Auto lights and wipers a year on
in [UK Drivers]
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From: Harry Bloomfield on 11 Jul 2010 07:49 Ian Jackson has brought this to us : > That's fine, unless it's one of one of those occasions when you don't want > the wipers to operate. I can only think of in a car wash where you would not want them to work? > > I've only been half-following this thread. Do you always have the option of > keeping the automatic wipers turned off? My switch has four positions - off, auto, manual slow, manual fast, with a sensitivity adjustment on its end. I have not actually found a use for the sensitivity adjustment yet. Off is off, no wipers at all. Auto - wipes when ever the screen is wet/ needs to be wiped. Slow and fast - work as for normal manual. So the auto takes the place of what is usually the intermitant switch position. I just leave it always set on auto, wet or dry, but auto cancels if you switch the ignition off, so if it is raining or starting to rain I would need to move it to off, then back to auto for them to work. The same (I think) applies to slow and fast, so that if the blades are frozen to the screen you have to take some action before they will run. So basically you just forget the wipers once on the auto position and your screen is always cleared the instant water appears on it, with no delay and no wiping when it is not needed. It does a far better job than I could do operating the switch manually. -- Regards, Harry (M1BYT) (L) http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk
From: Harry Bloomfield on 11 Jul 2010 07:54 Adrian explained on 06/07/2010 : > Auto-wipers? How do they do that, then, given that the sensor works from > the change in internal reflection caused by the water on the glass? I would guess at something like that. Between interior mirror and screen is a little box containing the sensor, nothing at all on the outside. -- Regards, Harry (M1BYT) (L) http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk
From: Harry Bloomfield on 11 Jul 2010 08:05 Mike Barnes presented the following explanation : > We all know that accidents, near misses, and simple poor driving often > occur due to a combination of factors rather than anything in isolation. > A small distraction can tip the balance. Quite so! I think we have all been in situations on the road where one thing which needs our attention has distracted us from something else which is equally demanding. The same applies to actual vehicle controls - the more that is done for me, the more of my attention I can keep on the road. Old basic cars were fine on old basic roads with not much traffic, but things have changed - much faster, less patience shown, more complex situations and much busier. -- Regards, Harry (M1BYT) (L) http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk
From: Harry Bloomfield on 11 Jul 2010 08:12 Adrian brought next idea : > You need to think about it? Well some thought process has to be involved, even if the reaction is automatic, so there is a variable delay between need and action. The automatic ones just react instantly to the need with no process involvement from the driver. I also tend to not notice so instantly, (or if I do, delay until it is safer to reach for the switch) that the rain has stopped and to turn them off. With automatic wipers that never happens, they are never left running. -- Regards, Harry (M1BYT) (L) http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk
From: Harry Bloomfield on 11 Jul 2010 08:18
Mortimer wrote on 06/07/2010 : > How do you define the delay for variable-speed intermittent? I've always > wondered how this is done, having only ever driven cars with two-speed > continuous (plus flick-wipe) or else fixed intermittent or auto wipe. My old car had a twelve speed delay and what I did with that was continuously adjust it to account for the variations in the speed that the rain was falling. Once on minimum delay, the next stage is to move onto slow, then fast. -- Regards, Harry (M1BYT) (L) http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk |