Your pet peeve, technical or otherwise.

[woody]

Your own body makes plastics, like your skin.

Ah, handy! Goes nicely together with my brain that seems to have found a way to store plastic.

[MrMobodies]

Everytime they release a version of Kate (text editor) more bloat and annoyances appear. This new one has this stupid welcome screen. I don't open it to stare at a welcome screen, I open it to start typing.

Last year I found out one of the annoyances, it was the called the minimap, then the tabs, the toolbar with the hamburger icon taking up room.

Now this I find really annoying:

Numbers change as I scroll and I find that distracting.

I don't know what it is called and turned most of the settings off to do with the scrolling.

[coppercone2]

One of my "pet peeves" is "N" connectors.
Recently, I decided to fit such a connector to RG58.
 
When I was still working, we only used reputable brands of  crimp connectors & had decent crimpers.
Now as an OF, I am thrust back onto the "secondary suppliers".

Crimp BNCs, even the "Hybrid" ones with a solderable tip & crimp body are not a major drama , because they are usually clearly marked as such.

"N" connectors, however, are another kettle of fish, as they are seldom marked as "Hybrid". types.

So it transpired that, following habit, I put the tip on the end of the centre conductor , inserted it into the crimper, & tried to crimp it, only to be greeted with not a crimp, but a mangled centre pin.

After spending ages filing the "graunches" off the outside of it, the pin would fit in the connector body, but the hole had been distorted & the centre conductor wouldn't fit.

Have no fear, though, I have a very small drill bit---that worked for a few seconds, then the tip broke off, remaining embedded in the brass.-----#@%^**!!!.

In digging around, though, I found a N.O.S "clamp type" "N" connector packed in a sealed PVC bag.
Everything about its appearance oozed "quality", but it was a "cleanskin", with no markings on it.

"OK", said I, as I haven't put a clamp type "N" together for decades, I had better check how the inside bits go together, as I remembered many could be assembled incorrectly----"I'll just look in the ARRL Handbook".

Unfortunately, that worthy tome had disappeared, but no problem, "I'll just Google".

In the few years since I last looked at such things, many of the nice, clear, assembly diagrams had vanished, being replaced by blurry scans of no fewer than 6 ways of assembling such connectors, none of which were the same as the one I have (though some were close).
There were also videos all of which were of other types.

BNC connectors are all pretty much the same, so why do "N" clamps vary so much?

A secondary gripe is why do Google & other search engines bring up results for things with were excluded in the search request?

get a resistance tweezer (or build a fixture with some basic power source) and you won't care too much about center pins being soldered or crimped. You cut solder of the correct diameter, insert it so maybe 15% room remains (to get your brush of wire into it), then melt it and stick the wire in, possibly fill the top off with a tiny bit of extra very thin solder. IMO the whole reason why its appealing to crimp it is because if you get solder on the outside of the pin its difficult to clean off.


I have been meaning to modify a jewlers vise with some copper jaws and insulation that hook into my resistance heater that have some cutouts for different pin sizes. Alot of work but I managed to even wreck some rather expensive connector center pin with solder, and it required very careful grinding to make it a cylinder again, and just holding it in simple tweezers, i managed to catapult it some where on the dirty floor. When the connector cost $50 each, special measures are warrented IMO

[Analog Kid]

Not a pet peeve, but a minor one:

Today my car again informed me that one of my tires was low. It's a 2010 Nissan Cube, a great little automobile; has given me pretty close to zero problems in the time (~8 years) I've owned it.

And it's nice to be alerted that a tire is low before it gets dangerously so. But here's the thing: it has 4 tire sensors, right? One for each wheel. But the notification is only a single dash light (ORed together): "Ha ha; one of your tires is low, but we're going to make you guess which one!".

Now it could be that the next year or two's model came with 4 lights instead of just the one, which might have cost them an extra $5 or so. (You'd need 3 more channels, probably one chip per or maybe not even that many.)

I'm curious: how exactly do those things work? I'm assuming the sensor itself is inside the wheel, so how does it 1) get power and 2) communicate its telemetry to the car's computer?

Like everything else on the vehicle the sensor system seems to be very robust and accurate even after all those years.

[langwadt]

Not a pet peeve, but a minor one:

Today my car again informed me that one of my tires was low. It's a 2010 Nissan Cube, a great little automobile; has given me pretty close to zero problems in the time (~8 years) I've owned it.

And it's nice to be alerted that a tire is low before it gets dangerously so. But here's the thing: it has 4 tire sensors, right? One for each wheel. But the notification is only a single dash light (ORed together): "Ha ha; one of your tires is low, but we're going to make you guess which one!".

Now it could be that the next year or two's model came with 4 lights instead of just the one, which might have cost them an extra $5 or so. (You'd need 3 more channels, probably one chip per or maybe not even that many.)

I'm curious: how exactly do those things work? I'm assuming the sensor itself is inside the wheel, so how does it 1) get power and 2) communicate its telemetry to the car's computer?

Like everything else on the vehicle the sensor system seems to be very robust and accurate even after all those years.

some cars use sensor inside the wheels with rfid like interface to the car. Some just use the ABS sensors to detect that a wheel is rotating faster than usual, I'm guessing that was a cheap way to do the minimum to comply with the legal requirements

[Mr.B]

...Some just use the ABS sensors to detect that a wheel is rotating faster than...

the other three when driving in a straight line.

AFAIK, this is the method used by a lot of modern cars.

[themadhippy]

so how does it 1) get power

batteries

[paulca]

Not a pet peeve, but a minor one:

Today my car again informed me that one of my tires was low. It's a 2010 Nissan Cube, a great little automobile; has given me pretty close to zero problems in the time (~8 years) I've owned it.

And it's nice to be alerted that a tire is low before it gets dangerously so. But here's the thing: it has 4 tire sensors, right? One for each wheel. But the notification is only a single dash light (ORed together): "Ha ha; one of your tires is low, but we're going to make you guess which one!".

Now it could be that the next year or two's model came with 4 lights instead of just the one, which might have cost them an extra $5 or so. (You'd need 3 more channels, probably one chip per or maybe not even that many.)

I'm curious: how exactly do those things work? I'm assuming the sensor itself is inside the wheel, so how does it 1) get power and 2) communicate its telemetry to the car's computer?

Like everything else on the vehicle the sensor system seems to be very robust and accurate even after all those years.

I have these too.  Mine did it too.  It's winter.  The pressure in the tire, unless you spent money on expensive nitrogen flushes, is dependant on temperature.  Not due to the O2/CO2 but the water vapour.  If you fill your tires at a gas station on a hot humid day and then winter comes along you will have a puddle inside the tire and might loose a PSI or two.  The TPMS on my car routinely says I have a low tire around start of November. 

General process for me.  "TPMS Light?",  reset it.  "TPMS light a second time?"  Check tyre pressure manually at next gas station.

They are, in my case, valve stem mounted wireless transmittors.  They have a large coin cell like battery in them and sometimes have a centrifugal contact, so they only transmit when rolling.  I have a single dash light.  If you wanted to know which tyre, the car does know.  It has a table of sensor IDs.  5 of them.  1 for each wheel and 1 for the spare.  If your spare does not have a sensor, consider buying one, there is nothing worse than finding the spare is flat.

One catch for "Which wheel?" even with the look up table over ODB(?) connection, is... a lot of cars will have wheels rotated for wear rates or just randomly when having tyres fitted.  You would need to ask specifically to keep corner for corner or to swap valves.

[shapirus]

One catch for "Which wheel?" even with the look up table over ODB(?) connection, is... a lot of cars will have wheels rotated for wear rates or just randomly when having tyres fitted.  You would need to ask specifically to keep corner for corner or to swap valves.

This is interesting btw. My 2016 KIA Sportage doesn't care if you swap wheels. No need to swap the valves with sensors accordingly, it always knows which sensor is where and shows the pressures correctly. Yes it can show the actual pressure readings, not just the "flat tire" alert, and they are always correct with regards to the position of the sensors in the wheels. I wonder how it does that. Probably 4 receivers, each picking the strongest signal?

Not sure if there's a sensor in the spare, but I assume there should be. Never had to take it out of its compartment (knock on wood). There are pressure values shown only for 4 wheels on the dashboard, and they don't start showing anything unless you drive for a little while.

[Analog Kid]

so how does it 1) get power

batteries

Yep, seems that the sensors inside the tires are powered by small coin-cell lithiums.

Anyone know if the cells are typically replaceable? I've seen replacement sensors for sale, and they're not exactly cheap.
I'm going to be up for a new set of tires soon, at which time it'd be nice to refresh the sensor cells if that's possible.

[TimFox]

A discussion from an automobile tire store about the two types of pressure sensing system:
https://www.discounttire.com/learn/tpms-info/tpms-facts

I had a strange problem that I need to investigate.  My 2013 Toyota has a pressure sensor with a single light (not identifying the relevant tire), and I don't know which of the two types in that page it uses.
Usually, on the first bitter cold day of the winter, it is triggered by one tire substantially low in pressure, for no obvious cause.
Refilling the tire found manually with a tire gauge (the other three seem OK) resets the indicator normally.
However, in October I did a road trip (roughly 4 hours) on a reasonably warm day and was surprised to see the light while driving at highway speed on the Interstate.
I pulled over at the next reasonable exit and checked the tires:  all were at about 2 psi above the recommended (cold) pressure.
I also noted that the light reset when I made the first full stop while exiting the highway.
It happened twice more thereafter on the road trip, always resetting at a full stop.
(I had scheduled maintenance done a couple of days before the trip, and the car was running well.)
We had a cold snap this week, but I only drove in town at city speeds:  no pressure alarms.

[Analog Kid]

A discussion from an automobile tire store about the two types of pressure sensing system:
https://www.discounttire.com/learn/tpms-info/tpms-facts

That page seems to answer my question above:

The battery inside the TPMS is not removable.

There are lots of replacements available, like these ($13.45 ea. on Amazon).
I'd probably go for $20/ea. to get better quality (hopefully!).

[themadhippy]

The battery inside the TPMS is not removable.

yea yea,how many times have ya seen a "no user changeable parts inside" sticker on something yer reassembling after repairing

[Analog Kid]

The battery inside the TPMS is not removable.

yea yea,how many times have ya seen a "no user changeable parts inside" sticker on something yer reassembling after repairing

Dang; now you're appealing to the lowdown cheapskate "yeah sure I can fix that!" alter ego inside me.

If I had some easy way of dismounting the tires I could try a DIY batter replacement, but since I don't, I'd probably just buy some new sensors. (And of course then I'd discover how easy it was to replace the damn cells!)

[themadhippy]

If I had some easy way of dismounting the tires

simples,put the tyre under the car ,stand the jack on tyre and jack the car up.

[Analog Kid]

If I had some easy way of dismounting the tires

simples,put the tyre under the car ,stand the jack on tyre and jack the car up.

Heh. OK, wise guy: how do I get the tire back on the rim afterwards?

[themadhippy]

yer only popping it off 1 side,not taking the whole thing off the rim,to get it  back use the jack again, once tyres on a squirt  of brake cleaner/easy start in the tyre and ignite soon blows things back in place

[Analog Kid]

yer only popping it off 1 side,not taking the whole thing off the rim,to get it  back use the jack again, once tyres on a squirt  of brake cleaner/easy start in the tyre and ignite soon blows things back in place

!!!
Got a good laugh outta that. Especially the fire part.

Thanks but no thanks. My tire guys are great: yesterday I went there to have that tire checked since it went low again. He took it off, squirted soapy water on it, checked all around, found no bubbles, told me there was no point in taking it off and resealing it, remounted it and inflated all my tires.

He said that was it (no charge--they've done this many times in the past), so I gave him $10 anyhow. Really nice to know there are some folks in business who aren't out to gouge you.

[Zucca]

I was a TPMS developer for 7 years.

1) No matter what gas you put in a tire, if it gets cold the pressure goes down. PV = nRT works also for tires, and it is pretty accurate.
Want some numbers? 100mBar drop/10C works in most cases.
if you drive the tire gets hot and pressure goes up, become flat after 15min drive normally.
Yes altitude play a role too, if you fill up the tire on top of the mountain, when you go down in the valley the tire have lost pressure. Yes, even if no air escaped.

2) DIRECT SYSTEMS (normally with metal valve stem): The sensors have an RFID and sent temp, pressure (plus other stuff) to the car. The challenge it to let the car know which are ist own 4 RFIDs and the positions (I could write pages and pages on this, I make it short). Expensive system.

3) INDIRECT SYSTEMS (normally with rubber/plastic valve stem): Compare the ABS wheel speed sensors and find out the bad (low pressure) tires. Works 100% only with tires approved/tested by RnD as you have to map in the SW how a particular tires change its rotations properties when pressure drop. If all 4 tires drop about the same pressure [we call it "temperature diffusion"] (for example because its gets cold) there is no way to catch it with an ind. system. Cheap system, no hardware just some SW lines.
By doing a FFT you can catch a diffusion and warn the driver, but you need a lot of computational power: $$ goes up, make no sense for industrialization.

4) No tire is perfect, some air always escape. About 0.4-0.6 Bar/year is what I saw in good tires. This is called "tire diffusion".

Customer loves indirect systems as they throw a warning only when there is a puncture in the tire. On the other hands you should NOT install an unknown tire, even if it fits.

Customer hates direct system because when it get cold the TPMS light turns on, plus they need to buy new sensors every 10 years. Moreover there are some cases of interference messages popping up if you are close to some radio antennas (normally harbors). The f used is normally 433MHz or 315MHz.

Why we have direct systems on the market? I make it short, people are lazy and never check the tire pressure. So they put in place a law to enforce a warning when the pressure is low to save gas and reduce CO2. In the specs, only an direct system could fulfill the diffusion detection requirements.

Ah, do not attempt to replace the battery in a TPMS Sensors. Those bastard have implemented a count down variable in FW that basically kills the sensors after 10 years.

Just do me a favor, every 6 months check your tires pressure and refill when they are cold. Reset the TPMS system after that if necessary.

[paulca]

so how does it 1) get power

batteries

Yep, seems that the sensors inside the tires are powered by small coin-cell lithiums.

Anyone know if the cells are typically replaceable? I've seen replacement sensors for sale, and they're not exactly cheap.
I'm going to be up for a new set of tires soon, at which time it'd be nice to refresh the sensor cells if that's possible.

I believe the answer is no.  You have to replace them.  When I asked the dealer for a set for my winter wheels they quoted me £450.  Basically £100 per sensor + £50 to code them into the car.  I would need to pay the £50 twice a year and visit the dealer.

3rd party they are a lot cheaper, you have to pick the right one though and the manu will probably not help you pick.  Then you have to get hold of the ODB software for the car as usually these things are only settable with their custom laptop software.  In the EU these have to be made available to all mechanics with caveats.  So I can download the Toyota TechStream software and hook it up to my car and see the same view the mechanic does.  However, Toyota have also warned that any tampering that causes damage is on you.

The good news is, my current set are 8 years old now and still work apparently.  Sometimes batteries will surprise you.  My gas meter runs on a battery.  Has to for obvious reasons.  I asked and the DNO said they have a 20 year battery life and a lot are coming to their end of life, a country wide replacement scheme is in flight.  It's not a coin cell though, it's custom block that takes half the meter.  It has to operate the shutoff valve and pressure sesnors that deadlock it.  It has some serious power saving going on.  When you press a button it, you can't just press, you kinda have to press and hold it as I think it only scans the buttons every second.  When you "top up" the meter with credit and try and enable the gas, it takes ages while it charges up a capacitor and monitors the pressure to check there is no leak consumer side.  Then it uses the stored cap to pop the valve open.

[Zucca]

The good news is, my current set are 8 years old now and still work apparently.

Depends how much you drive the car. However, as I stated before, in all the TPMS sensors I worked with, after 10 years they send a "low battery need to replace me" signal to the car regardless the battery voltage.
Paluca you can probably squeeze one year more out those sensors, I suggest to replace all four next year for peace of mind.

Those batteries are a pain. I investigated a system without battery with a piezo that was generating energy when the wheel was rotating. It never went to production because our tire suppliers could not approve the use of glue to stick the sensor on the tire wall (mainly marketing politics).

[PlainName]

Got mixed feelings about this. My VW Golf uses the ABS method - originally didn't have it at all, but the code was in the ECU, presumably for the more expensive model, so enabling via OBD wasn't too hard. Partner's car is the same, and periodically she say the warning light has come on and, sure enough, one tyre is low. It does the job of warning about a dodgy tyre but obviously can't detect all tyres deflating at the same rate (what are the chances?). Painless and useful, but you need to check your tyres (as you should) to make sure you're coping with weather).

My bike has the valve sensors. Tells me the pressure to within 0.2PSI and even tells me what to add (or subtract) to a garage airline gauge to get the tyres to the right pressure. But it's inconsistent. On driving away with the tyres cold they are overinflated, and once warmed up they are underinflated. That is referenced to 20C pressure and taking into account current tyre temperature. It's impossible to adjust them so they are mostly right all the time, and you can't use the onboard readout to check pressures before you go. If you travel far enough to get them working, you're not going to turn back because they are 0,5PSI off, so you end up checking them manually beforehand anyway.

For someone even slightly OCD, the availability of the precise sensor reading can be something of a mixed blessing. I've since decided to ignore it, go with my manual gauge, and rely on the big yellow warning showing if I happen to get a puncture mid-journey (though I am sure I would notice on a bike anyway).

[Zucca]

On driving away with the tyres cold they are overinflated, and once warmed up they are underinflated.

Part of my old job was to fix those bugs. No sense.

[paulca]

It is something a lot of people forget or don't even consider, but the the tire pressures stated by the manufacturer are for a "COLD" tire.

I believe as someone suggested that is about 20C.

If you drive even a mile to the gas station to fill them up, they will have, potentially warmed up to 25-30C.

Similarly in winter if you fill them on your driveway in winter when it's 5C they will be over inflated when up to temp.

Calculating the offset using the temperature and pressure via "cheap" sensor probably isn't going to work.  I think because the tyre is "mixed gas and vapour" the graph is not straight or even a consistent curve.

Many garages will sell you nitrogen for the tires.  This purges the water etc and nitrogen has a fairly stable pressure for temp curve.  However depending on just how hard you drive the pressure range a tyre functions at either side of it's "stated pressure" is quite wide and unless you are track driving, "close enough" within a few PSI is fine.

My car the state 35PSI all round.  However I have a tendency to push that up to 37PSI in summer as it's more fun.  The car is a lot more skittish and responsive like a go kart.  At 30psi its a "wayward ditch finder" and at 35PSI is just mellow.  Not once but several times I have come out of mechanics or tyre places and wondered why the car handled like sh1t.  The checked the tyre pressures and found them at 30PSI.  When I ask for 37PSI they look at me like I have two heads.  "Not family runabout.  Sport car.  Yeah?"

[Zucca]

It is something a lot of people forget or don't even consider, but the the tire pressures stated by the manufacturer are for a "COLD" tire.
I believe as someone suggested that is about 20C.

No, it means a not driven tire.
20C@right pressure would give you problem (low tire pressure) in winter.