Sunday, April 26, 2009

Quote.

Nice things cost money. - from "Schindler's List"

Austin's windmill.






He will clearly tell this is "AUSTIN's Windmill"

He actually helped a LOT putting it together.  With 24 braces to install, there was plenty to do.












It's an 8 Footer from Mills' Fleet Farm...made by Air-Electric Machine.

Well-made! I fully suspect Austin will give it to his kid someday.


Austin's windmill.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Danny dozer

Riding the new 4 wheeler


He was pretty apprehensive about the noise at first, but in about 10 minutes he loved it

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Sunday, April 19, 2009

ti-light eyeglasses and grand central

I had a blog reader contact me today via the GrandCentral phone link here on the blog.

A gentleman by the name of Richard in Toronto, Canada. We had a 10 minute conversation about eyeglasses...titanium ones for those of us with ...ahem, "king-size" heads.

Or as my kids say, cow-heads.

Thanks for calling, Richard. That was pretty cool. A communication that would have never happened 20 years ago...prior to the information age.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Austin and one of his "windmills"

Another anachronistic set of pix












From March 15 when we went to the Little Canada A&W with Crystal...

A few more from Easter















Took a very weak quantity of pix of people this year. On the left, is Kristin, Austin and Jerrie...and on the right, Kimmy, Leah, Crystal and Austin.

A few pics from Easter

Austin got a purple bunny from Leah! He also took a nap on the way down to St. Peter after Church.



Today...2 lazy boys this morn.

My BIG kids. Doug and Crystal

At Easter at my Mom and Dad's place. Also, my niece, Leah, over Crystal's shoulder.


Trixbox/Asterisk PBX

Closed circuit to home VoIP fans...

Got the SPA3102 configured and up and working on the Asterisk PBX. FXS/POTS incoming calls at this point ring to a Ring Group of a bunch of phones. That will be changing to an IVR when I get around to getting that set up. I've set up a dial code to access the POTS line for outgoing calls.

The FXS port is also working fine and I find it can ring 2 REN 1.0 mechanical bell phones plus at least 1 electronic bell. 3 REN 1.0's were a bit much...no go...just a faint buzz from the ringer.ri

I do have one Bell System princess phone with a rotary dial....not supported, but we generally only use that phone for incoming calls.

I have a PAP2 that I need to get configured as well that will give us 2 more analog ports and allow one extension per floor of the house (including the 1 port on the 3102 box...for 3 total).

Plus the Cisco 7960s in Jerrie's office and mine yields a minimum of 5 device extensions.

Getting the SPA3102 going on both ports in both directions is non-trivial. I had to use information from a number of sources to put it all together.

If you want to see my configs, I'd be glad to share. Post a comment to the blog.

Went to McDonald's











To use Austin's Easter present card for pancakes!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Bike is out for lunch today

What an excellent day for riding.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Monday, April 13, 2009

At MOA rides

GL1500 reverse switch

Closed circuit advisory to Goldwing enthusiasts...those that end up here searching for information.

Over the past two years I've had intermittent problems with getting the bike to start.  Didn't take long to narrow it down to the reverse switch being intermittent.  I rarely used the "reverse" function on my bike and after I discovered that using it was causing problems getting the bike started, I used it almost never.   Even without using reverse, I still had problems occasionally.  Sometimes operating the reverse bar a few times would take care of it, a couple of times it took 10 or 15 minutes of fiddling around.  Well, the other day I did use reverse and that was the end of the program...it would NOT start..no neutral light.  Jerrie had to push the bike so I could "push-start" it.  Push starting a Goldwing is not easy unless you are going down hill!

So anyway...today I attacked it and found that the switch was likely just dirty, because after manually moving it, I found that the neutral light could easily be lit.  I removed the switch and cleaned it with lighter fluid.   It seems to be working fine now, though I've ordered a new switch just in case.  Might as well get one to have on hand while they are still available.  It's a special switch and nothing you could fabricate easily. 

Access to the switch is not easy, but not difficult.  I've read that it could be cleaned without disassembling the bike.  And that's probably true, especially if you know what it looks like inside.
However, I wanted some assurance the thing wasn't going to fail in the middle of West Undershirt, North Dakota, so I wanted a good look at it to be assured of solid resolution.

After seeing it all disassembled, I now know that I could do a "workaround in the field" (or repair)  if needed using only the onboard Honda tools with the addition of a 1/4" drive 10mm and 12mm socket and a tiny breaker bar.  The 10mm is for the acorn nuts holding down the top panel (where the stereo is located).   The 12mm helps with the seat grip/backrest.  A couple of alligator clips and wire would be all it takes....if the switch actually fails.   So I'll be carrying those tools and the new switch with me on the bike.  Now that I've done the disassembly, it'll be easier next time (of course).

The disassembly started with removing the seat, 
removing the rubber reverse handle cover (and chrome if you have it over the rubber),
loosen the hex head bolt holding the handle on and remove the handle (called out as the "bar" in the parts catalog,
removing the left side normally-removable access panels (2),
removing the 10mm acorn nuts at the bottom of the top panel (stereo),
flip the white lever on the left side in the fuel tank access panel,
remove the ignition panel cover and lift up the stereo enough to allow removal of the large left fairing panel,
remove 2 plastic trim pieces at the left edge of the fairing,
- the top one is easy and the lower one is a little more tricky,
remove the left storage pocket,
on my bike I had to remove the left side air wing.

I think that's about it.  Unless you want to remove the CB radio, the panel will have to hang there while you work on the reverse switch.  

After you have the fairing panel removed, you can easily see the whole reverse bar assembly and cables, etc.  One screw holds the switch and the actuator spring in place.   There is an alignment tab on the back of the switch that will ensure the switch is in the proper position.

I need to post some pictures of this stuff.  Describing it in text is weak at best.

Before attempting to re-assemble, it's just about necessary to remove the vent covers to make re-assembly and alignment easier.  It's fairly easy putting the vent covers back on after assembly is complete.

Total time to disassemble, replace or clean switch and re-assemble is about an hour or 2 max.

Take it easy so you don't break the tabs or bosses on the "tupperware."  Don't force it.  Look at the service manual diagrams to understand what's holding things in place.

http://www.goldwingdocs.com/   has excellent service diagram info.

The switch runs about $15-20.

I'll ride with the old but newly cleaned switch until it gives me any sign of impending failure.  And I'll have the new switch in a few days and will carry it (and all the tools) with me.  A field repair won't be bad now that I've been through it once in the shop.

While you've got it apart you may as well check the reverse control cables for proper adjustment and signs of wear.

Now I can use reverse without worrying about getting the bike started.  Though, I must say I'm not a big fan of using it for fear of un-neccessary wear on the starter motor.  BUT, there are times when it's nice in a tight spot on slippery surface or an incline.

I once used reverse and an old-timer biker walking by stopped and asked me about and could hardly beieve there was such a thing.  He walked away shaking his head.
:)




I got a haircut and he got the lollipop

Orange..of course

Sunday, April 12, 2009

On the way to Grammas

Near Jordan

New laptop for Crystal


Crystal came up yesterday and we went over to Best Buy where she picked up a Toshiba T3400 Model: L305-S5944 (picture at left). I think it's the first computer she actually bought (rather than inheiriting my old junk). And it is a good one! With 250GB disk and 2 GB ram with an Intel Dual Core processor, how can you go wrong? It's a smokin' laptop for $400. That thing will outdo any machine I have now. Maybe it'll be passed down to ME as junk someday. :)


Christ has risen! Happy Easter!











The Easter bunny broght eggs (outside), candy and a big orange fish inside!

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

closed circuit to trixbox techs and users

Trying to play system recordings from Asterisk in a browser...not working.
Not finding much in google to help.

Internet Explorer just didn't work. Firefox told me a plugin was missing.

No GSM audio plugin was the problem according to Firefox.

Quick fix was to just install QuickTime. Now I can play system recordings from the browser when setting up IVRs and such things.

Easter




Here's a pic they took at Wal-MART the other day.


Getting a haircut today