Shiney VW (badge!)

Shiney. Well the paint was coming off the old red (why?!) one.

Old VW (red) grill badge

New Shiney Chrome VW badge

PCB checking rules…

Aside from the obvious these (nearly) always catch me out:

1) All thru-holes for pins must be 1.02mm minimum
2) Check via’s to inner power layers!
3) Component spacing – you’ve got to solder that!
4) Does it fit in the box?
5) Does it fit height-wise in the box?
6) Do the components on the board – fit in the box correctly?

Dodgy Sensor wiring!

Found this on GTI… This is the crank impulse sender, it tells the ECU where the engine is for injection and ignition timing.

Old Crank Sensor wiring damage

Could this be the elusive cause of my rough/bad running issues? Time will tell…. Fingers crossed!

First Diesel engine fix…

I did my first (engine) fix on Jemima today. Three out of four of her glow worms had died. You could hear the engine trying to start during cranking, and after testing them this was explained by only one really working and thus one cylinder firing.

After proving they were receiving power, then isolating one by one from the power feed and testing with a test lamp to prove the point – I replaced them with a new set. Parts cost £32 and tools (test lamp and deep socket set) – £50!

Also took the lock out of the drivers door ready to be replaced, and re-attached the horse area light. Phew.

Chesca, meanwhile, went out for a lovely hack in the sunshine with two other yard girls!

Am I a local administrator?

I wanted to detect whether a HTA I was writing in VB was running as a local administrator, and change its behaviour as a result. The obvious answer is to enumerate the users group memberships and look for “administrators”. That doesn’t work if you get Administrative rights via nested groups – aka you’re a member of “Domain Admins”, only if you’re a explicit member of the local “Administrators” group. However Windows knows when you logon, as it creates your logon token.

I found this blog Here which explains how to do it!