[rescue] LCD monitor diagnosis

[Don Y]

Jonathan C. Patschke wrote:
> My Dodge truck has a feature like this.  Its user interface is
> refreshingly minimal (A "US/Metric" button, a "Reset" button, and a pair
> of buttons to move between other[0] similar statistics), and it's
> integrated into the overhead light housing, which would otherwise be
> wasted space.  I've checked the fuel economy measurement against my own
> arithmetic enough to simply rely on it being accurate.
> 
> Even my grandmother's 1984 Mercury had such a device, although it had a
> significantly more complicated UI due to poor planning and the
> integration of a clock (so you have to set/adjust things rather than
> just reset them to some baseline).  It had four modes (clock,
> chronometer, fuel economy, and trip odometer), each of which required
> slightly different interaction.

But that's the point:  a poor "fit" between the features
and the interface.  :-(  As if the "Gee, we can do ..."
engineering mentality wasnt tempered by the "HOW should we do..."
expertise that marketing/sales is SUPPOSED to bring to the table..

E.g., old fashioned fuel gages  based on manifold vacuum.
I wonder how accurate *they* were?  Yet, they were good enough
to tell you when your driving habits were "inefficient".
Maybe that's all that you really need (since you can't
really IMPROVE your car's fuel efficiency "between fillups")
A relative measure might be sufficient.

E.g., when I was younger, I would mount an NE-2 in a grommet
in the dash with a pigtail around the coil wire.  Doesn't
tell you much... *but*, it DOES tell you if you've got spark!
(which solves half of the "why won't it start" problem)