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18 Norris Drive
Whitesboro, NY 13492
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315-351-2906
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The best advertising you can do in the automotive field... (a module cloning saga)
This is my plan to expand my business. I do not have formal training on this outside of my experience to develop side hustles & businesses. There is a limit on the amount of time in a day you have to pursue each of your interests especially if you work a full time job. That makes your free time and the business you do in it extremely valuable. I prefer to be able to be picky about hot I spend my time, doing what and for what reward. I made targeted business cards. I do
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Mar 261 min read
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KeyDIY (super) chips - An alternative to Autel and Xhorse... worth it?
D26 is the part number of the chip. You need software version number 1.38+ in order to use them. They require a 2 step process to program which is a negative due to additional complexity. You have to make them to the key series (ID11, ID12, ...) then add vehicle specific information to the chip to make it work. Xhorse chips are considered superior for this reason. Been told... Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge programming has demonstrated incompatibility/failure in some applications th
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Mar 261 min read
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Xhorse and Autel (Super) chips... differences and uses
For the longest time there was no Autel transponder chips available for sale or purchase anywhere although their tools include a slot for them. For years everyone thought this was weird and many still do (having not heard that Autel is now selling chips yay!). It was not all that inconvenient because the Autel tools could program the Xhorse super chips lol. It is not a published fact from either manufacturer but I literally watched a video for a Mercedes bench key adding p
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Mar 212 min read
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Just about the coolest circuit board related tool I have ever seen & how it led me to the CG Pro tool
So here I am doing my research on key programming and writing notes for all the complicated key services I could find myself doing someday when I come across just about the coolest adapter I have ever seen. It is a in-circuit MCU (microcontroller) communication adapter AND I have to have it. After some intense searching I find a tool that is not available for purchase anywhere like it is no longer in production. I managed to snip a screenshot of the adapter in the YouTube
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Mar 82 min read
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2026 F1 Australian Grand Pre FP3 thoughts...
I have never had a platform before. I do have some silent thoughts that have run through my head when I do watch pre season and practices before the first grand pre when there are new regulations. I would like to put them here ultimately to see how the season compares to my expectations. I love Formula 1 and have dreamed of being able to drive one of these cars. I love the technology and ultimately anything that can be used to help my own vehicles go faster. This is prob
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Mar 72 min read
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The LGA1700 core i5 budget build
I did not spend much money on this build at all. For what it is worth - I got an pretty cool case from one of those electronic recyclers. Freezes all the time/Explorer crashes (although I never shut anything off and apparently its running at 25gb of ram usage lol) - XMP is on so now so the memory has gotten faster. It really is not meant for power users Does not have iGPU but this is all about setting up for an i9 future build. The GPU doesnt boost over 3.9 for some reason
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Mar 52 min read
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Important things to know about PC power supplies, in general
Not all manufacturers use the same pin outs for their power cables as everyone else does. They are NOT standard. Something I found out by bricking 2 drives full of data when I built version 2 of my server. There is no standardization of these cables and its absolutely ridiculous. Once you have power supplies out of cases and cables disconnected from them it is a long way back to figuring out what cables work with each of those supplies. Given the cost of power suppli
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Mar 51 min read
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The Toyota Highlander and its phantom lean codes
With how many systems there are in a car nowadays and how much they rely upon the operation of the other systems around them, fixing check engine lights can be a real pain. Every car is different, every manufacturer does things differently and the electronics are always changing. Take this highlander for instance. Customer says "Ever since I jump started my tractor with my car this check engine light has been on. My cruise doesn't work so I would like to get it fixed." T
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Mar 33 min read
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Best bang for the buck in hot air soldering stations
Coming soon Where is the Value? Examples under 100 bucks that are functional There are examples of these over 2000 dollars. Adapters to keep heat of adjacent components - keyDIY mcu adapter Life expectancy?
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Mar 31 min read
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Some Ford Maverick Humor...
I had a customer recently give me a call about their 2024 ford maverick to pick my brains on an issue they were having repeat problems with: The dealer had warrantied 3 batteries in the last 6 months, which is roughly half the time they have even owned the vehicle, and they were wondering if maybe I had some idea of what was going on. Batteries are pretty straight forward in the grand scheme of things and 3 defective batteries in a row does not seem like a realistic problem t
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Mar 33 min read
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Epic FORscan repair - in practice
This is really part 2 that a customer taught me. This is much later on with him actually walking me through, coming to my aid and ultimately answering all my questions for me. It is not a very dramatic story so you will have to live without the movie but still, to me, something worth sharing. This is a story about eliminating plastic, damage prone CAN network "controlled" no cost justifiable parts ford chooses to put on lower end models? I hope that makes sense lol. Time
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Mar 16 min read
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Epic FORscan repair... what did my customer do?
So here we have an issue with a Ford truck charging system having never heard of FORscan with next to no experience in Active Air Dam and Active Radiator Shutter systems in relation to the CAN network they are linked to. Nor am I overly familiar with ford configuration modification. Diag FORscan Customer What do I need to be able to do it?
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Mar 11 min read
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Adventures in Paintless Dent Repair
I have the perfect car to practice my skills on. That being said I still need to pick up hundreds of dollars in additional tools before I am ready to start on the body. I still have mechanical and electrical issues to sort before its time for the body. I have a very introductory set of tools Some of the cool new innovations I have found Advertised value versus actual value
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Mar 11 min read
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When not to tow your car or, at least, when to get it out of the storage lot
I see too many cars being totaled, towed away from crashes when they could be driven and a number of other things you should know about the automotive towing system. I have examples, I know what these places do, and I know how much we are all being screwed. Insurance companies have even started to put into their polices coverage limits for towing and storage that can really hurt your pocketbook if you are not paying attention. And, lets face it, our own insurance companies
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Mar 13 min read
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Mar 11 min read
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Some thoughts on budget friendly computers that do not break the budget - told in story form
Value has been a priority my entire life. Even still... I have been talked into purchasing new (mostly lenovo) laptops by my tech friends over the years and it has not really worked out well for me. SO I found my own laptops that are reasonably priced and can do everything I thought I ever needed until I tried to run Diablo IV. Let us start at the beginning of this journey. Amazing Lenovo machines and how, for some reason, my environment sought out their destruction withi
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Mar 14 min read
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The truth about video quality: contrast ratio, brightness, colors, etc
coming soon This will be short and sweet The average video theater specs My home theater room on a budget My 4k thoughts
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Mar 11 min read
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Not all key suppliers/supply networks are created equal...
I kind of got spoiled... When I started the key adventures I decided that Autel was one of the best vehicle locksmithing tool providers in the industry and my local Factory Motor Parts store is part of the official supply network for Autel tools. Autel tools have their hang ups and their negatives like all tools in this industry but they do not require tokens, have the largest coverage base and the wealth of informational videos on how to program keys to specific vehicles f
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Mar 14 min read
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Media Server hardware upgrade time
So... I have run out of room in my case for more hard drives. On top of that, even with the GPU handling transcoding, the TS150 was really not doing it for me. See the previous article linked here: Years of talk about Unraid servers versus reality I started with a really reliable, well known, excellent case but it ultimately had limited upgradability, proprietary hard drive power supply cables/sourced from motherboard, almost zero cable management, limited access to conne
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Mar 11 min read
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Things you really need to know about buying a hard drive and how price really isn't the driving factor
The cost of hard drives now a days can be all over the place. They are even more expensive then they use to be. Finding a good deal on a drive that is big enough and has the features we are looking for is usually the most pressing concern for many builds. When I built my media server I knew I was going to have a great many files eventually with sizes over 100GB a video for my un-remuxed 4K content. That means the biggest drives are the best deal given the limited number o
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Mar 14 min read
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