(no subject)
Apr. 13th, 2008 11:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I love having a phone that's also 1/3 computer and 1/3 electric brain. It means that when I come across something I'm curious about, I can either look it up then and there or, if it's not exactly critical, make a note and look it up later.
Why, just today I learned:
-A VW Golf R32 monitors tyre pressures by comparing the rotational speeds of all 4 wheels via the ABS sensors. An underinflated tyre rotates faster due to its reduced operational radius, and the Golf's ABS computer looks for that.
-Fabio, the model, writer and ladies' fantasy novel pinup, was born in 1959, which makes him about 49 this year.
See! The interwotsit *is* useful. Unless you have a real job, in which case it's a timewaster. I consider my life enriched by the above revelations.
Why, just today I learned:
-A VW Golf R32 monitors tyre pressures by comparing the rotational speeds of all 4 wheels via the ABS sensors. An underinflated tyre rotates faster due to its reduced operational radius, and the Golf's ABS computer looks for that.
-Fabio, the model, writer and ladies' fantasy novel pinup, was born in 1959, which makes him about 49 this year.
See! The interwotsit *is* useful. Unless you have a real job, in which case it's a timewaster. I consider my life enriched by the above revelations.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 12:17 pm (UTC)I noticed that it has to be moving initially, but then I can still get a reading if I'm stopped at a traffic light.
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 02:44 pm (UTC)That's very clever. And it auto-calibrates too! A friend of ours who runs a repair shop was just complaining about the ridiculous procedure for setting high and low pressure thresholds on some General Motors SUVs.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 03:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 03:29 pm (UTC)Isn't that how all the cheaper tire pressure monitors work? That's the way the MINI did it. Once you've got an ABS computer sitting there counting wheel revolutions anyway, it's essentially free. Maybe a button, a light, and enough extra CPU power to handle it. I wonder what the algorithm looks like...
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Date: 2008-04-13 07:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 08:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-15 03:57 am (UTC)Direct-reading system are becoming law in the US, mainly as a fallout to all those Ford Explorer SUVs that were blowing apart their Firestone tires and rolling over. Rotation-delta systems were a stopgap until the real stuff gets migrated into the various models.