Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:41:26 -0800
Reply-To: Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Audible Idiot "Light"...EE Inventor Wanted
In-Reply-To: <83404.99839.qm@web83607.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>
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I'll second Richard's call for audible alarm. My 71 broke its
alternator/water pump belt and by the time the light was noticed (seconds?
minutes? no way at all to ever, ever know), the engine was baked. Turned a
bearing, the engine was a piece of rebuilt junk anyway, ended up getting a
new 1600dp factory engine from Mexico.
Anyway, I am always trying to be watching the lamps in my 84, but I know
that there are plenty of stretches where I'm zoning out or concentrating
on traffic and signage and stuff, and a light could come on and I'd not
notice it.
I know enough about electricity to design something -- this could be done
with some diodes and maybe a transistor or two.
Let's see . . . looking at the 1.9L version, which is what I have, it
looks like there are two lamps that one needs to monitor: Oil Pressure,
and Coolant Over Temp.
The Oil Pressure lamp seems simple: low side switch closes to turn this
lamp on. One could monitor the voltage at the T14/10 wire.
The Coolant Over Temp lamp appears to get driven by some magic electronics
-- might need to get to the foil and read the voltage across that lamp to
catch the signal?
The Coolant Low Level Warning Control Unit gets into the act somehow, too.
Looks like it talks to the circuit that drives the Coolant Over Temp lamp.
I've had the dash apart only a couple times.
--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Westrailia: (Ladybug Trailer company, San Juan Capistrano, Calif.)
Bend, OR
KG6RCR
On 12/16/2009 4:55 PM Richard Koerner wrote:
> Volks,
>
> I'm pretty anal about my cherished Vanagon. Always looking...always listening...follow the recommended maintenance activities by the book and then some. Yet...it happened to me on my recent half-country trip from San Diego to Brownsville, Texas. The dreaded "red lights" suddenly noticed in the instrument cluster; in my case, broken water pump/alternator belt. I saw the lights and immediately pulled off the highway. Were they on for seconds or minutes?....surely not more than a minute or two. And I may have squeaked by...no apparent engine or gasket damage, but time will tell on that one.
>
> What we need is a simple fix. A small "box" of electronics, wired in so as to detect any of the red LED's coming on (oil pressure, alternator, coolant temperature), with a LOUD piezo speaker blasting you to "get OFF the road and shut down IMMEDIATELY!!!. Doesn't have to speak words....just be obnoxious.
>
> Sure, the idiot lights do provide some measure of alert. But the vast windows of the Vanagon provide plenty of reasons for not driving while staring down at the instrument cluster, especially on a bright sunny day. We need a backup system...Audible. Airplanes have these kinds of things, even "stick shakers" to try to convince you to avoid a stall.
>
> So....any Electrical Engineers out there? I'm a Mechanical Engineer...I can't do it, but it's easily within the realm of some EE. Maybe it's already been done. I'd pay $50-$100 for such a contraption...peace of mind...and freedom to keep looking out the windows. Sound interesting?
>
> Rich
> 85 Vanagon not a Westy but I love it to death
> San Diego
>
