Archive for December, 2006
Christmas Spirit
Dec 29th
Some of you may be wondering why it is I haven’t posted anything in a while. Some of you won’t, but I don’t care… The main reason I’ve not posted anything in a while, is because I have been quite busy at work and as you know, the ‘January’ sales are here. I’ve not really ventured into them at all from a shopping point of view, but thats a different story altogether.
The other reason I haven’t posted anything – especially on Christmas Day (I intended to do a Merry Christmas post and everything), is thanks to a rather crazy night out on the day before Christmas Eve. And by crazy I mean drunken. Extremely drunken.
I only remember half the night in its entirety (the first half, obviously). The second half is mostly a blur with a few moments of clear memory.
Many thanks go out to a few people -I’m not totally sure who if I’m honest… but I vaguely remember an issue getting my coat, amongst other things. But one definite mention is to Mr JT though, who helped me home.
Problems arose however, when we got out of the taxi at stupid o clock in the morning and proceeded to open the front door. It was only after several minutes of the most unsuccesful door opening in the history of man, that our dynamic duo realised it wasn’t actually the right house…
Too much Christmas Spirit is bad. Mmmkay?
Bah Humbug
Dec 20th
So its the week before Christmas, and as usual, I have left all my shopping till the last minute. I know they say you learn from your mistakes, but I think in this case it’s safe to say I have a mental block.
I went down to Meadowhall earlier today to try and find some gifts for friends and family. Easy job, I thought. Maybe a couple of hours and I’ll be sorted. I had a list planned out and everything. Only, the list went out the window when I arrived and I spent hours wandering in and out of shops not knowing what the hell to buy. Constantly doubting my thoughts: “Oh but what if they don’t like it?!” “Maybe thats too cheap” “What if someone else has got them something similar!” “Does my bum look big in this!?” Ok so maybe not the last one, but you get the idea.
I ended up spending a stupid amount of time there and had two measly purchases to show for my efforts. It wasn’t as crowded as I thought it would be, that was a bonus. But the queues in certain shops were unbelieveable. Namely card shops. The queues went around the shop twice at least. All I wanted was a £5 pack of cards!!!! So needless to say, I didn’t buy them and thats something else thats added to the list.
Four days to go. And I haven’t even figured out what to get some people. This will be interesting.
Ideas on a postcard. KTHXBYE.
Fitting a Boost Gauge
Dec 18th
What is a Boost Gauge and why do I need one?
On cars fitted with a turbo, the air flowing into the engine for combustion is compressed rather than being allowed to flow in naturally (as in a normally aspirated engine). The advantage is that compression means more air can be forced into the cylinders, and a combined with higher fuelling rate, results in an increase in power output from the engine. The pressure of the air (commonly referred to as ‘boost’) is measured in standard units (PSI or BAR) and can be checked using a boost gauge. Boost gauges are useful for troubleshooting if the car is running lower boost than expected and can also be employed as preventative measure: i.e. if you suddenly see the boost drop when driving you know something is wrong.
This guide will give a brief set of instructions on fitting a boost gauge using a few pictures I have from when I fitted one on my 306 DTurbo.
What you need
- Boost Gauge
I used a standard 52mm diameter mechanical gauge for my install. Having a mechanical one means running a section of tubing from the engine bay into the car to measure the pressure. The alternative is an electrical gauge which requires a wire rather than the tubing. In either case, there will also be a few wires to connect to +12V and GND for illumination.
- For the mechanical solution, you should get with the gauge, a fitting kit consisting of a T-Piece, some tubing and maybe other fittings. If you didn’t, then any DIY store should have these things quite cheap. Also, get some jubilee clips to secure the fittings.
- Somewhere to mount the gauge
I got hold of some A-pillar mounts for my gauges but a common place is in the dash itself if you are prepared to do some retrofitting.
In the Engine Bay
The first thing you need to do is locate the boost pipe. In the case of the 306, it is connecting the intercooler to the fuel pump. The pipe itself is quite thick, but the internal diameter isn’t so make sure you get a suitable t-piece. The plan is to split this pipe in half and fix the t-piece in the middle and take a feed to the boost gauge. The image shows the approximate location of the pipe circled red (ignore the orange pipe bit; the picture was taken after I fitted the t-piece and that was added to lengthen the existing pipe):
Fit the t-piece, either using an extra bit of piping like I did, or cut your existing pipe and fit it between the two halves. Secure each joint with a metal jubilee clip to ensure a tight seal so no air can escape.
The above photo was taken from below the joining section looking up – just in case you were confused by the perspective.
You can now connect the boost gauge pipe to the t-piece as shown in the picture, again securing it with a jubilee clip. This now needs to be fed around the engine block and through the bulkhead, into the car. I used the hole and grommet I had already made when wiring my amplifier so this was straightforward. Try not to make any kinks or sharp bends with the tube, as this will impede air flow and give an inaccurate reading on your gauge.
Inside the Car
Now that you have fed the boost pipe into the car, it needs to be routed to wherever you are planning on mounting the gauge. In my case, it was on the driver side A-pillar.
Once there, it should simply be a case of connecting into the inlet on the back of the gauge. At this point, connect up the electrical connections on the gauge as well. On mine there were +12V, GND and LIGHT leads. Obviously connect +12V to a fused live wire (disconnect batter before playing around with power cables!) and GND to a chassis point or GND wire. The LIGHT lead, when switched on, will activate the illumination on the gauge face. You can connect this to your headlight switch for it to come on automatically when you turn your lights on, or as I did, to a custom switch panel so it can be controlled independently.
In the image above, the top one is the boost gauge, the bottom one is an oil pressure gauge (see a different article for that one). The gauges I used are black when off, and illuminated backlight red and white when on. The pillar pods were made for a 306 and fit flush with the pillar. I mounted the switches below the gauges – to the right of the steering wheel so they are out of the way but easily accessible.
Final Words
As always, this guide is based on my own experiences and I’m NOT responsible if you mess something up. Feel free to comment here if you have any questions or if you have any specific issues, use the forum and I can try and give you a hand.
Leonard
Experimentation
Dec 16th
I’m one of those people who can’t be content with my site and always needs to be messing around, changing things. So don’t be completely surprised to see that the site changes every so often - usually the changes will aesthetic, but sometimes I’ll be experimenting adding new content or features. It’s occasionally because I’m bored and there’s nothing else to do but prat around online, but mostly its because I enjoy doing it and learn quite a bit from it.
Like just earlier I was trying (and failing miserably, might I add) to integrate my image gallery with the main site layout, and for those reading and haven’t noticed because you are either blind or have the memory of a fish (or both), the theme of the site has changed quite recently to this current one.
Oh, and one a final thing, feel free to leave comments to let me know what you think about any changes. Not that I’ll take any notice of them because your opinions are worthless. No, thats a bit harsh, I’m only kidding. Or am I…? No no, I value your opinions, I’m just joking. But wait, I might not be…
Black Holes
Dec 15th
For the most part, despite our advances in technology and space exploration, black holes (besides being mentioned a lot in Muse’s new album) remain quite a mystery. Its hard to comprehend something that has such a small footprint yet an unbelieveably high density – so great that once an object gets caught in its gravatational pull, it is doomed.
Many theories surround black holes and what happens to the objects that are unfortunate enough to get sucked into their depths. Some say the objects are crushed infinitely small and add to the overall mass of the black hole, some say the black hole is a gateway to an alternate dimension – like a wormhole or something. Other theories state that there may be a black hole in the centre of every galaxy.
I have a theory about black holes, wouldn’t you know. I believe that black holes definately exist but are much closer to home. Quite literally.
For instance, have you ever been in a rush one morning and no matter how hard you look, you just cannot find your keys or socks, or appear to have misplaced a grenade? Have you ever put a book down and come back to find it has disappeared? Have you often had things in your house go missing for no apparent reason and you never see them again? Shut the hell up and stop asking if things go missing and get to the point already! Fine…
I think a black hole is in existance by default in every house and as such, exists with the sole purpose of devouring things you leave unattended for a split second. Thats the only explanation for my missing fiver. I didn’t lose or misplace it, it was swallowed by a black hole. FACT.
Noisy Food
Dec 8th
I’m sure there must be someone out there who has the same issue as me with food packaging. Why is it that 99% of it is so damn noisy?! Take crisps for instance. Horrible, crinkly, loud foil packaging that could wake the dead. Hell, even loaves of bread come in the noisiest type of plastic known to man.
And next time you have a bowl of cereal, try getting some out of the packet in absolute silence! Totally impossible if you ask me. The only way it could be any louder is if there was a random guy inside the box who starts singing Dancing Queen into a microphone connected to a speaker on the box whenever you opened it. Hmm maybe I shouldn’t give them ideas…
My reason for disliking this noise is that after a long days work (lol…no seriously), I like to grab a snack of sorts in the evening while watching TV (read: pointless crap) or Family Guy or Red vs Blue (read: awesomeness). Now, the most people in my house have to be up quite early in the morning, unlike me most days. So they go to bed early.
So there I am in a quiet house trying to get something to eat whist being considerate and making as little noise as possible, when BAM!! there’s a guy singing some god-awful 70’s disco down a microphone at me and waking everyone up in the process. Brilliant.
Car Audio
Dec 6th
Car Audio Systems:
The standard audio on a lot of cars is fine for most purposes, but if you want better sound quality you will have to upgrade. In most cases the first upgrade will be the headunit (the unit in the dash) and this will be connected to the existing speakers. The difference will be noticable, but alongside this, chances are there will be some clipping occurring.
This is because the OEM speakers are not capable of handling the power from the new headunit
or the internal amplification of the headunit is being driven too hard (read: loud).
To reduce the strain on the internal amplifier, an external, more powerful amp can be connected to the system, which in turn will provide much better sound quality. The speakers should also be changed when fitting an amp.
Generally speaking, audio can be divided into three frequency bands: highs (treble), mids, and lows (bass). To get the best sound reproduction, you need to have some form of output for all three ranges. The best way of doing this (imo) is by using a good set of components in the front of the car (handles mids and trebles), and a good quality sub in an enclosure of sorts (thats a different article altogether…) in the rear.
For those who aren’t familiar, component speakers come as a set containing a mid-range woofer and a tweeter to handle the mids and highs respectively. The set also contains a device known as a crossover which separates the incoming signal and routes it to the appropiate component. See image below – the mid woofers are mounted in the door, the tweeters up closer to head level to drag the sound stage upwards, and the crossovers are fixed inside the door itself:
Unless you really need or want speakers in the rear, my advice would be to avoid them (particularly 6×9s on a parcel shelf) as they will drag the sound-stage behind you (you dont go to a concert and stand with your back to the stage!). Additionally, having 6×9s and a sub in close proximity will undoubtedly cause some damage to the 6×9s and will have no worthwhile benefit.
Amplifiers:
You can get a variety of amplifiers for car audio purposes. The main differences are the number of channels and the output rating. In general, stick to good quality, well known makes. Cheap amps sound like garbage in comparison.
If we stick to the example above of using front components and a sub, there are two feasable options:
- Use a 4-channel amp. Use one channel per set of components in the front, and ‘bridge’ the remaining two for a higher output for the sub. This is the method I will go through.
- Use a 2-channel amp for the front components and a mono-block for the sub. This is the more powerful method but requires extra cabling and other considerations.
Cabling:
The amplifier is generally secured in the boot as it allows easy dissapation of heat (they can get quite warm) and is quite accesable. The problem is…it needs power from the battery…which unfortunately is in the front of the car…There are five items you need to deal with:
- Live cable from the battery positive terminal with an inline fuse to amplifier
- Earth cable from amplifier to unpainted section of car chassis
- Shielded RCA cables from headunit to amplifier. For sending audio signal from headunit to amp.
- Remote control cable. For allowing volume control, auto switch on/off etc from the headunit.
- Sheilded speaker cables from the amplifier to the front components and the sub.
The power cable you use is very important, more so in high power installations. If the cable you use is not capable of handling the current draw, it will melt and short on the car chassis potentially causing a fire. You can go through the calculations to determine the max current draw etc, but in general, choose the thickest cable you can. 4AWG is fine for most cases, but do your own research! You can buy amplifier wiring kits from many places and these are fine – just make sure you check the lengths and gauges.
Before beginning any electrical work, disconnect the negative terminal from the battery.
If you are lucky enough to have a pre drilled hole through the firewall then use that for routing the power cable into the car from the engine compartment. If not, you will have to do this youself (make sure you don’t drill into anything important!) and seal the hole using a rubber grommit or other method. When feeding the cable through, make sure the in-line fuse is at the end of the cable closest to the battery.
In the above image, the red cable is the power, and you can clearly see the fuse beside the battery. Ignore the other cables I have going through the hole…
Don’t connect the cable to the battery just yet.
You now need to route the cable down the side of the car – its fairly simple to prise away the trim and stick the cable underneath (see image below). Do this until the other end of the cable is in the boot. You may have to be inventive during this step – it depends on your cars design.
While you are at this stage, route the RCA and remote leads down the OTHER side of the car in the same way as you did with the power. Putting them down the opposite side will help eliminate inteference and alternator whine. Also, route the cable for your front speakers in the same manner.
You should now have a selection of cable ends in your boot: power, RCA x2, remote and speaker.
Before any of these are connected, secure the amp in place (I screwed mine into the rear of the back seat), and connect the GND terminal to an UNPAINTED point on the car chassis as close to the amp as possible. Remember, the ground cable should be the same gauge as the power cable.
Now you can connect the remaining cables to the appropiate tabs on the amp. The image below shows how I connected them up:
RCA’s in for channels 1,2,3 and 4.
From left to right:
- Channels 1 and 2 connected by the white cables to the front component speakers (double check you get the positive and negative the right way round)
- Channels 3 and 4 are ‘bridged’ and connected to the subwoofer. Again, check positive and negative.
- Thick red power cable (connect this last)
- Thin red remote lead connection
- Ground
There should be nothing left loose in the boot.
You can now connect the live end of the power cable to the battery positive terminal. It may be wise to use a distribution block for ease of use, but it is not essential.
Double check all connections and reconnect the negative terminal block to the battery. Test out the amp, make sure everything works correctly, and fine tune the settings using the crossovers, high pass and low pass filters etc on the amp to suit your music.
Final Words:
There are many different ways of connecting and configuring your system, this guide shows just one of them. Feel free to leave a comment here about anything contained in this guide, or if you have any specific questions or problems with your installation, post up in the forum and I can try to help.
Leonard.
Note that this is only intended to be a guide, and as such, I can’t be responsible for any problems you come across by following it. Use your common sense – if you aren’t sure, ask someone for advice or get someone who knows what they’re doing to help you or do it for you.
Basic HDR Effects
Dec 6th
What is HDR?
HDR (or High Dynamic Range) is defined as: “A lighting procedure designed to emulate the way that light levels in the real world vary over an enormous range.” In other words, the pictures you take on your digital camera capture the light at the particular instant you take the shot. This could be referred to as an LDR shot (Low Dynamic Range) and although looks fine, with a bit of processing, can look a whole lot better. HDR tends to bring out detail that previously wasn’t visible and adds a certain depth to an image.
There are two methods which can be used to create a HDR image. In each case, to process and create the end result, you need a total of three pictures which differ from each other in exposure only. The exposure of each image will depend largely on the content of the shot, but as a rough guide, use -2, 0 and +2.
Taking Three Individual Shots
Using this method, you will invariably get a better quality HDR image with less noise. If your camera has the capability of setting automatic exposure brackets, use this method to obtain your three images at -2, 0 and +2 preferably in RAW or TIFF format.
If your camera does not have the automatic bracket exposure feature (most compact point and shoot cameras tend not to have this), it’s not a problem. You will simply have to generate the images manually.
Generating Three Images from a Single Shot
- Take your picture as normal – try to get the cleanest shot you can – noise becomes a problem using this method.
- Using a suitable image editing software package (eg. Photoshop), create two extra images with a + /- 2 exposure setting. In Photoshop CS2, this can be found under “Image > Adjustments > Exposure…”
- You will now have three photos which, to the eye, look like they have been taken at different exposures. The problem lies in that when the HDR generation stage is carried out, the software reads the EXIF data from the image files (information about the image based on the original camera settings). Since all three images you have were generated from the same original, they will all appear to be of exposure 0 to the software.
- To overcome this problem, use any freeware EXIF stripper to remove this information from your images. This will force the HDR software to read the images at ‘face value’.
Here are the images I ended up with for this example:
Exposure -2:
Exposure 0:
Exposure +2:
It is now time to create the HDR image.
Method 1:
This method involves using Photoshop to Automate the HDR generation process. This method gives good results, but is not all that customisable. In Photoshop CS2 select “File > Automate > Merge to HDR” and then select the images you created or shot and the software will do most of the work for you. Double check the exposure settings and make any changes you like to the end result.
Method 2:
This method yields a similar result to Method 1, but allows more customisable effects. It is done using software called Photomatix. Again, open the three images in Photomatix (“HDRI > Generate HDR”) and verify the auto detected exposure settings are correct. The program will then display a preliminary HDR output.
You can now tweak the end result slightly using “HDRI > Tone Mapping”
In this guide, for the example used, I used the following settings:
- Luminosity: 5
- Strength: 75%
- Colour Saturation: 65%
- White Clip: 4.310%
- Black Clip: 1.310%
- Light Smoothing: Medium
- Microcontrast Level: High
- Microcontrast Smoothing: 0
But feel free to experiment with your own settings to get a result you like. The end result I achieved with this example was:
Final Words:
This article is intended to be a rough and ready guide to creating basic HDR images. The example photos used are not of a particularly high quality but serve to give you a rough idea of what to expect. You can use any combination of methods in the LDR and HDR stage and have a play with the effects and settings – particularly the tone mapping in Photomatix.
If you do have a play, feel free to leave comments or questions here or post your results over in the forum. Higher res versions of the photos used in the guide can be made available through the forum if the request is there.
Remember I’m no photography expert!!!
It’s Jesus…lol
Dec 5th
Most of you should be familiar with the series of pictures that are commonly referred to as the “Jesus lol” series. If you aren’t, you officially suck and just for you, so that you can understand the rest of this post, here is one of the original pictures:
Now, after seeing this picture (or others like it) you will either be thinking one of two things – depending on the type of person you are.
Type 1: You laugh your freaking ass off because Jesus, the Son of God is saying “lol”. End of story.
Type 2: You get deep and philisophical and begin to ponder about why this image was created and what the meaning behind it all is. You also feel a bit offended because as a religious person you think it is wrong to portray
holy men and women in such a manner.
Now, in my opinion, if you consider yourself to fall under the Type 1 category, I shake your hand and give you a cookie for having a healthy sense of humor. If on the other hand, however, you fall into the Type 2 category, I’m afraid I’m going to have to kill you. No, I jest. I’ll spare your life, but only on the condition that you develop your sense of humor and not take things like this seriously. Life is for laughing. Google image search for “jesus lol” and you will see many more of these pictures.
Before you click away from here, there was actually a point to that. It serves as a warning to those people who fell into the Type 2 category and haven’t yet developed a sense of humor since reading the last sentence. It probably would not be a good idea to read on.
Still with me? Good stuff. The following picture was something I came across on the interweb, along with the caption:
“Everybody get down to the…”
Uh oh…