elbekko

Merry christmas and all that! A good 30-40cm of snow here, and a bit sad the Range Rover is 2000km away... but the GLE manages fine

When I did my first 300TDi cambelt I had a similar issue - until I learned you need to loosen the 3 pulley bolts and allow it to rotate while tightening the belt. The pin needs to be in, so the pump timing doesn't change.

Well, fits in an SD1... https://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/british-lunatic-manages-put-27-liter-tank-engine-old-rover/

Find the old guy at your tyre shop and ask him to balance it like in the old days. The young guys most likely haven't even heard of a wheel that isn't hub-centric.

For now, but not for much longer (no longer worth the hassle, so it's getting removed). @Little mule, generally we just adjust the gap of the plugs to be a little smaller (0.6mm on BPR6ES). The timing curve is also slightly different, but for a generator I doubt that matters much.

What about the ignition system on a Bosch/Thor V8 is marginal according to you?

Did they balance it correctly? As in flat plate on the back, centering on the stud holes, instead of just ramming it on a cone? I've had to go back to a tyre shop twice because they couldn't get it balanced until I noticed what they were doing...

Inputs and outputs, yeah. As said, I understand the general concepts, just struggle with gluing it all together, really. I should just properly read up on it, can't be all that difficult. My classes of analog and digital electronics are a long time ago, and even then I understood the concepts fine, but never did proper design of a circuit from scratch. What I linked is appealing for me as a C#.NET developer One less hurdle to learn new syntax and a new IDE.

Ooh, I like this: https://www.nanoframework.net/ For some reason the hardware side of electronics has always slightly eluded me. I get the concepts, but don't ask me to design a complex circuit, for some reason... even though I'd love to, I have many, many ideas on how to improve the P38 with some custom electronics 😛

It's an interesting idea, and I'm following with interest. Not much to add otherwise. I've long been a proponent of modular CAN systems in cars, the biggest problem is that they're very closed systems and hard to debug sometimes. So as a piece of advice: provide very good logging, and a thorough diagnostic interface.

I'm guessing in this case it's not so much "booster" as it is "repeater", with a bigger, dedicated antenna mounted to the vehicle. It's quite common, especially in modern houses where you'll struggle to get a signal through the insulated concrete walls. I've seen good things about these, but they're only for US frequencies it looks like: https://www.weboost.com/boosters/vehicle-car

I usually just use this type of pliers on them: Right before I bin the infernal things. And yes, I know, they're supposed to be better. I still don't like them.

I printed some tablet holders in PLA years ago, they warped a bit initially but haven't moved since. And they're permanently mounted on the top of the dashboard.

It's just a spammer, keeps adding links to quoted messages...

Very true.

Colin Furze has been releasing some interesting videos on the subject

An electric chainsaw is very nice. I bought a very cheap (wired) one a few years ago. It has more than enough power, and it's great that it's quiet and the chain stops instantly. The biggest issue that one has is that there's only one bolt to hold the blade on, so it likes to move...

I know. Sucks. If I weren't so far away I'd offer to do the rebuild for you.

I am, sadly, reminded of the Sam Vimes ‘Boots’ Theory of Socio-Economic Unfairness: It's a difficult pit to get out of, but spending a bit more now might save you a lot of money later on. Because a second-hand 200TDi will probably just have/develop the same problems all the previous ones have had...

A VW 1.9 TDI? Maybe a bit small for towing duties, but would fit the fuel bill... Anything clockwork isn't likely to have both power and economy. On the other hand, I don't think you're likely to have any change of £2500 doing an engine conversion, so might as well just bite the bullet and grab a reman engine?

The SP8 has GPS built in, as long as you get it with the LTE modem (and yes, actual GPS, not just cell tower location). I did have a hell of a time getting OziExplorer to work with the built-in GPS though, needed to put GpsGate in between for some reason. But after that it works flawlessly. Overall I've been very happy with the SP8. None of it is super intensive use though, I have other devices for that.

I have a (second hand) Panasonic Toughpad that works ok for this. But lately I've just been using my Surface Pro 8 with a rugged cover on it. It may not be waterproof, but really, who cares in a regular vehicle. And with everything having an SSD these days, using it in a vehicle is no worry. Navigation-wise, I usually run a mix of Google Maps (/spits in disgust), the built-in Mercedes GPS (when in the GLE), a Garmin GpsMap 62s, Gaia GPS and OziExplorer. With Samsung Dex I can run Gaia on the Surface Pro, and have it on a big screen, which works fairly well. Hopefully Android Subsystem for Windows becomes mature enough soon to directly run Gaia on the Surface Pro, but last time I tried it still crashed (and couldn't log in to my account either).

A CT won't care about swarf. An MRI on the other hand... could make you rather well-ventilated. Really glad to hear that, Stephen. Cancer is a proper <insert extremely bad word of choice>.

Oh come on, stop it already. AI as it exists today is still very far removed from actual intelligence. All they've managed to do is make a language model that sounds convincing. Not accurate, not correct, just convincing. But oh no, an "AI" can write a convincing-sounding paper on why the earth is flat, the world is ending! As with all technical advancement, work changes, but doesn't get eliminated altogether. If that means more people need to start telling computers what to do, then that is what the workforce will shift to. Ol' Musky is just trying to drum up interest in his AI company, I'm sure.

Should be available on Topix: https://topix.jlrext.com/topix/vehicle/lookupForm But you'll need to register/pay for access.