Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wasatch!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!snjsn1!bilbo!greg From: greg@bilbo (Greg Wageman) Newsgroups: sci.electronics Subject: Re: Car electronics projects Message-ID: <1170@snjsn1.SJ.ATE.SLB.COM> Date: 19 Jul 89 17:58:36 GMT References: <768@xroads.UUCP> <20556@cup.portal.com> Sender: news@SJ.ATE.SLB.COM Reply-To: greg@sj.ate.slb.com (Greg Wageman) Distribution: na Organization: Schlumberger ATE, San Jose, CA Lines: 59 In article <20556@cup.portal.com> mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) writes: >How about a switch on the dashboard which turns on your brake lights when >being tailgated? Easy to install, because the standard switch is located >on the brake master cylinder, a few inches away from your foot. Actually, the standard switch is a plunger-type switch located below the pivot of the brake pedal. (The master cylinder is on the firewall in the engine compartment, slightly more than "a few inches" from your foot. The electrical connection you see on the proportioning valve near the master cylinder lights the brake warning light in the event of grossly uneven pressure in the two separate hydraulic systems.) The important thing is to make this a momentary switch, so you don't accidentally switch your brake lights on and leave them that way. >Just for laughs, you might want to put another switch in parallel with the >backup lights. Sometimes the switch for this is located in the mechanism >directly underneath your gearshift lever; on other cars it may be located >in the transmission. It is illegal in most jurisdictions to have white light shining rearwards while the car is moving forwards, no matter how appropriate it may sometimes seem. :-) Have you ever wished, like I have, that you had some paper and a marker to make signs to tell nearby drivers something too complex for simple signals (or to get through to dimwits)? Here's one answer I've thought about building: a scrolling LED character display (like those advertising displays in the woodgrain box you see in some stores) which takes voice input from the driver and displays messages out the rear window. The display would fit into the rear shelf, and face upwards. A piece of optically clear glass at a 45-degree angle reflects the messages out to the rear. (This is to avoid obstructing your rear view.) Of course, you'd need some computer hardware to do this, and the vocabulary would be limited, but you could preprogram some common phrases like "Dim your lights", "Back Off!", "Your Turn Signal Is On", "You Turkey (or other appropriate epithet)". The other approach would be to limit your voice recognizer to the 26 letters of the alphabet, space, and perhaps some punctuation, and then spell out your messages. A combination of the two approaches would be ideal. If anyone actually wants to build one of these, I want credit for the idea and royalties. 8-) Longish .signature follows. Skip now. Greg Wageman DOMAIN: greg@sj.ate.slb.com Schlumberger Technologies UUCP: ...!uunet!sjsca4!greg 1601 Technology Drive BIX: gwage San Jose, CA 95110-1397 CIS: 74016,352 (408) 437-5198 GEnie: G.WAGEMAN ------------------ "Live Free; Die Anyway." ------------------ Opinions expressed herein are solely the responsibility of the author.