General Stuff(tm)

[stephen_usher]

Oops wrong kind of bad seal...

[HigashiJun]

This is the tip of the iceberg.

The hidden part of the iceberg must surely be just as interesting...

[stephen_usher]

OK, this isn't retro-computing but it is computing adjacent...

Over the last few months I've had an issue on my 18 month old Skoda Superb where a "hand brake" warning light would come on randomly whilst driving. I could clear this by stopping, turning the car off and on again and the warning would disappear for a few weeks. The time between faults slowly decreased and then there was an airbag warning, which prompted me to try to get it fixed.

The Skoda dealer I bought the car from advised me that their hybrid technician, who was also their diagnostic technician, had left and they'd not been able to hire a replacement. They advised me to contact "Skoda Assist", farmed out to the AA, as I would then be able to get a hire car for no charge. So did this and was told to take the car to Lister's in Banbury, 30 miles away.

Well, the car spent just over 2 weeks there and their diagnosis was low 12 V battery as it wasn't coded to the vehicle. I collected it on the 15th June, drove it home and the handbrake error and airbag error returned. Because they didn't have a courtesy car available until the 24th I had to wait until then to take the car back.

The diagnosis? A collision detector, which they changed.

I drove over in the courtesy car to collect it this morning... On the way home, about 2 miles from home on a dual carriageway roundabout I stopped the car and put on the handbrake. Within seconds there was a cascade of errors and the car wouldn't release the handbrake on one wheel... then it had more and more errors and refused to do anything more. Basically the computer thought that the rest of the car had gone missing it seems. Networking failure?

Within seconds a police car pulled up beside me asking if I was OK... told them the issue and they asked if I had recovery, if not they'd have to get a recovery done themselves for a fee.

Called up Skoda Assist again... they got out to me within a quarter of an hour. The car at this point was less unhappy and allowed the technician to move it off the roundabout and into the Sainsbury's car park.

Anyway, the car is now on its way back to Lister's and I'm now waiting for Enterprise to phone me about yet another hire car.

Modern cars are just too fragile.

P.S. I wonder if the car data bus has terminators on it. Almost sounds like what happens if you remove a terminator from 10Base5/10Base2.

[rubber_jonnie]

That's pretty poor, you'd think they could plug in diagnostics, get a code and work out what was wrong. I don't get the battery needing to be coded either, I've never seen a 12v battery like that, or did they mean it's a lithium one? My car has an additional lithium one but the lead acid battery is just normal.

Some odd things are interconnected these days, my stop/start failed due to a faulty switch in the driver's seatbelt latch. How are they connected?

Good luck with getting it sorted but the dealer doesn't seem to know what they're doing.

[stephen_usher]

If the diagnostics are merely talking to the modules and it's intermittent networking that's the problem then none of the unit test diagnostics will show any faults. It would only be when the network stopped working that you would be able to see anything, and even then I doubt that VAG's programmers would have thought of a network failure. It's likely a blind spot as it's a passive system and the programmers would likely assume connectivity. Also, I doubt the computer would have network diagnostics, such as attenuation testing and tests for echoing on the bus.

Good luck with getting it sorted but the dealer doesn't seem to know what they're doing.

They plug the diagnostic equipment in. They ask the car what faults it has (currently, as there doesn't seem to be historical data from what I've picked up) and do what the VAG diagnostic chart tells them to, so that they will get paid under the warranty. If they don't follow the manufacturer's strict protocol they don't get paid. (Found that out from the dealer who didn't have a diagnosis technician.)

[stephen_usher]

Usually this would be a "blame @rubber_jonnie" post but this time it's a "blame @PhilC" post.

Seeing Phil's post about the Enterprise 64 and the fact that the Egyptian seller on eBay is getting down to the dregs of his stock I decided to get the last of the iconic British microcomputer failures. So I've ordered what seems to be his last mostly boxed "untested" machine.

We can find out together how much of a basket case it is when it arrives. (Estimated delivery at the end of the month.) No IS BASIC cartridge, of course, and the keyboard membrane is likely dead. But we will see.

[HigashiJun]

... But we will see.

Let us know ASAP !

[PhilC]

@stephen_usher makes a change it's my fault, it's usually @rubber_jonnie to blame.

You can get membranes on sellmyretro and if you do the Exos 2.4 upgrade, then it has basic built in.

Quite a lot of the smaller parts are 3d printable as well which is nice.

[stephen_usher]

@stephen_usher makes a change it's my fault, it's usually @rubber_jonnie to blame.

You can get membranes on sellmyretro and if you do the Exos 2.4 upgrade, then it has basic built in.

Quite a lot of the smaller parts are 3d printable as well which is nice.

I saw the bodges and ROM upgrades on-line. I'm sure there are a lot of fun things.

[rubber_jonnie]

Usually this would be a "blame @rubber_jonnie" post but this time it's a "blame @PhilC" post.

It makes a pleasant change to not be whacked with the blame stick

@PhilC thanks for diverting attention

Hopefully the Enterprise won't be a complete basket case, but we can all find out together