Cutting the cord with Kodi (XBMC) & Leaf HD Antenna

Posted April 15, 2015 by Amy Kong

When I moved into my Pasadena apartment, I wanted to see if I could “cut the cord” and not pay for cable/satellite tv or any streaming services (Netflix, Hulu).

My solution: Kodi (XBMC) and a Leaf amplified HD antenna.

<nerdflex> I am evangelist for Kodi/XBMC (Open Source Home Theatre Software) and have installed it on all supported platforms: Windows, Linux, OSX, Android, Raspberry Pi, and iOS. I have plugins installed that allow me to pretty much stream Anime, TV Shows, and Movies for free. </nerdflex>

Check it out: http://kodi.tv/

Using the Leaf HD antenna, I was getting 40-50 channels over the air in my Pasadena apartment. The HD quality was on par, if not better than cable. This fulfilled my need to have access to local tv channels.

Hacking my Toyota Prius – Fun with OBDII

Posted April 14, 2015 by Amy Kong

Toyota did not intend for Prius owners to perform maintenance on their own vehicle. Without a tool that can send commands to the car’s ECU/computer, standard maintenance such as changing brakes, flushing the radiator, or changing the transmission fluid cannot be done properly. As I perform my own maintenance on my car, I became interested in OBDII (On Board Diagnostics) tools and researched the difference between dealer and consumer OBDII tools. Consumer OBDII tools such as the Scanguage2 and ELM327 can only pull diagnostic codes and read data from the ECU while Dealer tools can issue commands to the ECU and even reprogram the ECU. Definately dangerous if you have no idea what you’re doing 🙂

In the video, I’m toggling my on/off the power indicator light (see top left) using Toyota Techstream TIS (dealer/mechanic software), Drew Technologies Mongoose OBDII cable, Windows XP (32-bit) virtualized on my Mac.