I think it's just the first production ZigBee chip, which, until now, has been total vaporware. Nordic and ChipCon and Cypress and others have had working 2.4GHz wireless chipsets for quite a while, but they're all proprietary, not a recognized IEEE standard.
Hate the QFN? I agree, that would be pretty hard to solder down by hand. Check out the Cypress wireless chipset, you can get an SOIC which is actually pretty easy with a fine tip.
No, you wouldn't, because there really isn't an esteemed technical journal for mainstream computing. The IEEE puts out some good stuff, but no one outside of the engineering community reads it.
I go to the cockfights when I need to make a decision on this sort of thing. I label one chicken Choice A and the other chicken is Choice B, and that has pretty much worked for me. This explains why I'm using a C-64 right now. That was one tough chicken.
Or, you could have done like my former roommate. When faced with a brick wall in his BASIC side-scroller, he resorted to inline asm loops. IIRC, it was for handling the parallax graphics. Completely disgusting, but it worked.
I'm not sure what my point is. I just think about that guy every time someone mentions BASIC.
True on both counts, although I haven't seen any lifetime-degradation problems on un-modded WRXes. There have been people who get chunks of platinum-coated honeycomb in their turbo when they run higher boost, like with an MBC.
The turbo spools at about 2700 RPM w/o the cats, and around 3500 RPM with the cats. That is definitely noticeable, and the dynos show around 15HP peak gain just from a catless DP.
Re:Just got this for my WRX!
on
Hack Your Ride
·
· Score: 1
Crap, there's a lot of WRX owners here. The AccessPORT rules.
I've got the Cobb Tuning AccessPORT. It rules the school, as long as you're not going for 400WHP. It's a more conservative approach, which I like because I need to get to work every day with this car.
The PORT lets you reflash the ECU through the OBD-2 port. Pretty damn slick if you ask me. You can also send your ECU in for flashing, but then you're not driving the car for about 3-4 days.
http://www.cobbtuning.com/
Re:Beware Emissions Inspection
on
Hack Your Ride
·
· Score: 1
That's actually a relatively common thing to do on the WRX. They cut open the pre-cat and hog out the honeycomb, then weld the whole thing back together.
I know there's a good reason for cats, but I don't have to like it, do I?
I'm certainly not advocating planet rape or anything; in fact, I'm looking forward to the day when hybrid vehicles are common. Then we can start screwing with motor windings and exotic magnetics like on R/C cars, not to mention hot fuel cell action.
Re:Expensive boondoggle.
on
Hack Your Ride
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Heh, that's why I'm starting to like forced induction. It's a little less susceptable to altitude changes.
http://cobbtuning.com/wrx/images/ae-stage1-dyno.jp g
OK, 25.5. Let's call it a rounding error. 4.5HP difference could be attributed to different air temps or humidities or crappy gas or any number of things.
This is also on an AWD car with relatively large (30%) drivetrain losses, so the increase at the crank is even higher.
Re:Expensive boondoggle.
on
Hack Your Ride
·
· Score: 4, Informative
False. The EVO has an extremely strong engine that can take insane boost pressures. It has a cast iron block and has been developed for many years now. 35HP is not unreasonable, and won't significantly reduce the car's life expectancy. You'd be far more likely to wrap it around a tree than blow the engine.
Those two extra cats in our WRX-es are not needed, once the engine warms up. The first cat in the pipe up to the turbo charger is just there for cold start, as is the second cat. The sucky thing is that once it warms up and they aren't needed, they still present a parasitic loss in the exhaust that hinders performance in a big way.
A VW beetle would run 11s with a JATO booster, maybe. Be reasonable here.
Re:Beware Emissions Inspection
on
Hack Your Ride
·
· Score: 2, Informative
It all depends on how good the chip is. Strictly speaking, a good tune should put no more badness into the air than a factory ECU, once things warm up. Before the whole car is up to operating temp, you'll probably be spewing unburnt hydrocarbons out the tailpipe. Most tests are done hot anyway.
Catalytic converter removal is where you get in trouble. CA will flat out fail you on the visual inspection.
Re:Retuning for maximum durability?
on
Hack Your Ride
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
That car should last 200k with no problems, provided you keep up on maintenance. Use Mobil 1 synthetic, and a drain interval of 6-9000 miles. Keep the air filter clean and free. Make sure you replace your timing belt when scheduled; if that goes, so does your engine.
It's already tuned for maximum mileage and reliability. You just have to keep up your end of the bargain.
Re:Expensive boondoggle.
on
Hack Your Ride
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Um, have you actually looked at reflashing in this millenium?
The tuners are getting very adept at reclaiming the extra power that the factory left out due to emissions and fuel quality problems. They spend days reverse engineering ECUs and trying things out on the dyno. It's very complex, but the rewards are numerous.
I have a Subaru WRX with a remapped ECU. With no other mods, I get 30 extra WHP from this. I do have to run 93 octane, but I did anyway because 89 is pure, unadulterated turpentine. The WRX is turbocharged, but interestingly enough they only increased the boost pressure by about 1PSI (from 15.1PSI max). Everything else comes from the timing and environmental correction maps. I also get slightly better gas mileage, as long as I'm not running wide open all the time.
When an engine detects knock, it will retard the ignition timing, which decreases your power output. By running better fuel and reflashing the ECU to take advantage of it, you can run hotter timing and get around in a hurry.
The Audi A4 1.8T is in a similar situation, where a chipped car will be significantly faster than it was from the factory, with no real decrease in engine life or reliability. The factories are leaving a lot on the table because they have to deal with a wide range of horrible fuels, awful drivers, and insurance companies.
Note that both of these cars are meant to be fast. Reflashing a Taurus or Civic doesn't really do crap, because they were designed to be efficient and unexciting, so there isn't much left to do but add a lot of external modifications. There are also some cars that are tuned to the ragged edge, like the Nissan 350Z. No one has managed to get significant gains without major modifications, such as forced induction.
Agreed. Carly must be deposed. Every time I use my HP48GX, I shed a little tear for the company that was HP.
Of all the great things HP had at it's disposal, she goes for desktop PCs. I mean, they had the remains of Digital with the super-cool Alpha! HP lab equipment still rules, and their calculators had no equal.
I'm whipping myself into a frenzy again. Dammit, Carly, step down before someone gets hurt!
Of course, it fails the obviousness test, but since the USPO has aparently interpereted this test to be `obvious to somoene who doesn't know what a computer is and has no problem solving ability at all'...
I'm not even sure the invention is necessarily patentable. The systems they describe aren't really revolutionary, but more like something any competent IC designer will come up with independantly. Come on, a ring oscillator? Synchronous memory access? This stuff is so common, it's a joke. And I'm sure it was all developed in a "clean room" environment as a by-product of any processor design. It's not like chip designers have the time to go through USPTO filings fishing for ideas.
I expected more, too, but got the same results. I'm returning their crappy space heater "receiver" and have dropped the digital cable altogether. Back to extended basic/analog for me. It worked for crap with my TiVo because I had to use the IR link, which was slow and missed changes even when I built the little tin foil shield tent.
The reciever heated up so much, I used to have problems with my DVD player. The quality on the HBO stations, way up in digital land, was atrocious. I've seen fewer compression artifacts in bad pr0n scans on USENET (and believe me, I've seen a lot of 'em). When I'm paying extra for those premium stations, I expect better, which is exactly what I told the customer service rep. They said that digital cable is a great value and that they were sorry I was unhappy with the service.
Screw Comcast and their awful digital cable. I'm going to make shadow puppets.
Re:IP6s problem is the numeric addresses r so comp
on
The State of IPv6
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Not really. The vendors building the equipt for IPV6 are also building in translators to the IPV4 space. I'm talking Lucent, Cisco/Linksys, etc. They're doing the work, us little guys will reap the benefits, assuming the equipment even gets installed.
If you're really industrious, you could try it out with a bunch of Linux boxen on a network. Make your own IPV6 net at home! Be the first on your block and the envy of all your friends!
Re:Also, there are more addresses!
on
The State of IPv6
·
· Score: 1
I consider the larger address space a bonus, but not really the primary reason to move to IPV6.
A vast section of the world's population doesn't even electricity, let alone an interest in TCP/IP. They'd rather have indoor plumbing than pr0n. Considering that, I don't think that the US having 25% is out of line. Now, China and the rest of the far east certainly will benefit from more addresses, but they're dealing with it through NAT, etc. The problem with NAT, though, is that it makes the internet lopsided, where more clients are sucking data, but it's relatively difficult to connect one-to-one. IPV6 will bring us back to a mesh network instead of the client-server model we've gotten ourselves into. The vastly improved routing options are going to help even out and thus speed up the bandwidth allocation worldwide.
I think a lot of people are forgetting the routing, security, etc features and focusing on address space. It's a side effect, not a goal, IMHO. We don't have to packet dive to route realtime-sensitive data with IPV6, instead there's a header tag for such things. That allows routers to use tables instead of processing every packet, speeding things up tremendously. It's so cool, but often overlooked.
Re:IP6s problem is the numeric addresses r so comp
on
The State of IPv6
·
· Score: 1
Funny, I set up dhcp in about the same time, and I've only got 5 machines on my network. I find it much easier when dealing with a dynamic IP assigned by my cable modem provider to have the changes propagate through via dhcp internally. I used to make hosts files and all that crap, but I've got better things to do. I don't even set the time on my boxen anymore, I use ntpd synced to Argonne National Labs.
Re:IP6s problem is the numeric addresses r so comp
on
The State of IPv6
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Well, by your post, you probably haven't grokked the true beauty of IPV6. There are a lot of mechanisms in place to address your issues. Host configuration will be done by querying an upstream router. The only people that really have to key in the huge hex addy are the root guys, maybe. Then they'll probably automate it or at least use cut-n-paste. But seriously, IPV6 is quite beautiful, and really has a lot of thought put into the headers and routing to make everything work seamlessly without massive amounts of configuration.
Oooh, now you've done it. NEVER MENTION the SkyCar! Those bastards get serious TV time every time there's talk of flying cars, and they never seem any closer to mass production. Remember the show "Beyond 2000?" They were there. TechTV has given them time, I'm sure all the other science networks have as well.
Dammit, it's now 2004. I was promised a flying car, so where is it, Moller? You pigfuckers.
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I think it's just the first production ZigBee chip, which, until now, has been total vaporware. Nordic and ChipCon and Cypress and others have had working 2.4GHz wireless chipsets for quite a while, but they're all proprietary, not a recognized IEEE standard.
Hate the QFN? I agree, that would be pretty hard to solder down by hand. Check out the Cypress wireless chipset, you can get an SOIC which is actually pretty easy with a fine tip.
No, you wouldn't, because there really isn't an esteemed technical journal for mainstream computing. The IEEE puts out some good stuff, but no one outside of the engineering community reads it.
I go to the cockfights when I need to make a decision on this sort of thing. I label one chicken Choice A and the other chicken is Choice B, and that has pretty much worked for me. This explains why I'm using a C-64 right now. That was one tough chicken.
Or, you could have done like my former roommate. When faced with a brick wall in his BASIC side-scroller, he resorted to inline asm loops. IIRC, it was for handling the parallax graphics. Completely disgusting, but it worked.
I'm not sure what my point is. I just think about that guy every time someone mentions BASIC.
True on both counts, although I haven't seen any lifetime-degradation problems on un-modded WRXes. There have been people who get chunks of platinum-coated honeycomb in their turbo when they run higher boost, like with an MBC.
The turbo spools at about 2700 RPM w/o the cats, and around 3500 RPM with the cats. That is definitely noticeable, and the dynos show around 15HP peak gain just from a catless DP.
Crap, there's a lot of WRX owners here. The AccessPORT rules.
I've got the Cobb Tuning AccessPORT. It rules the school, as long as you're not going for 400WHP. It's a more conservative approach, which I like because I need to get to work every day with this car.
The PORT lets you reflash the ECU through the OBD-2 port. Pretty damn slick if you ask me. You can also send your ECU in for flashing, but then you're not driving the car for about 3-4 days.
http://www.cobbtuning.com/
That's actually a relatively common thing to do on the WRX. They cut open the pre-cat and hog out the honeycomb, then weld the whole thing back together.
I know there's a good reason for cats, but I don't have to like it, do I?
I'm certainly not advocating planet rape or anything; in fact, I'm looking forward to the day when hybrid vehicles are common. Then we can start screwing with motor windings and exotic magnetics like on R/C cars, not to mention hot fuel cell action.
Heh, that's why I'm starting to like forced induction. It's a little less susceptable to altitude changes.
Either way, that's a cool job.
http://cobbtuning.com/wrx/images/ae-stage1-dyno.jp g
OK, 25.5. Let's call it a rounding error. 4.5HP difference could be attributed to different air temps or humidities or crappy gas or any number of things.
This is also on an AWD car with relatively large (30%) drivetrain losses, so the increase at the crank is even higher.
False. The EVO has an extremely strong engine that can take insane boost pressures. It has a cast iron block and has been developed for many years now. 35HP is not unreasonable, and won't significantly reduce the car's life expectancy. You'd be far more likely to wrap it around a tree than blow the engine.
Those two extra cats in our WRX-es are not needed, once the engine warms up. The first cat in the pipe up to the turbo charger is just there for cold start, as is the second cat. The sucky thing is that once it warms up and they aren't needed, they still present a parasitic loss in the exhaust that hinders performance in a big way.
A VW beetle would run 11s with a JATO booster, maybe. Be reasonable here.
It all depends on how good the chip is. Strictly speaking, a good tune should put no more badness into the air than a factory ECU, once things warm up. Before the whole car is up to operating temp, you'll probably be spewing unburnt hydrocarbons out the tailpipe. Most tests are done hot anyway.
Catalytic converter removal is where you get in trouble. CA will flat out fail you on the visual inspection.
That car should last 200k with no problems, provided you keep up on maintenance. Use Mobil 1 synthetic, and a drain interval of 6-9000 miles. Keep the air filter clean and free. Make sure you replace your timing belt when scheduled; if that goes, so does your engine.
It's already tuned for maximum mileage and reliability. You just have to keep up your end of the bargain.
Um, have you actually looked at reflashing in this millenium?
The tuners are getting very adept at reclaiming the extra power that the factory left out due to emissions and fuel quality problems. They spend days reverse engineering ECUs and trying things out on the dyno. It's very complex, but the rewards are numerous.
I have a Subaru WRX with a remapped ECU. With no other mods, I get 30 extra WHP from this. I do have to run 93 octane, but I did anyway because 89 is pure, unadulterated turpentine. The WRX is turbocharged, but interestingly enough they only increased the boost pressure by about 1PSI (from 15.1PSI max). Everything else comes from the timing and environmental correction maps. I also get slightly better gas mileage, as long as I'm not running wide open all the time.
When an engine detects knock, it will retard the ignition timing, which decreases your power output. By running better fuel and reflashing the ECU to take advantage of it, you can run hotter timing and get around in a hurry.
The Audi A4 1.8T is in a similar situation, where a chipped car will be significantly faster than it was from the factory, with no real decrease in engine life or reliability. The factories are leaving a lot on the table because they have to deal with a wide range of horrible fuels, awful drivers, and insurance companies.
Note that both of these cars are meant to be fast. Reflashing a Taurus or Civic doesn't really do crap, because they were designed to be efficient and unexciting, so there isn't much left to do but add a lot of external modifications. There are also some cars that are tuned to the ragged edge, like the Nissan 350Z. No one has managed to get significant gains without major modifications, such as forced induction.
Agreed. Carly must be deposed. Every time I use my HP48GX, I shed a little tear for the company that was HP.
Of all the great things HP had at it's disposal, she goes for desktop PCs. I mean, they had the remains of Digital with the super-cool Alpha! HP lab equipment still rules, and their calculators had no equal.
I'm whipping myself into a frenzy again. Dammit, Carly, step down before someone gets hurt!
If you're still reading this, email me at pondo@portalofevil.com . It's definitely for sale, seriously.
I've got a Newton MP2100 I can sell you...
Best. PDA. Evar.
Nice. If I had mod points, I'd give you a funny.
I'm not even sure the invention is necessarily patentable. The systems they describe aren't really revolutionary, but more like something any competent IC designer will come up with independantly. Come on, a ring oscillator? Synchronous memory access? This stuff is so common, it's a joke. And I'm sure it was all developed in a "clean room" environment as a by-product of any processor design. It's not like chip designers have the time to go through USPTO filings fishing for ideas.
I expected more, too, but got the same results. I'm returning their crappy space heater "receiver" and have dropped the digital cable altogether. Back to extended basic/analog for me. It worked for crap with my TiVo because I had to use the IR link, which was slow and missed changes even when I built the little tin foil shield tent.
The reciever heated up so much, I used to have problems with my DVD player. The quality on the HBO stations, way up in digital land, was atrocious. I've seen fewer compression artifacts in bad pr0n scans on USENET (and believe me, I've seen a lot of 'em). When I'm paying extra for those premium stations, I expect better, which is exactly what I told the customer service rep. They said that digital cable is a great value and that they were sorry I was unhappy with the service.
Screw Comcast and their awful digital cable. I'm going to make shadow puppets.
Not really. The vendors building the equipt for IPV6 are also building in translators to the IPV4 space. I'm talking Lucent, Cisco/Linksys, etc. They're doing the work, us little guys will reap the benefits, assuming the equipment even gets installed.
If you're really industrious, you could try it out with a bunch of Linux boxen on a network. Make your own IPV6 net at home! Be the first on your block and the envy of all your friends!
I consider the larger address space a bonus, but not really the primary reason to move to IPV6.
A vast section of the world's population doesn't even electricity, let alone an interest in TCP/IP. They'd rather have indoor plumbing than pr0n. Considering that, I don't think that the US having 25% is out of line. Now, China and the rest of the far east certainly will benefit from more addresses, but they're dealing with it through NAT, etc. The problem with NAT, though, is that it makes the internet lopsided, where more clients are sucking data, but it's relatively difficult to connect one-to-one. IPV6 will bring us back to a mesh network instead of the client-server model we've gotten ourselves into. The vastly improved routing options are going to help even out and thus speed up the bandwidth allocation worldwide.
I think a lot of people are forgetting the routing, security, etc features and focusing on address space. It's a side effect, not a goal, IMHO. We don't have to packet dive to route realtime-sensitive data with IPV6, instead there's a header tag for such things. That allows routers to use tables instead of processing every packet, speeding things up tremendously. It's so cool, but often overlooked.
Funny, I set up dhcp in about the same time, and I've only got 5 machines on my network. I find it much easier when dealing with a dynamic IP assigned by my cable modem provider to have the changes propagate through via dhcp internally. I used to make hosts files and all that crap, but I've got better things to do. I don't even set the time on my boxen anymore, I use ntpd synced to Argonne National Labs.
Well, by your post, you probably haven't grokked the true beauty of IPV6. There are a lot of mechanisms in place to address your issues. Host configuration will be done by querying an upstream router. The only people that really have to key in the huge hex addy are the root guys, maybe. Then they'll probably automate it or at least use cut-n-paste. But seriously, IPV6 is quite beautiful, and really has a lot of thought put into the headers and routing to make everything work seamlessly without massive amounts of configuration.
Oooh, now you've done it. NEVER MENTION the SkyCar! Those bastards get serious TV time every time there's talk of flying cars, and they never seem any closer to mass production. Remember the show "Beyond 2000?" They were there. TechTV has given them time, I'm sure all the other science networks have as well.
Dammit, it's now 2004. I was promised a flying car, so where is it, Moller? You pigfuckers.
Ugh, the Greedo dilemma. And don't even get me started on the guns-to-radios thing in E.T.
What a bunch of wimps we've all become.