6 tips to save on your vehicle maintenance

Today, thanks to the internet we have plenty of advices and hints to save maintaining our vehicle, we have plenty of tutorials for whom are a little handyman; from changing lamps, brushes, etc to oil changes, and some dare to change pads and cushions. After years of use with my Xsara Picasso, I share with you the ideas and optimizations that can be applied to your vehicle to save money, helping the nature too.

1. Change the rubber instead of the entire windshield wiper

Change only the rubber and be ecofriendly

Repairing and Adflo Speedglas battery ref 837621 with LI-ION 4.2V Cells

Lately I have been repairing multiple wireless devices whose NI-MH batteries have deteriorated ; usually get considerably cheaper make you the battery pack with a new charger is to buy it new; in this tutorial I will show how to build a battery of 4500 mAh 12.6V and 3 packs of 3 cell li-ion parallel each to replace a battery 10.8V and 4000 mAh NI-MH (9 batteries in series 1.2V) with just 32 € (charger not included).

Update: I uploaded how I repair them to youtube:

HD version

And slim version.

LITHIUM battery types depending on their composition

The Lithium-ION technology has improved a lot as  the advantages of having no memory effect and higher energy density per kilogram than any other current technology , we can add that  depending on the type of materials used , allows different power / energy densities; we can have instantaneous powers from 1C (2A / time to a cell 2000 mAh) of the LI-Cobalt portable typical 5C of manganese (LiNiMnCoO2) or 15C for the past employed in Automobiles (LiNiCoAlO2) or 30C with LiFePO4 .

Modifying an airsoft HK 416 UMAREX with 11,1V for increased rate of fire: from 13 bps to 18 bps

HK 416 from UMAREX, very high quality materials and precision

Recently I personalized with more cadence one airsoft replica HK 416 from UMAREX, the best available today replica of the lethal original, getting to shoot 18 balls per second instead of 13 with the recommended battery.

For this we have got 11,1V instead of the 7.4V li-ion recommended by the manufacturer, using 6 standard size batteries 2000 mAh 18650 and 1C discharge . Usually LiPo is more desirable for these cases, for the effort that must hold the batteries, they probably will last less than normal ... but what can we do... life is short;) and we just had them available.

Putting 11,1V to the repeater you are breaking the guarantee, but it have such good material and design that we'd rather risk getting a machine of epic massacres;)

In the following video a Youtube friend did the same and is working very well:

How works an electric cooler: Cell peltier

We pack a cooler for the curious

Well, after a temporadilla almost no entries, I think this summer will not you going to complain;.)We'll start with this entry, in which he disarmed a cooler of those that plug into the car (or home if you adapt one transformer least 5 amps and 12 volts), to discover another fascinating use of semiconductors (thermoelectric effect) and electricity: The Peltier cells .

Replace magnesium sacrifice anode in hot water tank by yourself

After four years working properly, it is time to do the maintenance of DHW storage tank from the solar thermal collector  changing the magnesium anode which prevents the deposition of oxide by galvanic protection .

Sacrificial anodes will last more or less depending on tank size and the degree of degradation thereof , that is; if you have many areas without paint, he's paid to oxidation and anode (magnesium in this case) will provide more ions, degrading its structure more quickly.

First of all, we acquired a couple of sacrificial anodes, are cheap, about 15 € each (I ordered them on Ebay for a company of Madrid). To change it, release the cover ( IMPORTANT empty it first ), loosen all the lime and use mud accumulated over the years:

Repair of electronic tracks on an old keyboard: Conductive silver liquid

In this post we will repair CNC keyboard that is no longer being manufactured

Contacts on the keyboards have evolved from mechanical systems to more modern with membrane. In this case we will repair an intermediate type; this keyboard from a Gemini 8050T FAGOR around 15 years old carries a screen printed aluminum membrane for tracks and graphite contacts, on which a metal piece with flexible concave shape closes the contact when pressed.

The technology of switches on keyboards usually are of two types: contact , where some kind of spring (metal or plastic or flexible rubber, etc) keeps separate tracks of the conductive surface (graphite or other) of the button, which when pressed blend tracks; and secondly, the induction, where pressing the button, a small magnet creates a small electrical pulse in the coil of the membrane (ultra durable modern musical keyboards).

Repairing first type of keyboards often requires all your ability of "handyman"; some with copper tracks like TV remotes are often easier to repair welding on the tracks a small micro-switch if the button is completely useless, but most cases are plastic membranes that can not be welded and we can use either glue threads on them as in this entry, or use the useful liquid silver, and you will always get a more professional work to build the appropriate cable connections.

Equipment needed

1. Cutter to open the damaged contact (in other keyboards will not be necessary).
2. Cleaning liquid or solvent which does not attack the material of the keyboard; I used Ardrox 9PR5 or you could use isopropyl alcohol.
3. Liquid silver conductive, with which "will draw" deleted / damaged tracks with a fine brush after cleaning them well.
4. A tester to verify that the track drawn conducts electricity.
5. Scissors, PVC tape to cover the contact again, brush, permanent marker to draw the button again, etc.

Get the most out of your SSD: Adjust Windows 7 settings

I chose the 840 Evo 250GB for its value / capacity / price

Change your computer's hard drive for an SSD ( Solid State Drive ) is the best way to rejuvenate a few years , letting you skip loading the operating system in a minute to do it in just 15 seconds ; thanks to the speed of read / write access to the programs is almost instantaneous.

Disks SSD, being immune to shock and vibration , are especially recommended for laptops, as discussed in the previous post on the subject . The best value are the Samsung and Crucial (for less than 100 € 250GB -4/06/14).

And if you use the Samsung RAPID software, get these speeds ( Source )

Replacing brake lamps in the car for LED lamps: How to Fix a bad quality LED

In a car brake lights are the most often melted by your continued use (apart from the H7 and H4 for which there is not equivalent LED), so when changing LED we reduce electricity consumption (and fuel) and especially maintenance (not usually easy to change bulbs in cars). (If you stumbled here looking for how to change them, here's the answer ).

I do not recommend installing lamps that are not approved, can be dangerous (as discussed below), unless you have knowledge of electronics can meet with burning car . 

I  bought a pair of lamps DX.com  equivalent 9W (thinking then reduce its power equivalent to 5W lumens if so, which rarely coincide with reality announced on that page), the typical 2 filaments 27 / 5W (connection T25 / T-25/1016/1034/1130/1152/1154/1157/1158/1493/2057/2357/2397/7528/3496 / BAY15D), and by placing saw that the light does not worked .

How to improve the insulation of your glass windows for very little money

Polycarbonate window insulation applied

Surely with the crisis many people can not change their simple windows to double due to budget for insulation (although there are fewer homes without this basic insulation, but any Hayles), but using imagination and available materials as we did last time we can use cellular polycarbonateand achieve a thermal and sound insulation than a double window glass for only 15 € in materials , without changing anything in the long window and when we care not to lose sight (or want to make it translucent with image faded ), and we are careful to clean it (is easily scratched).

Have been discussed in this post virtues and multiple uses of cellular polycarbonate, very appropriate because the way network makes it more resistant while creating small air chambers that increase the insulation . Here is a catalog Resopal .

Example of installing a coil into a wood stove connected to existing radiators to share the heat to the rest of the home

Your coil makes good use to be able to put the logs inside.

Julian Elizondo, Navarra, has installed a coil embedded in the wood stove with all the necessary security . He says that he works very well considering the stove all day running, get temperatures of 20 ° C throughout the house without much cane put him into the fire, partly helped by the good insulation of the house as outside usually around them 5ºC half the winter. In total has cost about 700 euros between coil, copper tubes, electronic thermostat, valve autofill, another thermal shock, trap, etc, and to install have used the same gas boiler for move water ( as I explained in this post ) and have it plugged into the nearest radiator , eliminating it. Achieve heating elements 55 60 cm (aluminum radiators) and usually kept between 43 degrees and 50 degrees most of the day, Home on since morning.

Most of the installation is done it with the instructions of a cousin who is a plumber, who was the one who installed the auto-fill valve and electronic control of temperature in the boiler. Were turning and after several sketches decided the shape of the coil to better exploit its serious fire in C , as your stove is two doors and did not want to cancel any of the two doors.

The coil steel tube with 2 mm wall. or more will last a lifetime, because as a closed circuit oxygen from water by reacting rusting steel is consumed, until they oxidize more (formerly all radiators were much cast steel wall).

Prevent the hard drive of your ultra portable to be damaged by shocks: Change it for an SSD

Top conventional disk 1.8 "; under SSD 1.8"

In this ultraportable Compaq Mini 700 10.2-inch screen was broken hard disk 4.57-cm (1.8 inches). These very compact and manageable laptops are susceptible to small bumps and tear that ultimately damage the hard drive, so you'll change your hard disk by another 80GB SSD (virtually immune to shock flash memory) for a 60GB € 60 purchased on Ebay.

In the SSD careful with the brand that you acquire (OCZ, Kingstom, Samsung etc) ; to save you can be buying one with low quality components that are damaged in a few months). They are still very expensive and low capacity  (that is changing at the speed of light ) for use on a desktop, but thanks to its low power consumption, shock resistance and high speed access will eventually imposed on notebooks .