Having lost my iMac’s hard drive late last year, I was somewhat crippled technologically over the Christmas period. It had 500Gb of personal data, photos, movies and work projects on it, so when it died I was – to say the least – a bit upset. To its credit it did last me over four years and worked very hard in that time. Of course I did have an online backup system (to Amazon S3 storage) in place at the time, but it turned out to be far less useful than I had imagined when it came to recovering the big stuff: photos and movies etc. Here’s how I coped…

A friend had successfully recovered some data from a failed drive by placing it in the freezer while accessing it. A quick google search revealed that this had been successful for many people around the world. So last week I ordered a cheap USB > SATA/IDE iterface cable with power supply from eBay. It cost around $18 AUD delivered, quite within my budget for recovery!

I packed the dead drive into a plastic bag, connected it to the USB cable/power supply, and stuffed the bagged drive in between two Techni-Ice ice packs I use for camping. These suckers get COLD and outlast ice by miles.

The very first attempt allowed me to recover my 50Gb iTunes music library before the drive stopped playing the game. I refroze the ice pack and tried again the next day – allowing the drive to rest/cool. After a couple of false starts on the next attempt (my 70Gb iPhoto library) it was away again, and during this session I recovered over 160Gb of essentials: mail files, movies etc. I will in my next run recover all the other muck (desktop and misc mess) I had lying around and then it is done!

The upshot is that for $18 AUD I have recovered fully ALL the data I needed from a dead drive.

Some notes worth mentioning:

1. If it stops working turn it off and let it rest. Come back another time.
2. The cheap eBay USB thing worked very well BUT the power supply ran VERY hot and I would NOT recommend leaving this particular one unattended. I haven’t ever come across a power supply that was this hot to touch! Fire risk much? No brand name, just generic Chinese electronics.
3. How wet is too wet? Sandwiched between two ice packs, I did have quite a lot of condensation on the drive after I’d finished for the day. I used a face washer to absorb moisture on the outside. It may be better to place the drive in an esky or the actual freezer to control ambient humidity. Admittedly I left the drive overnight without packing away the ice packs. oops!
4. I didn’t have to pay $1500+ for a data recovery service! Hooray!

Find it here: http://bit.ly/qXzOlG

Safety First – Staticfarm T-shirts n’ stuff

However, when I got to the events of chapter 4 recently, I found that I was constantly flipping back chapter 1 to ensure I was getting the descriptions of the locale correct. Eg: doorways weren’t accidentally being on the wrong side of a hallway, and I hadn’t forgotten the existence of a door. It was starting already to become a problem.

What I really needed was an intimate knowledge of the environment that the story was taking place in. I made it up… so I should know all about it. Well.. I hadn’t gone into too much detail in my head, and it was starting to show.

The story takes place for the most part on a space vessel. It’s big and has a bunch of connecting corridors and ladders inside it (Don’t they all in Sci-Fi). I started off sketching a few layouts on paper. Got some basic ideas, but then needed to elaborate on them AND needed a side elevation in order to judge some internal dimensions. Too much detail? No not really… For simple statements like “he was really tired by the time he got to the 456th rung of the ladder” (which is just to illustrate my point and is not from my story btw.). 456 ladder rungs implies a freakin’ big ladder. Henceforth a really big area. So this character can’t at any point jump down from the top of the ladder because he’d probably end up dead at the bottom. The environment dictates the behavior of the story’s characters to some extent so I had to get fairly detailed.

To develop this I tried out Google SketchUp! Wow! Within an hour I was pulling together some amazing 3D models (well I though they were amazing anyway) and solving all my environmental detail quibbles! I would never have bought software for this task, but this freebie is amazing! It appears that SketchUp is designed to work hand in hand with Google Earth and related stuff. Cool! Google you guys are unreal!

So you don’t smoke? Surely you don’t need an ashtray in your vehicle then. Here’s what I did to mod the ashtray in our 2002 Land Rover Discovery II. It’s now an iPod dock with both USB and analog support, so I can still use my iPod via Aux inputs or a more recent device via USB. I’m using an Alpine CDE-121E head unit which is the cheapest unit they had at the time that offered basic iPod/iPhone support.

Why bother? Well here were my goals in tackling this Canyonero mod.

1. Remove all ugly cables from dash / console area. Not only do they look crap, but everything gets caught up in them and you end up dragging your iPod out of the car when it tangles with your keys/sunglasses etc.
2. Secure my iPod/s. The Canyonero is a 4×4. Bad form to have these little devices flying around the cabin and getting damaged / causing accidents.
3. Enable a quick swap between my USB connected iPod/iPhone and my old school iPod (3rd Gen?) which wasn’t supported directly by my Alpine head unit but could still play via Aux input. I didn’t want to change cables around however, so the dock approach made more sense
4. To avoid FM transmitters / modulators as I’ve had 4 and they all have downsides I hated, either sonic or operational.
5. To have a HUGE easily managed music library in the vehicle (I do a lot of driving).

I bought a cheap iPod/iPhone dock on eBay in order to get the parts I needed. I think it cost me about $9 AU, and came with a cable which I also needed.

This ashtray is what I’m going to jam the dock into:

To prepare the ashtray I had to remove the stereo head unit, and the cup-holder/ashtray assembly. I then drilled a hole in the fascia below the head unit to run the cables through. The lip below the head unit can be removed, but be warned even being careful I still managed to break off a plastic tab getting it off. To make for easier access I also pulled the climate control console out (two release tabs on the side of the unit allow it to slide forward without disconnecting any cables.)

I ran my cables up in behind the clock & door lock switch. To get them into the ashtray enclosure I had to drill a hole large enough for the cables to move freely at the rear of the ashtray’s housing. I also fixed the broken ashtray spring. If you want details let me know, it’s a common failing in the Discovery.

Once the cables were in place I replaced the head unit / climate control. I do realise that if I spent more on the head unit I could have had rear USB & AUX sockets, but the price difference was significant, this way suits me fine.

USB and AUX cables installed below head unit

Next step was to rebuild the dock. You may find a dock that fits nicely in your ashtray, I did this in our last vehicle. I much happier with the result this time though, very solid and it looks pretty slick too.

I cut a section of Jiffy Box (black plastic electronics project box from Jaycar / DSE etc) into a shape that fitted snugly inside the ashtray. I kept it tight so it is held in place by friction alone. The lip of Jiffy Box lid was left on the front in order to provide a slight lay back angle for the iPod when in the dock.

The iPod jack connector had seven wires out to it’s original sockets. Four for USB and three for analog audio (Ground, L, R). I added a multi pin header plug / socket so that I’d be able to remove the whole thing easily. This is important because the number of times you need to pull this cup-holder / ashtray assembly out if your working on the dash / heater etc would make it a complete pain if they were hard wired.

Underside of new dock connector with multi pin connection

I then cut the cables coming from behind the dash to a length that allowed me to remove the ashtray and unplug when needed. Once cut to correct length I added the multi-pin plug and tested the connections.

I hit a small snag in that I wasn’t getting any signal via analog right. All the connections were good. Puzzling. As it turns out the pad on the PCB I had soldered it to was a dummy, and I needed to solder just that one wire onto the corresponding pad on the underside of the PCB. Checked out with multimeter and tested. All good.

Multi pin socket on cables from behind dash.

I order to provide some support for the larger/heavier iPods I reworked the base of the eBay dock and screwed it onto the base of my dock providing a perfect right angle support/guide to minimise the movement of the iPods when in the dock. It worked really well. My old iPod is very heavy and flopped around alot. this would have eventually broken the tracks/joints on the connector PCB. Took me a bit of filing and shaping to get it to the right height allowing the ashtray to open and close freely.

iPod support/guide on dock base

Now for the cosmetics. I opted to keep the metal tray top in for the ashtray as this served as a retainer for the flat lock spring that holds the ashtray in. Without the retainer the ashtray could get locked fully closed as the spring sits too high. Difficult to open. Besides, it actually looked kind of pro having it there too.

I cut out the various unneeded bits from the metal top. Note that in the pic below you’ll see I also cut out the top left corner, this corresponds with the holes I drilled in the cup-holder assembly frame allowing the cables to enter the ashtray. File it smooth, sharp edges will cut and short your cables. This hole is just large enough to allow the multi-pin plug to pass through.

Cutout ashtray top, assembled dock base, ashtray body

Assembled dock in ashtray body

Once all the shaving and adjusting was done, I popped the metal top back on and voila!

Completed ashtray dock

A quick connection to the cables hanging out of the dash and I was able to replace the ashtray dock and start using it. I’m very, very happy with this setup.

iPod Nano in the ashtray dock, connected digitally via USB

iPod “Classique” in ashtray dock connected via analog to Aux input.

The big advantage to me is I can simply swap iPods and press the Source button (Aux, iPod, radio etc) and that’s it. No cable swapping. Even when connected via AUX my old iPod will charge via the USB connection in the dock.

Hope this stimulates your DIY glands.

However, you may find that I am one of a minority when it comes to my love of geckos and geckoisms. And so it is that I ask you this…

Don’t you think that it’s just taking it a bit far by crapping on my coffee machine? Some things are sacred you know! It’s just not right!

Warm feelings and reptillian felicitations,

Wil