Toyota Smog Test FAIL Again

Well, she failed the smog test again.

This time it was for NOX emissions, and the HC and CO passed.

EGR is a technique used to lower the combustion chamber temperature, thereby reducing the amount of Oxides of Nitrogen produced.

It's a "known issue" with the 5M-GE engine that the passage through the intake manifold from the EGR valve to where it dumps into the throttle body gets plugged up.

A very simple test is to apply vacuum to the port on the EGR valve, which opens it, and dumps large quantities of exhaust gas into the intake manifold.

It should make the engine stumble ot stall, as the EGR is normally disabled at idle.

I hooked the valve to direct manifold vacuum, and I could hear and feel the valve "POP" open and shut.

NO change in idle speed or quality, indicating that the passage is plugged.

Not a terribly difficult job to do, but time consuming, and you have to do with engine COLD.

I'll also be replacing the catalytic converter, as the one on the car looks to be the original one, and after 30+ years, and 165,000 miles, it's about time to retire it!

Since I was driving on expired plates and didn't want to get pulled over and ticketed, I took the side streets to the nearest smog test place. As a result, the car didn't get the usual "30 minute highway blast" to get it FULLY warmed up, and get the converter nice and hot. A converter at the correct operating temperature is essential to get it working correctly, and an old one usually benefits from a good highway run before getting the car tested.

Hopefully a new converter and cleaning the EGR system will get rid of the vicious pass/fail/pass/fail cycle this car has been trapped in for the last 10 years or so.

And I'll also replace the distributor cap and rotor, as the one on the engine looks pretty old, and I have a couple of new ones I bought on sale at Rock Auto.

One other thing I'm considering is to put 5 gallons of lead-free, alcohol free 100 octane VP racing fuel into the tank before I take it back to get retested.

The octane requirement for these engines is only 91 octane, BUT when they were designed and built, the computers were calibrated to use GASOLINE, not some funky blend of gas and moonshine!

As far as I'm concerned, adding 10% booze to the gas I buy at the pump means I'm buying adulterated gasoline. There are a few "pure gas" stations here in SoCal, but none are close to where I live.

Luckily there's a VP distributor here in Long Beach, so getting a 5 gallon bucket is just a short drive.

One of the things about the 10% ethanol blends here in Kommiefornia is that the quality is all over the map. Sometimes the refiners will use a lower grade base stock, and ballast it with ethanol to get the octane up, and sometimes they won't.

And it's well known that 10% ethanol blended gas can damage the fuel systems on cars not modified to use it.

The whole thing is just another "feel good" program to con people into thinking "renewable energy", when we have plenty of oil in the ground here in the USA.

Of, well....enough ranting for now.

Off to the auto parts store (NOT Auto Zone!) to order a converter, and grab a new gas cap while I'm at it. The car passed the "EVAP" portion of the test fine, but the smog guy was suggesting that the old, crusty gas cap get replaced just for peace of mind, and I agree. It's just one of those things I kept forgetting to do.....

Hey, Kids....What Time Is It?

It's LOG TIME!

A blast from the past.....




There's a longer, much funnier commercial, but I can't embed it, so here's the link to it.

GQRX is Broken.....RATS!

Thought I'd try messing around a bit with a few of the USB "dongles" I have last night, and went to fire up GQRX on this PC.

It wouldn't start.

Running it from the command line revealed the following error: gqrx: symbol lookup error: /usr/lib64/libgnuradio-osmosdr-0.1.5git.so.0.0.0: undefined symbol: hackrf_device_list

Google shows nothing posted about this error in the last year, and some of the comments I did find about it related to broken symlinks.

SO....I proceeded to remove ALL of the SDR, radio, hamlib, gnuradio, linrad, hackRF, and other numerous assorted and sundry files from this machine. This took a bit of searching, as removing the software with the YaST package manager still leaves some debris behind in hidden config files and libs.

Did a reboot, reinstalled only gqrx and it's requirements, and was greeted by the same error.

SO.....back to searching, or I guess I can build it all from source, which takes a while, and can be no guarantee of producing an error-free install.

UPDATE

Well, it seems this package provides functionality for a lot of things:

"OsmoSDR Gnuradio Source supports the OsmoSDR hardware, but it also offers a wrapper functionality for FunCube Dongle, Ettus UHD and rtl-sdr radios."

Now to find out why it's broken.... 


UPDATE 2 

Well, I've got one of the little receivers working with a very basic Linrad configuration. Here it is receiving NOAA weather radio on 162.550MHz: 

  

 So, either Linrad uses completely different libraries, or something "fixed" itself.

Linrad is really cool software, and I should spend the time and learn how to use it better. At this point, it's a bit hard to adjust things and change/add things "on the fly". For example, while you can grab the side and/or top and bottom of the screen to resize it, those settings won't "stick" when you exit the program, and it will restart at the size you choose when you set it up the first time. A lot of things can get set in the "Global Parameters" setting, but require a restart to see the changes.

Guess I'm too spoiled by GUIs in my old age!

I'll try running GQRX again, but I have a feeling it's going to stay busted until an update rolls out.

Oh, and Gnuradio doesn't work anymore.

I try and start GRC from the command line, and it barfs back: Warning: Block key "blocks_ctrlport_monitor_performance" not found when loading category tree.

Segmentation fault

Seg faults are bad.................

TGIF!

Enjoy the weekend!

I'm tinkering on getting one of the "USB Dongle" SDR receivers to work on the %%##$$!! Polaroid Android (say that three times fast!) tablet that my dear little wife gave me for Christmas.

After that, there are several software packages I'll try and install to do some useful things, like receive ACARS broadcasts and VTS info.

I'd also like to "root" it, but after spending dozens of hours on trying to do that, I've just about given up.

I was able to get "developer's access" rights on it, but I can't find any rooting software that's compatible with the hardware.

I just might sell this one and get one that's known to be rootable, as theses things come with entirely too much crapware on them,and most of the "factory installed" stuff can't be removed without root access.

Antipodal Map

The other day somebody asked me how "far" I could "talk" using Amateur Radio.

The obvious answer was half-way around the world, depending on band conditions.

So then I started thinking (I know, a sometimes dangerous thing with me), where, exactly, was "Half Way Around The World"?

Well, the point that's "half-way around the world" from wherever you are is called The Antipode, and of course, there's an app for that:

It's a pretty neat little webpage, and it's located here.

I'm Such a Klutz......

Well....yesterday morning as I was having my 2nd cup of coffee, I turned around to do something, and dumped coffee over.

ALL over the desk, and my IBM "clicky" keyboard.

I've lost keyboards in the past when I've spilled various liquids on them, but hopefully the IBM will survive plain, black coffee after it dries out.

It really pained me to open up my last brand-new IBM keyboard, and put it into service, but I don't have any other decent keyboards with a PS2 connector, so I slit the plastic wrap open and put it on the desk.

The worst I've ever done was dumping an entire milkshake on a keyboard a year or two ago. I put that one in the dishwasher (I have a very understanding wife!) on low heat, with no supplemental drying heat, and after it came out I left it outside for a few days to completely dry off.

Surprisingly, it came back to life, very clean, and smelling nice, too.

Today is the 27th anniversary or the Turret #2 explosion on the Iowa. I was going to go down to the ship for the memorial service, but woke up a bit late.

A moment of silence, please.....

Thank you.

Headed Out To A Supra "Meet and Greet and Eat".

Headed out to Wildomar, Ca in an hour or so to attend the Southern California Supra Meet.

Like most of the Supra meets I've gone to, the majority of the cars there will be the MKIV "A80" (1992~2002) models, followed by the MKIII "A70" (1986~1992) models.

The the MKII "A60" (1982~1986), and MKI "A40" (1978~1981) models are getting less and less common these days.

Since you can't tell the players without a program, here 'ya go:



"Mark I" Supra:

"Mark II" Supra:

"Mark III" Supra:

"Mark IV" Supra:

When I'd decided I wanted one of these, I settled on either a MKII or MKIII. The MKII's were "Spaceships" when they first hit the market, and I almost bought one in 1983, but held off as I'd only been here in Kommifornia for a year, and was getting settled into my new career at Hughes Aircraft.

Then I got married.

Then we had a kid.

Then we bought a house......

So it took me about 30 years to finally get one!

I looked at and drove several MKIII's, but decided against it because they'd gained about 500 pounds, and weren't quite as nimble as the MKII's. They had larger engines, though, and were available with turbochargers, so they were significantly quicker than the MKII's.

The MKIV's were completely out of my price range, having shot through the roof after they first appeared in the "Fast and Furious" movies.

The twin-turbo MKIV's are also stupid fast, having 300HP, and 320 ft-lbs of torque. "Car and Driver" said to think of them as a "Lexus for Smokey Yunick".

The bottom end of the engines are pretty bullet-proof, and can easily be cranked up to over 400HP with minimal effort.

Last year at the "Supras In Vegas" meet there were several slightly modified ones running low 12's at the strip, and a couple of track-only cars running in the 8's at over 135MPH!

On a good day, my MKII might break into the 16's, at maybe 85MPH, so you can see they really evolved in the ten years between the models.

The MKII is a sweetheart to drive, though. 2.8 liter DOHC electronic fuel injection, 4 wheel disc brakes, 4 wheel independent suspension, 5 speed manual transmission, and it all plays together extremely well. Not a very quick car (acceleration), and not a very fast car (top speed), but immensely rewarding to drive, and quite capable of hustling along at high speeds in comfort.

Just don't square off against any new cars, or you'll get your doors blown off, and the other guy won't even know he's "racing" you!

Got Nothin'.......

YAWN.........go read the good people on the sidebars whilst I try and think of something informative, clever, and amusing to write......

Suggestions For Good Hiking Boots?

I've been buying my boots from Big 5 or Sports Authority for some time now.

Columbia, Hi-Tech, Denali, I've bought all of them, and I'm getting a little tired of the spotty quality on them.

The laces in particular have the life expectancy of a Kleenex during flu season, and an almost new pair (couple of months old) just had BOTH laces snap!

I bought some really good laces via Amazon a while back, so I'm covered there, and I have several hundred feet of "550" paracord, so I can always make "Heavy Duty" laces that will probably outlast the boots!

Not looking for $300 boots, just something better than the $50 "on Sale" ones I always seem to get.

I switched from wearing good "tennis" shoes and cross-trainers to the boots 10 or 12 years ago to get better ankle support. I busted one ankle and dislocated the other one (yep, at the same time!) around 1985, and as I got older and more active outdoors, I needed something better with more ankle support.

The soles on most of the hikers I've tried have always given me good traction on dirt and in the wet, so I don't need any exotic Tacticool soles, either.

Not looking for full height combat boots, either, just some decent "mid length" hikers.

Any suggestions?

GO NAVY! Bill Whittle Sails On The USS Pasadena SSN-752

Mr Whittle's latest, and it's a good one.

Thank you, Mr. Whittle, for letting us go with you.

And if you ever make it down to San Pedro, I just happen to know where this Battleship is......

Police Drones (And Others) Subject to Hacking

I'm shocked, I tell you.....shocked!

This does not surprise me in the least. Security in most wireless systems is an afterthought, if any thought at all is given to it.

Go here to ExtremeTech and read the whole thing.

The hack uses the classic "Man-In-The-Middle" approach, one of the oldest network intrusion hacks around.