So I went to the dump a couple weeks ago and came back with something pretty cool. I was dropping off a box of old electronics (which they take for free), and I spotted an Apple product in the pile. Despite being gold in color, I pulled it out and brought it home. After charging it up, I learned that the screen was damaged, probably because the previous owner closed something in the hinge. Otherwise, it functioned perfectly. I wiped out the previous owner’s data and got macOS installed so I could get to About This Mac. I picked up a 2015 12″ MacBook; the base model with a 1.1 GHz Core m processor, 8 GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD. Definitely not amazing specs, but it runs Firefox and ssh sessions just as well as anything else. Plus it was free.
I bought a used display assembly on eBay for $120 and used OpenCore Legacy Patcher to get Monterey installed. I’m pretty pleased with my find. I was originally planning on selling it, but it’s only worth about $250, so I think I’m going to use it until the keyboard stops working (this was the first device with Apple’s infamous butterfly keyboard) and then sell it for parts. If finances allow I’ll probably pick up the then-current MacBook Air when that happens.
I have a perfectly good HP laptop with a Ryzen 4500U, but I hate the form factor. It’s a 15″ laptop with a 16:9 display, which is just too damn wide, and the 1080p resolution is barely adequate for a display that size. The trackpad is awful, especially coming from the Surface Book I had previously. Two things Apple laptops do better than anyone else are displays and trackpads. All their displays are 16:10, which strikes a nice balance between width and height, although I think I might prefer 3:2 or 4:3. Apple trackpads are second to none in my opinion. Large, but not too large, and the force touch thing is fantastic. The whole trackpad clicks, so you never have to move your fingers off their target to make a click.
I’ve been making trips to the dump here and there since I got a truck (which is another post I should write), so hopefully the next dump trip has another diamond in the rough waiting for me.
Dang, about five months since my last update. In my defense, I’ve been pretty busy. I got my first real career job as a help desk tech at a school district. It’s been about three months in this job so far and I think it’s going fairly well. I’m probably 90% up to speed now; I know most of what I need to know and the rest is relatively minor stuff. I felt a little bit of imposter syndrome in the first couple weeks because I’ve never been a tech support person in a professional setting before. Getting a ticket and just going there and clicking around on someone’s computer until the problem is solved and getting paid for it was kind of surreal. I’m used to it now. I think I could probably communicate a bit more confidence to the people I’m helping; I don’t want to say I can fix something immediately for sure until I see the problem, but “I’ll see what I can do” isn’t the best thing to say to someone who really needs their computer to work normally so they can do their job. I might have to see if I can come up with another way to under-promise and over-deliver. Or maybe I should just say “I’ll come over and fix it.”
A lot of IT people, or maybe even most, start out on the help desk. It’s a good learning experience, it’s usually not too difficult as long as the customers are nice, and someone has to do the job. The pay isn’t horrible, but it’s not great either. Help desk staff are definitely the lowest-paid employees under the IT umbrella. I don’t want to stay on the help desk forever (no one does) and help desk has nothing to do with my degree, which is in networking. I’d be much more interested in a network engineer or network admin type job, but I need some experience and probably a certification first.
I’m getting more experience by the day, I have a degree (just an associate’s, but that’s better than nothing), but I don’t have any certs yet. The classes I took in college align roughly with the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) cert. This is the entry-level networking cert, but combined with the degree and a modicum of professional and personal experience, I think getting this cert will open up the next tier of IT jobs, and thus salaries, to me. I’m planning on studying up this summer and hopefully taking the test by the fall. Afterwards, I’ll have to see what jobs are out there. I’m hoping for a 40-50% salary increase with my next jump.
Somewhat longer-term, in the next year or so I’d like to get at least one more cert. The Red Hat Certified System Administrator (for Linux) or the Windows Server Hybrid Administrator Associate (for Windows), or maybe even both. I’m more interested in Linux personally, but the Windows cert might open more jobs in my area. Maybe I’d wait to move jobs until I can get either of those, but it never hurts to throw applications out there.
Longer-term than that, my career goal for right now is to make $100,000 a year by the time I’m 40-years-old. I have 13.5 years to go. I think it’s probably attainable with some luck and hard (ish) work.
To this end, I’ve started getting some more stuff going on my server to practice for these things. One thing that seems to be pretty important for IT jobs is experience in Active Directory. At the help desk, there isn’t much need for techs to delve into AD for anything other than a password reset. Setting up users, groups and OUs isn’t really under the purview of the help desk; it’s a systems administrator’s job to do all that. To help me get some experience, I got a Windows Server domain controller going and joined a couple virtual machines to it. I’m practicing things like deploying software, creating network shares, using Group Policy settings, and I’m getting a bit of experience with PowerShell. That last one is pretty important for a good sys admin. Windows doesn’t have any built-in bulk import tools or tools for regularly updating user groups, so it has to be done with PowerShell scripts. So far I’m mostly copy-pasting, but I’ll probably check out a Udemy class sometime to learn more.
So that’s basically it. Mostly job stuff these days. I’m going to try to post here once in a while to record what I’m doing. It might make me look like a great candidate for a new job some day.
That rickety plastic shelf is holding a lot of stuff up; it looks kind of unkempt and it’s pretty wobbly, especially when there’s something heavy on top of it. Not pictured is our pantry cabinet that’s almost overflowing with stuff and the kitchen cart packed to the gills. It’s hard to find things easily in both locations. Notice the huge amount of empty space to the left of the shelf, above the cat food bowls. I devised a plan to take advantage of this area and add a ton of new storage space to the kitchen.
Here’s the result:
I put LED strip lights on the underside of two of the shelves. It makes a huge difference.
The old plastic shelf was moved to the dining room and in its place is a shelf/sideboard unit that I made myself. It’s made with 2×4 and 4×4 lumber, so it’s pretty chonky, but it’ll never collapse. The shelf surfaces are covered with peel-and-stick vinyl flooring, which was an incredible pain to cut, but it looks and feels great. The effect of the extra storage capacity cannot be overstated. The pantry cabinet and kitchen cart are now uncluttered and much more usable. The overall look of this thing could be charitably described as “rustic,” so I got some dark stain that I’ll be applying as soon as the driveway is dry-ish for a day. I’ll also be adding a paper towel holder above the trashcan and a bar with S-hooks for oven mitts. I’m really pleased with the results, and I think it’ll be even better when it’s totally finished.
My parents finally got a car, as I alluded to in the last post. To make a long, rambling story a bit shorter, a month or so ago my dad mentioned he found some extra money and he was interested in a larger down payment on whatever car he decided to buy. For a little while, we were thinking of leasing, but I think it starts to make less sense as your down payment increases. Plus shopping for a lease is a lot harder than shopping for what is essentially a cash deal. So I took another look at cars that might fit our criteria and I stumbled on the Mazda 6.
I, like a lot of people evidently, kind of forgot the 6 existed. Mazda has sold about 30,000 a year for the last five years or so. During the same time, they sold about five times as many CX-5s. Mazda considers the 6 their flagship though, and it shows. A few weeks ago my mom and I went to a local Mazda dealer to drive a new 2021 Mazda 6 Carbon Edition.
Mazda 6 Carbon Edition
The Carbon Edition includes the same equipment as the Grand Touring Reserve trim, but adds exclusive colors for the body, wheels, and interior. The GTR trim is ridiculously well equipped; it’s probably easier to link to the brochure than list everything here. The exterior is very attractive, and the interior is even better.
Mazda 6 Carbon Edition interior
We drove it and really liked it. The engine is a turbocharged 2.5-liter four cylinder, and while it isn’t super fast, it’s quick and very responsive. The transmission is probably the best automatic I’ve ever driven. It keeps the lock-up clutch engaged almost all the time, it doesn’t hunt for gears, it doesn’t downshift unless you prod the accelerator, but when you do it downshifts directly, with no hesitation. The new one we drove stickered at around $32,000, which was a bit much, but I think a good value if you have to have a new car. The one word I would use to describe this car is “refined.” Totally unlike older Mazdas. I set out looking for a used one within a reasonable distance from home.
I found a few from dealers in northern New Jersey and one from a dealer in Maine. We eventually got the one in Maine because it was the best overall combination of price and miles it seemed, plus it was white. And a really nice metallic white at that, called Snowflake White Pearl Mica. The interior was black, which is a good-enough color, but way better than the white that was also offered.
We got a 2018, but this 2021 model looks identical
I drove it home from Maine, a trip of about four and a half hours. It’s a great car to drive. Very comfortable, plenty of passing power, adaptive cruise control, a heads up display, and auto-dimming mirrors; it makes for a great highway car. At the same time, the tight and eager steering and suspension make it fun to drive on curvy roads, too. I really can’t say enough good things about it. A few items aren’t my favorite, but they’re the typical Japanese car things and aren’t really worth talking about.
It’s finally done, for now at least, and my mom is very happy with the new car (especially the heated steering wheel). I think this car will end up being a good choice, with a great combinati0n of style, speed, comfort and reliability that probably couldn’t be matched with the Genesis and Lincoln models we were previously interested in.
In my last post, I mentioned it was almost time for my final (for now at least) semester of college to start. Now it’s almost over. I graduate in about a week and a half, and hopefully I’ll be moving on to a big-boy job without much delay. Between then and now not much worth sharing has happened, but two events in the last week or so are worthy of a post. The first is related to my parents’ car shopping, and I’ll post about that once a conclusion is reached, but the second is 90% finished and it’s right here in my house.
A week or two ago, my wife decided that we should host new year’s eve at our house. This gathering will include friends and family, a few of which will be staying overnight. We do have a guest room, but up until now it was kind of a catchall junk room with a bed, a dresser and an old TV just sitting in there. Functional I suppose, but not a place you’d want to spend too much time. Last week we rearranged the furniture into a much, much nicer layout. I’ve taken to calling it “the hotel room.”
The current guest bedroom layout (feat. my tractor sheets from when I was little).
Previously, the bed was in the far corner and the dresser was against the left wall. The TV was sitting on the floor in front of the dresser and the TV stand was not in the room. The current set up of a rather empty room featuring a bed and a large TV make it feel like a hotel to me. The ladder is for our cat Martha to sit on so she can survey the neighborhood wildlife. It’s so much more functional, and I’ve used the room to relax in the afternoon a few times. All it needs now is a nightstand next to the bed to keep phones and the remotes.
I used a Raspberry Pi 4 with LibreELEC to get Kodi on the TV, so it has access to all the cable TV channels and Jellyfin content that you can get on the other TVs. An older Roku stick is also connected to the TV for the streaming services. Unfortunately there isn’t a smooth solution to get things like Netflix in the Kodi interface, so the Roku will have to do. Which is fine, it just adds a seam to the user experience. I’m waiting on a FLIRC receiver to make one remote work with both the TV and Kodi. The Roku is RF only, so it will have to have a separate remote.
To improve guest hospitality even further, I 3D printed a QR code for my guest wi-fi network. It came out pretty nicely for my first multi-color print I think.
Censored 3D printed wi-fi QR code.
With this, all you need to do to access the guest network is point your phone’s camera at the code and click the button that shows up. No entering passwords or browsing for the right SSID. I added a couple magnets and standoffs to the back so I can stick it on the fridge.
With all this activity I’m really excited to have some overnight guests. It almost feels like a bed and breakfast or something.
It’s been a while since I posted an update, but things haven’t been that exciting. I haven’t done anything with the Triumph, so it’s just been sitting. I’ll probably see about getting it inspected next week though, and I want to check the throttle shafts for leaks and I should order those little parts before the end of the season.
The new TV tuner has been working fine, and I don’t think I’ve run into a time where three tuners wasn’t enough yet. In keeping with my thinking from last update, I replaced the processors in the server for lower power versions and removed the graphics card. This netted a savings of about 20 watts or so, which isn’t a ton, but it’s still a few dollars per month. I decided to keep the whole server because I just can’t get 12 TB of storage for a reasonable price any other way.
Going back to cars, my friend is coming over on Sunday so we can do the brakes on his car. I haven’t done brakes in a while, and they’re easy so I’m looking forward to it. I need to do struts on another person’s car in the next week or so, too, so I’ll try to post about that.
Otherwise, things are going pretty well. Classes start up again in a few weeks, but I’m only taking two of them this semester. My investments that I started a few months ago are doing well, and I’m helping my wife get an IRA set up. This money stuff is really interesting to me, and I totally see how people get into day trading. If I had more money I probably would.
Last I left off, I was going to put an extra manifold gasket on my Triumph. I did that, and it definitely fixed the sucking noise issue, but I still didn’t have any luck with the idle problem. More expensive and pressing car problems came up, so that’s where things are still sitting. I haven’t driven the car in a few weeks. Before the summer is over, I’m going to get new diaphragms for the bypass valves and a new ground wire for the distributor. I have a friend with a shop that will soon be able to do state inspections, so I’ll have him inspect it when he’s able, and maybe I’ll borrow his compression tester while I’m there to see how the engine is doing inside. But after that, I’m done spending money on the car for the season. I have other things that need my money and time, and an annoying car can be put on the back burner.
In tech news, my Ceton TV tuner died about a month ago. Just overnight, poof, it didn’t work. There was no obvious damage to the hardware or software, and I spent two hours with Verizon support diagnosing the problem. I initially ordered another used Ceton tuner from eBay, then decided to return it and get a new HDHomerun Prime for about the same price. The HDHomerun is a sort of re-run of a tuner that originally came out like 10 years ago, so it only has three tuners to the Ceton’s six, which is a disappointment. On the bright side, it actually works, has a warranty, and the company still exists. Plus, it works with whatever software, so I don’t need to run a whole Windows VM just for CetonProxy anymore. Which brings me to my next item:
I finally plugged my server into a Kill-a-Watt, and (probably unsurprisingly) it uses a ton of power at idle, which is most of the time. Right now it only runs a couple of fairly light VMs, so processor utilization is almost always in the low single digits, but it uses 200 watts of power. I explored a few options to get rid of the whole server, including hosting Jellyfin on a Raspberry Pi, but it’s just impossible to beat the cost per terabyte on the big server. My six 3TB hard drives in a ZFS array give me 12TB of usable storage, and a failure tolerance of up to three disks (or two, I can’t remember now). Anyways, even getting just 6TB of total storage (two 6TB drives with RAID 1) would cost about $300 for new ones, and I’m still left with only half the storage space that I have now. And while that Raspberry Pi runs Jellyfin very nicely (thanks to the hardware accelerated video playback), NextPVR can’t take advantage of that same acceleration, so web browser viewing of live TV is impossible. So I’d have to purchase new hardware. Prices for crap office desktops are seemingly up from last year, which bites. Factoring in selling the server components, I’d probably come out about even switching to lower power consumer hardware. So rather than do all that stuff, I bought some different processors, a pair of Xeon E5-2450Ls, the 65 watt version of my current 95 watt 2450s. This should give some decent power savings I think, plus I’m going to take out the graphics card that I never could get working for transcoding. The processors should be in by early next week, so I’ll make an update when I get them installed.
Since my last update, I got the Triumph registered and on the road. After the first test drive I knew I had some more work to do. While the car would idle like a champ, when the engine was subjected to even a mild load, it would ping (detonation or pre-ignition) like crazy. I tried enriching the fuel mixture and retarding the timing, but I wasn’t getting anywhere. I realized my timing reading of 20°-28° BTDC was probably correct. I retarded the timing as far as I could, but the engine would stall out, even with the timing set nearer to 20°. I decided to try replacing my Pertronix electronic ignition with the old points and condenser. To my surprise, this actually made a small but noticeable difference. The engine started much easier and the pinging was slightly better. Not good enough to be usable, but better. I replaced the old points and condenser with new parts for good measure, but that didn’t magically solve my problem.
It was looking like I’d have to dive into the valve timing. Several years ago, I replaced the original camshaft with an aftermarket performance cam that came with the car. I didn’t fully understand the procedure for synchronizing the cam and crankshaft in the workshop manual, so I made my own timing marks on the sprockets and lined it up as best I could. This turned out to be a mistake. With a newfound comprehension of the “on the rock” method of setting up cam/crank timing, I discovered I set up the camshaft about 20° ahead of where it should have been. I’d been dreading this, even though from the start I knew it was almost inevitable. Adjusting cam timing on this car is a big job, and I was really hoping to avoid it.
I decided to get started in the evening, and I was able to get everything apart, set the correct timing and then start with the reassembly before dark. I finished up by about noon the next day. This test drive was much, much better. I was still getting some pinging, but it was vastly improved. The timing light showed a much more sane 8°-10° BTDC, which is an oft-recommended setting on the forums. However, I couldn’t really get the car to idle, plus there was still the pining I mentioned. The valve cover gasket was wrecked, so I decided to put the car away and do some research.
After a little reading, today I decided to remove the bypass valves and temperature compensators from the carbs and cap their holes to see if they were at fault. I think it may have made a small improvement, but the car still wouldn’t idle nicely. I was able to get the idle down for long enough to hear a loud sucking noise though. I discovered the manifold (the intake and exhaust manifolds share a gasket on this car) gasket was leaking. I never noticed the sucking noise before, and previous attempts at spraying the area with carb cleaner and starting fluid revealed nothing either. Luckily, I have an extra gasket that’s been hanging around for a while. I’m going to try to get it installed tomorrow, and I think I’ll double up my gaskets. Some people on the forums recommend that. I figure it can’t hurt. I’m hoping fixing this gasket issue should finally get the car into a driveable state.
I promised to post an update on my Triumph (named Nigel) just about a month ago. I’ve made some great progress, and this time I remembered to take some pictures.
In the last update, I managed to get the car running, but only with the choke on. This seemed to point towards a vacuum leak, but I couldn’t find a strong one. Using the ol’ spray some carb cleaner all over the place method, I learned the spacers between the carburetors and intake manifold weren’t making an airtight seal. I ordered new spacers and gaskets, and that actually made a big difference. Along the way I also removed the EGR system, disconnected the vacuum retard on the distributor and the bypass valves on the carburetors. I may reinstate the bypass valves after some driving.
If you know what to look for, you’ll notice the absence of an EGR system and the addition of an oil catch can. The heater valve is new, replacing an old leaky one. The stock air filters are on, but I’d like to replace them with something aftermarket. I know this car came with some oval shaped foam ones, but I have to find them, if I didn’t throw them away.
At the same time, I discovered the vent port on the rocker cover was spewing smoke into the carburetors, upsetting the airflow and causing difficulty with keeping the engine running. I rerouted the engine fumes into an oil catch can, but I may try to put this system back to stock in the future. The catch can doesn’t catch everything, and smoke still comes out of it. I think this is probably a sign that the piston rings could use replacement, but we’ll see how it goes. I’d like to kick that can as far down the road as I can. I’ve read that filling the engine oil to the top mark on the dipstick may in fact overfill the engine, so I’m going to try putting somewhat less oil in when I change it.
I also advanced the ignition timing quite a bit, enough to be off the scale on the crank pulley, and that made the biggest difference in the engine’s ability to run normally. Whether the timing is actually about 26° BTDC, I don’t know. The crank pulley may not be correct anymore. I’m hoping the timing works on the road, because the engine has never run this well or been this easy to start before. Reports on the TR6 forums suggest that this timing will probably be fine, but it varies car to car.
Moving to the other side of the engine, you can see the new wiring for the electric fan.
The wires could use a little organization, but they get the job done. The rocker cover leaks of course, but I’m going to leave it and see how bad it is. I may add a bead of RTV silicone under the gasket if it’s too leaky.
The bundle of wires below the radiator are for the fan controller, which works wonderfully. Part (or maybe all) of the reason it wasn’t working was because I had it wired wrong. I may not have needed the new temperature sensor, but it’s a lot more elegant than shoving a probe into the radiator fins. The only problem with it is the fan uses a lot of electrical power. With the engine idling, there’s barely enough power to run the ignition system and the fan, so the engine comes close to stalling. I just had the original alternator (a 40 amp unit I think) rebuilt, so I don’t want to replace it now, but I might next season. There are plenty of higher output options for the TR6.
Today I decided I’d see if a polish and wax would wake up the paint at all. I had mixed results, but no parts are worse than before.
The right front portion and the hood is slightly better, but not great. The right rear is actually not terrible. The trunk has a couple spots I need to grind down and hit with primer soon.
The vertical surfaces of the left side however, came back pretty nicely.
Just like the engine could probably use a rebuild, the body needs a repaint. A good paint job will be out of my budget for the foreseeable future though. Plus I don’t know what color I’d paint it.
The interior isn’t in amazing shape either, but it stays put together. I need to get carpet some day and replace the trim near the center control knobs.
The car just needs a tail light socket and it’ll be ready for inspection. That and an a few other parts should be in tomorrow. I have new engine mounts already that need to be installed in the next couple weeks. My latest order includes new front shocks and wheel bearings, plus parts to help replace the half shaft universal joints. I’ve had the joints themselves for a while now. I need to replace the rear shocks and springs too (especially with the new exhaust, the mufflers hang really low), but they’ll have to wait a little while.
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been thinking I need an air compressor. I have a sand blast cabinet I’d like to be able to use, and it needs a pretty substantial compressor behind it. I might be able to run my grinders on 3-6 gallon compressor, but the sand blaster would destroy it. I was dismayed to find that most air compressors priced under $500 these days are oil-free. I don’t know how they stay lubricated, but whatever it is will eventually wear out. I wouldn’t using a compressor in a professional capacity, so it might not be a problem, but why take the chance? Plus, I’ve read that oil-free compressors are significantly louder than oil-lubed ones. Because I planned to keep the air compressor inside the garage, the noise level is a priority.
Lowes and Home Depot didn’t have a ton of choice for air compressors larger than 8 gallons. The options above that size were perfectly capable, but a bit too expensive for me. Harbor Freight had a few choices that were oil-lubed where a comparable Lowes or H-D unit weren’t, but the prices were too high for a complex piece of equipment from a store that’s known for less than stellar quality. The 90 day warranty on a $300 and up item is a complete joke. I remembered Tractor Supply, and found a perfectly fine air compressor there. It’s a Porter Cable 24 gallon unit, with an agreeable price of $220. The warranty on this is 2 years for the pump, and 1 year for everything else. Not amazing, but a hell of a lot better than 90 days.
An air compressor needs electricity to run, and of course there isn’t any in my garage. There are some old electrical wires there that suggest it has had electricity in the past, but I do not know the source of it. And even if I did, I probably wouldn’t try to use it. Luckily, I was hit with a bolt of inspiration. While I could just run a long extension cord from the house to the garage every time I wanted to plug something in, why couldn’t I run that extension cord into a regular outlet instead? Turns out, it’s a thing. I got an electrical box, outlets, and a male plug to hook everything up.
I’ll be replacing that hand-held reel with a wall mounted one this week. I realized at home I bought a 20-amp GCFI and a 15-amp regular outlet. I have to check to see if the circuit breaker is a 15 or 20 amp. The outlets are connected with a 12 gauge cord and 12 gauge wire inside the box.
The picture shows things pretty succinctly. The male end of the extension cord plugs into an outlet near the back door of the house, and the female end plugs into the “tail” from the electrical box, powering up the outlet. It works great so far. The cord plugged into the outlet goes to the air compressor.
I put the air compressor on the table/bench to maximize floor space.
The air compressor is also great so far. It takes a little while to fill up an empty tank, but recycle time isn’t too bad. It’s also not quite as loud as I was expecting. The 50 foot hose I got is just adequate to reach the back of the cars in the driveway. I think what I’m going to do is get some PVC air hose and string it along the ceiling joists to get a couple air outlets by the overhead doors and one by the sand blaster.
I was struck by more inspiration later in the day when I realized I could connect more outlets to the one I installed so I wouldn’t have to have extension cords all over the place. I think I’m going to add a few in each back corner of the garage.
I was almost bowled over by inspiration when I realized I could add some LED lights to the garage just as easily as outlets. I’m really, really looking forward to that, which should be in the near future. I’ll keep you posted.
