Posted on Leave a comment

Installed BT3000 shim set outside of saw enclosure

I had a customer on EBay complain that the flay shims were 0.1″ too long and that they would not work in his saw. The pictures below show that not only are they just fine, they will no impeded the travel either way of the arbor because the arbor’s travel is limited and there is plenty of room to have even longer flat or angled shims. The pictures below show the arbor moved to each extreme.

Top of travel angle shim side to show how the arbor cannot be raised further
Back side showing the flat shims how they are not impeded at all at top of travel side 1
Back side showing the flat shims how they are not impeded at all at top of travel side 2
top of travel bottom side of flat shim
Bottom travel position can’t travel further. Angled shim side
Bottom of travel flat shim side. Ample room for shims to be even longer.
Posted on 1 Comment

.well-known folder apple-developer-merchantid-domain-association aws bitnami letsencrypt

When using letsencrypt tool on a bitnami installation it appears that it is impossible to get the apple-developer-merchantid-domain-association file to load in the .well-known directory. One of the obvious indications is that you can place it in the root directory and see the file but move it to the .well-known directory and it always cmes up 404…

The directory you want is here: /opt/bitnami/apps/letsencrypt/.well-known

Do if you have already been perplexed why it won’t work just move your file with the command below:

sudo mv /opt/bitnami/wordpress/.well-known/apple-developer-merchantid-domain-association /opt/bitnami/apps/letsencrypt/.well-known/apple-developer-merchantid-domain-association

Posted on Leave a comment

OpenAuto Pro by Bluewave Studio – Initial guide

I certainly can vouch for the quality of this product. It has worked very well for me so far. The post below from the forum I found Invaluable. If you you HallCastle05 as a discount code when you purchase the software you will get a 5% discount!

Copied from the forum

Written by an OAP newbie who spent two weekends trying to get this work. Despite the official documentation and other threads on how to do this, I have constantly failed to get it to work until recently. I documented the following which worked for me with lots of trial and error including notes on issues I’ve encountered and my solutions for those. I hope it can help others.

This was performed in OAP 7.0 on a Raspberry Pi 4 B with external USB Bluetooth, Soundcard and Microphone dongles (required).

Android Auto (AA) Phone Preparation
Open AA Settings and scroll down to Version.

Tap Version repeatedly until a pop up asks you to Enable Developer Mode — tap option to allow.

At the top right of this screen, tap the three dots and tap Developer Settings.

Enable ‘Add Wireless Projection To Settings’ and then close AA.

OpenAutoPro (OAP) Preparation
Flash OAP 7.0 to an SD Card and insert into Raspberry Pi (RPi).

Connect all the required external USB devices to the RPi: Bluetooth, Soundcard, Microphone. Without these devices connected, Android Auto will not launch on OAP.

Power up the RPi.

When OAP is booted, tap Settings then Wireless.

Under Hotspot band, tap 5GHz (for best results if supported by both your RPi and Phone) and then tap the Hotspot button above to enable it. There will be a few seconds of what seems like input lag when tapping on these buttons, give it a moment to switch WiFi modes.

Under Settings, tap AA, tap System and tap on Start Android Auto Automatically, then tap on Wireless Android Auto. I disabled Show Top Bar in Android Auto because it was annoying seeing another bar with Time, Battery, etc since AA already displays this.
Note: Enabling Hotspot on OAP will disable all existing WiFi connections previously established in Raspbian OS.

Raspbian OS (ROS) Preparation
In OAP tap the Power Button Icon at the bottom of the screen and then tap Return to minimize OAP and display the ROS Desktop.

(Optional): If this is your first time entering ROS, and are prompted, complete the initial setup. Do note that when you reach the WiFi Network screen at the end of the setup, no network will be displayed because you already enabled Hotspot in OAP. You can skip this step in the ROS setup process.

At the top-right of the ROS desktop, click on the Bluetooth Icon and then Add Device.

Pair your Phone with ROS. You may encounter an error when attempting to pair from the phone to ROS, but you may still be paired. Check the Bluetooth connections on the Phone and in ROS.

On your Phone, connect to a new WiFi Network. Look for OpenAutoPro in the WiFi list and connect with the default password: 1234567890.

For good measure, reboot your Phone and RPi.

After reboot, test AA WiFi connection. You might need to enter an IP Address the first time (like I did) before it automatically connects. Under your OpenAutoPro Hotspot connection on your Phone, tap the connection and look for the IP address. You might need to click Edit the connection to see the variables under Advanced.

Notes on Issues & Solutions

The following are some issues I had to deal with that were not obvious or covered in the official OAP documentation.
Every change I’ve made in ROS or OAP required me to reboot the system to apply these changes. I suggest doing the same on your end to prevent headaches.

Some of the ROS menus won’t display unless you use a mouse for right-click functions that enable sub menus for Bluetooth, WiFi and Sound.

In ROS you might need to set the default Audio Input and Output device. Tap the ROS icon at the top-left, then tap Sound & Video -> PulseAudio Volume Control. Tap the Output Devices tab, then tap on the check mark for the audio adapter that is your external USB Soundcard. Same for the Input Devices tab. Reboot System.

An external USB Microphone dongle is required for OAP to start up, however when using Bluetooth Audio on the Phone, or a device connected to the Phone for audio (such as your car), the USB Microphone dongle doesn’t appear to be used for voice, instead the microphone on the Bluetooth device seems to be used. I tested this with wireless headphones connected to my Phone, as well as the microphone built into my car connected to my phone via Bluetooth. However, OAP still requires an external USB Microphone dongle to function.

Google Assistant (Ok Google / Hey Google) requires data to perform some functions. When using Hotspot on OAP, normal WiFi functions are disabled. With the Phone connected to the Hotspot on OAP, you have to rely on Cell Data for Hey Google. There may be some lag in between commands as Google Assistant accesses the internet. This is a known issue with Google that others are experiencing outside of OAP.

There is a known issue in AA with Hey Google commands while music is playing, it will not always respond to you. When the music is paused, it will then respond to you. This also seems to be a random occurrence others experience outside of OAP.

My first inclination on setting up a new OS is to modify network settings to match my network. This was a mistake to do with ROS out of the box. I made so many network changes that I was unable to get Hotspot working with OAP because I set the ROS network to match my IP Address block of 192.168.1.X instead of using the default one that OAP uses which is 192.168.4.X. This caused the OAP Hotspot connection on my phone to loop through “Obtaining IP Address” indefinitely. Once I reflashed OAP with its unmodified default settings, and only setup the Wireless Hotspot connection out of the box, it worked. The initial ROS setup confused me about having to setup a WiFi connection so I started modifying settings when it didn’t work because Hotspot was on.

For best Wireless performance, OAP needs to be the WiFi Hotspot. Your phone needs to be the Client that is connected to the Hotspot. I’ve seen instructions conflating both methods, and I tried both. When the Phone is the Hotspot, performance is really bad. You can also modify ROS to connect to your normal WiFi Network without Hotspot and enable the AA Head Unit Server on your Phone to connect to the same network, but the performance is also really bad — plus you likely won’t be using this OAP head unit at home, but in your car.

The AA Wired Connection works well with a USB Hub connected to the RPi. I’ve been able to connect some of the external USB Devices to a small USB Hub that is connected to the RPi without issues, including the phone itself connected to the hub which also charges while the RPi is on.

For the best balance of Visual and Performance on my end, for both a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and a Moto G7, in the OAP settings for AA -> Video, I have set the Resolution to 720p, FPS to 60 and DPI to 200. This gave me a nice crisp, clean, high res look with really good touch and drag performance both Wirelessly and Wired. In fact Wireless performance is almost as good as the wired, with just a few hiccups every so often.
USB Hardware I can confirm worked for me with these instructions:

USB Microphone: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01KLRBHGM
USB Soundcard: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DBNFZJR/ (w/no Mic connected to Mic port).
USB Bluetooth: An unknown generic BT 4.0 brand I already had laying around for years.

Posted on Leave a comment

Shim dimensions

Here are some pictures of the shim dimensions. Hopefully this can help you verify if it will work with your craftsman saw.

Overall angled shim length

Angled Shim small width

Angled shim large width

Overall flat shim length

Flat shim width
Flat Shim Edge to Center of hole

Center to Center hole spacing

Posted on Leave a comment

Upgrade lightsail AWS Instance 16.04 LTS to 18.04 LTS

I followed this wonderful guide: https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/aws-lightsail-upgrade-ubuntu-16-04-lts-to-18-04-lts/

I rebooted without taking note of an sshd_config problem. Of course I was no longer able to ssh into the instance.

I reverted to an earlier snapshot

Started the process over again.

After the update finished and asked me to reboot I refused and then fixed my sshd_config file:

$ sudo sed -i ‘s/^Ciphers .*/Ciphers +aes256-cbc,aes192-cbc,aes128-cbc/’ /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Now I get:

Welcome to Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.15.0-1035-aws x86_64)

when I use ssh.

Which is great! I upgraded to Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and was able to head off a breaking change to SSH that happens with the upgrade.

Posted on 7 Comments

Helpful tips for replacing your shims on your BT3000

Here is a video I put together to help with replacing the shims.

The best advice I can give is to take the riving knife off, take the rails off altogether, turn over the assembly onto a towel or cardboard box, flip the saw over on it’s top onto some cardboard, remove the side panels, remove the back panel, dust cover, and then you should have enough access to the screws and guide holder. I would stay away from using power tools for the rest of the assembly. The screw heads seem to be softer than I would expect so be careful not to strip them.

For good measure pick up a couple spare: don’t ask me why I know!

8-32 X ¾” Pan head Machine screw.

10-24 x 1” Pan head Machine screw.

To avoid much frustration when it comes time to get the shims to stay put as you are assembling it I suggest using painter’s tape on the top tabs of each flat shim and both top and bottom for the angled shims. The material I have made the shims out of is, in my opinion, more resilient so you should not see the problem happen again where the shim will eventually drop out.

See the video for placing the shims frustration free. Tighten down the screws slowly, be patient. Once the bearing is seated all the way in the bracket you can then place the smaller screws into the black bearing holder plate with little frustration.

I highly suggest that you use some form of dust collection to keep the build up from wedging the shims. MDF is particularly a problem because of the quantity of fine dust that is generated.

Also, whenever I change the blade or take it out for cleaning I take the time to inspect the area to ensure that everything is working fine and that no build up is threatening the shims.

I think that the original shims are particularly damaged at the end of travel of the lift mechanism. Be careful when approaching these limits.

It would be great if you find something that helped you greatly I would love to hear about it.

If you got here directly and don’t know where to get the shims: I sell the shims on the right here on my website, both a full set and just the angled ones.

This procedure will also work for the Crafstman 315.228110

Posted on Leave a comment

Information regarding BT3000 Shims for reference

A good tear down video of a BT3100 which is very similar to the BT3000 except that it uses the thicker black shims.

I sell the shims on the right here on my website, both a full set and just the angled ones.

This picture shows the difference between new BT3100 shims on the left and old BT3000 shim on the right. They are not interchangeable. You can upgrade the saw to use the newer shims but you would have to find a replacement part for the guide holder (0181010110). I have heard there is mixed results with this approach.

Note: I have been asked if the flat shims are any different between the BT3000 and the BT3100. My conclusion is that they are the same based upon this reference page: https://mastertoolrepair.com/10-in-table-saw-parts-bt3100-p-802397.html
Flat shims for the BT3100 are listed as the same part number as the BT3000 and referenced as the shims for the BT3000.

Thanks,

Tim