Archive for the ‘Land Rover’ Category.

Sure/Smartie LCDProc

December 22, 2009, 7:04 pm

Recently I’ve been looking at getting a computing device into the Land Rover. Short of buying a full sized 7″ touch screen, I opted to go for a slightly cheaper £20 4×20 LCD display. This was more to be proof of concept, and give me a starter to work on, before I decide whether or not to put a full sized screen in.

Ultimately, I purchased a SmartieLCD module from Ebay. It arrived, I plugged it into my laptop running Windows at work, and it worked first time. Now it was time to get it working with LCDProc!

Earlier on I had spotted that SmartieLCD in Windows used the Matrix Orbital DLL file. Sadly, when using LCDProc in Linux, Matrix didn’t work at all. It was time to go looking

Enthused by http://lists.omnipotent.net/pipermail/lcdproc/2009-July/013021.html, and manufacturers documentation, I decided to check out the CVS copy of LCDProc. The last ‘release’ was back in 2007, so if I was to get anything recent it would have to be from CVS

cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@lcdproc.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/lcdproc login
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@lcdproc.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/lcdproc co -P lcdproc

Having a look around the source files indicate that Sure Electronics displays were supported, but not enabled by default. A simple ./configure flag would enable them, so it was time to get compiling. Firstly some support files have to be installed first.

sudo apt-get install libusb-dev autogen automake

After that, kick off the build process, and enable Sure Electronics support at configure time.

sh ./autogen.sh
./configure –enable-drivers=SureElec
make
sudo make install

Now that the software is installed, LCDd needs configured in order to send data to the LCD display.

sudo vim /usr/local/etc/LCDd.conf

In here, a few parts need changed -

driver=SureElec
DriverPath=/usr/local/lib/lcdproc/
Edition=3
Contrast=200
Brightness=480

And that’s it! Execute /usr/local/sbin/LCDd, and you should get a Clients: 0 and Screens: 0 on the LCD display.

All is good!

Category: Cars, Computers, Cool things, Geek, Land Rover, Linux  |  2 Comments

More Land Rover Stuff

December 7, 2009, 1:06 am

Work continues on the Land Rover, and it’s mostly road legal now. More than it’s ever been in the past 3 years :-)

Things now fitted include… Windscreen seal
Front lighting grills
Radiator grill
Reversing switch and lamp
New floor
New seats
Replaced foglight wiring and switching
New dashboard switches
Extra windscreen to roof seal
27A Rear accessories electrical supply
Repaired offside rear hub
New hub bolts and gaskets
Battery clamps
Forward fuse box and circuit
New gearbox frame and lever
Fuel cap

It’s pretty much good to go for an MOT. It just needs grease and oil in the right places. I don’t know if I’ll manage to get it ready before I go on holiday, but it would be nice. On the other hand, it would be preferable to get things like the door trims, lighting, radio gear and computer installed before an MOT. Just get it all done before the big day really.>

Category: Cars, Land Rover, Life  |  Comment

Land Rover Stage n

November 5, 2009, 12:51 am

I’ve not been updating this site cos I’ve been working on the Land Rover so much! I’ve lost count of all the stages that it’s gone through, but I’m hoping this is the last one.

All being well, I could get the work done before the end of November and in time for a tax disc in December. However, a 2 week holiday in December makes that a little uneconomical. We’ll see… economics vs eagerness.

Things that have been done so far…
Refurbished and refitted dashboard
Custom chassis wiring management system (ie waterproof tubes)
New wiring loom front, middle and back.
New light, front and back.
New instrument panel
Refurbished front wing mounting points.
Scratch fabricated aluminium reinforcement behind front lights
Scratch fabricated aluminium reinforcement at wing mounting points
New mud shields, and snazzy drainage system between shields and footwell devised by Bill
New windscreen seals
New bulkhead
Renovated heater and blower system
Refurbished handbrake drum, brakes and mechanism
New front doors, top and bottom.
Painted front and rear doors
New and sealed fuel tank
Removal of old rear seats, refurbishment of mounting points
Fitment of rear storage compartment and gas struts on lid
Drain and replace all oils and fluids
Regrease all grease points
Removal of redundant and broken choke cable, modification of ignition barrel to accept modern choke cable.
Design and fitting of interior rear shelf.
A thorough wash and polish

Things that remain to be done for an MOT.

Fitting of new seats
Replace N/S rear axle stub
Replace all drive flange bolts and gaskets

Things that I’d like to get done very soon
Fitment of LaSalle door interiors
Fitment of radio gear
Fitment of rear floodlight, reversing lights, and fog lights

Category: Land Rover, Vehicles  |  Comment

That’s not a brush…

February 7, 2009, 9:42 pm

This a real brush…

Brush

It’s rated at 8500 RPM, but the grinder runs at 10,000RPM. Frighteningly fast, and slightly unwieldy due to the gyroscopic effect present.

On a related note, due to such machinery, the replacement bulkhead is almost clean now. A touch more here and there, and it will be painted with red oxide tomorrow. The spraypaint system will be here in a couple of days, so hopefully we can get the bulkhead painted and refitted before the Land Rover has to go away for the new chassis at the end of February.

Category: Land Rover, Technology  |  Comment

More progress

January 4, 2009, 10:07 pm

It’s been a busy few days, whilst I’ve had some time off. The Land Rover is progressing, slowly but surely. Bill has come up with a list of things that need done and/or purchased, and I’ve started making it happen. The roof has been loosened off all around the Land Rover, in order to lift the front of the roof up and slide the bulkhead and windscreen upwards and outwards. This also requires all the wiring to be disconnected, steering column, cabin heating system, and the like. So far I have the floorbox and footwell floor out (from a week or so ago), and I got the heater matrix disconnected and removed today. The coming week will see the wiring labelled and disconnected, and then we should be really getting somewhere. Also on the cards for the next 8 weeks is the purchase and assembly of a new glazed and ready-to-go door top, and associated bottom. This will accompany my other new door down to the folks that are doing the chassis swap.

The TR6 has been victim of procrastination and indecision on my part. I finally made my mind up today, and have decided to get hold of a completely new rocker shaft, arms, springs, and bits. The current one is usable, with some TLC and gentle driving. But for the sake of 90 quid, and a few hours work, it’ll put my mind at ease when driving in the mountains around Europe. The carburretion willalready be skewiff up there, I’ll have enough stuff to worry about. The top end oil feed kit will also make things run a bit smoother for the new parts too.

To cap it all off, the ESC for my model plane lost some of the magic smoke, and the motor is playing up. The local shop has taken it back and is waiting for an engineer to have a look at it. On a whim, I bought a USB cable for my transmitter, so I could hook it into the computer for some training applications. The Futaba trainer socket is loose and intermittent, and the T/X is 1 month beyond the warranty. Magic.

Category: Land Rover, Modelling, Vehicles, tr6  |  Comment