Low tech > high tech
After the pleasure of discovering my laptop could play Skyrim (albeit at the lowest settings) I had to find a way to get the fan to work a bit better. My stupid Lenovo Z360 has plenty of options when it comes to making the fan quiet, but when you want the fan to cool the CPU properly it just can’t. It won’t even turn up to high when you’re pushing 80 degrees! It would rather just shut down.
If you press the fan control button though, it does speed up while pressed….
I built a elasticated strap to push the fan button down, but the button is touch sensitive, not a pressure switch. Next I spent a few hours googling for a software solution and reinstalling drivers from Lenovo. Speedfan is a nice little program that should work, but can’t see the fan on my laptop…. 
So, I opted for the low tech solution :
Great work Lenovo. The only way I can get my laptop to cool properly is with a wet square of toilet paper on the fan button…
I should also point out that I’m on my second battery and second power supply, and I can only charge when I have a piece of elastic pulling the power cable towards the USB plug… and the laptop is only 10 months old. I don’t think I’ll be buying Lenovo again….
Tags: 10 months, second power, speedfan, fan control, power supply, software solution, usb plug, control button, power cable, pressure switch, laptop, toilet paper, pleasureProblems with my lens
I’m currently in Arica, Northern Chile and was out shooting the huge flag that overlooks the city the other night when I felt that horrible feeling that comes with equipment problems. This was compounded by the fact that I had just driven 1,300 km from Lima and the nearest other service centre was 2,000 km away in Santiago!
At first I thought the focus on my 16-35L 2.8 lens was completely locked. The focus ring would only turn a few milimeters in either direction so I assumed something had gotten into the lens and jammed into focus mechanism. I cursed my luck and went back to the hostel.
A quick trip to the canon website revealed that there wasn’t a place that could fix it in Bolivia either, even if I was willing to alter my plan and head there before Machu Pichu. I started considering the option of shipping it back to Lima to be fixed but that would leave me short a wide angle for at least a week… I took another look at the lens…
The auto focus worked, I had assumed that was also broken in the early evening light, which was at least something. I played with the focus ring some more, testing to see how ‘stuck’ it was… Then I noticed the rubber ring had a bump.
Pulling the ring back I could see one of the screws underneath had worked loose and was now jamming the ring! I grabbed my screwdriver and put it back into place. Problem solved, crisis diverted but not what you expect from a 6 month old, $1600 professional lens!!
Hacking my Spot GPS tracker part 2
In Lima I tracked down the ‘electronics street’ and bought all the components for my little circuit to keep my spot going. I also took my unit apart and wired it up to the mini USB socket I had for the connection. The USB socket had 5 pins but only 4 are useable with a regular USB lead. Using my multimeter I identified pads for the ground, +3v, OK button and the green LED flash. I intend to wire the Led to a dash output so I can see it it always working (and maybe make thieves think I have an alarm).
I used a soldering iron and penknife to hack a hole into the bottom and the spacing was rather tight. When done I used ‘thermo plastic’ that I bought from eBay to hold it altogether. This stuff is great for making things, you drop it in a cup of boiling water and then mould it into whatever you need before it cools and hardens.
I put it back together and it still works. I have to spent a couple of hours now building the timer circuit and then hiding it in the car. I couldn’t find any D cell holders in Lima but I’ll figure something out.
Hacking my Spot GPS tracker Part 1
At the start of the year I bought a Spot. Its a small battery powered GPS receiver, bright orange and about the size of a pack of cards but its true power lies in its ability to transmit your position to overhead satellites every ten minutes or so allow people to see where you are (and letting you call for help). See my page at location.traveltrousers.com.
The tracking ability is nice since I can leave my Spot in the car and I can see where it is at all times. The main problem with it though is the tracking only works for 24 hours, then you have to press a button again (for 6 seconds) to restart it. It has to be said that the tracking is not ultra reliable either, if you have a clear line of sight to the sky it works great, but doesn’t work very well if its not on the dash board. I solved this problem by giving it a home on my dash in a $4 green turtle I picked up in Peru but I wanted to remove the human element (i.e. forgetting to activate the tracking everyday).
If I could make it work automatically I could always be sure I knew where my car was. Here in South America one of my big worries is that either someone will take my car, and everything in it, or I will be stopped at gun point somewhere and the thieves will drive off. With the tracking going hopefully I could catch up with them (along with the police) before they managed to break into my safe… I also needed to be able to use it normally, so I wouldn’t want to take it apart permanently since it could save my life if I had an accident while hiking (my car can take its own chances then). What these sailors did was interesting (especially with its own solar panel) but I preferred to keep it intact.
After dismantling the unit I could see that there wasn’t a huge amount of space for an additional circuit, however there was space to melt a hole to put a small USB socket inside the battery compartment. Thus the unit would retain its waterproofing when being used normally. I would have to make a battery adapter too since the normal AA batteries wouldn’t fit anymore. 
So, I would need a circuit that would be able to run for 24 hours and then press a switch for 6 seconds. I few minutes with google gave me what I was looking for, a 4060 circuit would time the 24 hours and a 555 circuit would be able to press a relay, and hence the switch, for 6 seconds.
I then spent several frustrating hours over several days trying to get the damn things to work in Circuit Wizard, a program that lets you virtually build and test circuits. Eventually I came up with this :
Running off a 6v supply it should tick along nicely for about 24 hours before tripping a 555 timer to push the button wired to my USB socket, while also resetting itself to start another 24 run. You can grab a copy of the circuit here. Any suggestions on how to make it more power efficient would be gratefully received (I will be removing the LED when I get it going properly).
All that remains now is to find a decent electronics store who stock all the relevant bits and pieces, probably Lima. I will post Part 2 when it’s all assembled and working.
Note: I was slightly worried that this might not be allowed, but according to the Spot terms and conditions: “Your SPOT Product may not be used at any time or under any circumstances for the commercial tracking of personnel or assetsâ€. Since my use is personal, as far as I’m concerned, it’s fine.
Tags: hacking, tracking, Spot GPSGetting my Apple Mighty Mouse to work with Windows XP
I bought an Apple mouse back in August and after a week of playing around with it, never really got it to work. It would detect but when it claimed to have been connected it just wasn’t. I would look at this box
wiggle the mouse and… nothing. I tried again a few days ago and it seems all my pain was due to a lack of patience. While I waited for 10 seconds and giving up I should have taken my time since XP was figuring out that I didn’t have the code to pair the mouse and it was going to have to ask me for it. This can take 30 seconds or so. So, to fix it I waited until the pop up box asked me for the code (0000) and then it paired successfully. It now works every time which is just awesome.
My new problem is getting it to synch every time i reboot…
Finally fixed my broken fan.
I love my Samsung NC10 Netbook, I really do. I put in a 500Gb drive, upgraded the ram to 2Gb and put in a FM transmitter and Mini SD card reader. I’ve opened it so many times its missing half the screws… But it has, or rather had, a rather annoying problem. A few months ago the fan started to occasionally make some noise. It got louder and louder and I took it apart to blow the dust out a few times but it was still noisy.
Finally last week it stopped turning altogether. I had already been to a couple of local store here in Costa Rica to see if I could get a replacement part. They told me to try e-bay… At least on e-bay the replacements were only £14-24, getting a new one from a site in the UK would be £50… That’s 1/6 the cost of the unit, and its only a year old!
I had a crappy fan blowing air at the back of it but Melissa (my new gf) and I wanted to head to Nicaragua tomorrow for the weekend, so this wasn’t a good solution. I took it apart again, removed the fan/heatsink and blasted it with WD-40. I was barely turning at all. I tried finding how the fan attached to the heatsink and gave it a knock which led to the fan disconnecting entirely.
It seems the fan is only really attached by the force of the magnets in the moving part and presumably this was full of dust and gunk, slowing and eventually stopping the fan. I blasted the inside with more oil, wiped off the excess, put it back together and … it now works!!
Try this before you send yours to the repair place or pay £50 for a new fan!
Quick keyboard shortcut to change your netbook screen resolution
I searched Google for this when I first got my Samsung netbook but didn’t find an answer. Usually I’m happy to work in 1024×600, my netbooks native resolution, but I use Photoshop and I often get this…
Which usually entails going into settings and changing the resolution manually, and when you’re done changing them back. You can avoid all this hassle with a simple keyboard short cut.
Hold Shift and Fn and then press the Right arrow key to increase the resolution up, Left to decrease it. If you press Shift + Fn + Up it resets to the native resolution.
It works on my Samsung NC10, try it on yours and leave me a comment if it works…..
Tip for charging your iPod on your computer while listening to it…
Look inside the USB iPod lead.
The outer 2 connectors are longer than the middle 2. So if you slowly push the USB lead not all the way in until those 2 hit the power rail your iPod will charge and your computer won’t even know its there.
