agctr Posted July 9, 2004 Share Posted July 9, 2004 Well with my parents owning Audi's and BMW's for some years now, this feature has always been included. Not sure where it has come from although I think its a great feature especially for ppl with small children. A lot of ppl wouldnt think to lock the door when they put their children in. I know this for personal experience, I was pushed out of a car at 30MPH when I was about 6. So Im two thumbs up for the idea....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IwannaSportSedan Posted July 9, 2004 Share Posted July 9, 2004 [quote name='agctr']I know this for personal experience, I was pushed out of a car at 30MPH when I was about 6. So Im two thumbs up for the idea.......[/quote] Wow, that sounds like a bad deal. Door locking at speed seems more like an anti-carjacking measure. Most cars, but maybe not all, I would think would let you out of a locked door by pulling the inside handle. I would hope it would give you that for emergency egress in the case of an accident. maybe they just unlock the doors on airbag activation, or something. Child protection locks are the ones where you flip a lever on the door edge to disable the rear interior door handles, preventing children from letting themselves, or each other, out. Electrically defeatable child safety locks sound like an interesting idea, where you can press the all-unlock twice from the driver's position, or the keyless entry fob twice, or something like that, and allow children to let themselves out when the car is parked, rather than having to play "chauffer" (sp?) for your own children. Naturally with a baby seat, the point is moot, but for older children it might be nice to let themselves out when parked, but preventing them from doing so at an inopportune time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agctr Posted July 9, 2004 Share Posted July 9, 2004 Thanks for yr comments. The thing is with the auto lock function it also has a auto open function on my parents Audi's. This means the doors will only unlock once you have removed the key. I think this is a fantastic safety feature. You wouldnt want all the doors to open every time u stopped at the traffic lights. I also think the idea of using the remote to open yr car is good but only to open the drivers door if depressed once. Press twice to open all other doors including the tail gate. This too would be a handy a safe feature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brady_bunch Posted July 10, 2004 Share Posted July 10, 2004 [quote name='scubie02']Somebody tries to get into my car and they will be looking into a 45 caliber hole...[/quote] I'm partial to the .357 Sig myself but I agree with your sentiment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inthedeck Posted July 10, 2004 Share Posted July 10, 2004 seems to have the door locking feature. It locks the doors about 15-20 seconds after I start the car, as long as all the doors are closed. Then, once I stop, and turn the car off, all the doors unlock. However, with the car on, if I unlock the doors, and someone gets in/out, the doors will not relock. Just my .02 cents. Later, i. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CombatCQB Posted July 10, 2004 Share Posted July 10, 2004 It's just not that practical shooting someone anymore, have to worry about if they carry a gun or not to make it justifiable. But I'd think about a taser. Just grab the guy and pull him into the cabin and jab the taser into his throat. haha, that sounds pretty violent. At that range, a 45 JHP might pass right though before it has a chance to fragment. But I wouldn't think that would matter at that point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agctr Posted July 11, 2004 Share Posted July 11, 2004 Then again boys you could always go for the South African anti-jacking device, flamethrower under the car. It has a button inside the car, someone comes up to try and rip yr new ride, hit the button and u light them up like the Olympic Flame....... bit extreme for mine... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deer Killer Posted July 11, 2004 Share Posted July 11, 2004 A Tazer system for anti-theft would be awsome. If you get in the car without disarming the alarm you get tazed. Not to mention legal, unlike the south african device. Most alarms are garbage because thieves just rip it out once they get in the car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agctr Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 Ahhhh come on Deer Killer, dont get all humaine on us now....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Th3Franz Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 [quote name='Deer Killer']Most alarms are garbage because thieves just rip it out once they get in the car.[/quote] Not if they are well-installed. -Franz The end of a Legacy http://www.youtube.com/th3franz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PPower Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 For the auto-lock feature, I love the Acura TL. Each drivr's presets are controlled with their own key fob. On top of the memory seat/mirror/HVAC, each driver can program if you want it to lock the doors when you put it in drive (AT only), 10mph, or not at all. You can also adjust if you want to unlock the driver door first and then the others or all 4 at the same time. Keep the unlock held and it rolls down all windows and opens the sunroof. Pretty slick, and I'd love to see the same adopted by Subaru. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IwannaSportSedan Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 [quote name='PPower']For the auto-lock feature, I love the Acura TL. Each drivr's presets are controlled with their own key fob. On top of the memory seat/mirror/HVAC, each driver can program if you want it to lock the doors when you put it in drive (AT only), 10mph, or not at all. You can also adjust if you want to unlock the driver door first and then the others or all 4 at the same time. Keep the unlock held and it rolls down all windows and opens the sunroof. Pretty slick, and I'd love to see the same adopted by Subaru.[/quote] That would be wicked Awesome! :D If ya get power locks, windows, seats, mirrors, climate controls, and keyless entry, why not have it do everything short of making your morning coffee! it's all a computer program and memory capacity, anyway. no additional servos or mechanicals. Thats the way you do it, add options, and make your money for nothin' and your checks for free. Pick it up, Subie! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deer Killer Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 The funny thing is that modern cars use systems like CAN bus for device communication, implementing this might be trivial. Sort of like an earlier post about how trivial implementing cruise control is when you have a computer that knows both your speed and controls your throttle. I plan on getting a CAN bus interface so I can directly hook into the car's systems at some point. I think things like mirrors and windows will be completely controllable from the laptop. The question is how many things use the CAN bus, and how many things are just dumb electronics? i.e. the power seats are probably just dumb electronics because the cost of wiring the switches into the seat is minimal. However there needs to be a huge bundle of wires for the driver's door controls so it is probably CAN bus. Imagine hackers getting into your onstar system and making your car electronics go crazy. hmmm ;) When electronically activated brakes and steering show up in the same car, it will be possible to write a program to drive the car, and more nefariously, crash it. Ahhhhh, when you mix geeks and modern electronics :) The manufacturer profits must be sky-rocketing with all the equipment they save, like having a totally seperate cruise control actuator, all the wiring for electronics, etc. I'm even surprised that there aren't CAN bus based gauges available. They should be cheap, the decoder chips are cheap, and then all you need is a voltmeter with the right numbering on it. Although there is one for Audi's, but I don't know how proprietary it is. Anyways my feeling is I'm not going to pay premium for all the gadgets, because of the cost of implementation it's just a matter of time before sanely priced cars get them. *edit* .. or wait for an aftermarket ECU tuner to write a program. I keep bringing up audi but that is also a geek car, the tuners for that have written really neat programs, like security codes you tap in with random controls, and changing engine maps on the fly by doing the same. No accessport of reflash required. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IwannaSportSedan Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 Actually the Defi gauges are CAN bus, but they are their own bus. They have to have their own controller, and get signals from their sensor nets. Someday pretty soon, guages like DEFI, will plug into two CAN bus wires out of the main CPU, same as the dash gauges, and that'll be that. There is a company, I forget which, but that makes a usb to OBD-II cable, and software that read sensor values and engine functions directly from the CPU. A laptop or PDA could show you all sorts of things, even real time info from all of the different sensors. It is great when it works, but man, when a sensor goes nuts, and tells the CPU something incorrect, everything goes to hell quickly, and it isn't always easy to tell what is going on. That is what I am going through on the Miata right now. Engine ran fine friday, saturday it idled like a harley and threw a CEL code, now today it is fine again. It has done it before, but my wife just now told me. "Oh, yeah, it did that a couple of months ago, but it went away..." Makes me wish all this tecno-stuff will just come right out and tell me what is going on... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deer Killer Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 [quote name='IwannaSportSedan'] Makes me wish all this tecno-stuff will just come right out and tell me what is going on...[/quote] Most american's can't be bothered to use a clutch or a shifter, you think they want to know what's wrong with their car? The people who can actually decipher it will have an adapter to read the electronics. Everyone else gets an idiot light. I always thought being a mechanic would be fun but wouldn't pay well, but when you need an EE degree to be a good mechanic, that may be changing :) It would be nice however for there to be redundant sensors for every system, so the car wouldn't just go nuts when a sensor went bad, it could make some decision as to a physical problem or electrical failure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IwannaSportSedan Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 [quote name='Deer Killer'] Most american's can't be bothered to use a clutch or a shifter, you think they want to know what's wrong with their car? The people who can actually decipher it will have an adapter to read the electronics. Everyone else gets an idiot light. I always thought being a mechanic would be fun but wouldn't pay well, but when you need an EE degree to be a good mechanic, that may be changing :) It would be nice however for there to be redundant sensors for every system, so the car wouldn't just go nuts when a sensor went bad, it could make some decision as to a physical problem or electrical failure.[/quote] I have heard that "Lowest Common Denominator" argument from many different places. And, while I do see your point, I'd just like short chance to vent... While I agree, from a cost standpoint, I can see the significance. However, it is fast becoming an issue of "why bother" on the part of the manufacturers, because costs of doing that are becoming infinitesimally small. Besides that, if everyone, and they are starting to, operated on a least common denominator model, think of how many freedoms, rights, and priviledges we would loose, just because 'x' number of people don't care to do that. It just sucks that because 80-90% of people don't do something, or can't; the rest of us, who would rather not get screwed over by dishonest or incompetent mechanics, (who are getting worse, as cars get more complicated, and customers know less and less) can't do the work, and save a little money when repairing their cars. I can replace sensors and most surface accesssible parts, and so can most of you. Replacing sensors and parts happen often enough anyway. The trick becomes knowing what needs to be done. That becomes the $64,000 question on computerized cars, though. Not all mechanics are bad, but the good ones are expensive, and booked up; and rightfully so. But they seem to be few and far between. Not to mention, how do you know if they are good, before getting a bill for half your appendages, and having the work done badly. Or having your car come back with 200 miles on it, or some other damage, etc. Marginal workmanship and outright fraud has happened to me way too many times. They claimed it was "a mistaken diagnosis." sure. Gone are the days of having a decent set of tools, and working on your own car, in your own garage. I am a car nut, but what am I going to want to own in 20-25 years as a classic car? My father and brother both have restored cars (I was in college at the time, but helped as much as I could) and they were both completely mechanical and electrical, not electronic. The collector car market may have it's days numbered, if manufacturers don't throw owners "a friggin bone, here!" and let them have an inroads into their own cars. Maybe I should buy a 65-73 Porsche 911 now, and call it good from now on. Don't mean to offend anyone, (besides bad mechanics, but I don't care 'bout that) but thanks for letting me vent a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scubie02 Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 I think the cars are intentionally made harder for the individual to work on these days sothat you WILL be more likely to go to the dealer to have it done. I know I read a statistic where it said 75% of a dealership's profits on average come from the service work, not selling cars. In a sense they sell the cars in order to have an in to get people to come in for service... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IwannaSportSedan Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 I've had that thought myself, as well. I had no idea that they made THAT much money from service, though. Considering how the service departments I've been to treat people, it seems like legal extortion. I always try to be very nice and polite to people who have me by the *ahem* cajones like that, so they'll hopefully be "gentle". yeah, doesn't work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deer Killer Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 [quote name='IwannaSportSedan'] ...Besides that, if everyone, and they are starting to, operated on a least common denominator model, think of how many freedoms, rights, and priviledges we would loose, just because 'x' number of people don't care to do that. ... Gone are the days of having a decent set of tools, and working on your own car, in your own garage. I am a car nut, but what am I going to want to own in 20-25 years as a classic car? My father and brother both have restored cars (I was in college at the time, but helped as much as I could) and they were both completely mechanical and electrical, not electronic. The collector car market may have it's days numbered, if manufacturers don't throw owners "a friggin bone, here!" and let them have an inroads into their own cars. Maybe I should buy a 65-73 Porsche 911 now, and call it good from now on. Don't mean to offend anyone, (besides bad mechanics, but I don't care 'bout that) but thanks for letting me vent a bit.[/quote] First of all, you've hit it right on the head - this is what is happening with the current political situation, I don't mean to go completely off-topic, but when some of say we're losing our rights in the USA others respond by saying "what rights have been taken away from me" - at a loss. Those are the 90 percenters. It's unfortunate that this happens but is the nature of human social interaction. Most people don't want to do anything except make some money and enjoy themselves. Most people don't want to know anything about their cars except that it stops and goes. Classic car owners won't go away, they'll just become hackers. It's the same spirit anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CombatCQB Posted July 13, 2004 Share Posted July 13, 2004 [quote name='Deer Killer']The funny thing is that modern cars use systems like CAN bus for device communication, implementing this might be trivial. Sort of like an earlier post about how trivial implementing cruise control is when you have a computer that knows both your speed and controls your throttle. I plan on getting a CAN bus interface so I can directly hook into the car's systems at some point. I think things like mirrors and windows will be completely controllable from the laptop. The question is how many things use the CAN bus, and how many things are just dumb electronics? i.e. the power seats are probably just dumb electronics because the cost of wiring the switches into the seat is minimal. However there needs to be a huge bundle of wires for the driver's door controls so it is probably CAN bus.[/quote] According to the service manual, the "Body Integration Unit" is the brains behind all the power stuff in the car. There are 2 CAN networks on the car, one high speed and one low speed. The high speed connects the ECU, ABS, and TCU along with the BIU. The Low speed net connects the BIU with the combination meter and the auto A/C controls. The Subaru Select Monitor kit that's used to diagnose the system hooks up to both the high and low speed networks to gather information. But I think for our purpose, connecting to the low speed will give use a good around of data like speed, rpm, ext temp. Deer Killer, what are your plans for the CAN interface? I've been looking at a few CAN-to-USB or CAN-to-232 type interfaces and they run for about $100. It's a matter of having software to read the traffic once it come off the network. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deer Killer Posted July 13, 2004 Share Posted July 13, 2004 [quote name='CombatCQB'] Deer Killer, what are your plans for the CAN interface? I've been looking at a few CAN-to-USB or CAN-to-232 type interfaces and they run for about $100. It's a matter of having software to read the traffic once it come off the network. [/quote] There are already some open source projects/drivers to read the CAN bus. I won't know more until after I take delivery and get some of these toys to play with, but even without subaru's help I think I should be able to capture this information and find important values like boost. If I get my way I'll have a carpc with a touch screen where the nav should be, and I'll be able to control pretty much everything and have a boost guage, etc. That's way out into the future though. Just hope the DMCA doesn't bite me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brady_bunch Posted July 13, 2004 Share Posted July 13, 2004 [quote name='CombatCQB']I've been looking at a few CAN-to-USB or CAN-to-232 type interfaces and they run for about $100. It's a matter of having software to read the traffic once it come off the network.[/quote] Any good sites that you have found for this? I would LOVE to get a USB connection for my laptop, figure out some software (choosing something currently available or writing my own if nothing suits me), and then build my own little car PC with a touch screen for the center console. <sigh> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CombatCQB Posted July 14, 2004 Share Posted July 14, 2004 Here are the few sites I have. I did see a CAN-to-232 for about $100, but it was in Circuit Cellar and I can't find the issue that I saw it in. [url]http://www.gridconnect.com/canboandto.html[/url] [url]http://www.intrepidcs.com/vcan/[/url] [url]http://www.zanthic.com/products.htm[/url] As you can see, the serial interface is pretty affordatble while the parallel and USB is more expensive due to additional parts. At $220 for the USB version plus development time, the EcuTek doesn't sound too bad except they're using a serial port which means we're paying $200 for the software. I feel that I might never be able to use all the features of the deltadash. The main things I want are boost, oil temp, EGT, and intake temp. All that can be done without the CAN interface, so maybe that's a cheaper alternative. What else would you guys want the CAN for? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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