Tools!

*Tim Taylor throat noise*

Nancy really surprised me with an awesome set of Makita lithium-ion tools for Christmas. It's a very nice set that includes an impact driver (now I can be just like the guys on those home improvement shows), a 2-speed 1/2" drill with a hammer setting, a really nice 6-1/2" circular saw with a cast alloy base, a flashlight, three 18-V battery packs, and a quick charger. Oh, and some fancy luggage.


Makita really nailed it with this combo, and didn't skimp on any of the tools even though it was sold as a set. I think some of my old power tools will be jealous they never get used (like my corded Milwaukee circular saw). Battery-powered tools have gotten really amazing.


Oh, and a lot of other great stuff, including a Bulbdial clock from Nancy's folks. I can't wait to put it together.

Thanks, everybody!

Lucas! *shakes fist*

So, when I replaced the headlight switch on my garden tractor a few weeks ago, I used one I had in my junk bin. As I was measuring it to make sure it fit the hole in the instrument panel, I noticed that it said LUCAS - MADE IN ENGLAND.



I chuckled, since Lucas electrics have a pretty bad reputation. (Lucas is sometimes referred to as the Price of Darkness.) I installed it, figuring that surely this switch, still in its original package, can't be affected by the Lucas curse.

Well, today, I fired up the garden tractor, and the switch was dead. *Tap-tap* and it flickered on. Great. I never even owned a British car, and now Lucas has cursed my garden tractor. It's true what they say...

Luxury!

On Tuesday night, I finished installing a remote starter on my Cutlass Ciera. The car has power locks and trunk release, so I was looking forward to having the remote entry as much as the remote start.

I bought an Autostart AS-2775 on eBay for $51 (with a free Harbor Freight DMM, which turned out to be fairly nice). As it turns out, most of the remote starter brands are owned by Directed Electronics now, so it probably doesn't matter what brand it is. But it did come with very well-written and thorough installation and user manuals.

Armed with my factory service manual, I started by tracking down all the necessary wires. This wasn't too hard with the factory manual, but it took quite a while to remove all the necessary dash and kick panels, as well as find good locations to tap into each wire. After finding all the locations to tap, I stripped an inch of insulation from each wire, soldered on the appropriate wire from the remote starter harness, and taped it up with Scotch Super 33.

One problem I ran into is that the remote starter had only negative triggers (maximum 500 mA to ground) for unlock, lock, and trunk. My car uses positive triggers for each. So I ended up converting polarity with three relays.



I also installed the included hood pin, which disables the remote starter when the hood is open (to prevent Nancy from sucking me into the serpentine belt with the remote). That turned out to be the only wire that needed to go through the firewall, and I used an existing grommet.

After getting everything properly secured behind the dash, I programmed and tested the remote starter, and put everything back together. It's been working great so far, and I can even start it from across campus. Plus, I get a kick out of the second-lock horn confirmation. Chicks dig it.

Anyway, Josh's hints for a successful remote starter install:

• Budget two days for installation. You'll probably run into snags.
• Get a factory service manual for your car. It's invaluable for wiring locations, connector pin-outs, drawings of connector locations, and instructions for taking the dash apart without breaking everything.
• Print out the full installation manual for the remote starter. The printed installation guide that came with mine was a quick-start guide. I found a PDF of the full manual on the manufacturer's website, and it was very helpful.
  
• Check whether you need positive or negative triggers for things like door locks, trunk release, horn, etc. Either buy a remote starter with the correct outputs, or round up some extra relays.
• Take the time to do it right. Solder connections, use good electrical tape or heat-shrink tubing where possible, zip tie the wiring harness to keep it away from stuff that moves or is sharp. You'll end up making enough other compromises that you won't want to feel lousy about cutting corners elsewhere.
• Don't do something stupid like bypassing the hood pin. Chances are I'll buy your crappy car some day and lose my fingers in the cooling fan.
• Vacuum the floor of your car before you start crawling around on it.
  

In other news, the UP is doing just fine.

ABC Photoshop Tech 1: "Hey, Bob, what's that funny thing right above Wisconsin?"
ABC Photoshop Tech 2: "I dunno."
ABC Photoshop Tech 1: "Is it a part of Wisconsin? If so, I should color it in."
ABC Photoshop Tech 2: "Nah, it's probably a lake or something."
ABC Photoshop Tech 1: "Wait, I think it's a part of Michigan."
ABC Photoshop Tech 2: "Ha, right. It's not even connected. Just leave it gray."
ABC Photoshop Tech 1: "Okay. TO PRINT!"

Source: ABC News via Nancy.

So, what you been doing?

Let's see, what have I been up to lately...

Well, I finished preparing my garden tractor for snow plowing duty. I painted my plow mounting frame and reinforced the front blade, replaced front axle bushings, replaced the front tires, fixed the headlights, and a did few other things.

Then I got nine yards (about 14 tons) of crushed mine rock delivered for my driveway. Because of my overhanging trees and the power line in the front, the truck driver ended up leaving a few piles that Nancy and I smoothed out later. I used the garden tractor to knock down the piles and grade the driveway. The Brinly box blade was invaluable for this, and will be very handy for keeping the driveway smooth in the future.

I still have a few more things I'd like to do around here before the weather turns (we've really been lucky with this nice weather lately). My shed will finally get a full clean-out, something that I didn't have a chance to do when I moved in. I "inherited" a lot of interesting stuff (reel mower, ancient gas mower, some kind of rotisserie), but it's time to do some organization and put up some hooks and racks.

I also have grand plans for more home automation stuff, but that'll have to wait until I have more time and spare change on hand.

Results are in!

In addition:

• 3 non-coin objects
  
• $0.80 Canadian
• 0 non-North-American coins
• 1 quarter with a banana sticker, 1 quarter with bubble gum
• 1 mutilated dime (not counted by the machine)

How much is inside?

I've just learned that Nancy has a shocking secret hoarding tendency. She has change tucked away everywhere. Not just stored in the couch like a normal person, but in cleverly-disguised containers hidden in various parts of the house (okay, well, they have flowers on them so I didn't notice).

Before it gets really bad, I staged an intervention and transferred everything to three big ziploc bags, sorting out various buttons, trinkets, inflator needles, and a 1943 steel penny. Tomorrow we'll be the hosers who tie up the self-service change counting machine at the credit union for an hour.



But before we cash it in, in the spirit of Rob Cockerham's legendary series, we're making guesses on the stash before it's cashed in. The first guess: total weight. My guess was 26 lbs. Nancy's guess was 35 lbs. We weighed it already, but take a look at the photo and make your own guess.

We'll add our guesses for a few more measurements before tomorrow:

• total face value of US coins
  
• number of non-coin objects (not including cat hair)
• total face value of Canadian coins
• total number of non-North-American coins