MINI Cooper & Parrot Evolution CK3000 Bluetooth adapter install

I recently installed a Parrot Evolution CK3000 bluetooth adapter in my MINI. I didn't like the bluetooth solution that MINI provides as it didn't use the two phone buttons on the steering wheel. This solution uses them quite nicely. Plus it requires no cutting or splicing of the car wiring so it was plug and play.

The MINI harness came from www.newministuff.com located in Great Britain. The exchange rate sucks at the moment so the harness ended up costing more than the Parrot module (which coincidently I bought at QVC.com).

The install was pretty easy (I had some help from Jim) and only took about an hour from start to finish. The hardest part is stuffing all the cable and connectors behind the radio and under the dash.

The result is very slick– I can place a call by pushing the phone button on the steering wheel and announcing the name (that I have trained in my phone). I can also answer the phone by pushing the same button after hearing the subtle ring tone over the speakers. It pauses the CD while on the phone (the radio display says “RADIO” ).

Link to PDF version of install instructions I converted from newministuff.com.
Link to my small Flickr set of install pics.

PhillyMINI Cabin Fever Rally III

I participated in the PhillyMINI Cabin Fever Rally this past Saturday, March 24, 2007. We started just North of Otto's and took a very nice scenic route through some wonderful back roads of PA and DE. Along the way, we stopped at QVC for a tour of their studios (thanks to Dana for the free tour passes!) and at the Brandywine Nature Center. The route also included crossing two covered bridges. We capped the trip off with a lunch at Bugaboo Creek Steak House.

Doug did a great job of navigating the route for us and planning the event. Wave hi to him in his British racing green Cooper with the DE state flag on the top.

Link to my Flickr set.
Link to Tom Ross' set and his movies.

AppleTV First Impressions

I recently received the AppleTV that I ordered about two months ago at work. The size was surprising– it's shorter than a Mac Mini but wider and longer. The first problem I ran into is I don't have a display at work with component or HDMI in on it. So I connect my composite TV monitor to the green component output to at least get some idea of what the OSD looks like. This resulted in a black and white image (and this worked because sync is also on green).

So I took it home over the weekend. I had to update iTunes to get it to connect together. All content stored in iTunes is available to the AppleTV (provided your computer is turned on) and it can pull content from multiple machines in your house. It will play anything an iPod can and won't play the things an iPod won't. So, no streaming your VIDEO_TS folders to it.

I'm not 100% into the whole iTunes-as-your-video-organizer yet so I had to add a few videos to my library to get a sense of how it works. And it works well, the video looked great and it never stuttered while streaming (I was connected via 100baseT ethernet).

Time will tell what the USB port on the back really is for.

Reasonably priced dimmable compact fluorescent bulbs

I found a reasonably priced compact fluorescent bulb that is also dimmable with standard incandescent dimmers. Most are not compatible with dimmers and thus ones that do are expensive.

I only ordered four to start with for the studio. The bulbs are rated at 23 watts, each replacing a 85 watt flood. The new bulbs save 248 watts of energy and put off more light (equivalent to 400 total watts of light). The four pack of bulbs from the Amazon vendor ended up costing $5.87/ea including shipping. Buying more brings the cost down.

An unfortunate side effect of these is that the X10 dimmer doesn't seem to function with these in place. The X10 signal is being sent but must be getting absorbed into the ballast in the bulb because I couldn't make them dim. I'll be replacing the X10 dimmer with a standard dimmer. I'm worried they'll buzz when dimmed so I'll be holding the final verdict until I can test.

Link.