Saturday, October 2, 2010

Quieten Kitchen Cabinet Doors



I do not like doors that don't shut quietly! These devices are like shock absorbers
and they absorb the force of the door and slow it down to a crawl. Of course you have to have hinges that are designed to close at a slight push. Most cabinets have them I believe. I bought the product from Woodworkers Hardware.






This is another view of the placement of the shock absorber.

Need a remote "ethernet port"? ddwrt for bridging

Took me a while to get to this item. Basically I was driven to get a remote ethernet port because my Panasonic Blu Ray had an ethernet port for services such as Netflix. But Panasonic would sell me a wifi device to attach for about $60-80 as I remember.

So my choices, since I did not want to spend the money, were
a)wire ethernet in the house to the Blu Ray device
or
b)set up a spare linksys wrtgp4 to receive signal over the air from the primary linksys. This technique is called "bridging"

a) was not an option, can be done but pain in the neck.
b) was easier with ddwrt software. You basically have to change the linksys software and apply the ddwrt software on primary and the second linksys. Then you have a linksys talking to another linksys over the air and providing an ethernet port for you at the second linksys. From that port you wire a small ethernet cord to your device and, voila, "bobs your uncle", and you have ethernet at your Blu Ray device.

Now using the ddwrt software is not hard, but you have to follow their instructions precisely, I mean, exactly. If they say hold your breadth for 10 seconds(!) do it or it will fail. :) Anyway go to the ddwrt site and all will be revealed. There's not much point in me repeating all that's there. They have a list of linksys or Cisco as it is now called that work. Pay attention precisely to the version number.
Now all this is a savings if you can get a linksys cheap,which you can by looking on Craigslist. People sell old linksys for $10 or so.

Mostly its a lot of fun to beat the system! Good luck. If questions, leave me a note with your email, I will delete the email before I post it.

Bending Acrylic for Home Projects

TBD

Basement Window Well Cover

TBD

Cleaning Out Basement Egress













Over time the Basement Egress window broke, the metal frame that holds the window (a.k.a buck) got rusted, the space inside the window well got filled with dirt.
Not a nice job, but the window replacement is a snap-in, since its meant to facilitate exit during a fire if you are in the basement. Also had to make an acrylic window cover since its a larger size.
Nothing difficult, just crappy work. But should be done for safety reasons.
Some of the things to do, more will be apparent as you get in there. There is a drain cover that empties into the drain tile and thence to the basement(from where its pumped out). Must be clear and should be tested with a hose.
(This was done about a year ago, so its a little dusty)
Cleaning out
-Removing mud, gravel
-Replacing drain cover
-Test the drain with a hose, fire some water and see if it enters the basement well and then pump it out
-Removing Rust from the "buck"; grind it out, or use Naval Jelly(be safe, eyeglasses, breathing filter), and then paint it.
Replacing the pull-out window; mine is a Monarch from Iowa. Call them for dealer information

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

iPOD wall charger used to charge Kindle DX(use at your own risk)




I recently left my Kindle DX wall charger at a hotel. There are other ways of course to charge a kindle dx
-plug the kindle dx cable in to the USB port of a computer and follow the kindle instructions
-naturally, use a wall charger if you haven't lost it.
Alternatively, after researching from an Amazon website (http://www.amazon.com/review/R1KDXG1U1SX0JZ?cdPage=2), I charged the Kindle DX. (after verifying the voltages,etc) I plugged the USB end of the provided Kindle DX cable to the iPOD Nano wall charger (pic, above,original from Apple, has a USB receptacle). Worked fine so far. However, I am an amateur, I cannot guarantee this works on your Kindle DX. So if you chose to use, its solely at your risk.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Deactivate Netflix User Account on Panasonic DMP BD65 BD85 Blu Ray, OR How Do I Switch Netflix Accounts



Updated 12/26/2011: Procedure works on the following devices as reported by
visitors


Panasonic BD 65
Blu-Ray

Samsung BD-C6500
Blu-Ray

Panasonic BDT 210
Blu-Ray 3D

Panasonic BD-85
Blu-Ray

Panasonic TC-P50S30
Plasma TV

Wii -Need somebody to verify. Reading the web indicates that this procedure
will work on the Wii as well. But unsure.



Updated 10/13/2011




I had the situation where my son activated Netflix to demonstrate how it works. But he left and I tried to activate with a new Netflix account and it did not permit me. I always got the red banner with a white screen below.
Here's how the Netflix person told me how to fix it and it works. I had called Panasonic and they said call Netflix.
A really nice lady helped me.
So what you do is follow this "sequence"
Press the up arrow 2 times
Then the down arrow 2 times
And now the left arrow 1 time, followed by the right arrow 1 time.
And, repeat , left 1 time, right 1 time
Finally, up arrow 4 times.
Wait a while, power it down, go back to the Netflix page and see if shows you a deactivation page which is self explanatory.
If it didn't work first, try again . It worked for me.

Updated 11/20/2011: This below comment from a visitor is very well written. If you follow his instructions to the letter it should work just fine:
"Quoting this because it worked the EXACT same way for me, including pressing OK to exit: I have a Panasonic BD65. You have to enter this sequence(above) after entering the netflix application but before it loads the instant queue. I entered the sequence while it was showing the spinning circle saying it was getting the instant queue. It then shows some account information and has an option to select for deactivating. The screen then just sat there saying deactivating until I hit the remote ok button - this exited Netflix and took me back the Viera Cast screen".

Updated 10/20/2011: Your comments are appreciated. It would be great if you also provided the name of the device for which you applied the procedure.
I want to make a table of those for which it works so people can easily scan it.

Updated 10/13/2011:I'm getting a lot of hits per the statistics, over 24 per day! Please leave a comment such as "it worked", "it failed".

Updated 9/13/2011: There are some great comments / usage tips from people who found this useful. If my procedure doesn't work for you, please review the comments.
I'm also getting the feeling that this procedure works with other Blu Ray players, (one post), but I don't have the ability to test them.

I publish all comments unless they are inappropriate
Fixingthingsguy