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[#] Wed Jul 28 2021 20:38:47 UTC from Nurb432

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My Eldo, if you pulled the radio, the engine would quit.  So if your radio gets stolen, to add insult to injury, you are now stranded. 

 

 



[#] Thu Jul 29 2021 04:11:11 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

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The fancy pants stuff is part of the problem. Everything goes through the entertainment unit. I'm pretty convinced there is a wire that isn't making a good connection - and it is probably the fiber optics - but the guy who is helping me install thinks I'm full of shit. We broke the "latch" on the clip that holds the fiber optics in - and he just crazy glued it there - but I suspect it has too much flex. Something is going on. 
Gonna have to pull the entire dash apart, pull it out, check all the wires, put it back in... We're getting quick at it. They've come a long way at making it more modular - but it is still fraught with complications. 

 

 

Wed Jul 28 2021 16:37:46 EDT from Nurb432

Fancy pants stuff...

 

The Fiero has power mirrors..   We dont even get power steering :)   ( it was coming in 1990.. )



 



[#] Mon Aug 02 2021 18:53:45 UTC from LoanShark

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2021-07-28 13:55 from ParanoidDelusions
So... this is related to cars *and* the IoT discussions - but I'll
put it here. 

...

Things are getting pretty ridiculous these days. You Kids, Get Off My Lawn.

So shortly after I bought my 2017 F30, I noticed somebody had cracked my headlight lens in the parking lot. I eventually got around to getting this fixed at the dealer. Apparently it's quite complicated just to fix a headlight lens. At a minimum, you have to replace the whole reflector assembly, and you're talking about disassembling the front fender, I guess. But if there's any water damage to the control module, you have to replace the control module. And this talks to some central control unit over the CAN bus, I guess. So it's basically a networked device, and you can't just plug a new one in, it also has to be coded in via ISTA+.

Mine is a 2017, so at least it has CarPlay natively, although not Android Auto. CarPlay worked fine for the first several months, but with this car it's only Wireless CarPlay, it doesn't support Carplay-over-USB. About a month ago I started getting random disconnects and reconnects, often triggered an attempt to start navigation on the phone (which is the whole reason to use CarPlay in the first place.) And the Bluetooth integration does not work reliably either.

Until last month I was using an iPhone SE, 1st generation. I've been noticing for a while now that it gets quite hot when it's navigating in Apple Maps. And remember how Apple deliberately reduces the CPU speed of older iPhones that have degraded battery capacity? Might explain the connection dropouts.

Upgrading to an iPhone 12 Mini seems to have solved the problem. My girlfriend's iPhone 12 had also been working fine.

[#] Mon Aug 02 2021 18:55:31 UTC from LoanShark

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that should have read, "often triggered BY an attempt"

[#] Mon Aug 02 2021 19:06:25 UTC from Nurb432

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Its going to be funny in a decade or two when the internet gets shut off and the upcoming generations wnt even know how to use a real map..    

 



[#] Mon Aug 02 2021 19:52:15 UTC from LoanShark

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at least you can't turn the map upside down on the nav system.

oh wait -- you can...

[#] Fri Aug 06 2021 23:15:50 UTC from Nurb432

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Engineer#1 : Lets use metric for this car.

 

Engineer#2: That's a great idea, easy for our repair guys to decide the tools they need.

 

Engineer#3: Lets stick in 3 random SAE sizes every so often, just to screw with them.

 

Engineer#1: LoL

 

Engineer #2: ya lets do it. LoL



[#] Sat Aug 07 2021 14:05:30 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

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The LDVS cable wasn't properly seated. The guy who put it in for me, he is great at car disassembly and all that - but not so good at hooking up molex style PC connectors. 


Seated it firmly, felt the connection slide in and grab - you know the feeling... and all those problems went away. 

The alarm is still going off randomly - but only when I am within range of the car *and* my BT and Wireless are on in the car and it is armed. If I disable radios on the car, the issue goes away. 

I think it has to do with the phone hopping between the signal from the car and wifi at the location I'm in. That is my best guess. 

Annoying. 

 



[#] Sun Aug 08 2021 15:04:14 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

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It's like you've got all of the complexity of a KITT but without any of the cool stuff.



[#] Tue Aug 10 2021 22:03:33 UTC from Nurb432

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Could go in a lot of rooms.. but i chose here :P

What a mess. I saw the signs long before it slowed and bailed off, went home thru town. 

http://www.therepublic.com/2021/08/10/all-lanes-of-i-65-closed-near-exit-76-due-to-low-hanging-power-line/

 



[#] Fri Aug 20 2021 13:26:10 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

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Heh. A few years ago we lost a data center in Pennsylvania because of something like that. One line drooped low enough to be snagged by a train, and on the very same day another line on a diverse route got chewed up by a squirrel.
It's the kind of thing you'd never expect to all have happen at the same time.

[#] Tue Aug 24 2021 23:15:40 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

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We lost a datacenter in India because a monkey got fried on the electrical wires going into the building. 

This is evidently a fairly frequent problem. 

 



[#] Tue Aug 24 2021 23:19:18 UTC from Nurb432

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LoL ( poor animal tho. )



[#] Wed Aug 25 2021 19:13:06 UTC from LoanShark

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They're gonna need a new monkey.

[#] Sun Sep 05 2021 20:44:41 UTC from Nurb432

Subject: First hybrid ( early 1900s )

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I know, youtube, sorry, but man this is interesting.   Not a fan of his humor, but as a car guy, lot of respect. This car is freaking amazing.  With less than perhaps 10 in existence, i dont think id be driving it around town like that..  Id be terrified. 

He also has the car i almost almost kill for,  a chrysler turbine..  i think less than 10 of those are left too. I dont think any of the 'converted' 1965 coronets are left. Only seen that referenced once in my life, in an old car turbine book.  Had a picture so it wasn't rumor.  ya, i'm a fan of turbines :)     

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYQ2PiX_Z9o



[#] Sun Sep 05 2021 23:55:18 UTC from Nurb432

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Seems that i lost a 'bow strap' on my jeep top. FInally ripped. Both have been fraying for years. Been too lazy to replace them. They are not critical, but the do keep the top 'tight' when up. ( and i guess keeps the wind noise down too. But its a jeep, its going to be noisy so i never really cared )

"time to order a couple new ones"  Head off to my normal jeep store..  even aftermarket is an average of 45 bucks a PIECE.  what... the...hell.. its just a 3' long 2" wide poly web-strap..   same stuff you get in a ratchet strap or a tow strap.  they are freaking insane.

 

Sure , they cut it to length and drill holes for you, but i can buy 30 feet of the stuff for 15 dollars.



[#] Wed Oct 06 2021 18:58:03 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

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I'll be replacing the valve cover gasket on my son's 2002 Camry this weekend.
First time for me doing a project like this. Wish me luck!

[#] Wed Oct 06 2021 20:22:29 UTC from Nurb432

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Just dont strip the bolts ( make sure the engine is cold.. ) and use a GOOD brand you will be fine.

Wed Oct 06 2021 02:58:03 PM EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

I'll be replacing the valve cover gasket on my son's 2002 Camry this weekend.
First time for me doing a project like this. Wish me luck!

 



[#] Fri Oct 08 2021 05:24:26 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

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So... this is my story of virtual hot rodding. 

As I said over in Microsoft Bashing> - I have a Xbox rig that includes a real drivers seat and a frame with a steering wheel, clutch/brake/gas pedal, and a manual transmission gear selector. I got it a couple of years ago - and instantly found driving *harder* than with the controller. Eventually I adapted to it - but it was always rougher driving with this setup than with a D-Pad. I was pretty disappointed. I had Forza Horizon - and research indicated a lot of people found it completely uncontrollable with the Logitech G920 (which Amazon tells me I bought in March 2020). 

Initially I went to the Forza web and tech support sites - where lots of people were complaining about this. Everyone was focused on steering - and it does manifest itself as steering. You get bumped, you start to lose control, you press the brakes and try to counter steer, and nothing works. The other cars recover perfectly, you end up out in a field. You go into a corner, trying to follow the line of the drivers in front of you, you see where they brake, you brake there, and you do not decelerate as fast as they do... and end up rear ending them, then you lose control. They recover fine. 

Forza basically said, "It is real world physics. This is the problem. Driving like this is difficult..." and then suggested a bunch of band-aids like assisted braking features and other "novice" mode features that made the car really do the driving while you just pointed it in the right direction. 

Eventually I learned how to use my physics and momentum to hit cars right, let THEM carry me around a tight corner, and be in the right gear to out accelerate them out of the corner. It was less satisfying and more arcade style - but I won. I learned to slow down well before corners when no one else was in front of me, and block aggressively... 

Then I got Forza 7... same problem. 

So, a couple of days ago I saw a video of a Redbull F1 racing a host of other cars in my recommended videos. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-J68QLStmo&t=169s

I started the video, I was doing something else - and I just kept glancing over at it... and it took me *several* laps before I realized this was CGI. At first I thought they had cardboard cutouts simulating the crowd because of Covid. 

So... anyhow... then I saw that it was a commercially available racing simulator... this guy must be playing on a high end 4k PC with high end graphic card - but it is also available on Xbox. 

So... Assetto Corsa - literally made by an Italian company that does racing *simulators* - is an older title, but it is *awesome* in authenticity. I haven't felt so convinced of a driving experience since Gran Tourismo 1 on the PS-1... the last driving game I was *really*... *really* into. 

But I was having the same problems... although being more of a simulator, I was able to overcome it by REALLY mashing the brakes into corners and letting off the gas WAY early when I knew a tight turn was coming up. 

So... after a couple of days of this - on the heads up display - I saw that it had a bar to show acceleration and braking strength... and after a few tests, I noticed that no matter HOW hard I mashed the peddle (so hard it was flexing the frame it is mounted on...) I was never hitting 100% braking... generally *far* less. 

So I looked up how to configure braking sensitivity. On the PC, this can be done, but on the Xbox - it is title by title, and lots of titles don't have this... especially older ones. But that led me to the root of the problem. Logitech puts a little piece of hard rubber-like compound between the brake mechanism and the actuator - to "make it feel more authentic - the way there is more resistance the harder you step on real brakes. Which... I kind of get. 

But all these titles - they just measure the play of the pedal... the stroke of it... and this thing effectively cuts off about a 1/4" of play on the travel of the pedal. So... everything is off a 1/4" in strength. So... it was *never* the steering... it was always that I wasn't braking as hard as I thought I was. I'd get bumped, I'd slam on the brakes, the machine thought I was giving it about 50% of the braking I *intended*. I'd come into a corner hot, wanting to brake LATE, mash the pedal - the system thought I was braking about 50% when I thought I was braking 100%... then trying to regain control was impossible because I was flying through a field at 100 MPH wondering why it was taking me so long to slow down. 

I had noticed this... but I had kind of bought into the "it is an accurate driving simulation," and I thought - "Maybe the physics really say it should take this many "game-feet" to come to a complete stop at full braking, and I just can't tell because it is a simulation - so maybe things look longer than they actually are in the game physics of spatial measurement." 

Nope. It felt like it was taking 3 times more distance to stop than it should, because it literally WAS taking 3 times more distance. 

So, the fix is to open up the pedal and remove the little piece of plastic. This is somewhat controversial as it allegedly changes the realism of the brake feel - but I don't get that. It feels far more accurate and my braking feels far more true-to-life now. 

But... Assetto Corsa is still MILES ahead of Forza. The tracks are awesome. I was a bunch of videos of tourist days at the Nürburgring Nordschleife - 

They've got it: https://www.assettocorsa.it/track/nordschleife/

Watching the videos - I got a hankering to race it on a game/simulator to learn the track - because one of my bucket list goals is to take German delivery of a Porsche or BMW - and if I do, if I can fit it in, I'd totally want to do a Nordschleife Touristenfahrten

 


You can watch one of the videos here...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWGurV4mdFc&t=301s

And they say the course is laser scanned and completely accurate. The hilarious thing is you'll see that over and over again, the film is of drivers losing it on particular corners. my first several times on this track. 

Now here is the hilarious thing... my first few times on this track, I inevitably lost control in the same manner, and instantly realized it was on the same corners I had been watching actual drivers making the exact same mistakes, over and over again. I was running wide, going in to hot, hitting the gravel, spinning, hitting the walls - just like in the videos - at the same exact locations. And I was realizing that there are weird decreasing radius turns, with elevation changes, and uneven road surfaces that unsettle your handling, going into those corners. And after several laps, I know what to expect, I know when a corner is deceptive and I have to brake harder, or earlier, or take a wider line... and I'm doing better times and most often, not crashing... 

It is an awesome simulator - and it isn't real a game. There are some game campaign elements - but you can just go out and drive a track, any track, in any car that is available. The cars are modeled on the genuine physical characteristics too... and while Forza makes the same claim - the M4 in Forza doesn't really feel like my actual M4 - but in Assetto Corsa - it sounds, steers, brakes and handles as faithful as you can expect from a gaming rig with a $300 steering controller. Actually - way better than you would expect from that. 

Yeah... I'm loving this - especially since I "modded" that brake pedal. Wish I had found out about this months ago. 




 



[#] Mon Oct 18 2021 18:38:32 UTC from LoanShark

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got the chance to drive a GT-R on track this Saturday for 4 laps (after riding in the back of a Hellcat on the same track for a warmup)

Turns out that my Gran Turismo skillset (not practiced in 15-20 years) does not exactly translate over, so my approach was pretty darn cautious. This was a small track, and I'm scared shitless of this car.

If I was going to really do this, I'd need a lot more practice laps, probably in my 330i which I'm more comfortable with.

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