Christmas 2017: Feeding The Homeless

The Servants Of Hope Society will be holding their annual "Feeding The Homeless At Christmas" event Monday December 18, 2017. This is an event that I've attended a number of times over the past few years, and each and every time I'm truly amazed. 

Traditionally at this time of year I would be encouraging our readers to contact Sean to volunteer some time. However, this years it would appear that all volunteer positions have already been filled. That's quite impressive, and I'm very happy to hear this great news.

If you still want to help, I'm sure the Servants Of Hope are still accepting donations, but you might want to contact them to make sure.

As it reads above you can contact Sean by email at sean@servantsofhope.ca or keep in touch with them via their Facebook page.

Tis The Season

I'd like to send out a special thank-you to everyone that's makes it a routine to check out the Mass-IMO site every so often. It's been about a year now since having to delete the old Mass-IMO site and re-start this new one. Just so people know, prior to being plagued with issues the old site was getting well over 5,000 visitors a month, which had taken me approximately 5 years to do. I'm not sure if that is a good number or not, but it is what it is. With the site undergoing a complete re-make, those numbers dropped to almost nothing. Within a few months of the new launch, Mass-IMO was seeing an average of 100 of so visitors a month. No that we're nearing the 1 year mark, I'm happy to say we're seeing the number of visitors eclipse the 1,000 visitor mark. 

I'm beginning to enjoy blogging once again, and I'm hoping what I do, is bringing some happiness to all of you.

Knowing how hectic the Christmas Season gets, We here at Mass-IMO would like to wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season.

Trakt.Tv

One of the first things people realize when "cutting the cord", or more accurately the moving away from conventional sources of TV or Movie viewing, is the lack of commercials. Yes, one of the many benefits of cord cutting is no longer having you're TV show or Movie interrupted by commercials. Initially people rejoice at the thought of how much time is saved by not having to watch commercials. However this bliss of being able to truly binge watch TV or Movie's soon brings with it other problems. Hold on a second Mass, what kind of problems can we possibly encounter by not watching commercials? Well, for starters, without commercials you don't really know what new Movies are coming out, you don't know when your favorite TV show is playing next or when it starts up again. Heck you don't even know what new TV shows are coming out. 

Wouldn't it be cool if there was a service that could integrate with the streaming programs and add-ons you use, and notify you when your favorite TV show was starting up again, or tell you new episodes are available. How about if it could also keep track of all the Movies you've watched, and let your Facebook friends know. Well not only does Trakt.TV offer a free service to accomplish the above mentioned issues, but it allows for that information to be shared between all the devices associated to that account. No longer, will you be in bed, having re-watched the first ten minutes of a TV show episode only to realize you already watched it in the living room. As if that wasn't enough, Trakt.TV will analyse your TV and Movie viewing habits and make recommendations as to future shows or Movies that others with similar tastes have recommended.

How much does all this cost? Well you can get all the features I've mentioned above with a free account, however that's just the tip of the iceberg. Check out Trakt.TV's website here for a full list of features available and costs associated with being a VIP member.

So to everyone I say, stop wasting your time and head on over to Trakt.TV to sign up for a free account. Then when you're done, creep some co-workers so as to keep the water cooler talk fresh and flowing.

The World Is Flat: Krasnoyarsk, Russia

For those of you who can't quite understand the fascination of BMX Flatland, then maybe my russian comrade Aleksandr Dmitriev, might be able to explain it. He may be only 15 years old, but he sure seems to have a great grasp of the zen-like feeling, that only BMX Flatland can bring, and his riding shows it.

If you liked our showcase of the Sportex Skatepark in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, then you might want to check out what other great parts of the world we've highlighted. You can find our "The World Is Flat" map at the bottom of our the Mass-IMO site with all the interesting area's around the world that follow the BMX Flatland sport.

Have a location or rider you think needs some love and recognition? Then send an email to mass@mass-imo.com and maybe it'll be featured in an upcoming segment.

Terrarium TV

When I first tried Terrarium TV, over a year ago, I had absolutely no success in getting it to work. The interface was slow, and unresponsive, and I just couldn't be bothered fiddling with this new program when I was already quite satisfied with KODI. I've been a devoted KODI user since, well, before it was even called KODI. My history with cord cutting goes back to the days of XBMC (X-Box Media Centre), which is what KODI was formerly known as, way back in 2002. 

You have to take intro consideration, that, when Terrarium TV came on the  scene, KODI 16.1 was the must have application for the cord cutting community. However as KODI moved past Jarvis (16.1) to Krypton (17.0) some machines were now being rendered useless, as the new KODI now required Android 5+ as a minimum requirement. This seemed to maybe indicate the beginning of the end for KODI, not only was it losing touch with its target base of users (by requiring new Android TV Boxes), their developers were scrambling, forced to keep up with these changes. Many of these KODI add-on developers were also beginning to feel the pressure, as the outside world focused all its eyes on KODI and the question of it's legality. It would seem this one-two punch may have been enough to bring the mighty KODI giant to it's knees, and as a result, many developers (wanting out of the public spotlight) branched out and away from KODI. The giant that had ruled the cord cutting realm for the past 15 years had been toppled. In its wake, the cord cutting community eagerly awaits as a plethora of new streaming applications have begun flooding the scene.

It wasn't until a few weeks ago that I first went back to try experimenting with Terrarium TV, and boy was I astonished. The Terrarium TV I had now started using was a completely different reincarnation than the original. It was completely redesigned, looked impressive, was very responsive and most importantly it worked very, very well. What was most shocking was the ease and simplicity of Terrarium TV when comparing it to how complicated it had been to set up KODI. Yes, folks, it would seem we have a valid up and coming contender for the championship title of best cord cutting application. Only the future will tell for certain, but this is definitely a step in the right direction.

If you're interested in trying out Terrarium TV, then you should be able to download it through Aptoide TV, or Google Play Store. You can also download it directly from this link.

** Now while I've praised the new Terrarium TV application, it isn't without its shortfalls, and the most notable in my eyes is the omission  of TRAKT watch-lists (For those unfamiliar with TRAKT, I will have an upcoming article on it). While Terrarium TV does integrate with TRAKT, it only sync's  some information like Watched TV, Watched Movies and Favorites. According the Reddit forums, work is being done by Terrarium TV developers to implement more TRAKT information, with Watch-lists hopefully coming soon, and maybe even a calendar (fingers crossed).

Aptoide TV

While there is nothing wrong with using the Google Play Store, if you're looking for a slightly easier to use alternative, then may I suggest Aptoide TV.

So what makes Aptoide TV so good that I list it first? Well for starters, you don't need to have an account to begin downloading applications onto your Android TV Box. For most of us, we are all to familiar with the GMail login process that follows us around from device to device. The Android TV Box is usually used as a shared family device, do you really want everyone having access to your Google account? What if you don't have a GMail login account (I'm specifically referring to the IPhone users), do you really want to create one just for you Android TV Box? 

If the above mentioned reason wasn't enough motivation to get you to switch, then maybe this will. Unlike the Google Play Store which was designed to be used with a touch screen interface, Aptoide TV can be completely controlled by the Android TV Box remote. That's right, no more need to hook up a mouse and keyboard, or spring for a fancy air mouse. Aptoide TV was specifically designed with Android TV Box remote users in mind, which means Smart TV owners also get some love now.

Installation is pretty straight forward, just click this link and follow the instructions. 

KODI, WTF?

A little while back I informed everyone that I would be starting a KODI section, with updates on builds,add-ons and such. Well since those days it seems every time I got around to writing up a segment on what is the best KODI build to use, or what was the must have add-on, no sooner then did pen touch paper (figuratively) that the build or add-on would die. This little charade went on for a few weeks, and I've finally come to the point of realization that KODI, the all around, most useful tool to traverses and navigate the cord cutting realm, is simply too broken and volatile to use. Sure I still use KODI, but it's become much too difficult to maintain for the casual enthusiast. Stay tuned as I bring you some alternatives

Pumpkin Carving Templates

For the regular followers of Mass-IMO, you can still find all kinds of pumpkin stencils over at this link.

Please consider clicking the sponsor below.

The World Is Flat: Damietta, Egypt

I'm not exactly sure if this is Damietta, Egypt. I did a google translate and that's sort of what it threw back at me. Maybe someone can clarify this?
Ahmed sure has his scuffing down to an art form. Well done, keep up the good work

Dead R-Box Pro?

Im back everyone. 

This update I'm going to talk about my most recent experience with the R-Box Pro android set top box. In the past I've discussed some of the shortfalls with the RBP's initial firmware, and how updating to newer firmware solved a great deal of problems. While the update was a vast improvement over the originally shipped firmware, the RBP still wasn't without it's issues. 

The most notable problem was inconsistent internet speeds when hardwired to my gigabit home network. What I noticed as strange with the RBP is that it would seem to drop internet signal once the cache was full, so when watching TV shows or Movies once the cache portion was played it would start to buffer and seem to no longer buffer to cache. With a machine that had 3GB of ram, you would assume buffering would never happen but it actually buffered more than my 1GB OUYA. Playing around with advanced settings helped a bit at times, but this was always an ongoing problem.

Crashing, the RBP was always crashing out of Kodi. It wouldn't take much to crash, simply moving through the menu was enough for it to crash. 

Overheating, or at least running hot, was possibly the root of the above mentioned issues. My RBP was always showing an operating temperature of somewhere in the 170+ degrees Celsius. No matter how cool the ambient temperature was the RBP always ran hot. (I even installed a 120mm usb fan underneath to reduce temperatures).

So those were the issues plaguing my RBP, and then one day while surfing youtube videos, the machine just froze. I unplugged the unit, waited a few seconds and powered it back up. Once back into youtube, the RBP then froze up again, this time rebooting itself in the process. On the third boot up the main menu appeared and then RBP turned itself off. This would be the last time the RBP was functional. Repeated rebooting never managed to get past the initial boot logo (not even the sound played). 

In an attempt to fix this situation, I began to re-flash the firmware, but unlike my previous experience with firmware flashing, this time the flashing stopped after a few seconds and did not continue.

I'm sure my device was bricked!

I contacted Geekbuying, as I had purchased the unit from them, and inquired about some sort of resolution to my problem. I explained how unsatisfied I had been with the units I had purchased, and their response was that I should have returned them right away, and that since the units were 10 months old and under their warranty, all they could do is have them repaired. Geekbuying was willing to repair my RBP, however I needed to send the unit back to them with a tracking number. Well the cost of sending the packaged RBP back to Geekbuying is $9 Canadian, but with tracking that same package then becomes $50 Canadian. 

WTF!!!!

I could buy a cheaper more reliable replacement unit directly from Amazon, for less money then sending my unit back for repairs.

Geekbuying refused to offer me any more assistance on this issue, so they are now officially on my shit list of companies for whom I refuse to do business with. As far as I'm concerned Geekbuying,  can continue to pedal their crappy wares, I wont be supporting them, nor will I be referring customers to them.

So I'm stuck with a piece of shit RBP paperweight. 

But hold on, I'm not going to give up that easily. I've read enough forum posts to know that there were some people out there who have claimed a godlike ability to revived bricked devices. This process consisted of manually erasing the ram chips (which involves shorting out some pins while the machine was on). So I'm going to research this a bit and possibly have a follow up post.

If anyone wants to donate a new android set top box for me to use, I would greatly appreciate it.

No, I'm Not Dead

Hey everyone, I know it's been a while since I posted anything. I've been taking advantage of the great summer weather to tackle a bunch of renovation type outdoor projects. Don't worry I'll soon be back to updating this blog.
Also there are some new changes in the works which I hope I can announce soon.
Until then, enjoy the rest of summer and we'll be back soon.

The World Is Flat: Leicester, United Kingdom

In all honesty, I really don't know where this video is filmed. What I do know is (1) it's a super slick routine (2) the riders name is Keelan Phillips (3) the video comes to us from Leicester, United Kingdom.

I'm a little embarrassed to say this but I can't even name the trick he does that I like so much. Maybe if I describe it someone will make comments below to enlighten me, or maybe send me an email. The trick Keelan does is a simple front wheel hop, while doing a front wheel manual (or is it a G-Turn hop?). I guess it's meant to be a connector trick when stringing his multiple tricks together, which  doesn't look hard but probably is. Anyways I just love the way it flows which might be why the video is called FLOW? Two thumbs up from me as it looks super cool.

Big shout out to the Keelan and the rest of his fellow riders across the pond!!

2005 Yamaha BWS: Update. Finished

Finally, my 2005 Yamaha BWS is running insured, and on the road!

I would have loved to document more of the engine overhaul, however this website wasn't co-operating during the rebuild, and I didn't document anything. 

Cosmetically you can see the difference from a stock 2005 BWS (Blue), to my mine. The rear fender has been hacked, front fender removed, wheels pasti-dipped, and all the fairings painted and polished to match original color, and the addition of front LED side markers.

Engine upgrades included a 70cc big block kit (Airsal), 17mm Arreche carburetor (upjetted), Doppler intake, Malossi reeds & cage, aftermarket air filter. Everything went together rather smoothly, with the exception of the Doppler intake which seemed to push the carburetor out of position. With the Doppler intake I could no longer use the stock air box as it would not line up properly. I had no choice but to replace the stock air box with an aftermarket air filter.

On the exhaust side the Doppler pipe I ordered, specifically for this build, didn't fit. I had to substitute a Leo Vince.

In the transmission I replaced the rollers with the Doppler ones that were packaged with the aftermarket pipe. I installed a Malossi delta clutch and Malossi torque spring.

While it's not my fastest build, it easily keeps up to city traffic, and is much smoother.

My take away from doing this build, is DO NOT BUY DOPPLER PARTS!!!!

Stick with brands like Stage6, Malossi, and Athena when possible.

Me VS Shaw Internet

For those of you who don't know, I recently moved into an older home, which wasn't equipped with wired high speed internet. As a result I embarked on the process to fully wire every room with high speed network cabling throughout. The process involved me running Cat5E cabling from a central point in the garage to 6 major rooms throughout the home. Along the way I tested each cable run, ensuring proper gigabit transmission and terminations. I set up all my gigabit networking equipment next to Shaw's internet modem, and viola, I finally had high speed internet!

A few months after this process was completed I was contacted by Shaw, offering a promotional upgrade to my existing high speed internet package. Essentially for the same price I could go from 80mbs service to 150mbs service for the next 2 years. I obviously jumped at the opportunity.

Here is where we run into problems, before switching to 150mbs service, I would test my internet speed and get speeds somewhere in the mid 90mbs. After switching to 150mbs service, my speed tests would result in internet speeds in the mid 170mbs. Now this is obviously awesome, and it was, however the problem was that these speeds only seemed to last for a week or two, then the internet speed would drop back down to 90mbs. WTF???

So begins my long process of contacting Shaw's technical support, to remedy this problem. I and Shaw's technical support team spent hours and hours trying to find a solution. I would reset the modem, and hit 175mbs service, only to have it reduced to 95mbs two days later.

We (Shaw and myself) were at odds with each other over whom was to blame over these speed fluctuations.

In an attempt to prove Shaw's technical support team wrong, I eventually start the process of changing out and testing some of my networking equipment, to see if the problem was on my end. While I hate to admit it, Shaw's technical support team was right, the problem was originating on my end.

(testing process)

While it wasn't my equipment that was faulty, some of the short Cat5e patch cables that I had bought off EBay were defective and causing faults in the service.

Just to recap the situation, all the wires I ran throughout the home were all fine (as I tested them), all my equipment was fine (as I tested it, as well) but a few of the cables I bought off EBay that interconnects my equipment with Shaw's equipment were faulty. A few $1.50 cables cost me and Shaw's technical support team weeks of anguish and hours of wasted time, I would have never thought to test pre-made Cat5E cables.

I want to officially apologize to Shaw's Internet Support Team, and thank them for their patience and perseverance. 

Hopefully we can still be friends.

The World Is Flat: Itapevi, Brazil

I don't speak Portuguese, so I have no idea what these guys are talking about, however the event looks pretty cool, and the riders are pretty sick. Well done Brazil! First South American entry to the map.

Anyone around the world have a video they want featured, send me a link!

KODI: Update

Due to recent litigation surrounding the legality of KODI and it's add-ons, I will be holding off on posting. Many of the add-ons I've been using have either shut down, or gone on hiatus. Once this matter is resolved I will continue to post tips on KODI.

KODI

Just thought I'd put together a new category focusing on information around KODI software, and my personal top suggestions of getting it to run smoother. While I'm no expert, people often reach out to me with questions, and I'm more than happy to share my experiences. 

With this new category, I'll try to answer the most common problems and solutions. So send me feedback.

The World Is Flat: Sidoarjo Regency, Indonesia

Super cool visuals in this video by rider Zimmi Tanarata and Sports Gear.

"I often compare life to the ocean, in little boat we brave the elements and we wade through the waves to avoid catastrophe, as you keep the horizon in sight..."

Super cool outlook on life, check out his other video here.

2011 Nissan Versa: Trunk Light

This is the follow up to my last blog article, with some added information and pictures. As you can see from the picture above, I drilled a small hole in the stock battery terminal cover, so as to have added protection for my wiring. You can also noticed the previously mentioned soldered on ring terminal and heat shrink covering which connects to the car's battery.

I wanted to keep the stock terminal protector, and by drilling a small hole large enough for my wire, I was able to maintain a rather stock look. I left a bit of slack on the new power wire in the event the battery needed to be serviced, so as not to be a burden in the future.

The power wire makes it's way from the battery to the circuit breaker, where it then makes its way down the fender (behind the fender liner), and through the firewall. From the firewall the power wire makes its way along the door jams(under the carpet).

The power wire terminates at a 4 way junction block located behind the rear, drivers side, seat. I already had this junction block in my spare parts drawer so it cost me nothing. You can find similar ones on EBay for about $6 (CAD).

I ordered two 50cm long 5630SMD waterproof rigid strip light bars from EBay once again, for a cost of about $10 (CAD). 

I ended up using only one of the two light bars, as one proved to provide sufficient lighting

I mounted the light bar to the roof of the trunk, then ran a wire from the distribution block to the positive wire on the light bar (all visible in the photo above).

This is where things got a little tricky, as I wanted the light bar to turn on only when the trunk was opened. However I was unable to determine which factory wire reported an open trunk to the alarm. Originally I was going to install a standard aftermarket alarm trigger switch, which I could have done, but I didn't want to drill holes through trunk. Instead, on my brothers suggestion, I ordered a mercury tilt switch from Ebay at a cost of about $8 (CAD).

A mercury tilt switch is a pretty simple device that sends a signal when its tilted. If I install it properly, it will turn the light bar on when the trunk is opened and turn off the light bar when the trunk is closed.

I installed the mercury switch to the arm of the trunk (there was an existing hole there), ran the wire into the stock wiring loom, so as to keep it looking neat and tidy. The mercury switch attached to the a common ground at one end and the light bar negative wire on the other end.

Everything worked as expected, and now the versa'a trunk is very well lit.

As a side note to those following along, I usually plan through the build ahead of time, then source out my supplies (usually from EBay). I do the actual builds after all my parts have arrived.

Have a comment? Let me know below.

2011 Nissan Versa: Power In The Trunk

Since selling my beloved Nissan Xterra, back in October of 2016, I've been driving Nadia's 2011 Nissan Versa sedan. While the Versa is a great economical car, with lots of room, it's a base model and really doesn't have much in the way of creature comforts. This statement couldn't be more true, when searching for the non existent trunk light. Yes, that's right, this vehicle does not come factory equipped with a trunk light! So I ask, what's the point of having such a large trunk, if you just can't find anything in it?

As you all know this just isn't acceptable, so my first Versa related project would be to add a trunk light. While I had every intent on making this the first project, I quickly discovered that not only was there no trunk light, there didn't seem to be any usable sources of power in the trunk.

I figured I would probably be upgrading the stereo, and adding an amplifier in the future, so I might as well run power from the battery to the trunk, hopefully killing two birds with one stone. Since the Versa would never be getting a high end stereo system, and all we needed was power, I opted to buy an amplifier wiring kit from EBay. The kit cost me about $11 (CAD) which is about 1/3 the cost of similar kits sourced locally.

Even though the amplifier kit came with a inline fuse, I opted to buy a 20 amp inline circuit breaker, also from EBay for about $9 (CAD). If there is ever any trunk related power issues, this $9 investment would pay off, as you never need to search for costly replacement fuses. Also by pressing a button you could disable all power to the trunk, a great safety feature in my eyes.

Since I was shopping on EBay, I also purchased some 8 gauge firewall grommets for about $8 (CAD). While I'm glad I purchased the grommets, I didn't end up using them because there was already a factory hole and grommet in the Versa's firewall, which I ended up using.

I've really become infuriated with how long it takes to get parts from EBay lately, and the fact that most parts don't even show up anymore is ridiculous. With this Versa project however it didn't have that much of an impact, due to all the rain we've been getting I couldn't do anything anyway.

Searching the www revealed that behind the drivers side kick panel, located under the dashboard, was an existing hole in the firewall with a grommet. 

With this knowledge the rest of the project was pretty smooth sailing. I would be running the power wire through the hole found directly behind the wires shown in the photo above. Cutting a small hole in the grommet allowed me to easily push the power wire through both the grommet and the hole. This resulted in a tight seal, so as to not to have any problems with water entering the car in the future.

In order to feed the wire from the grommet to the battery, i needed to remove the drivers side front wheel, and fender liner. This was a bit time consuming, and a little confusing as I couldn't see all the retaining clips initially.

I believe industry standards for car audio require any power wires leading off the battery to have a fuse mounted within 1 foot of the battery. With this in mind I found what I believe to be a suitable location to mount the inline circuit breaker.

I connected the power wire to the battery terminal (I soldered the included ring terminals to the power wire, and protected it using the provided heat shrink tubing), and then secured it to the circuit breaker before pulling the slack back out the drivers side kick panel (the circuit breaker was off). I ran the power wire along the side of the car, under the carpets along with all the factory wiring. I put everything back together, and finished with the first part of this project. I will have more picture in the follow up post.

Have questions or comments, let me know

The World Is Flat: Amsterdam, Netherlands

This video has got a cool, mellow flow to it, just what I needed to put life in perspective. Here we have Gino shredding at the "Casino Amsterdam" in the Netherlands. Check out more videos featuring both Gino and Amsterdam at JD Video.

2005 Yamaha BWS: Taillight & Turn Signals

Following up on the documenting of my front fairing mods, this entry brings you my modifications to the rear taillight and turn signal indicators. I was hoping to replicate something similar to the photo below, which sell at scootertuning.ca for $79.99 (CAD).

After removing the plastic license plate light housing, and the plastic mud flap I was left with something that was starting to look more like my end goal.

The North American YW50 (BWS 50/Zuma 50) does not come with integrated turn signals in the taillight, like it's siblings sold in Europe and Japan. Dismantling the taillight assembly revealed that while it was possible to recreate the European/Japanese integrated turning signals, there was no factory installed wiring. 

As you can clearly see in the above image, the previous owner of my scooter had already integrated lights into the taillight assembly, however they were merely white LED that worked in unison with the brake light.

Seeing as I had unused amber .75" LED turn signal indicators left over from my fairing build, I decided to use them here in replacing the existing white LED lights. This was a simple process of drilling out a .75" hole and pushing the LED through its grommet, which held it in place.

I ordered third party amber turn signal lens from EBay, that would replace the stock red lenses. 

The stock taillight assembly came with a reflector located just below the taillight, which I replaced with a red LED reflector which was also sourced from EBay. The LED reflector was wired into the existing harness to provide a constant low intensity light when riding (for visibility), and a high intensity light when the brakes were applied.

Before I assembled everything, I gave all the exposed lens a good cleaning and sprayed them all with VHT nightshade, to give them all a smoked look. Here is what my finished taillight assembly looks like.

I also added a LED license plate light, which I don't really like, but it will have to do until I find something I like better. You can see how much shorter the newly modified taillight assembly is as the gas drain hose ran the whole distance of the stock taillight assembly.

Hope you enjoyed this update, if you have any questions make comments or send me an email.

The World Is Flat: Berlin, Germany

In this episode of 'The World Is Flat' we take you to Berlin Germany. While I prefer to highlight  and showcase amateur riders representing flatland from around the world, we here at Mass-IMO don't discriminate against the pro's who represent, or their sponsors. So a big shout out to Camilo Gutierrez for shredding up Berlin, and his sponsor G-Shock for making it happen.

ROM: R-BOX Pro (Update)

This is a small update to the previous R-Box Pro post detailing how to upgrade the stock firmware to a newer version. I managed to stumble upon a forum discussion on freaktab.com that detailed how someone (alienpearl) managed to manipulate (hack/mod) the firmware for the R-Box Pro to run Android TV.  The post is here.

(this is not an image of the R-Box Pro's Android TV, just a version of Android TV)

Having successfully flashed this rom to my R-Box pro, I can honestly say that it works, and works quite well. It was a rather different experience than the normal android tablet/phone environment, and it accepted my webcam without any problems. While it was a new refreshing look, at what could be an alternative for android boxes, it was a bit primitive for my mainstream use. I could however see how this O/S implementation could convert the more non tech savvy, as it was quite simple.  

If you want to give this a try, follow my previous post on flashing the R-Box Pro, and substitute the new android tv rom image file instead of the firmware update image file. You can get the android tv rom from the forum mentioned above or directly from here.

2005 Yamaha BWS: Front Fairing

It's been over a year since I've posted an update about my 2005 Yamaha BWS rebuild. 

(image stolen from www, might have been my scooter)

My build is nothing like reality TV, where customized rebuilds are completed in weeks. There are many factors that have resulted in my build posts to taking so long, the most serious issue has been my inability to post to BLOGGER (which has been documented before). Other factors, like the cold weather, a cold workshop, postal shipping delays, and the whole trial and error process have added to this lengthy build. Finally there are all the problems I've been plagued with during this build. It's also a bit surprising that, parts for this model of scooter are harder to find, considering that it's a newer model.

Now on to the actual build...

(not my fairing, image stolen from Ebay)

One of the ugliest things about the North American YW50, is the hideous reflector on the front fairing. My goal from day one was to remove this reflector and add either LED  side markers or LED turn signals (haven't decided yet). In my opinion, while reflectors do an average job of making the scooter visible to other drivers, lights are better, and LED lights are even better than that, plus they're really inexpensive, and draw less electrical load. 

Problem #1: My original goal was to remove the reflector and merely substitute in .75" LED penny lights. However, removing the reflector revealed multiple mounting holes in the fairing. To avoid seeing these holes in the fairing, they would need to be filled prior to securing the LED lights. I used a technique called plastic welding, where the surrounding area of the fairing is melted, with a solder iron, and new plastic is melted in and added to fill the holes. Seeing as I was already committed to this process, I also decided to fill some fairing cracks graciously provided, free of charge, from the previous owner. After building up the area with plastic, it was sanded down to its original shape. ** When possible use tape on the finish side to achieve a smoother surface, with rough work on the other side of the fairing (hope that makes sense).

Problem#2: Some of the original plastic parts on my YW50 had a textured surface, the fairing being one of them. After the plastic welding process, and the subsequent sanding, the original textured surface had been lost. Sanding down the whole fairing just wasn't an option, so I attempted to recreate the textured surface using RUST-OLEUM's Hammered textured spray paint.

(Here is a picture of the fairing after it had been plastic welded, sanded, and finally painted.)

Problem #3: While the RUST-OLEUM Hammed texture paint did a great job of recreating the texture surface on the fairing, it wasn't the right color.

As you can clearly see from the above photo, the paint can color indicator lid is black, yet my painted fairing is grey/charcoal. As you can image I was pretty upset, which was only made worse by RUST-OLEUM's refusal to admit fault. Instead, after ongoing correspondence they eventually awarded me a refund. Fortunately for me, I was able to correct this, by painting over the fairing with a standard black rattle can paint. ** Note: In the past I've experience issues trying to use different paints on top of each other, with sanding being the only final option, something the refund wouldn't cover. I really liked that I could paint over the hammered textured paint, I might use this process in the future. **

Oh RUST-OLEUM, its a complicated relationships between us.

Problem #4: After waiting weeks for my .75" LED amber lights to arrive, I painted them using VHT nightshade paint to give them a smoked look. I drilled new holes in my fairing and inserted the LED lights, only to realize that the curvature of the fairing caused the LED lights to not sit properly. While I could probably get away with using some silicone to fill the uneven gaps, I just know I would never be satisfied with this look. My solution was to order 1.25" LED amber lights, and hope that they will fit the fairings curvature better.

After several more weeks the new LED lights arrived, and once again I used VHT nightshade to give the lights a smoked look. I used a Dremel tool to widen the .75" hole until it snuggley fit the 1.25" lights. 

While I really liked the size and shape of the .75" lights, the 1.25" lights fit so much better. Overall I'm pleased how the front fairing turned out, and I'm leaning on making these lights side markers that are only on at night.