Category: Uncategorized

Stuff that needs to be fixed so far on MTBProject:

Need more pictures of trails!

River Bends

• Missing new blue sections of the main loop
• Remove Swamp loop and other references to it since it’s closed.
• Two track?
• OMID trail?

Stony Creek

• Add Trolley Trails?

Bloomer

• Lots of connector/stub trails missing

Addison Oaks

• Snow bike loop?

Bald Mountain

• Completely missing. Need both South and North. Haven’t ever ridden south, need to ride it before writing something up about it.

Lake Orion High School

• Completely missing. Haven’t ridden it yet either.

Orion Oaks

• Missing. Is it really worth adding though?

Ortonville Rec

• Missing short loop connector segment

Holly Rec

• Missing Wilderness Loop, Haven’t ridden.
• Turtle Trail?

Holly High School

• Missing, Haven’t ridden.

Pontiac Lake

• Hard/Easy sections?

Seven Lakes

• Missing. Need to do some better mapping for out there though if it is to be added.

Clinton River Park Trail

• Missing?
• Need to capture all the parking areas for the map.

Columbus County Park

• Does this actually exist yet?

Ruby Campground

• Missing. Haven’t ridden here. Would like to be able to map out the back side of the park too, might have to wait until spring.

After having some of my house remodeled, it’s become an increasing annoyance in the summer time that the Master Bedroom remains too hot and seems to be unable to be cooled adequately with how little airflow it seems to be getting. An additional supply and return were added to the room in the remodel, but it still remains a bit stagnant. The issue is that the room is at the very far end of the system, as well as being upstairs in the second floor. By the time the air gets to this area, the pressure difference seems to be inadequate for the proper amount of flow to cool the room. Adding a booster fan is a cheap trick to increase the efficacy of the HVAC for the room, but having a completely balanced system would be a bigger benefit: Less electricity used and less noise in the Master Bedroom.

My current plan is to build some remote XBee sensors that can be plugged into an outlet in each room, and become associated with XBees with servos to control the dampers in the basement. This should allow me to build a system that will automatically balance the airflow for each room to be able to maintain a better average temperature, as well as programmatically close off rooms that aren’t being used, such as the guest room, which only needs to be controlled when we are expecting someone to use the room. It should also give me more time-of-day control and allow the bedroom to gain a little temperature during the day in the summertime when it’s not being used, and to lower it more than the rest of the house before bedtime so it is more comfortable to sleep in.

I’ve currently got a Nest thermostat on the First floor in the living room, and it does an excellent job at controlling the temperature and humidity for that room, but the problem is it’s a closed source hardware solution, so it doesn’t offer the flexibility that I am looking for. This is hopefully where the XBee system will come in handy. I just have to figure out if it’s feasible to get the systems to work with eachother, or if I’ll have to resort to a completely custom system for the future.

About a month and a half ago, I was just leaving my parents place with the cobalt when it threw a code, went into reduced power mode, and wouldn’t restart. I had to wait about 5 minutes before it would start back up, so, I ended up driving it back up to my parents place and letting it sit. I checked the oil level and it had apparently burned about 2.5 quarts of oil since the water incident, so I decided it was definitely time to rebuild it. Since then, I’ve dropped the engine cradle out of the car, seperated the engine and transmission, and bolted the cradle back up so the car could be pushed into storage.

The engine itself is ready to have the cams removed and the internals separated, but I’m waiting on a valve spring tool to arrive so I can do this the ‘right way’. I’ll try to get some pictures posted up in the near future.