TomoHawk

I'm confused. What do you mean?

Right now, I have all these little LED things connected to a 9V in a switched battery holder. It's not really related, but Bruce might get a kick from the chasing lights board I built: it's got a 555 timer and a 4017 decade counter. I should make one up in the shape o f a Z?

It's a 1970s car. A 2017 alarm system has no place in it, nor is it compatible, probably. They probably plug into your OBD board.

You know those flashing LEDs that you see on cars with alarms or theft-deterrent stuff installed? I was looking at my drawer of electronics junk, and realized I had the stuff to make one (555 timer, resistors, LED, etc.) I made a Printed circuit board ( hate breadboarding) and put the thing together. It worked! I will add some wire to the LED so I can hide the PCB behind the sunvisor, and let the LED hang down near the rearview mirror. But overall, would something like that be useful? Does the fake alarm LED actually deter a would-be thief?

I am learning a lot about these things, as TrackR and Tile are not the only Bluetooth location devices available. Chipolo is another one. They all seem to boast the same features: a battery with limited life and an application that relies on "crowd GPS" and you can locate the stuff that has a tracking device attached. I doubt having one in your vehicle will get you a "theft-deterrent" discount, as if you had an alarm or Lojack system installed. I think I will just see if I can find out what kinds of vehicle tracking devices exist, such as Lojack.

Don't they need batteries, or charging, to work? On second thought, it it's such a good thing, for finding your phone or keys for example, why don't phones have then incorporated, or you get one in your car's remote, or your TV remote control, etc? I'm curious if you could just use some RFID tags for the latter things (stuff around the house) and use that to locate things that you don't take out of the house.

Has anyone heard of, or used this new thing? The TrackR device is some new kind of BlueTooth thing that allows you to find whatever it's attached to. If you leave it somewhere in public, it relies on other people that use the associated smartphone application to detect the device, and the location information is stored somewhere using "cloud" resources. I don't think this would be good to use for some things, even thought they claim you could attach the little thing (about the size of a quarter coin) to most anything, and you should be able to find it. Really? "I dropped my keys in the marina..." I suppose if you had it on a phone or in your wallet, you could find it around the house, but out in public, And an hour after you lost it? How many people have the Bluetooth service going ALL the time? I don't, and it's a security problem, like RFID information on your credit cards.. They even tell you to hide one in the car. If it works, it could be useful. So if my insurance company buys me one, I'll put it in the car.

My exhaust manifold has the ceramic coating, and the downpipe has ceramic paint, so welding a bung would probably mess it up. I will have to decide if I get that far. I would only have a meter connected temporarily, anyway.

I changed my interest to the narrow-band sensors because you can just put one into the exhaust stream and get some kind of signal. For the wide-band sensors, which supposedly give you an actual air-fuel ratio, you need complex control circuits for the heater and to interpret the signal from the sensor. Even though the result is somewhat misleading, the display circuit for the narrow band sensor is simple and I should be able to make a PC board in a day or two- if I get motivated! It might be fun to play with. I have a bluetooth OBD adapter and I viewed the signals from the two oxygen sensors on the exhaust, and with the combined signals, you can get a bit of an understanding of what the ECU is doing with the fuel mixture. I also had a go with a "dyno" application, and the results were kinda funny.

I'm focusing on the narrow-band sensors. It still doesn't tell you the air-to-to fuel mixture of what is going into the cylinders. It tells you how much stuff there is in the exhaust that can be oxidized. Don't forget that only certain sensors have the Nuernst pump or the heater. Most people in those Youtube videos are using the narrow-band sensors and claiming they have an air-fuel-ratio meter.

The only thing it does is detect oxygen- that's why it's called an oxygen sensor. It doesn't detect fuel at all. Neither is it an indication or guarantee that ALL the oxygen in that went into the cylinder was used up. If you disconnected the spark plug(s) it would detect a LOT of oxygen that passed through the cylinder, unburned, as well as a lot of fuel, and would probably give you a lean "reading." That's if it didn't get fouled by the fuel.

Thanks for the comments. I read an associated writeup from Consumer Reports, and I think I know enough to get a good unit. BTW- the battery I carry for my tablet computer is about 12,000 mah, but I don't think it will jump-start a car...

How good would it be without the turbocharger?

Actually, there is no such thing as an air-to-fuel sensor! People are fooled into thinking that the OXYGEN sensor can measure air and fuel?? The oxygen sensor's purpose is to detect oxygen- a little or a lot, and gives a corresponding signal of some form- volts or current. To know the air-to-fuel ratio, you need to know the amount of fuel, and the amount of air, obviously. Electronic fuel injection can do that, using the intake sensors- MAF or AFM, air temperature, etc., then by measuring the pressure in the fuel lines it can "calculate" how much fuel to inject. The oxygen sensor's job is to give feedback to the computer/controller, and if it detects lots of oxygen, it means there probably wasn't enough fuel injected, and vice-versa. That only works assuming you have an engine that is working perfectly for the E.F.I to get things right for a 100% complete burn. If not, the controller thinks it's running rich or lean and tries to adjust, or eventually gives "errors" or the "check engine" light is illuminated. Therefore... the oxygen sensor is NOT an air-to-fuel ratio sensor. There is no such thing. It takes a number of sensors and some electronic calculating to get the the air-fuel mix to what it should be, and on the newer E.F.I. systems, you can fool with that too. The best people (with L-Jet E.F.I.) can do is to make a lot of assumptions, like the spark is good, the spark timing of right for the revs, and then adjust the AFM (tighten or loosen the spring) to get the ECU to add more or less fuel to the cylinders. People who incorrectly think the oxygen sensor can determine the air-fuel directly are making a LOT of assumptions and are not achieving the goal of a correct fuel mixture. So using ANY oxygen sensor in the exhaust stream to predict the air-to-fuel mixture going into the cylinders is like measuring the fuel level in the fuel tank by putting the oxygen sensor in the filler neck.

BTW- if you are going to comment on a booster pack, please mention how it connects to the battery, and how you charge the pack. The photos of the box don't usually show much detail.

I wonder if we can get that on the Mythbusters show. Do you remember the one where they tested the dough-in-a-tube (crescent or cinnamon rolls)? I don't suppose you have a photo to share, or is it embarrassing?

I think it would be a combination of the distributor advance not kicking in, and the way the transmission doesn't kick-down at speeds of abut 50 or so. It seems that even the vacuum kick-down doesn't work in that situation.

In that case, only old cars can benefit by plugging it into the cigarette lighter jack, because new cars need the power on to connect the 12V plugs, (which is useless if the battery is already dead) and some have reverse-polarity protection so you can't back-charge the battery. But I think that on newer cars you can still get to the terminals to add a permanent charging harness or there is a charge plug provided. Six months shelf life is not so bad. as long as you can remember to charge it, kinda like changing the battery in the smoke detector, or for me, to charge the emergency lanterns. BTW- you can't say "cigarette" lighter jack any more, because of today's PC non-smoking policies. At least you can still open the window to throw your butts out! I think a visit to ConsumerReports.com is in order...

Does anyone have any experience with the mini battery booster packs that are popular now? The older ones were about the size of a small briefcase and weighed like a toolbox, but these mini things are smaller than a carton of eggs, and boast up to 100 Amps! they usually have a 5V USB outlet for a phone, and a USB inlet for charging, LED lights (red, flashing or illumination, etc.) but no hand-crank or air compressor like the older bulky booster packs. It would fit well in the Zed almost anywhere, like in the tool bin, but you'll still need to charge it occasionally. It might be a good thing to have in the boot of the city car for the winter, but since I keep my car's electrical system well-maintained, I don't think I'll need one this winter. I'm concerned with the extra wiring you'll need to connect it to a vehicle, and how long it'll last sitting on a warm shelf or in a cold boot. I suppose I could keep it in the cabin with me and charge it "occasionally." Is there anything to look for, or to steer clear from? What is the usual cost? thxZ

He's right. You can't just hook up a switched power wire to one of the new automatic powered antennas. You can use the factory-style antenna switch, but with the modification as indicated. I used a micro size DPDT rocker switch on my antenna, but I first rebuilt the motor with new brushes.

Has anyone tried a dynamometer application on a smartphone or tablet? I thought it might be a good idea to find one that actually works, and get familiar with it with the regular car before trying it with the Zed. Almost anything ought to be better than the "seat-of-the-paints" testing. Some apps use the accelerometer sensors, some have you drive from zero to 7000 RPM (or the redline) or just start at a crawl and go to about 60MPH or so. Most of the applications also need inputs like the vehicle weight, driveline losses, frontal area, drag coefficient, etc., and a mount that is strong and vibration-free. If they really work and provide reasonable results, then it would be worth the savings in dynamometer rental fees to find a deserted road for testing somewhere.

How can you verify that, unless you have an air-fuel meter? AFAIK, the TPS and coolant sensors, etc., are working, and I checked all the input lines to the ECU connector within the last few years.

I have read about single layer racing jackets recently from reading about drag racing safety. The jackets are supposed to be certified SFI 3.2A/1. Would that pass the scrutineers for SCCA/low-speed lapping? What is the intended use for that? Should I expect it to be bulky or heavy? I was considering getting one, because they are not to expensive (about $60) and seems a practical piece of safety gear for certain low-key events, like lapping, rally, etc., or just as a fancy windbreaker for the car, and would probably be better than the old-fashioned boron treatment.

I've had the radiator catch bottles inspected for every autocross event and most every time I go to a race track for lapping. The open the bottle, then say something about the brown liquid at the bottom, asking if that's rust or the antifreeze. For other places, the rules simply say you need to avoid antifreeze or 'slippery solutions.' Maybe tjhe racing organizations just assume you will be responsible with your coolant, so it's no in the GCRs.

I think I will chance to Purple Ice for next year. It has an anti-corrosion additive, which is something I think would be good to have.