AVAS Modification? (higher speed)

[DogMan12]

Someone who said he worked on a Focus electric also said you could reprogram it's AVAS through the diagnostic port. Well, the Focus has no warning system. Maybe it was a LEAF.

Anyway, I sure would love to have my MiEV make noise up to 50 mph, since I pass through deer alley twice on every commute.

Any thoughts or experiences? I guess I could clip playing cards on a pinwheel.

 

[PV1]

I'd like to be able to control it with a 3-position rocker switch. One position to shut it off, center is normal, and the third position to make it louder. It's not like we don't have a place to put a switch in. :mrgreen:

It's too quiet for it to serve much purpose as it is.

 

[DogMan12]

Yes, driver control would be great. I'd go for As-is volume and speed, Louder volume and standard speed, and louder and faster - for deer alley.

 

[JoeS]

Anyway, I sure would love to have my MiEV make noise up to 50 mph, since I pass through deer alley twice on every commute. Any thoughts or experiences? I guess I could clip playing cards on a pinwheel.

I live in deer country and they totally ignore the iMiEV at low speeds - AVAS does nothing. At high speeds, the tire noise is usually sufficient to warn bicyclists, but deer live in their own world… a deer ran into the side of my neighbor's brand-new Leaf (less than a week old) and caused $5K damage.

I'd like to be able to control it with a 3-position rocker switch. One position to shut it off, center is normal, and the third position to make it louder. It's not like we don't have a place to put a switch in. :mrgreen:
It's too quiet for it to serve much purpose as it is.

PV1, totally agree with you and I would say make it much louder. For now, I use a kid's horn (stick it out ithe window if I have to add emphasis) when confronted with oblivious pedestrians in parking lots (usually buried in their cellphones) - it's loud and disarming (results in a startled jerk then a smile). I store it in the cupholder (you can barely see it in the photo below).

 

[DogMan12]

OOOHHKay, Joe, ya tease. It's not about the horn, it's about the display. WTF?

 

[JoeS]

OOOHHKay, Joe, ya tease. It's not about the horn, it's about the display...

The display is an older Garmin nuvi 255W GPS, which has a great "instrument panel" display that the newer Garmins don't. What it shows is not only trip distance (easily resettable) but simultaneously also DTG (Distance To Go) if a destination is programmed - just another nice companion for RR. The display has a number of other cool parameters. Here's my link to my post on the instrument discussion thread:

http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3705#p3705

Back on topic: I often have deer grazing in my front yard. When I pull up my steep driveway and suddenly appear in front of them on my plateau with the iMiEV they almost completely ignore me (despite AVAS) but an ICE car scatters them.

 

[PV1]

Haven't had too many problems with deer, mostly birds. I have to blow the horn to scare the turkey buzzards that are picking away at roadkill. Even at 50 mph, they don't pay any mind to the MiEV. Almost had quite a few smaller birds that fly across the road...at the last second.

 

[misterbleepy]

I don't think European versions have the AVAS thing, but I sometimes could do with something that makes noise for when I drive through town in summer, when pedestrians start using the road as a footpath. The horn seems a bit loud for that - don't want to give the grannies a heart attack.
I have thought about putting a bicycle bell under the bonnet, with a piece of string to pull in the cabin, but I'm not sure there's a hole I could thread the string through. Another thought would be to have a button activating a speed-linked Jetsons car noise - I'd like that :lol:

 

[DogMan12]

The stock AVAS must have a speaker, so tapping in to the wires to it with a signal from an mp3 player should be possible. Then boom whatever you want out there. The speaker may not have a lot of frequency range, but worth a try.

 

[MLucas]

I've heard the AVAS warning system is up behind the front right wheel well. Instead of messing around with the AVAS system which could cause the warning light to go on (everything is connected by a CANBUS). Why not just install your own Hi-Lo-Off warning system. Seems like a fairly easy DIY electronics project.

I found this on ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Adjustable-...637?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c343ef1bd

It's got adjustable volume and tone. I'm sure with a little bit of soldering those controls can be relocated to the interior and one of the blank panels. The unit is 12v powered. Not sure how loud it is though.

 

[psyflyjohn]

For those of you in deer country, how about installing a deer whistle on the outside of the Miev? I don't even want to think about hitting one on the highway. You may end up with one in the passenger seat.

 

[jray3]

A deer whistle sounds like the sensible, simple approach... But since we've got vacuum just waiting to be tapped, I want a Wolf Whistle!
It's a nostalgic horn that operates off of vacuum, great for alerting both pedestrians,, and potential mates....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/WOLF-WHISTLE-HORN-VACUUM-ALL-METAL-CONSTRUCTION-HARDWARE-INCLUDED-772-5-/161048351809?pt=Vintage_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item257f3ad441&vxp=mtr

 

[alohart]

When my family lived in deer country, we installed deer whistles on our cars. We observed nothing to suggest that deer reacted differently to our cars before and after the deer whistle installation. But maybe there is a "new, improved" model available now :lol:

 

[JoeS]

Just a couple of photos I happened to take. Now that we're discussing this, I'll see if I can get a half-dozen of them to pose right in front of the moving iMiEV. :twisted: Note the locked-in Vmax number (upper right in white section of GPS display), most probably when I was trying to stay with the traffic in the HOV lane. :roll: Can't tell just how steep my driveway is in the second photo.

 

[DogMan12]

Hmmm. Interesting. Playing cards on a pinwheel still seems feasible.

Yup. that's them, (deer) the haywire little devils.