Igloo 12V electric cooler arduino modification for the van

At the thrift store I found another one of these 12V Igloo electric coolers. They have a 35W Peltier cooler installed in them and can keep food and drinks nice and cold even on a warmer day. This particular unit I managed to score for only $7.00, which I thought was a good deal.After getting it home and plugging it into 12V, I discovered that it didn't work at all,

News for Wednesday, August 18th 2010

Albert got new shoes! I got some Michelin Agilis Tires to go with my smallcar wheels and it turned out great! The ride is much better and the response to wind gusts has certainly changed. It even turns better! We went to Rocky Mountain National Park over the weekend and up Trailridge Road. Albert climbed over 11,200 feet and didn't lag behind for a single bit of it. You definitely

News and Blog for Wednesday, July 28th 2010

Whats up everyone? I hope that everyone has been enjoying their summertime! Seriously if you haven't taken the time to stop and enjoy the outdoors PLEASE DOSO! So what have I been upto? Cleaning up and catching up on things that were neglected because of my devotion of time to Albert. I have had some time to enjoy the outdoors, I want squeeze in a camping trip sometime soon so

News and Blog for Monday, July 19th 2010

Hello everyone! Quite a bit has happened since I posted here last, so lets take it from the top. Albert has been doing great since the timing belt break. I have driven a few hundred more miles and things are sound, other than it's pig rich. It will be another couple of weeks before I am able to afford the needed Dyno time to finish sorting things out tuning wise.

News for Monday, July 5th 2010

I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday! The Van is pretty much finished, the bumpers are on their way and after that all that is really left is wheels & tires, and big brakes. Of course there is the digital cluster and stuff but those are all smaller projects that aren't required for me to have safe and reliable transportation. So it's buttoned up again, permanently. In the midst of

Blog for Wednesday, June 30th 2010

It's Alive!!! Still working away on the Van, I have been getting as much done as I can, minimizing my time on any other tasks like hanging out with the girlfriend.I just want this all finished up so I can get on with my summer, there are many hiking, camping, and other summertime experiences awaiting to be discovered and the last thing I want to be doing every day during

Blog for Thursday, June 24th 2010

Just wanted to you let you all know that I haven't disappeared. I have been devoting so much time to finishing the Van that I haven't had time to post all the pictures I have taken. (and there are a ton!) Give me about another week and then I will have lots of eyecandy for everyone to look at. The current Van project status is as follows: Paint - Just

News for Friday, June 11th 2010

Whats up everyone! PAINT IS HERE! Very nice, it came in $100 under the budget, its multistage and is Magnetic Gray, a 2009-2010 Toyota/Scion color and pictures don't do it any justice: I really didn't want to open the can, but I really really wanted to take a picture and at least give everyone an idea of what's in store: Here is the rest of the stuff: I took the

Blog for Monday, April 26th 2010

Major Progress is coming soon I promise! The weather has been up and down here lately which has left me slightly more time to work on the electronics end of things. What time I did get outside was spent assembling the intake manifold so it looked very nice. The intake manifold isn't 100% complete on the polishing process, it actually still needs to be clay-barred, but I just haven't had

Blog for Saturday, April 10th 2010

STILL WAITING! On parts actually, well the money to obtain them... With the amount I owe in taxes it had put a huge "dent" into the speed I am able to purchase the required parts to finish the Vanagon. Guess that is what happens when your ass-hole employer makes you fill out a 1099 form *argh* I don't want to tear down the engine until I am ready to send

News and Blog for Sunday, April 4th 2010

Got a little more done on the Vanagon, the work honestly has been slow going but still waiting for parts. Lets start with the one part I have managed to accumulate over the last week. One of the two required engine wiring harnesses for replacement. I ordered this one from the Subaru dealership and the second one I found for a better price and will be purchasing online. This harness

Blog Entry for Sunday, March 28th 2010

This weekend was very productive when it came to things not related to Albert :( First off, bulk trash day is nearing so I spent a few hours on Saturday after working OT so get everything I wanted out to the Curb. This turned into a complete cleaning of the "Parts Warehouse": Most of the stuff was left over SVX or really old G60 / 8v parts. After cleaning it

Blog for Thursday, March 18th 2010

It's been warm out so I have been busy! I have gotten more of the much needed body work / paint prep on the driver's side. This last week has shown some significant progress in the way of obtaining a reasonably flat surface to paint onto, among a few other things with the Van. We start by sanding into the paint used to protect the work from moisture, I noticed

Blog for Wednesday, March 10th 2010

Got some more stuff! Things have been a little slower moving around here because of work-related reasons and the nice weather we've been getting doesn't seem to want to align with the weekends I have off. Nevertheless, here is what I managed to get done... The postman brought me a package containing 2 hella boxes: The boxes actually contain my new smoked turn signal lights: I wasted no time on

Blog and news for Thursday, March 4th 2010

Progress is starting to pick up! South African lower grill and lights have arrived! This is a big turning point for me and this project, this completely changed the looks of the Van, actually I was quite in shock standing in front of it for the first time as looking at it in person is much different than any picture. I already had the HID ballasts on hand and just

Blog Entry for Wednesday, February 17th 2010

Got more done today! I pressure washed the JDM block and tore it down a little more. There were many wiring loom pieces, as well as random old leaves and a cigarette butt. I blew all of that out and gave the block a good look over for cracks: It was interesting studying the markings and comparing them to the other engine. Start of EG33 Failure analysis One thing I

Blog Entry for Thursday, February 11th, 2010

Not much in the way of progress. The garage is cleaned and the transmission and parts get dropped off tomorrow so everything can be sent out to be cryo treated. I have made some progress on my digital instrument cluster. Now that the final batch of LED matrices has arrived I can begin basic construction of the display components. I have had some problems with my PIC programmer so I

Blog for Friday, February 5th 2010

Finished the beginning of the transmission page for the EG33 swapped vanagon. (click on the image below) I have had some setbacks in programming my pic microcontrollers, but that's okay it's just the learning process. I think I have acquired the next server that I would like to host everything from and am still working on getting xeon parts. I will have a separate project page for that later on.

News and Blog for Monday February 1st, 2010

NEWS: - The DoogieLabs Vanagon page has been updated, JDM engine section has been added - The downloads section was officially moved over from Area51 - Added a poll BLOG: Disassembly of the JDM engine has commenced while I wait for my 3rd and 4th gears to come in from weddle industries. The engine has came apart smoothly without any apparent problems. I have noticed that the lower wiring harness

Blog Entry for Sunday, January 27th 2010

After 9,000 miles of trouble free driving I had my first problem! Actually, I was already aware of the issues with 3rd gear because just after I first put together the Van I was "locked out of 3rd" for a while but it eventually fixed itself and it held for 8,500 miles. There is a known defect related to 3rd gear in the 091/1 transmissions. I have been taking my