android, Part 1: Rooting my android phone

In preparation for putting a more upto date version of android on my Motorola Defy I need to 'root' my phone.

This is Part 1 of three posts:

NB: doing these operations will invalidate your warranty & may brick your phone. I take no responsibility & you proceed at your own risk. Saying that it worked for me so I am alright jack.

• Part 2 describes how to back up your phone
• Part 3 describes how to upgrade your phones android version

I followed the instructions here.
Please note the following though:

• Despite the instructions I had to have USB debugging enabled. See here.
• The process involves several automatic reboots of the phone.
• The system asks for & appears to need BusyBox installed on your PC.

You can test to see if your phone is rooted using an app called ConnectBot described here.

The first root specific app I have installed is the much praised Titanium Backup. So far just the free version.

Next step will be the big one. Installing a newer version of android.

Heated Windscreen for a Landrover Defender

I bought myself a landrover Defender just before last winter & after having to scrape ice off the inside as well as the outside I thought I would invest in a heated windscreen.

The windscreen was installed professionally. I just had to do the electronics and after help from lr4x4 and especially this post this is what I have achieved.

Here is the circuit I have gone for.

I could have used the conventional landrover circuit but I find switching earth very confusing.

Why do you need a timer relay & a high current relay?

•  This is because the windscreen takes 30Amps and a timer relay is only designed for about 10Amps and the switch for less than that.

A simple switch from maplin would suffice but I fancied a proper landrover switch. The slight issue here is that the switch is designed to switch earth. Thankfully a clever gent from lr4x4 has suggested this mod and I can vouch that it works. You need to open up the switch carefully and cut one of the tracks.

Before the modification the terminals are :

     Pin 1 - from Timer Relay
     Pin 2 - Live from Dash Illumination
     Pin 3 - Not Used (but internally connected to Pin 4)
     Pin 4 - To Earth
    Pin 5 - Live from output side of Relay (to light the tell-tale LED)

Opening the switch is a little tricky. There are some catches which can be pushed in with a very fine screw driver and the switch pings in half if you push it apart with your thumbs.

After the modification the terminals are:

     Pin 1 - Live from fusebox
     Pin 2 - Live from Dash Illumination
    Pin 3 - To Earth
    Pin 4 - Switched Live Pulse to VWP relay
    Pin 5 - Live from output side of Relay (to light the tell-tale LED)

To wire up the switch you need a connector plug. These are hard to come by & the only supplier I could find was a ZZPLUG01 from Dingocraft. This needed a small amount of surgery with a stanley knife so perhaps I should have got the ZZPLUG02, but it is in and works.

The connections for the timer relay are:

     Terminal 1 - A momentary 12V from your switch, this starts the timed session
     Terminal 2 - Earth
     Terminal 3 - Fused 12V supply from battery, this is where your screen gets it power from.
     Terminal 4 - Ignition 12V. This is what makes the internals of your timer work
     Terminal 5 - Goes to positive terminal of your screen. 

The correct way to get the power to the switch & timer relay is to use a feed from the oil pressure switch but I have to confess I did not know where that was. The reason for using the oil pressure switch is to stop you using the windscreen without the engine running (to stop you getting a flat battery).

I cheated. The electric windows will only work with the ignition fully on so I took my feed from there, with the addition of a 5Amp fuse between the electric window feed and my circuits. It is obviously possible to turn the ignition to position 3 and not start the vehicle & then turn on the windscreen but who would be so daft.....Only time will tell!

Next up I will be fitting heated mirrors from mudstuff. The circuitry will be identical except that they do not need a feed direct from the battery as they only draw a couple of amps.

Significant Parts list:
    dash switch - part number: YUG000460LNF
    timer relay - part number: Ref:74350
    high current relay: maxi relay Ref: 268763
    dash switch connector

Creating & storing maps on your phone

I have an android phone & I have tried various mapping software applications.

My current favourite is Maverick. This is a great free mapping app with access to all sorts of mapping formats even 1:25,000 Ordnance survey maps for the UK.

The trouble most of these solutions is that the maps are requested on demand, so when you are up in the hills you can not get at the data and when you are abroad it will cost you a fortune.

The solution is to get the data before you need it. Most mapping apps store the requested maps as you view them so you can pan around while on wi-fi for the area you are interested in to view when you are up in the hills.

But what if you want maps for a large area. I am off to Spain soon and found it was taking an age to get the maps I wanted so I looked for an alternative solution.

I chose Mobac. This runs on your PC, downloading the maps and converting them to the mapping software of your choice. You select an area, the style of map and the map client software and away you go.

Things to look out for:

1. The more detailed (zoomed in) maps you choose the larger the data. Its pretty well exponential. Avoiding level 16 will save you loads of time & data.
2. Getting the data on to the phone is also a pain. Transferring 1000s of individual files takes an age. I tried the likes of FastCopy but they corrupted the URL of the USB mounted directory of the phone. I ended up zipping up folders of files, copying these to the phone and unzipping.
3. Connecting wifi'ly has made all the difference to data transfer. Much much faster than USB.

The mapping format I have chosen are the excellent OSM cycle map.

Combing maverick with the excellent Gpsies.com is proving excellent.

Freeing a stuck cassette on my road bike

The other day I wanted to replace the cassette on my road bike, the first time in 2.5 years - makes a change from the MTB which needs doing more than once a year.

Anyway, I undid the lockring & took the first two rings off.

The first shock I had was that the cassette & freehub all came off the wheel in one piece.

Oooops I thought, but it turns out that the freehub was supposed to come away. But what I could not do was get the remains of the cassette of the freehub. It was firmly stuck & no matter of subtle welly would get it to budge.

I took the wheel & cassette to the shop I had bought the new one from, Merlin in Chorley.

There the mechanic, did a great trick & free of charge. Thanks Merlin. Using two chain whips one in each direction with one on the outer (smallest) gear he gave them a little jiggle and off popped the first gear.

He then repeated the process until they were all off.

Turns out the cause is having a very lightweight (for that read soft) freehub, and the cassette had eaten into the splines like a key and locked itself on.

Looking for a romantic night away in Chester

After loosing the kids for a week at PGL we booked ourselves into the Dragonfly boutique hotel in Chester for a romantic night away.

Absolutely fantastic. It was just what we wanted, a small personal hotel with just 5 rooms in a gorgeous Georgian house 5 minutes walk from the town centre.

Thoroughly recommended.

Maxle lite rear axle problems

My current mountain bike has a Maxle Lite rear axle.

I got this because I was led to believe it would be alot stiffer than a conventional axle.

Sadly in 6 months I have managed to brake the axle twice.

Looking at the components and talking to Hope and Biketreks I can see that this is a design flaw in the quick release (QR) Maxle sleeve made by SRAM. The sleeve has a waste line at the very point where it needs to be full diameter.

Hope have been very informative and helpful and gave me a replacement axle free of charge.

Biketreks have also been extremely helpful and having been stone walled by SRAM have agreed to supply to me under warrenty a replacement QR sleeve made by Goldtec. My guess is that SRAM know they have a problem and will eventually get a fix out, but like many other similar issues they will not want to admit to it publicly because then they will be admitting liability.

I have also written about the issue on the STW forum.

Thank you Hope and Biketreks for excellent service.

Very refreshing to be treated so well.

squirt - dry chain lube

I have tried many chain lubes, ones for wet weather, ones for dry weather, oil ones, wax ones.

However, following a recommendation from Ed of Great Rock, the latest I have tried is squirt lube and it is easily the best.

The chain and cassette stay clean of dirt and all that claggy mess that normally builds up and it is biodegradeable. Note. You must follow the instructions for the initial application but after that it is great. Also it appears to last alot longer than a conventional lube.

Better still order from their website and it is sent P&P free.

They also offer nice little free sample bottles.
see the Squirt Contact Us page.

Just don't try googling for 'squirt', the naming is unfortunate!