Maxima CD Error F0 Fixed!

I was working on my 2002 Maxima BOSE radio with internal 6CD changer, in an attempt to see if I can add an AUX input for my iPhone/iPod. Along the way, I removed the radio from the car, and started to trace down the main printed circuit board to find where the audio input were for the CD, TAPE and AM/FM. I found that there are several place marked AUX IN, unfortunately, the components associated with this port were not installed, so I think that I can not just add a wire to these holes and expect to be able to drive the iPod/iPhone audio signal to go though the radio selector, so I have to do it another way.

In doing these tracing, one of the CD already in the unit (there were 4) slid out unexpectedly, and I didn't think it was a problem. Wrong! When I hook the radio back up to the car, the CD changer made an attempt to play the CD that was in slot that no longer had a CD (the one that fell out) and I immediately got a "CD ERROR FO" (that's a zero) code on the radio display. I googled, and everyone said that I am toast and that I need to have it fixed or replaced, to the tuned of $300-2000. I took the radio back out, and opened the cover over the CD changer unit. I found the problem: The moving laser head that reads the CD is jammed hard against the multi-disk separator and cannot be moved out of the way. In the picture you see that one of the separator is angled downward and is sandwiched by the laser read head arm and disk top clamp. I carefully uncouple the head unit from the separator, making sure that I do not bend anything to prevent misalignment. The photos in this blog shows the various stage of jammed to free state. Along the way, I lost one of the pins that holds the multi-disk separators, and I fashioned a replacement using a small screw almost the same length. I filed the threads off to make it slide freely like the other one.

I also carefully removed the remaining CDs that are still inside the unit, and the entire multi-disk tray then dropped down to their lowest levels. I put everything back together, and back into the car. My CD ERROR FO is now gone!

More story later when I attempt to hook up the PA11-NIS iPod adapter. Its on order. Everyone says it will not work for a Maxima with integrated 6CD changer. We'll see.

MagSafe Repair

I recently bought a broken MagSafe power adapter for the MacBook on eBay with a frayed cable at connector end for $19.01. I wasn't sure when I bid on it that the brick is still good or not, but I thought it was worth a chance to safe a bunch of Moola when compared to Apple's price.

Step 1: Cut of the plug from the cable at the frayed end. On the cable end I strip about half an inch of the outer insulation and found that the cable only has two conductors, the center one being the positive side. Plugged in to a wall outlet, the voltage measured 6.5 Vdc. I thought to myself, hemh, it should have read 16.5 volts. So I CAREFULLY checked the voltage of my other MagSafe and it too measured about 6.5 volts, with no load. Based on that I guessed that the brick is probably ok.

Step 2: Using a small vise grip on the metal/magnetic part, I carefully slide the white portion of the MagSafe connector off from the magnet. Then I slit one end of the whitish translucent insulation cover that surrounded the small circuit board. I carefully peeled that off from the metal plug/circuit board. This step exposed the three part of the wires, one being the positive center wire, the other two are split ground wires.

Step 3: I removed the old broken pieces of wires from the now exposed circuit board.

Step 4: Insert two different size of heat shrink tubings on the cable end of the power adapter, then the white outer cover of the MagSafe. I split the ground wire into two bundles. On the center wire (white sleeved) I stripped about 1/8th inch of the insulation. The wire ends are then soldered as shown in the picture.

Step 5: Put all the pieces back together and test it. Notice that the green and subsequent orange glow of the LEDs indicated that all is well.

Step 6: Slide the smaller diameter heat shrink towards the plug and shrink it. Next the larger diameter heat shrink and shrink that too.

I don't know how to label and sequence the pictures in this blog, but you can see the progression of each step in the attached pictures.

Dim Sum in Denver

Since living in Denver last year, we've been on a quest for a good chinese food and have not found a really authentic chinese food restaurant. We (actually Jan) would surf the net and search for reviews and then we'd go there and found disappointments. Yesterday was different. We found this dim sum place and Jan wanted to try it. We drove there, and as we were getting close to it, we realized that we've been in that shopping area before and was beginning to feel uncertain and was prepared for another disappointment. But tucked away in the middle of rows of various stores we found a nondescript restaurant called Super Star Asian Cuisine. The parking lot in front of them were full and it was a little after 1PM. Good sign. Walking inside, we found the place full with the patrons mostly Chinese/Asian. and had to wait for about 15 minutes before we were seated. I think we finally found a jack pot.

For you that have never tried dim sum style meal, it is a unique experience of eating Chinese food. Once seated, you just wait for the various food carts to come to you, and then you point and select whatever food plates on display that interest you. The server will then serve it to you and put a check mark in the order sheet for every item you ordered. These food items typically varies from $1.95 per plate, on average, and some more exotic dishes costing more. The idea is to try different different things and just nibble away on the various dishes until you're full. Because they are served in small portions, and the food carts come quite often, before you know it, you'll have ordered and eaten much more than you thought you have. Here's a sampling of the food we ordered yesterday.


Egg plant with shrimp topping, chicken feet, steamed bun with barbeque pork, sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf, and a few others I can't name. They were all good.

Another example of American car stupid design

I rented a car this week in Dallas, and it is a late model Dodge Caliber. The left turn signal was clicking very rapidly, and from my experience it meant that one of the turn signal bulb filament is burned out. I verified that and determined that the rear left bulb was bad. In my previous cars, this is an easy thing to fix. Just open the trunk door, remove the tail light access panel and the bulb socket is usually easy to pulled out for bulb replacement.

Since we are still using this Dodge Caliber car for a couple more days and for safety reason, I decided to go ahead and replace the bulb myself. I happened to have the exact bulb needed in the garage.

In this Dodge Caliber, there is no access door to the tail light back side. The tail light is not held by screws, but held on by a couple of plastic wedge push on clip that spreads out as the center post is pushed in. This pin wedge thing broke up in pieces when you attempt to pull/pry out the center post. So why do Detroit engineers do this and perpetuate their incompetent design and poor engineering? Why not use a couple of screws to hold the tail light so it is easily removed to access the bulbs. Better yet, why not provide a tail light cut out/access panel so you don't need any tools to replace these tail light bulbs? Any import cars that I ever had always provide this access panel. Why can't Detroit be smart an be consumer friendly? Filament based light bulbs are bound to go out sooner than later. This is so stupid! Needless to say, the tail light is back on, but since the holes for this plastic thing are so big and the original clips are in pieces, I don't have any way of securing the tail light assembly properly. So it is now held in place by a couple of those rubber tire plugs.

Oh, one other thing. Before replacing the bulb, whenever the car is just started and driven, when I turned on the left turn signal for the first time within a few seconds later you hear a "chime". I didn't make the connection of this fact until later, and the manual didn't even have an index of the keyword chime or warning. I think the car's computer is programmed to recognize that one of the turn signal bulb is bad, but how would the average person know what this chime meant? Nothing on the dashboard indicated that something is amiss.

Plane, Train and Automobiles (well, not the train)

We had a plane reservation to go to Dallas for Tuesday late morning, and the plan was to get to Dallas that day, drive the next morning to Shreveport for Jan's mom funeral service.

At 9am that morning, Jan got a computer generated phone call from Southwest saying that our flight was canceled. They did not offer an alternative. So, after I got back from printing the funeral brochure we started looking for alternatives. The next 3 flights from SWA was also canceled. However, after some pleading, the agent talked to her supervisor, and managed to book us up for the 520pm flight. She told Jan to get to the airport as soon as possible, at least 3 hours early. Since we are not sure if that too will be cancelled, and knowing that if we can get to Dallas earlier we would have a better chance of driving to Shreveport the same day, we decided to also check with American Airlines. On the AA website none of their flights to Dallas showed any cancellation, so Jan called them, and after a 10-15 minute wait, we got an agent who promptly told her that most of their Dallas flights were also canceled. We then called the car rental agency in Dallas about our delayed arrival.

At the Denver airport, we hung around for our flight, and saw a couple of Dallas bound flights that were still on, but since we have already checked our baggage for the SWA schedule, we waited. At around 430pm the SWA public announcement mentioned that the weather in Dallas is getting worse, and to be prepared for getting stranded in Tulsa or remain in Denver. Well, we have a funeral to go to, besides are bag will end up in Tulsa if we didn't go, so we waited and finally boarded. The flight to Tulsa was un-eventful, and about 15 minutes before we landed, the flight attendant (Dallas based) told us that we'd probably will be able to continue to Dallas. That was a relief, since we knew that they too wanted to go home.

Two people boarded in Tulsa, and we continued on to Dallas. Once near DFW just as we were descending, we saw no visibility from the side windows due to freezing rain. Once or twice we saw some clearing and can see the lights below, but the pilots handled it well, and we landed safely around 930pm. By the time we got to the baggage carousel, our bags were already there. Hooray for SWA efficiency. I've never experience that with any other airlines.

We then took the courtesy bus to Thrifty rental car. It took us almost 45 minutes to get a dingy Dodge Caliber that reeked with cigarette smoke, manual window crank, and a drive shaft that in my opinion is out of balance as it goes wump wump wump as we drove it. The rental agent reminded me of Steve Martin watching the airline agent tapping on her computer and staring at the screen for what it seemed an eternity. Ditto here, and I even made a snide comment saying, you must have a really slow computer there. In any case, we made it home, swapped cars with Melissa's Nissan Xterra, picked up Lauren and Jonathan who were already waiting there. By that time it was past 11pm, and we left Dallas in freezing rain towards Shreveport.

Just past Tyler, the freezing drizzle turned to rain, and by the time we reached Shreveport, it was 2 am, and the local temperature was 36°F. We were so relieved that we made it there safely, and thank the Lord for keeping us save. We checked into a hotel, slept for about 4 hours and was able to be at the funeral on time.

January - an Update in Memory of Sue Gow

As mentioned in my previous blog, Jan went to Charleston to spend whatever time she has left with her mom. It has been weighting heavily in her heart that her mom have not been saved, and a couple of days ago, while she was alone with her mom, she just held her hand and talked about Jesus and prayed with her, and said her goodbyes. Last Sunday, our pastor preached about the steps of being a christian that consists of accepting the Savior's gift, followed by desire to fellowship, then desire for sharing and compassion, and from there to evangelism. The latter is not fire and brimstone, but to share your good news. It is then up to the Lord to working in that person soul for salvation of him or her to occur. Our evangelistic duty is to pass on our knowledge and faith to those who have never heard the Good News.

Today, her mom passed away peacefully, and we prayed that she heard the words and promise of our Lord and internally accepted Him as her Savior.

Since her deceased husband was buried in Shreveport, LA, Jan and her siblings are planning to bury her there, alongside her husband. It will take place on Wednesday, January 28 at Forest Park Funeral Home, 1201 Louisiana Ave, Shreveport, LA 71101 (318-221-7181)

May the Lord have mercy on her.

January

It's been a while since I blogged, and truthfully, there is really not much going on that are worth writing about, but, regardless, here is my blog for the month.

Since the beginning of the year, I've been busy with work and planning for the Divorce Care program at our church, Mississippi Ave Baptist Church. If you recall, last summer we started this program at the church and have had amazing attendance, considering that summer months are usually slow month for DC. As a matter of fact, most churches skipped summer altogether, as they do in Garland, Texas. From the inquiries we received, we decided to offer two DC sessions this time around, one on Wednesdays and one on Sunday afternoons. Our first sessions started this past week and we have 5 people last Wednesday and 3 on Sunday. Several people called and say they wanted to come but could not make it on the first week. So it seemed that we will be doing both sessions after all.

One week after we got here from our Christmas/New Year break in Texas, Jan had to leave for Charleston, SC to be with her mother who just had surgery to repair a ruptured intestine. She spent a week there, and now we are dealing with her will to live. It seemed that she has given up on living, and barely ate or drink. She is currently under Hospice care, and they are allowing her to stay there for a maximum of thirty days. We hope that you will be able to pray for closure on this uncertainties and her future. Jan wanted to witness to her about our Lord Jesus, but with her mom's limited understanding of English, she wasn't able to do so. So we are now just waiting daily for whatever will happen.

Work wise, while Jan was away, I've been working extra hours on most days, and sleeping early at night. I was usually in bed around 9pm. This week though is the beginning of Australian Open, and ESPN2 has been carrying daily broadcast of that event, so I've been sleeping much later.

That's it for now. At the end of January we will be flying back to Texas to greet our soon to be born 7th grand child, Eric Baggett!!!