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Well, I just ordered a set of 16" replica wheels and Gislaved NordFrost 5 tires. They're a Swedish brand that was bought out by Continental a while back. Based on the tests, they seemed like a reasonable comprimise of price/performance. A tad more expensive than Champiro, Nakang, and Kumho though I was tempted to go with one of those to get an H rated tire rather than a T rated one but I decided for a winter tire I'd focus on winter performance.
The wheels are some VW replica, but they look a lot like the RS4 replicas but a different finish and lower price.
I think that uses the ELM chip which has its own proprietary protocol and thus not Subaru compatible for SSM (which is better than OBD-II in someways?) I dream of writing micro-controller code to handle bluetooth serial on one side, and OBD-II/SSM on the other but if it were up to me to make it happen, it takes a year and still wouldn't work properly
Yeah, it's the ELM chip. I guess for me it's OBD-II or Canbus, the latter being quite a bit more expensive and from what I've seen the software isn't pretty either.
I think for a mobile phone app, the basics via OBD-II would have the broadest market. If you got a decent revenue stream going you could work on some more protocol specific hardware and features. Then again, some modern marketing theory suggests you should go for the niche/early adopter market and make sure you make it good enough to get those people to tell their friends.
Well, actually, for your car, the OBD-II also go over CANbus, while mine is still ISO9141-2. The ELM chip can support OBD-II over CANbus, just not VAG-COM communications (which is similar to SSM2 or SSM3 for Subaru). I always wanted to make a cable that works for both OBD-II and SSM but with a serial interface, so that I can use my Garmin to talk to the car. Obviously with the Garmin slowly being obsoleted, and having gone the STi route, the need for OBD-II or SSM is far less important, and I was writing a Gauge app for Palm too...
Right, all I know is it freaks me out a bit when I set the time on the little digital clock on the instrument cluster and I find really it's an intererface to a system that sets the time on the radio/nav as well. Makes me feel like even the smallest functions are wired (well, networked really) into a central brain (or rather there is not central brain, but a lot of systems that cooperate.) By flipping bits here and there you can change the behaviour of things like the central locking system, power windows, and who knows what else. I mean, distributed computing is neat and all, but do I really want my ability to drive my car dependant on it?
Well, cars are moving towards that model - every system is complicated enough to run their own management, hence the need for CANbus and whatever comes next. Just make sure MS won't run more than Ford's SYNC and you would be fine. Electronics save auto manufacturers money in the long run and generates them new revenue when they go wrong. Drive-by-wire being the prime example - the throttle cable might cost very little per car, but the replacement algorithm opens up possibility to save money somewhere else (like your idle stepper)
Drive-by-wire avoids the engineering problem of how to connect the throttle to the gas pedal, so it's not the cost of the cable that matters, it's the fact that now you can put things anywhere you want and just run some wires instead, and like you said, you can remove some other components. No extra servo for cruise control either. And of course all the games you can play, erm I mean tuning you can do, when you ditch the physical connection.
Yeah, but that also means you need crazy fail-safes like double sensors working in opposite direction (in terms of voltage) and algorithm to prevent throttle stuck wide open (ie, Audi 5KQ). Electrical wires can be run much easier than a throttle cable that's for sure. I think they are now working on steer by wire, and I believe they have brake by wire (or maybe not - it's just tagging on the ABS system for this crazy stop when the car senses object right in front at parking mall speed)
5ktq was know for catching fire. I think unintended acceleration affected the 5k in general (slush box only so no quattros.) The fail safe was to require the driver to step on the brake before allowing them to put the car in gear (because the problem was driver error as in punching the wrong pedal.) I think it's been proven pretty conclusively that brakes are more powerful than the engine. Jeep had a similar problem, again it was the wide transmission tunnel mean the pedals were shifted left and drivers stepped on the wrong one.
I think they made a pact/alliance did some funny hand shake and now gone underground chasing moles!
Shame as it was them that was keeping the hutch alive
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