In my Stacer 429 the middle button controls the bait tank aerator (left) and the bilge pump (right). My label for the NavLight is wrong (pressing the right side turns it on).
The next photo below is a view of the other side of the panel from underneath (because I was lying on my back). The switch operates in such a way that if you push it left (or right), it connects to middle terminal (which is 12V) to the other side.
Checked the switch works, by pulling out the terminal for the aerator. You should be able to verify using a multimeter that pressing the switch makes that terminal 12V.
This is the aerator pump in place. I was very pleased to see that it was one of these cartidges. In theory, all I would need to do is swap the dead one and it simply screws on.
Next the floor needed to come out so I could trace the wiring.
Sloppy work, one of the screw heads snapped when it was being installed. That’s because they drilled right into a weld.
The floor out of the way.
The wires for the aerator and bilge pump run from near the console along the bow side of the battery and pops out here.
At this point, cut the wires to the pump below the connector so you expose the brown and black wires directly connected to the aerator. The reason to do this is that this will also test the connector. Verify that pressing the switch puts 12V on the brown wire. Then verify the pump doesn’t work when you connect directly to 12V - that was the problem in my case. I don’t actually know how it got burnt out, maybe I left it on out of water for too long?
Now the recall the way the pump was installed, was like this.
The handle thing was jammed against the diagonal support so I cut off the handle using side cutters to release (remember that this is a hard job as there isn’t much access, it’s through the battery hatch). With much effort I managed this and could turn the cartridge. Unfortunately, there wasn’t the clearance to get it out.
Anyway, in Sydney you can buy the entire aerator from many places but you can’t easily just buy the cartridge. So off to BCF to buy a new aerator.
With the new aerator in hand, I learnt that the cartridge comes out a long way from the housing.
Then I realised my Sikaflex was a little out of date. So another trip to Bunnings (Brookvale) whose web page said it was in stock (but it wasn’t), then checked Bunnnings (Balgowlah) great it was in stock there (but it wasn’t), finally Whitworths where they had it in stock for twice the price of Bunnings.
Pulled the old aerator out. Removing all of the old sealant with a scaper was impossible, even on the outside where I had good access.
The solution was a wire wheel which did the job very well.
Here is the new aerator in place at an angle. I’m not sure whether placing it off-center is a good idea or not.
Let’s hope the water stays out!
Thanks to Russell who patiently answered all my questions and suggested using Fixtech Fix15 as it’s similar to the Sikaflex 291 that I used but lasts much longer in the tune (and is cheaper).
]]>Took CX100 to Hong Kong and didn’t get to my hotel until close to midnight HK time (which was 2am Sydney time). However, they must have filled the hotel because I was upgraded to a suite.
The following day the first stop was the table tennis shop for new rubber. Apparently it should be changed every year. It was more than 10 years since I changed mine and I was told off by the cranky uncle there because the rubber had perished and the glue stuck to the blade. He told me I needed a new blade (and it should be a Butterfly blade, not a Stiga). He got more agitated when I asked what was the difference between the cheap and expensive one (he said there was no difference). I very much miss HK, overseas most shop owners don’t verbally abuse their customers. He wasn’t happy when I asked for orange balls (they stopped using them a few years ago).
It was a pretty impressive shop. A Japanese customer came in and I helped translate. After that the owner was all smiles.
Photos of lots of champions including Soo Wai-yam, Ma Lin and Tomokazu Harimoto.
After a few meetings at CUHK, went to play with the table tennis team. I hadn’t seen Mr Ho (in blue) for more than 10 years and he reminded us that we had won the HK University competition many years ago.
When I got back to my hotel, there was already a red rainstorm warning in effect. This soon became a black rainstorm warning which shut the city down and I had to cancel my visit to HKU. According to Reuters, it was the heaviest rainfall on record, HK receiving 20cm in a few hours. This guy was cleaning the drain.
Fortunately, there were still a few restaurants open in Tsim Sha Tsui.
Later that evening, when the warning signal was removed, I went for roast goose here. The owner still remembers me.
Then had a pleasant evening listing to jazz at Ned Kelly’s Last Stand.
The following day, flew to London and met up with some Sydney Uni people, Adeline, Prof Ben Eggleton and Harj at Sky Garden.
The main event was the NANDA Workshop, hosted by Prof Wayne Luk. It was great to catch up with some old friends including Ruby Lee from Princeton. The workshop was truly excellent with papers on computer architecture, design automation and reconfigurable computing.
Profs Wayne Luk (Imperial), Ruby Lee (Princeton), Kunle Oyekunle (Stanford), Subhasish Mitra (Stanford) and Matthew Leung (Huawei).
Prof Steve Furber (Manchester University), principal designer of the ARM 32-bit RISC microprocessor.
We inspected some old cars restored by Imperial College students.
Dinner at Hux Brasserie.
Clockwise, myself, Profs Wayne Luk (Imperial), Ruby Lee (Princeton), Howard Lee, Paul Kelly (Imperial), Mary Sheeram (Chalmers) and Miriam Leeser (Northeastern).
The next day I did a viva examination for Prof Christos-Savvas Bouganis at Imperial College (congratulations to Dr Diederik Vink). Our exam only went for about 3 hours (they have been known to take the whole day) so we had time for lunch at the Imperial staff restaurant. Here I am with Christos and Prof Peter Cheung.
Fancy wine.
Fancy dog watering hole Knightsbridge.
Love those London cabs.
It was a great trip and I’d like to thank Prof Wayne Luk for his hospitality.
]]>The Thai Hua Museum on Krabi Road is devoted to the history of Chinese immigrants in Phuket. It is situated in the former Chinese language school. While it was very interesting, the only photo I took inside was of this bench.
The Sunday Night Market in Phuket Old Town on Thalang Road was the highlight of the trip. It’s an amazing market with so many stores and people.
Even Elvis was there!
This is the Tu Kab Khao restaurant, easily recognised as there is a lobster on the side of the building, and recommended in the Michelin Guide. It is located in 8 Phang Nga Road, Phuket Town, Phone: 076 608 888. It is inexpensive and we ordered crab curry, fried snapper and larb gai (chicken, basil, onion in a chilli and lime suace). This was the best Thai meal I’ve ever had.
Another Michelin restaurant is this one where the fried oyster omelette is excellent.
Right near the end of own stay in Old Town, we had a good chat with a durian seller.
At the mid point of the trip, we relocated to the Mariott at Merlin Beach. Incidentally, it was the same day as the Boat Ave shooting where a Russian businessman was shot several times (not fatally).
The resort’s private beach.
Took the (rather poorly maintained) hotel bus to Patong.
Didn’t try these but they look delicious.
We walked about 5 minutes from the Marriott to the Ocean Restaurant for a nice lunch. Also walked past an outfit called Bathing with Elephants but didn’t enter because of allegations of cruelty.
]]>This photo was taken shortly after takeoff from Sydney to LAX. It turns out that the pilot was one of my ex-students.
We presented a tutorial on Deep Learning-Optimized FPGA Archiectures at the FPGA conference in Monterey which was attended by more than 50 people/.
Also very pleased to chat with Prof Milos Ercegovac (UCLA) who write Digital Arithmetic.
Following the conference went to SJC with ex-Sydney University student, Rouwei, who came down for the FPGA tutorial.
Next stop was England and had dinner with Profs Wayne Luk and Simon Schultz from Imperial College.
Had lunch with Prof Luk, ex-CUHK student Chi Wai (who I hadn’t seen in many years) and Rachael from Corerain.
There was a demonstration at Oxford University.
Had afternoon tea with Prof Ian Page, founder of Celoxica.
Had an early start the next morning for a flight to Milano.
Landed in Malpensa airport and drove to Monleale, a beautiful country town on the border of Lombardia and Piedmonte.
Here are my hosts, Pigi and Daniela on a Big Bench (I didn’t know it was a thing).
Here I am with Pigi’s parents who I hadn’t seen for many decades.
The next day we went to Torino. Of course, with Pigi driving, this was at great speed and total disregard for traffic and parking rules.
This lady dropped her car keys down a drain. Pigi helped her fish it out, our good deed for the day.
She was so happy she wanted to buy us a drink.
We first went to the most important landmark in Italy.
Daniela and myself in front of the Mole Antonelliana.
Coffee in a fancy cafe in Torino.
The main reason for the visit was to go to Museo Egizio. It’s an amazing museum with the best collection of Egyption artifacts outside of Cairo.
After a lot of walking we also had bicerin, a drink from Torino which originated in the 18th century. Here is a recipe.
Pigi insisted on visiting the Juventus stadium.
Gave a talk at ST Microelectronics in Agrate Brianza (I did my postdoc here). Met some people I hadn’t seen for many decades.
Thankfully it was in English.
My host, Danilo, in front of a patent wall.
We also visited Pavia. The University of Pavia was founded in 1361 and is one of the oldest universities. This statue is of Alessandro Volta who held the chair of experimental physics there from 1779. Volta figured out capacitance and electricity so he was pretty important for electrical engineering (at the time, the main use for electricity was to make frogs’ legs twitch).
While walking though the city, I took photos of a beautiful luthier’s shop. Turns out Pigi knew him, he was an ex-IC designer!
Good thing that my Italian friends warned me that I needed to buy a Vignette to drive on the motorways in Switzerland. I forgot to do so at the border and spent some time trying to get one in Switzerland. Visited the Victorinox store in Lausanne.
Gave a talk at EPFL. In this photo, Mont Blanc is the peak in the distance.
The drive over the Swiss Alps is spectacular. Note the Fiat Panda (with a 1.0L 2 cylinder engine) that I rented to drive around Italy and Switzerland on the right hand side.
I love their petrol stations which normally have a really good cafe and supermarket attached.
Excellent Milanese pizza from a wood-fired oven. It’s supposed to be thin and chewy.
The last stop was a short stopover in Hong Kong.
Had lunch with Prof Hayden So (HKU) at Matsubishi, one of my favourite HK restaurants,
Also had a fantastic dinner with my ex-CUHK colleagues at Great Day in Tai Po. We first purchased seafood from Tai Po market and brought the food to the restaurant where they cooked it for us.
Pineapple bun for breakfast. They use perspex screens to protect you from other customers.
Choy san (God of Wealth) checking the stock market.
]]>The Swiss Army Knife (SAK) that I’ve been using for the last 20 years had cracked scales. I purchased a new Climber with Plus scales which have two extra slots for a pen and pin.
Also visited Heidi-Shop where I had purchased by mail order about 10 years ago. Got there just while they were closing, but had a nice chat with the owner (I didn’t get her name but I’m guessing it isn’t Heidi).
Here is the finished knife (which has already collected a few scratches).
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