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Sunday, May 30, 2010

Ford Explorer: Project Vents - Post 1

Well, my first project with the blog up and running so it'll be a learning experience for all of us. Feel free to comment with ways you'd like to see this presented. Here's my hope for a first try format:

Step 1: Pre-Project Post - Give reason for project, goals, expected timeline, and any up-front research materials and costs.

Step 2: In-Project Posts - Posts within the project that will include progress, pictures, costs, and issues. Not sure how often these will come, probably once a day maybe...we'll see. If you're interested in mid-project information, follow me on Twitter.

Step 3: Wrap up - This post will be written so that somebody with the same problem can follow this single post from start to finish and hopefully do the same thing with minimal problems.

So there we go, this is the first post on the first project...so be gentle.


Project Name: Vents
Project Type: Ford Explorer
Project Reason: The vents in the Explorer will not change from blowing out of the defrost and the floor to the panel vents. Very not cool for the A/C season!
Project Cost: $0
Project Timeline: 5-10hrs over 1-2days
Project Starting: Evening of 5/30/2010

Initial Resources: http://www.justanswer.com/questions/3814k-2003-ford-explorer-only-blows-air-from-the-dash-vents-switch

Potpourri

Hello All!

Sorry I've not posted for a while, part of it was because I didn't have much to write about, part of it was because this blog was created to document projects which I haven't done many of recently, but most of all I've just been lazy and forgetful. However, I'm about to embark on a project which I hope it to be the first one which I fully document...we'll see how it goes.

So I will post a short introduction to the project next, which is going to be trying to fix my vent system on the Explorer, as right now it's stuck on defrost and floor and it's getting hot and the A/C is not very useful on that setting.

Also, here is a quick follow-up to my previous post about Integrated technology...it may not be a phone, but it at least runs on a phone OS...it's a start.




That's right, when docked it's a fully functional netbook with Windows 7, and if you remove the screen you get an Android powered tablet...how cool!

Let's see, what else to mention of things I've found in the recent findings...

- Worldmate Travel App on the Blackberry is pretty cool, for free you can forward your confirmation emails of your flights, cars, and hotels and it scours the emails and displays all your travel details in an app complete with confirmation numbers, phone numbers, and maps to the hotel...very handy.

- I'm currently downloading BitBop, which claims to offer free TV streaming to mobile devices and acts like a little DVR for the phone so you can set which shows to show up.

- The wife's android phone got upgraded finally to Android 2.1, days of course to when Android 2.2 was announced (Froyo). Lots of cool features added, a few interesting bugs added, all and all good update. Google Navigation is a very amazing beta...can't wait til they put more time into it.

- Just started working with Trapster a little bit, it adds a new layer to your google maps basically alerting you of all the speed traps, cameras, and regulated speed zones in your upcoming path. It's all driven by other users, so it works best in well populated areas. I still haven't found a good mounting solution for either phone yet so I have yet to use it to it's full potential...we'll get there.

- OurGroceries is a great app that keeps lists...kinda like the Maratick that I talked about before. However, this one allows you to connect your lists with another persons, which means when you open it you get anything the other person has added! How fantastic for families who want to keep an updated grocery list for everybody who's grocery shopping. We've linked my Blackberry App with the wife's Android app...everything working as promised. Just make sure to close the app down fully otherwise it'll chew up battery and bandwidth as it's always checking...Push functionality anyone?

At the risk of this becoming a Blackberry Blog, I'll stop here by mentioning that it looks like I weasled my way into a Blackberry upgrade to go along with a laptop upgrade, so soon I might have a few more apps to play with and report on along with some Windows 7 pros/cons.

Beyond that, look forward to a project post here soon and I'll try to post some daily updates.