4Crawler

Looking for remnants of the old 1895 road that ran from Stevens Canyon Rd. to Montebello Road. This old road runs from the first creek crossing up to near the top of Montebello Road, which is now paved. This road shows up on the 1930 USGS topo map but not an any later versions. It's in great shape except for the sections that are heavily overgrown. This video was shot in the spring of 2020 and was when I first started searching for these old roads. I might venture back up and see if I can get any higher. There seemed to have been one or two buildings up where the road cut back to the SE after going up the side canyon. It's likely that those would not have been demolished and hauled away like MidPen does with more accessible structures. About the USGS HTMC: https://www.usgs.gov/programs/national-geospatial-program/historical-topographic-maps-preserving-past View/download maps on the TopoView site: https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/ I used the 1895/7 Palo Alto quadrangle https://www.avenzamaps.com/ More to come... Subscribe for more content like this Comment, rate, share & click the bell icon And as always, thanks for watching

Looking for remnants of the old 1895 canyon road from the end of the current road. As it exists today, Stevens Canyon Road is paved up to the gate at 1000 ft. elevation. Beyond that, there's limited motor vehicle access along with hiking, biking and equestrian access. About half way to the end, there's a slide area that's taken out the old road, blocking motor vehicle access. The old road continues to the first creek crossing as part of the Canyon Trail. The old road seems to have crossed the creek in the vicinity of the modern trail crossing and continued for a ways up the north side of the creek. It then crossed to the south side about half way up to the current Table Mtn. trail crossing. This section of the creek has some great scenery. There's the natural bonsai Bay Laurel tree, the levitating oak tree, a massive whirlpool and much more. None of this is visible from the modern single track trail as it's been rerouted up and away from the creek. About the USGS HTMC: https://www.usgs.gov/programs/national-geospatial-program/historical-topographic-maps-preserving-past View/download maps on the TopoView site: https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/ I used the 1895 Palo Alto quadrangle or the 1900 historical topo as listed in GaiaGPS: https://www.gaiagps.com/ More to come... Subscribe for more content like this Comment, rate, share & click the bell icon And as always, thanks for watching

The 1895 topo map shows the old Stevens Canyon Road continuing beyond the location of the modern Grizzly Flat Trail. I had always seen what looked like an old road on the far side of the canyon when dropping down the stream crossing on the Grizzly Flat Trail. This is the first time I finally took the plunge and ventured up onto the old road shelf. There are a lot of fallen trees across the old road and with the steep slopes, a lot of debris has fallen down from above and covered much of the old road bed. I think this road continues up at least a ways past where I got to in this video. Two plans of attack are to side hill down from the portion of Grizzly Flat trail where it runs up the ridge above this point. Then there are also 1 or 2 old roads I've seen dropping down off Grizzly Flat Trail (south) that seem to be heading into the same canyon as this portion of the road is heading up. It's hard to be certain of any of this as the old and new maps seem to be very inaccurate in this area. They show the Branch D canyon starting about 0.1 miles further upstream from this location. I think the modern maps make use of much of the topographic information on the older maps and thus if the old map was off, then new map is off as well. This area is not amenable to aerial surveys as the tree cover is so heavy. In order to see where all these old roads actually go, the only way is to hike them, recording a GPS track then upload them and view the tracks on a larger map. About the USGS HTMC: https://www.usgs.gov/programs/national-geospatial-program/historical-topographic-maps-preserving-past View/download maps on the TopoView site: https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/ I used the 1895 Palo Alto quadrangle or the 1900 historical topo as listed in GaiaGPS: https://www.gaiagps.com/ More to come... Subscribe for more content like this Comment, rate, share & click the bell icon And as always, thanks for watching

The 1895 topo map shows the old Stevens Canyon Road running up along the location of the modern Grizzly Flat Trail. This was filmed in early March, 2020 when I was first starting to try and figure out where this old road went. I hadn't ventured too far off the trail at this time. About the USGS HTMC: https://www.usgs.gov/programs/national-geospatial-program/historical-topographic-maps-preserving-past View/download maps on the TopoView site: https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/ I used the 1895 Palo Alto quadrangle or the 1900 historical topo as listed in GaiaGPS: https://www.gaiagps.com/ More to come... Subscribe for more content like this Comment, rate, share & click the bell icon And as always, thanks for watching

This was a spur of the moment hike between the creek crossings at the Table Mountain and the Grizzly Flat trails. The hike was about 1 mile (1.6km) in length and took about an hour. That was 50 mins. of bushwhacking up the creek bed and 10 mins. to hike back on the maintained trail. Best done in late summer/early fall when the creek has dried up. There are a few spots that require some climbing and walking across fallen trees to get past. The 1895 topo map shows the old Stevens Canyon Road running up the south side of the canyon all they along this stretch. And the traces of that road are all on that side of the creek. In the last 125 years, the creek has shifted course in places and washed out the road. About the USGS HTMC: https://www.usgs.gov/programs/national-geospatial-program/historical-topographic-maps-preserving-past View/download maps on the TopoView site: https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/ I used the 1895 Palo Alto quadrangle or the 1900 historical topo as listed in GaiaGPS: https://www.gaiagps.com/ More to come... Subscribe for more content like this Comment, rate, share & click the bell icon And as always, thanks for watching

Doing a little research into the names listed on this old 1895 topographic map. I see the same names on the San Jose map from the same year. Some names are different on the San Mateo and San Francisco maps from 1892 and 1899. Avenza Maps: https://www.avenzamaps.com/ You can have up to 3 user installed maps activated for off-line use in the free version if you want to try out a historic topo map. TopoView web site to view/download maps: https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/ USGS personnel: Henry Gannett https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/henry-gannett-7484.php Topographic Methods, 1906 publication: https://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/0307/report.pdf Richard U. Goode: https://prabook.com/web/richard_urquhart.goode/1106515 Robert B. Marshall https://www.watereducation.org/aquapedia/robert-b-marshall https://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/0646/report.pdf https://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/0673/report.pdf https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf687005vn/ More to come... Subscribe for more content like this Comment, rate, share & click the bell icon And as always, thanks for watching

Using historical USGS topographic maps to look for signs of old roads in the Santa Cruz mountains. I ran across these old maps a few years ago and they helped in identifying traces of old roads I was seeing along the modern hiking / mountain bike trails I ride. Initially, I would study the map on-line and see if I could identify things I was seeing on rides. Then I found I could load the maps into the AvenzaMaps app: https://www.avenzamaps.com/ and later into GaiaG: https://www.gaiagps.com/ to have them available off-line with my current location displayed. When I first got that working, it was mind blowing. Here I could be out in the mountains with an 1895 topo map, likely a wonder in it's day, and have live G tracking on that 125 year old map! About the USGS HTMC: https://www.usgs.gov/programs/national-geospatial-program/historical-topographic-maps-preserving-past View/download maps on the TopoView site: https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/ Section of single track Canyon Trail built in 1990: https://www.trailcenter.org/newsletter/2000/winter2000/winter2000-19f.htm More to come... Subscribe for more content like this Comment, rate, share & click the bell icon And as always, thanks for watching

Searching for roads from the 1800's in Stevens Creek Canyon, west of Cupertino, CA. Several years ago, I stumbled across some historical USGS topo maps of the area where I do a lot of my bike rides in. Over years of riding up here, I've observed what looked like signs of old roads and sure enough, some of them were shown on these old maps. It's taken some time to figure out the logistics of how to explore these on bike rides. The traditional approach would be to drive to one of the parking areas up on top of the ridge and hike several miles down to this area. Or you can park several miles down Stevens Canyon Rd. and then hike several miles up the pavement. Fanny pack link: https://amzn.to/3sAmoEW USGS Historical Topographic Maps: https://www.usgs.gov/programs/national-geospatial-program/historical-topographic-maps-preserving-past More to come, looking at the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection... This series of videos is my way of documenting all the places I've explored along with ideas for further exploration. It seems on most of these trips, I'll find one or more new things to check out on further trips. Subscribe for more content like this Comment, rate, share & click the bell icon And as always, thanks for watching

When I first visited this site, I remembered the "20 feet left" part but got that confused with mentions of trails. Reviewing my photos and videos and comparing that with the description (below), I saw that I had missed this "former road": From the GeoCache description: "I had trouble picking up the former road again from the home site, but eventually found it about 20 feet left of the grav3stones. It's a bit of a challenging route down to the Canyon Trail, but not overly so." So I had to return to the site and look for this road. It is hard to find but it was a relatively easy descent, at least compared to the trail and first road I had gone done before. There are lots of downed trees, but this road is in much better shape than the old forest road on the east side. I think a crew with a chain saw could clear this road out in a few days of work. These two roads up to the cabin site along with the single track trails offer several hiking loops in the area. This whole area is part of a single 40 acre parcel of land that the Open Space district purchased around 2001, per the newspaper article. I haven't been able to find out about anything that was located here prior to district clearing the land shortly after acquisition. Here's a demolition project for an adjoining parcel of land, acquired from the same owner in 2013, that was cleared in 2014: https://www.openspace.org/sites/default/files/CGI-B/agendas_minutes/2014.07.23_Lobner_AwardofContract_Demolition_r-14-97.pdf It lists buildings dating from the 1890s, which is the date of the USGS topo map I have of the area. Likely similar structures were present on the 40 acre site to the west. This earlier demolition was done prior to the district posting such information on-line. This cache has an incredible backstory with lots of interesting twists and turns: - AlphaRoaming, an avid GeoCacher, stumbles on this area in 2013 while exploring an abandoned road - Posts his adventures in his blog - Contacts the MidPen Open Space District and the California Pioneers historical group - After identifying historical head stones, a MidPen work party goes in and recovers those stones in 2016 - This prompts a newspaper article - GeoCacher Werdave places a nearby cache with hints of an old road to the bottom of the canyon in 2016 - GeoCacher TickMag reads newspaper article, blog post and above GeoCache and heads out to the Gravestones site to place a cache - Later, AlphaRoaming sees cache listing and comes back with friend to revisit the site. - AR's friend posts log entry about coming up via and old road the AlphaRoaming knew about along with other log entries about other roads and trails in the area. Sometimes, it really pays to read and reread the cache descriptions and log entries to figure out all this before setting out. And, like this time, revisit the location to figure out more details. Sure, I could have just hiked the normal trail down from the top, logged the cache and hiked back up to the parking area on top. But look at all the interesting things I would have missed. This section of the Canyon Trail used to be a boring ride up an old road, but now I know there's a whole network of old roads and trails off to the south. Grav3stones cache: https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC75BP8 A Secret Trailhead Redwood Pair (Premium cache): https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC6F63Y San Jose Mercury News article: https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/04/04/herhold-unmarked-road-leads-to-historical-headstones/ https://web.archive.org/web/20170508023706/http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/04/04/herhold-unmarked-road-leads-to-historical-headstones/ AlphaRoaming blog posts: https://alpharoaming.com/2014/09/29/headstones/ https://alpharoaming.com/2016/04/04/return-of-the-mysterious-headstones/ YouTube videos: Initial cataloging (seems to be missing): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hID6_Cmgx28 Moving them out!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V595-XMf8b0 Interesting tidbit on the YT algorithm: If the word "grav3stones" is spelled out correctly, then the video gets flagged and demonetized. "Head stones" seems to be OK, but not that "G" word! Wonder what George Carlin would make of the situation today: https://youtu.be/kyBH5oNQOS0 More to come... Subscribe for more content like this Comment, rate, share & click the bell icon And as always, thanks for watching

Using the Old Forest Road to access this remote GeoCache. It wasn't really missing! https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC21R92 This cache is tied into the other 2 caches in the area via AlphaRoaming, although I still need to find out more about this "Think Terrain Challenge". It may be the old, missing cache referred to in the description and is no longer around. I also wanted to check out the gate at the bottom of Charcoal Road where it enters private property. Interesting that the county assessor map (book 351, page 15, if you want to look it up) shows the tributary here named Wallace Creek, while the USGS and OSM topo maps show it simply named "Branch B". Lots of interesting information you can find as you discover GeoCaches and do some research into the area. More to come... Subscribe for more content like this Comment, rate, share & click the bell icon And as always, thanks for watching

After about a month of scoping out locations along the Canyon Trail, I had a hunch where this "Old Forest Road" mentioned in the various GeoCache descriptions might be located. Only way to find out for sure is you head off the trail and see what's there. This cache has an incredible backstory with lots of interesting twists and turns: - AlphaRoaming, an avid GeoCacher, stumbles on this area in 2013 while exploring an abandoned road - Posts his adventures in his blog - Contacts the MidPen Open Space District and the California Pioneers historical group - After identifying historical head stones, a MidPen work party goes in and recovers those stones in 2016 - This prompts a newspaper article - GeoCacher Werdave places a nearby cache with hints of an old road to the bottom of the canyon in 2016 - GeoCacher TickMag reads newspaper article, blog post and above GeoCache and heads out to the Gravestones site to place a cache - Later, AlphaRoaming sees cache listing and comes back with friend to revisit the site. - AR's friend posts log entry about coming up via and old road the AlphaRoaming knew about along with other log entries about other roads and trails in the area. Sometimes, it really pays to read and reread the cache descriptions and log entries to figure out all this before setting out. Grav3stones cache: https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC75BP8 A Secret Trailhead Redwood Pair (Premium cache): https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC6F63Y San Jose Mercury News article: https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/04/04/herhold-unmarked-road-leads-to-historical-headstones/ https://web.archive.org/web/20170508023706/http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/04/04/herhold-unmarked-road-leads-to-historical-headstones/ AlphaRoaming blog posts: https://alpharoaming.com/2014/09/29/headstones/ https://alpharoaming.com/2016/04/04/return-of-the-mysterious-headstones/ YouTube videos: Initial cataloging (seems to be missing): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hID6_Cmgx28 Moving them out!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V595-XMf8b0 Interesting tidbit on the YT algorithm: If the word "grav3stones" is spelled out correctly, then the video gets flagged. "Head stones" seems to be OK, but not that "G" word! Wonder what George Carlin would make of the situation today: https://youtu.be/kyBH5oNQOS0 More to come... Subscribe for more content like this Comment, rate, share & click the bell icon And as always, thanks for watching

Getting off the bike to explore some new areas up in the Santa Cruz Mtns. to do some GeoCaching and other exploring. After riding up on these trails for the last 10 years, I've seen lots of signs of past activity that looked like they would be interesting to explore. However, these areas are not accessible by bike and with the ominous warning signs all over, I was reluctant to venture off trail. But through finding GeoCaches that were farther and farther off the trail, I gained the confidence to get off the trails and see what lay beyond the brush lining the trails. The following videos will cover these GeoCaches below: A Secret Trailhead Redwood Pair (Premium cache): https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC6F63Y Grav3stones cache: https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC75BP8 It wasn't really missing! cache: https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC21R92 San Jose Mercury News article: https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/04/04/herhold-unmarked-road-leads-to-historical-headstones/ https://web.archive.org/web/20170508023706/http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/04/04/herhold-unmarked-road-leads-to-historical-headstones/ AlphaRoaming blog posts: https://alpharoaming.com/2014/09/29/headstones/ https://alpharoaming.com/2016/04/04/return-of-the-mysterious-headstones/ YouTube videos: Initial cataloging (seems to be missing): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hID6_Cmgx28 Moving them out!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V595-XMf8b0 Not only is this fun, but also environmentally friendly. If I drove up to where there's legal parking, I would burn 2 gallons, or more, of gasoline. Riding the bicycle from home saves that energy, plus it lets me get right to the start of the hike instead of having to park several miles away and then hike to and from the area I want to explore. More to come... Subscribe for more content like this Comment, rate, share & click the bell icon And as always, thanks for watching

Our business ships a fair volume of parts to Australia and New Zealand. We normally use US Priority Mail Flat Rate service as it's reasonably fast and economical for our heavier shipments. Since the end of September, 2021, there's been a suspension of US shipments to these two countries, among others: https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/international/welcome.htm It appears that US has partnered with GlobalPost to handle Express Mail shipments to these two countries: https://www.goglobalpost.com/ The Global Express Guaranteed (GXG) service is handled by Fedex:. https://faq.usps.com/s/article/What-Is-Global-Express-Guaranteed All the countries not on the suspension list are still being served by US First Class and Priority mail as normal. If anyone has any insight into this issue, post up in the comment section below. I find nothing searching for announcements about this on Sept. 29, 2021.

Let's test out the automated booster fan in the system. Since I had already set up the Z-Wave relay along with the Reactor sensor to control the fan in the first video, all I had to do was insert the fan back into the opening in the bathroom window and plug in the power cord and the USB cable. The temperature sensor in the patio enclosure is inside the motion sensor installed to automate the patio lights this in the summer of 2021: https://youtu.be/7PNhKUT9OfQ The sensor in the bathroom was installed in 2015 to automate the bathroom light and fan: https://youtu.be/1fFJdnaITXk Booster fan added in early 2021: https://youtu.be/J5sSHcfqMbI More to come, adding automation for the main solar heating system. Subscribe for more content like this Comment, rate, share & click the bell icon And as always, thanks for watching Intro/Outro: Louisiana Fairytale by Austin Rogers https://web.archive.org/web/20170402222425/http://drfiddle.com/show_tune.php?id=94

Assembling the 5V USB powered relay and testing the power consumption in various modes. Vision dual relay module: 0.5 watts standby current One USB supply plus 5V relay: 1.6 watts - The 5V relay pulls 70mA current or 0.35 watts The booster fan plus automation is right at 22 watts I'll use this information to update the UserSuppliedWatts setting in the Z-Wave controller. Then I'll add a power/energy tracking sensor in Home Assistant to be able to track operation and energy consumption. The bench AC power supply with meter was very helpful in testing this setup out. With 2 monitored receptacles, it lets me test the Z-Wave/automation component as well as the AC powered fan: https://youtu.be/vn0o0fieU-4 https://youtu.be/47osFl0LuJ0 USB Breakout board: https://amzn.to/3l5LiIm 5V relay: https://amzn.to/3120DCF 3D printed USB Breakout box: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:492337 More to come... Subscribe for more content like this Comment, rate, share & click the bell icon And as always, thanks for watching Intro/Outro: Louisiana Fairytale by Austin Rogers https://web.archive.org/web/20170402222425/http://drfiddle.com/show_tune.php?id=94

Putting together a Z-Wave controlled dual dry contact relay to help automate the solar heating system for the house. For this application, I need dry contacts to be able to wire these relays in series with existing circuitry in the solar heating system. For the booster fan, while it does run on 120VAC, that power is in turn switched on an off by the solar heating controller. So if I were to power the Z-Wave relay off that switched power, if the solar heating system was off, no power would get to the Z-Wave relay and thus it could never get the command to turn itself on. There are dry contact Z-Wave relays available, but those tend to be for special applications and are priced accordingly. These Vision dual relays are not dry contacts, they're internally connected to the line voltage. Thus, I use that switched AC power to turn a small USB charger on and off and then use that 5V output to turn a small relay on and off. More to come, pairing the relay with the Z-Wave controller... Subscribe for more content like this Comment, rate, share & click the bell icon And as always, thanks for watching Intro/Outro: Louisiana Fairytale by Austin Rogers https://web.archive.org/web/20170402222425/http://drfiddle.com/show_tune.php?id=94

Let's finish off this new gear shift knob and install it. After inserting the threaded shift lever extension, I chucked the knob up in the lathe and used a series of Scotch Brite pads to clean up and smooth out the surface finish. I didn't get it perfectly smooth as I wanted to make this knob look like it's been used for decades. Surface was cleaned with soap and water to remove the sanding residue. Then a spray on clear coat was applied and allowed to dry. If desired, a permanent ink felt pen can be used to color in parts of the shift pattern, I made the "R" red like the factory shift knob. Then, to install the knob, first screw the threaded end of the insert down tight on the shifter. Then apply some adhesive, such as super glue, epoxy or even construction adhesive, to the outside of the tube and then press the knob down in the desired orientation. This way, the gear shift pattern will be oriented the way you like it. I really like the feel of this gear shift knob in the hand. It's a very pleasing shape, the rounded top is nice for shifting say from 2-3 or 4-5. Likewise, you can wrap a finger or two under the top to pull back in the shift pattern. If interested in this shift knob, we can supply the threaded insert if you want to print your own: https://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/BodyLiftKit.shtml#ManualTransmissions Or we can 3D print the knob and you can finish it yourself or we can supply a fully finished, ready to install knob, drop a comment or message us for details. Subscribe for more content like this Comment, rate, share & click the bell icon And as always, thanks for watching

Trying some finishing techniques on the 3D printed gear shift knob. This part comes with no finishing instructions, so I wanted to document a few things I tried. I could have just jumped to the finished part, but I wanted to show things that didn't work as well. Timeline below if you want to skip ahead: 0:00 Lacquer Stik Fill-In-Paint Application 1:01: Lacquer Stik Result 3:33 3D Printing time lapse 3:56 2nd try with a new knob 4:47 Results with drywall mud to fill in the lettering I'm not bashing the fill-in-paint. It's designed for use on shallow, stamped or engraved lettering. I've tried it with some stamped lettering, by scrubbing the stick back and forth over that and wiping off the excess. It works great for that, but I don't think this was a good application for it, the lettering on this knob was just too deep: https://amzn.to/2YDIY3d More to come... Subscribe for more content like this Comment, rate, share & click the bell icon And as always, thanks for watching

The factory gear shift knob on my 1985 Toyota 4Runner is falling apart, time to see about replacing it. I have an extra B&M shift knob that I got with the B&M short throw shifter that I installed in the truck about 20 years ago: https://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/ShortThrowTrannyShifter/1.html I never liked that knob as it's solid metal and in the winter, it'll freeze your hand, it's very cold. Plus it has no shift pattern on it. I found this simple 5 speed gear shift knob model on Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:422254 Nice simple design, has the proper shift pattern and I think this one can be adapted to be a replacement. Will need to add one of our shift lever extensions to be able to thread it onto the Toyota shift lever: https://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/BodyLiftKit.shtml#ManualTransmissions More to come, making the 3D printed part look more finished... Subscribe for more content like this Comment, rate, share & click the bell icon And as always, thanks for watching

2013 vintage ASUS Transformer P1801 18.4" Tablet & All-in-One Desktop Computer I've been wanting to do this for years and finally spent a few hours getting a 10/2 12V power cable run into the bedroom. I followed the existing TV and phone cable entry. That hole is partially covered by the vinyl siding that was installed many years ago. The hardest part, though, was getting the power cable into the back of the box fitting in the wall for the cable and TV connections. Once that was done, just fitted a 12V lighter socket to the end and plugged in the D4C adapter. Power is tapped off the 12V DC load output of the 24V - 12V charge controller via a fuse block and fuse: https://youtu.be/EhNI3Ui5cYA Pwr+ D4C car adapter, 12VDC input, 19.5V/4.62A output: https://amzn.to/3bwZIMi https://pwr-plus.com/product/dell-laptop-car-charger-power-adapter/ PC uses 5-6 KWH of energy per month. That used to come from the grid and now comes from the 12V DC solar power system. The TV signals come from either a pair of Silicon Dust HD HomeRun network tuners via my Synology NAS running TV Mosaic or from an internal AverMedia PCI-Express ATSC TV tuner card. Only external connection needed is for downloading periodic updates to the PercData Electronic Program Guide. This is just one step in my plan to move one item at a time off-grid in the house. While any one conversion like this may not make a big change, add up a number of these over the years and it adds up. Currently averaging about 40% of the house electrical consumption is off-grid, hoping to move that up to 50% as the next goal. This one load of about 5KWH/mo. will make a change of 1% in that percentage. For example, in March 2021, used 280KWH from the grid and 195KWH from solar. Assuming the same total with 5KWH more on the solar side, that changes the number from 41% to 42%, just by swapping a power supply on a PC. This amounts to 64 lbs. / 29 kg. of CO2 per year. This is also a backup PC for my main work system. It's loaded up with the same applications as the main PC, synced to the same NAS folders, etc. I've used this to edit a few YT videos on as well as transfer files from video camera and also to convert media file formats. Subscribe for more content like this Comment, rate, share & click the bell icon And as always, thanks for watching

From the wiring diagrams, it appears there was little change, but in reality there were large changes. It seems many of these changes were done for safety reasons. Power window lock switches were added to disable passenger side power windows. The switches were redesigned to be harder to accidentally actuate. In the '85 model, there was none of this. You could roll windows up and down any time. You could start the engine in gear. About the only safety interlocks were on the rear window. The tailgate needs to be locked, the cover top needs to be installed and the rear wiper needs to be "parked" before the window will operate. The 2-switch version is Toyota p/n: 84820-89101 https://toyota-usa.epc-data.com/4runner/rn55l/2600/body/8401/84820/ Subscribe for more content like this Comment, rate, share & click the bell icon And as always, thanks for watching

This should apply to the mid- late-80s 4Runner, pickup, Hilux and Hilux Surf models with power windows, likely the SR5 models. From 1985-1995 Toyota used very similar power window switches but added features to the system. Apparently in the mid-80s, there were some reports of children and pets being injured by power windows being closed inadvertently while they had heads or appendages sticking out of the window. The early model rocker switches were easy to operate, up or down. But this meant that they could be actuated by accident. Later model switches require that you hook your finger under the switch to lift it and raise the window. Also, a power window lockout switch was added to disable the passenger power window switches altogether. Switch Doctor links: https://www.switchdoctor.net/toyota-window-switch/ https://amzn.to/3B3ou0K 2021 pricing was under US$20 for the new switch. More to come, looking into the changes Toyota made over the years... Subscribe for more content like this Comment, rate, share & click the bell icon And as always, thanks for watching

Repairing the passenger side power window switch on an '80 vintage Toyota 4Runner or pickup (Hilux or Hilux Surf). The factory power window switch is a multi-piece design and relies on self-tapping screws to hold the plastic bezel to the switch body. Not only is there the force of the switch contacts but there's also the force of the return spring trying to rip the screws out of the plastic bezel. Over time, that plastic turns brittle and the screws start to break free of the plastic and loosen. This makes the switch harder to operate, so you naturally press harder to get the window to move and ultimately the switch breaks. My original epoxy resin repair: https://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTricks/index.shtml#WindowSwitch Held up for around 10 years but ultimately failed in the same manner. Switch Doctor links: https://www.switchdoctor.net/toyota-window-switch/ https://amzn.to/3B3ou0K 2021 pricing was under US$20 for the new switch. Note, only the single passenger switches are available, the multi-position driver's side switches are not. Luckily since they have 4 or more screws holding them together, they seem to be much more robust. I don't plan on touching the switch on the driver's side because it still works fine and I'm afraid if I do take it apart, that may weaken the plastic and cause to a failure down the road. As they say "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". More to come... Subscribe for more content like this Comment, rate, share & click the bell icon And as always, thanks for watching

This is for the Toyota - Nippon Denso p/n 81980-22070 3-pin flasher relay. Simple fix for the fast flashing of the turn signals is to remove the small resistor on the top edge of the flasher. I found lifting one leg of that resistor by heating the solder joint on the back side of the PCB is easy, or you could cut one or both legs. The fast flashing occurs with LED bulbs because the flasher is designed for 2 x 27W incandescent bulbs, that draw about 4 amps of current. If one of those bulbs were to burn out, the current would drop to about 2 amps. The flasher circuitry senses this, via the above resistor, and trips the flasher into fast blink mode. With 2 - 3W LED bulbs at 0.5 amps, the flasher sees that as burnt out bulbs as well. With this modification, that "burned out bulb" sensing is disabled and the flasher operates at it's base rate. With some study of the circuitry in the flasher, it might be possible to change that resistor value to have the flasher operate normally with LED bulbs. Here's an alternative fix for adapting a 3-pin heavy duty flasher: https://youtu.be/u1dwODXK_V4 Photo of the modified flasher relay: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S9LCZ6By6VptVPaSd0aATxRto6poM84c/view?usp=sharing This flasher relay likely used in Toyota 4Runner and pickup models from 1984-1995. A heavy More to come... Subscribe for more content like this Comment, rate, share & click the bell icon And as always, thanks for watching

This video contains flashing lights, if that bothers you, be warned! Over the years, I've tried LED bulbs for the turn signals and brake lights in my 1st gen 4Runner. I found some that worked for the brakes and reverse lights, but for the turn signals, I never found anything that worked well. I found some new SMD tower bulbs, see link below, that seemed like they would work, especially in my modified front housings. This is an effort to make the turn signals more apparent to other drivers. As the hole in the housing was sized for the regular incandescent bulb, I was limited to LEDs that would fit. Many of the earlier designs were too bulky to fit. This tower design is smaller, both in diameter and height than a regular glass bulb, so a perfect fit. Also, with the amber phosphor on the LED chips, there's no colored coating to flake off over time. One upside of the LED bulbs is no more voltage drop with the blinkers on. My dash voltmeter needle used to twitch in time to the blinkers with the 2 x 27W incandescent bulbs (~4 amps) and now with 2 x 3W LEDs, that's under 1/2 amp and the voltmeter needle is steady. I like colored bulbs that both help with the faded lenses and also in case of a broken lamp housing from an off-road incident. Driving on the road with a broken light in a lifted 4x4 is a sure ticket magnet. You can get anything from a simple fit-it-ticket, a citation requiring a visit to a Brake and Light Inspection shop or worse, depending on the mood of the officer who pulled you over. Having a color matching bulb gets around this hassle. Bulbs: https://www.superbrightleds.com/search/led-products/1156/ https://www.superbrightleds.com/search/led-products/1157/ Combined Turn Signal and Parking Lights: https://youtu.be/tMDtc5cL-cI 1157 sockets: https://amzn.to/3Ezy0fE More to come, taming the fast flasher relay... Subscribe for more content like this Comment, rate, share & click the bell icon And as always, thanks for watching