What have you fettled today?

[Juan Martín]

Not having been out for a few weeks I was keen to get out this morning, but all togged up and doing some last minute prepping of the Royal, the heavens opened..and so while I waited for it to clear changed the rear tube on the Clubman that appears to have a slow thingummy...still raining heavily. I had thought that the Clubman's BB was a little on the tight side so having just got hold of a pin spanner I decided to adjust it while I waited for the rain the ease. Slackening it off didn't seem to make that much difference so I decided to strip it down and rebuild it. Found it all to be in good condition so bearings cleaned and repacked with fresh grease and bearing re-assembled. The Raleigh has the same BB, Tange I think, as was fitted to my old Coventry Eagle so it was a good job that I hung on to it when I scrapped the frame a few months ago. Still raining at 11.00 so gave up the idea of a morning ride as I had to go off victualling with the memsahib, we've nothing in you see.

Later, started to rebuild a bookcase that I have been refurbishing for about two years.

[BrianI]

Trying to fettle some college work on environmental awareness.  Failing miserably. 
Successfully fettled together an old motherboard, cpu, ram, video card and hdd together with an elcheapo £30 atx case and power supply into a htpc style thing for watching iplayer, etc on tv.  Hopefully i'll get mame / scumvm working on it too!     Elcheaopo psu is a bit noisy though..... Seems to have a jet engine for a cooling fan.....

Alas, fettling failed at trying to get ye olde worlde Nvidia GF4 MX440 AGP video card working under Xubuntu 12.04  it seems that the Xorg which ships with (x)Ubuntu is not compatible with the required legacy nvidia drivers.....

[interzen]

The firmware for this:



I call it the poor man's SPOT tracker. I think I've managed to curb its voracious appetite for batteries, but time will tell. Hilarity may yet ensue if my trip to the US comes off next year and I have to get it through customs 

Now to work on the Android app which goes with it - a far less enjoyable task 'cos I hate Java programming.

Oh, and I finally finished cleaning the 1x1

[PaulR]

A gutter.  It's had a leaky joint for years, and at last this morning I went up a ladder to investigate, and found that whoever had installed it had fitted the joint bracket an inch or so too far to the right.  A bit of damp swearing and ladder teetering resulted in a repositioned bracket and a gutter that no longer drips over the centre of the door into the garden.

[MattH]

Alas, fettling failed at trying to get ye olde worlde Nvidia GF4 MX440 AGP video card working under Xubuntu 12.04  it seems that the Xorg which ships with (x)Ubuntu is not compatible with the required legacy nvidia drivers.....

This should be under the "things that make you feel old" thread. I remember those being state-of-the-art expensive cards 

[Kim]

Alas, fettling failed at trying to get ye olde worlde Nvidia GF4 MX440 AGP video card working under Xubuntu 12.04  it seems that the Xorg which ships with (x)Ubuntu is not compatible with the required legacy nvidia drivers.....

I haven't been able to get those working in Ubuntu for several releases now.  It's what broke our MythTV frontend (you need the binary driver for S-Video output).  Nouveau might be acceptable on the desktop, on the basis that hardware of that vintage probably isn't doing anything too strenuous.

[BrianI]

Alas, fettling failed at trying to get ye olde worlde Nvidia GF4 MX440 AGP video card working under Xubuntu 12.04  it seems that the Xorg which ships with (x)Ubuntu is not compatible with the required legacy nvidia drivers.....

I haven't been able to get those working in Ubuntu for several releases now.  It's what broke our MythTV frontend (you need the binary driver for S-Video output).  Nouveau might be acceptable on the desktop, on the basis that hardware of that vintage probably isn't doing anything too strenuous.

Meanwhile I've fettled my xubuntu 12.04 running Samsung NC10 into iPlayer etc duties by attaching it to tv via VGA.  Add wireless keyboard & mouse, and Kim's your auntie!   

More fettling today - nuddy housework, and also fettled my Canon A590is camera with the CHDK firmware - just need to fettle a usb remote release now, then I'll have an idea set up for digiscoping! 
http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/A590IS
http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/USB_Remote

[fuzzy]

Yesterday I fettled the new, correct legth spoke onto G G G G Granvilles rear wheel. After refitting the wheel and doing a bit of truing, I discovered that the rim had split around a different spoke hole to the one I had been fettling

Moral to this story is check the rim before fannying around with wheel related stuufs.

As a result I had to search the Dungeon Dimensions (the sheds and the garage) until I found a rear wheel that would accept the cassette from G G G G Granvilles dead wheel.

This turned out to be the rear salvaged from Knuckles when he was killet by the Tosco van (G G G G Granville was his replacement).

The dish on the Knuckles wheel is different to that on G G G G Granvilles so I had to do a bit of messing with brakes. It is also a slightly narrower profile (Knuckles was a Saracen road bike with 23mm tyres) so the 32mm Marathon+ took a bit of fitting (no profanity and my thumbs are fine!).

It got me to work this  morning.

[CrinklyLion]

The mobile phone contract, and the insurance renewal.

[Kim]

Musical tyres.  Knobblies onto the Dawes in anticipation of sensible off-roading on a fairly appropriate bike, and Marathon Pluses onto barakta's trike, in anticipation of shite weather that isn't conducive to paper-thin slicks.

My hands hurt.

Also de-hairballed the hoover, in anticipation of actually using it.

[mrkwr]

Thought I'd better have a look inside both my tyres after finding filthy wet inner when mending p*nct*re at w/end. Ugh

Replaced both tyres having found both sidewalls perishing, and also replaced the sodden (and starting to rot) rim tape.

Or as the fitting instructions with the Vittorias put it: "1. Fit a good quality paranipples belt" !

[Chris S]

Also de-hairballed the hoover, in anticipation of actually using it.

I can't believe you don't have a Robot for this.

[interzen]

Also de-hairballed the hoover, in anticipation of actually using it.

I can't believe you don't have a Robot for this.

I imagine she wants to actually clean dust up rather than move it around a bit ...
All that said, Roombas are pretty ripe for, shall we say, extra fettling.

[Kim]

Yeah, robot hoovers - apart from their tendency to turn evil in the presence of pot plants or dog poo - require that you keep the floor vaguely tidy.  I also bet they're rubbish at clumps of long human hair.

[Chris S]

I also bet they're rubbish at clumps of long human hair.

It's fine. They supply a tool for that.

[interzen]

I also bet they're rubbish at clumps of long human hair.

It's fine. They supply a tool for that.

A Dyson?

[Kim]

*snork*

[phantasmagoriana]

Not today but at the weekend, put the shiny copper Brooks Team Pro S (bought in the summer at a good discount) on the Tifosi. Now comtemplating moving it to the hybrid (which gets used a lot for short trips) to break it in...

[Jurek]

A deep clean of all of the transmission components from the cracked Van Nicholas.

Today, I've been advised that VN are expecting a consignment of frames next week, amongst which should be the replacement for mine.
There is no breath-holding going on here .

I have a brand new, full, unused, end to end Ultegra transmission but, having been nominated for the SE Londres Tightwad-of-2012 award, I figured I'd see if I can eek a few more miles out of the old one just by giving it Teh Shiny.

Lots of water-soluble and drain-happy solvents and de-greasers have been deployed  .

[Feline]

I also bet they're rubbish at clumps of long human hair.

It's fine. They supply a tool for that.

I would worry for Kim's wiring, my Roomba ate the cable of my fibreoptic christmas tree for christmas 

[zigzag]

swapped the wheels wheel and handlebars on my folding bike. rear was a sturmey-archer srf3, new one - shimano coaster brake ss hub. the new wheel is nice and silent, braking is superb (and will be in all weathers), gearing around 71". the only annoying thing that the hub seems a bit draggy*. front wheel didn't fit as the axle oln is bizarre 84mm instead of standard 74mm for dahon-type folding bikes. this will require some modifying which i'm not doing today. went out for a test ride** - all good!

* now after a bit of research i found out there is a spring loaded alignment plate in the hub that may cause some drag - i'll have to look into that

** (which was waiting in an ambush for a group of roadie-type commuters, chasing them down, slowly overtaking and smiling, then accelerating into the distance.. )

[mcshroom]

Removed yet more links from my single speed chain to try and remove the slip on the system going up steep hills. I think the chain's now tight enough to not need a tensioner.

[Ham]

Molished a ski vice into existence with the aid of some bits of wood and an old inner tube.

[reddo]

The aeroplane's FMS database. 

[clarion]

Last night, I lopped off another section of the handlebars on Butterfly's Galaxy.  I think it's right this time.