I grew up as sports cars were just being introduced to
the U.S. There was a BMC (British Motor Cars) dealer in each
town of any size selling the MG, Sprite, Austin-Healy, Jaguar,
Rolls Royce, Bentley, Rover,or Moris Minor etc. You could
order a Morgan. With a last name of Clarke you can see that I have
a leaning to British iron.
Vehicle Types
I'm writing this after watching a
July 2008 TV show in Taiwan on Luxury items. In the show
they were confused about what the following types of items
mean. For example they classified a bicycle that can be
folded up into a small package as a luxury item when in fact it's
a utility item. Maybe they were confused about what
constitutes an elegant design. Elegant has to do with the
sparseness and/or visual aspects of a design and is different from
Luxury.
Vehicles (and other things) can be
categorized into Types based on their features.
Utility
Luxury
Performance
Economy
A Vehicle typically can be categorized in two or more of the above
categories. It's uncommon for a vehicle to be designed for
just one of them. But a pure type vehicle often is elegant
whereas a vehicle that has elements of all four types may be a
mis-mash design. Note that there is some purpose for the
vehicle that governs (restrains) the design. For example
utility trucks are designed for many different payloads and
driving environments.
Typically you need to sacrifice all the other types to optimize
the one you really want. For example a pure luxury car will
not be economical, will not be very utilitarian and it's
performance will not be as good a a sports car.
Reliability is a quality
measure that can be imposed on all the above vehicle types.
The first Rolls Royce cars were designed with Reliability as the
goal. Because they were reliable when entered into a race
they could finish where other cars broke down and did not
finish. Since Rolls Royce only built the chassis and a coach
builder did the carriage they typically were luxurious.
Electric Cars
I feel that electric vehicles are being sold with the idea that
electricity is "clean", i.e. there's no carbon footprint, which
is just not at all the case. The electricity needs to come
from somewhere. The existing electrical grid is designed
with excess capacity so that a generation plant can be throttled
up or down to match the current load. This is not
something that that solar PV or wind generators can do.
As every new electrical load, including car chargers, is
connected to the electrical grid the grid's capacity is
lowered. We are now to the point that there are brown and
black outs because the existing grid no longer has the head room
needed for stability.
The cause of this is the lack of new generation plants.
Ideally they would be nuclear if lowering carbon emissions is a
priority, but natural gas fired plants are much better than coal
fired plants. But as far as I can tell there are no new
electrical generating plants being built while we are switching
how energy is delivered to use more electricity than before.
Until there is a practical way to store energy at the grid
level we will need classical electrical generation plants (coal,
gas, nuclear) that can be throttled up and down for load
leveling.
While watching the YouTube: "Visiting Scholar
Charles Falco on: "The Art and Science of the Motorcycle"
I discovered why sports cars were developed in Europe while
American cars are more like boats.
The U.S. has many roads that go in a straight line for
hundreds of miles, but in Europe there are no straight roads.
If you drive in Europe you need something that is good at
making turns, not so much in the U.S.
Cycles, Motor, Bi and Tri
When in high school I rode a 3-speed bicycle. It
used what today is called an Internal
Gear Hub.
Later I got a 165cc Harley-Davidson Hummer motorcycle (Wiki).
Maybe a Super 10?
The dealer was near my uncle's house in Salinas, CA. The
dealer, Larry Ketzel, was riding a dirt
bike in the Nevada desert and was contaminated by an atomic
bomb test, according to my uncle. Around 1960 I crashed it
dislocating my right shoulder and probably damaging my lower back.
Also had a BSA 500cc Gold Star single cylinder dirt motorcycle (Wiki).
Aug 29, 2011 Motorcycle Show in Ukiah, CA H-D XR750 photos.
June 17, 2012
Car Show in Santa Rosa, CA
In Taiwan there are probably more motor scooters than people.
See: Three
Wheelers, Motorized Bicycles, Tilting Three Wheelers, 3 Wheel Recumbent
Electric Bikes, Bicycle
Science, Addmotor
M-360 Fat Tire eTrike
Expansion Chamber (Wiki,
Wiki))
- the Harley 2-stroke did not have an expansion chamber. A local
company, Factory Pipe,
here in Ukiah makes expansion chamber exhaust systems. 5785014
Expansion chamber for two-cycle engine, Gary
R. Cornwell, 1998-07-28, - an improvement on the prior art
2-stroke expansion chamber.
Light Weight Sports car
I ordered these (*) based on how much I liked them and it turns
out they are in weight order.
I expect the Mk II Sprite and Smart car have
questionable safety. So it looks like the Mazda MX-5 is at
the top of the list for a modern road worthy Light Weight Sports
car. Let
me know if you know of a contender. Genius
& Stupidity - The Mini Story, 30:44 - (Wiki: Mini),
1959 - 2000 a UK product, 1975 British Leyland bankrupt, 1994/1995
BMW takes over the Mini. U.S. sales stopped in 1968 because of
safety standards. The 427 Cobra that I ordered to be a
new 1967 model ended up being sold as a 1966 model because it did
not meet California safety and smog standards which set the pace
for the US.
Mk II Sprites (1961 - 1964)
I had a red 1962 Mk II Sprite (Wiki)
with the 948 cc engine that was my daily driver. Bought it
from San Jose BMC after the Palo Alto store salesmen would not
talk to me (they were very snobby). My brother liked this
car so he bought a green 1964 Mk II (Wiki)
and not long after that blew the engine or transmission (forget
the details). I sold my sprite to a friend and bought my
brother's car.
Repaired the damage and also made major racing type modifications
so that I could autocross on weekends. (Won some trophies) A
measure of the handling was that you could drive through a freeway
on/off ramp at double the posted speed without drifting. The
parts came from the San Francisco BMC dealer (Joe
Huffaker Sr.) who was racing a number of BMC (Wiki)
cars as well as building the Genie (RSC)
two seat sports racing car similar to the Lotus two seat sports
car.
The engine was brought up to Formula Ford specifications. I
could order parts from S.F. BMC in the morning and have them
shipped via Greyhound bus to the Mountain View station and pick
them up after work. Mag wheels with some positive offset to
increase the track (which required cutting a lot of notches inside
the wheel well lip and bending each tab up adding maybe 1/2"
clearance between the tire and body sheet metal. Larger
tires were fitted to the Mag wheels. A flange in front of
the muffler allowed removing it and adding a straight pipe for a
little more power and more sound. The anti-Sway bar from a
Simca (Wiki) was
added to the front to stiffen it up for better cornering.
All the Sprites had "Ouija board" (Wiki)
steering. By that I mean that you pretty much just thought
about where you want the car to go and magically that's where it
goes. The steering was very fast and light without any power
assist because the car was light. I would rank the 1964
Sprite, after the modifications, as the most fun car I've driven. The
Sprite Car Club of Australia Inc. - British Sprite Site
-
YouTube: The Tiny Sports Car that
Changed the World, 16:28: @8:10 Austin Healy
Bugeye Sprite w/948cc in-line four engine w/single SU carb, @9:30
Spridget, Trunk lid added and dual SU carbs, @11:25
1962 1098cc engine, like all the prior versions bolt on windows,
roadster, i.e. top in trunk when not in use along with windows. @11:50
1972 1275cc engine, 1974 1500 cc engine. @12:30
Mazda Miata MX-5 (Wiki)
designed to be a spridget in spirit. John
Sprinzel's Austin-Healey Sebring Sprite - maybe last updated
2016?
As described in the paragraph on the Mk II Sprites, the MX-5
was designed to be like a sprite, i.e. very fun to drive.
It turns out that a number of fun to drive car kits are based on
using an MX-5 as the donor car.
In the process of writing the computer program for
analyzing the performance of the 427
Cobra I learned how tires work. It's really simple,
but not easy to find. There is a "contact patch" on the
ground where the tire flattens. For example if you put
carbon paper under the tire and lowered it onto the ground then
lifted the tire up, you could measure the contact patch
area. If the tire pressure is multiplied by the patch area
you get the weight on that tire. Note that when air filled
tires came out they were called balloon tires, not because of
size, but rather because the sidewall has no weight carrying
function. It works in the same way a balloon would where the
pressure in the tire holds the weight, not anything about it's
construction. The Wiki
bicycle tire web page does not get this. They also
don't understand that inflation pressure times contact patch
equals the weight on that tire. So a skinny tire will need
higher inflation pressure for a given weight. This is why
European derailer bikes with skinny tires require more inflation
pressure than older American 3-speed bikes with fat tires.
Vehicles that are going to drive in mud, snow, sand &Etc. must
have low ground loading (= Tire pressure) so use "fat" tires or tracks.
You can see that the tire must be sized such that at the
inflation pressure there is enough contact patch to support the
weight. That's why tires that need to carry heavy loads
are big. In the case of trailer tires that need to be
small, they have high inflation pressures to make up for their
small size.
In the case of AA fuel dragsters and funny cars the tires start
out "under inflated" so the rolling radius is shorter than it
would be if the tire was inflated more. As the car (and
the tire) picks up speed the tire expands increasing its rolling
radius and therefore acting as a variable transmission. On
these very fast cars the effect is quite pronounced.
There are two fundamentally different tread designs.
Tires for motorcycles and bicycles that lean in turns must have
a tread that wraps around so that in a turn there's tread on the
ground. Early cars, for example those that used a parallel
wishbone suspension, also leaned in turns and so had tires
similar to a motorcycle. But more modern cars (427 Cobra) have
suspensions where the outside tire stays pretty square to the
road and so can make use of wide flat top treads.
The rolling resistance (Wiki)
of a tire is a measure of how easy it is to push it. It
turns out that the larger in diameter a tire is the lower it's
rolling resistance. You can get a feel for that by seeing
that when a small caster hits a piece of gravel it will stop,
but when a large diameter bicycle tire hits the same piece of
gravel it easily goes over it. This is because of the
mechanical advantage the the longer lever arm has. Where,
by lever arm, I mean the triangle formed by the center of the
contact patch, the length along the ground to between that
center and the gravel and the height of the gravel.
Coefficient of Friction of a tire (Wiki)
relates to how well a tire grips the road. Up into the
late 1960s it was thought that the limit was 1.0, that's to say
that a tire could only have a braking, cornering or acceleration
that was limited to the weight on the tire. Note that
crawler tractors can have a drawbar pull (Wiki)
that is far in excess of the tractor weight because there are
cleats on the tracks
that dig into the ground. The exceptions are things like
AA Fuel dragsters (Wiki) which
use very soft rubber tires that "cog" into the pavement and then
shear off the rubber. The thing that allows the short 1/4
times is the Coefficient of Friction (>>1) that in turn
allows acceleration higher than 1 G. A street car that was
an exception was a Corvette where each tire was different.
It could corner slightly above 1 G. (FastestLaps: 2005 C6
Corvette Z06, 1.06G)
One way to check tire inflation on a race car is to measure the
temperature of the tread (Wiki) at the
outside, center and inside of the tire. These should be
about the same. If the center temperature is significantly
higher than the inside and outside then the tire is over
inflated.
But for most cars the limit is the weight on the wheel (1
G). Tractor Pulling contests (Wiki)
measure the drawbar pulling capacity of various vehicles with
tires (not tracks).
The Contact Patch (Wiki)
area times the inflation pressure is nominally the load on that
wheel. But not exactly. See: Truck Tire Types and Road Contact
Pressures, by Pedro Yap (pdf),
June 1989 for subtle variations and why they occur.
2019 July 11, While watching this YouTube: Mike
on Bikes:Motorcycle Traction
EXPLAINED - says because of Tire Load Sensitivity (Wiki)
- tires with lighter loading have more traction. I have the
book "Formula 1 Technology" by the SAE on order.
Comments to the YouTube: Why Do Wider Tires Have
More Grip? Tire Load Sensitivity - mentioned the book
"Tune to Win" which also is on order. The presenter does
not understand balloon tire physics.. If the load
increases the contact patch area must increase!
A possible explanation for this contradiction is that
a contour plot of the pressure across the contact patch shows
some variation, i.e. the product of area and pressure needs to
be integrated over the patch area. This might happen if
the tread part of the tire was stiff while the sidewalls were
very flexible. An image might be a stiff cylinder (the
tread) supported by an internal toroidal balloon.
If this is the explanation then Tire Load Sensitivity may depend
on the construction of a specific tire and is not a universal
property of all tires.
My gut feel about "Tire Load
Sensitivity" is that there are special conditions that need to
be understood. That's to say I doubt it applies to all
tires under all conditions. For example the plot on the
Wiki page for Tire Load Sensitivity came from
Paradigm Shift Racing who's business is
teaching drivers. It's not clear where they got the curve or
under what conditions it applies. I have their book "The
Perfect Corner: A Driver's Step-By-Step Guide to Finding Their Own
Optimal Line Through the Physics of Racing" on order.
Tune to Win by Carroll
Smith, 1978 - no index, no references. I have the feeling
that the book relates actual racing experience. Says that
as the load increases the patch size does not increase.
This book assumes modern wide racing tires with suspension that
keeps them very close to square to the ground, not older
motorcycle type tires on cars with a lot of body lean and
parallel link suspensions. Anti
Dive and Anti Squat: pg 34. Toe-In and Bump Steer: pg 62
Formula 1 Technology, Peter Wright (SAE), 2001, ISBN:
0-7680-0234-6 - Chapter 7 Tires: Tire Load Sensitivity (pg
108). "The other characteristic of interest to the chassis
engineer is the sensitivity of the tires to vertical load
However, in practice the peak load increases from very low loads
and then falls again as the ratio of vertical load. There is
a limit to the loads that the tire will carry. This
characteristic is used by the chassis engineer to tune the
cornering capability of each end of the car, by using the
anti-roll bar to load up the outside tire on that axle and relieve
the load on the outside tire of the other axle."
Speed Rating
When buying tires for the 427 Cobra
where the top speed was around 155 MPH, the speed rating needed
to be equal or greater than that number. See Goodyear
speed ratings where W, Y or Z rated tires are
needed.
Trivia question: What part of a bicycle/car has not changed
since the late 1800s? answer: the Schrader Valve (Wiki).
The first patent by G. H. F. Schrader (473673Apr 26, 1892) was for a valve that
depended on the pressure differential between the
inflation side and the tire side, but this did not work well
(see below) . The next patent
added a spring to keep the valve closed and depends on the
inflation hose to have a prong to open the valve.
It turns out that these are a
potential source of air leaks. If you get new tires at
Costco they replace the valve steams as
policy. Note for tubeless tires the valve steam is part
of the wheel and may be as old as the car. When inner
tubes were common the valve steam got replaced whenever the
tube was replaced. So, in today's world the valve steams
(and maybe the valve body) should be replaced when the tires
are replaced.
483172
Valve for Pneumatic Tires, George
H. F. Schrader, son of August Schrader (Wiki),
Sep 27, 1892, 137/233; 137/550; 152/429
- uses spring. This also allows a tire to be deflated by
using the special cap in an inverted position.
Balloon Tire Gauge
2049532Pressure Gauge, Selden
T Williams, A
Schrader's Son Inc, Aug 4, 1936 73/709, 73/744 - there were many prior tire
pressure gauges by Schrader, maybe the most
popular. Has shirt pocket clip and deflating tip,
angled head for easy use.
838219
Nipple connection and valve-opener, William
S Stapley, Bridgeport
Brass Co, 1906-12-11, 137/231 -
free nut screws on spring loaded plunger depresses stem.847617Mode of attaching pump-tubes to bases, William
S Stapley, Bridgeport
Brass Co, 1907-03-19, 403/282; 220/628; 403/361; 220/615; 403/360; 403/375
- 855026Tire-pump, William
S Stapley, Bridgeport
Brass Co, 1907-05-28, 417/260; 417/262; 417/486 - dual folding wire bail
foot hold downs, top mounted outlet with pressure gauge,
double acting, side rod, coaxial dual cylinders 866080
Cartridge-clip, William
S Stapley, Bridgeport
Brass Co, 1907-09-17, - probably for the M1903
Springfield rifle (Wiki)
to hold .30-06 cartridges (Wiki
Thirty ought six) 882215
Tire-pump, William
S Stapley, Bridgeport
Brass Co, 1908-03-17, 417/254; 417/486; 417/487 - fixed base, bottom outlet, double acting, side rod 947513
Tire-pump, William
S Stapley, Bridgeport
Brass Co, 1910-01-25, 92/146; 285/215; 417/268 -double acting (twin
tubes), top outlet, threaded collor holds tubes to base, 959894
Tire-pump, William S Stapley, COE-Stapley Mfg Co, 1910-05-31, 417/254; 417/486 - double acting (twin
cylinder) 1047409
Pneumatic-tire pump-coupling, Reginald F Hersey, 1912-12-17,
285/356; 285/179; 285/358 - screws on then
lever depresses valve stem 1191510
Tire-pump, George I Hipple, 1916-07-18, 92/58.1; 92/118 - foot operated
parallelogram-piston 1340785
Tire-pump connection, Joseph
B Mcmullin, Western
Mfg, 1920-05-18, 285/34; 285/312; 285/322 - 1368871
Air-valve, Oscar
H Wisenant, 1921-02-15, 137/229; 251/77 - "It is particularly designed for blowing up
pneumatic tires and ging the pressure therein." 1846189
Inflating nipple, William
P Downs, Bridgeport
Brass Co, 1932-02-23, 137/231 - coupling at end of pump tube - poor
design 2075167
Pneumatic valve inside construction, Lewis
C Broecker, Bridgeport
Brass Co, 1937-03-30, 137/234.5; 251/356 - has narrow bar on threads
that's now common 2103108
Pneumatic valve, Lewis
C Broecker, Ferguson
John, Bridgeport
Brass Co, 1937-12-21, 137/234.5 -
stem has stamped winds that hold spring 2142044
Pneumatic valve insides construction, Lewis
C Broecker, Bridgeport
Brass Co, 1938-12-27, 137/234.5 - very similar to modern vale
except stem is in two parts. 2145218
Valve stem, Lewis
C Broecker, Bridgeport
Brass Co, 1939-01-24, 152/427; 138/89.3; 152/430; 152/DIG.7 -
rubber vulcanized at base of steam. 2228984
Pneumatic tire valve, Lewis
C Broecker, Bridgeport
Brass Co, 1941-01-14 137/231; 251/322; 137/234.5 - larger opening to
allow adding water like for tractor tires. 2240129
Valve, Lewis
C Broecker, Bridgeport
Brass Co,1941-04-29, 137/223; 152/DIG.7 - valve stem is above
threads so easy to get pressed, poor design 2459716
Tire pump connection, John
M Nickelsen, Henry
W Emerick, Monroe
Auto Equipment, (Brisk Blast) 1949-01-18, 137/223; 137/512.3; 251/149.4 - includes ball
check valve in coupling not pump body
Cites: 387064
Fire-extinguisher for railway-cars 838219
Nipple connection and valve-opener, William
S Stapley, Bridgeport
Brass Co, 1906-12-11, 137/231 - free nut
screws on spring loaded plunger depresses stem. 909373
Pressure-controlling valve for tire-pumps, John
Desmond, Artizan
Brass, 1909-01-12, 141/197; 137/557; 141/384; 417/311; 137/224.5;
184/105.2 - pressure regulator at foot of tire pump 1289451
Air Gage, Martin A Hougen, 1918-12-31, 137/227; 116/34R - has the look and feel of a
Schrader tublar 1364441
Inflating-coupling, Henry
P Kraft, 1921-01-04, 251/149.1 - does not
screw on, just press 1492838
Device for transmitting compressed air to automobile tires,
Lloyd W Dilweg, 1924-05-06, 152/415; 137/231; 141/38 - tire to tire 1503068
Inflating nozzle and tire gauge, Louis J Sladek, 1924-07-29, 137/227; 73/744; 73/732 - works with dial or
stick type 1846189
Inflating nipple, William
P Downs, Bridgeport
Brass Co, 1932-02-23, 137/231 - coupling at
end of pump tube - poor design 2189361
Dust screen valve mechanism - for use with air tools
Multi cylinder engine spark plug based. - these include
an intake valve to maximize the fresh air sucked in so that a
minimal amount of gas fumes go into tire.
Enginair by G.H. Meiser
& Co. 1888758
Attachment for an internal combustion engine, Charles
J Costello, 1932-11-22, 137/512.3; 137/516.11 - remove spark plug and
insert adapter to inflation hose. ball check valve at stem 2191968
Attachment for internal combustion engines, George
H Meiser, 1940-02-27, 137/512.3; 137/516.11; 137/855 - ". ball check
valve above spark plug. 2191969Attachment for internal combustion
engines, George
H Meiser, 1940-02-27, 37/512.3;
137/855 - 2191970Attachment for internal combustion
engines, George
H Meiser, 1940-02-27, 137/512.3;
137/855; 137/516.11 -
Peters And
Russell (PAR)
Peters And Russel (PAR) was taken over by Jabsco which seems to
be all related to marine/liquid pumps, not air pumps.
A question that came up on the PIC list was
what pressure on the input side would be required to open the
valve. A back of the envelope (BOTE) calculation by Denny
E. is as follows:
Assumption - sealing surface 0.10" diameter
Pi * r^2 = 0.00785 in^2 area
Assumption - spring force = 1 lb force.
Pressure = force /area
1/0.00785 = 127 psi
Keep in mind that's plus whatever pressure is on the other side of the valve - which is further complicated because the area the seal contacts contributes to the closing force area, but does not contribute to the opening force area.
A tachometer and speedometer is the same thing. The
difference is what it's connected to.
729694
Flexible shaft, John
K Stewart (alias for Terrance O-Brian), 1903-06-02,
464/117;
464/182 - rods with hinges, (Chicago Flexible
Shaft Co: Made
in Chicago Museum) used for horse and sheep shears.
765841 Speedometer, Joseph
W Jones, 1904-07-26, 73/534;
73/529; 116/62.1; 33/1R; 73/549 - operates like
fly-ball governor, side cable entrance
Jones worked for American Graphophone Co around 1900, but
it seems he became an inventor for hire shortly thereafter
since he has patents in a number of very different
areas. Most inventors work in one area. He may
have been influenced by T.A. Edison who got a lot of
publicity because of the large fortune he made on his patents
related to Stock Tickets.
The similarity to a fly-ball governor is apparent.
The tattle Tale (see: 925814 below) needle can be reset by
pushing knob (K).
Not sure what the black slot is just to the left of needle
piviot & "New Your..."?
D39319
Speedometer Casing, J.W. Jones, 1908-05-26, D10/98;
D10/70; D10/102 - D49965Speedometer
Casing, J.W. Jones,1916-11-28 908775
Attachment for speedometers (mounting bracket),
1909-01-05 1005845
Odometer, 1911-10-17, - 1040344
Combined clock and indicating device, 1912-10-08 1040345
Combined road-map and odometer (turn by turn),
1912-10-08 1205353
Travel-recorder, Jones
Speedometer, 1916-11-21 - circular plot of speed
v. time of day.
815240
Flexible shaft, Arthur
P Warner, Charles
H Warner, 1906-03-13, 464/119;
464/148; 464/182 - rods with hinges, not modern
spiral wound speedometer cable. (See: 427
Cobra Dash about left and right hand twist on
Speedometer cables.)
855676
Speedometer, John
K Stewart, 1907-06-04, 73/534;
73/549 -
operates like fly-ball governor (Wiki),
side cable entrance,
not assigned to anyone. Maybe Terrance O-Brian (aka: John
K Stewart) hiding something?
This called a chronometric tachometer because it
contains a clockwork mechanism that gets wound by the
input shaft. Note the dial reads RPM. It is
not a shaft
turn counter.
Instruments come in metric and Imperial, this one has a
"FEET" wheel rather than a "METER" wheel for linear
speeds.
The outer dial is marked (0) to 100 [black type] and the
small dial is marked 0 to 9.
The diameter of the "FEET" wheel is 1.175 so
circumference is 3.691" = 0.3076'.
So if the shaft was turning at 10 RPM and the "FEET"
wheel was used the inner dial would read 3 [red] for 3
ft/min.
So the "FEET" wheel should be 1.1459" dia, so that 3
Feet Per Minute lines up with 10 RPM.
On the small, thousands, dial 1 thousand RPM [black]
lines up with 3 thousand FPM [red].
Operation
Input shaft at 9:00.
Top button is start. Stop is automatic by
clockwork.
button at 10:00 is reset.
To access the mechanism three 1.6mm (-) screws need to
be removed. Then the bezel can be removed using a
spudger (Wiki).
But a special tool is needed to pull the two hands so I
did not go further.
Description
Type A - 0 to 10,000 RPM
Type B - 0 to 1,000 RPM
Six second integration time, so pointer updates once
each 6 seconds.
Input tips for: Centered shafts, uncentered shafts,
wheel for linear speed.
Consolidated Instrument Co. Circular Tachometers
1330120
Centrifugal tachometer, Joseph
W Jones, 1920-02-10, 73/498;
73/531; 235/95R -
1408598
Speedometer, Joseph
W Jones, 1922-03-07, 235/96;
73/490; 235/95R; 235/106; 235/144EA; 235/144DM; 235/97 -
1608872
Temperature compensation, Cyril
T Wallis, North
East Electric, 1926-11-30, 324/105;
336/233; 361/140; 310/97 -
for tachometer/speedometer and other things -
Pat No. on Model T (Wiki:
1908 - 1927) instrument.
Monel (Wiki) -
Nikel & Copper alloy
As the Monel metal shunt warms up it's permeability
decreased thus increasing the magnetic field.
The first generation wipers starting int he a890s, were
manually operated. Then came the "automatic" wiper, 1920 -
late 1950s, driven by a vacuum motor. The problem with
these was that when the engine is at idle the intake manifold
has maximum vacuum i.e. the wiper works well when the car is
stopped. But when going fast the vacuum is weak and the
wipers tended to stop working when you needed them the most. The
next generation used electric motors and maybe had 2 or 3
speeds.
The next improvement was the intermittent wiper starting in
1967.
Today we have rain sensing wipers that only work when there's
water on the windshield.
609787
Window-Cleaner, George J. Capewell, 1898-08-30 - half
circle for cable car.
743801
Window-cleaning device, Mary
Anderson (Wiki), 1903-11-10, - manual operation
1849327
Windshield cleaner motor valve action, Hueber
Henry, Trico
Prod, 1932-03-15, - reversing valve on vacuum motor
Patent numbers on Maxi-Vac 2642843
Air filter, 2693118
Crank assembly for windshield wiper motors, Fred A Krohm,
Productive Inventions, 1954-11-02, - 2696805
Fluid motor for wiper apparatus, 2698607
Windshield wiper fluid motor, 2697419
Fluid operated windshield wiper motor 2730078
Fluid motor for windshield wiper, 1956-01-10, -
3351836
Windshield wiper system with intermittent operation, Robert
W Kearns (Wiki,
Movie: Flash of Genius (IMDB)),
Tann
Co, 1967-11-07, - transistor delay circuit.
5780719
Windshield wiper rain sensor system, Scott
A. VanDam, 1998-07-14, - chosen because it cites
30 patents. there are many ways to sense when the
wiper should work and some are better than others.
Power & Energy
Power
One of the key specifications for a car is the engine horsepower (Wiki).
Note the word "power" is in the name. Picture a horse
lifting something like a bale of hay up from a carriage to the
loft of a barn. Lifting 550 pounds one foot in one second
requires one horsepower.
745.7 Watts is an electrical equivalent of 1 HP.
The amount of power a battery
delivers is measured in Watts (Wiki) and is the
Current times the Voltage across the load. Light bulbs (Wiki)
are rated in Watts.
The maximum amount of power a battery can deliver (P = V * I)
depends on how much current it can supply without pulling the
voltage down to the point where the power decreases. Modern
batteries have an advertised nominal voltage but the manufacturers
typically do not talk about peak current or internal
resistance. When the 1-1/2 Volt No. 6 Dry Cell battery was
common they were tested by using an ampere meter to measure Flash Amps.
A strong No. 6 battery might read 20 Amps. If the voltage
was 1 Volt that would be 20 Watts.
The current a battery can supply is determined by its internal
resistance (Wiki).
Typically secondary (Wiki: rechargeable)
batteries have lower internal resistance than primary (Wiki, non
rechargeable) batteries.
A common way of considering a battery is to think of it powering
something for a day. Twenty four hours rounds down to 20
Hours as the standard.
The current to charge (or discharge) a battery in 20 hours is
called the "C" rate. Where C is the capacity of the battery
in Amp Hours.
Early rechargeable batteries used chargers that worked at less
than 1 C. Today's batteries come in different flavors some
with lower "C" values are optimized to have more capacity (amp
hours) while other batteries are optimized to support higher "C"
rates. If a battery is made using very thin metal foil for
the electrodes there will be more space for the electrolyte, hence
it will have more Amp Hour capacity than the same battery case
where thicker metal foil is used. The thicker foil will
result in a lower resistance and a higher "C" rating.
The maximum discharge current is independent of the size or
capacity of the battery and has a lot to do with how it's
constructed. 2022-Jan-12 looking at the table of single Li-Ion
cells (BatterySpace.com)
shows the highest discharge rate for the Samsung INR18650-15M at
23 Amps while it has the lowest Ah capacity (1.5 AH) in the
table. The battery with the highest AH capacity, LG
INR18650MJ1 at 3.5 AH can only produce a 10 Amp discharge.
The 21700 size batteries have more capacity (up to 5 Ah) but lower
currents (up to 15 Amps).
For things like an impact wrench power is what's required to
tighten and remove nuts. Since power is Volts * Amps you can
double the power by using two battery packs connected either in
series or parallel. The connection really depends on what
the motor is designed to take. If a higher voltage battery
pack is made using the same battery cells as a lower voltage pack
then you will use more batteries in the higher voltage pack so it
will be able to produce more power. In the case of 18 Volt
v. 40 Volt packs the higher voltage pack will have twice the power
output of the lower voltage pack.
In the case of electric cars the battery pack voltage is in the
hundreds of volts.
Energy
Some common units for energy (Wiki) are
Joules (Wiki)
(same as Watt Seconds), Watt Hour (3600 Joules), (electric
meters measure kilo Watt Hours), Foot-pound (Wiki,
1.35 Joules).
Note the scalar Foot-pound is an energy measure whereas the
vector Foot-pound (Wiki)
is a torque measure.
The energy stored in a capacitor, measured in Watt Seconds
(same as Joules), is 0.5 * C(Farads) * V(Volts)2 This
is how photo flash units are
rated.
A common way to talk about battery capacity is in Amp Hour
ratings (Wiki).
This is an easy way to compare the run time of batteries with
similar chemistries and voltages. But a much better way is
to compare Watt Hours (Wiki)
since you are including the battery voltage. For example a
tool battery rated 4AH and 18V has about half the energy of a
battery rated 4AH and 40V.
There's a mystery relative to tool batteries like the Ryobi 18V
line. The standard and "High Performance" batteries are
rated for the same 18V and 4AH capacity, yet tests show the HP
battery performs better on Brushless tools than the standard
battery. Measurements show that both batteries have the
same internal resistance. So is this a marketing
trick? What's going on? Let me know.
It would be possible to design a battery to get good results on
the YouTube Torque
Test Channel by making a battery pack with very low
internal resistance at the expense of a small AH capacity.
Jake Braking
Enhanced Engine braking where the valve timing is modified
making the engine function as an air compressor. While the
patent covers both spark ignition and Diesel engines, it's
mainly used on Diesel trucks. 3220392
Vehicle engine braking and fuel control system, Clessie
L Cummins, 1965-11-30, -
I went to a talk by Pete Brock at the Candy Store (Carol Shelby
signed a photo of CSX3282 at a
different Candy Store talk) because he was involved in the design
of Cobra cars and in particular the Cobra Daytona Coupe. A
web search will find Pete in relation to Datsun, Pebble Beach and
a company in Southern California designing cars. He talked
some about his background and some Cobra stuff but then the really
good thing was about the new engine that he was building. As
he talked he pulled parts of the engine from a back pack and
showed them to us.
Automobiles and most motorcycles got off to a bad start because
government agencies taxed them based on the displacement of the
engine. I think this is still the case in Italy. In
many automotive racing classes the displacement of the engine is
a major factor. I know that the early Rolls Royce cars had names like
Silver Ghost, Phantom and also numeric model numbers like 20/25
or 40/50. This referred to the official Horse Power/Actual
Horse Power. The idea was you only paid taxes on 20 HP but
you got 25 HP. So car manufacturers and others have been
locked into the idea of getting the most horse power per cubic
inch. This is a mistake.
When you look at airplanes with piston engines the most
important factors are reliability and HP per pound of
weight. In the case of ships the important factor is HP
per pound of fuel burned (Wiki: BSFC).
In both of these cases the engines are lightly stressed. A
technical way of saying this is that they have low Brake Mean
Effective Pressure (Wiki: BMEP).
An engine with low BMEP does not turn at high RPM and does not
produce a lot of HP per cubic inch of displacement. Harley
Davidson and BMW motorcycles have this type of engine
today. The very high performance motor cycles from Japan
are an example of a high BMEP engine, very high red line for
RPM, very high HP/Cubic inch.
Pete showed us the valve from a Ford 5.0 L V8 engine. It
looked like most automotive valves. The thing is that at
5,000 RPM it takes 30+ (as far as I remember) HP to run the
valve train. That is because there needs to be valve
springs strong enough to close the valve and the engine needs to
compress these along with moving the mass of the rest of the
valve train. He showed us the valve from his engine, it
looked like a #2 pencil lead with a quarter on the end.
Very much lighter that the Ford valve. The spring looked a
lot like what is used in a ball point pen!. You could
easily see that Pete's engine will not need a lot of power to
run the valve train.
His engine is a V2 design with a capability of stacking to get
a V4, V6, V8, etc. There is a single size hex head bolt
used for all fasteners. A special Allen wrench with a long
handle that acts as a torque limiter is the single tool needed
to take apart and assemble the engine. If more strength is
needed then he used more of the same size bolts instead of a
larger size. Anyone who can work on a bicycle can work on
this engine.
If the Ford V8 engine is removed from it's car and a V8 version
of Pete's engine installed, the performance will be comparable
because of the lighter weight of Pete's engine.
Pursuing this project cost Pete a lot and it was dormant for a
number of years. I talked to him a few days ago (Oct. 98)
and it looks like the project may come alive again.
There are better ways to design cars and trucks if you can get
rid of the old ideas. Pete has some great ideas about
utility vehicles for underdeveloped countries. These would
be easy to make and very practical to operate and fix. One
idea is to have all the wheels be non-steering and use
differential engine control for steering, like on the Bob-Cat front loaders.
9103277 (Google,
USPTO
w/images) Moment-cancelling
4-stroke engine (MC4S), Daniel
Sexton Gurney, Aug 11, 2015 -
"Importantly, it should be noted that the peak BMEP for the MC4S
system is more than 100% greater than most normally aspirated
engines. This unexpected result points to a very powerful engine
resulting from the improved air supply."
Interesting that this engine has a high peak BMEP yet also has
good fuel
efficiency. But that's been my experience, i.e. if
you drive with a light foot you get good gas mileage, but with a
heavy foot you burn a lot of gas in exchange for high
performance. This engine has a sharp peak at 8,000 RPM and
so will need a lot of gear selections or some type of variable
transmission in order to stay at the peak.
I've just been reading your MC4S patent and it reminded me of a
lecture given by Pete Brock at the Candy Store in Burlingame,
California (a former car dealership, now a home for collector
cars). It was about his V-twin Low BMEP engine. I
think he said he had a patented connecting rod.
Do you know what happened to that engine or where I might find
more information about it?
As part of the introduction of Peter Brock at the Candy Store
some of his background slides were shown including the Daytona
Coupe.
In one the two Netflix movies about LeMans, Ford and
Ferrarri., "Shelby American" & "The 24 Hour War",a patent
was mentioned that was a key part of the Daytona Coupe
design. This made the car controversial inside the
Shelby group, but they built a car aimed at the upcoming
Daytona race. Also see the 427 Cobra chassis: CSX3282
To be fair the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO (Wiki)
has a very similar tail shape.
I got this car used in the mid nineteen seventies.
Used it cost about what a new top of the line Mercedes would have
cost then. I had this car over 20 years. It turns out
(in my humble opinion) that the Rolls Royce V-8 engine has a fatal
flaw. It is made from aluminum with steel cylinder
liners. The thickness of the block walls between cylinders
is on the order of 1/8". If the engine ever over heats the
stress can cause the Al block to crack. The engine is very
likely to overheat because the o-rings that seal the liner to
block joint are a rubber derivative and bio-degrade. Also
there are numerous water hoses that are made from rubber.
The water pump is designed so that a thin rubber part is both
sealing the pump and holding the frictional torque of the rotating
seal. When the block cracks a new block is called for since
the Al has been impregnated with plastic that makes welding
impossible. Needless to say, that a new block costs a lot of
money. (2009 - IDEA - use J-B Weld epoxy to patch the cracks after
grinding with Moto-Tool.)
Intrigue Photo This is my current everyday car. It has
very good handling (I drive in hills every day and going to San
Francisco at freeway speeds in hilly country is easy). This
is pretty much a 4-door version of the Pontiac Trans Am (Wiki).
My Intrigue and all cars sold in the U.S. beginning with the 1996
year models have an On Board Diagnostic system called OBD II.. On my
car the connector falls to your right hand if you are the driver
and feel at the lower edge of the instrument panel below the
steering wheel. The OBD II web page
by B&B Electronics has information on what data can be
read by their AT1 GM data link. The AT2 data link for Ford
is available, and the AT3 for Chrysler cars is coming.
Things like MPH, RPM, and a lot of emissions control information
is available. This is used by the technicians at the
dealership to diagnose what caused the "check engine" light to
come on. Some road tests: Edmunds,
Wheels, , Press
Release, Auto
Extra. I checked the NHTSA
defects - recall page to see if there were any, none found.
ELM Electronics -
sells an 8 pin PIC
microcontroller that can be used to build you own OBD II interface
PS there are many OBD II readers on eBay now (2018) with
BlueTooth, WiFi or USB interfaces.
Also see above.
This van has the ability to hold a few sheets of 4' x 8'
plywood flat on the floor with the rear door closed. This is
possible because the second row seats can be completely removed in
a matter of seconds and the third row seats fold down flush into
the floor (the front seats have a notch on the back near the
floor). It will also hold 10 foot 2x4s along the center line with
the back door closed.
It also has the optional Satellite Navigation system. The
main electronics package is about the size of a VCR and is
located under the passenger seat. It contains a CONUS data
base on a DVD disk. The GPS receiver is aided by a gyroscope
(might be a misnomer, magnetic compass might be more correct?)
and speedometer input. When stopped the direction of
travel stays correct. The dash panel color touch screen
LCD display needed the space used by the manual AC
controls. There is a button beside the display that brings
up a virtual AC control panel. This system has been
customized by Honda for this application.
In addition of a map display there is a mode that will guide
you to your destination, similar to the "never lost" system
that's optional in Hertz
rental cars.
US05808566
09/15/1998 Electronic navigation system and method US05893113
04/06/1999 Update transactions and method and programming for
use thereof for incrementally updating a geographic database US5953722
09/14/1999 Method and system for forming and using geographic
data US5951620
09/14/1999 System and method for distributing information for
storage media US05974419
10/26/1999 Parcelization of geographic data for storage and use
in a navigation application US05968109
10/19/1999 System and method for use and storage of geographic
data on physical media
Pacific Audio &
Alarm - Multimedia
Control Timer - to allow watching DVD videos on Alpine
CVA-1005.
Will this work on the Honda version? probably not because the
Alpine hardware may be different.
I have gotten the latest DVD direct from Honda's
web page (Order Nav System DVDs in drop down box) but have
not really checked it out yet. One thing I have noticed is
that the recommended path from my house to the SF Bay Area has
changed. I used to take 101 South, cross the Richmond
Bridge, 880 South and 237 West. Now it says to take the
Richmond Bridge then the Bay Bridge back to 101, the two bridges
are to avoid going through San Francisco where there is no
through freeway after the Freeways fell (Wiki)
in the Loma Prieta Earthquake (Wiki).
There is also a built in wireless remote that can be programmed
for conventional and rolling code garage door openers, and other
features.
It uses the Homelink
protocol.
It's been to the dealer for routine maintenance a few times and
the bill is always $49.95 and they only did the routine stuff.
2003 Mercedes Benz C230 Kompressor
8 June 2023
Smothers MB service of Santa Rosa will NOT work on
cars older than 2008 models. I expect they are
maximizing profits.
Bought this new from the Santa Rosa MB
dealer. It was a demo car and we got it for a fantastic
discount.
June 2012 - Just starting to drive it. As of 2024 still my
daily driver.
Key Fobs
The Wiki page for Car Key
says "Mercedes-Benz uses a key that, rather than have a
cut metal piece to start the car, uses an
encoded infrared beam that communicates with the
car's computer. If the codes match, the car can be started.
These keys can be expensive to replace if lost and can cost up
to US $400." I think that's wrong since the key
works to turn on/off the ignition when there are no
batteries in it, so no power for the LED. It turns
out that the ignition key function works without batteries
because of a 125 kHz power signal from the car.
The key fob has a number of features.
Door Lock/Unlock
This along with the PANIC button and trunk unlock is
accomplished using a Remote keyless system (Wiki)
which in North America works at 315 Mhz.
In addition the IRLED at the tip of the fob is also
activated when any of the buttons are pressed. This
can be confirmed using a cell phone camera. So both
the RF and IR modes are used for Lock/Unlock.
Note that a small red LED at the upper left of the LOCK
button blinks when any of the buttons are pressed to
indicate a good battery.
Key & Immobilizer
The plastic key fob acts like a key even though it has no
mechanical keying features. The IR LED
communicates with the car's computer to unlock the car.
RFID is
being used in place of the mechanical ignition key.
When the fob is inserted in the ignition the IR LED in the
end of the fob works like an immobilizer (Wiki).
Here is a still photo taken from the repair video
that shows the RFID LF antenna coil.
My best guess as to what's in this
photo:
The white rectangle at the far right is an IR device.
The coil is part of the RFID system that charges the
yellow capacitor marked 476. The ceramic cap
just to the left of the coil causes it to resonate at
the drive frequency (130 kHz or 13.56 MHz).
The RFID read back (key function) is based on using IR
via fiber optic cable to armored box.
Button side.
The RF antenna may be the wide trace at the very left
edge.
RFID coil side.
Maybe called the TA12 3-button MB key fob?
The large gold rectangle may be a ground coupling to
the person holding the key.
Mechanical Key
There is a mechanical key inside the key fob that can be used
to open the doors. There is no way to use the mechanical
key to start the car. This is consistent with the
immobilizer (Wiki)
concept that prevents someone from hot wiring the car.
Note hot wiring is equivalent to turning the mechanical
key. This also means that if you cannot get a
replacement key fob your car becomes worthless.
It turns out the new key fob is not compatible with my old
mechanical key so a new mechanical key needs to be cut to go
with it.
Replacing Key Fob Batteries
Note
If battery fails the Lock/Unlock
function will not work.
BUT . . . the key will still work
the ignition switch.
Use the Red LED on the button side to
see if the battery is good.
To replace the key fob batteries:
Get two each CR2025 3 Volt coin cell batteries.
Using CR2032 batteries will NOT work, they are too
thick.
Remove the mechanical key by sliding the gray button.
Use the mechanical key to press the gray plastic latch
(see photo)
Slide out the top (positive side showing, see photo)
battery.
Note the other side looks similar but there you will
not see the (+) symbol.
Slide out the bottom battery through the top side.
Install the two CR2025 batteries (+) side up (see
photo).
Note: by attaching a store customer ID tag to the key,
if it's lost I might find it at the store because
someone
turned it in. This solves the problem of putting
your
address or phone number on the keys.
Note2: The fob was not locking the car, but it
was working
for starting and driving. The batteries tested
low, but in the
green. If I would have waited longer the key may
not have
worked to start the car.
Key Fob does not
lock/unlock
At first this looked like a dead battery issue, but the
batteries test good (ZTS MBT-1).
My spare key fob did not work, but the batteries tested dead,
moved good batteries from other fob.
Note when LOCK or UNLOCK is pressed and held down a red LED
blinks once which would seem to indicate good batteries.
Also when the small end of the fob is pointed at a cell phone
(front is more convenient) camera you can see the IR LED light
up.
The spare fob is now working, so the every day fob needs to be
replaced.
Note this old fob does allow starting the engine and driving
the car so still is a valuable thing to keep. Note that
there are no batteries in the fob, yet it still allows
starting and driving.
Patents
Topics are: Ignition lock/unlock, steering wheel
lock/unlock, doors & trunk lock/unlock. (maybe windows
up with 10 second lock press?)
Cites: DE2926304A1
Security lock and theft alarm for motor vehicle - has
electronic transmitter and receiver linked by
non-electrical circuit, Alfred Foerschner, Rolf
Kruegener, Hermann Werner Kurth, Theodor
Reinhard, Daimler Benz, 1981-01-29, - uses IR
fiber optic cable between key and armored box.
At first I thought this would be a resonant circuit at one
of the standard RFID frequencies (Wiki).
But it turns out to just be a coil with about 54 turns and
an LED.
eBay title: "Fast Tester Key Lock Coil Check EZS Checker
Immobiliser For Mercedes for BMW" - under $10 including
shipping.
Fig 1 There are more coil turns on the
back side.
27 turns on this side.
Fig 2 The LED turns on as soon
as the key is inserted.
Note key in off position
When the technician came by to synchronize the new
replacement key he found that my old mechanical key would
not fit into the new fob.
It turns out there are at least two styles of 4 button
(Panic, Lock, Unlock & Trunk) fob. The solution
was to have a new mechanical key cut for about $35.
My existing key has a number engraved on the left side near
the tip: 221 4045. This may be style 4B?
Fig 9 It turns out that I was using
the valet key instead of the owner's key for a
couple of decades. Note that the left valet
key fob case has 3 buttons, panic, lock &
unlock. The location where the trunk unlock
button should is hard plastic. BUT . . .
the PCB does have 4 buttons. The owner's key
(to the right of the valet key) does show the trunk
unlock icon. The new factory replacement key
only has 3-buttons, omitting the trunk unlock
function, which is correct since I asked for a
replacement of the key I was using, not knowing at
that time I had asked for a replacement valet key.
PS Dealer's often put the valet key in the pouch
with the owner's manual. It should be taken
from there and put somewhere other than in the car
to lower car theft rates.
Fig 1 Original Fob
Inside Fig 1 Factory & Replacement
Factory has pin on key, replacement has notch
315 MHz (confirmed by Spectrum Analyzer
frequency plot above: Door Lock/Unlock)
Siemens
5WK4 7282
5WK4 7283
FCC ID: IYZ 3312
CAN 2701 103 2302
Made in Germany
Inside Fig 2 PCB extraction tools
Large paper clip, small flat blade screwdriver
Above is information on how to remove the PCB from
the fob. This paragraph is about the PCB.
Inside Fig 5 Relationship between
batteries
and PCB.
Inside Fig 6 Batteries & PCB
Inside Fig 7 Battery side of PCB
Inside Fig 8 Microcontroller side of
PCB
Note 4 buttons, but shell only supports 3 buttons.
The other factory key supports 4 buttons, but not
sure if it unlocks the trunk.
Inside Fig 9 Note left PCB has 4
buttons, but fob only
has 3 functions, i.e. valet key does not open trunk.
Cell Phone
2023 May: Update. There is
some variability in how well a cell phone connects to the car's
Blu-tooth. My current LG G6 used to be very good at
connecting, but for the past couple of months it takes a power
cycle to get it to connect. Why? Let me know.
Note: The factory cell phone setup back in 2003 was to have a
Motorola V60 analog cell phone (Wiki)
hardwired to the car for control and for an external
antenna. But today (2013) Motorola no longer makes cell
phones with a provision for an external antenna and the remote
control needed for answering and making calls is handled on a
wireless Bluetooth link. So the upgrade path is to install
the Phone Support Electronics (PSE) module into the D2B (fiber
optic) loop and use a short RJ-45 cable to the Motorola Bluetooth
dongle in the top (shallow) center console compartment. No
RF coax parts are involved in the upgrade.
After removing 3 No. 2 Philips screws from
the bottom of the top compartment and closing it,
then opening the small top compartment,
the false bottom of the top compartment can be lifted and
flipped over.
You can see the coax antenna cable and RJ-45 socket.
On the right side of the center console near gear shift.
FO Cables:
Radio In
CD Out -> Radio In
SBS In (not connected)
Radio Out -> CD In
Tel-Out -> Tel-In
right rear quarter panel cell phone cabling
There are two Fiber Optic (FO) D2B cables:
1) Has two FO strands going into a single connector
AMP-PN: 2-0958843-1
Datum 26002 4C
2) is a single strand and connector.
Trunk Right Rear Panel Snap
Trunk
Forward Cover Plate
Plate Open (Torx T40
bit)
The green rectangular cap at the left is the other end
of the pair of fiber optic cables.
Right Panel open in Trunk
There are 3 D2B cables coming from the pocket at the
right.
One of these continues forward and the other branches
to the Voice Control Module (VCM).
There are 2 D2B cables coming from the left VCM and
one goes to the pocket at the right and the other goes
forward.
Need to use a flashlight to figure which is which.
Bluetooth Kit for C230
Components:
Front SAM module location
Under 2 plastic covers.
PSE module installed in right rear trunk
Note: only DB-25 and dual D2B (fiber optic)
connections. No coax RF needed for Bluetooth.
The Y-cable (with the unused green connector) is not in
this photo, but is installed just above the PSE box.
"Blue Label" PSE
module Q682-0855/SYN 0697A & bracket Q 682 0655
PSE Y-cable (harness) (green plug not used) Q682-0468
V60 Adapter with Bluetooth (bar code): 5641307Z01, B 67 87
5856, 15804024, 05.03.08, (bar code): *M0TU10L,JE*
Dongle to RJ-45 cable (cradle eliminator cable)
Mounting hardware
Front SAM Module
Front SAM module with F44 (7.5A installed)
Rear SAM Module, First Aid Kit, Owner's
Manual
Rear SAM module F13 (5A) and F16 (7.5A)
installed
Console Mounted Bluetooth Dongle
Note: The blue LED is on solid but the Motorola
Electrify 2 cell phone is in standby mode. The only
time you need to touch the cell phone is to unlock it for
an incoming call.
Radio after pressing TEL and [Up] a few
times
Just after pressing TEL the display allows entering a
phone number
and the left soft key is for SEND. Once the call
starts
the right soft key is for END.
Note the MB cell system downloads the directory from the
cell phone after the key is turned on.
Cruise Control stalk with odometer RESET
button in background. Note the style of the stalk
(late 2003) for matching the Voice Control stalk.
Note:
If others are riding in the car they can enable their
Bluetooth and sync to the car by entering the PIN number
for the Motorola Dongle. But probably only one cell
phone at a time since their directory will be loaded into
the car's directory.
The order of the fiber optic loop is important. This will be
used for Bluetooth control of my Motorola Electrify 2 cell phone.
If a component is missing then it's removed from the list but the
order of connected components must be maintained.
It should be:
Radio (D2B (Domestic Digital Bus, so
really should be D2B) (Master)
<installed>
Component No. 2 (Voice Control) (SBS) <not installed>
- not sure what it's capabilities are
Component No. 3 (Phone) <PSE module to be installed in
trunk> - this is what I'm adding.
Component No. 4 (Tele Aid - COMMAND) <not installed> -
not clear what it does
Component No. 5 (CD Changer) - car came with the 6 CD
changer installed in glove box-
Back to Radio (Master) <installed>
6085078
Vehicular audio system incorporating detachable cellular
telephone, VOSI
Technologies, 2000-07-04, - maybe the first use of Bluetooth
to couple phone and car.
Voice Recognition Kit
The problem is the control stalk. It needs to be pulled
back to activate the microphone and voice recognition system, or
pushed forward to cancel. These are only available when
ordered with the switch assembly and cost a small fortune.
The stalk can NOT be purchased as a stand alone part!
Ordered 16 Jan 2013 -
2003 Mercedes-Benz Voice Recognition Kit
for C230
Label:
A 203 820 08 85
SN - Nr. 127919
TEMIC 01000131 D3
(Bar Code)
2QPB 00LFPF D3
HW2103 SW4401 09.09.03
Connections:
DB-15
Dual D2B (fiber optic)
Motorola p/n:
5585978K06
DC p/n:
A 000 545 08 44
MB USA p/n:
Q 682 0820
number of back of this stalk:
(MB) A 000 545 08 44
Although this voice
control stalk has the correct appearance for a late 2003
C230 coupe, it does not have the correct end to mate with
the socket on the right of the steering column.
The black plug that was removed from the column socket is
about 0.221" (5.61mm) O.D. and that's close to the O.D. of
the stalk the tip on this stalk does not have the notch
that the correct stalk has. So this stalk needs to
be modified.
The correct PTT Lever may be Q 682 0837
The OD of a 1/4" brass rod was ground down
to 0.240"
which allows a snug fit into the steering column socket
for the voice PTT switch stalk.
A slot approximately 0.030" wide was cut into the end
to clear the pin at the bottom of the socket.
Then the edges were filed away so that the rod can be
turned about 22.5 deg CCW.
Then a recess was added allowing the rod to be locked
in place by the spring pushing it back against the pin.
The small and medium diameter parts of the stalk have been
cut off (Mini Cutoff Saw).
The OD of the exposed brass was ground down to about 0.24"
dia.
using a Drill Press.
A couple of holes 0.0625" diameter were drilled using the
Spin Indexing Jig
about 22 deg apart. The drill bit was used as a mill
to connect the holes.
PS something went wrong and this did not work)
The 1/4" brass rod has been working no problem....
until October 2021 when the fingers broke.
I have a length of 6mm steel rod to make another stalk.
Note the label is facing down and the box is held by
clips.
27 Jan 2013 - Installed the box and changed a D2B cable in the
right rear of the trunk and another D2B cable in the passenger
side console. Now the fiber optic loop is:
Radio -> Voice Control -> Phone -> CD Changer ->
Radio.
Note: If the radio or CD are playing and the loop in opened the
sound will stop. It restarts a couple of seconds after the
loop is reestablished.
Note: The voice control PTT stalk is a momentary switch,
i.e. you pull it back and release. Then the radio beeps
and it's ready to accept a command.
If
there is sound (radio, CD, Tape, etc.) then the voice control is
not listening, so you need to pull back again for a new
command. I.e. when a command finishes the voice control is
turned off.
Pressing the
PTT stalk forward cancels the current command.
2021 - The brass stalk I made has broken. The next one
needs to be made of steel. PS I've also learned that the
stalk can only be purchased along with the "watch spring" switch
assembly and that costs a small fortune as does the R&R it
get in working.
ODBII
When GPS first came out users on boats wanted a standardized
interface so the National Marine Electronics Association
(Wiki: NMEA)
came out with their specification 0183 (Wiki).
GPS receivers also have a manufacturer specific binary
interface, for example the Motorola AtAt command table. There's a
different command structure for Trimble and for Rockwell (PLGR, DAGR).
I think there is a similar situation here. All car
makers support a common interface, OBD II (Wiki).
There are many Parameter IDs (Wiki: OBD-II PIDs).
The Data Link Connector (Wiki: DLC)
is standardized (Wiki: OBD).
It supports three buss protocols: SAE
J1850, CAN &
K-Line/L-Line.
In addition each manufacturer has their own maker specific
interface.
ODBII First Try (Didn't work) to
Bluetooth
Hardware
On Board Diagnostic II (Wiki)
is the connector that's within reach of the driver. In the
past (prior to maybe 2012) the cost of an OBD reader has been in
the hundreds of dollars, but now there are units available with
Bluetooth connectivity to work with smart cell phones for very
reasonable prices (under $20) like the ELM327 that reads not
only US cars but also most foreign cars as well. It's
called a generic OBDII Bluetooth adapter.
The eBay ad "ELM327 OBDII OBD2 V1.4 Auto Car Bluetooth
Diagnostic US" lists cars that will work with this adapter:
Benz 2001/02/03 W203 C200K (ISO)
The pin numbering is backwards from that shown
on the Wiki
web page for OBD. But the LEDs
light and sequence so at least the power supply
pins are correct.
The length of this unit means it may be destroyed if
used while driving? The Super Mini units would be
more protected.
Searching for Devices under Bluetooth in the phone,
then
select CHX (which is how the ELM327 shows up on my phone) and
enter the pairing pass code 6789 (not 0000 or 1234).
Now CHX shows up with a gear wheel, i.e. it's Bluetooth
paired.
Connecting
This is my current problem. When the free version of
Torque is started it says:
OBD Device not found, retrying. . . . Connecting to
OBD via bluetooth . . .
and (after adding it) the Current Drive Cycle Status window
shows:
Waiting for OBD Connection....
I've gone into the (three vertical dots settings in the
bottom right) and selected connect to CHX (not the car's
Bluetooth) and selected Disable ELM327 auto timing
adjustment, the port number of 35000 is the default.
Test on Olds Intrigue - 2 March 2013
When plugged into an Oldsmobile Intrigue the LEDs are
facing up and visible. They light in sequence front to
back to front and stop with the front red LED on
solid. But although the Motorola Electrify 2 cell
phone is paired to the CHX Bluetooth device, the Torque
program fails to make a connection. The same problem
as with the 2003 Mercedes-Benz C230. Maybe this
particular device is defective?
------------------------------------------
OBDII Second Try (Working) to
Bluetooth
2 March 2013- I've ordered another unit from Amazon with
the title:
"V1.5 Super Mini ELM327 Bluetooth OBD2 OBD-II CAN-BUS
Diagnostic Scanner Tool"
8 March 2013 - Working
The OBDII Super Mini device is shorter
than the open door.
The pass word for Bluetooth pairing is
1234
The device shows up as OBDII
In the Torque software settings (... in lower right)
I selected OBDII and not the car's Bluetooth.
These are the default dials.
OBDII Software
Torque - The problem is
that there's no manual or way to get support other than via a
blog on their web page. The type size is so small I
can't read it.
Questions:
1) where's the user's manual?
2) how to delete a dial?
3) how to move a dial that's positioned so half of it is off the
display to the center.
4) the free "Lite" version automatically came up with a Boost
gauge, but that's not an option on the full up version.
How to get it?
5) how to use the 1/4 mile icons?
6) how to use the Map Display icon?
7) How to start the Track Recorder Plug-in?
When help is pressed it opens a browser window to their web
page.
Here's a YouTube video showing the Track Recorder
plug-in. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHLchcKpa9g
The same author has other Torque related demo videos.
But not how to for beginners.
I choose this model from over a dozen ALnnn models because
it's the most capable for European cars. Note I'm
ignoring AL539 & AL539B DC tests. See the comparison
table on the last page of the Auto Link brochure.
While there is a Quick Start hard copy in the box. The
printed User Manual is NOT included! It is on
line.
2023: In the past I've tried some OBDII
Bluetooth adapters, but was not at all happy with
them. I also bought "Torque" but when that cell phone
died it was gone. After seeing a YouTube promoting a
modern OBDII reader I looked around and found the Autel
brand and the AL629 model that supports Mercedes Benz and many
other car brands. On order Christmas 2023.
The connector and pin assignments are in SAE J1962.
Note that OBD_II has provision for different bus types
including: SAE J1850 (pins 2 & 6) Chryusler/GM/Ford; CAN
(pins 6 & 14) and K-line (1-wire)/L-line (2-wire) (pins 7
& 15) ISO
9141-2.pdf; CARB (Wiki). Pins left to the
manufacturer: 1, 3, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13.
This is a tool with a screen and buttons rather than just an
OBDII to Bluetooth adapter. 20200328910
OBD interface bus type detection method and apparatus, Zhibin
PENG, Songsong QU, Autel,
2020-10-15, - differentiating different flavors of CAN bus (Wiki).
Note there are two main flavors: US & EU.
Ended up phoning the factory since the on line registration did
not work. A very helpful lady walked me through the process of
installing Maxi PC Suite.
Then updating the MicroSD card from the AL629. It turns
out there were only about a dozen updates needed.
There is a manual icon on Maxi PC Suite that leads to their support
web page and one of them is for the AL629.
When you see the list of possible updates at the bottom of the
list is "Select all".
Operation
There are no internal batteries. It powers up when
connected to either a Data Link Connector (Wiki)
or a power source using the Mini USB cable.
01:57
Out of the Box 02:00
Inside the Box - USB cable to AL629 did not work so he did
what I was told and that's to pull the MicroSD card and update
it. 08:32
Safety Restraint System 09:52
Drivers Seat Belt Buckle Switch 11:59
Front Wheel Speed Sensor 13:09
Automatic Transmission 17:13
PlayBack (previously saved) 19:29
2008 xB Scion
Ignition Switch
Has positions: Off, Accessory, On & Start (momentary).
While the AL629 powers up when my Mercedes ignition switch
is Off, it may be the case that in order to read data it
needs to be On (but engine off), and for Live Data the
engine needs to be running.s
PS It may be good for VIN reading to have the engine running
prior to connecting the AL629.
1. Select car region: Asian, European or USA
2. Select make from list
3. Either "Vehicle detect", Vehicle record and abbreviations,
All model series or from a list of general models.
Example (will differ depending on make
& model):
Maker: Benz, Series: 203; Mfg Date: 09/2003
- 12/2007; Steering: Left; Type: Sport Coupe; Fuel: Gasoline;
Vehicle: 203.740 C 230 Kompressor.
203 740
Control Units: 1. Transmission, 2. ME-SFI-Motor electronics 3.
ESP-Electronic stability program 4. AB-Airbag
Generic Control Units: ABS (Anti-lock Brake System), PCM
(Powertrain Control System), SRS (Supplemental Restraint
System), TCM (Transmission Control System), Engine,
Read codes: If there are any they will be listed (and can be
saved).
OBDII/EOBD
When selected the AL629 tries a number of data protocols
until it finds the one for the test vehicle.
Live Data
Complete List or Custom List (check boxes for parameters
you want to see). The custom list will be faster the
fewer items it has. The order that the boxes are checked
determines the order in which they are listed.
Scroll through the list, if |One Graphic| appears the
center soft key can be pressed to see it. If you
have enabled a prior parameter for graphing and after
enabling a second parameter there may be a |Merge Graph|
option to see them both at once.
DTC Lookup
Enter a 5 character code starting with P, C, B or U.
The message is the same one displayed when a code is read.
PlayBack
Allows seeing data that was previously saved.
Setup
Sub menus for: Language (14), Units Eng/Metric, Beep
On/Off, Key Test & LCD Test.
About
Screen Displays:
AL629 Serial number
A password to register the AL629
System sw Ver: V1.04
hw Ver: V1.00
Mfg Date: 2021-04-15
Copyright 2012
When the car gets to about 10 MPH the doors automatically
lock. But now the drivers door chatters.
The remote key fob will lock the door.
There was a post
with the very same problem. Too much hassle, I just let
it chatter.
I have a C180
Kompressor 2003 model, and the passenger
front door lock
was jumping up and down several times with a machine
gun effect when locking or unlocking and sometimes
didn't lock or unlock properly, all the other doors
were OK, I contacted MB and they told me I needed a
new door locking mechanism, £68 and £180 to fit it. So
I purchased the lock and decided to fit it myself, It
was quite a simple job, took one and a half hours
altogether. as this seems to be a common problem I can
now explain how I did it for those who wish to try it
themselves:
You will need: Set of Spline screwdrivers, Flat
screwdriver, Pop rivet gun, 3 small cable ties, Drill
and 5 pop rivets.
1. Pull off the tweeter cover on top of door panel
near front of window, no need to disconnect wire, just
let it hang down.
2. Pull off SRS badge and remove the spline
screw behind it.
3. remove the door latch plastic cover (1 screw)
4. At the bottom of the door pull handle next to the
armrest there is an oblong slot, insert a flat screwdriver
and prise the top half off, it is just clipped in.
there are 2 spline screws behind it, remove them.
5. Using a plastic wedge of some sort or just by hand
and starting at the lower part of the door latch,
prise off the lower half of the door panel there are 6
or 7 plastic clips which hold it on, (I did this by
hand and without breaking any but it may be worth
purchasing a few just in case)
6. Lower the window and while pulling the panel
slightly towards you, use your other hand to pull the
panel upwards from the top starting at the front end,
(this is quite tight, but it will come up)
7. panel is now off, pull the plug from the window
switch and disconnect the
cable from the door handle by opening the handle
slightly and pulling up on the hook, the cable can
then be removed from the door panel insert.
8. Drill out the 3 pop rivets holding the air bag and
the 2 pop rivets holding the lower window
strut. do not disconnect the
airbag, let it hang down or tie it out of the way.
9. Remove the 3 screws holding the door latch and
disconnect the wire from the panel near the front of
the door. ( I actually cut the wire and pulled it
through the loops to keep the original cable ties in
place, when I replaced it I just used new cable ties
to attach it back to the original location.)
10. You can now remove the locking mechanism by
pulling it down and then towards the front by pushing
back on the window
strut.
Now do everything in reverse.
This assembly is designed to fold back, like when hitting the
garage wall when driving into the garage, BUT it was not designed
to fold forward, like when backing out of the garage.
The newer model cars have electrically operated mirror assemblies
that fold in to make the car narrower. I wonder if they can
be retrofitted to my car? Let me
know.
Mirror cover-turn signal lamp assembly
Mirror frame
The Mirror Wire holds the mirror backing plate.
Pushing in on the end or lifting the center allows the
mirror and it's backing plate to be removed.
There are two quick-fit wires that need to be unplugged.
The socket that mates to the plug on the mirror cover-turn
signal lamp assembly is just on it's cable.
The "Clip" is what holds the lamp assembly to the frame.
When backing out of garage the wall moved in front of the mirror,
breaking the glass (but no pieces fell out) and causing a
malfunction notice saying the lamp was out.
When the turn signal was on to the right, inside the car it
blinked fast, but outside the front and rear lights blinked at the
normal rate.
Pressing the reset button (like used to reset the trip odometer)
turned off the malfunction notice.
After removing the mirror cover-turn signal lamp assembly from the
car and testing the lamp by sticking a couple of bare wires into
the socket and checking the resistance (2.8 Ohms) it was
determined that the lamp is OK. The problem was that it had
been unplugged. It was not obvious where the socket should
be attached to the mirror frame, so I just plugged it in by hand
and reinstalled the mirror cover-turn signal lamp assembly until
it snapped into place.
I have a replacement mirror glass on order.
Battery & Alternator
Starting late Nov. 2015 the starter motor was slower and
slower. I have an appointment for service, but the soonest
was early next, so 9 Dec 2015 took to local dealer to have
battery replaced, but they found that the alternator was weak
which was part of the problem (the battery was 12 years
old). Data on the battery for this Mercedes Benz C-Class 2
door coupe model C230 Kompressor:
Part # 49EXTJ
UPC: 721112786209
Group Size (BCI): 49
Cold Cranking Amps (CCA): 900 CCA
Cranking Amps (CA): 1000 CA
Voltage (V): 12 Volt
Length (In): 13-5/16 Inch
Width (In): 6-15/16 Inch
Height (In): 7-1/2 Inch
The rest of the story. There was a problem with the
electrical system (forget details) so took car to the Santa Rosa
MB dealer. They charged me for the diagnoses that the
generator was bad, but would not work on it since it was not a MB
part. My local dealer did replace the generator no charge.
Window Auto-Up Not
Working
After replacing the battery and alternator a new problem has
shown up in that the windows no longer automatically go
up. At this time not sure if this is a
problem that's easy to fix using a factory computer interface to
reset the auto up or if it's related to damage of some
component.
Solution:
Raise the window by holding the button up on the "first
setting", i.e. don't lift it all the way up.
Once it's closed, then lift it all the way up and hold it there
for 10 seconds.
Then try again, auto down and then auto up.
This fixed it for me.
Flat Tire
2021 Nov 24 - left front tire failed with plenty of
tread. I was told that tires have a life time after which
they can no longer hold air?
The Tire
The load Index (Wiki)
in the door jamb is 91 but the actual tires are 89 so rated for
less weight, the wrong tire.
The Speed Rating (Wiki)
is H (130 MPH) or V (150) on the door jamb, but the tires are T
(118 MPH), so again under the rating.
Fig 1 Hole in sidewall. P205/55 R16 89T
Fig 3 Inside driver's side door jamb.
P205/55 R16 (91H or 91V)
2021 Nov 26 - have 4 tires on order and went to drive the Honda Van but
it's battery is dead, so now have on order the GB150.
The Spare
It was smaller in diameter and thickness prior to inflating.
Fig 2
Replace Valve Steams
When Costco deflated the spare tire they threw away the valve steam.
I later learned that's because these are a source of leaking and
so replacing all of them with new units was policy. The
valve steams in the front wheels may very well have been why
those tires were loosing air.
Mileage on the odometer was 57,880 after the tire change.
Cell Phone ID
If your cell phone is on another person's account they can
change the Caller ID (Wiki) but
the cell companies refer to that as: Share Name ID. The
account holder can change the Share Name ID on a phone by phone
basis.
Ryobi Tire Inflator/Deflator
The pump is sold as a stand alone product (#
P747), i.e. without the battery & charger since a
customer may already have Ryobi products which would include
batteries and a charger.
The Battery Starter Kit (PSK004)
contains a 4AH High Performance battery (PBP004)
and Dual Chemistry 30 minute charger (P117).
Ryobi makes an In-Vehicle charger (P131)
for the 18V ONE+ batteries.
Note needs more than 4 Amps when doing the battery
check, but uses less than 2 Amps after charge is
complete.
The road service technician used this to inflate the mini
spare tire to 350 kPa (Google translated to 50 PSI).
Riobi model
# P747 18V One+ Dual Function Inflator/Deflator is
powered with one of their tool type 18V battery packs.
It can be preset to the desired pressure. Does not need
to be plugged in since it runs from a tool battery.
Mode: (power off)
Press: On & Hi Volume.
Press: On & Hi Pressure.
Press: On & Hi Volume.
Press&hold: Off.
Was the Flashlight used by the flat tire pickup
truck operator, not really a AAA tow truck. It is
also a battery jumper.
Got this to jump start the Honda Van.
Note: When jumping a vehicle battery wait a while after
connecting the two batteries for some charge to move into the
dead battery. That way you get more starting current.
This contains 3 series connected pouch type Li-Ion
cells. Rating for the series string: 12 Volts, 88
Watt-hours, 7.3 Amp hours. These cells are rated to
deliver 3,000 Amps hence the low Ah capacity.
The GB150 has some advantages over the newer GBX155. Sometimes
"New" isn't always "better"! My Old NOCO GB150 jump box vs
My New GBX155 jump box, 15:46 - the GB150 has a built-in
voltmeter and the GBX155 does not.
The new GB150 is rated 12V 3000A. The old Genius Boost Pro
GB150 was rated 12V 4000A. It also was marked "22500 joules
3S"
The GBX155 turns off after 60 seconds, but the GB150 stays on
for until it runs out of power, i.e. many minutes so can be
used as a battery.
The Boost Max GB250+ $1200) is rated 12V 5250A and the GB500+
($2000) is rated 12 or 24 V, 6250 A. They both have the
digital voltmeter and the both have the 60 second timer.
They come with the XGC4 56 Watt 12 Volt charger that's
compatible with the: GB70, GB150, GB250+, GB251+ and
GB500+. Note the U65 USB-C Power Delivery charger is
rated 65 Watts (3.25A @ 20V) so offers faster charging on the
GBX45, GBX55, GBX75 and GBX155.
The GB150 is a first generation USB device (Wiki).
Newer USB devices only use the USB-C connector for both charge
and discharge because of EU law. And the latest USB
devices have Power Delivery (Wiki)
options, which when paired with the 3 or 5 Amp current limit
results in up to 48V @ 5 Amps (if the GB150 was newer) or 240
Watts. That's to say a USB-C version could charge faster
on the USB port than on the 12V port. It would also make
an excellent high power USB-C power source.
update 2023 Dec: 20230163540
Fast charging universal serial bus (USB type-C PD Ver 3 - up
to 60 Watts) connector and battery charging system for an auto
battery charger, Derek Michael Underhill, Ifechukwude
Christian Iwerunmor, Tom Situ, James P. McBRIDE, James Richard
Stanfield, Noco Co, 2023-05-25, - they seem to have this
idea already. They also have an output that fully
supports the same voltages as the input. Note the output
makes sense only on devices like the jump starters that have a
massive internal battery.
The Boost X
series (GBX model numbers: GBX45, GBX55, GBX75 & GBX155)
is similar to the Boost series (GB model numbers) except the
GBX models have USB-C PD input & output ports that can
accept/deliver up to 60 Watts (nowhere near the 240 Watts
that's possible, but a huge improvement on the typical 5 Watt
charger).
These are 4S unlike the GB series which uses a 3S battery.
GBX55 Data Sheet:
USB-C (Into GBX): 5V@1.5A, 9V@3A, 12V@3A, 15V@, 20V@3A
USB-C (Out): 5V@3A, 9V@3A, 12V@3A, 15V@3A, 20V@3A
The GBX requires a USB-C PD device to charge it and Noco
offers the U65
Universal AC (120/240 VAC 50/60 Hz) 65 Watt power supply which
comes with AC plugs for North America, UK, EU, and AU.
Output: DC 3A/5V 3A/9V 3A/12V 3A/15V 3.25A/20V - 65W Max GBX Update There are a number of YouTube videos saying
there's a problem with the GBX units not taking a
charge. This happens if the GBX battery voltage gets to
low then you can not charge it. A fix is to use a USB-A
to clip lead adapter.
YouTube: No-Open
NOCO Repair: Power Measurement and Charging Hack, 9:01 -
@3:26:
The USB-C Ground has a direct connection to the GBX battery
ground. The positive (red) battery clamp is a direct
connection to the GBX positive battery terminal.
Need:
1. USB-c male to USB-A female adapter/cable,
2. USB-A male to clip lead adapter.
Fig 1 This box was in an outer box with
the shipping label and a Haz Mat label
Fig 2 Inner display box is a sleeve
that slides off.
Fig 3 What's in the box.
Cigarette Lighter Plug
Cigarette Lighter Socket
12 DC CableNote 1
USB-A to USB-Micro Cable
GB-150 Unit
Fig 4 Ports & Cables
Output Left Port: 12VDC out & USB-A
Input Right Port: 12 VDC in & USB-micro
Fig 5 Connected to totally dead
battery.
Note no Voltage reading.
Fig 6 After pressing Manual Override
(i) for a few seconds voltmeter reads and State of
Charge LEDs chase. Van starts and drives, BUT .
. . when turned off the battery voltage is only 6.3 V
so not enough to start by itself. Need new
battery. (... or full charge?)
Fig 7 To get
12V fast charging remove the socket end of the 12 V
cable. Charging shown here. When fully
charged only the Green LED will be on continuously.
To get a 12V cigarette lighter socket output from the
GB150 remove the cigarette lighter plug from this same
cable.
Note 1 Both ends of this cable can
be removed. If the Socket is removed then the 12V Cable
can be used to charge the GB150 (see Fig 7
above). If the Cigarette Lighter Plug end is removed
then the cable can be used to add a Cigarette Lighter Socket
to the GB150.
20230302928
WO2022178102
Jump starter with current sharing switch arrangement, and
safety switch, system, and method, James Richard Stanfield,
Nitish AGRAWAL, Tom SITU, Andrea Carolina HACKER DAVIDSON,
Jonathan Lewis Nook, Sr. William Knight Nook, Derek Michael
Underhill, Noco
Co, 2022-08-25, -
I like the Noco GB150 and when I found out that they
also made a battery charger I looked at a number of different
models.
They make 1, 2, 5 and 10 Amp chargers and also have models for
multiple batteries and models for direct connection to the
battery, and industrial chargers for 24, 36 & 48 Volt
batteries.
The highest current single stand alone charger is the Genius
10.
Also got the GC040 Carry case for the G10 charger.
When these photos were taken the default 12V flooded lead
acid LED is illuminated (the one closest to the
button). But the next time I looked at it the 12V AGM
LED was on, i.e. it figured out that this battery is an AGM
type. I confirmed that there's a label saying it's an
AGM.
Fig 3 After charger plugged into wall
socket,
connecting to a 12v car battery causes it to
select 12V and ramp up the charge LEDs.
Fig 4 After a while the charge LEDs
end on the Green with a slow breathing.
Note: sometimes after connecting the G10 the ramp LED
would go to blinking green and at other times would show two red
bars?
In Repair mode the LED blinks red. After some time (hours)
a Fluke 87 V DMM in Min/Max mode shows:
Repair Red LED
Date & Time
Max
Min
Ave
Blink
2023Dec16 09:00
15.49
13.25
15.23
Blink
2023Dec16 15:15
15.52
13.25
15.38
Off
2023Dec16 17:15
15.52
13.15
14.96
From standby after repair; Pressed button: 12 Volt mode, Ramp
LEDs progressed ending with only green LED breathing. 13.4
Volts.
20210094428
Battery charging device for charging a deeply discharged
battery, and battery charging system and method, Jonathan Lewis
Nook, William Knight Nook, Sr., James Richard Stanfield, Derek
Michael Underhill, James P. McBRIDE, Noco,
2023-10-17, -
The BT-705 has no internal battery. But once you make
menu selections, they show up the next time the meter is
used. Maybe a super capacitor or EEPROM memory?
PS While is have Wi-Fi connected printers, I don't have a
blue-tooth printer so was not able to test the printout.
The battery Cold Cranking Amp (CCA) specification can be
entered (maybe in steps of 5) between 100 and 2000.
Fig 1 It's a good thing that there's a
hard case.
Fig 2 Hard case.
Fig 3 Contents.
Fig 4 I assumed that the battery was a
regular flooded lead acid type.
But when editing the photos I saw it was an AGM.
So the displayed CCA of 983 is an error.
PS the internal resistance showed 3.96 mOhms.
Fig 5 Correct measurement page 1:
Volts: 13.11
Measured: 802 CCA
Rating: 760 CCA
Prior art battery load testers used a DC load, i.e. a big
bulky resistor as a load. While these worked
they also sucked a lot of charge out of the battery.
The newer method of patent 3909708 measures the internal
resistance of the battery which has
no effect on it's state of charge. I think that, based on size and weight, the BT-705
uses a DC load for CCA and measures internal resistance as a
separate test???
YouTube: How
to Quickly Test UPS Batteries Without the UPS Itself,
18:26 - he says only internal resistance is measured by the
automotive batgtery tester and the other outputs are
calculated from that. The measured internal
resistance is independent from the Cranking Amps input number.
3909708
Electronic battery testing device, Keith
S Champlin, 1975-09-30, - uses AC test signal and op
amps to determine resistance of battery and computes current
(CCA) and power that can be delivered. To pass a battery
needs to deliver at least 75% of it's rating after correcting
for temperature. Cited
by 182 patents -
Amp Hound 2
A way to figure out which circuit has a parasitic current
draw which causes the battery to go dead.
The problem with this method is that it only works for
constant loads. For an example of an intermittent load
see: Which
Parasitic Draw Test Method is REALLY the Best?, 38:08 -
He likes putting a DMM in current mode with Min-Max activated,
in series with the battery. Ford, and maybe other
makers, have a specification requiring less than 50 mA total
draw on the battery. That way, after a month of being
asleep, the car will still start. The recommended method
is to use a DC
clamp on ammeter to know when the current draw is
happening, then use a DMM to find the circuit.
This is a cleaver idea. A small hand held instrument
that knows the resistance of common automotive blade type
fuses (Wiki)
in sizes Maxi, Standard or Mini/Micro. A sensitive DC
voltmeter has it's reading multiplied by the fuse resistance
and so the display is the current going through that
fuse. This allows monitoring the current in that circuit
and also finding phantom loads. That's to say there
should be no current in a circuit that's turned off, so if you
find current there's something drawing power. For
example a car that has LoJack (Wiki)
installed by a dealer in their favorite secret hiding place
will draw power from some circuit, but it will not be known to
a new owner, who just sees the battery going dead much faster
than it should.
Fuse Voltage Drop Chart - Standard Duse (ATO, ATC) (Chart.pdf)
Both of the below
devices are based on PIC micro controllers.
8384554
Audible current monitoring device, Kevin
M. Curtis, K M C Electronics,2013-02-26, - Amp
Hound 1? replaces fuse with known shunt. It
makes sense that can be eliminated by storing the
resistance of common fuses and asking the user to input
the fuse parameters. Even better would be to
measure the actual fuse in situ. Maybe that will
be the AH3?
This is probably the Amp Hound 1 since the drawing shows
normal DMM test leads.
The Amp Hound 2 comes with test leads specifically for
the 3 fuse sizes.
9423462
Relay testing device and methods for testing relays, Kevin
M. Curtis, K M C Electronics, 2016-08-23, -
The same company makes the hand held relay buddy tester that
has a number of relay sockets on the front panel."Electronic
Specialties 190".
YouTube: Bad
Fuses, 16:47 - Bad
Fuses Part 2, 16:02 - the Made in China fuses may not
work and should be avoided. It's best to use name brand
fuses.
CD Player Error
Message
When trying to play a CD an error message appeared on
the audio device display. The next time the car was at the
MB dealer for service I asked about fixing the CD player and
they wanted over $1,000 just to figure out what was wrong.
When preparing to send the car for the next scheduled service I
was cleaning out the glove box and saw the CD player and the
thought occurred to just open and close the door to the player
to see if it would reset. It did reset and now the CD
player is working.
Rear Lights
2023 April: Driver's side brake light burned out. Red
warning on drivers display. On older cars the lamp would
be replaced by using a screw driver to remove the plastic
lens, but on more modern cars the lamps are replaced by
removing sockets from the back of the lamp location. The
trick is to use needle nose pliers to pull the tab at the very
top of the assembly after pinching and pulling out the bottom
a little.
The top lamp is for brakes and is marked GE 1057, 392,
Hungary, 12V P21W (Power: 21 Watts, i.e. 1.75 amps), E1 2DX
The top 3 lamps are all the same GE 1057.
The bottom lamp is a dual filament GE 1157.
Fig 1 Top lamp burned out
Fig 2 Close-up of burned out brake lamp.
Note tab.
Fig 3 The back side of the lamp assembly
is marked with the lamp voltage & power.
Note the tab at the very top.
Karr BT Security System
This showed up as a question on Redit. r/whatisthisthing;
r/Jeep/comments;
"Mechanic found in my car. It was draining my battery,
attached to the main computer (and possibly the
immobilizer). The QR code doesn't link to anything (B.C.:
it's not QR and is just the serial No). The mechanic says
it's an aftermarket part. I bought the car brand new and
did not install this myself. Grey box part is
2x2x.75inches"
These show up in many auto forums.
Problem of rough running near idle and mid-range. This is
the Bosch Motronic (Wiki) Mass
Air Flow Sensor. This system was used in a number of
German cars like the Porsche, BMW &Etc. A spring
loaded vane is pulled open by the air stream and that turns a
special pot on a ceramic board.
Instead of a normal pot this one has a laser trimmed resistor
network feeding in correction voltages. So "12 Volts"
needs to be applied and the voltage on the wiper measured.
The problem is that the resistive material on the board wears
away and then the dual wiper contacts make intermittent contact
resulting in rough running at some mass flow rates. By
slowly turning the pot arm and measuring the voltage on a DMM, you will notice "OL" flashing when
the dual wiper contacts are not making connection. Note
the OL indication was caused by ranging, not OverLoad, so
locking the range when 12 Volts is applied stops the OL
indication.
It may be that there are two Porsche part numbers for
this: Let me know.
1984 - 1989 p/n: 930 606 123 00
1989 - 1994 p/n: 964 606 050 00
BMW also used the Bosch Motronic MAF sensor, but it may or may
not have the same calibration?
Fig 1 Overall view with cover removed.
Fig 2 Close up of ceramic board
You can see wear on the tracks just to the left of the
central arm.
The black hash marks on the fixed resistors are from the
laser trimming.
This is the only one to have, accept no substitutes, and do
without until you can get one. I have seen up to 4 CHP radar
traps all lined up in a row (the counter tells you how many
bogies. The Forward, Back or Side indication is really
cool. I have seen traps off to the side because I know when
to look, otherwise they would never be seen. For approaching
cars with moving radar you get a lot of warning as well as knowing
that they are in front of you (of course it also could be a car
parked on the shoulder behind tall grass). On a few
occasions I have picked up the local oscillator of a cheap
detector in a nearby car and can tell which car it is in.
The optical sensor for laser speed guns goes off when passing some
electronic signs. The warning display and sounds are
different for the different types of radars so you know which is
which. Even though I can't tell you the sound or display for
each type, I do know the sound of a highway patrol radar and it's
different from the other sounds.
7061423
Interleaved sweep for detection of pop transmissions in police
radar detectors, (Valentine), - for burst type radar detectors.
6175324
Police Radar Detector, Jan 16, 2001, (Valentine), A novel
frequency scheme for a police radar detector enables improved
sweeping of the X, K, K.sub.u and K.sub.a radar bands. 05917441
06/29/1999 Police radar detector for sweeping K and KA radar
bands during one local oscillator sweep 05900832
05/04/1999 Input stage for police radar detector including input
signal preamplification 05856801
01/05/1999 Input stage for a police radar detector 05852417
12/22/1998 Police radar detector including nuisance alert
suppression 05300932
04/05/1994 Motor vehicle police radar detector for detecting
multiple radar sources 05250951
10/05/1993 Motor vehicle police radar detector for detecting
multiple radar sources D0338841
08/31/1993 Radar detector housing 05206651
04/27/1993 Motor vehicle police radar detector for detecting
multiple radar sources 05151701
09/29/1992 Police radar detectors for detecting radar signals
and determining the directional origin of the signal source 05146226
09/08/1992 Motor vehicle police radar detector for detecting
multiple radar sources 05125110
06/23/1992 Microstripline microwave mixer using waveguide filter
05116248
05/26/1992 Power plug for radar warning detector 05083129
01/21/1992 Police radar detector for detecting radar signals and
determining the directional origin of the signal source 05068663
11/26/1991 Motor vehicle radar detector including amplitude
detection 05020754
06/04/1991 Method and apparatus for mounting radar detector 04994775
02/19/1991 High-pass filter for microstrip circuit 04973925
11/27/1990 Double-ridge waveguide to microstrip coupling 04908767
03/13/1990 Acceleration measuring system
This contains the coordinate transformations to get
from a 3-axis accelerometer to acceleration in the plane of the
road. It depends on the roll and pitch spring constants
being known and constant or using an independent roll &
pitch input. This is required if you want to monitor the
handling of a high performance car. You can not really use
the accelerometers in the plane of the car since the car leans
relative to the road.
One day while driving down the 101 freeway going South
to Santa Barbara I passed a very long column of HMMWVs being delivered to the army at
Hunter Liggett (Wiki).
There were all kinds of models, most fitted with military radios.
I started to study them at that time. It turns out that A.M
General would not sell me a Hummer at that time because they were
not street legal and they had their hands full building them for
the Army and other U.S. and foreign services. Later they developed
the "Heavy Hummer" that had a Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW) in excess
of 10,000 pounds. This required not only adding heavier springs
for the vertical load but also a lot of changes to the drive line
to handle the higher torque that propelling the heavier vehicle
required. With this higher GVW the rules change for street
licensing and made the Hummer street legal. A friend purchased one
of the first 100 and had it custom painted a civilian camo (the
factory could not use the same robot pattern they used for the
Army for legal reasons). My friend ended selling his back to A.M.
General because of all the problems it had. One of the problems
was that there was nowhere he could go that had trained mechanics.
If the mechanic is not trained on the Hummer in the process of
fixing one problem, he can create one or more new problems.
The Mercedes G-wagon (Wiki)
is a very expensive civilian vehicle that is attempting to emulate
the HMMWV. This is the vehicle the rich bad guys drive in
movies.
Lamborghini made a similar vehicle the LM002 (Wiki)
based on an off shore boat engine produced in 1984 it weighed
3100kg had a v12,dohc,4v/cyl. 455hp,369lbft,tranie 2x5m ,0-60 in
7.9 ,top speed of 120 ,also it was 4wd front-engine. But,
like the G-wagen, is only a pretender to the HMMWV.
This was my first motor vehicle after I got a drivers license
in the 1950s. My uncle lived in Salinas, CA (Wiki)
and there was a Harley dealer near him so we purchased from
Larry Ketzel's dealership. Larry was riding in Nevada when
an atomic bomb was tested and the fallout caused him medical
problems (Wiki).
I got the 165cc two stroke Hummer model (Wiki)
and drove it for a number of years.
One day when making a right turn where there was a gas station
on the corner, I maybe hit some oil and the next thing I knew
the pavement was rapidly approaching my face. So I put out
my right arm. But that caused the shoulder to
dislocate. Every now and then it would pop out and then my
arm would just dangle, i.e. I had no control of the arm. I
learned to bend over and let my right hand drag on the ground
then gently step on my right hand, and gently move to stand
up. This would pop the shoulder back in place. But
once while at home, I was doing a lot of traveling for work, it
popped out when I was in bed. I would have been trapped if
in a hotel on the road, but at home my wife helped me
recover. That led to a surgery to prevent further
problems.
Reading the Hummer Forum, my friends experience and my
experiences lead me to believe that when you have a car that is
made in relativity small numbers, you are going to have trouble in
general and also in getting service. In my friends case the
mechanic would make new problems as he tried to fix existing
problems. This same thing happened to me with an '86 Turbo
Inter-cooled 745 Volvo wagon. The block had a bad freeze (casting)
plug, so the dealer, under warranty, replaced the raw block
because the model was so new there were no short blocks
available. In the process he cross threaded the plastic
radiator, causing me grief on a trip to Santa Barbara. Some
cars like the Corvette
ZR-1 have a V-10 engine so complex that the local dealer is not
allowed to work on it, instead it is sent to the factory for
repairs.
Cars like the Honda Civic (Wiki) or
Ford Taurus (Wiki) that
are made in very large numbers tend to have the bugs worked out.
Rubber parts cause a lot of problems. Rubber and the
synthetic version of it all biodegrade in air or water.
Any rubber hose or gasket is a problem waiting to happen.
If rubber is used as part of the insulation on wires they will
get hard, crack and short out...it's just a matter of
time. The '29 & '34 Rolls Royce cars have no rubber
parts except for the tires. The wires have a cloth woven
over the insulation (don't know if it's rubber or something
else?). There is a metal tube between the 1929 RR frame and
engine that carries the fuel. It has a few turns about 3
inches in diameter to allow for flexing. Rubber parts
failing was a huge problem on the '69 Bentley.
Dead Battery Leads to Need for Radio
& GPS Unlock Codes
After 11 years the battery in the Honda Odessey van needed to be
replaced. Disconnecting the battery enables the anti-theft
features in the radio and GPS Navi system (makes them
inoperative). If you can't find the paper work or the
sticker on the van then you must get access to the serial number
sticker on the radio and/or GPS. Honda 2000
Odyssey Get Radio Serial Number
Book: High and Mighty:
SUVs--The World's Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got
That Way, Keith Bradsher, January 1, 2004, - two CAFE
standards, one for cars and a more relaxed one for light
trucks.
Deficit
Reduction Act of 1984: Section 179 - Sec.
179. Limitation on amount of depreciation and investment
tax credit for luxury automobiles; limitation where certain
property used for personal purposes. - A passenger car is rated
6,000 pounds GVW or less.
IRS: Publication
946 (2023), How To Depreciate Property:What's New for
2023: Section 179 deduction dollar limits. For tax
years beginning in 2023, the maximum section 179 expense
deduction is $1,160,000. This limit is reduced by the amount by
which the cost of section 179 property placed in service during
the tax year exceeds $2,890,000.Also, the maximum section 179
expense deduction for sport utility vehicles placed in service
in tax years beginning in 2023 is $28,900.
Freezing the gas tax
Federal policy ignores crash risk for anyone
outside a car
Why can’t we fix things?
"Federal leaders could do a world of good if they simply unwind
the ill-advised policies already on the books."
Email from the NHTSA:
NHTSA categorizes vehicles by class and “curb” weight. Curb
weight is the weight of a vehicle with standard equipment
including the maximum capacity of fuel, oil, coolant, and air
conditioning. Passenger cars are further subdivided.
Passenger cars medium (PC/Me) (3,000–3,499 pounds)
Passenger cars heavy (PC/H) (3,500 pounds and over)
Sport utility vehicles (SUV)
Pickup trucks (PU)
Vans (VAN)
This has raised the following questions:
I don't see an upper limit on the curb weight of the passenger
cars heavy category and no weights for SUV, PU and VAN?
Where on the vehicle do I get the curb weight? (GVW - PayLoad
= Curb Weight).
The sticker is mainly concerned with identifying the make and
model, then price and fuel economy.
This sticker does not contain vehicle weights. The
Gross weights are on a sticker on the driver's side door
jamb. Still looking for a source for the curb weights.
In the VW case there was a major buyback of diesel
cars. I expect there will be a major buy back and/or
recall so that vehicles will be compliant.
AFAICR in the VW case the performance was not acceptable
when the defeat device was removed and so the owners
demanded a buy back. I expect this may happen with
diesel RAM pickup trucks.
Great Moments in Unintended Consequences (Vol. 1), 3:03 - @0:53
Corn Ethanol Subsides: soil erosion, higher food prices, rising
gas prices, massive water requirements, pollution fertilizer and
pesticides, ethanol produces more green house gases than
gasoline, to make one Gallon of ethanol requires 1.29 gal of
fossil fuel, at a cost of $7 Billion a year. (Wiki: Renewable
Fuel Standard)
Pickup Trucks
For some time I've noticed that almost all the pickup trucks I
see have 4 doors and a short bed. I consider these luxury
vehicles rather than working trucks.
But recently (2023 Nov) I've discovered that you can still buy a
regular cab long bed pickup truck.
Ford F-150,
Regular cab, 4x2, Engine: 3.3L (std), options: 2.7L or 5.0L (WB:
145.4" = 67.1 bed) Payload rating 3,310 lbs: "When properly
equipped, Max payload on F-150 Regular Cab 8' box 4x2 with
available 5.0L engine and Max Trailer Tow and Heavy Duty Payload
Pkgs. Class is Full-Size Pickups under 8,500 lbs.
GVWR. May payload varies and is based on accessories and
vehicle configuration. See label on doorjamb for carrying
capacity of a specific vehicle."
Chain of Events - It's not at all clear if this is the
case!
It's just as likely that safety standards are driving this
change.
1971 Nixon
Shock decouples the US Dollar from the price of gold.
1973 Since OPEC can no longer trade US Dollars for gold they
raise the price of oil (Wiki).
1975 CAFE put in place to conserve gasoline (Wiki).
1975 Pickup trucks, SUVs & Minivans replace automobiles
which are penalized by CAFE.
Letter to my Congressman in
the House of Representatives 2024Aug9
----------------------------------------
For most of my life I've been interested in cars. I've
noticed that starting in the 1970s the US Corporate Average Fuel
Economy (CAFE) rules have had two tiers, one for "cars" and a
more lax standard for "trucks". This has caused the
manufacturers to quit making "cars" and now they only make
"trucks" which includes things like the Sport Utility Vehicle
(SUV). If you go to the web page for a US vehicle
manufacturer you will see they no longer offer "cars" for
sale. Since "trucks" now have 4 doors, high end interior
appointments and are much heavier, they are very expensive.
In addition to the CAFE problem the "Chicken Tax" has banned the
importation of light trucks into the US, which means we can no
longer get these low cost vehicles. The Toyota Hilux Champ
is a much lower cost vehicle than anything offered by a US
maker, but not legal to import. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax
Another area are the Kei cars and trucks in Japan. They
have a special vehicle class for very light and small vehicles
that are taxed at a lower rate than standard vehicles, very
similar to how we treat motorcycles. These are very
economical vehicles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kei_truck https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kei_car
Currently these can only be imported if they are more than 25
years old. This needs to change so that new Kei cars and
trucks would be US legal. They are about as safe as a
motorcycle, but are much more useful as well as being
affordable. There's a world wide market for this type of
vehicle, i.e. very high demand.
The result of the above laws passed by Congress is that modern
cars have gotten very expensive and beyond reach of a majority
of the population. If the above laws were revamped it
would not only make affordable cars available, but would create
a lot of jobs in the automotive sector of the economy.
Today I saw a YouTube saying that there are millions of unsold
cars parked in outdoor storage lots because people do not want
to buy them. In addition the amount of debt carried by car
loans may default since many of the loans are under water (the
car is worth less than the outstanding loan balance).
I have more information on my Cars web page. David Zipper
has written a lot about "Car Bloat" and would be a good
resource. https://prc68.com/I/Cars.shtml#Car_Bloat
----------------------------------------
I have owned a number of other cars including a '29
Phantom II (WJ14) and '34 RR 20/25 (GWE72). Note that Rolls
Royce was founded because other contemporary cars were well known
for "failing to proceed". RR won many races, not because
they were fast, but rather because the made it to the finish
line. Reliability was the number one concern. These
are both works of art. The firewall is an aluminum
casting. There are no rubber parts other than the
tires. The fuel line between the frame and the engine is
metal with about 5 turns to allow for the rocking movement of the
engine. Note that rubber (and it's modern replacements)
bio-degrade when exposed to air or water. India was a
British crown colony and the source of Gutta-percha (Wiki) so
rubber was commonly used in English products, even if that made
them less reliable. I believe this is the cause of many
"failures" in cars. The '29 Phantom II was made close enough
to the beginning of automobiles that it still had the "start from
the switch" function although it also had an electric
starter. Early cars did not have electric starters, they had
a crank that needed to be turned to get the engine going. RR
(and probably others) had a feature related to the manual spark
timing lever at the center of the steering wheel. When you
were about to turn off the engine, you first put the advance lever
all the way up, then turned off the ignition switch (the key was
separate from the switch). In this way the engine would turn
over maybe a turn or two with no spark and in the process inhale
some fresh air and gas. When you wanted to start the car,
after shopping or whatever, you would turn on the ignition
switch and then move the advance level smartly down. This
would cause the points to open and fire whichever cylinder was
just past top dead center, starting the engine without
cranking. I got this to work, but not all the time. At
the time RR began their business most cars were very
unreliable. Henry Royce worked hard to make a car that was
reliable. To promote the reliability they entered endurance
races, where just finishing meant winning. The early RR cars
were made into armored cars (early tanks) and used in the African
desert by Sir Lawrence who praised them highly for their
reliability. In the movie Indiana Jones and the Temple of
Doom the ruler of the dessert where the temple is located refuses
gold and jewelry but accepts a Phantom II RR. As of about
1988 there was a Phantom II used by a women on the East coast on a
regular basis. Although it will not maintain freeway speeds,
it will keep running almost forever.
I bought these at Coys of
Kensington. Beaulieu - motor Museum
with on site restoration shop -
Trade offs
Using a coiled metal tube between the frame and engine of the 1929 Rolls Royce is an example of
getting higher reliability rather than use a rubber hose that
will for sure fail because rubber degrades.
A note on Lucas "prince of DarknessTM" (web page with examples)
electrics. The Lucas relays are in metal cans that use
bendable tabs to hold the can onto the base. But Mercedes
Benz relays are hermetically sealed. The Lucas relays fail
often but can be burnished and work again and again, while the MB
relays last about as long but don't need the maintenance but at a
substantial additional cost.
There's a similar trade-off in headlights. The early
American headlamps combined the filament and reflector into one
unit. There are locating bumps on the headlight that fit
into it's socket. But whenever a new headlamp is fitted it
must be aligned to point in the proper direction. They used
to cost less than a dollar. The Honda uses a fixed reflector
and a removable pre-focused lamp. You just remove the burned
out lamp and install the new one. Done in less than a minute
and no alignment, but the lamp costs about $10. So you trade
time and money.
The flashlight bulbs that
screwed in had random filament locations and so many flashlights
had a provision to adjust the focus. The later flanged
flashlight bulbs had the filament in a predefined location.
Note that as time goes on the cost per hour for a mechanic that
know how to work on modern cars is higher every year so it's cost
effective to make trades that minimize mechanics time.
Although I never owned one, but the Lotus Super 7 has
held a fascination for me. This was a car built to be very
light (1100 lbs on early models) and had a 4 cylinder
engine. Because of the light weight it does not need a lot
of horsepower to go fast. It is also narrow so that on an
autocross circuit the road looks wider allowing the Super Seven to
often take top time of the day. Of course if there was a hot
go cart or motorcycle they could take TTOD. The principal is
still true. If a car was made, say using carbon fiber
technology with a goal of minimum weight, it would be even faster
than the Super Seven. (Carol Shelby pitched that idea to
Chrysler but they went with the Viper (Wiki)
instead) Super
Seven web page with information about "The Prisoner's" car (Wiki). British Cars web page
- More British
Car web page links - Yet
more British car Links - Sevens & Elans, Ltd.
- Autocourse Inc.-
Caterham Dealer for California Caterham UK - has the
right to make the Super Seven which Lotus no longer makes Catherham US - The CSR
chassis is a little bigger (maybe I could fit it) and is much
stiffer and has much more modern suspension + 260 or more HP. New England Classic
Car Company - WorldClass Motorsports
is continuing the tradition of making light powerful vehicles(6.3
lbs/hp).
The Ariel Atom (Wiki) is a
very light (1350 lbs) and fast car. (2023: $80k) Exomotive
- similar to the Atom but the kit starts at one tenth the cost. Pembleton
- T24 four wheel cycle car
-
22R-E (Wiki)
Engine
1985 - 1995
This is the stock engine (there was a question about
having a newer engine)
Note it seems in 2023 you can no longer buy a pickup
truck with seating for 2 people. They all seem to have car
cabs with seating for 5 and to go with that a much shorter bed, so
less useful for hauling stuff.
Kei Cars & Trucks
Wiki: Kei Truck;
Kei Car; the
idea is to encourage small cars & trucks with lower fees
& lower insurance, i.e. very similar to how motorcycles are
treated in most countries.
A YouTube video of a 1918 Harley Davidson Cyclecar (1918
Harley Davidson Cycle car LEAVING) where the engine sound
was what got my attention. That started me on a path that
led to the TriKing cycle car, but it's based on a Moto Guzzi
rather than a Harley Davidson.
YouTube: Antique
Cycles: Harley Davidson Cyclecar,
8:43 - 1200cc Sportster (Wiki)
Engine
TriKing
(UK) & TriKing (US) Moto
Motivo - looks like early Morgan, based on Moto Guzzi drive
train (i.e. shaft drive is directly compatible whereas chain drive
is not).
Have book on order: Three-wheelers: the Complete History of
Trikes, 1885-1995 by Chris Rees, 1995 -
This is a project to make a 3-wheel car in the US that will sell
for $6,800.
Their YouTube
page.
The mule car uses a 3-cylinder Geo Metro (Wiki) engine
that's from the Suzuki
G line and front end assembly, but the actual car will use a
special built engine.
The Geo metro gets the same or better fuel economy than the Prius.
"... ultra-fuel-efficient Geo Metro XFi model, which delivered as
much as 58 miles per gallon..."
The reason given for the 3-wheel design (2 in front) is lower
aerodynamic drag (front and back seats, not side by side like the
Morgan).
The mule car has a 100 MPH top speed.
Press Release 28 Apr 2016 - Elio
Motors Completes Final Stage of Engineering for E-Series
Vehicles with Chassis Design
YouTube 2018 Dec 24:How this Radical Car
Missed its Chance to Change the World - (5:52) Wasted
money on developing engine and in the end went with Roush
engine. The need to shift consumer habits was another
problem. (7:01)
since rated as motorcycle, driver &
passenger need to wear helmets and driver needs M1 drivers
license. A 4-wheel version might have been an easier sell.
As of this video they have not yet shipped anything.
Morgan
The Morgan Car Co.
in England (yes they are still in business) made a three
wheel "motorcycle". There is a legal distinction that
is still true today, i.e. if it has three wheels it will be
treated as a motorcycle by the government licensing agency (the DMV in California). The
idea was to lower the cost of ownership. It had two steering front
wheels and a driven rear wheel. This is a stable
configuration meaning that you are less likely to crash it.
Search YouTube for "Bond Bug" (YouTube,
Wiki) to see
many crashes of a car with 2 rear powered wheels and a single
front wheel. The single steering wheel in front and two
driven wheels in back is an unstable configuration. These
definitions come from vehicle dynamics. The story is that
Mr. Morgan, a preacher's son, wanted to take girls out on dates in
the new car so it had to have side by side bench seating. In
the nineteen seventies I went to the Morgan factory and asked
about a tour. They said that they did not have the staff to
do tours, but that I was welcomed to just walk around and have a
look! It is interesting that wood (not in the frame, but
used between the frame and body panels, is a material very much
like carbon fiber in plastic. They both have a lot of
strength for their weight.
Note this is the same construction as used on the Rolls Royce PII
(chassis: WJ14) that I had. Coach builders used wood to
build the body and set it onto the metal car chassis.
The Tri-Hawk was made in Dana, Southern California as a autocross
car. It would not roll over and developed very high lateral
G forces in turns. It had both steering and drive on both
front wheels supplied by a compact car front engine-drive-line
assembly. The single rear wheel was fixed. Harley Davidson
bought them out and offered the car in 1984 but they never
installed their V-twin so as to make a modern version of the
Morgan e-wheeler. This would make a desirable modern version
of the Morgan. The key is to lower the center of gravity so
that the car will not roll over during hard cornering.
People have been killed driving the original Morgan 3 wheelers in
modern times because they have a high CG and can roll over. 4453763
Frame and Body Construction for Automotive Passenger Vehicle,
Louis R. Richards (Trihawk Inc.), Jun 12 1984, 296/181.2 ;
180/215; 280/756; 296/191; 296/205; 296/35.3 -combines fuel
economy of motorcycle with safety of car D274995
Three Wheel Automotive Passenger Vehicle, Louis R. Richards &
David J. Stollery (Trihawk Inc.), Aug 7 1984, D12/85 Tri-hawk design elevation view
David J. Stollery has other related patents: D283113
Body for three-wheeled motor vehicle, David J. Stollery (Fire
Arrow Inc), Mar 25, 1986, D12/85 - similar to the Trihawk D312228
Sports Car, David J. Stollery, Nov 20, 1990, D12/90 - futuristic 4
wheel drive D389094
Vehicle, David J. Stollery (Industrial Design Research, Inc.), Jan
13, 1998,D12/91 - Jeep D389095
Vehicle Body Kit, David J. Stollery (Industrial Design Research,
Inc.), Jan 13, 1998, D12/91 - Jeep body kit (for ??) D389109
Vehicle hood unit, David J. Stollery (Industrial Design Research,
Inc.), Jan 13, 1998, D12/173 - Jeep w/HMMWV
look
The Messerschmitt KR-200
was built by the German aircraft factory that built the
Messerschmitt planes (Wiki).
It has two front steering wheels and a single rear driven
wheel. The hinged bubble top looks very much like it came
from a fighter plane. Automobile
Quarterly - Second Quarter 1973 - Vol XI,
Number 2:. "Ist Das Nicht Ein
Kabinenroller?", "Ja! Das Ist Ein Kabinenroller!" page
162 and Under the bubble: a Short Flight in
a Messerschmitt KR 200, page 172. This car appeared
in one of the Adams Family movies driven by "thing". KR200,
TG500,
Sparrow - I saw one
parked at Fry's in Sunnyvale, cute as a bug! It's a one passenger
electric powered, enclosed 3-wheeler with 2 wheels in front. Merlin - is a
V2 gas engine version of the Sparrow due to be available in 2002.
New Design 3-Wheeler
BIG BRUTE V8 Super Cycle -
makes a chev V8 motorcycle. Has a right
anlge drive that can handle some torque Boss Hoss - Chevy 350 V8
engine powered cycle, maybe good for 3-wheeler parts? The
trike they make has two rear wheels, not a stable arrangement, two
in front is the way to go.
There is another class of Three-Wheelers that are designed to tilt
into turns like a motorcycle rather than lean out like a
car. The above 3-wheelers lean out. Patents related to Tilting Three
Wheelers Maxmatic - Max Hall's page
of interesting vehicles
Ref: Three-Wheelers: From Morgan to Messerschmitt,
Benz to Bond and Beyond.... The Complete history of trikes 1885
- 1995, Chris Rees, ISBN 1 899814 05 1
While looking for patents related to Golf Carts (I think my Polaris
Ranger EV uses a motor and ??? from golf carts) found
patents for the Cushman (Wiki)
motor scooter and a prior patent for the automatic clutch.
It takes the automatic clutch and the variable speed V-belt
pulley to make the Cushman motor scooter. The Clutch
patent included an image of a scooter (without variable speed
clutch and used a manual transmission. It looks like
Charles was hired by Cushman and there he came up with the
variable ratio V-belt drive.
In the early days of Cushman Motor Works they made gas
engines. The brothers Everett & Leslie have their
names on a number of patents. The patents cover single
sylinder gas engines, accessories for those and some
agricultural devices that would use the engines.
I know a guy who races vintage sports cars and has a vintage
Fox motor scooter (& a bespoke trailer) that he uses in the
pits (Wiki: Pit bike).
His motor scooter has a centrifugal clutch but no variable speed
drive and no transmission.
Fig 1 Right side
Fig 2 Left side
Fig 3 Left of engine
Fig 4 Scooter is at right front,
scooter's trailer hanging on left wall
The Welbike (Wiki) to
fit into the Container for Light Equipment (Wiki: CLE)
5.6' long, 16" dia.
@3:26 The
Cushman Model 53 (Wiki).
@4:17 The
Welbike became the Corgi (Wiki)
after W.W.II., a US version was branded the Indian Papoose (Wiki).
@5:37 The US
Doodle Bug (Wiki)
@6:34 The Micro
mini bike; Artic Cat &Etc.
@7:14 Tama Tech
Amusement Park (Wiki)
ride made of of Honda Z100 (Wiki)
which became the Honda Z50 (Wiki: Z series).
@8:14 The
Suzuki trail hopper, Kawasaki KV75 (Wiki),
Yamaha Chappy (Wiki),
Harley-Davidson Shortster (Wiki),
Indian Bambino.
@8:33 In
Australia Grand Prix deltek and Decks mini bikes.
@9:19 Honda
Compmo folds into a package (46.5" x 21.25" x 9.5") to fit
into a car trunk and be taken out to drive in a city.
@10:24
Pocketbikes (Wiki)
are even smaller, Pit bikes (Wiki) and
Mini choppers (Wiki).
@10:49 car
fender bikes.
08:00 Safety meeting
Fire up boilers
(may take 2 to 3 hours)
10:00 Willamette & stationary engines operating
11:00 Bucyrus Erie 50B Demo
Estep yarder running on spur
Mason County Logging #7 on track loop
12:00 Willamette exercises dynamo
Library & Ranch Car Open
Lidgerwood Tower Skidder tour
Bucyrus Erie 22B demo
13:00 Bucyrus Erie 50B moves to shop
Willamette exercises Washington Duplex Loader
14:00 Le Tourneau Tourna Crane demo
Willamette exercises
Washington Yarder
Raymond moves back to shop
Corliss demo in Engine house
15:00 Shut down boilers.
All through history there have been "hi-tech" fields. At one
time it was designing and building Cathedrals. At another
the Steam powered rail road system. At all times in history
very bright people have spent a large amount of time studying,
designing and refining their "hi-tech" products. A man
found that the new horse less carriages were so unreliable that
they could not make it across London. He started his own car
company to make a more reliable car. Henry Royce was an
engineer apprenticed at the Baldwin Locomotive works (hi-tech live
steam).
Up until 1948 the Fowler
company was making and selling live steam "heavy haulage" trucks
that out performed diesel based trucks for hauling very heavy
loads.
In England there are a large number of people devoted to
various hobbies related to live steam and there are quite a
number of them in the U.S.
At first steam engines were stationary (Wiki)
and used in manufacturing plants to power machinery by means of
line shafts and flat leather belts. Mr. Watts invented a
4-bar linkage used on Beam engines (Wiki),
a handsome type of stationary engine. Later with
skids under the steam engine it could pull itself (called a mule
or yarder: Wiki) by means
of a powered spool and rope, or with carriage wheels it could be
pulled by horses - a portable engine (Wiki),
a version of this is the "Fire Engine" (Wiki).
Then with the steam engine powering it's own wheels, the traction
engine (Wiki).
Traction engines were the predecessors to tractors with large
diameter metal wheels, tracks
came later. The Showman's traction engine was used around
the Circus and had lights and music. Some traction engines
are very large. A short history
of steam. Other traction engines are fractional reproductions
made for fun driving.
Note that until the middle of W.W.II that torpedoes used steam power driving a
piston engine. Even after electric torpedoes were
introduced the steam version still was in service.
Note that an engine is a device that burns or otherwise consumes fuel,
changing its chemical composition, whereas a motor is a device,
which does not change the chemical composition of its energy
source..
Examples: starter motor in a car, diesel engine, electric motor,
gas engine, Sterling engine, a WWII submarine has motors for
propulsion and engines to charge the batteries, most ships have
engines. Hydraulic and air powered motors are used for many
things.
Ship or Boat?
For a single keel vessel: Has to do with how it leans in a
turn.
YouTube: Whiteboard: Difference
Between a Ship and a Boat - a ship has the center of
gravity above the center of buoyancy so it leans out in a
turn. A submarine has the center of gravity below the
center of buoyancy so it leans in when turning.
There are a number of people who have restored and have in
excellent working condition all types of steam powered
vehicles. They have meetings where Traction Engines race,
have tug of wars, and other events so people can enjoy seeing
these magnificent machines working like when they were new.
Some of these huge machines, that I saw in England, were licensed
for traveling on public roads (MOT stickers, Wiki).
There is a driving
school for traction engines. Roots of Motive Power
- Is in Willits just North of me (Events
Schedule). It is a museum with a lot of live steam
machinery that was used for logging in this area. 1932
Bucyrus-Erie 5O-B Steam Shovel - My
Erie page -
Murray Brothers Single Drum
Donkey "D11" c1900 (Mur_d11.dwf)
To view this drawing you need the Autodesk WHIP!
Plug-in. For Netscape 4.05 or higher there is a
<Shift><Click to download as file> whip.jar
file (about 2.8 megabyte).
These are also called a Yarder or Donkey. They are
on a sled, no wheels.
While located in one place (Fig2) the redwood logs between
4 and 8 feet in diameter can be moved to the road my
moving the snatch blocks to different trees.
The Yarder can be moved by pulling it toward a tree.
279916
Snatch Block, J. Cochran, June 26, 1883, 254/405 -
To get a rope on a pulley (Wiki)
you need to thread it. If the rope has been whipped
(Wiki: Knot,
Whipping)
or has a hook (Wiki) or other fastener installed on the
end you will not be able to thread it onto a pulley and
will need a snatch block that can be opened.
The gypsy (D) mentioned in the patent today is called a Capstan
(Wiki)
or Windless (Wiki),
also see Block & Tackle (Wiki).
Snatch blocks can be used to aim the direction of pull or to
double the pulling force.
Capstan Winch see Power
Winch Capstans -
The meaning of the name is that the engine "hits" (the engine
fires and has a power stroke) only occasionally and the rest of
the time it "misses" or coasts. The lighter the load the
more missis.
Notice Fig 4 showing 1 hit and 5 missis at no load.
Most YouTube Hit & Miss videos show a hit on every
revolution, but that means the engine is not working
properly.
Tracks are very different from tires (see
above) in how they work.
Ground Loading
The wiki
Track page shows a number of patents, but also confuses
the definition. They are talking about continuous tracks,
but that misses what I think is the point. In my opinion
the whole point of tracks is to reduce the ground
pressure. This is mentioned at the bottom of the advantages
paragraph on the Wiki Track page after some other things that
are really are not that important. The examples given are
the M1 Abrams
tank which has a ground pressure of 15 psi and a typical
car which has a ground pressure of 28 to 32 psi.
Note the M1 tank weighs between 60 and 68 tons (120,000 to
136,000 pounds) which means the track area is in the range of
8,000 to 9,066 square inches or 55 to 63 square feet.
If wheels were used a vehicle of this weight would immediately
get stuck when driving on anything but a think concrete road.
Note that for balloon tires the inflation
pressure is the ground pressure. This is why ATVs (Wiki)
and other off road vehicles use special low inflation pressure
tires, both to have a light environmental footprint and to avoid
getting stuck. The Wiki Tire page does
not get how they work. See Tires
above. I've recently been looking at "Fat Tire" bicycles
and tricycles that are
suitable for driving in snow, sand, mud &Etc. (see M-360)
Also note that trailers use small tires to allow for a wider
payload with a maximum eight foot trailer width set by
law. They use high inflation pressure in order to carry
more weight. This is way you don't want to pull a trailer
over dirt when loaded.
Traction
The traction (Wiki)
of a tracked vehicle is greatly increased by the use of Grousers
(Wiki).
This allows tracked vehicles to have drawbar (Wiki)
pull much higher than vehicles with tires. A common fair
attraction is the Tractor Pull (Wiki)
Patents
Top Patent Class numbers: 180 Motor Vehicles
7.1 Special Driving Device
.9
Portable Track
..9.1 Endless Flexible
...9.62
Toothed Drive Wheel 674737Logging-engine, Alvin
O Lombard, Nov 9, 1900, 180/9.62;
305/140 - for logging in mud or snow in
1900. Here the emphasis is low ground
pressure.
Note these prior patents missed the mark (all class
180/9.62):
251513 Steam (snow) Plow - uses "Feet" instead of treads.
312630 Traction Engine - uses a form of rail and wheel with
groove for rail.
334333 Traction Engine - uses "Feet" instead of treads.
467095 Road Locomotive - Uses tracks, but they are tight
around wheels thus not effective in lowering ground pressure.
484829 Traction Engine - 4-wheel drive and treads wrapped
tight around wheels
484830 Traction Engine - treads wrapped tight around rear
wheels front wheels powered
305 Wheel Substitutes for Land Vehicles
120 with frame carried
endless track
.121 With roller antifriction means
351749Vehicle, Chaeles
Dinsmoor, Nov 2, 1886, 305/121 - is
a tracked vehicle, but the purpose is to avoid bumps and jolts,
like when a wheel hits a rock.
But the first patent with class 305/121 has continuous tracks: 7427
Traction-Wheel, Gideon Morgan, June 11, 1850, 305/121
- Note this predates the Blinov Russian patent of 1877.
@3:13854364
Log-hauler, Alvin
O Lombard, 1907-05-21, - skies in front of tracks
@5:06
Holt 75 & 120 (Wiki)
994317
Traction-engine, Pliny
E Holt, 1911-06-06, - wheel in front of tracks
@6:38
Linn Tractor 1270531
Tractor, Holman
Harry Linn, 1918-06-25, -
@8:20
Why a Half-track? Tracks for lower ground pressure, Wheels
for sharper and more responsive turns. Faster on roads
than all track vehicle while being able to keep going in harsher
environments. Half-track can carry more weight than all
wheeled vehicle.
@10:18
Golden Age of the Half-track (W.W.II) - French, German &
@17:14
American @17:25
M2 (Wiki)
& @18:09
M3 (Wiki).
@19:53
The end of half-tracks - Improved steering (Wiki)
for all track vehicles & the M113 (Wiki,
Wiki)
became very popular (made at Food Machinery Corp (FMC) in San
Jose, just across the runway of the San Jose airport).
Just across the street from Roots of Motive Power
is the office of California Western Railroad that runs the
Skunk and Super
Skunk trains between Willits and Fort Brag on the
California coast.
You can buy finished live steam models ready to run, kits of parts
that are ready to assemble, kits of parts that need some work to
assemble, raw castings that need machining, and plans for build
form scratch models. There is a good sized industry in the
United Kingdom to fill the needs of this model builder
market. In the U.S. there are a number of live steam
railroads built to a scale where people can ride on or in smaller
sized rail cars. Many of these are in peoples gardens.
Toys in my definition are made using sheet metal and lower cost
construction methods. These are the sheet metal type models,
not the ones made from castings like the Reeves line. Yesteryear Toys and Books
Inc. - in U.S.A. -
Mamod - dealer
- Wilesco? -
dealer - Dave's Toy
Steam Engine collection - Toy
List - some steam models and toys
Tim the Toy Man - Steam &
Things - links -
A Collection Of Toy
Stationary Steam Engines And Pop-Pop Boats -
Krick - steam boat engines - dealer
- Jensen Steam Engine
Mfg. Company - stationary engine plants Eureka,
Found It! - used live steam toy dealer - Paul Pluta
- Wilesco & Mamod LGB -
these are G scale electric trains. the link is here even they are
not steam because I used to have a lot of them. I found that
putting 2 magnets under the engine made the switches work more
reliably. Using the switches you could have layouts with
many independent trains all running by themselves. Since
there are only 2 rails the polarity would need to be switched to
allow a train to go either way on a given section of track.
I remember one layout that had a yard with 4 trains. One
would let the train go down a long track and at the end go around
a loop and come back on the same track. Near the yard it
would branch and go back onto the same track that it came
from. That would release the next train to run. They
would all take their turns. I resisted the temptation to
build my own parts of the system. If I started doing that,
there would be no end to what could be done. A friend liked
to build with Legos. He built a working grandfather clock
that kept time reasonably well, but used only Lego parts, he did
not want to get into making his own parts. Lilliput Motor
Company - has some live steam toys
An alternative form of gas engine ignition is the Magneto (Wiki).
They have a number of advantages. No battery needed, great
for vehicle that's stored longer than shelf life of
battery. Ignition system is light weight so used in
aircraft and motorcycles. 662316Magneto-electric
machine, Frederick
Richard Simms, Rober
Bosch, Nov 20, 1900, 310/155;
123/149G - internal combustion engines
Atwater Kent Type B.
Unisparker
The Arthur Atwater Kent company (Wiki)
purchased the spark ignition system he sold from Thomas H.
McQuown. This system works on a different principle than
the later Kettering (Wiki: Delco)
ignition system. The Kent system
used "trembler or buzzer" coils, like on the Ford Model-T (Wiki)
(1919 to 1927). These produce many sparks and if
constant power is applied the high voltage will be a constant
stream of sparks. The problem is that it only works on
low compression engines and at low RPM. With the advent
of higher compression ratios (Wiki)
and higher RPM engines the Kettering system took over.
The Kettering ignition system uses a coil that's just an auto
transformer (it has no trembler or buzzer). The current
is going through the coil most of the time so it's
magnetically saturated. At the instant the points break
the magnetic field collapses causing a single high voltage
pulse on the secondary.
Functional Description
This is based on looking at the outside since the inside is
potted.
The two left terminals marked: INT and G go to the interrupter
and engine ground, i.e. the points that make a very brief
contact at the moment there should be a spark.
The two right terminals marked: CARBON and ZINC to the the
Positive and Negative battery terminals of the series connected
ignition batteries.
The center terminal is the High Voltage output.
The On-OFF switch at the top right is for turning the engine on
or off.
The START switch at the top left is for "starting off the
switch" (Rolls
Royce).
Note 1: 0.7 Ohms when START is pressed
Note 2: With INT shorted to G: Carbon to Zinc is 0.9 Ohms
Note 2: With START pressed: Carbon to Zinc is 0.7 Ohms ----- searching for Nov 22, 1904& class
200/? ---- 755844
Electric Time switch - for a clock
775665
Circuit Controller, Archibald
D Scott, Varley
Duplex Magnet Co, Nov 22, 1904, 200/19.26;
200/574; 200/6BB; 200/DIG.9 -
for gas engines, goal minimum contact time (backwards from
Kettering ignition which needs as much dwell as possible).
Similar to the "points" in the distributor of a more
modern car.
------
McQuown patents ------
745370Electric-circuit closer
and breaker, Thomas
H McQuown, Dec 1, 1903, 200/469;
200/19.2; 200/38D - for sounding chimes
from master clock
748638Electric-circuit closer
and breaker, Thoma
H. McQuown, Jan 5, 1904, 200/38R;
200/19.2; 200/38D - for sounding chimes from master clock
749743Speed-indicator,
T.
H. Moquown, Jan 19, 1904, 235/104;
377/23; 73/489; 73/491; 73/506 - shows
speed and total revolutions of vehicle, but Fig 5 to
Fig 8 show the circuit breaker and were the subject
of a separate applications serial No. 137445 dated
1900 and serial No. 137790 also of 1900 which turned
into RE12273.
1011070Electric-circuit closer and
breaker, Thomas
H McQuown, Arthur
Atwater Kent, Filed: Jul 18, 1904,
Pub: Dec 5, 1911, 200/19.2
- applied to gas engines -
"Points" with short closing time
John's Vertical
Keystone 2-stroke cycle gas engine
Atwater Kent type K coil & Unisparker Type B.
No patent info on Type K coil.
Patent Dates on Unisparker Type B:
Oct 1, 1904: Not a Tuesday= not valid US patent
date
Nov 22, 1904: 775665
- points
Dec 8, 1910: Not a Tuesday= not valid US patent date
Dec 5, 1911: 1011070
-
Jun 25, 1912: 1030432
Electric igniter, Frederick
Henry Royce, (not assigned to RR) 1912-06-25 -
Distributor; 1030288
Ignition system for gas-engines, Willard
E Dow, Mag or Coil; 1030413
Electric ignition device, Joseph
J Lombardi, Spark Plug, None of these looks correct, maybe a
typo in the patent number????
Oct 11, 1904: RE12273
The points
in the 427 Cobra would "float" at about 5,000 RPM and
that was the limit to higher revs, so I had a distributor shop
install racing points to raise the RPMs. More modern
spark ignition engines use one HV coil per cylinder thus
allowing more time to charge the coil allowing higher RPM
operation. Also this eliminated the distributor (one
less thing to go wrong).
This is the precursor to the Cruise Missile (Wiki)
designed by the same Charles Kettering with the help of Elmer
Sperry of Gyroscope fame.
Sperry patented a radio controlled version: 1792937Wireless-controlled aerialtorpedo, Sperry
Elmer A, Sperry
Gyroscope Co Inc, Priority: Dec 22, 1916,
(15 year delay) Pub: Feb 17, 1931 - secret throughout W.W.I
The distance traveled was estimated by using a counter preset to
the number of propeller revolutions to the target and counting
down. At zero the wings were disconnected and the engine turned
off.
Lubrication
Zinc Air (hearing aid) batteries generate hydrogen gas
when they have a heavy load. This can be used to drive a
piston and force grease into a bearing over a time span measured
in months.
Rolls Royce used the Bijur chassis lubrication
system on their early cars.
Note this is very similar to the problem of putting air into tires.
Button Head Fittings 1922
I remember using this one on my uncle's heavy earth moving
equipment. Sometimes the grease gun would pop off the Zerk
fitting. This alternate type grease fitting looked like a
disk maybe 3/4" in diameter and the grease gun would surround
the disk so no matter how much pressure there was it never could
pop off. This grease gun had a tub that sat on the ground
and held over a gallon of grease. The pumping level was on
the tub so you could apply much more force than with a hand held
cartridge type grease gun.
The 20/25 Rolls used Trafficdators. The switch on the
instrument panel activated one or the other and included a timer
function, not sure if clockwork or pneumatic.
Was reminded about these on YouTube:
SOLENOIDS & RELAYS - The Secret Life of Components, a
series of guides for makers and designers - 15,
@11:44
Trafficator,
1265197
Electromechanical traffic-signal, Henry W Hawes, 1918-05-07, -
hand with extended index finger rotates. 1284134
Electric signaling system for motor-vehicles, Joseph
P Ogden, Naillik
Motor Signal, 1918-11-05, - adds lights to the arms.
I interviewed for an engineering job related to a start up
company making traffic light controllers. You could drive
all around the building through the parking lot so they had
loops in the parking lot that allowed testing the
controllers. There was an intersection in Los Altos which
flashed red in all directions at night when there was no
traffic. As you approached the light it would turn green
so you didn't need to stop. Very cleaver.
1475024
Traffic signal, Garrett
A Morgan, 1923-11-20, - cross arm with "STOP" spelled out
gets manually turned 90 degrees. 1490567
Automatic traffic signal, Hugo
A Kleinsteuber, Thomas
E Hayes, Assigned to: William
A. Callahan, 1924-04-15, - Lights behind panels
marked GO & STOP face in 4 directions. Light in top
Globe marked Traffic Change - so equivalent to a 3 color
light. A motor controlled switch automatically changes
lights, or can be turned off and lights manually operated. 1575571
Traffic signal, Albert
M Gray, 1926-03-02, - one red light for ALL STOP (also
bell) plus 3 white lights for: Stop, OK to go straight, OK to
turn right, OK to turn left, OK to make U-turn, 1640170
Street-traffic-signal device, John
E Wright, Assigned to: Austen
H. Fox, 1927-08-23, - cylinder with red & green
filters is rotated by a bevel gear/motor. A third All Stop
light is at the top. 1852989
Traffic signal, John H Walrath, Schwartz Elizabeth Gill,
Assigned to: Walrath, 1932-04-05, - boxy Stop/Go with auto
timer. 2457019
Signal lamp, Earl
E Weber, 1948-12-21, - battery powered toy with Red, Amber
& Green filters on lamps.
When designing a product there are always considerations of
schedule and price and sometimes one of these may be the
critical design parameter. The normal case is when
functional engineering decisions are made.
I attended a lecture by Charles and Ray Eames (Wiki)
where they said a product designed when the life of the user is
at stake did not contain any marketing elements and so tended to
be elegant. This is related to the Form Follows Function
school of design (Wiki).
The example given was the gyroscope
used in aircraft.
There are conflicting functions for any vehicle and they may be
Performance, Utility, Luxury and Economy. There are many
performance parameters such as top speed, gas mileage, range,
&Etc. Utility vehicles need to do the job they were
designed to do at the lowest cost point. Luxury vehicles
tend to give up on all the other factors. Economy vehicles
give up on the other factors, &Etc.
Vehicles that are aimed at general markets tend to be a blend
of Performance, Utility, Luxury and Economy. But a blended
design can not come close to a purpose designed vehicle where
only one goal is present. The family sedan can not set a
world land speed record.
As of 2023 full size pickup trucks seem to be only available as
luxury vehicles with 4 doors and a plush interior. For
some reason none of the major car companies is making a utility
pickup truck.
A multi-tool that
does many things can not compete with a single purpose tool when
used for it's stated task.
Mean Time Between Failures
A possible design consideration is Mean Time Between Failures
(Wiki: MTBF).
I learned about this when I was engineering products for
military applications where MIL-HDBK-217 was the defining
document introduced in 1961. I also had a conversation
with Keith, another engineer, who worked at RCA and was involved
in the design of color TV picture tubes where the goal was to
get the MTBF at one year plus one day. That's to say just
after the warranty ran out. While not the same as the
"sell razor blades not razors" business model (Wiki),
it's in the same ballpark. This would allow RCA to sell a
second picture tube and give employment to the local TV shop.
Individual components can be tested to determine the parameters
needed as inputs to the MIL-HDBK-217 calculations. Then
these components can be combined to make a sub assembly where
its MTBF can be computed. These sub assemblies can be
combined into a sub system with its MTBF and so on. Thus
the MTBF for a complete aircraft outfitted for a specific
mission can be calculated. The idea is that the MTBF
should be longer (maybe 4 times longer) than the total mission
time. It's my recollection that an early F-111 (Wiki)
had failures during a mission and the guys at Aertech who made some parts for the
terrain following radar were nervous until they learned is was
not their component that failed. In any case the MTBF was
shorter than the mission time.
I think MTBF should be a required part of a product label for
expensive items. The idea is to let the buyer know the
longevity of the product. Some buyers may want to pay less
and get a product that's only going to last a year while others
may want to pay more and have a longer lasting product.
This has implications when deciding to make a major
repair. On a car with a short MTBF making a major repair
may be a waste of money, but on a car with a longer MTBF might
be an excellent investment.
At the end of the movie Blues Brothers (IMDB) the car
they were driving throughout the movie disintegrates. This
is the ideal case of matching of MTBFs for all the components of
the car. If, for example, one part of the car has a much
longer MTBF than the rest of the car then that part can be
re-engineered to have a lower cost and shorter MTBF thus
lowering the cost of the car without impacting anything else.
While electric vehicles have many advantages (see my Polaris
EV) there may be a problem relating to MTBF.
Currently it pays for manufacturers who produce high quantities
of a single product to spend say $10,000 to lower the cost of a
part by one cent that will go into a million products. The
amortized cost of the engineering is $10,000/1,000,000 = 0.01,
i.e. a penny. The proviso is that the MTBF of the part
needs to be greater or equal to the MTBF of the final
product. So this cost reduction is aimed at parts that
have an MTBF that's too high which are typically higher quality
parts. That's to say those parts need to be made cheaper
in both the literal and figurative sense.
If the car is designed so that the its MTBF and the battery
MTBF are about the same then the whole car is considered a one
time use product to be dismantled/scrapped at the end of it's
life. This seems to be the case for most products.
(2022 June: PS Last night I replaced a 3-way lamp socket because
it was not working. The store clerk said he did not see
many people repairing products much any more.) Most of
today's products seem to be single use. This is not
sustainable in the long haul.
The implication is that electric (or really any) car (product)
that is designed to a specific MTBF will have matched quality
parts. Unlike early Rolls Royce cars that were designed to
last as long as possible. That's why the Phantom II
and 20/25 models will be functional for a minimum of 100
years.
My 2003 Mercedes Benz has plastic parts in the engine cooling
system that have a life on the order of 20 years. It's not
that they fail at 20 years so much as it is that if a mechanic
touches one of them to replace a sensor the plastic part
breaks. As long as replacement parts are available or the
broken part can be repaired the car can be kept on the
road. But you can see that at some point the car must be
scrapped. This is very different from the early Rolls
Royce cars that do not have plastic and rubber parts with a
limited life.
A possible solution would be to go back to the system where the
chassis and coach/body were made as different assemblies.
That way the power train (electric motor and battery) could be
thrown away/recycled and the higher quality body could be kept
in service. This is backwards from how it used to
be. My RR Phantom II body fell out of style and was
removed from the chassis (which was the high MTBF part of the
car) and a delivery truck body was fitted. But currently
it would make sense to have the high MTBF part of the car be the
body on high end cars.
For low end cars they will just be scrapped (Wiki) at the
end of their life.
2023 Oct - New considerations:
1. Because of the problem the lack of a way to put out an EV fire,
insurance for EVs will soon become very expensive and they will be
banned from some locations.
2. A gas station has a large storage tank in the ground and so can
fill dozens of cars at the same time. Since there is
currently no practical grid level electrical storage system it
will not be possible to have an electrical charging station with a
dozen charge points, or if they do that the capacity of each
charge point will be reduced.
Pete Brock was big on
the idea that engines (and vehicles) should be very reliable as
well as fuel efficient and easy to repair. His idea was a
low BMEP (Wiki)
engine was superior to a high BMEP engine. Also he used
the same size hex bolt throughout the engine. If more
strength was needed he used two bolts. That way a single
size hex tool, that also could be made to be a torque limiter,
would be needed for engine work.
Note electric vehicles control the battery use (minimum depth
of discharge, maximum charge) in such a way as to extend the
battery life at the expense of restricting range. This way
they hope to get a desired MTBF for the battery. Since the
battery is not easily replaced that means the vehicle will also
be designed to have the same MTBF. The end result is that
most EVs will be on the cheap side. Note the EU ruled on
30 June 2023 that cell phones need to have user replaceable
batteries. This is because cell phones are thrown away
when their battery fails.
This has happened to my last three cell phones. If EVs
have owner replaceable batteries then the MTBF for the car can
be longer than the battery and so of a higher quality.
That might allow battery swapping if the process is designed for
"quick change" batteries, which would make commercial use
practical. As it is a commercial user needs to have his
economic assets in use for as many hours a day as possible, so
waiting hours for a non-replaceable battery to charge is a deal
breaker.
2023 Oct - there have been a few YouTube videos about things
like $5,600 to replace a Ford pickup tail light, a quotation of
$41,000 to fix a dent in a Rivian pickup truck, A friend just
told me he installed new wiring on an RV for high and low beam
headlights for about $10 in parts where the dealer quote was for
$7,500 to replace a wiring harness. This points in the
direction that modern vehicles may be getting to the point where
they are disposable rather than repairable.
A symptom of this is the lack of new cars because of supply
line disruptions caused by COVID-19.
Another symptom is my local Mercedes Benz dealer will no longer
work on my C230 because it's too old. I'm guessing that
they can no longer get parts and don't want to install after
market parts, so just will not work on my car. Note that
the 1929 and
1934 Rolls Royce cars my son now has can be maintained for
centuries to come. But cars that contain electronics will
become bricks when those parts are no longer available.
You can see this when companies sell product lines to what may
be called after market test equipment companies. The new
company raises the price by a large multiplier and tells the
government (and all customers) that's the price if they
want that piece of equipment.
There may be a market for a utility vehicle that uses parts
that are available world wide in large numbers, i.e. that is
easy to source to manufacturer and easy to get repair
parts. Rather than use a wire harness it would use cable
management so that a repair would only require a spool of wire.
It would not use electronic ICs that are custom made, but could
use generic ICs that have multiple sources.
I have repaired my refrigerator two times. "Repair is
Recycling" appears on a local appliance company truck. But
when the clothes washer that was maybe 10 years old failed, the
cost of the mother board was about $400 + labor + a substantial
wait time, so I bought a new washer. This is a sign that
modern products are designed as throwaway products.
It used to be that electronic products were made using
commercial off the shelf components. I call this the Golden Era
of electronics. As time went on manufacturers would have
custom parts made and the order quantity would be slightly more
than the production run quantity. That's to say when one
of those custom parts fails there's no practical way to make a
repair. These are throwaway products.
There's a whole separate thing relating to the Right To Repair (Wiki).
There are two aspects to this. The Right to property (Wiki)
that you have purchased and the Repairability (Wiki) of
the product.
Also a major EV maker in China has gone bankrupt and because their
internet server is no longer on line the cars they made are
susceptible to being bricked (Wiki).
This is different than although related to the right to repair
issue of John Deer tractors, Apple products &Etc. (Wiki).
Body on Frame - Unibody
In the horse and buggy days "coachbuilders" (Wiki)
built the coach part which was then placed on a chassis (Wiki).
When automobiles were invented the same coach builders made
bodies for cars. So for may decades Rolls Royce (see: PII & 20/25)
did not make complete cars but rather made the chassis, and
companies like Barker would make the coach work. Later the
car manufacturer made both the frame and body. Note heavy
duty vehicles like trucks have always been body on frame (Wiki)
construction because it's stronger than unibody
construction.
The following cars are held in high regard and I think the key
reason is they are the last body on frame cars by Chevrolet and
Ford. All cars since have been unibody which has a lower
cost to make, but not as rugged. It may be that a body on
frame car can handle more engine torque than a unibody and so
for cars with more powerful engines a frame is needed.
1957 was the last year Chevrolet made cars with a separate
frame and body. There is no Wiki page for 1958 Chevrolet
probably because they were made using unibody
construction. The 283 cu in engine with factory fuel
injection achieved 1 HP per cu in, a first for Chevrolet (Wiki).
The last year Chevrolet made the Caprice body on frame car in
the U.S. was 1996. GM did continue to make them in
Australia under the Holden (Wiki) brand up
until 2017.
2011 was the last year Ford made a car using body on frame
construction. Versions of this design were and still are
used by police (Wiki)
and taxi cab companies because of the longevity and ease of
repair.
Fuel Efficiency
Miles per gallon has been the metric for quite some time.
But the introduction of alternative fuels has complicated the
comparison. Now new cars are labeled with MPGe (Wiki).
This is based on the energy content of various fuels (Wiki).
Note the table says 34.02 kWh/Gallon, but the EPA uses 33.7
kWh/Gallon.
The Delsbo Electric
contest in Sweden (New
Atlas: June 2019) the new record is "0.603 watt-hours per
person per kilometer" (when 6 people are on board with a total
people weight of 660 lbs.) The actual vehicle therefore
comes in at 6 * 0.603 Wh/km = 3.618 Wh/km = 3.618 Wh * (1
km/0.6213712 miles) = 5.82 Wh/mile. This is done on train
tracks, not on a road using tires. Using the EPA value of
33.7 kWh/Gallon = 33,700 Wh/Gallon gives about 8,000 MPGe.
The Tesla Model S is rated
about 104 MPGe. Delsbo says the Eximus III is about 76.4
times more efficient than the Tesla Model S, or 7945 MPGe.
Self reporting by the CSX railroad says they get 471 ton-miles per
gallon of Diesel fuel whereas trucks get 134 MPG on Diesel.
These translate to 418 MPG for rail and 118 MPG for trucks on
gasoline because Diesel contains more energy per gallon than
gasoline.
But how the weight (note: ton-miles) effects the results depends
on the elevation changes of the routes used for the annual
calculation.
A horsepower (Wiki)
is defined as lifting 550 pounds one foot in one
second. Also see M-360 eTrike hill
climbing.
So the Delsbo results are biased because they are run on a level
RR track. It's similar to measuring gas mileage on a level
track on a windless day. Much better to make these
measurements on some stated course, like the CSX railroad using
all the routes they have.
Got his start by winning a 1904 contest to see how far
a contestant could go on an Imperial quart of petrol. He
went 40 miles, i.e. 160 MPG (Wiki).
He did that by optimizing everything he could think of for maximum
fuel efficiency.
He holds over
100 patents related to engines. including US1677249
Method of making sleeve valves, 1928-07-17. Wiki says he
didn't invent them but wrote an extensive paper.
Vehicle Tracking
In the movies it's sometimes said that the GPS system knows
where a GPS receiver is located and that by hacking the GPS
system that location can be found out. That's not the
case. The GPS satellites only transmit to the GPS
receivers. The GPS receiver does not transmit any data
back to the satellite. also see Key, Object & Pet Location
Tags & FasTrak.
Cars, Trucks, Motorcycles &Etc.
There are a number of ways cars can be tracked. For
example by the use of bridge toll transponderes or license plate
cameras (see FasTrak). If the
car has it's own cell phone, such as the On Star system, then
there are many ways cell phones can be tracked (see: Spying on Cell Phones).
There are many "GPS Trackers" sold on eBay. These combine
a GPS receiver and a Cell phone which places a call from the
tracked item. These only work if the GPS antenna can see
the sky AND the cell phone antenna can connect with a cell tower
for the provider. The newest wrinkle is the use of the Apple AirTag.
Most modern aircraft now have ADS-B (Wiki)
transponders. There are a number of services, like FlightRadar24, that
consolidate that information and present it on a world map so
that you can see pretty much all aircraft traffic in the
world. Note that ADS-B works in conjunction with the 1 GHz
IFF (Wiki)/Aircraft
Transponder system (Wiki,
SSR))
so is not available over oceans.
Ships
Most commercial ships have a transponder and can be tracked
using something like Ship
Tracker. This makes use of Automatic Identification
System (Wiki: AIS).
Most of these ships transmit the AIS information on a VHF radio
channel (about 162 MHz). There is a Satellite version
(S-AIS) and a Long-range Identification version (Wiki: LRIT)
that will work in the oceans.
Today I saw this YouTube: I
Invented a Better Way to Weigh Your Car. And it's Cheaper, Too,
7:20 - He spends the first half talking about failed ideas then
@4:59
SuperFastMatt describes "The Better Idea" of using a wheel dolly
and 4 load cells. He used the Sunex 1500-Pound Wheel Dolly
(needs to be hydraulic or ratchet jack type) and FSK Livestock
Scale Kit Build Your Own Scale at a Fraction of the Price
(includes 4 load cells, 20,000 # max) both on Amazon for a total
under $400. The beauty of his idea is it's very quick to
measure the weight.
Note vehicles that have a GVW greater than 10,000# have fewer
rules than lighter vehicles. So a 20,000# weight for one
wheel may be overkill. 5,000# total for the 4 load cells costs
less and has finer resolution. See Car Bloat above.
Snap-On
1443413
Socket wrench, Johnson
Joseph, Snap
On Wrench Co, App: 1920-07-01, Pub: 1923-01-30, - - maybe
the oldest Snap On patent? BOLTR:
Snap-On Ratchet, 5:35 - 3 US patent numbers on this 3/8"
ratchet. 6125722
Ratchet wrench with sealed reversing lever, Richard L. Hopper,
Jr., William A. Nurmi, Charles H. Heiligenthal, Kenneth E.
Kessler, Snap
On Tools, 2000-10-03, - 7987747
Bias assembly for ratchet tools, David T. Ross, Steven R. Wente,
Snap
On Inc, 2011-08-02, - 8720308
Dual pawl ratchet mechanism and reversing method, Richard
Hopper, Michael Foster, Christopher Thompson, Snap
On Inc,2013-10-31, -
This Western Electric 318W Chauffeur's phone showed up on
eBay. Two patent dates and Western Electric 318W could be
seen. This transmitter would be used by the passenger and
a loud speaker would be near the driver.
