future
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Our new car
I picked it up on Sunday, it’s nice to drive. The few things that I immediately noticed was – the headlights are much brighter than on the other car. The ability to see the road at night is a welcome … Continue reading
New Job, New Car
I start my new job this week – which isn’t the one I first applied and received an offer for, it was another that followed up whilst I was waiting. I like the description of the new job, it’s integrating … Continue reading
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Carduino Installation Progress
We’ve just finished getting the cable installed for the Carduino, so I can get it installed in a more permanent manner. The last two tanks of fuel had the jumper wires that were jammed into the connector, come loose, and … Continue reading
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Buying Touch Up Paint
I was going to get some touch up paint to fix some of the scratches and marks on the car. I figure if it’s cheap enough, it’ll help cover up a lot of the rust converter and give it a … Continue reading
Just when I thought all was screwed…
… with our car’s water leak, a solution. I had a look at Hyundai’s ‘hmaservice.com’ website which contains the workshop manuals for all Hyundai vehicles and came across a section on “Body (Interior)” – had a look at noted that … Continue reading
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The Garden in Autumn
We got a reasonable result from the back garden in Autumn. We had some losses on getting the seeds in a growing state though – we lost a heap to what might have been excess water. Then the first set … Continue reading
Posted in Garden, Random, Sustainable Future
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It’s as easy as..
.. watching what you use. I’ve heard it many times recently, and was discussing with someone today, in the context of solar power, that there is no point adding any sort of solar power system if you don’t take the … Continue reading
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Resigning..
It’s far too easy. A simple and short – I’m gone in 2 weeks is easily done. I was reading through a new employment offer just now, and it’s amazing how ‘less concerned’ I could be of the minor details. … Continue reading
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Loading Custom Characters into HD44780 LCD display
I have been toying with a “TI Launchpad” recently, something I’ve been trying is to get it to work with the popular HD44780 LCD. The LCD supports loading of custom characters in addition to the standard character set – with … Continue reading
Posted in Programming, Random
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Looking at Career Options
.. doesn’t make me think correctly. I’m thinking of what’s ‘next’ now I see my current duties being made much lighter through the progression of those located in a different time zone taking on more of the duties I am … Continue reading
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Car For Sale Ad
If I was to sell my car right now, it would have to have an ad that goes something like this: For Sale, Rattles. A 1997 Hyundai Sonata Sedan. Features: Immobiliser with Anti Hijack feature, Timing Belt and Engine Mounts … Continue reading
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Planned Gross FIT reduction
The NSW Government is proposing to legislate a reduction to the feed in tariff from 60c per kWH to 40c per kWH. It’s reduction of one third of the rate that was legislated at the time we bought. But what … Continue reading
Posted in House, Random, Sustainable Future
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Eggs. Home Made Foods.
Eggs are finally arriving, we’ve had 6 of them from one chook, the other chickens seem to be slow or younger. We planned to have extra chickens join the current ones over the weekend, since they aren’t laying, that’s not … Continue reading
Posted in Garden, Random, Sustainable Future
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