Asus UX31E broken charging port

Symptoms:
- The charging port felt 'loose'
- The laptop would not charge. Needs to 'wiggle' the DC connector to charge

Fix:

Purchase UX31E charging port from ebay (link). About $20.
Make sure it's a '5-pin' one:

Open the back cover of the laptop and

- Take out the battery (there is a small ribbon cable below it)

- Take out the SSD (one screw) as there is a screw below it

- Uplug various connectors. Here's a nice youtube video on various types connectors. Gently!!

- Unscrew the motherboard and gently lift (you don't need to take out the fan. Just the screw.

Unsolder the old connecter. This could be hard. I used soldering suction first then gently pry the connection while the lead is heated. Try not breaking the flimsy PCB!!

Nicely soldered new connector. Reassemble and test after this.

Landcruiser Prado alternator charging issue

Driving back from Canberra to Melbourne I saw the brake warning light, air flow/filter light and battery charge warning light all came on simultaneously. This indicates charging issues.

Note: I immediately turned off the aircon, stereo, and driving lights to conserve the battery. I was able to drive 250km/5hrs back home. I could even start the engine afterwards (good to know!!)

Symptoms
- Three warning lights above light up
- Checked and cleaned all battery connectors, no fix
- Checked and cleaned alternator connectors, same issue

Fix:

Most likely this is due to brush being worn out. My prado is 21 yrs old / 330K+ kms. Bought the brush from ebay ($25). It says for Landcruiser 80 series but apparently it's the same.

Take out the Alternator. You need to remove the screw below it, then above. Once all is off simply lift up/wiggle it out of the engine bay

Remove the 3 cover bolts at the back (one connector bolt) and take out the old brush and replace.

You can see compare how worn the old brushes are from 21 years of use. Reassemble and test.

Rheem water heater Pilot Light won't stay lit

The appliance is RHEEM "Rheemgas Quick Recovery Gas Outdoor Water Heater" 120810 BD. I've had this unit since I bought my house 12 years ago and would have been installed way before that. So it had been quite reliable.

SYMPTOMS

- The pilot light could be ignited, but will not stay lit
- Without the pilot light the water heating would not operate
- The resulting cold shower and unhappy household :(

Note: Thanks to Josh's Gas and Plumbing for putting up a really useful blog. He even  helped me out with my questions although I was not his customer (he's in Adelaide)! Thanks mate you're a legend!

INVESTIGATION

** DISCLAIMER: If you are not a qualified person stop here. Working with gas system is dangerous and potentially deadly ***

The gas control valve and burner is a simple assembly and could be taken of as a whole.

Shut off the gas supply, unscrew the connection to the gas control valve (use 2 wrenches to avoid ruining the copper pipe). Unscrew the burner connection and top bolt securing the plastic cover:

To remove the control system from the unit, pull up the tab and wiggle. The whole unit should come off easily. Do not force:

The system is quite simple but all components must function properly to ensure safe operation (ie. no explosions due to escaping gas). It is a EUROSIT 630 Natural Gas (65 deg C). It is available on Ebay or Reece Plumbing (product code 1318767, supplier code 079421):

1. Pilot light valve
   Inspect that the tiny hole is clear. Mine only put out a tiny flame due to years of operation. So I sprayed it with carburetter cleaner while at it.
2. Ignition
   Ensure that you can see sparks when the ignition is pressed. Do not touch parts of it while doing this to avoid electrocution!
3. Thermocouple
   This is a neat safety device. When heated it will produce a small amount of electricity (20millivolts) which activates a valve in the control unit. Hence no flame = no escaped unburnt gas. Genius!

In my case I could see spark and the pilot light can be lit - just not stay on so I know that the ignition and pilot valve is ok. That leaves the Thermocouple or the Gas Control Valve Unit

THE PROBLEM & SOLUTION

To test the Thermocouple I heated the tip on a stove and observe the temperature. As it heats up it should be increasing steadily from 0 to about 20millivolt. But in my case the reading was quite erratic and sometimes keeping at 0 volts. so I know that it is faulty:

(similar youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4izohPW3K8)

I went to Reece Plumbing and bought the Thermocouple (Product code 1317238 - Rheem/Vulcan Thermocouple F/Loader N/Gas) for $48. I tested the new Thermocouple on the stove as above and sure enough the voltage climbed very steadily from 0v to about 21millivolts. Perfect!

The new Thermocouple is a bit longer than the original one, so I had to bend about the copper tube around a bit as shown on the 4th photo above.

I installed everything back, and tested the pilot light. Now it stays on! As a final step I did leak test on the pipe using soapy water. Then a nice hot shower afterwards :)

Fixing nasty barrel effect (fisheye distortion) from Sony Action Camera (AS200V, etc)

Sony Action Cams have some desirable features than GoPro such as image stabilization. However they opted to use really wide angle 170°  lens. This created a nasty fish-eye effect on the recorded videos.

All recent Sony Action cams (AS100V, AS200V, FDR-X1000V) use this type of lens.

We can correct this issue as shown here. The left image is highly distorted (look at the trees) and the right picture is the corrected video.

To correct it :

• Download install VirtualDub. Choose the 32 bit version due to plugin compatibilities
  it is a popular free video editing tool
• Download and install the filter pack from Emiliano Ferrari
  one of the filter is "barrel distortion" which we will use
  Also you can download from my mirror
• Load the video and add the Barrel Distortion filter
  Video > Filter > Barrel Distortion
• Configure Barrel Distortion filter with the following values:
  Alpha: -0.33200
  Beta: 0.08800
  Aspect ratio: untick
  
  
• Save the video as AVI

You can see samples of my video on this fix:

Video without correction
Video with correction applied

The tall trees are quite telling.

Best ROM for Moto G 2nd gen (2014) XT1068

Paranoid Android 4.6 is a KitKat based ROM which runs much faster (and I cannot overstate it!) compared to Lollipop or Marshmallow on MotoG 2nd gen. With Marshmallow there is very noticable lag when running programs, and much worse if you install memory-hungry application such as Facebook. KitKat requires only 512kBytes of memory compared to 1GB for Lollipop and Marshmallow. These newer OS really require more powerful/newer phones with more RAM.

User DiamondBond from XDA-Forum is credited for this release of ROM. You can follow the full discussion in this link.

Please not that the later release of XT1068 uses Toshiba front camera, which does not work with KitKat. So don't use this ROM if you like to take selfies. Earlier versions of the phone might get lucky.

My environment was Windows 10 and  Moto G 2nd Gen (XT1068) running the official Android Marshmallow.

These are the steps needed to use ParanoidAndroid 4.6 on your MotoG 2nd Gen:

1. Unlock the phone
(screenshot)

• First, install Motorola USB Driver on your PC
• On your phone, enable USB debugging option. Go to Settings > About Phone > Tap 'Build Number' 7 times
• Open Settings> Developer options and enable “USB Debugging” & “OEM Unlock”on your device.
• Download MFastboot and extract on your PC
• Turn off your phone. Then turn on your Moto G again by holding volume down button and power key for few sec and release it.You will see the Bootloader will be open on the screen.
• Connect your Moto device to PC via USB cable
• Now open command prompt from Mfastboot folder. From Mfastboot Folder Hold the shift key and right click on the mouse the in any black space in that folder you will see open command window here -- click on that)
• Type this command the cmd window: fastboot oem get_unlock_data. It will display some code in different lines. Just copy that code in a notepad to get a single line string
• Go to the official Motorola Unlock Site and paste that single line of code. You might need to register to the site first. Agree to the terms and click 'Request Unlock Key'.You will receive the unlock code in your email
• Go back to Mfastboot cmd window and type in: fastboot oem unlock <YOURKEY>.
  (e.g. in my case it was fastboot oem unlock 4JV7Q4R4VX4YNSHBXYW5)
• The phone should be unlocked now. Reboot the phone (you can type fastboot reboot)

2. Root the phone
(screenshot)

• Download and install "ADB and Fastboot Drivers". Just press 'Y' to all questions and it will be placed in c:\adb default directory
• Download titan-24.11.10-BR-boot.img and place it in the c:\adb directory above
• Open a cmd window from that directory (just like step 1) and issue this command:
  fastboot flash boot titan-24.11.10-BR-boot.img 
• Reboot the phone and you're done rooting

3. Install TWRP+SuperSU and backup your stock ROM
(screenshot)

• Download TWRP. Extract and place it in c:\adb folder above
• Open a cmd window from c:\adb and type in: fastboot flash recovery twrp.img
• Reboot the phone and go to bootloader mode (hold power+vol down for a few seconds then release)
• Select 'recovery' and your phone will load the TWRP menu. Do "Swipe to Allow Modification"
• This is a good time to BACK UP your current stock ROM in case you want it back in the future. Select 'Backup' and just accept the defaults. When done you might want to reboot the phone normally and save the file somewhere save (like your PC).
• After the saving the backup, download SuperSU-....zip and transfer it to your phone using normal windows explorer
• Reboot the phone to bootloader mode again into TWRP, select 'Install' > Choose SuperSU-....zip > Install Image
• Done! and reboot normally

4. Install Paranoid Android ROM + GApps

• Download the Paranoid Android 4.6 ROM and the corresponding GApps
• Copy them using windows explorer to the phone
• Reboot the phone to Bootloader  mode to TWRP
• Select Wipe > Swipe to Factory Reset (this will wipe Data, Cache, and Dalvik)
• Go back and select 'Install'
• Select the ROM (pa_titan-4.6 ...) as the FIRST zip
• Select GApps (pa_gapps-...) as the SECOND zip
• Install Image and just follow default instructions
• Done and Reboot! The first time it runs it will take sometimes
• I recommend to install NovaLauncher and change the wallpaper (see above pic)

FAQ
- Will this work for my (non-XT1068 phone) ? A: NO
- Will there be further updates of KitKat based ROM? A: NO
- How is the battery life with PA ROM? A: It's great. Better than stock Marshmallow
- Can I try different ROMS easily? A: Yes, just download the ROMs and appropriate GApps


Thanks and credits to:
- DiamondBond for the ROM release
- Snoop5 for ADB and Fastboot Drivers

Tips:
1) You can also copy files while in recovery (TWRP) mode by using adb:
boot into recovery (not bootlader), then from the PC:
adb devices
adb push filename.zip /sdcard/ROM
image

2) There will be a boot loader warning once the phone is rooted. You can remove it by following the instruction here:
http://www.droidviews.com/remove-unlocked-bootloader-warning-moto-g-2014/

Silencing the ThinkPad x61

ThinkPad x61 is one of the best laptops ever produced, period. In fact they are one of the last laptops using the golden 4:3 screen ratio. However I desire 0dB laptops and nearly bought a fanless Zenbook UX305A. I bought a UX31E before and even being one of the quitest laptops around, they are too loud for me.

Using an under-volted external fan, the near-0dB silence was achieved.

1) Install the program to control the fan speed called "TPFanControl"
https://sourceforge.net/projects/tp4xfancontrol/

2) Buy a ThermalTake Pure8 80mm fan ($8) and power it using 9v which. Cut a small piece of cardboard to create a 'tunnel' towards x61's vents and direct the airflow INTO it.

At 9v, the external fan is so quiet it is absolutely inaudible at 30cm distance from my ears. In fact my wife's Zenbook UX21e's fan at 3 meters away was piercing my ears in this quiet nigt! As I type this the ThinkPad's temperature is sitting in a cool 56° celcius. 

The inward flow of air is fine, when absolutely needed, X61's internal fan is strong enough to counteract the flow. I've never needed this except when running CPU load tests :). The added bonus is cooling airflow on top of the keyboard. No more sweaty fingers in summer.

I'm sure this would work on other ThinkPad models such as x40 or x41 as well as they have similar cooling hardware.

Have a quiet night !

Discussions on ThinkPad forum here:
http://www.thinkpads.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=120837

Samsung Plasma TV Clicking, Won't Turn On

Appliance:
Samsung PS43D450A2M 43" Plasma TV bought from Good Guys, Australia. About 3 years old.

Problem:
TV won't turn on

Symptoms:
When connected to power there is audible, multiple clicking sound. Once the clicking stops, the remote indicator led blinks periodically.

Investigation:

• There is a well known underrated capacitor issue (capacitor bulging) however upon inspection of the PSU, the capacitors were fine. There was no visible fluid, bulging, nor burn marks.
• Tried to disconnect XSUS board: Clicking stopped (TV still not on). So I suspected that the XSUS is broken. If the clicking had not stopped, then it could be the YSUS, or both.

Solution:
Bought XSUS replacement board from ebay (search the "PBA NO"). From further reading here I found out that I can buy a later revision (better??). I bought it from user 'grr_price-attack' for $50 shipped from the UK to Melbourne, Australia.

Also the later revision is easier to get hence lower price.

Original:
PCB NO: LJ41-09478A
PBA NO: LJ92-01796A
REV NO: R1.6 (10/12/01)

Changed with:
PCB NO: LJ41-09478A
PBA NO: LJ92-01796A
REV NO: R1.8 (11/05/24)

Upon replacement, the TV works well :)

After replacement I upgraded the Firmware. Quite simple, just download the file from Samsung's website and put in USB stick.

http://www.samsung.com/nz/support/model/PS43D450A2MXRD-downloads

Kenwood Chef speed control problem

Symptoms:
Speed control is not working, it would go from Stop to Full Power once turned on.

 

To gain access to electronic module, flip the unit and remove the lever locking mechanism.

Mark the cable position so that you do not forget, and unplug.

















Remove clips on the white cover and gain access to the electronic module. It is quite simple and the likely issue is the TRIAC. Order and replace this.

The TRIAC is BTA208-600B. I bought mine from x-on.com.au. They are only $1 each and I bought 3 of them as spare, shipped for $20 to Melbourne.

Link: Triac BTA208-600B

Once replaced, the speed control works properly :)

Canon Powershot S30 'dreaded' E18 Error

I have a Canon Powershot S30 digicam which I bought in 2002. Since then I have taken 9999 + 2500 photos without any issues. However after the kids dropped it early 2006, it came up with an 'E18' code when being turned on. The lens would move a bit and then there was a short beep.

Quick search in google on 'E18 error' returned 204,000 returns... ? And there is even a very useful website dedicated to this issue: www.e18error.com. I suggest you go and have a look.

The error refers to mechanical failure on the zoom lens, which caused by minor issue like sand grain and small drops. Why .... there is also an attempt for class action lawsuit.  You just need to fill out the form :)

Few easy thing can be tried to fix the problem. Check this instruction first (.pdf). If nothing works then it's time to disassemble the camera unless you have spare $150 for service. If you have an IXUS camera go to this german website for very detailed instruction. I could not find any references to disassemble the S-series cameras and will try to write my experiences here.

Canon S30 disassembly instruction

note: I found the process is a bit challenging and intricate. There are 4 types of screws and so many different types of connectors. I did broke few connecting latch and in the end had few 'extra' screws. Don't have any idea where those should go but it works fine anyway... Try the first few steps and if you're daunted don't do it! 

•  Take off battery, compact flash card. Remove outer screws. They are not over-tighteneded and quite easy to do.
• Open the battery lid and remove back casing unit. There are 3 notches at the top of the camera.
• Remove the brushed alloy metal strip. There is a locking latch approximately at the center-top of the camera.
• Remove front casing unit. There will be a cable which connect to sliding cover (on-off switch). Disconnect the motherboard end of this wire.
  
• Remove LCD unit. There is one screw hidden behind a ribbon cable so you need to disconnect these cables first.
• Behind the LCD there will be 3 black screws which secure the lens unit. Remove these.
• Turn over the camera, and from the front, remove right-hand side motherboard. Disconnect all ribbon cables, microphone cable, and speaker cables first.
• Unscrew the left-hand side motherboard. No need to disconnect the ribbon cables which attached to the lens unit at this time.
•  Remove the screw which attaches the flash unit to the chassis. It is hidden behind a ribbon cable. and no need to remove the flash unit.
• Now you should be able to remove the lens unit, along with left-hand side motherboard. Do this carefully, then disconnect the lens unit along with the left motherboard (once it's off the chassis).
• Remove the screw which connects the lens unit and viewfinder+autofocus light. It will still held by a ribbon cable and it's ok. Just handle it carefully.
• Remove the black screws which holds the gears in place. Then pull carefully the sensor attachment from the lens part (don't unscrew the sensor itself - the star shaped screws!). You should be able to see the gears. I could not remove the front lens assembly since there is a ribbon cable connecting to autofocus motor within the lens unit. But this is ok and not required. Just handle carefully.
• Remove the gears *very carefully* and remembering their place. The last gear is only slid to a flimsy steel rod. Don't drop and loose this! Did I say *carefully* ? 

• Now you can try to move the zoom cogwheel. Don't force it if it does  not move. It is the exact problem. I just tapped the front lens metal a bit and then try to move the cogwheel slowly. It finally does turn, and when being moved, the lens would extend and retract nicely. Do this few times to make sure the movements are smooth.
• Reverse the process to assemble the camera. Now the S30 can take beautiful pictures again...

New Zealand, taken with Canon S30

One of my nicer business trips replacing Token Ring routers!