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Showing posts from July, 2019

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Echo Dot (3rd Gen) Ceiling Mount

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  Alexa, play my playlist... My goal has been to have music easily accessible while hanging out on my front patio. I'm aware of all kinds of stereo's, Bluetooth speakers/devices that could accomplish this, but I wanted something that wasn't tied to my smartphone, as well as something that wouldn't involve a major renovation (my front wall is brick). Now before people start to comment that I could have run stereo speakers in the soffit and into my house, that was already more work than I had planned as the soffit doesn't seem to be removable without using destructive force (I'm not sure how it was installed). I also wanted something that would be relatively permanent, in that I didn't want to have to charge something, or turn it on and off.  My solution was an echo dot mounted to the soffit, where my echo dot would be sheltered from the elements and provide music upon verbal command. So I turned to the world wide web for solutions, and there are a few great i
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Luck Toy Shop? Practice Video #2

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My top 3 posts of all time

Motorola DCT3416 Repair

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My brothers Motorola DCT3416 died, and I figured I would attempt to fix it. I want to start out by saying I know very little about PVR's, other than somewhere buried inside is a standard computer hard drive. While dropping off the DCT3416, my brother informs me that it doesn't turn on, and that it makes this clicking noise. My first assumption is that the HD is corrupt and or damaged and preventing the machine from booting. Replacing the internal HD should produce a simple fix, so lets go about doing just that. Replacing the internal HD is going to be slightly more complicated than originally anticipated as the rear of the DCT3416 has 3 tamper proof/security screws, which I do not have a tool for. Instead I used a series of pliers, and 10 minutes later had all the screws removed. Here is what the tamper proof/security screws look like, once removed.   I should add that there is also a plastic security tab, just above the IEEE 1394 jacks, which disintegrated when
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ROM: R-BOX Pro

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Before we dive in on updating the firmware of the R-BOX Pro, I wanted to give a little review (or maybe it's an insight into why I'm upgrading the firmware of my R-BOX Pro). I purchased the R-BOX Pro, thinking that a new Octo-core (8 Core cpu) would vastly improve my TV viewing experience over my aging Quad-core (4 core cpu) OUYA game console/TV set-top box. In fact on paper the R-BOX Pro outperforms almost all existing android TV Set-top boxes on the market, with the exception of the NVIDIA Shield. With a price of $74 U.S. dollars it's quite inexpensive, seeing as 4 years ago I paid $125 U.S. dollars for my OUYA.
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ROM: OUYA

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Prior to being acquired by RAZOR (July 27, 2015), the OUYA would normally see system updates rolling out every 4 to 6 months. It's been over a year (Nov. 6, 2014) since we've seen a system update to our beloved OUYA set-top box. With no indications from OUYA or RAZOR as to when an update is coming, I've decided to take things into my own hands. My current problem with the OUYA is that its ROM comes with a proprietary operating system based off Android 4.1 (Jellybean). While this was state of the art back in early 2013, Android 4.1 is no longer being supported by KODI developers. To me, KODI a.k.a. XBMC, is what made the OUYA such an awesome device. So I want to update my OUYA so as to continue being able to use KODI.
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