Feb 21 2007

Type-Z goes under the knife again

Tomorrow I’m taking my car back in for some more work. We’re going to be uninstalling the AEM AFR gauge, and replacing it with the stock primary O2 sensor. That way, it can be wired directly into the K-Pro ECU, and will therefore, be datalogged with the rest of the sensors. This will also be nice for tuning. I also hope that we will be able to get to realigning the rear bumper (as it is slightly off on the driver’s side near the taillight).

Overall, I’m excited just to be getting the new O2 sensor wired up. It will be nice to see how the car runs with all sensors functioning properly. Changing the O2 sensor back to stock and wiring it into the K-Pro ECU has a good number of advantages:


  • No more check-engine light (CEL).
  • Most accurate reading of AFR.
  • Auto-correction of improper AFR based on the loaded calibration.
  • Ability to program in the various target-lambda values and have the K-Pro auto-adjust.

All that goodness just from swapping out one sensor! All of the AFR portions are incredibly beneficial because having a proper AFR reading will allow the K-Pro to dynamically adjust the injector flow. If it senses that the AFR is too lean, it will cause the injectors to fire harder and pump in more fuel. Contrapositively, if the AFR is too rich (like it currently is between 4000 and 5500 RPM at the VTEC point), the K-Pro will automatically reduce the injector duty to normalize back to the target lambda.

Hope all goes well. 🙂

|:| Zach |:|

Feb 20 2007

Mom’s surgery

Today Mom went into the hospital to have her carpal tunnel fixed. She had a surgery known as Trapeziometacarpal Arthroplasty, in which the Doctor used the entire Flexor Carpi Radialis Tendon in place of the actual basal joint. It’s quite an interesting procedure, and I had never known anyone to have it done…until now that is.

After a relatively short two-hour surgery, she was sent to Recovery, and then up to spend the night in her own room. She’ll be coming home tomorrow, and hopefully without any problems whatsoever. According to all of the Doctors, the procedure went perfectly. She’s feeling just a little throbbing in the left hand, but that’s to be expected for the next couple days/weeks.

I’m just glad the surgery went well.

|:| Zach |:|

Feb 18 2007

Guiharp? Harptar? The Harp Guitar?

Today I was perusing the ol’ interweb and I stumbled upon a creation formally known as the harp guitar. While I personally prefer a synthesizing name such as the Guiharp (my personal favourite) or the Harptar, I guess I will bow down to formality and refer to it as the harp guitar. A whole bunch of information about the instrument can be found on the Official Harp Guitar website ( www.harpguitars.net ).

After looking around that website for a bit, I found out that Andy McKee (the artist I mentioned in the entry right before this one) uses a harp guitar in a couple songs. I have uploaded a video of him playing one in a song called Into the Ocean. The part that is incredible to me is that he can play both portions simultaneously without missing a note!

Into the Ocean (harp guitar):

As always, if you want to watch the video more than once, download the Riva FLV Player by clicking on the “FLV Player” under the “Tools” menu in the right-side bar. Click “save as,” and install it on your computer. Then you can download this video by clicking the link below and hitting “save as:”

Download Into the Ocean

Too cool! 😀
|:| Zach |:|