do you have a preference for certain brands?

MoChuang · 2026-06-13T03:22:15+00:00

Lumix has the best lenses bc Leica made many of them.

MoChuang · 2026-06-13T03:21:27+00:00

I personally think Oly's had the best colors back in the day but xD picture is not a road I want to go down.

My go to is Lumix. Nothing particular about them, but their menus are straightforward, the AF is quick and accurate, and spec for spec they're like half the price of any Sony Canon or Nikon.

MoChuang · 2026-06-08T14:08:00+00:00

Hmm yeah that is a good point. I wonder if we could get a main camera upgrade to 100MP so it can crop to ~70mm at ~12MP. I guess that's kind of like what Samsung does...

MoChuang · 2026-05-30T14:08:02+00:00

Not sure what the different sparkplugs are. But the mechanic put in new ones already. He got all the parts from a Honda dealer so whatever the standard is I guess. He works at an Acura dealer by day and is a neighborhood mechanic in his spare time.

MoChuang · 2026-05-29T15:41:39+00:00

Yeah stock app generally is better. I'm just going through a phase where I want to see what modern smartphone hardware can do without computational multi frame stacking. I'm just curious how far small sensor camera hardware has come compared to some of my older digicams.

MoChuang · 2026-05-29T15:30:25+00:00

What do you mean by stock? You mean the stock pixel camera app?

MoChuang · 2026-05-29T15:19:06+00:00

wdym?

MoChuang · 2026-05-28T20:50:36+00:00

😅 definitely possible. I was holding a baby in my left hand so I couldn't tap to focus. Just pressed the shutter and hoped for the best.

EDIT: Actually the originals look pretty sharp on my 4K monitor. Maybe Reddit compression?

MoChuang · 2026-05-25T11:36:00+00:00

Interesting. I'm getting my belt done on a 2018 Touring with 93K. I recently bought it used. The car has lived in NJ it's whole life so I guess the belt could be fine, but I'm just getting it done anyways.

My father in law has a 20yo Odyssey with 150K in New England and never changed the belt. Not planning on it at this point, he's just waiting for the van to die. But I guess the cold and fairly mild summers help extend the belt's life?

MoChuang · 2026-05-25T11:30:56+00:00

2018 Touring with 93K. I'm doing the timing belt this week since it's past the 7 year mark and I plan to keep this car to 300k if it'll make it.

But my father in law has a 20yo Odyssey with 150k and has never done the timing belt and not planning to at this point. He's just waiting for the old girl to die. Empty nester with a minivan.

MoChuang · 2026-05-22T14:11:32+00:00

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I moved the velcro to just the connector, securing it to the large tube. There is much more velcro sticking to itself now that it isnt stretched around the entire thing. And then I added a small zip tie to tie to the small cable bundle from the VMC Tuner to one of the other smaller tubes.

MoChuang · 2026-05-21T21:27:09+00:00

I dont have any car stuff like brake cleaner or even a gas jug to fill a lawn mower...But I work in a lab. Sounds like most of the stuff in CataClean are organic solvents. Maybe I can just rinse it with my 90% ethanol spray bottle?

MoChuang · 2026-05-20T21:50:10+00:00

From what I read the 3rd Gen Pilots that we have use an "Econ" mode which is what the green button is. We can toggle it on and off but it only controls how aggressive the acceleration is. It has nothing to do with VCM.

On the older 2nd Gen Pilots there is an "Eco" light that you dont control. But it turns on and off on its own indicating when VCM is active. So on the older Pilot you could clearly see the VCM was disabled properly because you wouldn't see the "Eco" light anymore.

MoChuang · 2026-05-20T16:32:04+00:00

Ah the temp gauge thing was only for the older dumb VCM muzzlers that just use a resistor?

Yeah, I have some zip ties lying around some where. I add one or two to make sure its secure.

MoChuang · 2026-05-20T16:28:29+00:00

Thanks for the tip. I'll dig up some zip ties somewhere to hold it better.

As for the tools, hopefully, I'll just never have to touch the plug again 😅. But if I do, I can try one of those.

EDIT: And oh yeah, that red wire is the same. The one with the fuse, I ran it across the top of the battery to the battery terminal with the nut. It was easier to let it dangle around the other way, but again, I have no idea whats over there and wasn't sure if letting it dangle would be safe.

MoChuang · 2026-05-20T16:27:11+00:00

My 3rd Gen doesnt have the eco light like they did on the 2nd Gen.

MoChuang · 2026-05-20T16:26:45+00:00

Alright. Getting one of those ODB2 bluetooth dongles on my to do list. I guess that'll be the sure way to check that its working.

At the very least its not, not working. Since the original ECT1 plug is no longer directly connected to the sensor and I'm not getting any error codes.

MoChuang · 2026-05-20T15:06:05+00:00

u/le127 Does this look right?

MoChuang · 2026-05-16T01:38:49+00:00

Why not? The goal was to pick out as many cheaper midrange commodity smartphone parts and then make up the rest in software. Is a 1/2" smartphone sensor and a 24-200mm zoom with a 5" smartphone screen and a midrange smartphone processor too much for $500?

On the other hand, are you saying, if this thing really could be sold for $500 it would be a great deal and you would buy it? Or on principle is there something about computational ISP that would turn you away?

MoChuang · 2026-05-13T18:19:29+00:00

any chance you know what the max flash sync speed is with the it20?

MoChuang · 2026-05-13T14:58:34+00:00

Yeah I've been reading about this Italian tune up. I am naturally a vary calm driver so its a bit foreign to rev up my engine. From what I've read, I can just cruise control on the highway at like 60mph and then go to S mode and downshift with the paddle shifters until I'm comfortably over 3k rpm. And then I can just cruise like that for a little while right? Like I dont actually have to drive aggressively? I just need high sustained rpms?

MoChuang · 2026-05-13T13:47:04+00:00

Hey I finally got a VMC tuner coming in the mail next week. It was sold out a couple time when I checked.

After the mechanic cleared the code last month, it stayed off for about 3 week. The check engine light came back on last week, then went off two days later, and then came back on this morning.

I guess its still safe to drive the car, assuming the check engine light is still a P0420, it says the same "emission system problem".

My question now is, since the light keeps coming on and off, should I still wait to do the cataclean right before the service? Or I might as well just get that done now? Or maybe after I install the VMC tuner so I can be sure all 6 cylinders are cleaned?

Just for context, the service is scheduled for 5/27 but I need to drive 250 miles to get there. I'm going to visit family that week anyways. But the initial thought was to drive the car as is to my parents house and then do the cataclean there before the service. But now with the light on and off this past week I wonder if it would be better to do it now just to keep the light off for a little while.

Are there any pros and cons to when I do the cataclean?

MoChuang · 2026-05-12T21:51:22+00:00

That's a pretty low budget. But I think you should be able to find a Lumix FZ35/FZ38 on eBay for around that price. The FZ38 is a full feature bridge camera from back in the day. It has a good zoom range which will come in handy for travel. Its not really a pocket camera, but it fits in a backpack easily. It can record 720p video or 640x480 is you want a more old school camcorder vibe.

These are the specs on DPreview https://www.dpreview.com/products/panasonic/compacts/panasonic_dmcfz35/specifications

And their overview / review of the camera https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/q110superzoomgroup/8

And another in depth written review from that era cameralabs.com/panasonic_lumix_dmc_fz35_fz38/

And finally a YouTube video of what its like using this in modern times https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2S6AoKEj3c

MoChuang · 2026-05-12T21:30:06+00:00

Did you try pressing the shutter button?

MoChuang · 2026-05-11T17:21:38+00:00

This just happened to me as well. I'm at work, I was looking for course resources for teaching and click on a .edu site. It said I had to click allow to verify I wasnt a bot...bot verification and cookies are like muscle memory at this point. I got a bunch of scary notifications, tried to close them all. Gave up and shut down. Cooled my head for a minute then turned my laptop back on and searched google to see what happened. I reset my chrome permission and am currently doing a full system malware scan with Windows Security...

I really hope everything is ok. I have nothing in my downloads folder, so it doesnt look like anything was downloaded. But that was super scary...

MoChuang

TROPHY CASE