Thursday, May 5, 2011

Back to basics

So,

The other day, a friend and I where driving around, enjoying the wonderful 90 degree weather here in Sacramento with the windows rolled up and the AC on. We had just finished eating lunch and I started the car back up to head back to work when a loud screech emitted from under my hood.
I immediately turned off the AC and it went away. Turned it back on and it came back. It was obviously a belt issue.
Of course with the nice warm weather, rolling down the windows wasn't really a problem, and once we where moving, it was more than comfortable enough, but the belt issue drove me nuts.

A little back story:

I've had an issue with the compressor loosing bolts randomly. The last time this happened, the compressor was only be held on by one bolt.

The resolution:

So, I went strait to Kragen once I got off of work and asked about the bolts I needed. Of course they had no way of looking them up so I continued home and looked at it myself.

There was still three bolts holding the compressor to the mounting bracket, but a closer inspection showed that I had only one bolt holding the bracket to the motor. By now, the belt was making a constant whining noise and I was starting to become embarrassed to drive my car.

I had, in the past sometime, found a loose bolt and realized its from the bracket. I took that bolt back and purchased four similar as well as a belt.

I attempted to install the additional bolts back into the compressor bracket but was unable to get more than one, with "locktite" on it this time.

I figure that will work well enough until I can get a chance to install the rest. Should be soon.

All in all, it was refreshing to perform normal maintenance/repair on the car. Been a long time since I worked on something that wasn't a part of the stock car :)

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Just got everything working...

And the Asus AT5NM10-i died.

I'm not sure what happened exactly. One moment it was powered on, I unplugged a usb device, and the next everything shut off.

Through extensive testing :), I found the problem to be in the motherboard. There is a capacitor that is reaching temperatures hot enough to almost burn my finger, and this is within a few seconds of the board receiving power.

At first I thought it was the mount I was using, as there is a rivit near where the capacitor is located, but I bolted everything back up and checked clearance, there is over two milimeters of clearance.

So, in light of recent malfunctions, I decided to go with a different motherboard.

I will still be returning this one to get it replaced, as I'm certian I will not be able to get a refund, "purchased last December", and will find another use for it.

And now on to better news.

Behold, The replacement!!



I'll get a write up soon for how this board performs and how the over all system works.

On a side note,

The bluetooth module came it today. I will have pics and info up soon.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Carputer Installed

Finally,

After waiting for what felt like eternity,

My Carputer is installed!.
I purchased the M4-ATX from Amazon on Friday, over-nighted it so I could get it Saturday, and then started the install Sunday morning.

At first I didn't think it was going to be that hard. I mean, honestly, how hard could it be to place a computer into a car? I expected the mounting of the monitor was going to be the most challenging thing but to my surprise, that was by far the easiest part.

I started by hacking apart an old mini ATX case and using the metal from that as mount points for the motherboard, power supply, and monitor.

Originally, i expected to put the computer in the trunk somewhere, and maybe one day it will find it's way there, but as of now, i didn't have the extension cables I needed to run the monitor, so it is now located in the Dash.

I prefer the Dash location, but I have a feeling that as soon as I get my radio cover, I'm going to find that I have a lot less room.

Either way, we'll see when the time comes.

So for now, the car computer is installed, and it plays internet radio "Pandora", and mp3's :-)
I have a couple more orders from amazon that I'm waiting on and will update once they arrive.

Also, I will write a full write-up once I get some time.