mattgadient.com

Informational blogging by Matthew Gadient.

So… saw a deal on a used front-load washer (in need of repair – suspected bad bearings), figured I’ve replaced a zillion bearings on cars before, so thought I’d buy the washer and see if I can fix it.

Now technically, you’ll find that all the major Whirlpool parts outlets include these as part of a $400-500 rear tub. Yes, Whirlpool wants you to buy the big honking tub because 1 or 2 $10-20 bearings stopped working. Presumably you’re then supposed to throw your old tub away. If I ever start an “I hate the environment” club, Whirlpool’s the first company I’m asking to join.

 

So bearings are a bit of a pain to find. Well, maybe not that bad. These are the bearing numbers:
6205
6206

(I pulled the numbers from http://www.hometask.com/washerrepair.aspx where you can find bearing numbers for a number of Kenmore & Whirlpool Duet machines). It’s worth noting that you can buy seals or seals+bearings directly through their site as well.

Otherwise, you can find bearings online for anywhere from $3.50 up (depending on the quality of bearing you’re looking for – I doubt I’d opt for anything less than something made in Japan which is a good bit more, or a stainless steel bearing which starts at around $20), or find them at your local bearing shop. Now finding a new seal is a pain, though the site mentioned above carries them.

Installation:

I was going to write up a big massive guide with pictures, but as it turns out, others have already put together impressive YouTube videos. The one I’d recommend using as a guide is embedded below.

Again, to give credit where it’s due, this excellent video was created by Jerrod from http://www.hometask.com/washerrepair.aspx – and again, they sell the seals and bearings for the Whirlpool Duet WFW9200SQ02 as well as other models.

They also have a short version available on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd5NKbpVSRM

If you’re interested in getting a general idea as to the process, I’d suggest the short YouTube video. When you’re actually ready to buckle down and start disassembling, watch the long one.

In case you wanted some continue reading…

In looking for a couple oil-filled radiator space heaters, I came across a couple models:

  • Garmin 1500W Oil-Filled Heater – 043-5963 (Canadian Tire)
  • Bionaire 1500W Oil Filler Radiator – BOF2001-CN (Wal-Mart)

Both have a thermostat that can be set, a digital display, and claim to have a frost protection feature.

Here are a couple pictures of them, side-by-side. Bionaire (black) is on the left. Garrison (white) on the right:

 

Both are powered on – it’s a bit dim in the room, so in the 1st image, the camera’s flash is off. In the 2nd image, the camera’s flash is on.

As you can see, the Bionaire has a blue backlit display, with some pretty large numbers. You’ll have no problem reading it in the dark. On the other hand, the Garrison has a small display, and it’s not backlit – it’s very difficult to see in the dark. A couple more images closer up:

 

It’s really tough to read some of the indicators on the Garrison model (right-side). Particularly the stuff on the top and bottom. If your room’s not very well-lit, it’s an exercise in frustration. Try reading/making-out as much as you can in the image above. See what you can pick out.

Now here’s another image with the flash on:

Really, the Garrison’s not meant for a dark room, assuming you plan to read the display. If you’re planning to set-and-forget, it might be just fine though.

With that out of the way, let’s get this comparison / review moving…. continue reading…

A really oddball situation recently arose in Plex. Namely, all of season 3 was picked up in Plex Media Manager except for the 6th episode (“Chuck Versus the Nacho Sampler”). Basically, it jumped from 5-7. I tried a pile of tricks to no avail – moving the folder out and back in, renaming the file to use periods instead of spaces (Chuck.S03E06.Chuck.Versus.the.Nacho.Sampler.mkv), having it as the only episode in the folder (in case for some reason I had a duplicate), etc.

Turns out, the problem is having “sample” in the filename (I suppose there’s a filter for those.. *ahem*… torrents which include samples). To be clear, I’d named the file as so:

Chuck – S03E06 – Chuck Versus the Nacho Sampler.mkv

The fix was dumping “Sampler” from the file name. I changed the name to the following and it worked:

Chuck – S03E06 – Chuck Versus the Nacho.mkv

An ALT-refresh (the files aren’t stored on the local machine, hence the required “alt” to actually rescan the network folder) allowed it to be picked up by Plex.

I’d assume dropping the title completely (and having Chuck – S03E06) would work too, though I like having the episode name in the filename when I’m playing videos on another machine through VLC (Plex clients shouldn’t care – it should show you the properly scraped name including the “Sampler” part). If you’re really irked/OCD about losing part of the episode name in the file name, you could always be creative and try using S4mpler or fudging the name enough that it doesn’t look like it’s a “sample”.

 

You’ve got a Chevy Impala, and the driver-side power window will go down but not up.

The switch looks something like this:

Did I just describe your situation?

The switch probably started getting picky before conking out completely – for a while, you may have had to hold the switch up and then back it off slightly to get the window to go up. In it’s last days, you may have had to bang on the inside of the door while holding the switch up to get it to move.

If I’m describing you, chances are that the contact inside the switch (a tiny metal tab) for the driver side window is burned (and possibly continue reading…

I was tempted to do a commentary on Plex vs XBMC (both fantastic btw), and why I decided to go with Plex (and jailbreak an ATV accordingly), but… let’s just get to the process.

Prep

To jailbreak the Apple TV (2nd generation), you’ll need the AppleTV, the cord to plug it into some electricity, and a cable that converts regular USB to MicroUSB-B (not the “A” version of MicroUSB, and NOT the more common MiniUSB).

Yes, you’ll have to buy the cable separately. Yes, they’re a BEAR to find – I have a zillion cables that do MiniUSB, but couldn’t find any around here that were MicroUSB. For a low-cost online option, you might want to check out MonoPrice.com – you shouldn’t have problems finding them at most online retailers, but MonoPrice is usually pretty cheap (they ship to Canada too btw). I ended up looking around locally and 1 local computer place happened to have them (ComputerAvenue on St. Mary’s if you live near Winnipeg).

You’ll also need a computer with a USB port.

The Jailbreak

NOTE THAT JAILBREAKING MAY VOID YOUR WARRANTY. IT MAY SCREW WITH FUTURE APPLETV UPDATES. IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG, YOUR APPLETV MAY NOT BOOT. DON’T DO THIS UNLESS YOU’RE SURE.

I didn’t have much luck with GreenPois0n. After about 100  attempts (and while it walks you through it, the timing is brutal to get right, though it “claimed” to be successful many times when it wasn’t), and a few firmware flashes, and a couple different versions of GreenPois0n, I decided to keep looking for an alternate untethered jailbreak.

Turns out that Seas0nPass was the way continue reading…

TLDR version (added because I rambled more than usual):

-It’s paired with a Winegard HD 8200U
-There’s an improvement over the radio-shack 10db antenna
-The 3 towers less than 20 miles away didn’t cause overload (though it’s not aimed directly at them and we’re running through 100 feet of coax)
-Between the 2, we’re getting a digital station ~60 miles away perfectly, with a closer digital station (which it’s not aimed at) still artifacting every once in a while (which I’m sure will be cured when Mr Saw meets a family of trees causing multipath). Most of the analog stations are coming in perfectly with a couple having you-have-to-look-for-it-to-see-it ghosting. One analog station is a bit snowy at the moment, which will likely be cured when the antenna’s re-aimed (it’s in the antenna’s ‘blind spot’ right now).

Okay then.

In the last write-up, I’d grabbed and installed the Winegard HD 8200U antenna. Due largely to a 100-ft cable run, it was using a cheap 10db in-line amplifier – something that probably cost around $10-15 about a decade ago. If you want to read up on the remaining issues it left, you can check out the Winegard HD 8200U review (scroll to the bottom).

Moving on, with some tweaking the issues continue reading…

Bit of a preface: I’m located in Manitoba, east of Winnipeg. We’re fairly limited in OTA channels, but historically those near Winnipeg have had the following over-the-air options:

6 – CBC
7 – CTV (CKY)
9 – Global (CKND)
12 – FOX (from Pembina, ND – very tough to get)
13 – CityTV (CHMI, previously A-Channel, previously MTN)
35 – JoyTV

There’s also a french channel on 3. Channel 35′s relatively new. Aside from FOX (12), you’ve generally been able to get the others without much difficulty in rural areas around Winnipeg.

Canada’s in the midst of the Digital Over-The-Air transition, and while Aug 2011 is the deadline, only Global has transitioned thus far (over 40.1 & 40.2 though the HD stream’s currently remapped to channel 9.1). If you live near Winnipeg, you might want to check it out – it’s pretty sweet. If you can grab FOX’s digital (channel 12.1), it’s worth a shot too.

Now I don’t watch much TV, but the goal was to pull in FOX. It’s a challenge, but challenges are usually pretty fun. For reference, we’re about 60 miles (90-100km) away from that transmitter.

Turns out, it can be a bit tough. I started out with an RCA CANT711 (from Walmart), which mounted outdoors about 25 feet in the air, using the built-in 10db amplifier, shockingly managed to pull in FOX’s digital station… sometimes. It’s one of those tiny antennas in a plastic tube, and surprisingly it beat out the massive standalone YAGI antennas I tried (a 14-foot and an 8-foot).

Of course, nothing’s more frustrating than a signal that only comes in some of the time. After a pile of research, I decided to give the Winegard HD8200U a try. It’s supposed to be similar to the 8200P, except that it’s in sections so that it can be shipped by standard delivery services (UPS/Purolator/FedEx/etc) rather than having to be shipped by truck.

I ordered it through xtek.ca, who shipped it via Purolator.

Here’s the box:

I left the sandals there (large mens) to give you an idea as to how big this box is. It managed to obtain a small hole during shipping, but didn’t sustain any damage inside.

Opening the box, you can continue reading…

To be upfront, this isn’t a performance review with benchmarks and stuff. It’s more of a purchase review. I’ll sum this up pretty quick for those who are reading dozens of reviews and just want the “gist” of things:

1 stick was good, 1 stick was faulty. RMA service to Canada is kinda awful.

2 sentences. If that’s all you needed to know, you can go on to the next review now. You’re welcome.

Now for the details.

I ordered the RAM through NewEgg (about $80) for my continue reading…

When I picked up the 2011 MacBook Pro, I needed a mouse at the same time.

I’ve used Logitech mice almost exclusively over the years, but they haven’t been without their issues. Poor Mac software, inaccurate scroll wheels, and (more importantly) feet that either wear off or aren’t held on well by the glue.

Razor’s built a pretty good name for themselves, so I decided to give a Razor mouse a try this time around. I got the DeathAdder – fairly basic mouse with 2 thumb-buttons and a clickable scroll-wheel.

 

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I wasn’t expecting anything out of the ordinary, but was so impressed within the first continue reading…

Actually, at the moment the biggest look is inside the MBP itself and is at this…

I think there's about half a tube of thermal paste on the MacBook Pro's processor/GPU by default (okay, not half a tube, but way too much). I replaced it with some Noctua stuff in a write-up linked to below.

I recently grabbed a 15″ MacBook Pro (the 2011 flavor with the 6750m). I’d read about the temps being quite high, although I was quite surprised to find out just how high they could get…. 100 degrees C when running OCCT. That’s incidentally Intel’s thermal limit for that chip. The chip throttles down, the fans eventually kick up in speed, and the temperatures drop to the low 90′s.

In any case, I pulled the thing apart and replaced the thermal goop. You wouldn’t believe how thick that stuff is spread on at the factory. I documented the process at a new site devoted to this little thing (I’m typing on it now), simply titled My 2011 MacBook Pro.

 

If you’re interested in reading about the process (complete with oodles of pics), you can find it here:

Replacing CPU and GPU (6750m) thermal paste to lower temperatures on the 2011 MacBook Pro

In short though, the process was fairly long with cable removal being the biggest issue. Seriously, I think they used every different cable connection type they could… it’s not a process for the feint of heart. The goop was on really thick. After cleaning it up and applying my own thermal paste, temperatures dropped a fair bit although they still managed to hit 100 degrees under OCCT.

There’s a bit of a twist, having to do with the GPU temps, but rather than copy the write-up again, you can find the results page on the site above if you’re interested.

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The site’s pretty sparse so far, although much more is coming in the days ahead. I’ve been up for the last 24 hours though testing and writing (and the last 24 hours were “day 2″), so for the moment, I need some sleep.

Edit: a little more’s been added to the site – a MacBook Pro heatsink mod, and a 5400 vs 7200 RPM hard drive comparison.

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