Phantom 3 Controller Transmitter Disassembly

Unlike P2 transmitter, the P3 is extremely compact and you may run a risk of damaging the ribbon on disassembly.

Phantom 3 Intelligent battery

Replacing Rear Shock of TU31, Presage, serena, Quest and alike

Nissan Altima, Presage, Sentra QR25 Belt Tensioner replacement

Reason to replace : High pitch squeak recurs few months after new belt replacement . The tensioner spring lost its tension and will eventually causing belt slippage and high pitch squeak intermittently. There are 2 12mm screw on the tensioner. However, the upper one is very difficult to reach as the  space is tight between the chasis and the pulley. The job takes me 1.5 hours to complete. 

Step 1: loosen the belt ( You should be familiar with belt change) by using a 14mm wrench.

Once the belt is loosened, the lower 12mm bolt showed up.

 The upper tensioner bolt is very difficult to reach and very difficult to insert a 12mm bolt wrench, because of tight space .

The new tensioner is made by the same OEM Bangdo. The old pulley itself is still in shape. 

Nissan ( Altima Similar ), Presage , TU31 Front Engine Mount replacement

This is one of the toughest DIY job I have done. The Nissan engine mount 17mm nut is crimped and not to be replaceable by an average DIYer. With a 600Nm torque wrench, I can bearly loosened the crimped nut. There is not enough space for an impact wrench and using an angled adapter will reduce its torque. It takes me almost 3 hours as I have no  idea how to do it as there is not much information on the internet or the workshop manual. 

 This is taken under the car. The 1st  front mount 17mm nut is loosened with impact wrench.

 The rest of the 2 17mm nut is loosened from above. The fan is better to be removed to allow more working space.

 The tranny is jacked. Here is the wrong illustration without a piece of wood.  Don't jack too far 1-2 inches is enough to loosen all 3 screws.

 This is the hardest part to think out how to remove the mount. Finally I get it from above, easily once the engine is jacked up  enough. The front mount can be slide forward easily.

The mount is removed, showing the space. Remember, the mount can only by slide forward ( towards to radiator)

 Left old mount with compressed rubber and some cracks.

 New mount is slide into space with some leverage.

17mm nuts and screw can be easily inserted ( with appropriate engine jacked up sequentially) and then tightened with.

Replacing Presage TU31 rear brake pad

Sqeaking noise was heard recently at high speed. It will disappear on braking briefly. Inspection revealed rear pad wear to limit of less than 2mm.

The top 14mm screw of the clamp is removed. The  clamp is flipped open and the cylinder is pressed inward gently. The old pad is removed and the back plate is priced out. New pads are dropped in and the clamp is flipped back. The 14mm screw is put into place. Note there is some grease at the screw tip. I put some blue loctite at the socket end as some corrosion is noted.

Why Protrek water resistance will fail

These are the tiny O-rings in the side buttons.

These are the O-rings on the chasis. They are subject to dirt built up. Once the O-ring aged, lubricant dries up or pressure difference is great and sudden, leaks will happen.

Repairing Tag Heuer watch

This watch has been fixed by shop once and claim the circuit board was changed. It stops working 12 months afterwards.
After changing battery,  it does not work.
 First disassemble to see if any sign of moisture condensation. Then lubricate the very tiny gears. It still does not function at all.

Finally I found one of the component has fracture soldering. After resolder it, it finally works again!

Faulty lipo charger

My loyal lipo charger served me for more than 6 years and it was found that it fails to charge at 2A rate. Symptoms look like some sort of overheating as it fails after few minutes of charging repeatedly. The failure can be reproduced consistently.

Taking apart and no component looks fried. Likely a cheap way to repait is to change those capacitors that are close to the FET and coil that dried up the capacitors. After changing the closest 220uF 25V and 440uF 35V capacitors, it works perfectly as new. Then I change all capacitors prophylatically.

12V Pb Acid Battery power 220V 500W rotary Hammer

Test : 220V @ 2.1A = 450W

12V inverter connect to two Pb-Acid in parallel : 12V @ 30A ~ 360W

Samsung Note1 N7000 2.3.6 Jelly Bean 4.1.2 upgrade

Mine is an European version bought in Hong Kong. Android version 2.3.6 and I do not bother to upgrade it to ICS for the past 10 months. Now the Multi screen and S note function tempted me to upgrade to 4.1.2.

Hear focks have problem of upgrading to 4.1.2 with problems of:
1) freeze in middle of upgrade from 2.3.6 to 4.1.2
2) Polaris no longer available
3) Call recording in rooted ICS not working
4) simlock for unauthorized upgrade of unlocked sim  Note.

The upgrade is pretty straight forward. No reset or wipe done. Just upgrade with a USB cable and newest Kies from samsung HK.
I  try upgrade through Kies/ USB and it detected my old version LA2/ phone LA4 firmware and notify me to upgrade to LM5/LS0/LM5 (TGY) 4.1.2. The whole upgrade takes less than 30 mins and is so smooth that all data and installed apps are not deleted. It even reminds me and automatically migrate all Smemo to Snote after upgrading.

I am happy with :
1) Response is faster than 2.3.6 and
2) Snote is much powerful
3) Muti screen function is perfect
4) Camera focus noticeable faster
5) Splanner looks much better

I like the encryption function most as I like to encrypt all files in the external SD card , in case I lost the phone (which I did before). Dare not try encrypting the phone itself as people complaining user intervention is needed in case a reboot happens unexpectedly , since password is required to boot up the  phone.

The files encrypted in the external SD card cannot be read be card reader (only file name listed in PC).

Battery life is not an issue at all for me.

Replace Mio P350 lithium battery

The stock battery is weak and hard to found  a replacement. So I replaced it with nokia Bl6c1 which has a compatible dimension. You need to resolder the old  battery circuit board to the new battery as the battery temp protection  thermistor value  is different.

Repair GPS Tracker

My GPS/ GSM Tracker gave me wrong coordinate out of a sudden. Reset does not helo and end up open it up to takw a look. Found the GSM antenna contact has some corrosion, as it is used in somewhere with high humidity. Cleaning the contact and it works again.

Cheated by the Keyless Entry remote. TU31

99% chance that a malfunctioning keyless entry remote is due to dead lithium battery. But what if two remote suddenly failed simultaneously, lithium battery reads 3V on voltmeter and the problem not solved after changing a new battery. This make me think of the faulty BCM body control module. After spending 30mins locating and dismantling the BCM, I feel that I should go back to the test the remote unit. On loading two 3V lithium battery ti a superbright led, I found the old and replaced battery drop from 3V to 1.5V.  What a shame being fooled by the "normal " looking unloaded battery voltage.

Ninja 300 ABS

Most ABS Motorcycle can be identified to have ABS installed by looking for the presence of the ABS slot sensor. The sensor disc send signal to the ECU to detect the rotational speed of the front and tail wheel. It then control the ABS solenoid (So the fuse box will have a ABS realy / fuse slot as well) to operate the moderator and redistribute the braking force to the front and rear wheel.