brunnhilde's cassette toilet - part 6

It is a very productive day today. The weather is just perfect. Lower 60s and partly sunny. By the time I worked up a sweat the temperature is just perfect. Last night I was reading this thread about a owner of a older JC put in a new skylight. That really gave me renewed encouragement to take matter into my own hands when the wanted part is not forthcoming.

hawk on my fence

I cannot believe what I just saw. A small hawk was perching on my fence right by my outdoor kitchen. I have seen hawks in my neighborhood but it is always far away. I kept my distance and only sneak closer behind something when her head turned away least I scare her away. She was stalking something in my neighbor's yard. Then she flew down into the yard.

Unfortunately my Canon 7D is dead.

brunnhilde's cassette toilet - part 5

Some may wonder why does it take so many posts to change a freaking toilet. Just get on with it. The truth is I would take far less time deliberating and planning if I am renovating a bathroom in the house. In this project there is just too much riding on it and a misstep would lead to regrets. The experienced carpenter will measure twice and cut once. In this project I am measuring 5 times and cut once.

happy birthday von wagner

I have been aware that this year is Richard Wagner's 200th anniversary. I just didn't know which day. Today I watched DW Journal and found out today is his 200th anniversary birthday.

Warning: the post contains link to explicit material

microsoft digital sound system 80 just died

image links to wikipedia

Indeed. Recently my things are breaking faster than I can fix them. The PC speakers for my work station PC has been acting up recently.

brunnhilde's panoramic skylight remote

Brunnhilde has a panoramic skylight. The open and close of it is controlled by an IR remote control in the above picture (the white one on the left). When open, the skylight will close automatically when the rain sensor detects the rain drop. Sound good for simpleton bonehead designers who has no idea the challenges with implementing a reliable rain sensing.

workaround to embed video in Blogger

I am using this test post to see if I can work around Blogger's glitch to embed a video clip.

blogger's glitch with embedding video

Today is the second day of my inability to embed a video clip in my blog post. I reported the problem to Google yesterday via the Send feedback feature of the Blogger's composing interface.

brunnhilde's cassette toilet - part 4

This weekend I got around to conduct the bonding test on what I presumed a shower pan made of ABS.

brunnhilde's air conditioner

It seems these days my things are breaking faster than I can fix them. This remind me of the MTBF calculation, the more parts in a system the lower the MTBF. The number goes to hell in a hand basket in a hurry if they have strong Independence.

The ticking noise of Brunnhilde's cabin AC is traced to a fray on the drive belt. The roof top air conditioner is made by Kerstner of Germany. The most unusual thing about it is it is a 12Vdc unit rated at a whopping 100A. Why so high current? It just take that much energy to refrigerate even a small room. It equals roughly (equivalent AC power is measured in RMS) a household window mount unit drawing 10A at 120Vac so it is not big at all BTU wise.

canon 7d is dead

I just hate to write a post without any picture but this will be my first. Why?

brunnhilde's shower - part 3

The outside hand shower came with Brunnhilde is a nice metal one with a very good spray pattern. Not the one for the inside that came with the camper I bought pre-owned.

what is this vine?

I have this vine for over 2 decades. It was in front of the garage in my previous house. I moved it with me to my current house when I move. It has always been quite dormant until I replanted it in the more sunny spot where it currently is.

cheap and good pepper mill - hack

I have been using a cast metal pepper mill from France for a long time. It looks great but it does not grind that well. I have been wanting to buy a Peugeot for a long time but could not bring myself to pay the high price here in the US. Finally I came across one at good price in Vancouver BC. It grinds very well.

brunnhilde's cassette toilet - part 3

This is the third installment of converting Brunnhilde's toilet to the cassette type.
I planned to complete the exploration deep dive for a go/no-go decision of the conversion using option 3. Option 3 involves modifying the existing shower pan in situ.

Warning - some image may be offensive

brunnhilde's cassette toilet - part 2

This is a following on post to the   brunnhilde's cassette toilet  project.

diagnostic tool for brunnhilde

Having experienced recent limp home mode on Brunnhilde it hastened my plan to buy a good ODB diagnostic tool. I had been waiting for a DAD (Doktor A Diagnostic tool) to come up for sale in the Sprinter-Source Forum but I decided not to wait indefinitely.

duck confit and more - part 2

I used to be afraid of eating duck. I used to be afraid of cooking duck as I had little idea what to do with it. My recent trying of my hands on making duck confit cured all these.

brunnhilde's cassette toilet

I am starting this series of post to  chronicle of my project in restoring the toilet in Brunnhilde's bathroom back to as Westfalia designers intended.

foto of brunnhilde

What's up with the title choice? I get a lot of traffic worldwide coming from Google search. I always enjoy the search phrases that Google search direct to my blog posts. Some of my choices of title are made to humor those looking for something else. Brunnhilde doing something seems to attract a lot of traffic from Russia.

If you like modern architecture and astute design the choices of a auto camper (aka motorhome) would be rather limited unless you build your own. To make matter more difficult, I have owned a VW Vanagon camper in which the coach work (everything that has to do with camping; in the other words beyond the Vanagon chassis) is designed and made by Westfalia. To me there is no better quality motorhome coach builder than Westfalia.