It is pretty easy for me to get distracted when I’m suppose to be working on taxes … especially when my Raspberry Pi2 has given up webserver duties to the Raspberry Pi3. There were a couple glitches in imaging the new 64GB micro SD card but all is as it should be now.
With the new home micro server keeping American Pi up and running as s test server, the previous Pi2 was moved to our music room and connected to our home audio. I love it for running Pianobar and playing one of the many personalized Pandora stations commercial free throughout the house. As an aside, I taped the tiny $12 camera to the side of the case it so it could save either a video stream or send a security image (above) via a private Twitter feed with notification to my normal RichC account. So far so good, but probably not the best for home security. Perhaps a motion detector project is in my future … or maybe moving it to the front porch as a doorbell camera?
A little more tinkering with webservers and websites this weekend lead me to adding open source YOURLS project to my little used richc.us domain(it was just place holder for a server). Its use gives me a simplified bit.ly or goo.gl "like" personalized URL shortener. Initially I thought about opening it for public use, but after hearing horror stories, thought twice about opening it up. Currently it is a way to send shorter Tweets and track the popularity of clicks especially with browser "bookmarklets" … interesting but probably not really all that exciting.
On our last trip out sailing on Encore I noticed the Volvo was running hotter than it should be. My first thought was a lack of cooling water flowing in through the new smaller strainer, but then it was possible the coolant was low — I added about a quart. After returning home I also wondered if the temperature gauge was reading correction and decided that next trip down to check a few things.
Enter the digital thermometer. I’ve never had one of these gadgets and now that I do, can’t believe it has taken me so long to buy one. I picked up a "well made" rubberized refurbished cheapy for $12 (including free Prime shipping) on Amazon and can’t believe just how super is it. The range is from -30C to +360C and it has a soft switch for either C or F degrees. There is also a backlight (on or off) and a surrounding air temperature or laser option. Amazingly simple to use and nearly instant reading … with a hold feature as soon as the trigger is released. If you do not have one of these, get one!
Now to see if it can help me diagnose why the auxiliary diesel on the boat is overheating.
Here’s a personal "what I’m doing" post after spending an evening with my son Taylor finishing up his taxes. We of course used this excuse to have dinner together too. I think we have both always enjoyed our time together, but the older (and more mature) he gets, the more I really do enjoy talking with him … including the usual, politics. Hopefully now that he’s paying a few more taxes, he’ll want to hold all politicians more accountable for their irresponsible spending habits (and I’m not even talking about President Obama’s getaways!).
I also realized it will be Thursday when this post goes live … so I might as well include a couple ThrowBackThursday #TBT images my brother and I found while sorting through my mom and dad’s house in preparation to sell. The pages below are from my mother’s collection of high school reunion pages … the amazing part is that this summer will be my wife’s 40th reunion! It doesn’t seem possible? A couple of the notes shared in mom’s 40th Libbey High School reunion from the class of 1952 was that she had 4 grandchildren and that my dad was retiring! First, I’m not sure we’re even old enough to have grandchildren … and second, is retirement even in our future?
After buying a new 64GB Samsung EVO+ microSD card and imaging Raspian on it, I started the Raspberry Pi 3 in my home office. It is now time to start installing software and updating it to make it a proper "micro" webserver … although I already have WordPress and American Pi running on it (even installed PHP7 against my better judgement!). There is still a lot of tweaking still to do, but it is running the LAMP stack pretty well and as a couple favorite apps … like Pianobar (love that Pandora app). I am amazed how much hotter the Broadcom chip runs when compared to the Pi2 … it even hit 80 degrees C for a few minutes during an install although averages about 60 degrees C (Pi 2 is in the 40s even when overclocked). I’m starting to think about a little cooling heatsink if I want this microcomputer to remain stable and last a while?
I’ve tried using it a little bit as a desktop Linux computer … and although it is faster than than the Raspberry Pi 2, it is still a sloth.
The new AC compressor is now installed and next is figuring out how much to take off in order to access the main headache … the DPF issue (Diesel Particulate Filter). I was quoted an unacceptably high price for this "platinum" device of over $4000 at the BMW dealership. Needless to say … I’ll be doing a little wrenching on my own. (By the way, the navigation maps update using 4 – 16GB micro SD cards in my USB device from the downloaded Torrent files went great … although the process was slow. Current maps went from 2009 to the 2016-2 release, but still don’t have a recent I-75 exit ramp in West Chester/Liberty Twp Ohio. Hmm … so much for current).
After trying to figure out just how much to remove under the car to gain access, I decided to order a BMW E70 X5 Service Manual on eBay in hope it will detail just what is required. So far, this is not easy and is probably the most difficult challenge yet. Here are a couple photos that hardly do justice in figuring out how to gain access. Unfortunately I’m stalled for now …
For years, the top post was the Great White Shark following a kayak … and rightly so. After a few years and a popular Accelerated Medical School Program post, top spot fell to the Rogue wave/Cruise ship photo shortly after we experienced 94KT wind gusts on a Mediterranean cruise vacation. A surprise Boat shoe inserts/insoles post and the following Topsiders series eventually surpassed the previous posts. Finally they gave way to Jacob Tolliver pounds the piano in an Ohio hardware store and finally a surprise how to post on the Honda Odyssey power sliding door — who knew? 
