One of the old filters. You can see how dirty it is.

I haven’t replaced the air filters on my 2006 Mercedes ML-350 since I bought the car last year, and I didn’t know when or if the previous owner had them replaced. A couple of weeks ago, I opened up the hood to check the air filters out of curiosity. I found the filters to be quite dirty and decided to replace them. Last year when I visited the dealer, they said that they charge $100 to replace the filters. I did an online search and found the compatible filters, the Mann-Filter C 3698-2 Air Filter, for sale for around $30 including shipping. I’m no car mechanic, but replacing the filters is a relatively simple task so I might as well do it myself and save $70.

I had to wait more than a week for my order to arrive, but the filters eventually got to my place. Replacing the filters on a 2006 Mercedes ML-350 is pretty simple in principle: just remove the front plastic cover on the engine, disconnect the three air hoses (2 big, 1 small) and the pull out the air intake assembly. The plastic air intake assembly holds a pair of air filters in two boxes, and each box is held by four T-25 Torx screws.

The ML-350's air intake assembly. The pair of filters are held in the boxes on sides.

The box for the Mann-Filter C 3698-2 Air Filters

The old filter sitting inside one of the boxes of the air intake assembly.

Old filter (right) vs. new filter (left). The old filter is clearly much dirtier.

The engine bay before and after the job.

Opening the boxes and replacing the filters was a pretty straight forward task. The replacements I bought were exactly the same model as the old ones, and they fit snugly into the assembly. As you can see from my photos, the old filters were quite dirty and probably haven’t been replaced for a while. Putting the air intake assembly back on top of the engine also should be a simple task, but like in many occasions putting something back together is a little harder than taking the same thing apart. I had trouble lining up the assembly with the air intake of the engine and it took me many tries to finally push the assembly into the right position. Without the troubles, I probably would have finished the whole job within 15 minutes; I ended up taking closer to half an hour thanks to the wrangling I had to do to put the air intake assembly back properly.

As a car owner, I’m going to have to do these small maintenance tasks every so often to keep the car in good shape. Next time I replace something else I’ll probably write another post here.

Over the last year, the car has been pretty good as it didn’t develop any problems on its own. I did spend some money to repair the car when a rodent got into the hood and chewed up some plastic and wires, but otherwise the car has behaved nicely in its first year under my ownership. I’m not a car maintenance expert, but I’ll be sure to get all the necessary maintenance done so the car will continue to operate without issues. Hopefully the car will be alright as long as I own it, and I’ll likely keep this car until I get my doctoral degree and maybe even beyond that.

The day we went, the weather was very nice and it was sunny the whole day. However, it is March and spring time has come, and so it was quite warm and thus the snow was a little slushy at the base of the mountain. Given this was my first time skiing, I went and took the beginner lessons to learn the basics. On the bunny hill I actually wasn’t doing too bad. I could turn and had some control over where I was going, and I didn’t fall while skiing. It did take me a few tries to figure out how to get off the chairlift without falling though. After a few times down the bunny hill, I then moved on to try the novice hill. I found out the hard way that the novice hill was way steeper than the bunny hill, and on my first trip down I ended up falling 4 or 5 times. I can’t seem to control my speed on the steeper hill and end up going too fast and then losing control. After a couple of tries I did make it down the hill once without crashing, but I still haven’t really figured out how to control my speed. I tried the “pizza slice” stance and that doesn’t seem to work.

Despite the falls and the slushy conditions, my first ski experience was pretty fun. I expected to fall a couple of times as a first-timer, and I think I did better than expected. The weather is getting too warm now and my spring break is over, so looks like my next skiing experience will have to wait until next winter.

Anyways, this is a post just to show some photos of my new speakers and write some initial thoughts. I don’t think I’m qualified to write a actual review for these speakers or any sort of audio equipment. As always, please excuse my crummy photos. I only have a not very new cellphone as my camera.

The SP2500 came in quite a large box.

For a 2.1 system, the SP2500 came in a surprisingly large and hefty box. It’s certainly not your average 2.1 computer speakers. The box has a black and blue color scheme and features a nice picture of the speaker set along with the specs and other notices.

The insides of the box were packed very nicely.

Inside the box, everything is neatly packaged and sectioned off with cardboard blocks. They probably did it this way to make the speaker easier to repackage. Too bad I had to get rid of the box to fit the speakers into my luggage.

The manuals and readings, none of which I bothered to read.

The left satellite speaker on the floor

The whole SP2500 package includes the two satellites, the subwoofer, the control pod, a manual, and all the audio cords and power cables needed to make the speakers work. The two satellites are normal sized (by computer speaker standards) and they share the black and blue color scheme of the box. The satellites come with little standoffs that allows you to point them slightly upwards or downwards. Since I’m placing the speakers on the floor, I tilted them upwards.

For a 2.1 PC set, the SP2500's subwoofer is massive.

In comparison to the satellites, the subwoofer is massive and hefty. The subwoofer is all black and has a panel of ports for all the connections on its back. All of the other parts of the speaker set plug into the back of the subwoofer. The setup was so easy that I didn’t need to look at the manual.

To shake the entire apartment, turn dial all the way clockwise.

The SP2500 is adjusted with the included control pod which connects to the subwoofer with what looks like a serial cable. The control pod features a small LCD screen, a scrolling button, the power button, and three other buttons to control the speaker set. Using the buttons and the screen, the user can adjust the volumes of the satellites and subwoofer (separately), adjust the input sources, and use any number of audio presets. The SP2500 has three inputs: red and white RCA connectors and an auxiliary (3.5mm TRS) jack on the back panel and an additional auxiliary jack on the control pod. The control pod also has 3.5mm headphone jack and a micro-USB connector for firmware upgrades.

The back panel with everything wired up

My improved TV setup including the Corsair SP2500 speakers

The SP2500 speakers set looks pretty nice and build quality seems solid. To test that the speakers work after I had connected them to the TV, I just turned on the TV to some random channel. Obviously there was no comparison between the TV’s tiny little speakers and the SP2500′s 232 Watts of power. The SP2500 sounds better, richer and louder by a wide margin. I’m no audiophile, and I don’t have another set to compare with, but the SP2500 sounded pretty nice to me. I didn’t turn the volume all the way up because I didn’t want to disturb the neighbors, but most reviews I’ve read said that the speakers can maintain sound quality even when cranked up to the max, and the big subwoofer produces pumping bass.

Overall, the Corsair SP2500 has given me some good first impressions. It’s not a 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound speakers that real home theater buffs would use, but it’s definitely a big improvement over the TV’s internal speakers. Best of all, I got the set for free, and that’s probably the best part of the story.

UPDATE:
I watched a movie on the TV and the SP2500 speaker set, and I was pretty pleased with the results. All the scenes with loud sounds and explosions had some kick to it thanks to the speakers. This might be more motivation for me to watch movies with the TV more often now.

Although the process itself is simple, it took us a hour or so to finally get success. The main reason is because I’ve never messed with the battery of my own car and because my car is designed differently than most cars. Unlike most cars where the battery is under the hood, the battery of the Mercedes ML 350 is in the floor behind the front passenger seat. There are leads for the battery accessible in the engine compartment, but they have plastic covers and it took me forever to remove those covers. I guess the original owner never touched those leads and that might be why they were so hard to pull off. When we finally got everything hooked up and tried the jump start, it didn’t quite work. The Jetta made the cranking noise instead of the clicking noise when it wasn’t connected to my car, but it couldn’t start. Thankfully, another friend returned and offered up his VW Golf, and with the Golf we were finally able to jump start the Jetta. I guess it takes one VW to jump start another VW.

Anyways, this was a good learning experience. I’m not sure why we couldn’t jump start with my car, but it might have something to do with the design of the car. Perhaps Mercedes cars aren’t built for jumping other vehicles. If my car ever gets a low or dead battery, hopefully my friends’ cars can jump start mine. I’ll make sure to take my car for a spin every few days to make sure the battery doesn’t drain though.

So what have I been up to during my time back in Vancouver? Not much as usual. In terms of research related things, I had some assigned reading to go through, but I don’t think I really understood anything I read. I don’t think I was that productive with my projects either. I mostly just stayed home and relaxed, and I didn’t go anywhere far. I went shopping a few times, and also hung out with some friends from college. Since I was back in Vancouver with its excellent selection of Chinese restaurants, I couldn’t resist eating out. The area that my grad school is in has some Chinese food places and they aren’t horrible, but they are not comparable to what Vancouver has. The fact that I ate more while at home in combination with less exercise meant that I gained around 10lbs during the break. It’s not that I didn’t exercise, but I didn’t exercise as often or as hard as when I am at school. I did play more badminton while I’m back, but that wasn’t quite enough to make up for extra intake. I don’t think my badminton skills has gotten any better or worse than before, and I probably need to train a bit to become better.

In terms of things that I actually accomplished while back at home, I helped my father replace a heating element on my family’s flat top stove. The element burnt out some time during the year and my father didn’t get around to fixing it. I am no handyman, but in this age of the internet it’s easy to find information online on how to fix stuff, and replacing the element wasn’t a particularly difficult task. I also helped my dad’s trusty but aging Toyota Echo pass its emissions inspection. I bought a car diagnostic trouble code scanner back from the States to investigate the check engine light on the Echo. The Echo is getting a bit old and has high mileage, so it’s not really worth it to spend hundreds of dollars to fix anything. The check engine light was a persistent problem though, and I thought the car would have trouble passing even if we turned off the check engine light with the scanner. However, by some stroke of luck, our trusty little Echo managed to pass its emission check against all odds, and now my dad can keep on driving it for two more years.

So that’s all for my boring little winter vacation. Staying at home over the break has been very nice, but I still have a Ph.D degree I need to finish. It’s time to get back to class, get some research work done, and also to work off the pounds that I’ve gained during this vacation.

The Autel Maxiscan MS300 OBD reader with manual and CD

The Autel Maxiscan MS300 came with a manual and a CD with a diagnostic trouble code library. The MS300 is a simple device with an attached OBD (OnBoard Diagnostics) connector, a two line display and only two buttons: Enter and Scroll. It’s not nearly as fancy as the code readers used by professional mechanics, but the MS300 can read codes, the Vehicle ID number (VIN), and other information. Most importantly for us, the MS300 can clear the trouble codes and thus turn off the check engine light.

After receiving the MS300 in the mail, I first tried the device on my 2006 Mercedes ML350. My car didn’t have any problems at the moment, but I wanted to check the other functions of the reader. The MS300 is powered by the OBD port, and thus the device turns on once it’s plugged into the port.

MS300 when first plugged into the OBD port

To use the device, I have turn my car’s ignition to the “ON” position without starting the engine. After that, I pressed the “Enter” button on the MS300 and it started to scan for information. Once the scan is done, the reader told me how many error codes were there (0 in my case) and displays the menu as shown below.

MS300 Main Menu

There are five items in the menu: DTC Code, Erase, I/M Status, VIN, and Rescan. DTC Code displays any trouble codes in the car’s computer; erase clears the trouble codes and turns off the check engine light; I/M Status displays some inspection/emissions info; VIN reads the vehicles’s ID number; and rescan gets the reader to scan for information again. I tried the I/M and VIN functions on my car and both worked.

One of the screens under the I/M Status menu item.

I brought the reader back home in winter vacation and used it on my father’s 2000 Toyota Echo which had the check engine light on. The MS300 worked as well on the Echo and read the error codes. We know what the error code was and cleared it using the MS300. Hopefully the check engine light doesn’t come back any time soon, but if it does at least we have some idea of what the problem is before my dad has to fix the car. Overall, the Maxiscan MS300 worked as advertised and was easy to use, and that in my eyes makes it a decent purchase.

Power Dispatch and Markets
This was a power systems course, but it was a bit different than the other power courses I’ve taken because this course focuses on some of the economic aspects of the power grid. The course talked about how electricity generation is dispatched in a deregulated market and some of the other functions of independent system operators (ISO). I found the material to be pretty interesting since I didn’t know much about the area.Most of the math was involved with solving optimization problems for generation cost. The math is not hard, but it can be a bit tedious, and sometimes you have to use computer programs such as MATLAB to do the work. Overall it was a good course, and the fact that I got a good grade is even better.

Electromagnetic Fields
One topic that I don’t like very much in power systems is electromagnetic fields, but it is important to know the physics behind electricity and all of the equipment that keep our lights on. This was a graduate level course on fields but with focus on power system applications. In particular the course looked at numerical methods that solves Laplace/Poisson’s equations in terms of potentials. However, numerical methods can’t really be assigned for homework or test problems because it’s impossible to do those problems by hand. In the end, most of the grades came from solving problems based around basic Maxwell’s Equations (Ampere’s Law and Gauss’ Law), and so the course wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be and I received an A for my efforts.

———————–

That’s all I have to say for my fall 2011 courses. Next semester I’ll go back to taking three courses, and one of them looks extra tough. I don’t have to worry about classes quite yet though since I still have a few more weeks to relax before school starts again.