Interesting Tech Projects
Miscellaneous
Crazy Flight Paths
Apr 20th
This is the flight path of British Airways BA84 on April 20th 2010 flying from Vancouver to London Heathrow (from FlightRadar24.com):
British Airways BA84
What happened?
- The flight (Boeing 747) took off from Vancouver while Heathrow was still closed because of ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland. When it reached the Isle of Man Heathrow was still closed so it was put into a holding pattern for a couple of hours at cruising altitude.
- Other British Airways flights were being diverted to Shannon, Ireland and it looks like the airline and/or ATC gave up and sent the aircraft there, at which point it started descent to 26,000 feet.
- The British Government announced that at 10pm all UK airports would reopen. BA84 then turned back towards Heathrow while over Dublin.
- When the flight reached Birmingham it was put back into a holding pattern, probably because it would have reached Heathrow too early.
- The flight landed at Heathrow at around 9:45pm
Not a flight I would have liked to have been on!
Improved End Mill Rendering
Dec 17th
I played around with my Sketchup model a bit and vastly improved the flutes on the end mills. Here is a Kerkythea render
Google Sketchup and Kerkythea – A Perfect Combination
Dec 12th
Google Sketchup is pretty nice. I’ve tried 3D CAD programs in the past but never really invested the time to climb the steep (for me) learning curve. There was a bit of a learning curve with Sketchup, but once I got into the “right” way of thinking it became easy to use. Now I use Sketchup all the time, from drawing diagrams for my CNC hobby, to modeling home projects.
The one problem with Google Sketchup is, well, the output looks like a sketch. But now I’ve found a free renderer that not only has a plugin for Google Sketchup, but is just as easy to use as Sketchup. It’s called Kerkythea.
Install, run, and follow the quick start tutorial and you will be rendering your Sketchup models in less than a hour.
I recently decided to try and model and render some sprial up-cut and down-cut end mills in Sketchup. The results are below.
Spiral Up-cut End Mill
Set of Three End Mills on a Stainless Steel Surface
Replacing AC/Cabin Air Filters and Dealerships
Jun 26th
I know this is a tech blog, but I can’t resist posting this to stop some unsuspecting person from being ripped off…
We have a 2004 Honda Accord. The dealership says we need a new cabin air filter and the cost is $89.99 + tax. I decided to look into doing it myself.
A quick search on Google revealed this video on You Tube showing a 13-year old boy doing it in about two minutes with zero tools. Well, he used his fingers, does that count?
Looks pretty easy. Next a search to find the cost of the filters. Seems to average around $15 + tax and delivery.
I went to PepBoys and got a filter made in the USA with a lifetime warranty for $15.16 including tax. I installed it in the car park in less than a minute.
So I called my local Honder Dealership and talked to the service manager to see what he thought about this. Here are his comments and what I think he meant.
Service Manager: “$89.99. It’s the going rate.”
I think he means: “Everyone else is going to rip you off, so why can’t we?”
Service Manager: “It takes our technicians 15-20 minutes”
I think he means: “You have no clue how much effort it is, so I’ll lie to you”
Service Manager: “It’s Cost Averaging – we charge one price for everyone and some Hondas take a lot of effort to replace the filter”
I think he means: “You have a newer vehicle so you have to pay more to subsidize people with older vehicles”
Service Manager: “One price makes it easier for our customers”
I think he means: “Most of our customers don’t to know, and one price makes it easier for us to remember the price”
Service Manager: “I called the other Honda dealership and they charge $125″
I think he means: “We don’t rip you off as badly as the others so keep coming here”
Service Manager: “Sorry I took so long to call you back to appease you… errr… give you an answer I should say…”
I think he means: “All I do all day is appease complaining customers. Oops, did I say that out aloud?”
Yes, he really did say that. I don’t have a good enough imagination to make this up…
I then called the other Honder dealership. Sure enough they charge $125. When I asked why I was told “It’s labor intensive. There is some assembly required after the filter is changed”. Yeah, right… Snap on the small clip.
So, check around your local dealerships and see if they do “cost averaging”.
