Replacing a Downstream Oxygen Sensor

I replaced the Downstream Oxygen Sensor (Bank 1, Sensor 2) with a Bosch 15733 0258986602.  This universal 4-wire replacement sensor came with a kit that allows it to use the existing harness connector from the old sensor.

There is only one bank of sensors on the four cylinder vehicle.  The first sensor is the upstream one, or the one in front of the catalytic converter.  I had to replace the downstream one.

The first step was locating the sensors.  Opening the hood, you can see both sensors to the left of the engine.  [Here, it's just to the right of the red-box-looking area.]

And zooming in...

Mercedes provides a special tool for removing the sensor - it's something like a crow's foot, offset, open socket.  For this repair an adjustable crescent wrench was used, though it was difficult to apply enough torque in the limited space.

To access the wiring harness, the vehicle had to be raised.  The plastic undercarriage panel below the sensor was removed.  The sensor wires were removed from the retaining clips.  The wiring harness was located on the opposite side of the engine.

An awl was used to depress the nubs on the wiring harness in order to separate it.  Here, an arrow points to a triangular indentation that is not visible from this perspective. 

The wiring harness connector was attached to the replacement sensor using the supplied kit.  Bosch recommends not soldering on a new connector - likely because of the heat involved.  Installation was straightforward.  

Here, the new and old sensors are compared:

Car

Cars are great... when implemented with moderation.

The first car that I sought out, and enjoy owning (I wouldn't say that I enjoyed owning the Maryland Messenger) is a Mercedes C230.  It truly is a fancy, safe, economy car.  One drawback, however, is the cost of repairs.  So I'll try to document them here.

Car:
2004 Mercedes C230 6-Speed Manual Hatchback
4-Cylinder
Style W203

Issue: Interior blower fan won't blow
The fan stopped working intermittently, and then stopped turning on altogether.  The air conditioning compressor seemed to still be making noise, so I narrowed it down to the fan.
Checking the fuse box located to the left of the steering wheel (hidden behind a panel that you can find with the drivers door open) I found one fuse to be quite charred and melted.  I replaced the fuse with one of the same, proper amperage, and it's worked flawlessly since.  What exactly caused the fuse to get all melty, who knows...  Corrosion on the blades
 may have affected it.
Cost:  $5

Issue:  Very Slight Evaporative Emission Leak.  P0442
This comes from a very slight leak detected when recycling unused fuel.  Various forum discussions suggest it's not from a loose cap (which would be a large leak).  Mostly likely cause is a faulty Evaporative Purge Vacuum Solenoid.  The OEM part was around $200.  I replaced the valve with a used one on Ebay for $25 which did not solve the problem.
The part I replaced was manufactured for a different different vehicle, so I had to slice off one of the alignment keys on the wire harness connector.
On a hunch, I added a couple of hose clamps to the hoses adjacent to the valve (where there were none, previously) which did solve the problem.  It seems that wearing of the rubber over time, in addition to the changing temperatures, may have contributed to some leaking from around the press-fit connections of the rubber hoses.
>>>Update 2015-06-05<<< As it turns out, this code was being thrown because of a difficult to diagnose crack in the fuel filler neck.  A smoke test did not reveal it.  Charlotte Star Services (Charlotte, NC) eventually identified the problem and repaired it for a nominal fee.
Cost:  $??

Issue:  Oxygen Sensor Heater Bank 1 Sensor 2.  P0141
This popped up right after correcting the Emission Leak, so there may be some kind of relation.  The error thrown refers to the 'downstream' oxygen sensor.  In a 4-cylinder car there is only one bank.  Sensor one is the sensor before the catalytic converter and sensor two is located after the catalytic converter.
The price of the OEM component is three or four times as much as a generic component, so I decided to try the basic first.  Here I describe how it was done.
Cost:  $50

Time

"Time.  What is time." - favourite computer vision professor Neils Lobo

Microcontroller Buy

We're pooling our resources to buy a bunch of microcontrollers to assemble on the cheap.

Thinking about Ardweeny similar and propeller layouts.

Pricing:
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=ATMEGA328-PU-ND
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Atmel/ATMEGA328-PU/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMuHCAZ7U3Ea2vH90mYkP45F

Bike Mod General

So I don't intend to do a lot of mods that I expect most people do, like trying out different pedals and gears. For some stupid reason I really want to add general technology to my bike. Like lights, and amplified sound, and full-motion-video spoke POV, and maybe even somehow a heads up display, and I mean really bright lights.

POWER
Most of this stuff is going to need a substantial amount of power, so that's what I started with. I have 10 2500mAh AA cell NiMH batteries in a custom pack slid inside of my seat tube supplying a liberal 12v. Intending to graduate to LiIon, I figured NiMH would be a safer start to get the kinks out.

The first pack I built employed springs, which are a no-no: they caused the voltage to flicker with road vibrations. I'm told I could simply install a capacitor to even it out, but the easy way was to remove the springs and screw down tight on the battery tube. The PVC tube allows a bit of flexibility in lieu of the springs.

The pack was made from a 20" long section of rigid non-metallic 1/2" electrical conduit. I threaded one end with 1/2" MNPT and used a brass cap. The other end, temporarily, has a clip retained and screw terminal to attach the positive lead. It slides inside the seat tube nicely!

I drilled a hole in the seat post to accommodate a 12v power lead.

From Blog

Eventually I'll have quick connect/release connectors on the batter pack and accessories so they can be easily removed when not in use.

From Blog

To test out the pack I threw together a few LED modules from some dollar-store quality flashlights.  I incorporated the switch on the handlebar post.  Ideally, I'll have light-weight LED modules illuminating the front and rear, all powered by the bicycle's central power supply.  This can stay on the bicycle semi-permanently and charged with a cable -- rather then pulling our batteries individually and charging them.  This will also allow me to easily take advantage of light-weight lithium ion batteries and the cheap new ultra smegging bright LEDs without wasting money on specialized equipment.

This thrown-together light setup is bright enough to illuminate my bathroom (just happen to store my bike in there...)

Whoa, there's a web log in here?

Whodathunk. It seems that in October of last year I started spending a lot of time helping to create Hackerspace Charlotte. As a result, I lost focus on a lot of the cool things that I wanted to make. Which is why I went looking for a hackerspace.

Enough already and record some stuff...

Sweet CLT

Cool evening tonight complete with sun-showers.  Even saw a rainbow over the BOA building.

Another Arduino Plant Watering System

Since my previous plant watering system was much too complex (using wifi, ftp, a hacked cell phone, and power line communication) I decided on a bit more low-level technique:  home built sensors and the Arduino platform.

In comparison this method is:

• Reliable.  If there is a power outage watering will begin again upon power return.
• Equipment is safer.  The water level must test positive before the pump is cycled on, preserving pump life.
• Intelligent.  Software modifiable instruction.
• Independent.  Isolated system is not affected by remote issues.
• Much cooler.

Everything is boxed in an exterior double gang receptacle container, which I deemed appropriate considering the 110v AC involved.  The expandable sensor assortment currently contains two (2) RCA jacks to connect to a low-water-level sensor as well as a moisture sensor (placed in the pot most likely to dry out).

Since there is no water supply on my balcony, a pump is cycled on at proscribed times to supply drip irrigation lines.

If the pump runs dry it will seize, so prior to usage a low-water-level sensor is polled.  If the test fails, it will not run.  The test will be reconsidered at the next scheduled watering time.

In my current configuration, it's difficult to over-water due to the building configuration and elevation.  The Arduino is set to water everyday for five (5) minutes.  In addition to that, two (2) more times a day it will test for dryness at the most susceptible pot.  If it's below the set threshold it will water more.

There is also an alarm pin that will provide an indication of low water level, should I not be paying attention.

I'll post more specifics later on.

EggFarmerFunny

I just got a laugh from the full page ad in the Wall Street Journal taken out by America's Egg Farmers - a message to the American people.  According to them, they cannot produce a product safe enough for "over-easy".

That's top quality for you.   Since more than 99% of our eggs are produced by large-scale jokers, that means the extintion of certain kinds of food we eat...

How safe is our food supply?

For people who live their lives blissfully unaware of where that burger came from - they probably have no idea.  Those few who strive to consume small batch local products are free to worry about their family and friends -- content in their relative safety.

The massively scaled U.S. food production and distribution system -- which generally favours 'food stability' over 'food taste' and actually anticipates fecal matter in its final product  -- could use some improvement.  It's surprising how little consumers care about it until people start dieing.

But its only 5,000 people who will die this year in the U.S. -- at least according to the CDC.  I guess that's more people than will be killed by terrorists from Afghanistan...  I'm sure that next week the same people will pick up the pack of 97¢ eggs.

It's cheaper to eat clean good food that you cook yourself than it is to eat fast cheap food -- even with unfair subsidies propping up the system.  Save a life -- teach someone to cook.

Dude, you still got a light out

$880 million dollars, and they can't fix the light that's been out for months?



View from 28203.

Watering My Plants FAIL

Well, they're still alive -- but the system failed.  Earlier I drew a diagram of my plan.

The X10 controller -- which I wasn't even using in it's X10-electrical-wire-transmit-glory because, probably, it sucks -- worked flawlessly for a week prior to me going on vacation.  I was using it in it's RF capacity, via the Firecracker attachment.  Windows scheduler ran a batch file to cycle the Firecracker.  I was pretty sure about this part.

I wanted to be able to supplement watering on hot days, or when my plants were visibly wilting.  My Touch Pro phone was setup on a tripod downstairs to ftp images every couple of seconds back to the webserver over wifi. Unfortunately, I knew I would have problems with this setup.  The phone would overheat in the sunshine and stop recharging the battery.  So I had to have it reboot itself a couple times a day to be safe.

I don't know how long it lasted, but on the second day I couldn't access the website.  It seems the Savant web server went down without asking me.

And I couldn't ftp in to check the pics, but I may have never opened up ftp to the outside...

But at least I could VNC on in and run the watering cycle.  At least for a couple days.  Apparently that failed too.  I thought the power went out...  Nope, UltraVNC went down.  And it never does that.

But the scheduler kept trickling along every day to supply just enough to keep them alive in the 100 degree heat.  At least until the day I returned.  It seems that the X10 receiver received the ON command, but not the OFF command.  I think it was trying to break my pump.

So I'm going to try an isolated arduino approach.  It should function as a basic fine-tuned timer with push button instant gratification and optional programming opportunities.

How to run Teenpup on a really old computer

So I wanted to run Teenpup2010mini on a 500MHz PIII with 192MBs of RAM and about 4GBs of storage on a second partition.  I wanted to use Amarok to manage and play FLACs over wifi from my music server.  Internet streams would be nice, too.

Lucid Puppy was my first choice, but I couldn't get Amarok to work with a "frugal" install.  Teenpup comes with Amarok pre-installed so I went with that.

I used the LuPu to mount and extract the Teenpup .sfs to its home on the second partition -- after converting it to the proper squash file format with the included utility.

I put the vmlinuz file in the first partition, since my grub can't access stuff on other partitions.  One Grub menu entry boots into a root on the second partition. [I'll have to copy the grub entry here...]

Thanks to the excellent Puppy developers and folks at murga-linux!  It works flawlessly, so far.  Now I have a dependable, lossless, wireless music manager & client for my stereo.

Rebuild Day

Today was a fairly productive day for me.  For starters I fixed my bicycle.  The derailleur had shifted, so it was a pretty easy fix to shift it back.  I had been without transportation for a few days, though, until I figured I had enough time to take it apart.




I rebuilt an animatronic crow.  I guess 'animatronic' is a bit of a stretch... Still, I had to rebuild an electric motor and gearbox.  It had seized up due to years of moving parts and failed grease.  And most of the lights had burned out.  Unfortunately it's hard to come by Christmas lights in August.  I replaced the old ones with those from a used string that I found - testing each and every bulb like a persistent, thick-headed moron.  In a couple weeks I should be able to get some good LED strings that I can use to replicate the creator's original design.

I fixed the air-conditioning in the Volvo.  After Jeff told me recharging worked out great for his Jeep, I decided to inquire at the parts store.  Jose down at the Scaleybark store showed me how to do it.  Friggin amazing because last time I was in the store I had to walk out after some dude implied I was stealing since I had a backpack full of groceries.

And speaking of commuting by bike:  This week the Creative Loafing published a response from CABA's Zimmerman, et. al. to Servatius's idiotic anti-bicycling piece I commented on earlier.  Um, and I didn't see her column in there... ;)  Excellent!

I also fixed the Volvos headlight and taillight by jiggling the wires.  I guess that doesn't really count as fixing them.  Still, now I know I really need a new wiring harness from my headlights.  I noticed the insulation flaking off about four years ago.  I wrapped them with electrical tape the best I could, but I think that's starting to fail.  The rear running light bulb just wasn't seated properly, so it's fine.

My plants are fine now that I have them controlled by the computer.  I have an opensource X10 controller called fireck32 that is called by a batch file to run the pump for five minutes.  Windows scheduler runs it daily to keep them from dying.  I can VPN on in and click the shortcut if I want to add some.  I would still like to set up a little web server and cam, though, to be on the safe side.

Wikileaks

It's not often that I feel that I know more about a story then the Journal writers.  But knowing what I know, I must say that opinion writer Bret Stephens has taken quite a childish stance on the recent Wikileaks hupla.  I get the feeling he's upset that the Journal didn't get the scoop.

The Times got the scoop.  Of course they claim they ran it by the US gov to get their take on it before moving forward.  Which is very considerate.  But I thought that the freedom of speech awarded certain rights -- particularly for the reason of communicating amongst the populace to discourage an oppressive government.

So if this had been a real emergency, then the Times would have failed.

But it is a real emergency.  That is if you consider that all people are created equal.  (Not all citizens...)  And if you can admit that the reason is more economic than humanitarian...  (Perhaps xenophobia sells it to the masses.)

We don't have troops stationed in Afghanistan to support the women who wish to remove their burqas, Mr. Stephens.  It may be a nice side effect, but I think that providing drinking water to those in need may be a more urgent necessity.  Oh!  But what of the implied atrocities?  Perhaps there's a better way. Wait!  They attacked our country?  Sure they did.  That's a load of bull. It was a small group of jackasses -- not a country.  And the US has a horrible track record of 'correcting' regimes, so I don't have a lot of confidence.  It takes years and years and years and lives and lives and lives...  We've already accounted for so many.

At a certain point the US becomes the terrorizer.  Case points come up time and time again.  The US will obtain no respect from those who employ reason if we continue to protect soldiers who commit errors.

And what of those who imagine they're playing a video game?  At what point does killing someone become alright?  It is not.  I'm sorry if I made your job more difficult, but perhaps I made you more human.

What of culture?  What of civility?  I take it for granted.  And I absolutely do not have the troops on the ground now to thank for it.  They are doing a job.  Hopefully they chose their careers with the intent on providing good, and not just because it was the only game in town, or because they thought they owed a debt.  Most of my friends who have participated in the US military did so out of desperation or opportunity.

Many of the US troops on foreign territory don't care at all about the people that they're there to protect.  And that's where Wikileaks comes in.  It's there [It can be used] to protect the masses from an oppressor by exposing it's secrets.  It seems to have no allegiances to one group or another.  It's, hopefully, beyond that.  And so far it has a perfect track record, unlike the US (not that it's a fair comparison...)

Anyway, much of the knowledge I have of Wikileaks has been derived through 2600 and Democracy Now, which I've been following since my formative years.  Julian Assange is always happy to speak his peace, but Jacob Appelbaum gave a keynote speech at HOPE a week and a half ago.  He gave a great talk about the organization and its intent.  I'm sure Mr. Stephens missed that one...

Watering the Plants

While I was on a 30mi ride down to SC the other day I realized that I still needed to find a way to water the plants while I'll be gone.  I guess most people would just ask a friend or neighbor.  I could always still do that, but they could do it from the comfort of their own cellular phone.  And so could I...  It's really too easy, and I'm sure countless have done it before.  Here's the diagram:



Basically, I'll setup a webserver (Apache?) to ask whether you'd like to water and show you a picture of the patio.  The picture would be generated by my multimedia center (also know as an EnergyROM Touch Pro phone running tinyCAM) and then transmitted up to the webserver via wifi.

I could make it private, but it might be exciting if some random people water my plants for me.  I guess pressing a button with no cache will run a script that enacts the X10 device for 15 minutes or so.

So the web server will interact with a cheap old X10 device to turn a pump on and off.

I have a porch light outside, so I have power but no water supply.  I had been stuck on the whole gravity feed idea but kept getting stumped on how to use a cheap low pressure valve but get enough pressure to water everything.  I picked up a cheap pump for < $20 which should do the trick  I've never used those X10 devices before, but nows my chance.  I'll just hope that no one else in the place uses them since they seem to have zero security.

I should also post the times and durations watered.

Letter to Creative Loafing Servatius

Re: Crash Test Dummies, The Cycling Epidemic, http://charlotte.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/the_cycling_epidemic/Content?oid=996069

Citizen Servatius's short-sighted scrutiny of cycling safety leaves much to be desired. I get it: now that Mayor Anthony Foxx is supporting cycling as a viable means of transportation, the alternative weekly feels the need to support the other side.

But wait – I thought that bicycling commuters produce less emissions, reduce congestion, and foster a greater sense of community? She ignored that, and seems to be a step away from suggesting we rip open Tryon Street to keep those darty peds out of the way, just like in our not-so-distant history.

But Servatius even feels bad for the drivers who run over cyclists because they might have to pay for the injuries. Luckily for her, if you follow http://charlottevelo.com/ you'll see that it's very difficult to hold vehicle drivers accountable, even though it's often an impatient, inconsiderate driver at fault. Drivers easily forget that their cars can be very dangerous weapons. By her logic, if Servatius accidentally shot someone she might blame them for getting in the way.

Watch out! Don't get pregnant! Don't want to catch that 'N1... Her logic escapes me.

By the way, you're 10 times more likely to die from a collision in your car than in a bus. (NHTSA, http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/health/risks.htm )  

Unsolicited advertising

Just a heads-up, a reminder if you will, that advertisments sent to me under the guise of businesses I have deals with, that include prepaid return postage will always yeild a response from me - like it or not. So please don't forget to factor my cost into your advertising calculations. (At least I don't mail bricks.) Also, please remember to recycle, to help offset some of the shipping waste.

Thanks,
Ryan

I'm such a rascal...

Transportation

Heading home.  End of the line on a beautiful evening.  Eventually the train will extend north to UNCC and North Davidson where stuff happens.  That is, as long as the corporations can keep raising pigs and chickens so Bank of America can keep making money and paying taxes and employees (who buy property and pay taxes), so our local government can stay afloat.  Or, that those kids who romanticize trains grow up and want them.

But for now, it stops here.  Just blocks from city center.  Inside the immediate two-square-mile-beltway.  But that's alright with me.  I enjoy riding my bicycle.

I take the train into work when it's too hot, not that I couldn't get away with it, just that I grew-up and have remained accustomed to a certain level of comfort.  I, unlike most people who complain about, perhaps rightfully so, tax dollars spent on someone other than them, chose to live and work along the train line.  In fact, positive transportation planning awarded Charlotte with a check-mark while searching for a city to live in.

But I ride in when the sun is down, or the weather bearable, and I always ride back.  Not only is it thrilling, but it helps me prove to myself that my job is not draining.

As a 21st century shopkeeper, I was informed by another that they wished that they could ride their bike everywhere because they figured it'd be a good way to stay in shape.  I offered that perhaps it would be so long as one didn't mind arriving to appointments moist, or making trips to the grocery a couple of times each week.  And that was that.

I think that if more people are to consider bicycles as a legitimate form of transportation, then more people are going to have to actually enjoy riding bikes.  And I don't think they do.  But I don't know why.  Maybe they think its childish or unsafe.  I enjoy riding through a city with an unobstructed view of the buildings and the lives going on around me.  I enjoy the rush and thrill of pwning the roadway in city traffic.  I envy the elite few who make their living pedaling.  I love that I am being propelled by nothing more than a gear physically manipulated by my living body.  

And my bike runs on vegetables.

And when I transport I grow stronger.

And the contraposition holds true.

The States are an highway wasteland.  If we incorporate safe paths for bicycles more people will be able to enjoy them.  Just lets not render this a class divide.  Lets not put the bikes on the hitch to go for a ride.  Lets enjoy it for real.

Urban Assault Charlotte

Urban Assault was a blast.  I would probably do something like that everyday if I could.  I guess I do to some extent, but it makes an impact doing it as a group.  The Ski Team, (Chris & I) came in 104th out of 340 or so participants.  But we captured all the bleeds, and that's what counts!



To see that many bikes at one time in Charlotte makes me appreciate this city a bit more.  And if the solar powered sound system, and wind-made brew were irrelevant to my cohabitants, then at least no one complained.  And I'm sure a lot of people, like Ski Team, actually rode to the event ;)




The last obstacle was a BigWheel track which held me back as I had to retract to collect my phone which I had just rolled over...


View UA traversal in a larger map

All in all, it turned out to be about 26 miles.  And it felt like 95 degrees.


  
For some reason I'm not as excited as I should be about free food.

Fun times!

***UPDATE***
Some pictures I forgot to post...



    The calm before the cycling storm.



The first wave run for their rides.  We were resigned to the end of the line.  Either too slow (in registering) or too stupid (to pass the quiz).  And then we didn't even know where we were racing to!  Probably should have let us go first...



Sweet bike.  Functional.



Chris demonstrates how light the bike is.


These crazy people wanted me to take their picture.  Note - everyone is protecting themselves, post-race, from the scorching action of the midday summer sun by hydrating themselves with tasty beer.  Oh yeah, and there exists a picture of a dude wading in that green swan poop water.  [Seriously, they have to pressure wash all that excrement off of the sidewalk into the water.]