Skoda Octavia Door Courtesy Light Switch

01a – Pop the mirror control console out.

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01b
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02a – Remove the door panel retaining screw from behind the interior door-release handle.

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02b – The door panel retaining screw from behind the interior door-release handle.
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04a – Remove this piece from under the handle before attempting to remove the window control console. The protrusions lock the console into the frame.
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04b – Window control console removed by brute force and ignorance…
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04c – Broken component due to previous procedure!
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04d – Broken frame (right hand side) due to the previous procedure.
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04e – Overview of driver’s door handle and window control console location. You can see the green clips that hold the console in place, along with the (broken) bar where the handle is. The black electrical tape is attached to the wiring to aid retrieval during reassembly.
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20 – Overview of driver’s door with panel removed. Note that the window is partially opened, and secured (just in case) with gaffer tape.
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21
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23 – Note the lock button and rod.
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24b – The end of the lock-button rod being unclipped from the lock mechanism.
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25 – Removing the (key-operated) barrel lock was a pig. The metal peg you can see at the bottom of the aperture rotates round on a cam, holding the barrel in place.
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26a – One of these screws operates the cam which holds the barrel in place. I ended up drilling a larger access hole to this screw as my bit driver was just too broad..!
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26c – The end of the cable that the exterior door handle pulls to operate the door-lock mechanism
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27a – The door-handle cable preventing the lock assembly from being removed.
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27b – The mechanism-end of the cable to the external door-release handle.
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27c – The connector which you probably can’t see yet, looks like this.
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27d – Removing the assembly now that the cable is free.
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28 – To undo the assmebly requires holding one of the sprung levers out of the way.
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29 – Separating the two assemblies.
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30a – Note where all the parts sit — Take photos!!
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30b
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30c – The offending solder-joints (by the connector) causing the problem.
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30d – That bush on the back-end of the motor had me foxed for ages when it fell off. Fortunately, I had taken a photograph..!
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31a – When re-assembling, watch out that this fork meets up with the corresponding lever in the next photo.
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31b – This lever needs to marry-up with the fork in the previous photo. This caused me to have to repeat EVERYTHING up to this stage again when the door wouldn’t lock!!!
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32a – Checking the whole system works correctly.
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32b – Push the latch (as if the door is closed) then pull the door-handle cable to test the lock.
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33 – Electrical tape used for retrieval of cables etc. Do this before presenting the panel back up to the door.
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Skoda door courtesy switch

Using your own domain with Gmail on iPhone

This appears to be a common snag for those of us using a customised email address or specific domain, but wishing to use Google’s fantastic mail servers.
I feel that it’s safe to assume that if you’re reading this, you’ve set email up before but can’t understand what you’ve missed…

…and the answer is nothing!

It all boils down to the initial set-up when we selected “Gmail” because that’s what we’re using. But by choosing “Other” instead, we get the extra options we need to set the ‘from’ and ‘reply-to’ email addresses.

So, all you need to do is, delete your current Gmail account on your iPhone, then start from scratch, paying attention to the screen shown below.

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It’s pretty much the same on the Mac too, but then how often do you need set email up if you’ve had the same email address for over ten years..?

Manfrotto 055 Pro Tripod Repair and Upgrade

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The new clip in-situe

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The Manfrotto manual showing the load loop / hanging ring.

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The broken component, referred to as a hanging ring.

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To access the screws which hold the main body together, we need to remove this clamp assembly — note the hole in the recess…

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You can see the screws that we need access to, and the silver-coloured spring-loaded wedge which both retains and locks the clamp assembly. Make sure the locking screw is loose enough to allow the wedge to be easily depressed into the main body.

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The clamp retaining / locking wedge / block

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By lining up one of the holes in the centre clamp, we can depress the wedge and remove the centre clamp — requires a bit of wiggling..!

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Loosening the screws on the main body, just enough to insert the (modified) D-clip.

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The D-clip I purchased has a flat cross-section (most D-clips have a circular cross-section) which is absolutely essential as it needs re-shaping to fit. 
The curve of its original shape was too steep to fit in the narrow gap provided in the tripod body, so using pliers I flattened the top.

*The British Military use Manfrotto tripods which puts them under duress not only during use, but whilst being thrown or bounced around in some form of transport.

Holiday in the forest, day 1.

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A well-deserved break for all of us 🙂
I was working through the night on a physics assignment and went to bed for a few hours at 7:30am!
Reckon I’ll sleep well tonight…

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365

365 photographs of Sheffielders by resident ‘alien’ photographer Luke Avery, and I was fortunate enough to be a part of it. This is a great piece of work and it was fantastic watching it develop (pun intended) throughout the year.
Top job by a top bloke who likes Sheffield so much that after finishing his degree, he made it his home!

See the project in its entirety here: http://www.sheffield365project.co.uk/ 

Getting Stuck (in) Together

View out of the front of the house. Evening of 30th November 2010.

Back Garden the next morning 1st December 2010.

Mason Avenue 01-Dec-2010

It’s a car.


Main route through the estate



360º view from Burgoyne Park over Ulley. 
Walking up our road, and then along the top road wasn’t easy going. But when I got to the park and the snow was knee-deep, it was really REALLY hard work wading through it!!
See it here: 


Top of Mason Avenue

Mason Avenue

This chap was digging his van out in order to turn it round so that it was pointing down the hill in the morning!

2nd December 2010, An expedition to the local shop… 

Mason Avenue — only passable by 4x4s

The car shortly before I spent 2 hours digging it out…

…the car shortly AFTER I spent/wasted 2 hours digging it out!!!

3rd December 2010, 08:25
I spent over an hour the next morning digging a route off the drive, but the compacted snow was so deep that I couldn’t get the car onto it from the tarmac. It was pointless going down the hill because we still have to go up at some point to get to the main road. Albeit on a different road that hasn’t been ploughed or gritted. 
This road is a bus route by the way..!

A waste of time anyway as the van which is at 45º to the road was stuck. Very stuck. He’d been there for ages and prior to that was about 10 metres further up for ages!
The Mercedes van on the left belongs to a neighbour and new friend, called Witness. We tried the night before to free the van but couldn’t even get it to go DOWN the hill!! 
Just as well really otherwise he’d have been stranded an hour later with the next blanket of snow that fell…

Saturday 4th December, 2010.
I passed our neighbour Julie a mug of coffee through the window as she was clearing her path. When she started to clear her car I went out to give her a hand as there was a huge amount of ice to move. 
Some selfless people had broken up the ice (compacted snow from the tyre tracks) and cleared the tracks that you can see in the next photo. The only downside is that they’d made the ‘Great Wall of Aughton’ out of the ice bricks!

Using Sam’s sledge we shifted enough of the wall to make a route out for Julie’s car.

And made sure that she’d be able to park the car again.

This car was very stuck, but several of us gave them a hand to get free :o)

The driver of this Audi (red shirt) almost bent it on the back of Steve’s truck. He was one wheelspin away from hitting it until I waved like a lunatic for him to stop!! 
I asked him if he’d like to borrow my shovel before he trashed his car and then his dad came out to help. Even in reverse the car slid down the hill towards Steve’s truck, so it was stuck, partially blocking the road.
You can see how close he was!

We had to dig right down to the tarmac which meant breaking through the ice, but between us all we managed it!
(That included the chap in red and the father lifting blocks of ice with their bare hands, his wife with a trowel digging round the wheels and Julie and me shovelling!)

From Monday onwards, all the buses have been cancelled or have been running shortened routes.
My cousin got the bus to work one morning and she said the driver laughed when she asked for a ‘day saver’. And right enough, they were all cancelled before lunch :o(
Unusually, it’s the West part of the Sheffield area where the snow isn’t as heavy; going out towards the Peak District it often snows in summer..!

SNOW!!!

I’m probably not going to drive to my tutorial in Nottingham tomorrow, which is a great shame. But I don’t want to risk either getting stranded or wasting most of the day sitting in stuck traffic. It was bad enough on the return journey last time because someone broke the M1 Southbound. I was travelling North, but of course people needed to slow down to have a nosey…