Wiper Blades Rubbers Replacement

While I was waiting for technicians fix bluetooth in my Blaupunkt New York 830, I decided to replace wiper rubbers.
2 years is about time to replace. If you find cheaper than original and good quality (just look for proper length) - 1 year is reasonable period to change rubbers.

This is the old rubber insert from rear wiper.
It has little cracks and when I pulled it, the main cleaning part came apart from the rubber base.
Also interesting that on plastic holder you can see it says "450-550 L". Length was 450mm and probably it suitable for upto 550mm but you need to replace metal holders with longer ones.

Here are both: the new rubber on top and the old rubber below it.

If you look for details, you can see also production date that is important, because rubber gets dry by the time and you better get newest when you by and can check it.
You can see 2 digits of year ending 08, 09, etc and dots in between. Each dot represents 1 month.
So, new was produced somewhere after 2012, the photo is cutted.
The old was from 2011-03.

32,500 km | 1Y 11M

Rear Passengers Cool Air Lifehack

While traveling a lot with our baby, my wife had experienced lack of cool air at rear sits where she spent time in a trip near the baby.
If we put blower speed to almost max, she feels fine there but I, on driver seat, fucking freezing :-)

So I bought USB fan for about 50 NIS ($13) at local computer store.

Meanwhile it hangs on bungee cord as POC project and it does the job well.
It has 2 speeds, power supplied from 4-ports power USB hub I got since Skoda Fabia's days. Cool air come from central console vents directly to fan and it just passes it over.
Easily removable construction and bungee allows to move front seats with no issue.

Todos:
1. Get black bungee to match interior.
2. Make it possible to rotate left and right and hold the position.

If you have better ideas, let me know ;-)

32,500 km | 1Y 11M

Blaupunkt Service Menu

Got this trick from Teder guys when they checked why Bluetooth module in my New York 830 is not working.

How to enter into service menu?
1. Press Menu on device button (top left).
2. Press Setting icon on screen.
3. Now press DVD and than General icons, repeat this action 5 times.

Here is a short how-to video

And screens you will see.

32,500 km | 1Y 11M

Multi-Function 50800mAh Car Jump Starter Power Bank

There is a trend for compact jump starters now.

They are able to produce 12V 300A (and 600A at peak) current that is actually enough to start a car with low battery. Yes, this thing is working, I saw few reviews on internet confirming that and also few people told me.

Lot of them on eBay. I bought mine too to check if it's real for ~300 NIS ($75).

Shipment arrived to Israel in 2-3 weeks and about 30 days was missing somewhere in our post.
When it finally arrived (magic!) I checked it's capacity. Does it really have 50800 mAh = 50 Ah??? Really?

But before I opened mine, I saw this video. It's in Russian but just watch it, no need to understand speech. It's explains how bad Chinese cheap power banks are build and why they doesn't meet stated capacity.

So... measured capacity was below 7,000 mAh, but should be 7 times more. Whaaaat?

So I wrote to seller about it. It was some stupid excuses that "it's capacity 50 Ah is for jump starting and not charging" and so on. I opened buyer's protection case and got full refund from eBay support team, seller wanted to refuse.

Turns out, inside is 3 lithium batteries of 5,600 mAh each. Connected in series with total theoretical capacity of 16,800 mAh. But looks like its already degraded to 7,000 mAh in total.

Components was not all that cheap, but soldering quality is nightmare.

That's dual center tap schottky rectifier used to convert AC voltage to output DC connector.

LEDs are cool, you can use it in sort of police car mode, blinking one by one.

I'll try to check it's function as jump starter sometime, but not expect too much.

32,200 km | 1Y 11M

Blaupunkt Failed Bluetooth Module Replacement

As I said before, bluetooth module stop working on mine Blaupunkt New York 830. Firmware upgrade didn't helped.

To check what is the problem, I was need to go to Tel Aviv visit Teder, the company that in charge for Honda, Volvo, Jaguar electronic installs and maintenance/warranty in Israel. Because local dealer can only take apart multimedia system and send to them. I decided that I will go by myself, eventually I go to TLV once a month or so. And we talked with Amikam, man from Teder I've met in Honda's Netanya that came sometimes to fix owner's issues (you need to schedule with garage when he comes).

I went there too early cause I don't like traffic jams that we have towards TLV (aka center) each working day at morning. I was there around 7:30, they opened at 8:30.

We opened a case.

They tried again to fix with firmware upgrade. Exactly the same version that Amikam tried in Netanya. Surprisingly... no luck, no bluetooth working.

And they decided to get unit out and replace bluetooth module.
There is a good practice to take pictures of "working area" in Honda before they start working on it.

Unit is out.

So I waited for about 1 hour and decided to go for my other thing I planned in Tel Aviv.
Just as I left them, I got a call in 2 minutes that unit is ready and everything is working. I came back in 30 minutes and I had no time for installation back, so I told that we gonna connect wire harness and see it working and I will put it back by myself with no rush.

We checked and bluetooth indeed was working now.
This is software info as they installed.

But... as I found later, they damaged volume knob!
I hope you can see scratches. It was like new before repair. I guess it was laid on table on unit's front and moved back and forth...

WHYYYY? Not surprised anymore :-) It's how you service in Israel, Honda doesn't cares...

Later, starting using my phone again via bluetooth, I've found that it not always connected when you start vehicle. When It happens, it shows this screen while in bluetooth menu and does nothing.

XPRAM Downloading Upgrading

I'll try to contact them again or maybe another try for firmware upgrade.

32,000 | 1Y 11M