Downshifting

In article >,
pws > wrote:

> tooloud wrote:
>
> > You're complaining about perfectly innocuous little items. While you're
> > laughing at the idiots that haven't cut out their door buzzers, they're
> > laughing at the idea that a door buzzer could actually be such a problem
> > for
> > someone that they'd resort to removing it. Are you *that* jumpy?
>
>
> I don't want to hear it either, it is not that strange and you don't
> have to be jumpy, a desire not to hear an annoying buzz when the door is
> open is enough for me. I don't want or need a buzzer on my car door any
> more than I would want one on a door to my house.
>
> He is not talking about disabling the brakes or something radical like
> that, and anyone who needs a door buzzer as a safety feature should not
> be driving.
>
> You also don't have to cut out the buzzer, at least not on the first
> generation miatas. It is a plug-in module that takes a few seconds to
> remove or install.
> I took it out within 4 hours of owning my first miata and it never went
> back in. The previous owner had already yanked the one from my 1991 model.
>
> Pat

In the 626 I'm driving, it's in a "canned" module that the factory
manual calls a "delay/buzzer". Like the Miata, it's a plug-in module,
but since I wasn't certain exactly what the "delay" part was about, I
didn't want to just "chop it out". So I pulled the module and jerked the
"can" off it. Inside, on the circuit board the "can" covers, there was
an oddball device - A speaker, of sorts, only "inside out". Under an
easily removed plastic cover with a hole in the middle was a diaphragm
with a small magnet (Real small - About an eigth of an inch in diameter,
and a bit more than a 16th inch high) on it, with the magnet sitting
inside a coil. (I describe it as "inside out" because usually, a speaker
is "the other way around", with the magnet stationary, and the coil
attached to the diaphragm) Plucking the magnet off the diaphragm
permanently silenced the buzzer, then I snapped the "can" back on it,
and plugged it back in. The module is now functional for whatever it is
that it's supposed to "delay" (I suspect it just handles turning off the
"fasten seat belts" idiot-light in the dash, but haven't bothered to
chase it far enough to be certain) but now it does its job silently, and
I'm a happy camper.

--
Don Bruder - - If your "From:" address isn't on my whitelist,
or the subject of the message doesn't contain the exact text "PopperAndShadow"
somewhere, any message sent to this address will go in the garbage without my
ever knowing it arrived. Sorry... <http://www.sonic.net/~dakidd> for more info

On 2006-11-07, pws > wrote:

> I don't want to hear it either, it is not that strange and you don't
> have to be jumpy, a desire not to hear an annoying buzz when the door is
> open is enough for me. I don't want or need a buzzer on my car door any
> more than I would want one on a door to my house.

The thought that you could leave a door open in a Miata and not
notice is pretty amusing.

I too find the door buzzer useless (though not annoying enough
to do actually anything about it).

I do really appreciate the headlight reminder though. My NA
didn't have one, and I had to jump start it more than once
because I left the lights (sometimes just the parking lights)
on. It doesn't take long to run down a little battery like
that -- especially when it's -20F.

--
Grant Edwards grante Yow! ONE LIFE TO LIVE for
at ALL MY CHILDREN in ANOTHER
visi.com WORLD all THE DAYS OF
OUR LIVES.

In article >,
Grant Edwards > wrote:

> On 2006-11-07, pws > wrote:
>
> > I don't want to hear it either, it is not that strange and you don't
> > have to be jumpy, a desire not to hear an annoying buzz when the door is
> > open is enough for me. I don't want or need a buzzer on my car door any
> > more than I would want one on a door to my house.
>
> The thought that you could leave a door open in a Miata and not
> notice is pretty amusing.
>
> I too find the door buzzer useless (though not annoying enough
> to do actually anything about it).
>
> I do really appreciate the headlight reminder though. My NA
> didn't have one, and I had to jump start it more than once
> because I left the lights (sometimes just the parking lights)
> on. It doesn't take long to run down a little battery like
> that -- especially when it's -20F.

The "Hey stupid! You left your headlights on!" dinger/beeper/buzzer is
the only noisemaker I leave operational, and for exactly that reason. It
saved me from going out to a dead battery several times during my stint
dong newspaper delivery - It's easy to forget that you've got the
headlights on at all when your normal routine is to kick on the
high-beams at 0-dark-hundred when you leave the house, run a 200-ish
mile paper route, then finally get back home in full daylight without
ever having shut the car down in between. (And often, without seeing any
oncoming traffic during dark-time to remind you to switch down to
low-beams, and as a side-effect, remind you that the lights are actually
on)

--
Don Bruder - - If your "From:" address isn't on my whitelist,
or the subject of the message doesn't contain the exact text "PopperAndShadow"
somewhere, any message sent to this address will go in the garbage without my
ever knowing it arrived. Sorry... <http://www.sonic.net/~dakidd> for more info

Grant Edwards wrote:

> I do really appreciate the headlight reminder though. My NA
> didn't have one, and I had to jump start it more than once
> because I left the lights (sometimes just the parking lights)
> on. It doesn't take long to run down a little battery like
> that -- especially when it's -20F.


I have had people ask how I can forget the headlights with those barn
doors sticking up. My only answer is that it happens.

At one of the sweatshops I used to work at to make other people rich, I
did it several times, but the car was parked on a hill and I could
always do a reverse roll-start.

I never did put a buzzer on, though I seriously considered one of those
battery cut-off devices that shuts it down before the battery discharges
enough to not let the car start.
For some reason I never bought one.

Pat

On 2006-11-07, Don Bruder > wrote:

>> I do really appreciate the headlight reminder though. My NA
>> didn't have one, and I had to jump start it more than once
>> because I left the lights (sometimes just the parking lights)
>> on. It doesn't take long to run down a little battery like
>> that -- especially when it's -20F.
>
> The "Hey stupid! You left your headlights on!" dinger/beeper/buzzer is
> the only noisemaker I leave operational, and for exactly that reason. It
> saved me from going out to a dead battery several times during my stint
> dong newspaper delivery - It's easy to forget that you've got the
> headlights on at all when your normal routine is to kick on the
> high-beams at 0-dark-hundred when you leave the house, run a 200-ish
> mile paper route, then finally get back home in full daylight without
> ever having shut the car down in between.

What amazed me was I could forget and leave the headlights on
with those barn doors sticking up like that. But, once you get
used to them, you just don't see them anymore.

--
Grant Edwards grante Yow! Yow! It's a hole
at all the way to downtown
visi.com Burbank!

Don Bruder wrote:

> The "Hey stupid! You left your headlights on!" dinger/beeper/buzzer is
> the only noisemaker I leave operational, and for exactly that reason. It
> saved me from going out to a dead battery several times during my stint
> dong newspaper delivery - It's easy to forget that you've got the
> headlights on at all when your normal routine is to kick on the
> high-beams at 0-dark-hundred when you leave the house, run a 200-ish
> mile paper route, then finally get back home in full daylight without
> ever having shut the car down in between. (And often, without seeing any
> oncoming traffic during dark-time to remind you to switch down to
> low-beams, and as a side-effect, remind you that the lights are actually
> on)


You mean that you leave the one you find helpful on there? What a concept.
My parent's 1994 Camry has, or had, an automatic headlight shut-off
feature. It worked great, then it quit working, leaving that automatic
car stranded with nobody around to jump it.

That is one of the issues that I am talking about with things becoming
too gadgety.
The more sensors and crap that they put on a car, the more expensive
parts that you have to fail and cause problems when they do.

I am not against automotive advances and suggesting that we go back to
basics, it just seems to be going overboard.
I don't need the car to make me coffee and read stock reports to me in
the morning, it really just needs to drive to my satisfaction with the
options that I feel that I would like to have, which does not include a
door buzzer to let me know that the door *right next to me* is open.

Pat

On 2006-11-07, pws > wrote:

> I don't need the car to make me coffee and read stock reports to me in
> the morning,

But that is exactly what the vast majority of drivers do want.
Unfortunately, their desires seem to influence even cars such
as the Miata.

> it really just needs to drive to my satisfaction with the
> options that I feel that I would like to have, which does not
> include a door buzzer to let me know that the door *right next
> to me* is open.

My pet peeve is that I can't route the heater to the windsield
without the running the AC compressor. Trust me, when you take
outside air that's at 0F and 20% humidity and heat it up to
100F, _you_don't_need_the_AC_running_to_dry_things_out_.

I am bright enough to know when to turn on the AC compressor...

--
Grant Edwards grante Yow! I hope I
at bought the right
visi.com relish... zzzzzzzzz...

pws > wrote in
:

> I don't need the car to make me coffee and read stock reports to
> me in the morning,

Of course you don't, you just plug in your 12v coffee maker and spread
the newspaper across the wheel while driving at 70mph in bumper to
bumper traffic on the freeway like everyone else does. How it must
annoy these folks to have the cell phone ring and have to look up a
phone number and write down an address while doing the above and
shaving.....

In article >,
pws > wrote:

> Don Bruder wrote:
>
> > The "Hey stupid! You left your headlights on!" dinger/beeper/buzzer is
> > the only noisemaker I leave operational, and for exactly that reason. It
> > saved me from going out to a dead battery several times during my stint
> > dong newspaper delivery - It's easy to forget that you've got the
> > headlights on at all when your normal routine is to kick on the
> > high-beams at 0-dark-hundred when you leave the house, run a 200-ish
> > mile paper route, then finally get back home in full daylight without
> > ever having shut the car down in between. (And often, without seeing any
> > oncoming traffic during dark-time to remind you to switch down to
> > low-beams, and as a side-effect, remind you that the lights are actually
> > on)
>
>
> You mean that you leave the one you find helpful on there? What a concept.

Ain't it, though? The stuff that's useful gets left functional. The
stuff that's simply annoying without any actual purpose gets clobbered.
Gee... why don't *I* get paid the big bucks for designing cars?!?!?

> My parent's 1994 Camry has, or had, an automatic headlight shut-off
> feature. It worked great, then it quit working, leaving that automatic
> car stranded with nobody around to jump it.

Just one more reason to love a stick. Oops... left the lights on...
Unless the battery is *TOTALLY* pancakeville, my humble little $500
Mazda beater-mobile cheerfully goes "zoom-zoom", while the
umpty-thousand dollar Lexus with all the bells and whistles that's piled
next to it sits there waiting for a tow truck to come give 'em a jump.
Ya gotta love it

Actually had that happen one night when I was driving pizza delivery -
The assistant manager of the joint left his lights on or something in
his Lexus, and had a dead battery. Apparently, I did too, 'cause when I
came out at the end of the night, I got nada when I turned the key. The
boss is sitting there looking disgusted at his ride, then when mine
didn't fire up, he started ha-ha-ing and talking smack about how he told
me it was a pile of junk, and that I should just have the tow truck take
it straight to the junkyard when it arrived. Without missing a beat, I
said "What tow truck?" and proceeded to pop-start it. As usual, it
caught on the first attempt, and suddenly, the smack-talking stopped and
he wanted a jump. "Sorry, but I'm already straining my alternator trying
to charge my own battery. Which pile of crap needs to go to the junkyard
now?", and I headed for home. Not very charitable, I know, but...
<shrug>

Next day when I came to work, he was ****ing and moaning about how much
the tow truck charged him for a jump, how long it took for them to get
there, and what an asshole I was for not taking care of him the night
before. I just kinda smiled and said "What goes around comes around",
and went about my business. Oddly enough, he never again said an unkind
word about my car, and was even rather pleasant about asking for a jump
a few weeks later when he left the lights on AGAIN.

> That is one of the issues that I am talking about with things becoming
> too gadgety.

Yep, no argument from me there...

The one that's currently got me going "You gotta be kidding?!?" is the
commercial I've been seeing for a new vehicle (Brand I can't recall - I
*THINK* it might be Lexus, but it could also be Cadillac) that
"practically parks itself". Oddly, I've never found parallel parking all
that difficult. I can't help but wonder how big the lawsuit will be on
the day the driver of such a vehicle tries to get it to park itself and
it doesn't work, or worse, it malfunctions and scuffs somebody else's
paint-job?

> The more sensors and crap that they put on a car, the more expensive
> parts that you have to fail and cause problems when they do.

Again, *NO* argument.

> I am not against automotive advances and suggesting that we go back to
> basics, it just seems to be going overboard.
> I don't need the car to make me coffee and read stock reports to me in
> the morning, it really just needs to drive to my satisfaction with the
> options that I feel that I would like to have, which does not include a
> door buzzer to let me know that the door *right next to me* is open.

Y'know, Pat, it sounds like you and I are definitely on the same page!


--
Don Bruder - - If your "From:" address isn't on my whitelist,
or the subject of the message doesn't contain the exact text "PopperAndShadow"
somewhere, any message sent to this address will go in the garbage without my
ever knowing it arrived. Sorry... <http://www.sonic.net/~dakidd> for more info

In article >,
Grant Edwards > wrote:

> On 2006-11-07, pws > wrote:
>
> > I don't need the car to make me coffee and read stock reports to me in
> > the morning,
>
> But that is exactly what the vast majority of drivers do want.
> Unfortunately, their desires seem to influence even cars such
> as the Miata.
>
> > it really just needs to drive to my satisfaction with the
> > options that I feel that I would like to have, which does not
> > include a door buzzer to let me know that the door *right next
> > to me* is open.
>
> My pet peeve is that I can't route the heater to the windsield
> without the running the AC compressor. Trust me, when you take
> outside air that's at 0F and 20% humidity and heat it up to
> 100F, _you_don't_need_the_AC_running_to_dry_things_out_.
>
> I am bright enough to know when to turn on the AC compressor...

Another example of the car trying (and failing miserably) to out-think
the driver.

--
Don Bruder - - If your "From:" address isn't on my whitelist,
or the subject of the message doesn't contain the exact text "PopperAndShadow"
somewhere, any message sent to this address will go in the garbage without my
ever knowing it arrived. Sorry... <http://www.sonic.net/~dakidd> for more info