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Continue reading →: Using an OBD-II Splitter to Connect Two Devices (Fuel Economy Guage & Zubie)
I’ve added a couple of posts about the fuel economy guage recently but in those posts I left out the fact that I already had one device on the ODB-II port of my 2008 Chevrolet Impala – a Zubie vehicle monitoring device that is cloud-connected via its own celluar connection…
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Continue reading →: Reducing Windshield Reflection of an Auto Meter 9105 ecometer Fuel Consumption Gauge Display
The Auto Meter 9105 ecometer Fuel Consumption Gauge works great but when driving at night I started to experience a slightly distracting problem. A reflection of the guage’s display was very visible higher up the windshield. This was probably aggravated by the fact that I have it placed directly on my…
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Continue reading →: Using an Auto Meter 9105 Ecometer to Improve Fuel Economy of a 2008 Chevy Impala
Back in December my commute to work changed from about 15-20 minutes one way to one hour to an hour and fifteen minutes. This significant addition of mileage drove me (no pun intended) to make minor modifications to my vehicle and driving habits to improve my fuel economy. In the…
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Continue reading →: Easy Accessory Power Switch for a 2008 Chevrolet Impala
I used a dashcam, phone charger and bluetooth adapter in the car for a while but I grew tired of having to manually unplug those devices when not in use or when I turned the car off. Unfortunately, in my 2008 Chevrolet Impala the vehicle would continue to provide power…
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Continue reading →: Accessing a Remote Network with a TP-Link SafeStream TL-ER604W Router
Back in December I started using a TP-Link SafeStream TL-R600VPN Gigabit Broadband Desktop VPN Router to be able to login to the network at a remote property. It provided most of the functions I needed but unfortunately the client/server mode of the VPN service only supported PPTP. While not every secure…
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Continue reading →: Using an Aeotec Smart Strip
A while back I decided that it would be nice to have our son’s bedroom lamp, white noise machine and humidifier all plugged into Z-Wave automation switches. But I no longer had any free modules and this meant that I’d need to purchase three Z-Wave plug-in modules. That’s not a…
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Continue reading →: Using Indigo 7 for Home Automation with a Mac
Back in 2013 I moved from using a very good Windows program called mControl for home automation control over to Indigo for Mac OS. mControl worked great for my needs then but I didn’t want to dedicate an additional computer to the home automation and video recording tasks since I…
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Continue reading →: Scheduling Automatic Modem and Router Power Cycling Using a NetReset NR-1000US
Back at the house the cable modem and router usually operate just fine but every now and then something hangs up and unfortunately it’s not always practical to go by to reset the gear. And asking a friend to do it for me, even when they’re eager to do it,…
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Continue reading →: Slowing Water Leakage in a Bathtub (Severe Weather Prep)
We’ve had a threat or two of a hurricane in our area over the summer and into the fall so more than once we filled up the tubs to store water for flushing the toilets and rinsing things. The largest tub in our place can hold a lot of water…
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Continue reading →: Easy Replacement Cap for a Blitz 6.5 Gallon Water Can
A few years ago I purchased a Blitz 6.5 Gallon Water Can just in case we had a major hurrican that would knock out power at the house. Though I did fill it a couple of times we did not end up using it (yet). But one day I lost…
Hello,
I’m Mike
Welcome to my blog, which I have maintained for several years, off and on, to share things that I’ve learned from numerous projects and various problem solving escapades. This is my way of giving something back to the online communities that have helped me learn more about a wide variety of topics.
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