Climatronic diagnostic codes

My friend pookie reminded me today of a trick I had already heard of but never tried. Apparently it is possible to enter a diagnostic mode using the climatronic console on many VW-Audi cars, and particularly the Volkswagen Polo.

• By pressing econ and auto simultaneously you switch the display of the air conditioning temperature between degrees Celsius and Farenheit.
• By pressing econ and the three buttons corresponding to the upper, middle and lower air vents simultaneously, you enter the diagnostics mode, which you can exit by pressing econ again. By turning the temperature knob you can see the values of many of the car sensors.

A google search for climatronic codes yields many results. However I've found a summary of the sensors which may be useful:

1. System error
2. Actual value feeler virtually
3. Actual value interior feeler console
4. Actual value outside temperature - feeler wasserkasten
5. Actual value outside temperature - feeler bumper
6. Actual value blowing out feeler floor space
7. Actual value blowing out feeler man Anstroemer
8. Display check
9. Actual digital value acknowledging potentiometer temperature flap
10. Target digital value temperature flap
11. Actual digital value acknowledging potentiometer A/C flap
12. Target digital value A/C flap
13. Actual digital value acknowledging potentiometer Fuss/Def flap
14. Target digital value Fuss/Def flap
15. Actual digital value acknowledging potentiometer ram air flap
16. Target digital value ram air flap
17. Driving speed (km/h)
18. Actual value of the blower tension (volt)
19. Desired value of the blower tension (volt)
20. Actual value of the compressor/on-board tension (volt)
21. Number of low-voltage events
(not volatilely)
22. Switching status of the high pressure switch
23. Number of high pressure events (volatile)
24. Number of high pressure events (not volatile)
25. A/D value kickdown switch
26. A/D value hot light
27. Engine speed
28. Compressor number of revolutions
29. Coding
30. Software-Version
31. Software index
32. Potentiometer error counter temperature flap
33. Potentiometer error counter A/C flap
34. Potentiometer error counter Fuss/Def flap
35. Potentiometer error counter ram air flap
36. Temperature flap notice cold
37. Temperature flap notice warm
38. A/C flap notice closed
39. A/C flap notice opened
40. Fuss/Def flap notice Def
41. Fuss/Def flap notice foot
42. Ram air flap notice up
43. Ram air flap notice too
44. Operating cycle counter
45. Interior temperature counted (Ninc) dig
46. Outside temperature filtered (°C)
47. Outside temperature not filtered (°C)
48. ECOR
49. Coolant temperature
50. Service life in min
51. Engine temperature °C
52. Compressor switching off conditions
53. Announcement more actively el. Exits:
Compressor/circulating air valve/water valve
54. Rule index
55. Outside temperature °C
56. Interior feeler virtually °C
57. Interior feeler console °C
58. Temperature wasserkasten °C
59. Temperature bumper °C
60. Blowing out feeler floor space °C
61. Blowing out feeler man Anstroemer °C
62. Sun intensity W/m-1
63. Sun intensity filtered W/m-1
64. Delta exhaust rise
65. Delta A/C Klappenverschiebung
66. Time constant/1.6 seconds
67. Cold weather starting correction
68. Maximum correcting variable for i and p-portion
69. Actual value blowing out feeler foot (cnts)
70. Desired value blowing out feeler foot (cnts)
71. Deviation (Epsilon)
72. Portion (+ heat/- cool)

Ain't it cool?

Hide/unhide accounts in Mac OS X's login window

I found an article at macworld which shows how to show or hide users in Tiger's login window. To summarize:

Hide users:
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow HiddenUsersList -array-add account1 account2 account3

Unhide users:
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow HiddenUsersList -array-add

(where accountN are the short names of the accounts to be hidden).

Two java tricks

I found two useful java tricks today.

• Calculate the width of a string in pixels

Just use the following code:

Font currentFont = biggestFont;
Font currentFont = new Font(/* define your own font */);
FontMetrics currentMetrics = getFontMetrics(currentFont); // 1
String longString = "This is not a long string!";

Although getFontMetrics from Toolkit is deprecated, JComponent.getFontmetrics is not. More can be found in the java forums.

• Recurring tasks to update the GUI

The Timer object allows you to schedule TimerTasks at a specified date or at regular intervals. It is very useful when you are polling data which will be later painted on your GUI components.

Multiple boot on intel macs

I've hardly got time for writing here, but that's one of the advantages of not compromising yourself to writing regularly.

Today I'm going to write about Apple Bootcamp. Apple's move to intel has been really shocking, and bold moves such as the release of the Bootcamp beta create some uncertainty about the future at apple.

Although I myself don't reject the move to intel processors and windows running on a mac with apple's blessing, I am still skeptical. I fear apple might be jumping on the cheap hardware bandwagon and that would definitely be a step backwards. I already don't see whether the new MacBook Pros are superior to their PC counterparts in terms of weight and battery life.

An article at slashdot was what triggered my intention to write this blog entry. It seems that someone has figured out how to boot linux in addition to windows on a mac. Is hell freezing over? I confess I'm intrigued to see what the future holds...

Photo by Joseph Zollo.

What this blog is about

With the emotion of starting a blog I realise I forgot to write some kind of introduction. So here it is. I'll be as concise as possible:

• I consider myself a geek, so expect all sorts of geeky things here.
• I am writing this blog for myself. I don't care if you want to read what I write. But if you want, you are welcome to do so. What's interesting to me may be also interesting to you.
• I am going to include here interesting links as well as texts or chunks of code.
• I am going to use English as the primary language, but I might include texts in other languages as well.

Please feel free to add any comments you like!

OS X 10.4.3 update

Apple released the Mac OS X 10.4.3 update.

Trekkipedia

Trekkipedia, la enciclopedia de Star Trek en castellano.

http://www.misterbo.com.ar/trekkipedia/index.php/Portada