Triumph Bonneville T100 Starting Issue - Infamous Clicking

It's been a few years since I have dealt with this issue but I wanted to keep this post for future reference in case the post on Triumph Rat Forums gets taken down/deleted.

This is one proposed solution to the issue with Triumph Bonneville ECUs. Apparently the ECU does not like batteries with slightly low power. Before implementing this solution I would be going through batteries almost every season. Here is a video showing the problem on my bike.

Here is a copy of the post with pics:

"Hi all,

Sorry for reviving an old thread but I came back here looking for the thread to redirect someone else to it only to find the original photos gone (thanks Photo£uckit!). Well, I happened to save all of these down for my own mods journal back when I made this mod to my own bike. Hopefully the originator does not mind me reposting his great info with edited text of his explanation of the mod. All pasted below, none of my work, but I confirm that it works 100%.

>>>>SNIP WITH TEXT EDITS<<<<

1 by Andy G, on Flickr


The*clutch*switch*grounds the BLACK/ORANGE, I tapped it to supply ground for the*Starter*Relay. Begin by exposing the BLACK/ORANGE at the ECU. It's located in the 'B' connector, right side of the ECU. Here you can see the wire exposed, it's the fourth pin on the front row:

2 by Andy G, on Flickr

Clip it, here is where you add the diode (any 1A rectifier will do), which prevents stray voltage form the*starter*relay*coil being back-fed into the ECU. Observe polarity, the band goes toward the*starter*relay.

3 by Andy G, on Flickr


You may have by now snaked your new wire run into the*ECU*harness*in preparation for your final connection at the plug. Twist it together with the other side of the BLACK/ORANGE. I used a yellow wire because I had lots of it.

4 by Andy G, on Flickr

5 by Andy G, on Flickr

Close it up, tape the boot back on as you found it. The other end of the wire goes to the*starter*relay, cutting into the YELLOW/BROWN as shown on the diagram.
The result of this mod requires you to pull the clutch in to start AND bypasses the ECU signal to the*starter relay.

>>>END<<<<

Hopefully someone finds this useful. 

RingCentral Review - Is it worth it?

For the last ten years our phone system in the office has been a typical small office PBX system from Nortel with service from Bell. The problem was the service was never that good. We tried everything to try and boost the volume on calls but nothing worked. It was also awkward and annoying to change any settings.

So after doing research several times over the last few years we decided to go with RingCentral. They advertise on TWiT and other podcasts and seem to stand out from that crowded marketplace as the largest and most reliable with a major presence in Canada.

After using the product for more than a year most of the office is now using the regular features quite fluidly.

Here are some of the growing pains we experienced while switching:

1. Porting our number over from Bell worked easily enough but did take a week or so.
2. Plugging the phone in and registering every user was quite simple but we did have major issues getting the phones to display the correct date/time. This turned out to be an issue with Bell.
3. Bell did not make it easy to connect through their modem/router. We had to disable the router part of the box (put it in bridge mode) and use our additional exterior router (which is what we were using anyway).
4. The users in our office struggle with any interface changes on machines they use everyday (I understand this is a normal IT problem).
1. Putting people on hold now is called "Park" and that requires you to memorize a number to dial into any phone to get the call back.
2. Transfering calls to someone else is a better system however it is different than before so had to be learned through use. It annoys me that when you transfer a call to someone else the CallerID looks like you are calling that person (which you technically are) and so the person just thinks it's an internal office call.
3. The PolyCom phones we bought are quite basic and only have two lines, In order to set up conference calls you must use the cloud based system and email codes to everyone. On the plus side you can have huge numbers of people in your conference call. This is not to be confused with 'RingCentral Meetings' which is a Zoom or Google Hangouts competitor.
4. Checking voicemail on the hard phones now requires inputting several menu commands and a password. It just takes too long compared to the preprogrammed buttons we had on the old phones. You will really want to use the desktop or Android app for this but then you need headphones/speakers for your computer.
5. Most of the really useful features are too hard for some people to learn as they rarely have the chance to practice. You really need one person in to be in charge and set things up and answer questions as required. It really is not plug and play in that everyone will instantly know how to use every feature.
6. Outgoing CallerID took several tries and many calls to tech support before they finally flicked the right switch to activate it.
7. Tech support from RingCentral was initially quite good when setting up the system. I had several very helpful people directly in contact with me and helping me with every step. However, once the setup stage was complete I had to start an issue by submitting my problem on the RingCentral help site. This would be fine but they would initially try to help by email which was too slow, then eventually over the phone but only at the lowest level of support. Eventually I would be in contact with Level 2 support which would usually solve my issue.
8. Incoming Caller ID: This seems to be resolved now but initially they told me we had to upgrade the service to get CallerID. We tried getting around it by syncing all our contacts and the desktop app with our generic office email Outlook. You could do the same with Gmail.

That leads to the biggest issue we have:

Sharing Contacts Company Wide:

We were told that contacts could be shared across the company but it turns out that it can't be done. The RingCentral forums are full of people asking for this feature over the last several years. It seems clear that they have lost business by not adding this feature. If there could be a central location for all contacts to be stored it would save a lot of time because one person could edit a contact and it would be fixed on everyone's account. This should be possible as everything is stored on the RingCentral servers anyway.

We ended up getting around it by linking our generic office email account with all it's contacts to everyone's desktop phone app. Not perfect but it does work.

So, would I recommend RingCentral? Yes but be aware that it isn't as simple as it looks on the website. It also has more features than we will ever use. For instance, they added this app called Glip that seems interesting but will never catch on. I wish they would just focus on fixing the features they already have.

Google Drive vs. Dropbox - Episode 272

With the news that Dropbox is opening up access to it's cloud editing software this week I thought it would be good to revisit my never ending comparison between the two products.

In my ongoing comparisons between Google Drive and Dropbox I've come across a huge win for Google Drive. When two users both have access to a file in Dropbox that file takes up space in both user's accounts. This means that if you are working with someone and they load up a shared folder with little regard for the storage space it takes up you could get locked out of your account and have no option but to delete that shared folder from your account.

That is because Dropbox locks your account (Google probably does the same) when you go over your storage limit. The problem here is you have no control of someone else's files counting against your limit.

In Google Drive the file size only counts towards the owner of that file. So if you share a folder with someone their storage quota will not be affected.

Another great feature of Google Drive is that any Google Docs / Sheets or / Slides files do not even count against your storage quota. I have not tested Dropbox's new cloud software or if it takes up your storage space but given how stingy they are I'm willing to bet that it will.

Google Drive vs. Dropbox - Episode 258

Someone commented on my last post about Google Drive vs Dropbox and said that only Drive requires people to sign in when you send them a link to a folder.  This is untrue.

When I share a dropbox link to someone without a dropbox account and they click on it this is what pops up:

The user can click the 'x' and proceed to click the very useful big blue "Download" button. So it is not true that Dropbox requires you to log in (I never claimed that) but it does ask if you want to sign up which is still annoying for non-dropbox users. It gives the illusion that they have to sign up in order to get the files.

However, when I share a Google Drive link to a folder and someone without a Google account clicks on it this is what they see:

There is no requirement to sign in which is great. But you will note, however, that there is still no clear way for people to download the files from the Drive folder. All people see is the big blue "Sign In" button. This button ends up doing the same thing that Dropbox does. It insinuates that the user must Sign in to do anything with those files. They do not realize that they can click on each file individually and click an obscure looking download button to download each file at a time.  

This is what it looks like when a user clicks on a file:

The interface is nice and it actually works great. The usability is far nicer and slicker than Dropbox but the lack of a "Download All" button for people who are not signed in is a real problem. This is the problem I covered in my previous Drive vs Dropbox post.

It really needs to be addressed though.

Google Drive shows Google+ Photos: It's 3/4 Baked

While I'm on the topic of Google Drive, they announced that your Google+ photos will now appear in your Google Drive (the Verge). This is one thing I've been waiting a long time for. However there is a catch.... really it is just copying the photos to a new location. They aren't the same file. 

This means that if you edit a file in the new drive folder it will sync between the web and your drive folder on your hard drive BUT it will not sync to the Google+ album.

This is what it looks like:

I took some pics on my phone and they uploaded to G+ Photos. I check in Drive and see the Google Photos folder. Yay they are in there.

Then it asks me if I want to link Google Photos to my Drive so I say "Sure". Then it copies them to my Drive folder and they sync to my computer! - I'm getting excited.

I edit one of the photos on my hard drive and save it. Then check Drive online and the saved photo was eventually synced. Okay....

Now I check Google+ for the same photos. 

Nope the edit was not made. So that confirms that the file is different and when pictures get added to Drive from Google+ and added to  Google+ from Drive (another feature they added last year) it is really just making a copy of the same picture.

So yeah it is half-baked at this point, maybe 3/4 baked but not done.

If they did sync the same photo everywhere then you could have your edited albums synced to G+ and show up on the Chromecast and be backed up on Drive.

Google Drive vs. Dropbox - Episode 237

Over the past year of using both Dropbox and Google Drive to send files and folders to clients and consultants we work with I've encountered some strange things.

Usually it's someone who can't comprehend the fact that the file isn't in the email and subsequently has problems with clicking on the link and not understanding that they have to download the file.

I think both Drive and Dropbox ask people to sign in when they click a shared link which is annoying and unnecessary. But where Dropbox has the edge is when you go to download you can either save the files to your personal dropbox or download the files as a zip file.

They give you the choice! Imagine that!

But Google Drive just says "Open in Drive" which completely confuses people who don't use or have never heard of Drive.  There should be another blue button beside it that says "Download".

So the only way to download multiple files is to go into each file and click the download button. This can take forever if there are several files.

They have to slowly ease people into this new world order of cloud storage rather than force them to learn how cumbersome it can be.

Sperry Software: Attachment Save

My office uses email a lot and we push it to it's limits. Much to my chagrin my coworkers and other offices continue to insist on sending emails of drawings, products, photos etc. all of which are large attachments.

In the early years this would have been less of an issue if we used Google Apps as the file size limits and the inbox limits are much larger. However because of legacy and systems (too long to get into) we are still using Microsoft and Outlook. Recently we switched to Office 365 which was an experience in itself (read about that here) and I thought these issues would basically go away. They say that your inbox can be 50GB so I figured this would be huge. No longer would we have to worry about large attachments, at least not for several years, when I assume that limit will go up.

BUT I was in for a surprise when Microsoft Tech Support told me that Outlook doesn't like to sync more than 3-4 GB onto your computer from the cloud. So it was back to our old way of doing things.

We have used Sperry Software's Attachment Save Outlook add-in for years and it has always worked with the various versions of Outlook that we installed. So I installed it on Outlook 2013 and it seemed to work perfectly. But I discovered a bug where you can lose all the text from an email.

Steps to recreate issue:
1. Click ‘reply’ to an email in our inbox (or presumably anywhere in outlook)
2. then start typing up a reply.
3. Close the reply but save the draft
4. Delete/Discard the draft
5. Go back to original email in inbox and the body and subject text has disappeared. Any attachment will still be there.

Windows Version: Microsoft Windows 8.1
Outlook Version: 15.0.0.4675
Engine Version: 5.1.5250.14242 (32-bit)
Language: English

TL;DR
The Sperry add-in is causing a bug that deletes all the text from an email if you view the draft it deletes all the text from the email.

This is a major problem for us as emails are legal records of decisions made and we are required by law to keep them on file for 7 years.

I have since started a bug report with Sperry and they say they are looking into it which is nice but it's been a couple months and I haven't seen any progress. 

I could try another add-in as there are several that do the same thing (here is a list). But that would mean training everyone and buying another product. They say they are working on a fix but we are getting desperate. Losing emails is bad for business.

AutoCAD and Network: Why so slow?

This is some of my musings on the IT systems in my office. I will you take down the rabbit hole of why our office network is slow. (Spoiler: I have no idea). These are basically notes to myself to record what I decided at a certain point in time and figure out if any improvement happened. That said, if anyone stumbles on this site and has some insights it would be greatly appreciated.

Over the years in our office we have adopted the incredibly useful AutoCAD tool called Sheet Set Manager. However as you add references to your drawings and link everything up (I've learned to do this towards the end of the project) it really slows down AutoCAD.

Over the years I've searched online for solutions to this but only recently did I stumble on this page. Yes, it turns out that Autodesk is acknowledging that it is slow and they blame it on slow network speeds.

I have followed their advice and now disabled the auto refresh (which will be annoying, no doubt) using the SSMSHEETSTATUS system variable set to '0' and I will report back with any speed increases I find.

BUT the second issue I'd love to address is our network speed. We use a standard peer to peer network with Cat5E cables. The computers are all set up for gigabit speeds but I doubt we actually get it. I am unsure as to what the bottleneck in our network actually is. I used to think that it was the hard drives with all our data (and this post seems to confirm that) but I have my doubts now.

I'd love to know of a good way to test network speeds if anyone stumbles on this site and knows an easy way to do that..... I found this software but do I trust it?

I'm also wondering if switching to a Synology drive system would speed it up.

Why is ACTA Bad?

ACTA is the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. A new intellectual property enforcement treaty being negotiated by the United States, the European Community, Switzerland, and Japan, with Australia, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Mexico, Jordan, Morocco, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and Canada recently announcing that they will join in as well.

Why should you care about ACTA? Initial reports indicate that the treaty will have a very broad scope and will involve new tools targeting “Internet distribution and information technology.”


Even if your country is not listed above you should care because this will spread worldwide after it passes and even if your country doesn't sign it will indirectly affect you.

1) ACTA isn't the European SOPA. Its nearly Global, and will apply to every country that signs the treaty.

2) ACTA is far more aggressive. ACTA will not simply affect websites and have them blocked out of the internet - it's measures go as far as to surveillance of anything you share through private channels.

3) ACTA doesn't have a campaign against it that is as widespread and organized as SOPA. This is DANGEROUS, as there is less time between now and the final signing of ACTA.

4) ACTA has effects on healthcare, trade and even tourism.

The biggest problem right now is that your ISP's (Internet Service Providers) can report you for anything that "could" be copyright infringement and they will monitor you constantly.

- ISPS will now watch what you download, and tattle on you if you download a music track/ any data / rapidshares / torrents etc.
- ISPS will tattle on you, when you do anything which goes against "Governments policy".
- ISPS will be able to document and store EVERYTHING you do online. nothing will ever be private again

What this all means for you is no privacy whatsoever

Say NO to ACTA. It is essential to spread awareness and get the word out on ACTA.

Jetman Flight at Grand Canyon

You have all seen those vids of the guys in wing suits but check out this video of a guy in a wing suit jet pack.

What makes this vid even cooler is the awesome backdrop of the Grand Canyon. Gotta check it out sometime....

Super Low Fly-By

Want to see what it looks like to have a jet come flying straight at you right at ground level? Yes? Well watch this video.


Now check out what the pilot's view looked like. The flyby starts at 0:55.

Piano and Cello Like You've Never Seen

This is some fantastic music....
...with a great ending.

Arcade Fire: Scenes from the Suburbs

Check out this sweet trailer from Spike Jonze's "Scenes from the Suburbs" made in collaboration with Arcade Fire.

Yup looks pretty apocalyptic. Right up my alley.

The New iPad

So Conan recently unearthed a little promo video for the iPad. Yeah I think Apple is getting a little cocky too Conan....

I love the 'non-specific ethnic accent'.

Horses Save a Milk Truck

This one is for all my farmer friends....

That is some serious horsepower eh?

Cat Laser Bowling

Here is the best argument for having pets I have seen yet:

Anybody want to get some cats together and start a bowling league?

Beyond Black Mesa

Remember the old game 'Half-Life'? It's possibly the best game ever made along with the second one. I never had a good enough computer for the Half-Life 2 but I spent hours playing the first one. The game engine was really what allowed those games to flow and have really decent graphics. They weren't ultra realistic but were just enough to make it incredibly immersive. The other thing was the perfectly timed 'surprises'. Even if you were expecting it the alien creatures and the commandos could jump out at you so fast you'd be left swinging your crow-bar aimlessly.

Anyway, some fans loved the games so much that they made a fan-made short movie with a couple extra bucks they had lying around. Actually it was only $1200 which is what makes the quality of this movie so incredible. This movie has been a long time coming (I remember reading about it a couple years ago) but man is it worth it.

Oh Japan, the Harbinger of Doom

At first I was shocked but then I realized that how is this any different than watching Britney Spears or Nickelback? It isn't different at all. Both are marketed commodities that are polished and set up in order to make everyone involved a bunch of money.

Oh Japan - why do you always have to be the harbinger of doom. And why do you always make it seem so innocent.

Insects vs Mini-Pies

I don't know who came up with this idea but I think we can all agree that is a great use of the the latest slo-mo filming technology.

Brilliant!

1 million fps Slo-Mo Bullet Impacts

Thanks to those awesome cameras they have now for filming stuff in ultra slo-mo for videos like Planet Earth they can now film other cool things...

This something I have always wondered about. What exactly happens when a bullet hits, well, pretty much any material. Sorry about the annoying techno music though.