Monday, May 31, 2010
Pecos New Mexico Trail Head Holy Ghost
Exit I-25 at exit 299 and head east to follow route 50 till you get to the junction with route 63 (35.740373 N,-105.677946 W) where you can see a orange-colored bridge. Turn left and follow Forest 122 (mostly single lane) to the end (35.778071 N,-105.704216 W).
How to change Automatic transmission fluid in Volkswagon new beetle
For no apparent and good reason the beetle design team confused the DIY mechanics who want to change the transmission fluid themselves.
(1) the motor oil pan on the beetle looks like the transmission fluid pan on a conventional car. And the transmission fluid pan look like the oil pan..
(2) The beetle uses intensively weird-shaped Torx nuts, whose drivers may not necessarily exist in most mechanics' toolbox
(3) the so-called check plug is actually drain plug for part of the transmission fluid, and the level checking procedure is hard to grasp and make sense.
(4) No dipstick for the transmission fluid, i.e. no filler from the top of the engine. This is the last straw for weekend mechanics I guess...
So this is what I did.
(1) Get a funnel and a long filling tube ( long enough to reach from top of the engine to the bottom of the car) to hook up to the end of the funnel.
(2) Jack up the car, jack-stand it on both front sides, drain the transmission fluid ( use the drain plug near the left front tire, the one near the right front tire is the motor oil drain plug). Take out the metal cover that covers the front part of the fluid pan. (note, after this you can take off the fluid pan and drain all the fluid. But this time I guess it'd be too messy and maybe I need a new gasket to reinstall the fluid pan so I only drained part of the fluid.
(3) tight up the drain plug/check plug. from the front-bottom view you can see that the transmission fluid pan actually contains three filler-like plug. Most tutorials I found online use the red-cap protected plastic filler which requires some prying and no screwing. I chose the screw one that is nex to the plastic one (because I cannot get the plastic open) and unscrew the filler plug.
(4) connect the end of the filling tube to the filler and pour automatic transmission fluid to the funnel and see it dripping into the transmission fluid pan.
(5) Tight up the filler, lower the car, unscrew the check plug/drain plug and follow the instruction that "if none drips out, then it needs more fluid, if some drips out, then it's normal, if a lot streams out, then it's overfilled" ( Sorry..no better checking procedure yet..)
(1) the motor oil pan on the beetle looks like the transmission fluid pan on a conventional car. And the transmission fluid pan look like the oil pan..
(2) The beetle uses intensively weird-shaped Torx nuts, whose drivers may not necessarily exist in most mechanics' toolbox
(3) the so-called check plug is actually drain plug for part of the transmission fluid, and the level checking procedure is hard to grasp and make sense.
(4) No dipstick for the transmission fluid, i.e. no filler from the top of the engine. This is the last straw for weekend mechanics I guess...
So this is what I did.
(1) Get a funnel and a long filling tube ( long enough to reach from top of the engine to the bottom of the car) to hook up to the end of the funnel.
(2) Jack up the car, jack-stand it on both front sides, drain the transmission fluid ( use the drain plug near the left front tire, the one near the right front tire is the motor oil drain plug). Take out the metal cover that covers the front part of the fluid pan. (note, after this you can take off the fluid pan and drain all the fluid. But this time I guess it'd be too messy and maybe I need a new gasket to reinstall the fluid pan so I only drained part of the fluid.
(3) tight up the drain plug/check plug. from the front-bottom view you can see that the transmission fluid pan actually contains three filler-like plug. Most tutorials I found online use the red-cap protected plastic filler which requires some prying and no screwing. I chose the screw one that is nex to the plastic one (because I cannot get the plastic open) and unscrew the filler plug.
(4) connect the end of the filling tube to the filler and pour automatic transmission fluid to the funnel and see it dripping into the transmission fluid pan.
(5) Tight up the filler, lower the car, unscrew the check plug/drain plug and follow the instruction that "if none drips out, then it needs more fluid, if some drips out, then it's normal, if a lot streams out, then it's overfilled" ( Sorry..no better checking procedure yet..)
Friday, May 28, 2010
How to create maps for Garmin Nuvi
At the begining, i'm wondering if it is possible to download satellite image into my Garmin nuvi. Then finally I realized that is for those outdoor handsets...I can only use satellite image/map to create dots and lines. Here's what i did.
(1) install CGpsmapper, old version will work 0096 or something like that
(2) Use Google map to "save image" as JPEG
(3) Use OZIexplorer to calibrate it by using at least two points (get the coordinates from Google map). File-->Load and calibrate map image
(4) Use GPSMapedit to add roads, trees and etc. as you like, this is the fun part and Mapedit has a lot of icons to choose from.
(5) Edit map property by using Menu->File->map property. Choose "Garmin" at the first tab, Choose Level at the third tab ( we need at least TWO levels ).
(6) Edit the objects on the map (road, trees and etc) and choose level for them to show at different zoom level.
(7) Use GPSMapedit Menu File-> export to export the map as Garmin image/cgpsmapper
(8) Use Mapset toolkit to install the image for Mapsource (free from Garmin website) .
(9) Use Mapsource to load the map to GPS Nuvi receiver.
(1) install CGpsmapper, old version will work 0096 or something like that
(2) Use Google map to "save image" as JPEG
(3) Use OZIexplorer to calibrate it by using at least two points (get the coordinates from Google map). File-->Load and calibrate map image
(4) Use GPSMapedit to add roads, trees and etc. as you like, this is the fun part and Mapedit has a lot of icons to choose from.
(5) Edit map property by using Menu->File->map property. Choose "Garmin" at the first tab, Choose Level at the third tab ( we need at least TWO levels ).
(6) Edit the objects on the map (road, trees and etc) and choose level for them to show at different zoom level.
(7) Use GPSMapedit Menu File-> export to export the map as Garmin image/cgpsmapper
(8) Use Mapset toolkit to install the image for Mapsource (free from Garmin website) .
(9) Use Mapsource to load the map to GPS Nuvi receiver.
How to expand VirtualBox harddrive
(1) create another virtual harddrive in VirtualBox and hook it up as Primary slave (e.g. sdb) to the primary master (e.g. sda) you originally have.
(2) Download gparted live cd and boot up the system in Virtualbox with it
(3) Find the primary slave hard drive (e.g. sdb) and create a partition table for it
(4) Now you got two options
i. Go back to primary master and copy the partition content and paste it in primary slave, then expand it by "resizing"
ii. make the primary slave another partition and use it for extra space
(2) Download gparted live cd and boot up the system in Virtualbox with it
(3) Find the primary slave hard drive (e.g. sdb) and create a partition table for it
(4) Now you got two options
i. Go back to primary master and copy the partition content and paste it in primary slave, then expand it by "resizing"
ii. make the primary slave another partition and use it for extra space
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