Or get bulkhead connectors and mount everything to a patch panel above the tank.
With dremel tool, or a nibbler, or some basic hand tools one can cut the holes out fairly quickly. Alternatively, there's maker-friendly companies like Bud Industries who can very cleanly stamp out a one-off customized panel fairly cheaply.
Or, for the budget hacker, just get short male-to-female extensions from Monoprice (et cetera), and zip-tie them to a board.:)
No. iDrive is an abomination, and should never have been created. While there's something to be said for simple interfaces, I think there's a lot more to be said about using humans effectively. With an interface consisting of knob+button, muscle memory is no help at all because the whole thing requires visual queues to tell where you're at. (And while it can be argued that one doesn't necessarily need two hands on the wheel to drive safely, the same can't be said for eyeballs.)
With a small array of buttons for common functions, though, I don't have to look at or think about it before reaching my hand over and activating some widget or other.[1]
I don't really like the 7s anyway -- they're very cool machines, but they're just way too big for my taste, and their relative scarcity causes them to lack the awesome support community that surrounds the 3-series. So even if I could easily afford one, I doubt I'd buy one.
[1]: FWIW, I feel the same about professional mix consoles, and vastly prefer the limitations of an old analog board over the features and flexibility of a newfangled digital one. The former I can operate by feel without ever really looking at what I'm doing (which lets me pay attention to the stage), while the latter requires at least one hand and both eyes to get anything done.
It's pretty dumb, really: Just enter the distance to destination. Combine that with speed and RTC, and you get ETA.
The car is from 1995 (though this incarnation of OBC dates to 1991), so no nav. It's right above the sunglasses tray, in front of the gearshift.
In terms of driving...no, not really. It's easy to cycle through the couple of different modes I find useful (mostly temperature, and range) by pushing in on the turn-signal stalk (toward the steering column).
And that, as I guess goes without saying at this point, is also programmable...
That said: OEM fog lamps usually have a very low cutoff, since that's what's needed to actually aid vision in dense fog (you want the polar opposite of high beams, as anyone who has driven in fog will readily admit that high beams do far more harm than good). So, glare toward other drivers should be far less than even the low-beam headlights.
Nevertheless, the fog lamps on the BMW are off unless they're needed, or it is convenient (think "driving around a campground at night").
But one should be aware of the effects of condensation. Any water which condenses in the system (and it will, especially if you're pumping non-dry atmospheric air through it for show) will settle to a layer at the bottom, and may eventually become ruinous to any electronics it finds.
Not that this is likely to be a big deal straight away, but it could eventually become one. Keeping the board(s) elevated a bit, with a little drain valve under the layer of rocks should fix that up neatly enough. A few drops of a water-based dye that isn't solvent in oil (food coloring?) to better visually differentiate the layers might be fun, too.
Such home modification generally stipulates the use of an aquarium made from either acrylic or non-tempered glass, but both are easy to find (10gal and smaller are generally non-tempered, as a rule).
Later on down the road (probably years from now), just drain off the water. There's no need to try to get it all out since that won't happen anyway. Then, for maximum material efficiency, just boil the results to get rid of the water and put it any leftover oil back in the tank.:)
Not many dash lights, really. Just the usual warning indicators for oil pressure, voltage, and the like...
I can't speak much for other models, but my (rather old) 325i has an on-board computer with a dot matrix LCD display for the other functions, and it spits out problems in plain English. It's a handy thing, with a myriad of trip computer stuff built in: Two sets of resettable average MPG, estimated fuel remaining in miles, distance remaining and ETA, average speed, accurate outside temperature, warning tones when temperature drops near freezing, time and date, stopwatch, selectable warning tone over a user-specified speed, etc.
And there's a bunch of hidden stuff, too, like a digital voltmeter, some simple diagnostics, and various other ways of displaying fuel consumption (like, say, in liters-per-hour). IIRC, one can even recalibrate the speedometer right from the front panel...
They're very geeky cars, tend to be reliable even with a lot of miles on the clock, they're fun to work and hack on, are well-documented to in books and by random folks online, have excellent parts availability, are a blast to drive, and are reasonably efficient. They're often a steal on the used market. I think everyone here should have at least one BMW, out of principle.
Suppose that Dominos publishes great coupon in the newspaper on game night, which causes a flood of orders and slows down the process of me getting my food.
Meanwhile I don't subscribe to the newspaper, so I never see the coupon and pay full regular price. And I don't follow sports, so I have no idea that it's likely to be a busy time in the pizza business that night.
I get service that is just as slow as everyone else that night, and I pay more do so. Should I be grumpy about that?
Something like that. Although I have had such jackbooted thugs stop by and demand AT GUNPOINT that I cut back some weeds in the lawn...
But, no. We don't have regular vehicle inspections (AT GUNPOINT! or otherwise), nor does anything even require a smog check.
This gives us the freedom to work on old cars in a practical fashion, but also allows poor repairs. I've seen folks drive for years around here with a ratchet-strap holding down a mangled hood, or with a pair of vice grips clamping off a bothersome brake line leak, or with 3 bald tires and a donut, or...
I think you meant to write "there are DOT-compliant halogen kits for most cars which have been modified by a reseller to accept HID bulbs and which are of universally questionable merit and no longer resemble their previously-compliant self."
Or, perhaps you meant "there are replacement bulbs that just snap into existing halogen housings, which are not at all designed to deal with the different light output of HID effectively, and never have been legal to use on a public road."
Hacking headlights is already illegal in the US, as is "upgrading" from halogen to HID. The little diddy in the corner of OEM headlight lenses that starts with "DOT" is an indicator of compliance, not just something to add extra ugly to the assembly.
But I guess my point is, I'm not all that worried about a poorly-maintained BMW in stock form. Of all the various brands out there, they seem to be among the most likely to have their stuff engineered to fail with an abundance of safety.
Meanwhile, nothing will stop folks from performing unsafe modifications to their vehicles other than enforcement. In my state, driving without a seatbelt is a primary offense worthy on its own of being stopped and ticketed for. I see every reason for drivers with "ZOMG! I can't fucking SEE!" headlights to be treated the same, whether because of half-functional newfangled LED or laser tech, a botched aftermarket HID installation, or simply using highbeams inappropriately.
It should be easy, especially since LEO can spot the offending vehicle from orbit...
Around here, we don't even have annual vehicle inspections.
The only time an inspection happens is if you lend your car to someone to take their license exam in, or are lucky enough to be selected for a "random" roadside inspection stop at some surprise location.
Otherwise, folks here just drive...
But back in the context of TFA, I expect BMW's auto-leveling system HID system (or this new-fangled laser system) to fail gracefully, much as the rest of the car tends to do.
These are cars that come with a toolkit that includes a manual crank for the power windows and sunroof, just in case you happen to be somewhere with precipitation and the electric motors won't run for whatever reason, a pull-string to unlock the gas filler door in case the electric lock on it fails, and an array of extra fuses in the underhood panel. They have sensors to detect when the brake linings are thin, and to let you know that you're out of windshield washer fluid, or if there is a brake light out, or if the brake light switch itself has gone wonky.
They're built with the quite rational expectation that -- some day -- the parts will wear out and fail. I expect no less redundant engineering from any magical headlamp system that they devise.
In my experience, the HIDs which are fucking painful tend to be on modified rice burners or pickups, both of which have a tendency to be hacked by people who were born with only half a set of clue. These are the fuckers who install 15,000 degree Kelvin bulbs because "blue is cool," modify OEM housings to make HIDs fit, or install aftermarket assemblies of questionable performance and otherwise generally fuck with things in ways that the DOT (or any oncoming driver/biker/walkist) would vastly prefer that they not.
OEM systems (as in, those that are equipped on a new vehicle) tend to be a lot more peaceful. You get a bit of flash from them on irregular roads, but that's it. And their color temperature is a lot closer to 3000-5000K, which is far more appropriate for actually seeing things at night for everyone involved. Unless fucked with, they're quite likely to be aimed in non-annoying ways with a vehicle under typical load.
Back to TFA: Some higher-end cars, in particular BMW, offer self-leveling HIDs principally to make them as least-painful as possible for whatever is oncoming, hypothetically regardless of suspension loading. It's not a big surprise to me that BMW is considering other new technologies, such as laser. OTOH, it would be a huge surprise to me if they implemented such a system in production and fucked it up, since that's generally not their style.
[The above is just some verbiage from an armchair engineer who needs to buy new headlamp assemblies for his old BMW, who has researched the hell out of HID "upgrade" options, and has decided that common halogens in well-designed housings will quite work well enough. YMMV.]
Apparently, it seems that the previous respondent threw up on his keyboard.
If you'd prefer to use your mouth instead of your keyboard, I would suppose that such would be totally appropriate as well.
But AFAICT, it's just humor. Gays/homosexuals/queers/fags/packers/packees/whatever are no more immune from having possibly-injurious comedy slung about than any other creature on Earth.
I guess I've been doing it wrong all these years. Even in this age of $2 delivery fees, I still try to give the kid at least a fiver as a tip -- more if it's a large order. And if the order shows up wrong, I'll tip the driver twice (once for the wrong one, and again for the correct one).
(Generally speaking, anyway. One night after it took nearly 3 hours to get a pie to my front door, and it was wrong. I briefly turned into the customer from hell. The manager himself delivered its replacement in less than 20 minutes, and nobody got a tip.)
Why not just use both 120V legs to get 240V, and use a step-down transformer to bring things back down to 120V?
It's not as geeky as an AC -> DC -> AC conversion system where batteries or capacitors are employed to help smooth out the peaks, but it's cheaper, more available, simpler, and I dare say more efficient.
I'd guess it'd give you an honest 15A on a single 120V outlet. Whether or not that's enough for the startup load of your AC compressor I can't say, but it's a hell of a good start in the right direction. If it's not enough, adding flywheel mass to the system would help with instantaneous loads like that, and still be simpler than building an hybrid inverter.
Any old 1:2 transformer with windings that are rated for sufficient current and voltage will work. They're available off-the-shelf in much of the rest of the world (to let US and other 120V appliances run at 240V), so it's like they're exactly rare...
If I needed such a thing, I'd start with Ebay, and work outward from there.
(I write that at the top of a lot of my posts, too. I'm often surprised at the replies I get anyway.)
Actually, your laptop and second monitor should work fine from a generator, since they've both got switching power supplies. Lights and AC are also a no-brainer: The lights are (mostly!) resistive once turned on and don't care at all what you feed them, while the AC is just a motor driving a motor (which is close to ideal).
Besides, your computer and AC loads are not as static as you think they are. The AC cycles on and off when it can, and a modern computer uses a fraction of its fully-utilized power when idling (which it is usually doing most of the time, for most people). The only constant you have is lighting, and getting good lighting from a generator is boatloads of easy.
So if your wish were granted, I feel you'd be missing out on the best parts of having an inverter-based generator, while also having all of the detriments of having a conventional generator.
Having a feedback loop (as in the case of the Honda I wrote about) to modulate the throttle based on load is a huge win: While conventional small generators strive to operate at precisely 3600RPM, the Honda was perfectly able to modulate its speed based on power demand and literally just sipped gasoline.
If you really think you'll be able to utilize a generator at near 100% most of the time, there's no point in using an inverter as that's just an extra layer of inefficiency. If you're at substantially less than 100% load much of the time, as I strongly suspect you would be, it makes more sense to have a proper variable-speed inverter-based set with feedback for the throttle.
All said, I don't wish for a 240V -> 120V "inverter" at all, as I simply don't see any benefit to such a system other than adding complexity and expense without practical merit.
I remember things just fine, but I never knew about that tool.
But, yeah, it's progress: XP added the ability to burn a CD from random files. Vista/7 added the ability to burn an ISO image. 8 adds the ability to mount an ISO image.
That I've been doing the same stuff under Linux since forever, and that the progress from MSFT is glacial at best, does not mean that it is not progress.
Slashdot Mirror
There. Fixed that for you.
Or get bulkhead connectors and mount everything to a patch panel above the tank.
With dremel tool, or a nibbler, or some basic hand tools one can cut the holes out fairly quickly. Alternatively, there's maker-friendly companies like Bud Industries who can very cleanly stamp out a one-off customized panel fairly cheaply.
Or, for the budget hacker, just get short male-to-female extensions from Monoprice (et cetera), and zip-tie them to a board. :)
No. iDrive is an abomination, and should never have been created. While there's something to be said for simple interfaces, I think there's a lot more to be said about using humans effectively. With an interface consisting of knob+button, muscle memory is no help at all because the whole thing requires visual queues to tell where you're at. (And while it can be argued that one doesn't necessarily need two hands on the wheel to drive safely, the same can't be said for eyeballs.)
With a small array of buttons for common functions, though, I don't have to look at or think about it before reaching my hand over and activating some widget or other.[1]
Instead, I mean one of these.
I don't really like the 7s anyway -- they're very cool machines, but they're just way too big for my taste, and their relative scarcity causes them to lack the awesome support community that surrounds the 3-series. So even if I could easily afford one, I doubt I'd buy one.
[1]: FWIW, I feel the same about professional mix consoles, and vastly prefer the limitations of an old analog board over the features and flexibility of a newfangled digital one. The former I can operate by feel without ever really looking at what I'm doing (which lets me pay attention to the stage), while the latter requires at least one hand and both eyes to get anything done.
It's pretty dumb, really: Just enter the distance to destination. Combine that with speed and RTC, and you get ETA.
The car is from 1995 (though this incarnation of OBC dates to 1991), so no nav. It's right above the sunglasses tray, in front of the gearshift.
In terms of driving...no, not really. It's easy to cycle through the couple of different modes I find useful (mostly temperature, and range) by pushing in on the turn-signal stalk (toward the steering column).
And that, as I guess goes without saying at this point, is also programmable...
Why is that a problem?
Some folks pay a lot extra for flooded cable.
I think you just replied to the wrong person...
That said: OEM fog lamps usually have a very low cutoff, since that's what's needed to actually aid vision in dense fog (you want the polar opposite of high beams, as anyone who has driven in fog will readily admit that high beams do far more harm than good). So, glare toward other drivers should be far less than even the low-beam headlights.
Nevertheless, the fog lamps on the BMW are off unless they're needed, or it is convenient (think "driving around a campground at night").
Mineral oil works.
But one should be aware of the effects of condensation. Any water which condenses in the system (and it will, especially if you're pumping non-dry atmospheric air through it for show) will settle to a layer at the bottom, and may eventually become ruinous to any electronics it finds.
Not that this is likely to be a big deal straight away, but it could eventually become one. Keeping the board(s) elevated a bit, with a little drain valve under the layer of rocks should fix that up neatly enough. A few drops of a water-based dye that isn't solvent in oil (food coloring?) to better visually differentiate the layers might be fun, too.
Such home modification generally stipulates the use of an aquarium made from either acrylic or non-tempered glass, but both are easy to find (10gal and smaller are generally non-tempered, as a rule).
Later on down the road (probably years from now), just drain off the water. There's no need to try to get it all out since that won't happen anyway. Then, for maximum material efficiency, just boil the results to get rid of the water and put it any leftover oil back in the tank. :)
heh.
Not many dash lights, really. Just the usual warning indicators for oil pressure, voltage, and the like...
I can't speak much for other models, but my (rather old) 325i has an on-board computer with a dot matrix LCD display for the other functions, and it spits out problems in plain English. It's a handy thing, with a myriad of trip computer stuff built in: Two sets of resettable average MPG, estimated fuel remaining in miles, distance remaining and ETA, average speed, accurate outside temperature, warning tones when temperature drops near freezing, time and date, stopwatch, selectable warning tone over a user-specified speed, etc.
And there's a bunch of hidden stuff, too, like a digital voltmeter, some simple diagnostics, and various other ways of displaying fuel consumption (like, say, in liters-per-hour). IIRC, one can even recalibrate the speedometer right from the front panel...
They're very geeky cars, tend to be reliable even with a lot of miles on the clock, they're fun to work and hack on, are well-documented to in books and by random folks online, have excellent parts availability, are a blast to drive, and are reasonably efficient. They're often a steal on the used market. I think everyone here should have at least one BMW, out of principle.
Suppose that Dominos publishes great coupon in the newspaper on game night, which causes a flood of orders and slows down the process of me getting my food.
Meanwhile I don't subscribe to the newspaper, so I never see the coupon and pay full regular price. And I don't follow sports, so I have no idea that it's likely to be a busy time in the pizza business that night.
I get service that is just as slow as everyone else that night, and I pay more do so. Should I be grumpy about that?
Why?
Something like that. Although I have had such jackbooted thugs stop by and demand AT GUNPOINT that I cut back some weeds in the lawn...
But, no. We don't have regular vehicle inspections (AT GUNPOINT! or otherwise), nor does anything even require a smog check.
This gives us the freedom to work on old cars in a practical fashion, but also allows poor repairs. I've seen folks drive for years around here with a ratchet-strap holding down a mangled hood, or with a pair of vice grips clamping off a bothersome brake line leak, or with 3 bald tires and a donut, or...
I think you meant to write "there are DOT-compliant halogen kits for most cars which have been modified by a reseller to accept HID bulbs and which are of universally questionable merit and no longer resemble their previously-compliant self."
Or, perhaps you meant "there are replacement bulbs that just snap into existing halogen housings, which are not at all designed to deal with the different light output of HID effectively, and never have been legal to use on a public road."
But don't take my word for it, because I'm not the smartest guy in the room.
*shrug*
Mine are off.
Hacking headlights is already illegal in the US, as is "upgrading" from halogen to HID. The little diddy in the corner of OEM headlight lenses that starts with "DOT" is an indicator of compliance, not just something to add extra ugly to the assembly.
But I guess my point is, I'm not all that worried about a poorly-maintained BMW in stock form. Of all the various brands out there, they seem to be among the most likely to have their stuff engineered to fail with an abundance of safety.
Meanwhile, nothing will stop folks from performing unsafe modifications to their vehicles other than enforcement. In my state, driving without a seatbelt is a primary offense worthy on its own of being stopped and ticketed for. I see every reason for drivers with "ZOMG! I can't fucking SEE!" headlights to be treated the same, whether because of half-functional newfangled LED or laser tech, a botched aftermarket HID installation, or simply using highbeams inappropriately.
It should be easy, especially since LEO can spot the offending vehicle from orbit...
Around here, we don't even have annual vehicle inspections.
The only time an inspection happens is if you lend your car to someone to take their license exam in, or are lucky enough to be selected for a "random" roadside inspection stop at some surprise location.
Otherwise, folks here just drive...
But back in the context of TFA, I expect BMW's auto-leveling system HID system (or this new-fangled laser system) to fail gracefully, much as the rest of the car tends to do.
These are cars that come with a toolkit that includes a manual crank for the power windows and sunroof, just in case you happen to be somewhere with precipitation and the electric motors won't run for whatever reason, a pull-string to unlock the gas filler door in case the electric lock on it fails, and an array of extra fuses in the underhood panel. They have sensors to detect when the brake linings are thin, and to let you know that you're out of windshield washer fluid, or if there is a brake light out, or if the brake light switch itself has gone wonky.
They're built with the quite rational expectation that -- some day -- the parts will wear out and fail. I expect no less redundant engineering from any magical headlamp system that they devise.
It all depends.
In my experience, the HIDs which are fucking painful tend to be on modified rice burners or pickups, both of which have a tendency to be hacked by people who were born with only half a set of clue. These are the fuckers who install 15,000 degree Kelvin bulbs because "blue is cool," modify OEM housings to make HIDs fit, or install aftermarket assemblies of questionable performance and otherwise generally fuck with things in ways that the DOT (or any oncoming driver/biker/walkist) would vastly prefer that they not.
OEM systems (as in, those that are equipped on a new vehicle) tend to be a lot more peaceful. You get a bit of flash from them on irregular roads, but that's it. And their color temperature is a lot closer to 3000-5000K, which is far more appropriate for actually seeing things at night for everyone involved. Unless fucked with, they're quite likely to be aimed in non-annoying ways with a vehicle under typical load.
Back to TFA: Some higher-end cars, in particular BMW, offer self-leveling HIDs principally to make them as least-painful as possible for whatever is oncoming, hypothetically regardless of suspension loading. It's not a big surprise to me that BMW is considering other new technologies, such as laser. OTOH, it would be a huge surprise to me if they implemented such a system in production and fucked it up, since that's generally not their style.
[The above is just some verbiage from an armchair engineer who needs to buy new headlamp assemblies for his old BMW, who has researched the hell out of HID "upgrade" options, and has decided that common halogens in well-designed housings will quite work well enough. YMMV.]
Apparently, it seems that the previous respondent threw up on his keyboard.
If you'd prefer to use your mouth instead of your keyboard, I would suppose that such would be totally appropriate as well.
But AFAICT, it's just humor. Gays/homosexuals/queers/fags/packers/packees/whatever are no more immune from having possibly-injurious comedy slung about than any other creature on Earth.
The first subway operated on vacuum, half the time.
Then why are we discussing it now?
Do people only tip a dollar or three?
I guess I've been doing it wrong all these years. Even in this age of $2 delivery fees, I still try to give the kid at least a fiver as a tip -- more if it's a large order. And if the order shows up wrong, I'll tip the driver twice (once for the wrong one, and again for the correct one).
(Generally speaking, anyway. One night after it took nearly 3 hours to get a pie to my front door, and it was wrong. I briefly turned into the customer from hell. The manager himself delivered its replacement in less than 20 minutes, and nobody got a tip.)
Why not just use both 120V legs to get 240V, and use a step-down transformer to bring things back down to 120V?
It's not as geeky as an AC -> DC -> AC conversion system where batteries or capacitors are employed to help smooth out the peaks, but it's cheaper, more available, simpler, and I dare say more efficient.
I'd guess it'd give you an honest 15A on a single 120V outlet. Whether or not that's enough for the startup load of your AC compressor I can't say, but it's a hell of a good start in the right direction. If it's not enough, adding flywheel mass to the system would help with instantaneous loads like that, and still be simpler than building an hybrid inverter.
Any old 1:2 transformer with windings that are rated for sufficient current and voltage will work. They're available off-the-shelf in much of the rest of the world (to let US and other 120V appliances run at 240V), so it's like they're exactly rare...
If I needed such a thing, I'd start with Ebay, and work outward from there.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
blah blah blah, best practices, blah, blah, blah.
1988 called. They want to talk to you about your stance on FTP.
(I write that at the top of a lot of my posts, too. I'm often surprised at the replies I get anyway.)
Actually, your laptop and second monitor should work fine from a generator, since they've both got switching power supplies. Lights and AC are also a no-brainer: The lights are (mostly!) resistive once turned on and don't care at all what you feed them, while the AC is just a motor driving a motor (which is close to ideal).
Besides, your computer and AC loads are not as static as you think they are. The AC cycles on and off when it can, and a modern computer uses a fraction of its fully-utilized power when idling (which it is usually doing most of the time, for most people). The only constant you have is lighting, and getting good lighting from a generator is boatloads of easy.
So if your wish were granted, I feel you'd be missing out on the best parts of having an inverter-based generator, while also having all of the detriments of having a conventional generator.
Having a feedback loop (as in the case of the Honda I wrote about) to modulate the throttle based on load is a huge win: While conventional small generators strive to operate at precisely 3600RPM, the Honda was perfectly able to modulate its speed based on power demand and literally just sipped gasoline.
If you really think you'll be able to utilize a generator at near 100% most of the time, there's no point in using an inverter as that's just an extra layer of inefficiency. If you're at substantially less than 100% load much of the time, as I strongly suspect you would be, it makes more sense to have a proper variable-speed inverter-based set with feedback for the throttle.
All said, I don't wish for a 240V -> 120V "inverter" at all, as I simply don't see any benefit to such a system other than adding complexity and expense without practical merit.
So. A "good" firewall adds additional obscurity where a "cheap" firewall does not.
*yawn*
1996 called, and they want their argument back.
I remember things just fine, but I never knew about that tool.
But, yeah, it's progress: XP added the ability to burn a CD from random files. Vista/7 added the ability to burn an ISO image. 8 adds the ability to mount an ISO image.
That I've been doing the same stuff under Linux since forever, and that the progress from MSFT is glacial at best, does not mean that it is not progress.