🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <20556@cup.portal.com> mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) writes:
>How about a switch on the dashboard which turns on your brake lights when
>being tailgated?  Easy to install, because the standard switch is located
>on the brake master cylinder, a few inches away from your foot.

Actually, the standard switch is a plunger-type switch located below
the pivot of the brake pedal.  (The master cylinder is on the firewall
in the engine compartment, slightly more than "a few inches" from your
foot.  The electrical connection you see on the proportioning valve
near the master cylinder lights the brake warning light in the event
of grossly uneven pressure in the two separate hydraulic systems.)
The important thing is to make this a momentary switch, so you don't
accidentally switch your brake lights on and leave them that way.

>Just for laughs, you might want to put another switch in parallel with the
>backup lights.  Sometimes the switch for this is located in the mechanism
>directly underneath your gearshift lever; on other cars it may be located
>in the transmission.

It is illegal in most jurisdictions to have white light shining
rearwards while the car is moving forwards, no matter how appropriate
it may sometimes seem. :-)

Have you ever wished, like I have, that you had some paper and a
marker to make signs to tell nearby drivers something too complex for
simple signals (or to get through to dimwits)?

Here's one answer I've thought about building: a scrolling LED
character display (like those advertising displays in the woodgrain
box you see in some stores) which takes voice input from the driver
and displays messages out the rear window.  The display would fit into
the rear shelf, and face upwards.  A piece of optically clear glass at
a 45-degree angle reflects the messages out to the rear.  (This is to
avoid obstructing your rear view.)

Of course, you'd need some computer hardware to do this, and the
vocabulary would be limited, but you could preprogram some common
phrases like "Dim your lights", "Back Off!", "Your Turn Signal Is On",
"You Turkey (or other appropriate epithet)".

The other approach would be to limit your voice recognizer to the 26
letters of the alphabet, space, and perhaps some punctuation, and then
spell out your messages.  A combination of the two approaches would be
ideal.

If anyone actually wants to build one of these, I want credit for the
idea and royalties.  8-)

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