Many older cars have broken #digital #clocks. The back light is dead or the numbers are all 8, zeros or in Cyrillic script русский алфавит 

The clocks may also be dated, in lime green or orange illumination. #Oem Clocks from the dealers to replace them can caost in the hundreds of dollars. $200 for a #2003 #corolla dash clock. http://www.ebay.com/itm/2002-2008-TOYOTA-COROLLA-MATRIX-CLOCK-BRAND-NEW-GENUINE-TOYOTA-PART-83910-02070-/360478267217?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item53ee2dd751&vxp=mtr  The 1993 #clock is only $180.00 …. 

And the oem clocks still have the ugly ilumination. 

 

Lucky that is dated tech that is big and bulky and Modern technology can slip in place easily. 

So for $9 bucks plus 2-3 weeks of wait time and some supplies lying around the garage I replaced the clock with something more stylish that has mathcing illumination for my car.

Tools/Supplies needed:

#2 Philips 

#1 Philips

Butane Torch (not Necessary but convenient)

Dremel or Similar Rotary tool

Soldering Gun/Iron

Solder

Needle Nose Pliers

Silicon Adhesive or Glue/Epoxy

Liquid Electrical Tape

Automotive Pry tool (Plastic tools are best for preventing damage to your car)

Acetone (optional)

Rag 

Also Needed:

1 car that needs a clock

1 new 12v LED Clock (i used a 0.56″ clock for this and it fits the bracket pretty well, a smaller clock would also be fine but I would not recommend a larger one for the corolla/matrix as it would then need a new bracket or custom mount.)

1 Broken or Dated OEM Clock To sacrifice

The Sacrifice

 

Step 1. Remove your dash assembly to reach your clock.

Step 2. Test the new clock to make sure it works.

  

The #9th Gen #Corolla/Matric uses the White and Black Wire for Ground and Grey wire for ACC Power.

Green Is Illumination Power (since I want the colck always on I used the Grey Wire.)

 

 The clock works so were good to proceed. (if your new clock has a clear plastic tape/film to protect the lcd keep it on till your near the end to keep it protected and clean)

   

Step 3. Remove and Dismantle the old clock.

It is held together with clips on the outer housing and screws attach it to the inner housing.

Screws also attach the bracket for the old LCD screen so unscrew those and bent it 90 degrees so the bracket can slide free.

 

Step 4. Use your rotary tool to trim away the housing of the bracket to fit the clock.

  

you can trim as much as you want to make it snug and flush.

   

I labeled the top and front so i know which way the clock would be aligned

 

Step 5. Next I uset tape to hold hte clock flush and epoxied it in place.  

Step 6. Now that its flush you can proceed with the demolition of the old circuit board.

 

A blowtorch makes quick word of the soldering points or you can grind them off with a rotary tool. 

 

Save the Oem Plug. I only kept the Ground/Earth and the Acc Power pins removing the other 2.

Step 6. Making the new button work required grinding the OEM button slightly, just enough to prevent the new switch from permanently staying in the pressed position. 

 

The after market clock only had a minutes button so i used silicone adhesive to attach it on the circuit board where the OEM minute button would be making alignment easy.

I also cut the rubber pad to keep the hour button in place.

 

Step 7. Test fit the button with the whole assembly in place. make sure you can hear it press in and depress correctly. If it does not press in at all you need to grind the back of the oem button more. 

 

 

If there’s a gap and you cant reach the button to press it, add some silicone or a pad to the back of the button so it will press in correctly. 

  

Step 8 (Optional) Since only one button is functional I decided to take the Hour and Minute letters off using acetone and a rag.

  

Step 9. Soldering the Power and Ground Wires. First take the connector and bend the metal ends in half to a u shape using pliers.

  

Loop the wired to the respected connector points. Twist the wires then crimp down the connectors to create nice solid joints. (keep in mind which pin is for the groun and which is for the power)

  

Solder the Joints by heating the joints and then letting the solder melt into them. 

  

Finally Use Liquid Electrical tape to coat the joint.

  

Let it dry.

Step 10. You can now remove the protective cover of the clock and Put it back int he assembly. Make sure to use all the screws that you removed in the beginning. 

  

Step 11. Place the clock in the dash and test it.

  

If it works put the rest of your dash back together and your done. 

 

Ta Da a working clock with matching illumination and no more dead clock space. 

 

*Disclaimer. This will void your clocks warranty if it were still valid so do this at your own risk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Working on a bunch of stuff. Mostly Props Fabrication. Irene Is going to be Sheena Fujibayashi so I drew up a set of cards to print out.

which one should i get? 2 vote please !st and second choice.
Voting wise its a tie between these 2

4 days till katsucon 20% done (materials: Leather, Vinyl, Plastic, Acrylic)

this morning 2 more days left…. 60% done

If anyone is going to katsucon and needs a place to stay we have crash space at the hotel.

-Red Ranger Out 

update… now 7.52 am (katsuday)

95% done. ill have to finish the rest at the hotel. small details and the spear. XD

 

 

 

 

This is for Mike,

Though there not as compact as some model of noise canceling head sets, they cover the full ear and do provide solid sound and warmth in the cold cold winterie icy days we jsut recently reached.

The basic concept. If it can muffle the sound of a shotgun blast 2 feet away from your head then it should muffle the sound of the perdon talking next to you easily.

The Shooting Head Muflers are rated at 25db whcich is just as high or a litle lower than most $200+ noise canceling audio headsets. and Howard Leight makes them from $14+

Then you take a set of digial Headsets, any will do as long as there full size, ie: not ear buds, these start at $9.99+ so all together plus tax this costed me $27 1/9th of a set of “name brand quality noise canceling headsets” the casings of both the mufler and the earphones easily pop apart without tools and are held together with friction and foam, so if you wanted you can easily upgrade parts or return them to their original state and the audio quality and volume will be on par with the expensive models, just rember not to wear them while driving or or any activity that will require the attention of your ears tho cause even with the music turned off  you really can’t hear anything arorund you….

 

 

 

 and a giant cookie for fun

-Red Ranger Out

>< still no stable internet at home. estemated installation is 2-3 weeks…..

On a happy note, I cleanedmy desk at work ^_^

but since barrence moved out of our office, I’m tempted to take his space since its a corner space… then ill have a more 200^o ish work space rather than a long bench. 

adn my wall paper ^^;

now to drive home and be isolated from the world for another 16 hrs.

-Red Ranger out 

Dear Verizon,

        YOU SUCK MONKEY BALLS. All we wanted to do is to have fiber optic internet without using the phone service. We did not write, call, or send a mother #%$&ing singing telegram saying we would like you to ^&%$ us over and cut out the internet without warning. even though you say someone specifically asked to ahve the internet service closed, this is impossible due to the fact most of us were away on vacation durring the holidays and do not keep verizon customer service on our speed dial. Of course we would have called to complain using the house phone but sicne it uses the internet to place and recived calls… yeah you $%^#ed us over again. And after calling you using a celphone and being placed on hold for over an hour after being told it would only take 20-25 minutes tops then having a call back to put us on hold for another 30 minutes only to say you can’t do jack $#!% and to call again inthe morning is just plain retarded. But we called anyway. And you had teh BALLS to say “You dont have an acount anymore” and that we would have to pay to either have the account reactivated. or be charged for the fios equipment even though its YOUR fault. ^#$% YOU VERIZON. I hope you die. and not a quick painless death, I hope you get a slow infectious desease that will eat away at your body and soul slowly from the inside out, then they find a cure, but then it turns out that the cure was a failure and actually speeds up the dying process while increasing the pain.  then all your bases are belong to me, skynet will be born and the downfall of the world be be on your head.

-Red Ranger Out

P.S. VERIZON SUCKS

The best laid plans of mice and men are easily shattered leaving them cowering in a fetal position.

the past couple weeks I’ve been trying to connect several gigs of music to the vans stereo, without actually replacing the stereo… and all those little things add up to the point that I probably would have been better off replacing the stereo and buy a nice set of alpine speakers from eBay. But since I had existing equipment for other things, it would only cost a little more to get this to work…. or at least you would think.

 

32 wireless fm transmitter

60 pocket media hard drive enclosure

63 8 GB ms duo

36 compact heavy duty ac/dc converter

20 dual USB dc charger inputs

8  “AA” USB backup charger

15 China town knock off cassette transmitter

=

234

 

+ Existing equipment- PSP, Sony MYLO PMP, Laptop, several hard drives = failure

 

-the wireless transmitter, although having a real cool USB port, isn’t powerful enough to transmit a crisp, non craptacular audio feed which makes it a incredible waste of money and if I find the receipt and box will be sent back to the store for credit…. but I think Brian used the receipt to discard chewing gum during the NYC trip today….

 

-the pocket media drive works perfectly but without anything to connect it with its kinda useless, added to the fact you need a external monitor to view the file paths for navigation makes it extra useless right now.

 

-8gb ms duo, would have been almost perfect with either the Mylo or PSP and hold the current block of music I wanted to listen to at the time. However the memory stick was defective and all the data became corrupt the day I received it. It wasn’t a genuine Sony stick, or any name brand at all but I expected to at least work for a couple days or just fall short of 8 GB.

 

- knock off cassette tape transmitter…works but since it is not a real tape so the stereo often tried to flip it over but fails and it constantly happens in mid song.

 

 

In the end I used a laptop connected to the cassette adapter to play music on the trip back.

Id rather buy a new commuter car than a new stereo for the van. XD

 

But NY was fun, didn’t buy anything for my self this time except the semi functional cassette adapter as a desperation move. They had 8 GB Sony memory sticks there, but I think I’m going to just buy one directly from Sony so it will work this time.

At least the soup dumplings never disappoint ^_^. Too bad I have work on Monday; I guess the world ain’t gonna save it self.

 

-red ranger out

 

LOL, the customers at FAO Schwartz kept asking me for directions and help because the security for the store wore red and black.

      so many deathgods… so little time ><
Otakon is friday!
-Red Ranger Out

 lets see…. last month… went to kings dominion for Ft. Mead family day,  dad before I started covering him in plushies.

Then Went fishing in anapolis with allan, didn’t catch any striper tho, but we did catch the blue angels.  hers a video of them in formation .

after that we stoped by school and everyone was hungry so we all decided to try the 1lb burger at cheeburger x2. Excpet the girls they got the little kids 5oz burger.   Everyone finished their food but allan was still hungry so he turned steve into a burger ^^

 

a couple weeks ago my mom and some of my aunts and unceles wanted to go to Israel to do some pilgrimage to the holy land. She wanted me to go but I told her I didnt want to get shot or pee blod from drinking water so instead i stayed home wiht my dad and we painted the living room.   . the thing is tho. the white paint we used for the living room is a bright clean semigloss white so its really shiny and bright and makes the rest of the house look all un shiny XD.

 

Ane most recently I’ve just been working on props and costumes for otakon. Starting off with making some fiberglass Zanpaktou swords.  aluminium flat bars wraped with fiberglass, cut then plasted wih body filler and grinded and sanded to shape. This week I will be painting the blades and then makingthe hilts and wraping the handles so hopefully they’ll turn out fine.

Last week my friend Susan finally opened her own sushi resturant www.sushioishii.com and has a sushi tasting event to try out some select items form the menu.

The sushi was delecious and I cant wait to go there again and try the regular dinner menu. From what I had I am confident that the resturant will live up to its name ^_^. If you live near teh rockville area, even if its a day trip or 2 you should definately stop by there andhave a bite to eat for lunch or a full dinner, or Both.

 picture of puppy. his head is smaller than my hand ^^

On a s#itty note. Saturday Sucked Ballz. Planed to get a lot of work done and drove tot he store to get some suplies but after shopping my car woudlnt turn over, after an hour of trying to start it, it was pretty apearent my starter was worn out/dead. But wait! I have AAA, so i look in my wallet and my AAA card was no where in site. the parking lot was extremly crouded and my car was stuck in a small parkign space so i couldn’t attempt a push start, plus a 4wd car is f’ing heavy. I called my sis since she had a AAA card as well then another hour later shes able to make it. Called AAA and they dispatched a flat bed to pick up my car but had to wait 2 more hours before it was free. then another hour to load it on tot he truck and haul it back to the house. So basically my full day of working was cut drastically into a few measily hours. and after compleating some projects I finally get home, toss my Phone on to the bed like i always do, but of course, SOMETHING HAD TO GO HORRIBLY WRONG. The phone bounced off the bed, which its never done before ever…. and lands LCD first onto something hard. A+B= ;_;   so after spending sunday withouth knowing who what or when I was recieving calls from I dug through some parts and found a new touch screen lcd on the shelf. C-B= the cracked lcd is on the top right the new shiny one is on the botom top right. and finally right before writing this A+B+C= working functional touchscreen that does what its supose to ^_^. So yeah now all i have to do is get a new starter for the car. and then in a week work starts. Today was a much better day.

Red Ranger Out