29
Jan

Snowed under

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20130129-200713.jpg

Here she is looking very sorry for herself in the snow.

It’s been a slow winter as we were exploring moving to the other side of the world. Which would have meant selling our beloved van.

That idea has been deferred for now so the restoration work can go ahead.

I’ve got loads of university work on at the moment but hopefully there will be lots of updates coming in feb.

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15
Nov

Gro the mo

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Mo update. Needs trimming but getting there.

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06
Nov

gotta get me a slice of that pie

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It’s time to fix up that ICE and pimp out the van.

It’s already got a TV screen and a computer running XP. However it only runs for about half an hour before draining half the battery. So I figure I’ve got two options – either hook up some sort of do0hicky that will charge the battery whilst it’s hooked up to the mains/run the 12v system or install a low power Raspberry Pi to run the ICE.

Obviously I’ve decided to hook up a Raspberry Pi (I get to buy more toys!). It’s an awesome piece of kit and everybody’s been raving about taping them to the backs of TVs as media hubs and so forth. In all honesty, I think I’m going to have to find a thingamabob to run the 12v system from a mains hookup anyway as the TV will draw a lot of juice from the battery, but that’s a purchase for another day.

I can run the Raspberry Pi from a 12v car cigarette lighter wired into the 12v system and hopefully should be able to control it from an iPod touch, old iPhone or dare I say it, some sort of andriod (yuk) device once it’s all up and running.

The only problem is that the one I’ve received doesn’t appear to like me very much. Yes, I’m taking it personally. And I’m officially fed up with it. Grr.

Apparently the thing to do with the Raspberry Pie is to install XBMC onto it. This is a front end program that gets rid of all the superfluous rubbish that lives on computers and only has the media playing stuff on it. The Raspberry Pie should boot straight into it really quickly when it’s turned on and be ready for action instantly.

It took several hours of fiddling and reinstalling to get it to finally boot into XBMC. But now all it does is freeze. It does not recognise keyboard inputs or anything. It just sits there staring at me daring me to throw it against the wall. And I may just end up doing that.

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01
Nov

Movember is go!

posted by

Hello folks,

It’s that time of year when mad men everywhere abandon their razors much to the dismay of their significant others and much to the amusement of everyone else.

I have this year for the first time decide to partake in this annual display of monthly manliness they call Movember.

Movember

Gro the Mo!

So here I am pre-mo.

PS. I know one is meant to be clean shaven prior to embarking on mo-madness but I have a family wedding to go to tomorrow and need my designer stubble otherwise I’ll look like a small child.

for more information click on

uk.movember.com

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22
Oct

Winter break

posted by

Work on the van has been a bit slow recently. By a bit slow read stopped.

We’ve not been completely lazy though. We’ve swapped restoration of the van for restoration of the living room in our new place.

Walls painted, carpet laid, shelves built.

All things being well, I’ll get the speaker boxes built over the christmas break and then it’ll be time to re-make the locker doors and main habitat door.

Seeya for now and I’ll update again in a wee while

Cheerio

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14
Sep

MOT passed (win), ran out of fuel (fail)

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Why did it take me 4 hours to have an MOT test?

The van had previously failed on high emissions, and no fog light. So I wired in a new fog light and illuminated switch and secured it with some good old electrical tape.

The MOT tester gave me some diesel cleaner to stick into the tank to clean it out. I took the van out on a drive to run the cleaner through. Uneventful so far. Except that on the way back There was a sudden loss of power and I coasted the van into a lay-by.

Clutch in, engine died. Oh.

The fuel gauge needle was only just pointing at the beginning of the red band so there should have still been plenty of fuel left. Hey ho, I guess that’s what comes with having a 30 year old vehicle with 30 year old gauges.

AA were contacted and the chap came out within half an hour. We figured out that the van had an internal priming thingamabob and didn’t need to have the diesel primed to the injectors. So the engine was turned over (a lot) but no firing. and then the battery appeared to die.

Jump leads connected and engine turned over again. Still not firing up. So Mr AA man decided to spray some fuel/additive stuff directly into the air intake. Lots of popping, banging and unhealthy noises later there is some spluttering and she fires up.

He followed me over to the nearest petrol station. I put £30 in, air-horned my thanks and pootled over to the MOT station.

Emissions tested again – another fail. More engine cleaner bought and this time I kept her in third and on the limiter up and down the A46 at a steady 45mph being overtaken by everything.

Back to the MOT station and she was connected up to the emissions tester yet again. Quite frankly I was getting bored of this now and if she failed again I really did not know what I was going to do.

Thankfully she has passed and now she has been declared fit to be driven on Britain’s roads for another year!

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07
Sep

She’s failed her MOT

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I suppose deep down I knew she would. I’m a bit gutted as she passed her last one without any advisories and hasn’t really been used much since.

I took her over to a local place, handed over the keys and sat in the office waiting. For some reason I was really nervous. It was a bit like waiting for the results of an exam at uni. I heard her being fired up and driven into the bay. Time ticked ever so slowly past.

The chap came out and asked me how to open the bonnet. Ah, the coat hanger bonnet opener. Whilst I was showing him this the rear fog lights were checked. There aren’t any (that work anyway). Instant fail.

The rest of her is fine except for her emissions which were over, but fortunately not by much.

They had some engine cleaner there which I picked up and now it’s off to Halfords and Maplins to get a rear fog light and a temporary illuminated switch.

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06
Sep

Now I might be in trouble

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2 adaptors, 2 bits of hose, 1 non return valve

the NRV installed, and yes my OCD means all the jubilee clips have to line up

What should have been a 5 minute job has resulted in no water to the van – 2 days before we go camping to carfest. I may be in SWIMBOs bad books.

I have a 15mm non return valve to fit. However the internal water pipes are 8mm diameter pipes.

It’s a good thing I’ve got the next couple of days off to bodge a repair.

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26
Aug

Time for Bed

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We are planning on going on our first proper camping expedition next week and are very excited. There is however a slight problem.

Either we can sleep in the bed over the cab, except that there are no curtains for the windscreens or drivers side windows. Or we can sleep in the habitat bed area that does have curtains – but as of yet has no bed. Oops.

As is usual for us, we have left it till the last minute to solve this wee problem. It’s going to be much easier to fix up the habitat bed than install curtains so that is what I’ve done. And this is how I’ve done it.

How to make a bed out of this

This is what the bed area started out like. I just need to make up some boards to fit in between the two side seats and plug up the gap. Simples.

laying up the boards

This is the plan. Just need to fire up the jigsaw. I measured up and then popped over to B&Q and got them to cut the boards to length from a sheet of 8×4 9mm plywood. Lots of offcuts to make the speaker boxes from.

marked up, ready for cutting

At least one side fits

It’s looking good so far.

Like a giant jigsaw

So it should fit into the van. Unless I’ve make a big cock up.

It works!

All screwed in and it fits.

A bed

Well, here is the bed in all its glory. The only problem is that it may be a wee bit lumpy in the middle.

stored away

I had to make the boards out of three pieces so that they could be stored away behind the seats. It works quite well, but I think I’ll have to stick on some velcro to stop the chair cushions falling down.

from bed to chair

And this is how it looks all stored away. A nice neat job methinks.

The whole job was really quite simple. It only took a buffoon like me about an hour. And that included searching for the jigsaw (behind the fridge in the cupboard under the stairs with the spare washing machine in it – don’t ask), setting up the workshop in the garden and cleaning up after.

I just hope the rain stays away and the sun comes out next week now.
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20
Aug

A new project (read moneypit)

posted by

Hello all and welcome.

Hopefully the interweb technomancy will have posted this post to Facebook and some of you may be intrigued enough to have clicked on the link and been brought here.

If you have great. Have a look round. This is my latest madcap idea and project. Woo-hoo.

However, as per usual with my projects, she’s 30 years old, in a bit of state and needs lots of love. perhaps one day I’ll buy something a bit newer but I reckon there’s still life in the old girl yet… (and who says I’m not not an optimist!)

Cheerio

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