What have you done to your car today?

paradigm · 13 Sep 2019 at 18:19

Acme said:
Auto

e; Oh wait my car is an auto

DSG, but meh, I like DSG!

Maccapacca said:
Does it really take 30s to boot up? That would irritate me.

It does, but the standard radio is available immediately, I've also done no customisation or streamlining of the boot process yet, should be able to get it to sub 20s, or upgrade to a Pi4 would get it down to 15~. Bearing in mind the Skoda Bolero system in our Yeti boots to radio in 5s or so, but Android Auto/Smartlink still takes another 10s or so.

ShiWarrior · 13 Sep 2019 at 18:29

@paradigm

i can not quite tell from the photo, but is that screen sticking out, like you've added a holder for it ? if so where is the original stereo/screen ? i cant see where it would go ? (unless of course it never had one)
looks really odd to me sticking out like that

ShiWarrior · 13 Sep 2019 at 18:33

my car is nearly complete, will post pics when its finished

just remember to bring your sunglasses, as i've repainted the car

(not!)

just a simple mod or two that will help my day to day driving

paradigm · 13 Sep 2019 at 18:36

The screen is mounted to the other center air vent that you can't see, it does stick out an inch or two, but it's not that far.

Originally I was looking to fit the retractable screen mechanism from either an A1 (manual flip up) or A3, motorized, but I couldn't find a touchscreen that would fit in the housing, nor work out how to accommodate the bulges in the dash top for the vents.

The original stereo is behind the aluminium panel (with TT on it). It flips up (that's how they are as standard). It's also the reason that swapping the stereo is a PITA, as the volume and selection knobs are spring loaded so they can accommodate the cover. Very hard to find an aftermarket that actually allows the lid to close.

ShiWarrior · 13 Sep 2019 at 18:37

ooo i see, thanks for clearing that up

Unisol Magic · 13 Sep 2019 at 21:50

Diagro said:
Would it have been cheaper to do it yourself?

Probably however with it being an LM20 and having only owned it for a month, I felt best to let Litchfields give it a check over

Rear discs/pads next so same again soon.

Havana_UK · 14 Sep 2019 at 01:29

Dangerous Dave said:
I think the wording of these rules is very poor and expect the manufactures have decided they don't apply. For example my wife's Mini from the factory has LED headlights brighter than the sun miles brighter than any car I driven with HIDs and it doesn't have headlight washers, LCI F30/31 3 Series comes with standard LED headlights without washers. G 5/3 series with LED headlights washers are optional. If someone is checking for the equipment a lot of illegal cars are driving around......

Established car manufacturers make it a regular habit to release thousands of cars into the market with all sort of non-compliant bits.

(they don't)

CaptainRAVE · 14 Sep 2019 at 10:33

Another day, another day where my car attracts the wrong kind of attention. Got beeped at for being stuck in traffic at a junction, then at temporary traffic lights and then abuse shouted from the same old guy as I stop to wait for oncoming traffic as I pull into a petrol station. I didn’t hold him up, he even had to catch me up each time. Maybe he shouted nice things, but I doubt it, he looked old and grumpy. He even had a car full of kids. And my family wonder why I want to get bigger in the gym.

Dangerous Dave · 14 Sep 2019 at 10:42

Havana_UK said:
Established car manufacturers make it a regular habit to release thousands of cars into the market with all sort of non-compliant bits.

(they don't)

That's my point I think the finer details of the wording mean that plenty of loop holes apply, if manufactures are releasing cars without the equipment I doubt an individual retrofitting headlights is going to have an issue.

jpaul · 14 Sep 2019 at 13:49

paradigm said:
Still need to wire in a microphone, and get the DVB-T stick configured for SDR DAB, but for now it’s given me Nav and audio playback from my phone, which is nice. Playback is through the CD changer interface on the standard Audi headunit, so I can still switch back to FM or CD should I want to.

looks smart - so the Rasberrypi is running android auto ? , and, for audio, you have an RCA input into the CD changer, or, its digital via audi connector (splice-in)

Dangerous Dave said:
if manufactures are releasing cars without the equipment I doubt an individual retrofitting headlights is going to have an issue.

the article I linked did suggest an exception to wash/level for manufacturer/sealed units.
... when I last had an MOT I did not watch to see if they have updated their light testing equipment, since there are newer low and high cut-off points;
they could be testing lumens/light-output.
last time I looked there aren't any ce certified led lamps to replace traditional halogen in projector bulbs, and I would question if the linked ford/mustang bulbs are certified.

Maccapacca · 14 Sep 2019 at 14:04

Deranged are selling brand new Rangers with the lights the same as mine, I think they have a relationship with Ford somewhere and they are selling them direct from Ford as well.

Doesn't make it right if it's wrong but it seems to be completely normal.

https://www.derangedvehicles.com/deranged-ranger/

paradigm · 14 Sep 2019 at 14:17

jpaul said:
looks smart - so the Rasberrypi is running android auto ? , and, for audio, you have an RCA input into the CD changer, or, its digital via audi connector (splice-in)

Correct, the Pi runs an interface that lets you access a handful of RPi apps (welle.io, youtube, a reverse camera application (triggered by GPIO pin), etc, and OpenAuto which is the open source implementation of the Android Auto receiver.

The audio is spliced into the CD changer lines using a switching 3.5mm jack, so I can remove it and restore CD changer functionality by just unplugging a cable. The actual CD changer data/logic lines need to continue to be connected to the headunit otherwise it won’t allow you to choose that as a source.

Rroff · 14 Sep 2019 at 14:19

Maccapacca said:
Deranged are selling brand new Rangers with the lights the same as mine, I think they have a relationship with Ford somewhere and they are selling them direct from Ford as well.

Doesn't make it right if it's wrong but it seems to be completely normal.

https://www.derangedvehicles.com/deranged-ranger/

I found the Ranger a bit of an odd position for a pickup - it looks the part but it just felt too nice like you wouldn't actually want to use it for anything that might scratch the paint. That isn't to say some of the other pickups don't look really nice but they didn't feel the same in that way - I'd have no problem throwing a new Amarok, Navara, etc. around.

Maccapacca · 14 Sep 2019 at 14:34

Rroff said:
I found the Ranger a bit of an odd position for a pickup - it looks the part but it just felt too nice like you wouldn't actually want to use it for anything that might scratch the paint. That isn't to say some of the other pickups don't look really nice but they didn't feel the same in that way - I'd have no problem throwing a new Amarok, Navara, etc. around.

Mines abused daily, none of them are very good off off road as they are too long but running round fields, shoots and farms its dandy.

Mines just as happy at 80 on the m25 as it is fully of tweed, guns and labradors or towing the caravan.

Rroff · 14 Sep 2019 at 15:22

Maccapacca said:
Mines abused daily, none of them are very good off off road as they are too long but running round fields, shoots and farms its dandy.

Mines just as happy at 80 on the m25 as it is fully of tweed, guns and labradors or towing the caravan.

My Navara is kind of funny in that respect - it does pretty well off-road, especially with the right tyres, but it ain't anything like as robust as a proper off-roader - any real trashing it around and I have to spend money getting the wheel alignment sorted, parts replaced, etc.

the lower ball joints for instance don't stand up well to real punishment at all.

shauncr91 · 14 Sep 2019 at 18:05

Fitted some goodies to the Megane 275

Car is sat a tad too low up front so will adjust that and boot was full of stuff, loving the noise from the decat downpipe!

paradigm · 15 Sep 2019 at 14:46

Got the boot time down to below 20s with a simple tweak to the SD Card speed (from 50 to 100MHz (from SD Card mode to UHS mode), and turning on Turbo. I know from experience of this particular Pi3 that it’s capable of more than the default Turbo clockspeeds, and there are still some startup services that are unneeded for this use case, so I should be able to shave a few more seconds off yet. 15s would put it on a par with the Skoda Bolero system for Android Auto ready state timing, which will do for me.

DAB+ hardware, software and config complete, so now I’ve got DAB working.

Microphone also run to the top of the A pillar, so handsfree and “OK Google” voice commands are now working well too.

BananaDunka · 15 Sep 2019 at 20:09

Not on the car but the genuine keyring simply exploded when I accidentally dropped my key today :/

Akagi · 15 Sep 2019 at 20:17

Probably for the best. Even genuine M tat is M tat

BananaDunka · 15 Sep 2019 at 20:54

You're tat

What have you done to your car today?

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Tea Drinker